Epilogue 135 - Senioritis

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...Previously...



As the aged Angela strolled through Underborough Square, she heard a familiar sound over the din of the crowd. Winifred Pale and Bel Brimston were arguing again. About what, it was difficult to say. Even if Angela had been following their heated discussion from the beginning, new reasons to be angry at each other seemed to multiply until there was no trace of what started the altercation in the first place. On an other day, she would have been forced to wait it out. Getting a word in edgewise was hopeless. In her current old yet spry form, though...

"Heh," she loudly cackled while walking by the truculent teens, "if I'd spent my days fighting like the two of you, I'd never have reached my age."

The two girls paused. Who would dare talk to them this way? After all, they were both young and rich!

"Begone, crone," Winifred waved dismissively. "This is a private conversation."

"Coulda fooled me, the way the two of you were shrieking," Angela chuckled.

"Nobody asked your opinion," Bel sneered. "Get lost, you withered old bag!"

"Bel, if you're waiting for me to clutch my pearls," Angela leaned in with a wrinkly smirk, "you're going to be standing there until you're as old as I am."

"How do you know her name?" Winifred asked, dumbfounded.

Angela slowly turned for dramatic effect. "You're the one who told it to me, Win."

Winifred gasped. "There is only one person, in either Underborough or the human world, who would call me by a nickname!"

"What are you talking about?" Bel asked. "I call you 'Winnie' all the time."

"Don't interrupt me! I meant a nickname that I actually like! And that person is..." Winifred extended her arm to point at the old woman for even more dramatic effect. "ANGELA MORGAN!"

"Right you are," Angela tittered in an unfittingly girlish way. "Not bad for someone without my acquired wisdom."

"Quit fooling around, Angela," Bel said in an almost scolding tone. "What have you done to yourself? You look hideous!"

"It's all relative, my little Bellie," Angela squealed, pinching Bel's cheeks. "For someone my age, I look fantastic. And I feel great, too! Did you know I walked the whole way here from school? Walked all the way up and down the mall, scored some free samples, even got a senior discount on a pottery class. See?"

Angela held up a glazed and fired vase she somehow had time to complete in a single afternoon.

"Well that's just wonderful," Winifred said sarcastically. "You threw away sixty, maybe seventy years of your life out the window, but at least you've got a clay pot to show for it."

"You kids worry too much," Angela said, rolling her eyes. "If there's an age spell, there's a youth spell. I've got plenty of time to find it. In the meantime, who wants to join me at the Early Bird special?"

"What, you mean with you, or like you?" Bel asked, horrified. "Either way, count me out!"

"I don't think you realize the secret I've uncovered with this spell," Angela said. "I've completely bypassed all responsibility! No school, no job, I can eat dinner at any ridiculous hour of the day, and I'm still healthy enough to enjoy all of it! There's no longer anything I have to do, only stuff I want to do!"

"Don't you eventually have to find that youth spell?" Winifred asked, with a mix of scorn and concern.

"Pfft. I can get to that later. Right now, I've got a date with a kale salad, then I'm going to that indoor rock climbing thingie."

"Angela, those sound like tremendously boring wastes of time," Bel said flatly.

Angela wagged a skinny finger. "Uh-uh-uhh! Nothing is a waste of time when you don't have to do anything. Besides, I'd like to see you come up with something better."

Bel saw right through the perceived deception. "If you think you can trick me into being a granny--"

"No tricks, girls, just an invitation," Angela said calmly. I just thought you'd like to do whatever you want without question. But if you'd rather go home in time to do your homework, get up for school the next morning, and worry about your looks, you're free to do that as well."

Bel and Winifred went into a huddle for the first time in either of thier lives.

"Damn it, she's got a point," Bel whispered. "I can't sit idly by while she games a system so... unoptimally!"

Winifred nodded in rare agreement. "I've never seen her this confident. Maybe there's something to this..."

---

"Read 'em and weep, ladies!" Bel strode back towards Angela and Winifred waving pamphlets in the air. Even without her exaggerated movements, her bright white curls were hard to miss. Winifred ran her fingers through her silver-streaked bob as she read the various tri-fold papers.

"Oooh, now this is adventurous! Hang gliding... hot oil massage..." Winifred raised an eyebrow. "Apple picking? Bel, how'd that get in here?"

"Read the rest, dear. The trees are growing from the side of a cliff."

"Well," Angela beamed, "the two of you have taken to this with much more gusto that I expected! Say, why don't we decide on our next excursion over a round of mimosas?"

"At this time of day?" Winifred asked incredulously.

"That's the whole point," Bel declared, already waving the server to the table. "Whatever we want, whenever we want!"

"Right," Angela nodded, once again reminding herself to find that youth spell after just one more activity.