Magic Street

by Orson Scott Card

  "You say no to the devil!" shouted Lamar. "Get away from the door and let us through."

  "Start by killing me, Lamar," said Mack. "Not the whole mob here, just you. Come up here and kill me. Do murder with your own hands. Show everybody how you're the enemy of evil. Kill a kid."

  "Nobody going to kill you, Mack," said a woman.

  "I been fighting off these dreams of yours for years, ever since I figured out how it worked. If I let the dream finish, then it might come true. So I'd make myself get out of those dreams of yours. I wouldn't let them finish. But tonight, our enemy started making his move. He forced the dreams through to the end. Ophelia McCallister wishing for her husband to be in her arms again. Sabrina Chum wishing she didn't have such a big nose all over her face. Sherita Banks wishing that boys would find her desirable. Professor Williams wishing people would read his poems. The wishes of their heart. Tonight they finished those dreams. I told Ceese and Yo Yo, and they been working all night trying to stop bad things from happening to these decent people. No more like Tamika! We didn't want any more like Deacon Landry! Maybe Ceese got to the others in time. I know that with Grand Harrison's help, me and Yo Yo saved Ophelia McCallister. And now you want to do the devil's work by killing a woman who helped me save Ophelia McCallister from her own terrible wish!"

  "He making this shit up," said Lamar.

  "Find out if I am. Call the Chums. Call Sherita's house. You check with Grand Harrison."

  He didn't tell them to talk to Ophelia McCallister. Not if she was going to still be babbling about Yo Yo being a witch.

  Of course, they might all be infected with the same delusion. In which case, what could he do?

  He wasn't strong enough to fight them off.

  And he couldn't explain to them about the king of the fairies. Not if he wanted anybody to believe anything he said.

  right? Isn't that the dream?"

  Lamar took a step back. "You stay out of my dreams."

  "How many times have I got you out of that dream? Taken you into my dream, riding along in a clunky car through a canyon and water comes down..."

  "Stop it!" shouted Lamar.

  "I been keeping you all safe from your own dreams. From the wishes that come up out of that pipe in the ground!" He pointed toward where it was. It was just behind the lip of the hill—they couldn't see it from there. "Go look at it!" Mack said. "Go see the place. It flows up out of there, poisoning the street, poisoning the neighborhood. A river of power, a river of magic, taking your dreams, and I have been protecting you."

  They began moving away from Yolanda's house. Out of her yard. Toward the edge of the little valley where rainwater collected to flow down the drain.

  Mack didn't know what they'd see. Maybe only the drainpipe just like always. Or maybe the red glow he had seen.

  Ebby came up to him. "You really have a crush on me?"

  "Of course I do," said Mack. "But I didn't expect to tell you standing on a porch yelling at a mob."

  "I don't know what got into me," said Ebby. "I just knew she was evil and stealing you away, only it doesn't make sense, and now I can see that she... that you..."

  "It's cool," said Mack. "It's all cool now. Nobody going to kill nobody."

  "But I was so sure. Like it was the most important thing in the world. To stop her."

  "Come on," said Mack. He held out his hand. She took it. They walked up the hill behind the others.

  They lined up along the edge of the valley, looking down. It still glowed red, but not as strong.

  Could anybody see that except Mack?

  If they couldn't see it, why were they still looking at it?

  "Anybody else see what I see?" said Lamar. "That thing look hot enough to melt."

  The others murmured their assent. "Red," somebody said. "Red hot."

  "Red as the devil in hell," somebody else said.

  They were silent. Listening to him respectfully, now that he had woken them from the trance of blood lust.

  "I tell you what it is," said Mack. "It's the one who made me. The king of... it's going to sound stupid, but it's not. The king of the fairies. The elves. The leprechauns. He's been shut up under the earth. Imprisoned for a long time. He's mad as hell and he's getting ready to make a break for it. He's been sending his power out into the world through that pipe."

  Through me, Mack thought but didn't say.

  "I feel it more than anybody," said Mack. "Being found by that pipe the way I was. It's inside me. That's why I see your wish dreams. But I got no power of my own. I'm nothing compared to him.

  We got to stop him, and I don't know how. Yolanda, she's not a witch. She's good. But she's got a little bit of power. That's all. She used to have more. She used to have so much, she was the one who imprisoned him. Get it? She's his most terrible enemy, so that's why he sent out his power and tried to get you to kill her tonight."

  "Through that pipe," said a man.

  "He going to give me that Lexus?" asked Lamar, half mocking.

  "How about this," said Mack. "How about if you suddenly wake up in that Lexus, going seventy miles an hour and heading right through a guardrail and over the cliff above the Santa Monica pier?"

  "Yeah, right," said Lamar.

  "Or you wake up in that Lexus and the whole LAPD on your ass going down the freeway like O. J. and you all covered with blood only you don't know whose blood it is. Maybe the owner of that Lexus. Maybe that's how your wish gets fulfilled. Everybody see you in that Lexus, man! On TV!

  Only there's a dead Lexus owner back in his garage and your prints all over the golf club that beat his brains in. How about that for getting your wish?"

  "Never happen," said Lamar.

  "Ophelia McCallister woke up tonight inside her dead husband's coffin," said Mack. "That couldn't happen either."

  "I think we ought to talk to these people," said Osie Fleming. "Find out what's true before we believe this bullshit."

  They heard the sound of a motorcycle.

  They turned and saw a single headlight coming up the hill. Two people on the bike. Had to be Yolanda in front. And behind her, when she got close enough, when she turned into the driveway of her house, was Sherita Banks. Couldn't be anybody else, those hips.

  Sherita looked up at all these people watching her from fifty yards away and buried her face in Yo Yo's back. Yo Yo turned and saw them, too. They watched her put down the kickstand and worm her way off the bike without Sherita getting off first. And when she helped Sherita off, they could see that the girl was wearing a blanket wrapped around her like a skirt.

  "What's happening, Mack." Yo Yo called out to him.

  Mack didn't answer. He got ahead of the pack and turned and faced them. "Not one step closer," he said. Over his shoulder, he called out to Yo Yo. "Some of these folks got to thinking you a witch tonight. Came to pay a visit. Maybe have them a lynching."

  "Nobody going to lynch nobody," said Lamar.

  "Me? A witch?" said Yo Yo. And she laughed.

  It was a glorious laugh, warm and resonant. It seemed to reverberate from the hills on either side. It seemed to make the stars twinkle clearer overhead.

  More people were walking up the hill and down the hill to converge at her house.

  "Sherita!" called out Ebby. "What happened?"

  Sherita burst into tears and hid behind Yo Yo.

  "She nearly got raped, that's what," said Yo Yo. "She was asleep in her own bed having this dream, and she woke up at a friend's house and there was her gangbanger brother getting all set to start a train on her. Yeah, that's what! And you know why it didn't happen? Cause Mack saw her dream and told Ceese and he called his buddies on the force and they got there in time. Isn't that right, Sherita?"

  They could see that Sherita was nodding.

  "What you people want here?" demanded Yo Yo. "Leave this girl alone. I just brought her here to clean up and borrow some clothes before she went home. She didn't want her daddy and mama to see her with nothing on."

>   Lamar turned to Mack. "All that proves is the two of you got your stories together."

  "Give it a rest, Lamar," said Osie Fleming. "The girl isn't denying it. And Mack's right. It's crazy to be going after a witch like this. What were we thinking?"

  "He believes in magic, dammit," said Lamar. "It's not like he's saying there's no such thing as a witch!"

  "And I'm saying we're crazy to treat this like an emergency," said Osie. "What were we thinking?

  Plenty of time to talk about this tomorrow. Find out how much of what Mack Street here told us is the truth. We can talk to Ceese. We can talk to the Chums. We can talk to Byron. Let's go home and go to bed. Witch hunt in the middle of the night. We must be crazy."

  Yo Yo called out from the driveway. "Any of you need a ride up the hill, I'll be back outside in a minute!"

  Shut up, Yo Yo, Mack thought but did not say. You're not making any friends teasing them like that.

  "I heard that, Mack Street," she said to him as he approached.

  "You did not."

  "Did so."

  "What did I say?"

  "You said, 'I'm your hero now, Miz Yolanda, cause I kept them from breaking up your house.' "

  "I didn't know you wasn't inside," said Mack.

  "So you were saving my life."

  "Take that girl inside, Yo Yo."

  But Sherita didn't go. She turned to face Mack. Now that the crowd was dispersed, she didn't feel so ashamed. "Officer that saved me said it was Ceese Tucker told him to come save me. And Ceese told me it was you saw what I was getting into," she said.

  "I know you didn't choose to do it," said Mack.

  "Thank you, Mack," she said. "And for what it's worth, I never thought you was crazy."

  Behind her, Yo Yo waggled her eyebrows. But Mack didn't laugh. "Thank you, Sherita. Now you go on inside with Yolanda."

  It was near three A.M. before Yo Yo got Sherita back to her folks and extricated herself from tears and hugs and thanks. And not long after that, Mack joined her, along with Ceese and Grand Harrison down Cloverdale, between the Snipe and Chandress houses.

  "What's he doing here?" asked Ceese. Yolanda was just as suspicious.

  Mack smiled. "He was my ride?"

  "You walk everywhere, Mack," said Ceese.

  "He helped me dig out Miz Ophelia," said Mack. "He knows what he saw. He knows you got powers, but he believes you're not a witch. There's no reason to leave him out now. And we need all the friends we can get."

  "If I can," said Mack. "I'll hold on to him and Ceese and get them inside."

  "And what about me?" asked Yo Yo.

  "You don't need my help."

  "You ever seen me inside there?" she asked.

  "No."

  "Then how do you know I don't need your help?"

  "Puck—Mr. Christmas—he gets in and out just fine."

  "That's cause it suits my husband's purposes to let him. But me? I don't think so."

  "If he's watching everything you do," said Ceese, "then how can you expect to fight him and win?"

  "He's not watching," said Yo Yo. "He just made this place so it locks down hard if I come up."

  "So what makes you think Mack can get you in?"

  "Cause he's such a lucky boy," said Yo Yo.

  "That's why I'm so rich," said Mack. "Come on, let's see if we can all go at once, holding on to each other. If we can't, I'll take you one at a time."

  Chapter 19

  COUNCIL OF WAR Puck was waiting for them inside the house. The living room was furnished exactly like Yo Yo's living room. In fact, it was her furniture, right down to having Sherita's blanket tossed on the couch.

  "Puck," said Yo Yo, "just keep your hands off my stuff."

  "I never know what's going to show up here," said Puck. "The boy comes in bringing you—so your stuff appears. Bingo! Presto! Abracadabra!"

  "Bite me," said Yo Yo.

  "You always offer, but you're all talk."

  "I know what he does to his servants who, uh, bite you."

  "We got a situation," said Ceese, "and we got to figure out what to do."

  "You?" said Puck. "You don't have a situation, my lady and I have a situation."

  "This shit tonight didn't happen to you, it happened to people in our neighborhood, and we're going to do something about it," said Ceese.

  "Ceese, he knows that," said Mack.

  Puck grinned cheesily.

  "Asshole," muttered Ceese.

  "Bad language exacerbates the situation," said Puck. "I know they taught you that in cop nursery.

  Always stay calm."

  "What in the world is going on with you people?" said Grand Harrison. "Tonight I was just minding my own business, and then I get my tools and my SUV borrowed, I dig up a grave, open a coffin, and take my next-door neighbor out. Then I get brought down here into a house that doesn't exist and listen to a bunch of fools argue about nothing. You know what I want? I want to know how you all going to keep this stuff from happening again."

  "What stuff?" asked Puck.

  "Wishes," said Mack.

  "Mack's dreams," said Ceese.

  "He's cut loose a big one tonight, Pudding," said Yo Yo.

  "That means he's got himself a pony to ride," said Puck—again talking as if Yo Yo were the only person in the room.

  "Yes," said Yo Yo.

  "A pony?" asked Ceese.

  "Some human he can work through. Kind of like the way my lady and I using these two bodies."

  Grand didn't like hearing that. "You telling me that you—that these bodies are possessed?"

  "Leased," said Puck. "With option."

  "This old coot," said Puck, "be eating out of dumpsters and licking sweet roll wrappers and walking around talking to his dead dog named God, cause he figured as long as he knew it wasn't really God, just a dog with God's name, he wasn't actually schizo."

  "We don't take bodies somebody actually using," said Yo Yo. "And that's the truth, Mr.

  Harrison."

  "What did you mean," said Mack, "when you said 'leased with option'?"

  "Didn't mean a thing," said Puck.

  "You always mean something. Usually about six things."

  "He means," said Yo Yo, "that if something happens to these bodies while we using them, then our option's up."

  "You die?" asked Mack.

  "Not the part of us in those glass jugs," said Yo Yo. "Just the part of us that can move around on its own. Be like living in a wheelchair after that."

  "Worse," said Puck. "Be like living as a human."

  "So you're not completely immortal," said Mack. "Just partly immortal."

  "And that's why Puck couldn't tell you the truth," said Yo Yo. "He's under strict orders. He can never tell a mortal the truth unless he's sure he won't be believed."

  "That's not true," said Puck. He grinned.

  "Shut up, Puckster," said Yo Yo.

  "We got a situation," said Ceese, "and you got a situation. Not the same situation, but they got the same cause. Your husband, your master, the king of the fairies, whatever he is, he's got himself a pony, right? And doing that made all those wishes come true tonight. So to solve your problem, and our problem, what can we do?"

  "Nothing," said Puck. "We are absolutely helpless. Go home. Cry into your pillows until your dreams come true."

  "He's so funny," said Mack to Grand. "Always joking. You know how Puck is."

  "Mack," said Yo Yo. "The thing is, it's a fight you can't fight. You already did all you could. For years you did it, deflecting his power so they never finished their dreams. That was good work, but now it's done. He's got his power out in the world."

  "Oberon's pony isn't doing this stuff," said Yo Yo. "In your neighborhood, I mean."

  "Who is, then?"

  "Puck," said Yo Yo.

  Puck elaborately curled himself into a fetal position as if he feared being struck by stones.

  "This isn't funny, Puck," said Mack. "You did this?"

  "It's in m
y nature," said Puck.

  "That's true enough," said Yo Yo. "He can't help being a trickster. But also he has Oberon's direct command to find these twists. The thing is, Puck can't tell you because it would be the truth, but he's also deflecting them. He can't stop it from happening, but... well, for instance, Ophelia and her husband could have been entwined in a love embrace under the HOLLYWOOD sign. Or halfway to Catalina. And Sherita—it didn't have to be a boy her family knew about, it could have been some rich boy in Beverly Hills or Palos Verdes, and how would you have found her then?"

  "So he was helping," said Mack skeptically.

  "As best he could," said Yo Yo.

  Puck ducked his head in a show of modesty.

  "He does what he can," said Yo Yo. "Here's the thing. What he can do, what I can do, it isn't much. The part of us he locked up, it includes most of our powers except persuasion and... pony riding. And the way it works is, we can't get that part out. Because this part of us, the wandering part, the curious part, is walking around free. It makes it so we aren't hungry enough to force anything.

  "But him," she went on, "we pushed him all the way under. Didn't divide him. So to do anything he has to squeeze it out of his captivity. Get some part of him to the surface of the earth. But that part is never completely separated from him. He's not divided like we are." She sighed. "Took him a long time, but the force of his wandering part was so great that it worked its way through a channel to the surface of the earth."

  "And that's the pony you were talking about," said Mack.

  "No, Mack," said Yo Yo. "That was you. Seventeen years ago. You the first thing he squeezed out. We could feel him breaking through like a mother hen watching her chicks jiggle their eggs and then peck a hole. But we couldn't stop him. Puck here couldn't even try—he's bound to Oberon by vows he can't break. All I could do was try to persuade Ceese here to kill you, and he was too strong for me. His love for you too strong."

  "Now I just don't understand that saying," said Puck. "A piece of needlework? Or, like, when we call a woman a 'piece,' only she does it for money so she's, you know, working when—"

  "Shut up, Puck," said Yo Yo.

  "What you're saying," said Mack, "is you want me to break you out of your little glass jars."