Noticing something hard under the older girl's sleeve, Zoe looked down and stared. What she had previously assumed to be a reflection from a streetlamp turned out to be a subtle glow coming from Joan's arm. Pulling up the sleeve, she gasped at the sight of a beautiful gold-colored bracelet, covering a third of the girl's forearm. A bluish light emanated from it in a clearly unnatural way.
Intrigued, Zoe reached out and poked the strange object but felt nothing but cold metal.
"Wha-? What's happening?" Zoe looked up to see Joan squinting at her surroundings in puzzlement, having emerged from her stupor.
Zoe pulled her hand back from the bracelet. "Y-you were sleepwalking. Geez, sis, you made it all the way down the street! You're lucky I woke up and saw you or you'd be all the way across town."
"Sleepwalking? Since when do I sleepwalk?"
"Beats me," shrugged the younger sister, before peering into Joan's eyes. "Um, sis?"
"Huh? What?"
"Care to explain that bracelet?"
Joan looked down, and her eyes widened. "Oh." Then, she turned her wrist this way and that, observing the glow from all angles. "That's new."
"What is it?"
"Um, it's kinda hard to explain."
"Dammit, sis! That's magic, isn't it! Athena's always talked about stuff like this, but I never saw it for real. What does that bracelet do?"
Joan held her hands up to ward off her sister's intensity. "Look, I can't really say what it is or what it does."
Unexpectedly, Zoe seemed to accept this answer, though with considerable reluctance. "Yeah, I get it. You can't tell me. It's the same way with Athena. All this stupid secrecy." Her expression turned hopeful. "Can I hold it?"
"Sorry, no can do." Seeing that her sister would never let the issue go, Joan gave a frustrated grunt. "Okay, I might as well tell you. It's stuck to me. I can't get it off. At all. See? No seam. And when I do try to get it off, it zaps me. So don't even think of trying to take it while I'm asleep or something. This thing is a curse."
"Oh. So what are you gonna do?"
"Wish I knew. Just don't tell mom, okay? She'd really freak out."
Zoe grinned. "Tell me about it. Like when I got my ears double-pierced, she grounded me for two months. Don't worry, I won't tell her. But you will let me take a look at it again later, right?"
"Sure." It occurred to Joan that having a magic bracelet had somehow elevated her to "cool" status in her younger sister's mind. She enjoyed the feeling. It reminded her of when Zoe had looked up to Jon as her older brother, back before she had withdrawn and gone Goth.
With her enthusiasm sufficiently subdued, Zoe began to shiver in the crisp night air. "Let's go back inside. It's freezing." Seeing Joan standing barefoot on the sidewalk without so much as a jacket, she asked, "Aren't you cold?"
Joan frowned. "Hm, not really. In fact, it feels downright balmy to me."
"Maybe it's your bracelet. Congratulations, you've got the world's only magical snuggie." Zoe smirked.
"Haha, very funny," the older sister snorted as the two headed back to the house. "C'mon, squirt, don't be a slowpoke!" With that, she lengthened her stride, forcing the more petite girl to pick up her pace.
"You made me run out here. No way I'm running back," said Zoe, but she was smiling.
Joan laughed. It had been too long since she was able to talk with Zoe on good terms. Was this how sisters communicated? Or maybe it just took a magic bracelet to break the ice.
