They knew either my mother's name or mine, and I had no idea who they were or what their motive might be. Conspiracies suck monkey butt. Mom had been gone for less than fifteen minutes when a thought occurred to me as to how we might learn the source of the poltergeist from Mrs Gilbert's. "What's the next move?" Marcus asked, as he began collecting broken timber from the blown-out doorway. I grabbed one of the two dozen empty cottage cheese containers Mom uses as starter pots for magical herbs and blew out any dust that lingered inside. I grabbed a small hand broom and a dustpan and then stepped into the magic circle. "We're going to do some chemistry," I said, as I swept up dirt and scorched teddy bear stuffing. Marcus's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Sweet! I'm totally down with that! Want me to run home and get my calorimeter? I've always wanted to measure the amount of heat generated by a spell – it might actually help me identify the specific elements that charge your magic.
