The Demon Queen and The Locksmith

by Spencer Baum

  “Let me see that diamond you found,” Joseph said to Kevin.

  Kevin pulled the crystal from his pocket. “I don’t think it’s a diamond,” he said.

  “There’s a way we can find out,” Joseph said. He opened his hand, revealing a silver tube in his palm.

  “What’s that?” Kevin asked.

  “An ultraviolet light pen,” Joseph said. “I just stole it from Jackie’s room.”

  “Good thinking,” Jackie said. “We can test it.”

  “Test it for what?” Kevin said.

  “Watch,” said Jackie. She turned off the bathroom light.

  Joseph took the crystal from Kevin and held the silver tube against the crystal’s widest face. He pressed a button on the tube, turning on the ultraviolet light.

  “What in the world?” said Kevin.

  The crystal was glowing bright purple, so bright that it lit up the entire bathroom.

  “Is it supposed to do this?” asked Joseph.

  “It’s supposed to fluoresce,” said Jackie. “Trace minerals inside are supposed to glow, but it’s not supposed to do this.”

  “What does it mean?” Kevin asked.

  “Either it’s not a diamond, or it’s the most valuable diamond on earth,” said Jackie.

  “If we could find more of these, we’d be rich,” said Joseph. “Imagine if light bulbs were made out of this stone. Everyone’s energy bill would plummet.”

  “It would cost a lot more than a household energy bill to make every light bulb out of diamonds, or even crystals,” said Jackie.

  “Well I’m sure there’s some money-making application for this,” said Joseph. “I guarantee you this is why someone blasted open the mountain. There are more of these inside.”

  They oohed and aahed over the crystal for awhile, each taking turns investigating the power of its glow. When she’d seen enough, Jackie turned on the light. The crystal made its way back to Kevin and he put it in his pocket. He returned to the mirror to further investigate the miracle healing on his face.

  “Is there something strange about this mirror?” Kevin asked.

  “What do you mean?” said Joseph.

  “It’s like, no matter how close I get to it, I can’t get a better view.”

  “Let me see.” Joseph stepped next to Kevin and the two of them leaned in and out, watching their own reflections grow larger and smaller.

  “Weird,” Joseph said.

  “Weird is right,” said Jackie. “I wish you two could see yourselves.”

  “We’re weird? You’re the one who wants to jump out of your skin and grab something,” Joseph said.

  “It’s not that it’s a bad view,” said Kevin. “It’s just strange.”

  “Hang on,” Joseph said, “I don’t think it’s the mirror. I think--”

  Joseph grabbed a hair brush from the bathroom counter and held it close to his eyes.

  “You guys don’t feel it?” said Jackie.

  “Feel what?” said Kevin.

  “Like something inside of you really wants to come out.”

  “I don’t,” said Kevin, now watching Joseph wave the brush forward and back in front of his face.

  “It’s us!” Joseph shouted. “It’s our eyes! Kevin, the mirror is fine. Our eyesight is so sharp that when you look in the mirror, you can see just as much detail from far away as you can when you get in close.”

  Kevin looked in the mirror again, focusing on the skin just underneath his left eye. He focused carefully. Even though his face was more than a foot away from the mirror, he could see all the pores in the skin -- he could see inside the pores. Focusing his eyes, he could see a tiny speck of dirt, hidden at the base of a tiny hair follicle, half folded in a wrinkle under his eye.

  “Wild,” he said. “Jackie, you’ve got to try this.”

  “Hang on,” said Jackie.

  “No, seriously Jackie, try this,” said Joseph, who was now turning the hairbrush around in his hands, carefully inspecting every inch.

  “It’s like my eyes are adjustable binoculars,” Kevin said.

  The sink came on with a blast, and Kevin jumped in surprise.

  “W’oh! I didn’t even see you turn that on,” he said to Joseph.

  “I didn’t,” said Joseph, looking at the sink, puzzled.

  “It was me,” said Jackie. “I made the water come on. I was thinking about it, and it happened. Watch, let me do it again.”

  Jackie looked at the sink intently. The water turned itself off.

  “Now that’s just freaky,” Joseph said.

  There was a click behind Kevin’s head. He turned to see the door of the storage pantry sliding open, as if pulled by an invisible hand.

  “Please say you’re doing that too,” said Kevin.

  “I am! It’s me!” said Jackie. “I can make things happen by thinking about them. I just willed it to happen. This feeling I’ve had – that’s what it is. It’s like I can reach out with my mind – like my eyes, my hands. It’s like I’m seeing pictures I can control with my mind. Watch, let me try something else.”

  Jackie focused her gaze on the now open pantry so keenly that Kevin and Joseph stepped aside just to be out of her line of sight. As Jackie stared, a bottle of aspirin on the shelf did a wobbling, bouncing dance, then it floated out of the closet and across the bathroom.

  “Jackie, this is nuts,” said Joseph, as the aspirin bottle drifted in front of his face.

  Kevin watched Jackie. Her eyes were focused on the aspirin, like they were pulling it through the air. When it was close to her she reached up to grab it.

  “No, wait,” said Kevin. “Let’s see what more you can do. Can you make it float down the hall?”

  “Okay,” said Jackie in a voice one might use to respond to a dare. Stepping back into the hall, she made the aspirin coast out of the bathroom.

  “Follow me, guys,” she said.

  Jackie paced behind the aspirin bottle, keeping it aloft a few feet in front of her. She led the group down the hall, through the living room, through the dining room, and into the kitchen.

  “Take it outside,” said Joseph.

  “Alright,” said Jackie.

  “I’ll open the door,” said Kevin.

  “No. I want to try something.”

  With the aspirin still floating in front of her, Jackie stopped in the middle of the kitchen. The door unlocked itself and swung open.

  “Unbelievable,” Joseph said.

  They followed her outside.

  “Now what?” said Jackie.

  “How high can you make it go?” said Kevin.

  Jackie tilted her head, and the aspirin floated upward with the gentle grace of a soap bubble.

  “Do you think someone will see it?” said Joseph.

  “Don’t worry about it,” said Kevin. “Just see how high you can make it go.”

  They watched the aspirin soar above the power lines, a fading white speck in the sky.

  “Faster,” said Kevin.

  The aspirin accelerated from soap bubble to rocket. Kevin lost track of it.

  “Where is it?” said Joseph.

  “I can’t see it anymore,” said Jackie. “I’m not sure what’s happening to it.”

  Kevin thought about what this meant. If Jackie could move objects with her mind, if they could run faster than jackrabbits, if they could leap over tall, barbed wire fences…

  And what about that sound in his ears? It had been with him all afternoon now. He imagined the conversation he might need to have later, the question he’d swore never to ask. “Dad, what does the hum sound like?”

  He needed to get the thought from his mind. He focused on a basketball lying against the side of the house. He imagined it floating into the air. He willed it to move, trying to push it with his thoughts. Nothing happened.

  “I see it!” shouted Joseph.

  “I do too,” said Jackie. “I’ve got it in my control again.”

  Above them, the aspirin bottle made a gra
ceful descent. Jackie brought it to rest in a soft landing on Kevin’s head.

  They laughed together. Kevin thrust his head upward, tossing the aspirin bottle into the air. Without ever seeing it, he knew right where it was. He could literally hear it falling through the air. He stretched his foot out behind him and tapped the aspirin bottle with his heel. It bounced up and over his shoulder, where he caught it with one hand.

  “That was awesome,” said Joseph. “Do they have a soccer team at your school? You could be the superstar player.”

  Kevin smiled at the thought.

  “You know, that’s not a bad idea,” he said. “But I wouldn’t try out for soccer. The sport everyone cares about at my school is basketball.”

  “We have a hoop,” said Jackie. “We should play.”

  They convened on the side of the house, under the hoop. Jackie bounce-passed the basketball to Kevin. Holding it in his hands, feeling the worn nubs of rubber with his fingertips, he could see it arcing through the air. He knew exactly where to aim, how much force to apply. He tossed the ball at the basket as if he were releasing a dove into the sky. He needed only give it a nudge. The rest took care of itself.

  Swish.

  Jackie and Joseph took turns.

  Swish. Swish.

  They played two-on-one, one-on-one, one-on-two….they made layups and skyhooks and behind-the-back-off-the-board-nothing-but-net miracles. They dunked. Three white kids playing in the driveway of a “McMansion,” taking turns in a slam dunk contest. It was marvelously ridiculous. Joseph in particular was amazing. It seemed he could launch from any point in the driveway and do a three-sixty slam dunk beauty that would turn heads in Madison Square Garden. Kevin could hear the roar of the crowd.

  Or was that the hum?

  Kevin grunted.

  “What’s wrong?” said Jackie.

  “Nothing,” said Kevin. He tossed the ball at the basket. Clang.

  “Ha!” shouted Joseph as he caught the rebound. “The first miss of the day! Hey guys, watch this.”

  Joseph dropped the ball to his foot, and with force that made Kevin cringe to watch, Joseph punted the basketball, like he was trying to send it to the moon.

  It popped. Not with a crack, like a balloon, but with a thud, like a watermelon, and the dead, flat remains of the basketball drifted through the air, having moved only a few feet.

  “Nice going,” Jackie said with a smirk.

  For one more magical hour they played with their new abilities. It was a dream of unlimited discovery. Running, jumping, lifting, kicking, flipping, throwing, hearing, seeing, even smelling – in every way they interacted with the world around them, they found themselves able to do it better. Just minutes before Joseph and Jackie’s mother came home, Joseph said the words that Kevin had been thinking from the start.

  “It’s like we’re superheroes now.”

  * * * * *

  Joseph and Jackie’s mother was a tall, slim woman with the same dark brown hair as her children. She came through the front door of the house holding a grocery sack and a travel cup from The Global Mug Coffee Shop.

  “Hello, I don’t believe I know you,” she said to Kevin in a voice that immediately put him at ease. How simple it was for an adult to speak to him as an equal. His mind drifted to his dad’s circle of friends, how they treated him like an annoying little kid, one of them more so than the others.

  “This is Kevin Browne,” said Jackie. “We met him today at Blackstone Park.”

  “Brown and Silver,” said Jackie’s mom. “How cute.”

  Kevin must have betrayed his confusion with his face.

  “Our last name,” Jackie explained to him, “Silver.”

  “Indeed,” said Jackie’s mom. “I’m Sharon Silver, and it’s very nice to meet you.”

  “His dad is Benjamin Browne,” said Jackie.

  “No kidding,” said Mrs. Silver. “Well please pass on my admiration to your father. I love his work. In fact, I’ve got my eye on a sculpture I saw in Santa Fe last weekend. The little girl under the umbrella.”

  Kevin nodded. He remembered that sculpture. It was the first one completed after his mom died.

  “Are you new in town?” Mrs. Silver asked. “I haven’t seen you around.”

  “He’s not a homeschooler, Mom,” said Jackie.

  “I was just out…” said Kevin.

  “Out?” said Mrs. Silver.

  “Of class,” said Kevin.

  As the ridiculous words left his lips, they took a chunk of the afternoon’s bliss with them. At some point soon, he would have to face the reality that he had ditched his first day of high school and he might be in trouble for it.

  “I see. Well, I’ll be inside watching the news. Big day today. Have you all heard?”

  “Heard about what?” said Joseph.

  “There was an explosion on Turquoise Mountain.”

  Silence.

  “Maybe you’d like to come into the den with me and take a look?” said Mrs. Silver.

  “Yes, we’ll do that,” said Jackie.

  For those just joining us, an explosion rocked through Turquoise this afternoon shortly after one o’clock. Investigators on the scene aren’t certain of the cause, and at this point are reluctant to speculate.

  Joseph, Jackie, and Kevin crammed together on the sofa. When the newscast cut to a reporter on the scene, at the familiar spot on Turquoise Mountain, the hole in the mountainside looking just as they’d left it, Kevin could feel Jackie’s body tighten up.

  Tom, I’m live at the site of the explosion, where criminal investigators and the state geological office have to share space. Both crews are looking over the scene right now because neither can say definitively that they are the ones who belong. At present it is unclear whether today’s explosion was an act of vandalism, or an unexpected geological event. Both sides of the investigation can agree on one thing. They have never seen anything like this.

  “Of course it’s vandalism,” said Mrs. Silver. “Turquoise Mountain isn’t a volcano, but it is sacred to so many people in this town. Someone wanted attention, and they’re getting it.”

  Kevin put his hand over the crystal in his pocket.

  The first police officers to arrive on the scene saw three young people fleeing the area. Police are describing them as two boys and one girl between the ages of twelve and fifteen. At present, these are the only suspects in this incident.

  “You kids weren’t up at Turquoise Mountain today, were you?” said Mrs. Silver, a smile on her face.

  “No, Mom. We were at Blackstone Park, remember?” said Joseph.

  For just an instant, the television went silent as the newscast cut to a commercial, and in that silence, Kevin was reminded of the buzz in his ears.

  “You know what,” he said, “I think I’d better get going. My dad doesn’t know I’m here and I don’t want to worry him.”

  “I’m sure your dad will appreciate your thoughtfulness,” said Mrs. Silver. “Let me give you a ride. I’ll grab my coat.”

  They waited for Mrs. Silver to leave the room before bursting into whispers. “We’re suspects!” said Jackie.

  “We’ll be fine,” said Joseph

  “But what if we’re not?” said Jackie. “Maybe we should go to the police before they come to us.”

  “We didn’t do anything wrong, and we don’t know anything that can help the police,” said Kevin.

  Jackie didn’t look convinced. She went to a computer desk in the corner of the room and grabbed a scrap of paper.

  “Here’s my cell and email,” she said to Kevin. “Give me yours. We should check in again tonight. Watch the news when you get home. And call us if anything strange happens.”

  “That’s right, Kevin, anything strange,” repeated Joseph with a grin on his face. “It’s been such a perfectly normal day, after all.”

  Chapter 5

  The evening after Kevin and his dad spread the ashes on the tree at Turquoise Mountain, there was a reception at
Kevin’s house. Family, friends, and others, mostly people Kevin didn’t know, gathered in small, shifting groups and spoke quietly. Nearly every woman in the house wanted to give Kevin a hug. He was told four times that night that he was “so brave.”

  But The Hearers mostly left him alone.

  People in Turquoise don’t choose to become Hearers, it just happens to them, and once it happens to a person, he is a Hearer for life.

  Hearers hear the hum. The Turquoise Hum is its proper name. It’s a low, resonant, sometimes rumbling noise. The hum has been described as the sound of a diesel engine, an opera singer, a barber’s razor, a harmonica, a violin and a washing machine. Hearers claim the The Turquoise Hum is only present in full within Turquoise city limits, but it can call to a Hearer from anywhere in the world.

  That’s what happened to Kevin’s dad. Benjamin Browne was born to a wealthy family in Boston. He was an odd child, not interested in games or toys. As he grew older, his family attributed his unusual behavior to his artistic talent. When he turned eighteen, he hit the road and drove across the country to Turquoise.

  He didn’t know he was going to Turquoise specifically, and he didn’t use a map. He just knew he had to go somewhere, and kept going until he found it. The hum had called him.

  All of this was reported to Kevin by his mother. Kevin and his dad rarely spoke of these things.

  The hum parsed Turquoise into three groups: those who believed the hum was something special, something mystical even; those who believed the hum was some phenomenon caused by radio waves emitted from The Dunce Cap atop the mountain; and those who thought it was all a bunch of rubbish.

  Kevin was in the last group. His parents were both in the first.

  Kevin’s mother was born and raised in Turquoise. She knew of the hum. She knew that people came to town from all over the world because they were called by it. She knew the mountain had something to do with it. She believed in the significance of the hum, even though she couldn’t hear it herself.