A Potion Place Story
by grapehyacinth
“Max, I'm here!” Carla called up the steps to her boyfriend.
“Hey! I'll be right down! Did you eat yet?”
“Not hungry. Hey, are you going to have cereal for lunch like usual?”
“Sure!”
“I'll get it ready for you.”
Befuddled, Max gazed down at the cereal his girlfriend had laid out for him. “When did I buy Cheerios?”
Suddenly the “o's” began to churn around in the bowl until they formed a face. “You didn't!” it squeaked merrily.
Jostled, Max jumped back from the chair, then peered at the smiling snack. “Carla, you're on the damned Ultimate Potion again. Joy.”
“Oh, Max, you're getting so annoyed with my transforming lately!”
“Well, maybe because you're getting obsessed with it. Or,” He grabbed the spoon and smashed it angrily against the table, “Maybe I just don't like when my cereal talks to me!”
“Oh, cut it out. Just eat me up. This potion doesn't wear off until I want it to.”
“What?” Max's stomach growled, but he ignored it. “You mean Mr. Wintergreen has a permanent transformation potion?”
The cereal giggled, which made Max even more uncomfortable.
“Well, if I want to be cereal forever, I can.”
“That's so dangerous,” Max said. Without thinking about it, he scooped some of his girlfriend into his mouth.
A voice emanated from inside. “How weird is this? I'm inside here, I'm still in the bowl...”
Max almost gagged when he realized what he had just done. “I didn't want to eat you!”
“Oh, come on Max, we've done this before.”
“I know, but the permanent part scares me.”
“I'm not going to be cereal forever. I promise. Now eat me up. Your stomach is growling.”
Max was growing increasingly worried. Carla was still inside him as cereal, and he could feel his stomach diligently digesting her. Her last comment had been, “Oh, my God, how incredible! I'm going to become part of you forever!” Now she was quiet, and he could only imagine his body absorbing all that was once his girlfriend.
Idly he wondered how much nutrition she'd provide him with...
“Carla, come out.” He reddened. “I mean, at some point, I'll need to go to the bathroom, and I don't want to imagine...” His words trailed off. He just didn't want to ponder the very disturbing circumstances.
He waited several minutes more, but Carla's silence became overwhelming. Finally he put in a call to Lance Wintergreen, proprietor of the Potion Place and purveyor of all things magical.
“Mr. Wintergreen, I need help, and Carla needs some boundaries. She's now me. And she won't come out of me, possibly ever.”
Once Max stepped back and explained himself, Mr. Wintergreen made a prompt house call. He lured Carla back into her own human form with promise of a new transformation potion.
“So this is a step back from the Ultimate Potion,” he explained, holding up a small purple bottle and shaking it enticingly. “Instead of doing anything you want it to, this potion just makes you become the elements.”
“That sounds cool!” Max said, perhaps too enthusiastically.
Carla pouted. “I could do that with the Ultimate Potion too.”
Max sighed.
“But this limits you. It gives you a wonderful focus,” Mr. Wintergreen continued in his usual calm manner.
“So?”
“Carla, you need to relax. Kick back a bit. Be part of nature.”
“But I like using the Ultimate Potion! There's no limits! I can be anything!”
“Just try it, Carla. It's very nice.”
Carla grabbed the bottle from Mr. Wintergreen's palm. “Fine. If it makes you happy, Max.”
They stood at the beach. Max poked his bare toe into the surf and stared into the depths. “That's kind of scary, to become part of all that water. You're sure you want this?”
Carla waded in without hesitation. “I need to do this. This potion is making me feel all...wriggly, like my body's not right. It's different than the Ultimate Potion.”
“How?”
“Oh my God I have to be water.”
Carla grew transparent. Her body liquified and collapsed into the waves. Awed at how quickly she had changed, Max stepped backwards, almost tripping over a stone. Carla was simply gone.
“Carla?” he ventured.
Other than a ripple in the area where his girlfriend had once been, there was nothing to show she had ever been there.
He knew that she was safe using Mr. Wintergreen's potions, but nonetheless, he splashed into the water and craned his neck. “Can you answer me?”
There was an otherworldly moan that sounded somewhere further out. Then an eddy drew itself around Max's legs, gently massaging them. “Hey!” he stepped back onto the sand. “Cut that out! That tickles! Carla?”
Several ripples formed human-like features which remained frozen in the otherwise-moving water.
“Wow,” said the face.
Max gazed at the oddity in wonder. “Carla? What's it like?” He poked his finger into the face, which made the features scatter.
“Hey! That was my eye!”
“Sorry.”
“You know, I don't know why I haven't tried this yet – oo, a fish just swam through me!”
“Are you all the water, or just part of it?”
“Well, part of it, I guess, but I can spread out, more and more...merging with more of it – ooh, more fish... A whole school of them! Max, you should have taken some Ultimate Potion so you can join me!”
“You finished our supply on your quest to become Caroline,” Max muttered under his breath.
But his water-girlfriend heard. “So what's so bad about Caroline?” she demanded.
Max sat down in the sand right above the water line. The water lapped gently across his toes. “Carla, when I met you, you were all quiet and...nice. Then I introduced you to the potions, and you just wanted to be a bird. Now after meeting my aunt Gena and her friends Caroline and Lexi, you're going crazy with it.”
“You transform too!”
“Not like you! I do it in moderation!”
The water made a sound somewhat like blowing a raspberry. “Moderation! Ha!” And suddenly a large wave erupted from the shallows, threatening to engulf Max.
He studied it passively. “Nice, Carla. You're going to drown me with yourself. I think I just made my point.”
In resignation, the wave took a human-like form, then shrank down to become Carla. She stepped from the water and strode past him.
“Where are you going?”
“I have things to do.”
What Carla had to do, apparently, was become part of the air.
“I bet I could suffocate you this way,” said a voice near Max's ear.
He spun around, but there was no one to be seen. “Carla, what are you now?”
“I'm around.”
“Great. Where are you?”
“All over here. Wait, I need an actual face...” a low-hanging cloud plunged down beside him and the wisps formed eyes and a mouth. Max passed his hand through in wonder.
“Stop it, Max! Why do you keep messing up my face?”
“You made it come back fine. And how come you don't have a nose?”
“I don't need one if I'm air.”
“You don't need a mouth either.”
“How will I talk then?”
“You were just talking without one, Carla!” Instead of this new potion solving Carla's issues, it was merely making Max more irritated with his girlfriend. He'd never felt this way towards her until she'd gotten involved with his aunt and her lunatic friends.
“Max, why are you so angry with me? You always thought changing was so much fun! Why shouldn't I enjoy myself?”
“Because there's more to life than turning into things. You don't do anything else! Why don't you do something worthwhile? Get a job! Read a book!”
“I'm in college!”
“You can get a summer job, or one after school. Or when you don't have class!”
“I'm trying to devote myself to my studies.”
Max had had enough. “I'm going home,” he announced. “Enjoy your day at the beach.”
When Max's caller ID announced that Carla was calling the next afternoon, he cringed. “Hi,” was all he could get in before she began to babble.
“Okay, Max! I did something worthwhile!”
“What did you do?”
“Put on News24!”
Max gulped and switched on the local news. “I don't see anything...wait, you adopted a puppy?”
“No! No, just wait. It'll be on in a second.”
“Carla, what did you do?”
“Well, you know the way my brother-in-law is a volunteer firefighter?”
That was when a reporter came on, speaking in front of a smoldering house. Beside her stood several onlookers. “Yes,” one was saying into the microphone, “the lady was stuck inside. Then she was pulled through the fire and it didn't touch her. It was like there was a bubble of air around her. Then, when they were past the fire, there was this bright flash and there was this girl helping her across the lawn. It was weird.”
“And no one knows who this girl is?” the reporter asked.
“I think her name is Carla. She lives down my block,” said a teenager.
“That's me!” Carla shrilled through the phone. “I'm famous!”
“Oh, my God,” whispered Max.
Max was not surprised to see “L WINTERGREEN” appear on his caller ID next. “Mr. Wintergreen? I guess you saw the news?”
“Max, I need you to speak to her. She can't get public like that. There are several people in the magical community who are not very happy with me right now.”
“I bet.”
“How did she know about the fire?”
“It's my fault. I told her to do something worthwhile, so she went to work with her brother-in-law. Well, she followed him there as air, then waited until there was a fire...”
“Then she went in as fire?”
“And saved the woman as air.”
“Just like a good superhero.”
“Well...I guess...”
“Max?”
“Yes?”
“Don't give her any more big ideas, okay?”
“Sorry.”
“Carla? Where are you?”
“Out back!”
Max strode around the small house and stood in the yard, blinking. There were no people in sight.
“Okay, Carla. What are you now?”
“Guess!”
Max looked at the bushes, then his gaze fell to the walls of the house and the windows. No, she had to be elemental–
He took several steps backward to get a better view and stumbled over a hill of sand.
“Hey, watch it! Don't step on me!”
There, etched in the grains, was the tell-tale face.
“Carla, why are you sand?”
“I'm the last element! Earth.”
“Good for you. Now how about you become a person and we go to dinner or something? I'd love to have a normal relationship with you at some point.” He shook his shoe to make sure none of Carla was stuck on the sole.
The sand-face frowned. “I just started being earth. And it's awesome. Mr. Wintergreen's right. Being elemental is very relaxing.”
“Being a pile of dirt is awesome? Come on, Carla, I swear, lay off the potions a bit. You're turning into an addict!”
“No, I'm turning into elements,” the sand uttered in an angry voice. “And I'm going to be more than one pile of dirt. I'm spreading.”
The tone of his girlfriend's voice was almost menacing, and Max was getting nervous. “Spreading to where?”
“Here,” said the dirt under Max's foot. He jumped and sidled to the left.
“And here,” said the mud where Max now stood.
“Cut it out, Carla! I'll go inside!”
“And I'll be under there too! I'm going to be everywhere! I'm merging with the whole ground! I want to see how far I can go!”
“Until you become the whole town?”
“Oh, I sure hope I can be more than that.”
Max went inside for only minutes. Carla's words were haunting him. What was she going to do? Become the whole world? Was that even possible?
Then a worrisome thought hit him. He gazed down at the wooden floor. “Carla?”
A moan echoed far below his feet, shaking them slightly. “Mmm?”
He nearly gagged. “You're under the house too?”
“Mm-hmm.”
The whole idea that his girlfriend was below buildings and streets was extremely unsettling. “Just how far are you?” he pushed out in a small voice.
The ground took a moment to respond. “Very.”
“Very? What does that mean?”
The floor shifted beneath him, making the timbers groan. That would be an expensive repair if she ruined all the floorboards, he thought to himself.
“Oh, leave me alone, Max. I don't have time for this. I'm busy.”
“Busy doing what?”
“Supporting everything, for one.”
“Supporting?” Max sputtered. “Carla, exactly where are you? I mean–”
“Ah, there's so many miles of me, and I'm the earth's crust, and below I'm warmer and warmer. I'm soft sand, I'm hard rock... Inside I'll be fire...”
“Fire?” Max's fear won out and he yelled in a frustrated voice, “Carla? You're crazy! Cut it out! Get the hell out of the ground!”
After a short silence, a giggle sounded, accompanied by a tremor that most of the town must have felt. “I am the ground, Max. I am the ground.”
“Mr. Wintergreen, she's taking over the earth!” Max shrieked in a frightened voice. He covered his mouth in embarrassment. “Sorry, I don't mean to get hysterical, but...well, she is!”
“Well, she's merged with the earth, technically. Taking over sounds more like an alien invasion or something.”
This gave Max pause only for a moment. How could anyone joke when a girl was truly turning into Mother Earth? “Mr. Wintergreen, I thought you're concerned. I thought people are mad at you because of all of this.”
A dark expression came over the storekeeper's visage, causing Max to shudder. He had never seen the powerful man look anything other than good-natured and content. “I share my potions with those who are deserving. I want them to enjoy...existence. If people have a problem with that, I'm sorry.”
He did not seem to want to comment further, and Max knew better than to press him.
“Listen, Max, I'm fooling around a bit, but don't let her stay like that much longer, or she'll think she always was the earth. Then it's a lot harder to extract her from what she sees as her proper form.”
Mouth falling open, Max gaped at him. Why hadn't Mr. Wintergreen told him this right away? For that matter, why would he even give someone a potion like that, especially a near-addict like Carla?
Mr. Wintergreen seemed to read his mind. “Because it's a wonderful experience, to immerse yourself like that. You don't want to feel that there's an end to your experience. That ruins it. Look, we had to do something to keep her from becoming a permanent part of your body.”
Max smacked his forehead. “Oh, God, I have to get back to her.”
Max went to get the mail, purposely avoiding looking at the grass. But it was obviously aware that he was walking on it.
“Oh, Max, did you see what I did?”
Gripping a magazine tightly, he emitted between clenched teeth, “Carla, you have to turn back. Now!”
“Turn back? Max, you know the way I'm in a drought in the Midwest?”
Max froze. She said “I'm”, he thought to himself in horror. “I'm”, like she really is the earth...
The ground beneath him continued on without waiting for an answer. “Well, I fixed it.”
“You what?”
“Fixed it! I flooded it!”
The magazine fell to the paved path beside him, which chuckled, “That tickled!”
“You can't do that!”
“Why not? It was really minor flood. No one was hurt. Not even an animal.”
“Carla!!”
“Oh, go watch the news, Max. You'll see what a good job I did.”
“Only if you come watch with me,” he coaxed, hoping against hope to draw her out.
“I can't. I'm a planet. I won't exactly fit on the couch.”
“It's hot in me in Australia. Which is weird, because I'm in summer here in the States. I should be cold down under. I'm having a warm spell, I guess. Oh, wildfire in Africa...oh, it licks at me...”
Max lay on the ground that was Carla, staring at the sky and letting her chatter go unanswered. But Carla did not seem to care. Her words were fewer and far between. Except for giving occasional updates on how she felt in this valley or that mountain, she was becoming increasingly silent.
Right now, however, she was particularly verbose. “There's so much life on me, on my surface, below it... There's worms and moles scooting through me, ants making me into mounds, roots growing into me and drinking the water that courses through me...”
“Sounds lovely.”
“Yes, but there's buildings on me too. I feel the weight of tons of concrete, covering my surface and smothering me...Ah,” the ground quivered. “It's tough having the weight of the world on my shoulders.”
“Then get out of it,” Max muttered angrily.
“How?”
“How?” Max sat up and studied the soil. “Just...un-merge.”
“Leave me alone, silly boy,” said the ground. “You're like a flea on my back.” It didn't speak to him after that.
An hour or two later, Max could not help but go out and check on his girlfriend. He couldn't leave her for long, and he knew it.
“Carla, please, just speak to me. I'm sorry if you're mad, or whatever, but just say something so I know you're still a person. Or a person that's merged with a planet...or...I just want to know you're okay.”
There was no response.
“Flooding Out West,” read the TV screen.
Mr. Wintergreen drummed his fingers against the side table. “She really did that, huh?”
“Yes,” Max replied in a monotone. “And now she won't talk to me. Or maybe she can't because she's just a nice little planet,” he drew in a deep breath and turned away.
“Show me, Max.”
“Show you what?” But Max led him outside. “You know, you didn't need to come here. She's the ground under your house just as well as mine,” he said, now quite miserable. He kicked at some crabgrass, wondering if Carla felt it.
Mr. Wintergreen shrugged. “I know, but if she'll talk to anyone, it'll be you. A loved one's voice has lifted many victims from spells.”
“Spells? I thought that's not real.”
“Well, they are, but they're really a way to guide the user of potions, honestly. Like you take the Ultimate Potion, and make yourself become a...lamb, or whatever. You're thinking in your head what to become. That's basically a spell. Or spells can be a form of mind-control. A very powerful person can use his own mind and magical abilities to control his victim. He can transform him, he can manipulate him...” Mr. Wintergreen trailed off as Max did not seemed too interested in the workings of magic right now.
“Uh-huh.” Max merely replied, and he stomped on the ground. “Carla, it's me. Mr. Wintergreen's here!”
There was no answer.
Mr. Wintergreen inhaled deeply and placed his hand on the soil. “Carla, can you talk to us? You're doing a lovely job, and you make a lovely planet, but we miss you terribly.”
Suddenly a spray of goldenrod popped from the sand and burst into flower in seconds.
“Wow!” Max jumped back in awe. “She did that?”
“She communicated with you.”
“She can't talk anymore?”
“I'm not sure. She's a planet, and celestial bodies are not known for their conversational abilities.” Mr. Wintergreen stroked the soil a few times.
“What are you doing now?”
“Calming her.”
“Oh, God that's weird.”
“Wake up, Carla. Come back to us. Your flower is lovely. If you join us, maybe we can all be flowers together. It'll be much more pleasant. You're too young to be a planet, my friend.”
This resulted in rumbling.
“Ha! Get her mad!” Max whispered.
Mr. Wintergreen looked dubious. “I'm not sure that's a good idea–”
But Max did. He jumped up and crushed the goldenrod. “You suck as a planet, Carla! You're horrible at it! There's so many problems with this earth – disease, and famine, and drought, and...” He began to stomp around furiously. “And you haven't solved any of it yet! You suck as a planet and as a girlfriend! You're an unfeeling BITCH!”
Before Max could storm off, a loud rumble sounded deep in the earth, and the ground began to quake. For once, Mr. Wintergreen truly looked alarmed. “Oh, no, Max, what did you do?”
Trees started to shake, and the house groaned on its foundation. The rumbling grew louder, and both men had to grab onto a tree to keep from falling to the ground.
“She's making an earthquake! She's...help, Mr. Wintergreen! Stop her! She'll kill...”
But Mr. Wintergreen was busy ruffling through a bag he had brought. “Here it is! Sorry, Carla, but this is the only one I could find at a moment's notice!”
“What are you doing to her?”
The storeowner pulled out an ornate glass bottle.
“A vase? What are you, arranging flowers?”
Mr. Wintergreen set the bottle on the earth, and it immediately toppled to its side.
“Oh, the bottle thing again?”
“Yes,” Mr. Wintergreen replied, “when in doubt, genie bottles will suck you out.” He smirked. “Sorry, learned that one long ago.” He began to pass his hands over the bottle while rubbing it.
A nearby tree fell to the ground, and another smashed through a side window.
“Hurry!”
Mr. Wintergreen slapped at the soil. “Out, Carla!”
A lurch sent both careening to the ground, and a bright light emerged from the earth. With an ear-piercing scream, it was sucked into the bottle, which immediately capped itself.
All was quiet and still, and the two men took a moment to draw breath.
Max crept towards the bottle. “Is she okay?” he asked, glancing back at Mr. Wintergreen.
“She's going to be a bit mad right now. I suggest you give her a few moments.”
Max gazed at the bottle. “I feel bad that she's locked inside that tiny space.”
“She's tiny too right now. And guess what? If you deal with her right away she's still got potion in her and mentally she's not all there. She might burn you, drown you, asphyxiate you, or just cover you with...clay.”
Max looked down at his feet. “Then I'd harden, and she'd dry on me...”
“Sounds fun, huh? Well, not if she covers your nose and mouth.”
“True.”
As night came on, Max and Mr. Wintergreen fished up the bottle.
“We're going to let you out, Carla. Please don't be angry with us,” said Max, rubbing the side of the bottle and uncorking it.
A mist floated out which formed into a very displeased Carla. “Well, that actually felt nice, coming out of the bottle. Too bad you put me in.”
“We had to. You turned yourself into a planet,” said Max, feeling the anger welling up inside of him again.
“Carla,” Mr. Wintergreen said in a calm yet stern tone, “you can't do stuff like this. I think we need to keep off the potions for a while.”
Carla frowned. “Why? Caroline went super-transformation crazy and no one ever stopped her!”
“She never affected the world publicly like you did.”
“But–”
“You turned into a freaking earthquake, damn it, Carla!” Max exploded.
She glared at Max with a loathing he had never seen before. “You pulled me from the most wonderful existence I have ever known,” she seethed. “I won't forget that.”
Mr. Wintergreen studied her with pity. “He came to me for help, Carla. He loves you too much to lose you.”
“I'd still be here, even if I was the earth.”
“In some sense, yes. But the human you would essentially be gone. You were getting to a point that you couldn't pull yourself from it. And he couldn't let that happen.”
Carla sighed. “But, I've never been so happy...”
“You're plenty happy with the normal, non-permanent Ultimate Potion,” Max snapped. “Go turn yourself into a coat hanger or something!” He stormed off.
Carla hung her head, watching him stomp away from the corner of her eye. “Sorry,” she whispered. “I really didn't mean to hurt anyone. I just...”
“Carla, he was so worried about you.”
“I know, but...let me give him some time to cool down. I'm honestly not too happy with him right now either.” She looked up. “But taking this break was so wonderful. The feeling of being something so much bigger than humanity...”
“I know, Carla. I know. But people care about you. Don't rip yourself from them. You have so much ahead of you. Don't stop now.”
Carla sat down, crossing her legs and sweeping her hand through the dust. “So no more potion for a while, huh?”
“Not a bad idea.”
She gazed at him. “I just...can you give me a little time as something else to ready myself for it? Just to calm me...like...”
“Be a flower, Carla.”
He patted her shoulder, and she began to shrink to the ground. “I didn't know you could do that without a potion,” she gasped as her features blurred and became petals.
“Oh, you'd be surprised what I can do,” he winked, patting her new leaves. He gazed down at his creation. “You're a lovely sunflower, Carla. Enjoy the afternoon sun, and sleep under the stars. I'll come get you tomorrow morning.”
I'll be right here, said the flower in his mind.