The Secret of
Bailey's Chase
Marlis Day
Prologue
A very long time ago, right in the middle of our country there
lived an old woman named Granny Bailey. I'm quite sure she had another, more
proper name, but everyone in her river town called her Granny Bailey. Some
people said she had unusual abilities, some people said she had mysterious
gifts, and some people said nothing at all, thinking her quite normal.
But nobody ever said she was a witch, because she was so very kind
and gentle.
People didn't know where Granny had come from, but everyone seemed
to know she had been born with snow-white hair and piercing azure eyes that
changed shades of blue like a kaleidoscope. They knew she had nearly always
walked with a limp. As a young girl she was struck by lightning one day as she
played in the woods. After that, the stories said she slightly glowed in the
dark and her white hair seemed to radiate from her head like sunrays, but some claimed
it was just static electricity.
Everyone knew she lived in a cabin at the edge of the big woods. And
everyone remembered, or knew someone who remembered, running up the long,
grassy path to Granny's door when they were children. There used to be a sign,
the people recalled. A sign showing the way. 'Bailey's Chase', it said, because
in the old days 'chase' meant a country path to somebody's house. It was a
friendly cabin, lopsided with windows in strange places, some too high to see
into, with others knee-level, which made you stoop over to peek in. The
townspeople liked to go there because they could always count on a cup of
herbal tea and a muffin, as well as an interesting story when they visited
Granny.
Some said that Granny could always tell when something bad was
going to happen, like a skunk falling down someone's well or a bear eating an
innocent blackberry picker as she filled her basket. Others called it coincidence.
Most folks agreed Granny had a way of seeing right through people,
and always knew when someone was being dishonest or deceitful. Everyone agreed
she could draw fire from a burn, wish warts away, and always choose exactly the
right spot to dig a well.
It was a common fact she kept wild birds for pets and spent a lot
of time in the woods talking to the animals and collecting roots and leaves for
her homemade medicines. According to the stories, many parents visited her
cabin in the middle of the night to get medicine for a sick child. She always
seemed to know they were coming and was ready with just the right medicine.
A few people still left around believed the old tales about fires
that started just because Granny stared long and hard at someone's woodpile, or
that she could tell what the animals said as she walked past them on her daily
strolls through the little town on the river.
Granny Bailey was so special in the hearts of the people that when
they decided to rename their town due to it outgrowing its boundaries and
lapping over onto other small towns, they named it Bailey's Chase in her honor.
They didn't think their town would ever see anybody with Granny's special gift
again, sure the gift died when she did and was buried with her.
People didn't realize Granny's special gift didn't get passed on
to anybody in particular because that lightning strike split her genes and
chromosomes in half and jumbled them every which way. So her special gift
didn't pass on to one certain relative, to be noticed and discussed by
everyone. Instead it broke into two neat parcels, bounced around hither and
yon, skipped several generations, and finally landed inside two great-great-great-grandchildren.
Those lucky two recipients, unfortunately, could do nothing with
half of a gift. In fact, they didn't even have a clue that they had a gift. A half gift is actually like
having no gift.
One-half of the special gift belonged to Alexandra Greyling
Bailey. Her parents lived in a big city and had some difficulty deciding what
to name their only child. After fretting and fussing over it for a while, they
gave her the first name of one grandmother and the second name of the other
grandmother and that was that. Since she turned out to be a dark and brooding
child, they called her Grey. Although she didn't say a lot, fantastic thoughts
raced through her head most of the time. Talking took her away from the wild
and wonderful scenes that played in the daydream theater of her mind.
The other half of the special gift ended up inside of Grey's
distant cousin, a lively girl named Amaryllis Bailey. Since she had been able
to sit up, her family had nicknamed her Sparky, because she was so energetic
and bouncy.
Sparky had loved to talk and make people laugh ever since she
noticed people's responses when she made raspberry noises as a baby. By the
time she started the second grade, everybody thought Sparky would surely grow
up to become either president or one of those people who climb mountains, just
to prove they can, because nothing else she could do would use up all that
energy.
Even though Grey and Sparky were cousins they really didn't know
each other. This is not a surprising fact, since Sparky lived in the middle of
the country and Grey lived way off near the ocean. Their parents brought them
together at a family reunion as infants, but of course, neither of them could
remember it. Later, when they were around three, someone photographed them together
at a family wedding, but they only had vague memories of that event.
Then, a flash flood swept Grey's parents. Suddenly an orphan, Grey
was forced to choose between a boarding school run by people named 'Mrs.
Hardwick' and 'Dr. Zoofram,' or a trial stay with distant relatives. Grey chose
to try a stay with the relatives, knowing where the other story was likely to
lead, because she had read so many books about orphans who went to boarding
schools and regretted it. So the girl cousins, these almost-strangers now going
on eleven, would soon live together like sisters. Soon the two halves of Granny
Bailey's unusual gift would finally come together.