Sabrina met her grandmother's gaze, lifted her chin, and nodded. "OK. We need to get everyone together. Puck, how do we turn this building bright purple?"
Daphne looked at the witch. "Granny, we're going to need an awful lot of forgetful dust," the little girl said.
*
Sabrina sat in a back room at the Golden Egg. Daphne sat behind her with a brush combing her long blond hair while Sabrina studied her mother's writing. She fretted over every syllable and comma, hoping that she could somehow do the s
peech justice. She was not one for speeches, especially in front of Everafters.
"Don't be afraid," Daphne said. "I'll be standing right next to you.
"Good," Sabrina answered. "You can deflect the pies and rotten tomatoes they toss at me."
"I think that only happens in cartoons," Daphne replied. "Still, I'll keep an eye out for them."
The door opened and Mustardseed appeared. He smiled and gave the girls a wink. "They are ready for you."
"We're coming," Daphne said, and Mustardseed gestured that he'd wait in the hall.
"Do I really have to do this?" Sabrina said. "What if I screw it up? What if I ruin what Mom was trying to do?"
"You won't," Daphne said as she pulled her sister to her feet. "And even if you do, your hair looks fabulous."
"Thanks."
"For a jerkazoid," Daphne added with a smile.
They joined Mustardseed in the hallway. He led them into the restaurant, where they found Puck, addressing the crowd. He was wearing a jeweled crown, an oversized purple robe, and carrying an enormous scepter. He strolled back and forth trying to seem dignified while struggling with his outfit.
"Attention!" he shouted. "There has been a great upheaval in the last few days. My father, your leader, lies dead. I have returned to the kingdom to rule."
"Get on with it, Puck!" one of the dwarfs shouted. "We lost patience with you nearly half an hour ago."
Puck sneered and gestured to Sabrina and Daphne. The girls stepped onto the stage and stared at the crowd.
"Now, I know they are terribly ugly and difficult to look at," Puck said, causing Sabrina to growl. "But these girls have got something to say. When they are done, you fools can go back to fighting if you want."
He turned to Sabrina and frowned. "Good luck," he said. "They're a disrespectful bunch."
Sabrina looked down at the speech. "This was written by my mother," she said.
"We can't hear you!" someone shouted.
"Speak up!"
Sabrina looked to her sister for help.
"You may not talk a lot but you've never had a problem with volume," Daphne said.
Sabrina cleared her throat and started again. "This was written by my mother on the eve of her disappearance almost two years ago."
Suddenly, the crowd was silent. "I'm afraid that I will probably never be the speaker my mother was but I will read it word for word. It outlines her ideas for you. I hope it helps."
Sabrina looked at her mother's writing, studying the curves of her letters, trying to understand the mind that wrote the words.
"I will not stand here and claim to know your hearts. You have had difficult lives. You've seen dreams ripped apart. You've watched as suffering came to you like floodwaters. I am human. I am blessed. I live in a world that believes in me. Your very existence defies what humanity can accept. You are supposed to be bedtime stories--not flesh and blood. Thus, you have had to live in the shadows, accepting the table scraps you could find and yearning for the life humans take for granted.
"It doesn't have to be like this. You are few, but together you are many. Combining your talents, working for one another's benefit, lifting one another up when you fall--this is the path to your happiness. If you could work together as a community, you could build empires with your small numbers, but instead you have chosen to squabble and divide. Well, I say it's time to put hatred aside and hold your brothers' and sisters' hands. You don't need humanity to believe in you. You only need to believe in each other."