by Caleb James
“Don’t worry. She’s amazing.” Alice’s liquid-blue eyes looked up at me. “You’re good, Alex… but Mom number two. She runs circles around you. We’re getting a new apartment.”
“Cool… same neighborhood.”
“Yup. A real two-bedroom.”
“Way cool.” Although, I felt a little jealous. I kind of liked being the one that kept things running.
Alice looked at changeling Mom. “It’s better this way. For everyone.”
It was hard taking it in. Alice an inch taller than I remembered, and something else was different. “You managed,” I said.
“We did.” She smiled. “But I missed you… a lot. And Jerod helped, and Mom number two… it’s just better.”
“How did you get away?” I asked in a hushed voice.
“The mist,” she said. “After May… after she took you, everything went crazy. I think May was holding the mist back. When she went into you, it exploded. Like a tidal wave. Everyone was screaming and running. Mom and Dad told me to run into it… to go to Jerod. I thought they were behind me.”
“They weren’t?”
“No. They were trying to get away from it. It was just me and Jerod, and then it closed over us, and we were in Jersey, and I was back to normal. I think Mom and Dad got away. I saw them on a black horse flying into the river. Mom was pregnant again, and there was no Adam. We have a father, Alex. And I guess we have, or are going to have a brother.”
“I know.”
She giggled. “Our dad’s a fairy.”
“True.”
“We’re hafflings,” she stated.
“Yup.”
“That explains some things.” She gave me a searching look. “Like Nimby….” She stared at the fairy. “I always believed you, Alex, when you said she was there. This is the first I’ve ever seen her, so maybe I didn’t believe enough.” She glanced at Mom and the two producers. “I think it’s why people give me stuff.”
“Naah. That’s because you’re cute.”
“Not that cute. Not cute as…. Oh my God!” Her hands flew to her mouth. Her pupils widened as she looked past changeling Mom to Jenna and Jeremy, who’d emerged from their bedrooms. Jeremy’s trademark curls were mashed into a weird bedhead. “Jeremy!” Alice gasped. “Oh my God… you’ve got to introduce me. Please, please, please.”
I DID not win IT. I was disqualified. One of the producers—not Malcolm—sat me down and explained the list of offenses I’d committed during my vomiting up salamanders performance. It was a long list—nonunion actors, unapproved animal talent, potential abuse of said frog. Then came the fire-code violations, tens of thousands of dollars in damage from all the destroyed stage lighting and wiring. “Didn’t you think to get any of that approved? People could have been hurt… or worse.”
I kept my mouth shut.
With my disqualification, it was close. Jeremy won, and I couldn’t have been happier. Jenna lost out on account of the video May shot of her puking in the bathroom. It was all over the Internet. I felt bad for the girl when the producers told her what had happened. She was horrified that something she found shameful and private would turn into a punch line for late-night talk shows. The jokes were cruel. She cried a lot and sang an angst-filled Janis Ian song at the finale. People loved it and gave her a standing ovation.
Before the live show, Morgan Flood, flanked by Carly and Barry, gave us a pep talk. While disqualified, they still wanted me to go on. “You’re all stars,” he said. “You can all have brilliant careers in the industry if you want them.” Then Carly gushed, and Barry rambled in rhyming couplets. It’s what they did, although I wouldn’t really know, having been out of it since before the auditions. The craziness of my missing half-year just something I needed to accept. At least I’d taken my SATs in the spring, so I wasn’t totally screwed.
The finale was a blur. When it was my turn to perform, I stared into the audience. I found Jerod, and I sang. Considering May was the one who brought the talent, the result was better than I’d any right to expect. A clear tenor emerged through my lips. Startled, I realized May hadn’t taken all the magic. Or maybe I was finally accepting the magic that was mine by right. I am haffling, hear me roar… or at least sing an Irish ballad real well.
I was backed by a harp, a string quartet, and a trio of singers. The song was a W. B. Yeats poem, “The Stolen Child.”
“Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we’ve hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries.”
The music coursed through me. My love for Alice, for Jerod. I didn’t question the beautiful voice as it gave life to the words and the melody in a minor key.
“Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand.
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.”
I sang to Jerod and I sang to Alice. I sang for my brother Adam, who might not yet be born. I sang for my real Mom, who was better where she was, and for my father, Cedric, who I didn’t really know. I sang for Katye and tragic Lance. When I hit the final refrain, I felt a rush of sorrow give way to something different. I wasn’t sad or scared; I was in love. It coursed through my body. My voice swelled and I hammered out the final verse. I stared across the space and found a pair of beautiful brown eyes.
“Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild.
Come away, come away, come away.”
About the Author
CALEB JAMES is an author and practicing psychiatrist. He writes both fiction and non-fiction and has published books in multiple genres and under different names. He lives in Connecticut with his partner.
Also from HARMONY INK PRESS
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Contemporary Fantasy from HARMONY INK PRESS
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Timeless Fantasy from HARMONY INK PRESS
http://www.harmonyinkpress.com
Fantasy Series from HARMONY INK PRESS
http://www.harmonyinkpress.com
More Fantasy from HARMONY INK PRESS
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Also from HARMONY INK PRESS
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Also from HARMONY INK PRESS
http://www.harmonyinkpress.com
Also from HARMONY INK PRESS
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Table of Contents
Title page
Copyright
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six
Twenty-Seven
Twenty-Eight
Twenty-Nine
Thirty
Thirty-One
Thirty-Two
About the Author
Also from Harmony Ink Press
Contemporary Fantasy from Harmony Ink Press
Timeless Fantasy from Harmony Ink Press
Fantasy Series from Harmony Ink Press
More Fantasy from Harmony Ink Press
Also from Harmony Ink Press
