by Martha Carr
Toni poured herself another glass of chardonnay and held her hand out for the book, even while taking a large sip from her glass. “Where did you get this? Does anyone know it’s missing yet?”
“I stole it, kind of right out from under them.”
Toni smiled, holding up her hand for a high five. “You get that from me. Your father would have been more upfront and asked for it and let it go when they told him no. Not wrong, just different.”
That perception was one of her mother’s better qualities. “So, you know plenty.”
“I know I’m an Elemental.”
“I believe there’s a distinction with a difference,” said her mother. “You are the Elemental. I took a look through your garage. Someone took the compass?”
Maggie slid her arm under her mother’s, pulling herself closer. “A couple of different types have had their hands on the compass. I even held it twice and watched it fly.” She fluttered a few of her fingers that were holding onto the wine stem. “It holds secrets.”
“So I’ve been told. Do others realize yet just who you are? Oh look, there’s a wild turkey creeping down the alley. Can you see it? Only in Austin.”
“Way too many, Mom. It’s becoming a little dicey for me.”
Toni turned her head and stared into her daughter’s face. “Then I guess it’s finally time.” Toni drained the rest of her glass and got up from the chair, wobbling a little as she made her way inside. Maggie followed close behind her as Toni made a beeline for the living room and pulled a key out from a hidden spot under the mantle.
“I never knew that was there.”
Toni looked back at Maggie. “That was the point. You and Diana are relentlessly curious. Telling you no would have only increased your determination to discover. It’s one of the best qualities the two of you have. It’s delicious that you share it together.” She smiled and held the key up in the air. “This goes over here.” She walked to the old writing desk positioned in a corner of the room. It had been passed down for generations and stood as more of an art piece than anything else.
Toni crouched behind it, wobbling again but she stayed upright and pushed with her thumbs on the back to the far right with a gentle pressure till a piece popped out, revealing a keyhole. She slid in the key and turned, making a drawer drop down below and stop halfway, positioned between two small ledges on either side, holding it in place. “This was all your Dad’s idea. The man loved a good puzzle and could work a band saw. He made the modifications to this old desk. He said no one was ever very interested in it, it was too small, and it wasn’t of much value. Made it the perfect kind of safe. Overlooked.”
Maggie drew closer and looked at the short leather and brass spyglass resting in the box. Toni pulled it out and slowly extended it to its full eighteen inches. “The Parkers have a few tricks up their sleeves too.” She held it out for Maggie. “One of the last things your father told me was to make sure and give this to you when the time was right. He said I would know, and I guess he was right.”
Maggie could smell the heavy, sweet odor of wine of her mother’s breath. She took the spyglass from her and held it up toward the window, catching the light. She expected to see the street but instead, the telescope was displaying rapidly changing longitudes and latitudes. “What’s it doing?”
“It’s telling you where every magical is located. It can also tell you what kind of magical they are…” Her mother gave her a sly look, which was always the signal to think beyond what her mother had just said.
The realization washed over her, and she felt a thrill run down her back. “Like an Elemental.”
“Clever girl! Come on,” said Toni, getting up on her feet. “Let’s go back to the porch. There’s still a little wine left.”
“What about the compass? Does this mean I don’t need it?” Maggie trailed behind her, gently carrying the spyglass.
“Oh, you still need it. The compass can do far more and it’s necessary for the engine. But back when human beings all still remembered that magic resided in them, they came up with a plan B in case the compass was ever lost. Looks like they knew what they were doing.” Toni found her way back to the Adirondack and sat down, already lifting the bottle and pouring a healthy fill for herself and her daughter. “I suppose this is like your graduation or confirmation or something. You are now officially a woman.”
“I have been one of those for a while, Mom. The city pays me to carry a gun.”
“Well, now the Earth will reward you for carrying a telescope.”
Maggie bit her lip, not willing to tell her mother the rest of the story. She was living on borrowed time and with every day, things were getting trickier.
“I’m gonna’ head home, I’m worn out.” She leaned down and hugged her mother, breathing in the smell of her perfume. “I love you, Mom,” she whispered into Toni’s hair.
“I love you more,” said Toni, kissing the side of Maggie’s face. “Come back tomorrow, I’ll make some cookies. No funny business, I promise.” She drew a small ‘x’ over her heart.
“I have to work, Mom and you lost your x drawing privileges with Diana’s last birthday cake.”
“That was all in good fun.” She batted at the air. “No one was driving and you two were determined to keep it short.”
“Well, you got us on that one. I think I slept on your lawn.”
Toni let out a laugh. “I still have the pictures! That was a good one.” Her words were starting to slur. It was time to go.
“Nice, Mom.” Maggie gave her a crooked smile.
“I’m sorry your father isn’t here to present you with that,” said Toni.
“I know, Mom, me too.” Toni was slipping into the old memories and would pull them out one by one, sometimes till the light started to break in the sky. Maggie didn’t like staring at the past with her anymore. It was too much. “I gotta go, Mom. I’ll stop by tomorrow.” She cradled the book and the spyglass and turned to go.
“Really nice weather for this time of year,” said Toni, taking a sip.
“It really is, Mom,” said Maggie, as she walked down the hallway and out the front door, shutting it gently behind her.
32
Maggie woke up to the sound of someone clapping near her head. “Wake up, wake up! You are wasting precious time!”
She lifted her head off her pillow just enough to make sure she was still in her own bed. It seemed pertinent given the events of the past week. She half-expected to find out she was outside under the old tree. No, still her bedroom.
“Bernie, personal space! Get out of my bedroom.” She looked toward the window and saw the it was still dark outside. “What time is it, anyway?”
“I don’t know, must we argue about time? I’m feeling better!”
Maggie opened her eyes again and looked at Bernie turning around in a circle with his arms out. “See? Good as new, maybe better. I’ve been cutting back on the bacon lately, I think it shows.”
“I may have missed you briefly.” Maggie put her head back down on the pillow and shut her eyes. “Go away and come back when it’s light outside, and most important of all, Bernie, the Huldu gnome, wait downstairs.”
“Nope, no can do. Time’s just rolling by and we haven’t found the compass yet.”
“Well, technically for about five minutes last night, what, still tonight? It found me.”
Bernie sat down hard on the edge of her bed, bouncing up and down, excited. “You had your mitts on it and lost it? Was that before or after you broke into the Hall of Records? That’s right, kid I heard all about it.” He slid her phone out of his pocket and put it on her nightstand. “You lost something. I got a pass on this one since I was out of commission. They’re blaming that gnome, Radar. He fell for the old, where’s the cafeteria line.”
Maggie gave up and finally sat up, pulling up her covers. She glanced over at the clock by her bed and saw that it was only four in the morning. “Nothing good happens at four in the morning, Bernie. I
f someone calls you at this hour, you brace yourself. No one sets out to do anything righteous at four in the morning. Those people, the righteous ones are all still asleep.”
“Rule followers, every one of them. I should know, I live with a lot of them.”
“You’re a rule follower.” Maggie swung her legs over the side of the bed and headed toward the bathroom. “Follow me in there and I kill you, Bernie.”
Bernie stopped halfway. “Right, right, fair enough. And I’m a rule follower of sorts. I bend a few, every now and then as necessary.”
“Okay, I’m a rule follower, I’m a robbery detective.”
“Yeah, ironic that you stole something from us.”
“Borrowed temporarily because literally my life depends on it and you were down for the count.” She crossed the hall and shut the door to the bathroom and went to pee. “Quit standing right by the door. I can’t pee if I can see your shadow.”
Bernie took a few steps back, still talking. “I’m on your side, I think you did the right thing. I forgot all about that book and every little nugget of information helps. Let’s get to it, where you have it hidden? I searched downstairs but didn’t find it.”
Maggie finished washing her hands and dried them on the hand towel hanging nearby. She opened the bathroom door and looked at Bernie. “You searched downstairs? We really have to have the talk. I can see gnomes are not very good at boundaries.” She pushed past him and shut the door to her bedroom before he could follow her inside. She found the pants from last night and held them up to see if they had any questionable stains of blood or blue goo on them. “All good, perfect,” she said, stepping out of her pajama bottoms and stepping into the pants.
“Possessions aren’t really our thing. You know, magic and all. We can pretty much come up with whatever we want anyway.” Bernie’s face was close to the door and he was whispering loudly.
“Except fast food.”
“Yeah, that’s a real gap in magic, if you ask me.”
Maggie pulled a UT sweatshirt from under the pile of clothes on the chair by her door and was about to smell it when she heard something small ping against her bedroom window. “Does no one text anymore?”
Ping, ping… ping, ping. Small pebbles were hitting her window.
“Alright, alright, I’m coming.”
“Good, are you decent yet?” Bernie whispered through the door. Maggie ignored him.
She went to the window, lifting the sash and looked down on her front lawn. There stood Jake with a handful of pebbles and he was just about to throw another one at the window when Maggie poked her head out. A grin broke out across his face, deepening the lines around his eyes.
“Jake? What are you doing here? Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, I tried texting you but didn’t get an answer.” He looked down, trying to figure out how to start. “I got this weird text, I think it was from your mother. She said I ought to stop by, sooner rather than later. Oh, and bring coffee.” He reached down next to him and picked up the two travel mugs. “She had a lot of exclamation points.”
Maggie leaned on the window sill, a feeling of happiness swimming in her belly. “How did my mother get your phone number? Never mind,” she waved. “It’s like some weird super power she has.”
Jake laughed and held up the coffee. “She said something about a Mrs. Fletcher who knew Larry at the HEB, and it didn’t really make sense after that. Come on down! It was a good idea.”
“Be right there.”
Maggie grabbed her jacket and pulled it on over her pajama top, slipping into a pair of worn loafers. She checked her hair in the mirror by the door and combed it with her fingers, fluffing it up in the back. “Will have to do.” She opened the door and was nose to nose with Bernie, startling them both.
“Are you ready?” Bernie’s hot breath hit her in the face, mixed with the faint smell of strawberries.
“I almost kind of forgot you were here.”
“How is that even possible? I’ve been talking the entire time.”
“It all washes over me at some point. You have to go, Jake is here, and he brought coffee. If it’s black, he may be the one.” She pushed past the gnome and headed for the stairs. “You gotta go, at least for the next hour. Make that two.” Hell with the new underwear.
“No, wait, I can’t go anywhere. You don’t understand. Jake may not be who he says he is.”
Maggie stopped on the stairs and looked back at Bernie. She could see Jake on the front lawn through the glass in the front door from where she stood. “Explain and make it fast.”
“I’m not supposed to, and I may be wrong.”
“Good enough, I’m going, you’re not.” Maggie started back down the stairs.
“I have to follow you, I need to make sure you’re safe.”
“You follow me, and I ditch you on the quest, and you know I can do it. Or at least I’m learning really well how to do it.”
Bernie stopped where he was. “Fine, but I’m nearby just in case. We need a safe word. Yell out peaches if you’re in trouble.”
“Who yells out peaches?” Maggie opened the front door and held her finger up to her lips. “Shhhh.”
“That’s why it’s a great safe word,” whispered Bernie.
She pointed at him like it was a warning and slipped through the door, a smile already growing on her face.
He waited till she pulled the door shut and he ran the rest of the way, easing the door open just enough to let himself out after he had blown enough bubbles to change into a mouse.
Maggie walked over to Jake, trying not to break into a jog. He held up one of the travel mugs to her and leaned forward, easily sliding his tongue into her mouth and biting her bottom lip. She had her hand around the mug and leaned in, letting her weight fall against his chest, this time on purpose and stood there on her front yard kissing Jake over and over again.
She finally pulled back and smiled up at him. “This is going well for you. I chose necking with you over coffee. Unheard of before in my timeline.”
Jake smiled and leaned down, kissing her again.
Hell with it, coffee can wait. I can make more.
She finally pulled back again, still leaning against him, his arms around her back. She put her hands on his chest, still holding the mug.
“Your mother seems nice in her texts,” he said, laughing.
“She’s not like your average mother, encouraging someone she’s heard me talk about to come over in the middle of the night and bring hot beverages.”
“You talk about me to your mother. That has to be more good news.”
Jake slid his hand under her jacket and pajama top and she felt a shiver from his cold hand against her skin. “Sorry about that,” he said laughing.
Bernie ran to the edge of the porch and sniffed the air, his whiskers twitching. He let out a squeak, scampering down the stairs and ran closer, covering his eyes with his paw.
“You want to come in?” asked Maggie, taking Jake by the hand.
“No, not that,” whispered Bernie. He sniffed the air, trying to detect a Kashgar.
Maggie pulled him by the hand toward the house, passing by Bernie.
The mouse panicked and Bernie blew tiny bubbles into his hand, blowing them into the wind behind Maggie. They popped one right after the other, releasing a string of fart noises followed by a sizzle and a faint smell.
The expression on Maggie’s face froze and she spun around, still holding onto Jake’s hand, her face reddening in the dark. She scanned the ground looking for Bernie and finally spotted him. He raised his little mouse front paws and shrugged, running past her toward the house. She swung her foot out trying to stomp on him but missed and watched him squeeze through the opening in the door. He was back inside the house changing into who knew what.
Jake was smiling, his chin tucked down. “That’s no big deal. Means you’re comfortable with me.”
Maggie smiled, pressing her lips together. “I didn’t… I mea
n, it wasn’t…” She let out a resigned sigh. “Sorry about that. Too much dairy.” She did her best to laugh and was relieved when he pulled her close again. “Can we just sit on the front steps? Maybe it would be nice to bring you inside with a little more planning.”
Jake let his shoulders drop and sighed, but he was still smiling. “Of course, this was only meant to be a coffee run, anyway. It was about to be the world’s best coffee run…” He laughed and sat down, pulling her into his lap. “It still is.”
She wrapped her arm around his neck, setting the travel mug down on the steps, completely forgetting about the coffee and making out with her boyfriend till the sun rose over the trees.
33
Maggie yawned, walking through the house, touching her fingertips to her lips, still feeling the sensation of Jake’s mouth against hers. Bernie was fast asleep on the blue sofa in the living room, snoring softly. Maggie stopped and unfolded a blue afghan, pulling it over him. “I’m going to let it go that you’re right by the front window,” she whispered.
She tiptoed away, walking through the house and stopped halfway through the kitchen, smiled, lifting the edge of her pajama top and scratching her belly. “Never did try that coffee.” She looked out the window. “Sun’s up now, might as well stay up.”
She went through the motions of making coffee, distracted as she waited for it to brew, holding up the toaster to get a better look at her face. “No beard burn, good work Jake.” She went to the cabinet and pulled out her favorite mug with blue flowers on it and leaned against the counter waiting, almost nodding off.
A flash of bright light and the sound like a lit fuse coming from her backyard jolted her awake. She ran for the back door, ready for anything and hoping the chickens were alright.
There in her backyard stood a man who looked more like a bald-faced grizzly bear dressed in a heavy tunic, chain mail covering his arms and long pants with leather boots that came up well past his oversized knees. Maggie turned back to run upstairs and get her gun but saw that he was already halfway to the door. She opened the pantry and leaned in, grabbing the metal baseball bat she kept there for protection and ran out the door to get in the first swing. Surprise might be her only weapon.
