Reckonings

by Carla Jablonski

  “There she is!” Tim exclaimed. His cat eyes served him very well, picking out even the tiniest movements and creatures below him.

  He came in for a landing, his cat self balking at having to put its paws on the squishy, muddy ground.

  “Get a grip,” Tim ordered. “You’re a cat! An animal. You’re supposed to be into dirt and stuff.”

  His cat nose sniffed. You must be confusing me with those loathsome dog creatures.

  “Whatever.” Tim crept toward Molly and Marya, anticipating the amazing moment when he would turn back into himself in front of them. That would be an impressive trick!

  Not that he felt like he had to impress them—especially not Molly. But it would be cool to demonstrate something spectacular, now that he was getting a handle on this magic thing. Also, it would be nice to show Molly that magic could be more than demons and kidnapping and getting grounded.

  First thing, though, he wanted to ditch the wings. They were so awkward, and he figured the girls would freak if a cat-bat hybrid started frolicking in front of them.

  Once the wings vanished, Tim’s cat self purred. Much better. Now food?

  “Shh. They look serious,” Tim observed. What was so important that Molly would sneak out of her house to see Marya in the middle of the night? He decided he’d listen for just a minute—not really eavesdrop—just to be sure he wasn’t interrupting embarrassing girl talk.

  “So what do you think I should do?” Molly was saying. “Should I tell Tim?”

  Tim’s pointy cat ears stood up. Tell him what?

  “What’s stopping you?” Marya asked. “You’ve never kept a secret from him before, have you?”

  “Of course not,” Molly said. “But this is so big. I want to tell him, but I’m afraid to. I don’t know what he’ll do.”

  “What do you mean? He’s Tim. He’ll do what’s right.”

  Multiple emotions flooded through Tim. Shock that Molly was keeping something from him. Pride that Marya would assume he’d handle it well. Fear. Because Molly herself was afraid.

  Molly let out an exasperated sigh and stood up. “Haven’t you been listening?” she demanded. “Picture this little conversation.” She posed as if she were talking to an invisible Tim.

  “Oh, Tim, how sweet of you to bring me chocolates. How did you know they were my favorites?” she gushed. “By the way, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you. That dragon we met in the Demon Playland—that was you!” She smiled broadly, maniacally, as if she were thrilled by what she was saying. “Oh, yes, we had a lovely chat while you were out being all knightly,” she said, her voice syrupy sweet. “He told me he—you—sold his memories to demons to get more and more power.”

  She tapped her chin with a finger as if she were trying to remember the conversation. “Oh, yes, and the Tim from the future told me he loved me soooooooo much that he made hundreds of copies of me. That’s right! And not only that—oh joy—he kept me prisoner to be trained to become his perfect little wifey.”

  Tim was too shocked to move.

  Marya started giggling and Molly glared at her. “I’m sorry,” Marya said, trying to control her laughter. “I know it’s really serious, but the way you tell it, with your faces and your voices, it’s just so funny.”

  “Funny?” Molly repeated. “Was it funny when Daniel went nuts and almost hit you? No! You got upset and sad—and you don’t even like Daniel like a boyfriend.”

  Molly’s shoulders sagged. “Think of what it’s like for me,” she said softly. “To know that Tim might grow up to be evil and want to change me into something wretched. That could be the future. For real.”

  How can this be happening? Tim said to himself. How can she be saying those things?

  You’re the one who insisted on coming here.

  “I think I’m going to be sick,” Tim murmured.

  Grass helps. Eat some.

  Tim felt as if his brain were going to explode. “Shut up! You don’t understand.”

  I understand grass perfectly well.

  “That’s me Molly’s talking about. Me!” His heart thudded under the cat fur. He couldn’t believe what Molly was saying could be true, but he knew she wouldn’t lie. He had to hear more, so he quieted the cat thoughts and tried to pay attention, despite his tormented feelings.

  “I’m sorry,” Marya said. She stood and put her arm around Molly’s shoulders. “I know how terrible this is.”

  Molly nodded, and Tim could tell she wasn’t actually mad at Marya. Just upset.

  “I don’t know which would be worse,” Molly said. “To tell him or not to tell him. And should I break up with him because of something that only might happen?”

  “Break up with me?” A lump formed in Tim’s furry throat and he was glad that cats couldn’t cry.

  “Might happen? You mean it’s not definite?” Marya asked.

  “The dragon told me that it was possible that he might not grow up to do those things,” Molly said. “The future can be changed.”

  “Well, then that’s good!” Marya said. “Right?”

  Tim’s tail flicked. “Yes! Right! The future can be changed! So let’s change it.”

  “Right,” Molly mumbled. “And Tim did promise me,” she added, her face brightening a little. “He promised to never make deals with demons. That should make things okay.”

  “Yeah, sure.” A throaty voice laughed near Tim. A tall woman stepped out of the bushes and approached the two girls. “And men always keep their promises. Especially ones they make at the tender age of thirteen.”

  The two girls gaped at the stranger, and so did Tim. She was pretty astonishing to look at. “Hot” might be a word some of the boys in his class would have used to describe her. She wore a strapless, skintight leather jumpsuit that emphasized her curves. Her thick black eyeliner made her green eyes look huge, and her long blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail. “Intense” was Tim’s impression of her. She carried a birdcage, which made him wonder even more about who she was and what she was doing in the park in the rain. And why she decided to butt into Molly and Marya’s conversation.

  Tim crept closer. Both he and his cat self were curious about this stranger, though perhaps it was the bird in the cage that attracted the cat. Using his excellent cat vision he could see that Marya was intrigued by the woman and that Molly was wary. Tim trusted Molly’s judgment.

  “Hi!” Marya said. “I’m Marya, this is Molly.”

  The woman nodded. “Ladies,” she greeted them with a smile. “Don’t mean to interrupt your little gab session. I thought maybe you could benefit from the advice of someone older and perhaps wiser.”

  “Meaning you?” Molly gave the woman a slow once-over. “I don’t think anyone wise would wear heels that high.”

  The woman laughed. “I like you. You’re feisty.”

  “We were just talking about Molly’s boyfriend,” Marya explained.

  Tim saw Molly’s jaw tighten; he was sure she didn’t want her personal life blathered to this woman. That wasn’t her style.

  “So I gathered,” the woman said. “I take it he’s a magician. Good, bad, or stupid?”

  Molly put her hands on her hips. “What do you mean, stupid?” she demanded. Then she shook her head. “Forget it. Come on, Marya, let’s go.”

  “Awww, you don’t want to break up the party just yet,” the woman said. “After all, we still haven’t solved your boyfriend problem.” She put down the birdcage. “Let me see if I can do something about this weather, shall I?”

  Tim stared as the woman threw her head back and lifted her arms up to the sky. Her lips were moving, but even with his enhanced cat hearing, he couldn’t make out what she was saying. As the woman chanted softly, she began to glow, and Marya grabbed Molly’s hand. The girls took a few stunned steps backward, their eyes never leaving the woman.

  The glow spread out from the woman into the air around her. The farther it got from her, the less intense it became.

  �
��She’s using that energy to send the rain away from her,” Tim murmured. He could do that to keep his cat body dry, but this woman was keeping the rain from falling on the whole park. “She packs a serious magic punch,” he realized. Did that mean Molly and Marya were in danger? He didn’t sense evil from her, but you never could tell.

  Soon the woman stopped glowing. She lowered her arms and grinned at the girls. “Much better. Moonlight’s best for girl talk, don’t you think?”

  She bent down and opened the birdcage. She pulled the bird out and held it on her palm. “And better for you, too,” she told the bird. The bird gazed into her eyes, then fluttered away, soaring behind the leaves of a tall tree and disappearing.

  As if stopping rain were the most normal thing in the world, she sat cross-legged on the grass. “Now, Ms. Molly, just between us sisters, what’s wrong with your guy?”

  Molly gaped at her. “Who are you?”

  The woman smirked. “I’m known as the Body Artist. I’m the fairy-tale princess who ditches the prince and saves herself, then conquers the neighboring kingdom. I’m the answer to the questions that don’t get asked in those quizzes in Seventeen and Cosmo. I don’t hurt anyone, and I never let anyone hurt me.”

  “How did you do that?” Marya asked. “Glow and make it stop raining?”

  “Ah, that’s one of the first things a witch like me learns. We’re pretty hooked into natural systems: weather, plants, the body.”

  Molly’s eyes narrowed. “So, are you good, bad, or stupid?”

  The woman laughed a deep, throaty laugh. “Touché. Nothing gets by you, does it? Well, let’s just say I spend a lot of time in the gray areas of life. I live by a code, and I’m a moral and ethical being, but there are those who…don’t like me. I don’t truck with demons, and I don’t like those who do.”

  That seemed to satisfy Molly. She sat beside the woman. “The grass is even dry!” she exclaimed with surprise.

  “Never do anything partway, that’s one of my mottoes.”

  Marya sat down, too, tucking her feet up under her dress. “Do you have others?”

  The woman shrugged. “I just make them up as I go along.”

  “How much did you hear?” Molly asked.

  “That your magic boyfriend may grow up to be a seriously bad bloke, and if he does, he’ll take you down.”

  Her tough, no-frills summary of the situation made Molly bite her lip. Tim could see her blinking back tears, and it made him sick to know that he was the cause of her fear. Her potentially miserable future.

  “I can’t imagine Tim doing any of that stuff to me—ever. He’s just too sweet, and he really likes me.” Molly’s voice was plaintive, but then her expression grew hard. “But I know other girls who’ve thought the same thing about their boyfriends and wound up getting hurt. Really hurt.”

  “Yeah…” Marya said softly. Tim knew she was thinking about Daniel. Daniel was crazy about Marya, but he had tried to hurt her anyway.

  “I’ve thought about telling him everything that his maybe-someday-future self told me,” Molly went on, “just telling him straight out. But he’s already dealing with so much since the whole magic thing happened. And he felt terrible that those repulsive dino demons kidnapped me.”

  Molly sighed and pushed her dark hair away from her troubled face. “I’ve also thought about telling him that I can’t see him anymore. But that’s not what I want to do. I don’t want to give up. Besides, it wouldn’t be fair. He hasn’t done anything bad yet. And maybe he never will.”

  That dragon must have been convincing, Tim realized. He was still having trouble understanding all the implications of what he was hearing. How could he believe that when he got older he’d do terrible things, including hurt Molly? But how could he not believe it? Molly wouldn’t be so upset if she didn’t believe it could be true. And if she was right, how could he live with himself?

  “I think there’s another reason you’re so confused,” said Marya. “You’re scared that breaking up with Tim might be the very thing that will turn him crazy and mean.”

  Molly nodded, then pulled her knees up toward her chest. She wrapped her arms around her knees and rested her forehead on them, so that Tim could no longer see her face.

  Marya turned to the Body Artist. “That’s how it was with me and Daniel,” she explained. “He was always nice to me. Until he realized I didn’t want to be his girlfriend. Then he went all—”

  Suddenly Daniel leaped out of the bushes. “I’m sorry, Marya!” he exclaimed.

  “Daniel!” Marya gasped.

  Tim’s fur bristled and a low growl rumbled in his cat throat. Tim knew Daniel could be dangerous from experience; his cat self responded to the troubled boy on instinct.

  “I love you, Marya,” Daniel rushed on. “I’m sorry about the time I yelled at you and almost hit you. I wants to square things with you so’s we can get back the way we used to be.”

  Molly was on her feet, and standing between Daniel and Marya. “Hey, back off, buddy.”

  Daniel ignored her and kept talking over her shoulder to Marya. “You got to forgive me, Marya. And take me back—or I’ll kill myself,” he said.

  “But I can’t take you back, Daniel,” Marya replied. “You were never my boyfriend in the first place. I was never your girlfriend. That’s the part you don’t understand.”

  Tim saw anger flash across the boy’s face. “If you don’t agree to love me I’ll—I’ll jump in the river and drown myself dead.”

  “Get over yourself,” Molly said. “Why can’t you listen?”

  “Why can’t you mind your own business?” Daniel responded.

  Tim moved closer, hunkering down, preparing to spring. Just then the Body Artist reached over and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck. He was too surprised to even meow.

  “Hey,” she whispered into his cat ears as she stroked the top of his head. “What’s the hurry? He’s not going to do anything until he’s milked this melodramatic scene for all it’s worth.”

  She held the cat so that they faced each other, eye to eye.

  “Cat. I name you Cat,” she said. “Nose to tail. Whiskers to paws. Cat. Claws in. Mind blank. Mouth shut. Cat.”

  It all happened so fast. Tim couldn’t tear his eyes away from her clear green gaze. He felt himself go slightly woozy. He blinked and stared at the scene in front of him. Girls, he thought. And a boy. No food?

  “Hah!” The Body Artist smirked. “You’ve got a lot to learn, kiddo. You have to take precautions when you’re shape-walking, Tim-Cat. You might find yourself named and shape bound. Like this.”

  She quickly shoved him into the birdcage and locked the little door. “Now you just park your tail, kitty. I’ll be right with you. I need to make some changes in this little drama in front of us.”

  “This is between me and Marya,” Daniel hissed at Molly.

  “It’s going to be between you and my fists if you don’t quit bugging us,” Molly said.

  Daniel hung his head and his whole body drooped. “I mess up everything.”

  Marya put her hand on Molly’s arm. “He does seem different. More sad and less…”

  “Homicidal?” Molly finished for her.

  “I guess. I don’t think he’d harm us.”

  “I don’t trust him,” Molly grumbled.

  “That’s because he’s not trustworthy yet,” the Body Artist said. “How can he be? He’s a walking wound.”

  “What?” Daniel demanded, fire flashing in his eyes again. “Someone else ’as an opinion now?”

  “Daniel!” the Body Artist declared. She planted her feet far apart and stared at him. Light glowed around her, and all three kids stared at her. Molly shielded her eyes from the blinding glare.

  Shafts of white light shot out of the woman straight into Daniel, lifting him off the ground.

  “Put me down!” he shouted. “Leave me be! I never meant to hurt nobody.”

  “What are you doing to him?” Molly yelled.


  The Body Artist lowered Daniel to the ground. “Oh, it stings,” he moaned, writhing on all fours. “It stings.”

  “Daniel!” Marya cried. “Don’t hurt him, please!”

  Daniel shuddered and contorted, letting out an agonizing howl, which turned into a yowl, which turned into a whimper.

  Molly and Marya gaped at the astounding sight: Daniel was gone, and there was now an adorable puppy in his place.

  “What did you do to him?” Marya asked. She knelt down and the puppy put his little paws on her knees. He gave her chin a lick, and Marya giggled.

  “I gave him a body to match his needs,” the Body Artist explained.

  Marya stood and threw a stick for the puppy to fetch. He bounded off after it, tail wagging.

  “You made him a dog? Are you nuts?” Molly shrieked. “That’s just cruel.”

  “Is it? How so?” the Body Artist challenged. “He’s getting all the benefits of a first-rate reincarnation and he didn’t even have to die first. What’s cruel about that?”

  The puppy who had once been Daniel returned, carrying the stick proudly. Marya took it from him. “Good little doggie,” she crooned, petting him. The dog’s tail wagged furiously.

  “Look at them, Molly,” the Body Artist continued. “That puppy is going to get all the love and attention Daniel has always craved, that he’s been denied his whole life.”

  Now Marya ran in little circles, the puppy chasing her gleefully.

  “The lack of that affection is what turned Daniel bitter and sour,” the Body Artist said. “Once he experiences enough love to fill the void in him, he’ll be safe to be human again.”

  Molly rolled her eyes. “I still say it’s sick. Now he can follow Marya around all the time, and she’ll love it. But what do you think will happen when he’s human again?” Molly shook her head. “I want you to keep your perky little nose out of my love life! I can’t believe I told you all that stuff about me and Tim. If turning Daniel into a puppy is your idea of a solution, I’d hate to think of the advice you might have for me!”

  The Body Artist shrugged. “Okay. I get it, girlfriend. You go your way, and I’ll go mine.”

  The woman picked up the cage with the cat inside it and walked away. The cat enjoyed the swaying rhythm as she carried him, but for some reason he couldn’t explain, his tail flicked anxiously as the two girls got smaller and smaller behind him.