The Typewriter

Plot Background Story: The Typewriter Spell

Selma, her platinum hair glistening in the artificial light, studied the box-like contraption Martin had placed on the oak desk in her private library. He had placed it there early that morning with a note that read "Happy Anniversary, Sweet Heart, This will make your writing easier to read." On the desk, next to the the machine was a diagram showing its parts, but not explaining how to use it. Picking up the diagram she read the title aloud, "Typewriter a diagram of parts".

Well, she thought laying the diagram back on her desk, I can wait until Martin comes home, so that he can show me how to use it or I can figure out how it works myself. Opening the top drawer of her desk, she removed a spell book and opened it to the first page. She studied the spell hand printed in black ink on the tanned snake skin page. Then she opened the bottom drawer and took out a vial containing a sparkling silvery dust.

"Spirits of the air," she opened the vial and poured some of the dust in the palm of her right hand. "Muse of knowledge foul and fair," she closed the vial, placed it on the desk, rubbed her hands together, and then through her hair. "Please reveal to me the working of this typewriter, this machine that makes my writing easier for kith and kin to read." Then she closed her eyes and waited for the vision.

Instead of a vision, her right hand moved to the oak side table sitting next to the desk. She picked up a blank white sheet of paper and placed it in the paper table behind the platen. Then she turned the platen knob aligning the top of the paper with type guide. She opened her eyes and looked down at the keys. She began to type, Dear Martin, the words formed in her mind as she typed them on the page. She shifted the carriage return with her left hand causing the paper to move up from the type guide. Thank you for being so practical and romantic, I will always treasure your gift of clarity. She removed the paper from the typewriter and laid it on the left side of the machine.

She heard a scratching at her office door, so she got up and opened the door. In strutted Patches, her calico cat, who went to the desk, jumped up on it and sit down next to the typewriter. Rubbing her face against the paper table and platen she purred for about five minutes, while Selma sit at the desk watching the cat. After Patches finished placing her scent on the machine, the cat jumped from the desk to the couch where she curled up and went to sleep.

"Well," she smiled as she placed another sheet of paper in the typewriter. "Since my familiar likes it, I guess these new fangled machined can be used with magic. I wonder how I can this thing in conjunction with casting spells."

Picking up her spell book, she she turned each page studying each spell. She was looking for a specific spell. A spell that she had never used, but that she had witnessed her mother and grandmother use. Since she had never used the spell, she could not remember the name of it, but she knew what it was supposed to do. Her mother had explained the spell and the rules of its use several time. The spell sent the spell-caster's enemies to another dimension. However, there was one small problem when it came to using the spell. The spell-caster had to write a concrete and detailed description of the place the enemy was being sent and of the enemy, which posed a problem from Selma since her cursive writing was unreadable by anyone, including herself.

After about fifteen minutes, she found the spell. She smiled as she remember how difficult it was for her to copy this spell from her mother's spell book. It had taken her two days of slow and careful printing by hand to copy the two pages. At the time, she questioned the wisdom of copying a spell she would never use, but now she was glad she had taken the time and effort to inscribe the two pages.

First she typed up the rules of the spell's use. Then from the bottom drawer she removed two wooden picture frames. In one of the frames she placed the rules and sit the frame to the left of the typewriter. Next she type up the spell, put it in the other picture frame and placed it to the right of the typewriter. Now all she had to do was wait for Martin to come home and give her the names and descriptions of any enemies he wished to disappear.