The Way Things Seem

by Mackey Chandler

  His inner feeling did give him a hard nudge then and wondering why he looked around. There wasn’t anyone coming, not even a farm yard dog. Then he looked up. Painted on the underside of the roof were two big versions of the protective sign he had in his shirt pocket. Well, that was interesting.

  David took a single dollar bill from the box, not especially wanting to carry small change and considered. Feeling a bit devilish he placed the five on top of the other bank notes, took one of the stones out of his pocket and spoke to it again to reinforce it. It obligingly took on an even stronger glow and he left it sitting on top of his money. He hoped the farmer found that amusing.

  Stopping at the road to look for traffic he noticed the other end of the barn had two more signs painted on each side, up under the eaves. The farmer certainly didn’t do things by half measures.

  Down the road there was another small town and a fairly modern ranch style home converted to a public library. The double car garage had the overhead door removed and double glass doors installed with a window on each side. There was only one car in the tiny lot and David parked a space away from it. When he went in there was a middle aged lady at a desk to one side. There seemed to one older patron reading a book slouched in a plastic dipped wire chair.

  “Excuse me, I’m not a local resident, I’m just a tourist traveling through, but I wondered if you might have a computer I can use to check some news stories?” David requested.

  “Our wireless is open if you have your own device you’d like to use,” the librarian invited.

  David considered that would be safe enough. If they were looking for the tablet they’d be looking for the car and likely have him made anyway, so he nodded his thanks.

  “I have a tablet in the car. I’ll get it,” he said.

  “It’ll reach the car if you want some privacy,” the woman suggested.

  “There is no such thing as privacy online,” David insisted. “That’s my business. I can assure you there are so many ways to track you and back doors built in everything that it’s just a matter of how much effort it is worth expending to know what you are doing.”

  “I’m pretty much in agreement with you,” she said, amused, “but some of my patrons still work under that delusion and I chose not to argue with them. If you’d rather view things on a larger screen feel free to use one of our machines. They are open most of the day until school lets out and then we have kids waiting a turn to use them until closing time.”

  “Thank you, that is easier on the eyes,” David said. The library had two public machines, back to back, for privacy David assumed, not from online watchers but the person using the other machine. It was one of those all in one machines with the slot for a disk and a thumb drive taped over. A sign said pages could be printed for a dollar each.

  Searching news for the airport and his flight number coming in yielded no hits at all. There was nothing in local crime reports. Searching customs and the airport finally yielded a story that a customs agent had been injured in a battery fire event and transported to a local hospital for treatment. There didn’t seem to be any follow-up stories so he must not have been injured too severely. David had a pang of guilt, but remembered the agent’s glee and intent to make trouble, and suppressed that feeling. If he hadn’t acted he’d be reading about an international traveler being held for suspected drugs. If they couldn’t pin that on him he wondered if there were any regulations about importing exotic plants? They could be an expensive problem if some fool tossed them in a mulch pile or ditch to be rid of them. There didn’t seem to be any suspicion of anything but a bad battery, so David relaxed just a little.

  David thanked the librarian on the way out and laid a hundred dollar bill on her desk. “Thank you for the use of your machine. That’s towards your expenses.”

  “A public library should always be free,” the woman insisted, but she didn’t push the bill back either.

  “But I’ve also noticed most of them don’t have the same level of funding other institutions enjoy.” David told her. She just nodded her thanks, but didn’t pick it up while he was still there. There was an interesting play of false colors on her face. He couldn’t interpret them yet, but he’d remember them. He suspected might be gratitude. She was smiling and seemed pleased with her normal face he knew how to interpret somewhat. He wished his time with Uncle hadn’t been cut short.

  Down the road David needed to fuel up again. There was a convenience store with a half dozen pumps under a canopy and signs in the windows pushing ice, propane and deli sandwiches. He pulled away from the pumps and parked toward the back of the lot where there was a pet run. With his car shielding him from view he picked three more rocks to join the three left in his pocket. He didn’t linger there to talk to them. Sitting off by himself, away from all the services might eventually attract attention. Instead he got another drink and went down the road to find another park or rest area.

  The next small park was too crowded. There seemed to be a company or family picnic. He kept going until there was a scenic turn off that separated from the highway with parking for about six cars on the shoulder parallel to the one lane bypass. It was a pretty view, green hills and the thread of a distant river. There was only one other car and a fellow leaning on the stone wall meant to keep you from tumbling down the hillside, steadying his camera. When he was satisfied with his shot he got in the car and left.

  David sat at a bench and took his stones out of his pocket. The three charmed were apparent by their glow. It was a mellow color quite unlike any he’d seen associated with living things. He sat one of the unaltered rocks off a little from the others and willed it to jump just like he had the sign in his shirt pocket. It obliged by jumping straight into the sky, but not so distant or fast he couldn’t watch it. In fact it came back down close enough he leaned out and caught it.

  It didn’t seem to accelerate away. If it didn’t instantaneously acquire velocity it did so in a shorter period than he could observe. But then he hadn’t kept pushing at it like he had to hit a rabbit. He wasn’t a casual observer in his work or here, eventually he wanted some hard numbers. Perhaps he could do this with a small instrument package with an accelerometer. David didn’t have any way to quantify his input either. He didn’t have any way to measure how hard he thought at it. It would probably vary if he was tired, although he hadn’t gotten tired doing simple things for quite awhile now.

  He’d thought straight up also, but it came back down in front of him and a little to the right. David had to allow his perception of level and vertical might be skewed a bit. He had always been one to use a level when hanging a picture. He picked one of the rocks he’d empowered and did the same thing, trying in his mind to urge it up with the same strength. Either he fooled himself or the effect was much stronger, because it was out of sight faster than he could turn his head. When he looked up it was too far gone to see and he felt a pang of loss.

  It caught him completely by surprise when it impacted on top of the stone fence a couple meters in front of him. He hadn’t counted it off but it must have been aloft about thirty seconds. It too was also to the right a bit. He suddenly figured out it was going straight up just as he motivated it, but there was a breeze from behind and to his left that carried it. The rock shattered with a crack and pieces flew here and there. One of the shards hit the back of the bench beside him and bounced off landing on the seat.

  David picked it up and examined it. There was no telltale glow. It was just a piece of ordinary rock. That was interesting. Once the original object was destroyed the spell no longer held on it. He was going to have to get a very sensitive scale and see if the mass of an object changed when it was spoken to, giving it power. Energy was mass after all. He was convinced none of the things Uncle showed him were unnatural, just not understood. Even the portal into a different place and strange creatures was something that could be explained in scientific terms by multiple dimensions or time lines. It was just up to him to formulate the
ories to explain them instead of silly mumbo jumbo.

  David spoke to the three new stones, bringing all five to the same level. What would happen if he just keep speaking to one over and over? It didn’t feel right somehow. He suspected just like charging a battery there were limits on what they could absorb, maybe in absolute terms too. Would the mass of the rock matter? He really hadn’t tried throwing a bigger rock, say baseball sized, instead of these smaller projectiles. If he could charm a pebble why couldn’t he speak to the ground at his feet and charm the entire globe? That seemed hubris and a dangerous thing to try. Mrs. Ayer encouraged him to follow his instincts, and on this they said no. He still got an uneasy feeling and was afraid to try lifting himself, though he’d considered it several times.

  Looking along the wall David found a larger loose stone. He wanted to experiment at moving something heavier than a pebble. This one was a handful and easily two kilo. If the power was coming from someplace else did it really matter what something massed here? Could he perhaps fool himself into assuming it would be harder because he expected it? He tried moving the rock without speaking to it to charm it. It felt about the same as moving a pebble. There was just a subtle difference. When commanded it to hop straight up he got about the same reaction. Was it really necessary to address the object out loud? He held the rock, then changed his mind setting it on the wall and silently addressed the words he’d learned while fixing his gaze and attention on the rock. He was rewarded with the same change in appearance that speaking out loud produced and felt a little thrill of discovery.

  When David propelled this rock into the air he was cautious. He didn’t want to misjudge where something this heavy would return and hurt himself. He nudged it away from him slightly instead of thinking of a vertical push. This time he counted off the seconds and it was a full thirty seven seconds before there was a crash of it returning through the trees downhill from the overlook. That was interesting. He’d have to try it with heavier objects, but for now he felt a little tired from his efforts and decided it was safer to stop before he was exhausted. He still needed to be able to protect himself as well as be alert enough to drive safely.

  He withdraw the wooden disk from his pocket and checked it. It seemed as bright as ever. If the effect bled off it didn’t do so quickly. He spoke to it again and was rewarded with faster activity, so it hadn’t reached any limit yet. He’d satisfied his curiosity to some extent. When he went back to the car he regarded it. It was a protection and seemed to be a reasonable size to charm, but he didn’t know any way to remove a charm without destroying the object. That certainly wasn’t an option with a rental car. Also it would be obvious to anybody with his sort of sight rolling down the highway.

  David wondered briefly if he had the ability to loft something as massive as the car in the air, but he also needed to practice much finer control before he tried something that risky. He could just see himself explaining a rental car dropped back to the pavement from a hundred meters in the air.

  David got in his ordinary unhexed car and continued down the road. Time to think about making a loop and returning to see Crenshaw, since there didn’t seem to be any issue with Customs.

  * * *

  Nearing Harrisburg his map showed a county road coming up soon that would go south and intersect another state route that could take him back to New York. Before he reached it there was another old fashioned motel. It had a vacancy sign lit and looked clean and cared for. When he pulled in it was just hard to get out of the car. He put his hand on the handle and his mind went blank like he couldn’t remember how to work it. When he recovered from the odd episode, he shuddered, dropped the car back in gear and went out the other end of the big circular drive. There was something bad there. He didn’t understand what, just that whatever it was he needed to avoid it.

  There was a soulless concrete box of a big chain hotel down the road and David stopped there without any repeat of his previous malaise. There didn’t seem to be anyone looking for him or the others present when the Customs agent had his radio burst into flames. He was going to loop back anyway, so he decided to use his card. If somebody was tracking him they’d probably assume he’d keep heading west. He’d get some more cash in the morning at a local bank before heading back east.

  It wasn’t quaint or rustic, but with a big chain it was at least predictable. The bed was even and the shower hot. He had a good night and was well rested. He spoke power to his sign and stones going to bed and getting up. They didn’t seem to have reached any kind of limit yet.

  The breakfast buffet was decent enough to satisfy him in the morning. David loaded up on protein and put both butter and cream cheese on a half English muffin rather than a bagel. He had to cut back. Going a little crazy after being in the boonies with Uncle was understandable, but only for so long. If he hadn’t slept in so late he could have used the pool, but checkout time was too close.

  It was good people-watching at the breakfast buffet. There were a couple families and he hadn’t had much opportunity to see children with his new vision. He was getting good feedback because the kids let the normal emotions he knew how to read play on their face uninhibited. He got to match them to the new colors and illumination when with adults he wasn’t sure what he was seeing.

  There was an attractive young woman who came out of the back room and checked the items on the buffet, stirring some and returning to the room to get some items that were low. There was a table of three young men who checked her out, but one had a more intense interest, continuing to watch her closely. That was interesting. He displayed colors around his nose and mouth David hadn’t seen before. So that’s what attraction looks like. The woman scanned the entire room and saw the young men, but didn’t display any of the same colors.

  David used the lobby computer and found there was a bank a couple miles down the road where he should be able to get an advance on his card. It was a drizzly day with low gray clouds and he had to set the car wipers to swipe intermittently. It made him think of the reading of his father’s will. In a lot of ways he wasn’t the same person he was then. He’d made the sort of changes in a few weeks one would expect it should takes years to make. It would be interesting to see how he fit back in his business and what might change with the few friends with whom he did social things. There wasn’t any one special friend who stood out. That might be his fault because he had a certain reserve, especially with women. He was never sure if they were interested in him or fascinated with his money.

  The bank wasn’t very busy but he didn’t go to a teller. They usually called a supervisor for a large advance anyhow so he went to the first desk that was occupied. David laid his credit card and driver’s license on the desk and told the young woman what he wanted.

  “Good morning. Let me close down this screen and I’ll be right with you.” The young woman worked her mouse clicking it and David looked around in no real hurry. It was interesting seeing all the electrical signs that were invisible to him before. There were a lot of cameras, but David viewed them with disapproval. They all made the mistake of looking down so criminal could hide his face with a hat or hood.

  A man came in and went to the stand up desk, but didn’t write anything. He stood sideways to it and looked all around sizing the bank up much as David was doing. He had on a short red jacket and matching baseball cap. He was throwing off a bunch of false colors David couldn’t analyze yet, but they were prominent. David looked at him and frowned.

  “Is there a problem sir?” The young woman asked. David suddenly realized she’d said something to him a moment ago but he was so distracted by the fellow he missed it.

  “I’m sorry. That fellow in the baseball jacket had me concerned. He isn’t acting right and looks very stressed.”

  “Do you know him?” she asked.

  “I’m traveling. I never saw him before. I’ve never even been in this town before,” David admitted.

  The young woman looked at the fellow joining the line wit
h her eyes, but didn’t turn her head. He had on a baseball cap and kept his chin down and licked his lips nervously. She hesitated a moment and then picked up the phone and punched a speed dial. Whatever she said was too low for David to hear and the handset covered her mouth. “I don’t like the looks of him either,” she said to David, in a lower voice than she’d used before, not hanging up but covering the mouthpiece with her hand. “I’ve called it in. I’ve never done that before, so I hope we’re not just imagining things.”

  The last customer ahead of him finished up and turned away, but instead of stepping up to the teller he abruptly turned on his heel and followed the other customer out. They watched and he got in his car, but the local sheriff pulled in before he could back out and two officers got out. They couldn’t see what they were doing on the other side of the car, but the man had his hands on the roof. When one deputy walked the man to the cruiser the other officer came in.

  “OK, they’re taking care of it. I’m hanging up,” she said.

  “Did the man get anything from you?” the deputy asked, looking a bit confused.

  “No, he got up to the teller and did a U-turn and walked out the door,” the woman said, looking ill. “Maybe he didn’t intend any harm at all. I may have just screwed up and he’ll sue the bank.”

  “Oh no, he had a note in his pocket demanding money. He just chickened out at the last second,” the officer said. He looked distressed and didn’t say anything for a moment. “I’m not sure there’s any basis to arrest him. I have to call the sheriff. Maybe I can get him to admit to accomplices,” he said, hopefully and went to turn away.