by Geof Johnson
“But I’m the older one, I’m afraid,” Sophie said.
“I had her when I was still in high school,” Evelyn said.
“Any children, Sophie?” Dr. Tindall asked.
“No, I couldn’t. Apparently, it’s a condition that runs in our family. Gina was able to get help from those old witches, but it’s too late for me.”
“I shouldn’t have been able to,” Rachel said. “If it hadn’t been for that wizard Eddan, I never would’ve had Jamie.”
Dr. Tindall turned to Jamie and said, “Do you have any idea how he did that?”
“No. I’m not sure how he managed to instill his powers and memories in me, either. Somehow, he transferred them to the ground in our backyard when he died, and I absorbed them while I grew up. He figured out a way to help my mom get pregnant and to ensure that I would be predisposed to magic.”
“Did anybody else absorb any power?”
“Rollie did, a little bit, and maybe Fred, too, though I think she was born to be a witch and just got stronger from playing in my yard with me. We spent a lot of time there.”
“Nobody else got any power? How about your parents?”
“I don’t have any more magic in me than a can opener,” Carl said from the far end of the table. John Paul, sitting across from him with Brinna, barked a laugh.
“Is magical ability genetic?” Dr. Tindall asked.
“Could be.” Jamie shrugged one shoulder. “It tends to run in families, but Eddan came from non-magical parents and grandparents. They were farmers.”
“The genetics of magic. Wouldn’t you love to study that?”
“I’d love to study everything,” Jamie said. “Like, why is my magic different from a witch’s? And how do I generate so much power when I blast things?”
“He loves to blast things,” Carl said.
“I shall be able to do that someday.” Aiven bobbed his head earnestly. “And fly and everything, just like Jamie.”
Mrs. Tully narrowed her eyes at him and frowned. “You shall go to school first, and learn your subjects. Then you may study magic.”
“Well…of course. That is what Jamie did. That is why he can do things that other sorcerers cannot.”
Dr. Tindall turned back to Jamie. “Is that true?”
Jamie paused with a forkful of turkey near his mouth and nodded. “My invisibility spell is my own invention. I altered my regular shield to do it, but I was able to make it more advanced because of stuff I learned in high school physics. I’ve added or improved some other spells, too.”
“He can do things with plants that’ll blow your mind,” Sophie said. “I teach biology in high school, and it just amazes me what all he can do.”
“Like what?” Dr. Tindall said.
“I can grow a tree from a seed in just a few minutes,” Jamie said. “And I mean fully grown.” He held his arms over his head and spread his fingers. “In fact, that reminds me.” He looked down the table at Grannie Darla. “When you buy trees for the park, get saplings, really small ones, ’cause it’ll be a lot cheaper. I’ll use my magic to grow them to full size after we plant them.”
“Then you can do that to the azaleas, too,” she said. “I’d like to have a long path lined with them that leads to a duck pond or a fountain.” She flashed her perfectly white teeth. “Don’t you think that would be nice?”
“Sounds like this park is getting more expensive every day,” Evelyn said.
“Maybe not,” Pete said. “We already own the land.”
“Why not put the park beside the school?” Dr. Tindall asked. “Isn’t there an empty field there?”
“We need to save that space so we can expand the school,” Jamie said. “Gramma says we might need more classrooms by next fall. And I still want to build a gym and a science wing.”
“We’re going to need a science teacher, then,” Rachel said and looked at Dr. Tindall. “Do you want a job?”
“Why does everybody keep asking me that?”
“Sorry, it’s just that we have picky requirements about whom we can hire. We can’t exactly set up a booth at a jobs fair. We offered the positon to Sophie and she declined.” Racheal glanced at her half-sister before turning back to Dr. Tindall. “But maybe you can give Darla some advice about the park.”
“Well, for starters, you should be careful about bringing plants over from Earth. You could introduce nonnative pests that could devastate the crops and trees in Rivershire.”
“I can probably get Fred to put a hex on them before we bring them over,” Jamie said. “I might be able to come up with a spell that would work, too.”
“Well, that’s convenient. Just be thorough. I can put you in touch with an agricultural specialist who can tell you what to look for. You can be vague about where the plants are going so you won’t have to tell him about Rivershire.”
“Nancy,” Pete said, “you’re earning your keep already.”
She smiled with her lips closed, then said, “Jamie, what I’d love to know is how you make the magic doorways. Do you have any idea how that works?”
“Not really, except in the magical sense. I don’t know the physics behind it.” He gazed at the tabletop for a moment. “It’s like I’m lining things up, like turning a dial on a combination lock until the tumblers fall into place, then something clicks in my mind and I know I can push the portal open.”
“But how do you know where you’re making them to?”
“I use my magic sense of space.” He tapped his temple with the fingertips of one hand. “I have an internal map of where I want to go, and I access that when I initiate the spell. It’s like how you can navigate your way through your bedroom in the dark. You know where everything is without having to see it.”
“Tell her about your magic walking stick!” Aiven bobbed his head again. “The one Uncle Charlie made for you.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty cool. I’ve always had a good sense of where to put the doorways when I make them, but if I’m holding that stick, I see glowing lines in my mind that connect to the other worlds. And this part is pretty cool, too. Uncle Charlie gave me the shavings that he carved off of it when he made it, and I figured out that the stick is still connected to them, magically. I can close my eyes while holding it and tell where the individual chips are, even if you carry one way off, even miles away.”
“Tell her about our field trip, Jamie,” Evelyn said.
“We decided to take the kids from the school up to Vessport to see the big sailing ships. It’s a town with a large bay, on the coast north of Rivershire. We bought a whole bunch of cheap lockets and put a little chip from my walking stick inside each of them. Then we gave one to every student. That way, if somebody got separated and lost, my stick would tell me where they were. Pretty awesome, huh?”
“I was a nervous wreck,” Connie said. “He wanted to take the kids to Athens to see the Parthenon, but Evelyn and I had to put our collective foot down about that.”
“There’s no way we can safely take forty or fifty kids there,” Evelyn said. “Too big of a chance of something going wrong.”
“Jamie,” Dr. Tindall said, “what are you majoring in?”
“Biology, for now. I wanted to try physics, but I don’t think I have the math chops to go very far with it. It just seems like knowing more about physics would help my magic. But biology will, too, I think.”
“If you decide to pursue a graduate degree, you should consider environmental science. You’re the best student in my freshman class.”
Evelyn felt a surge of pride when she heard that. She always knew he was smart, but it was nice hearing it affirmed by a college professor.
“What I’d really like to study,” Jamie said, “is the science of magic. That’s what wizards have always done, anyway, but they never had access to the technology that we have on Earth.” He sighed. “Too bad I can’t major in it. Bachelors in magical science.”
“Build your own research center,” Sophie said. “Use some of
the money you’re making off of the mining deal.”
Pete leaned over the table again and looked their way. “We don’t have enough money for that just yet, but if we can secure another deal, we will. He can build and study anything he wants.” He pointed his fork at Jamie. “That could be your career.”
“Yeah.” Jamie nodded slowly and stared at his nearly empty plate. “That would be really cool.”
“Jamie,” Dr. Tindall said, “how many other worlds are there with natural resources that could be tapped?”
“Ones with atmosphere? Who knows? More than I can count.”
“How about Earth-like worlds?”
“Thousands. Millions. Maybe an infinite number. I’m scared to investigate them because they might have poisonous atmospheres or no atmosphere at all. It’s dangerous. I wish I had a safe way to check before I opened a doorway to one.”
“What you need is a gas analyzer,” Dr. Tindall said. “I have one in my lab somewhere. It’s pretty compact, and it has an optional wand attachment that might be handy.”
“That would do the trick.” His face brightened. “I bet I could make a mini-portal and poke the wand through it without worrying about getting sucked into a vacuum or letting toxic gas into the room.” He nodded slowly and smiled. “How long does it take to work?”
“Ten, fifteen seconds.”
“Maybe I could borrow it sometime and check out a bunch of worlds in one sitting. I could probably do a hundred of them in an hour or so.”
“How would you keep track of them all?”
“I’ll use my walking stick while I check out the worlds. It’ll help me make a map to each one as I go.” He grinned and nodded. “Watch this. I can get my stick whenever I want.” He pushed his chair back from the table and stood, then quickly outlined a small doorway in mid-air, put his hand through it, and retrieved a long piece of carved, lightly stained wood. He held it up for all to see. “I keep it in a notch in the wall of Eddan’s old cave. I don’t have to carry it around with me, but it’s always handy when I need it.”
“Wish I could do that,” Gina said from the far end of the table. “I’d keep my purse and my umbrella in it.”
Jamie returned the stick, closed the glowing portal and sat down. “I wish I could do that anytime I wanted without freaking somebody out.”
“You can do that in Rivershire without worry,” Brinna said.
“Yeah. Different attitudes.” He turned to Dr. Tindall and said, “But if I had the money, I’d build a big research center somewhere, probably in Rivershire, and buy all the equipment I could ever need, and hire top-notch scientists, and we could study what’s happening when I do magic, or when a witch does, like Fred.” He nodded firmly. “That would be my dream.”
“We can do it,” Pete said. “If that’s what you want, let’s make it happen.” He flourished a confident grin, and Darla sighed and rolled her eyes.
“He’ll never retire,” Darla said.
“Jamie, if you build something like that,” Dr. Tindall said, “I’m sure some scientists would love to work there, but many others would think it’s a hoax.”
“They wouldn’t think that if we came up with a cure for cancer, or learned how to regrow severed limbs, or cure diabetes and Alzheimer’s.”
“You really think those things are possible?”
“Dr. Burke at the clinic thinks so, after working with that healer. We might be able to come up with other cool stuff, too, like finally making fusion energy practical, or…or exploring Mars. I think I might be able to put a doorway on the surface of that planet, but I would need help from an astrophysicist to work out the exact location. It’s not in my magic sense of space yet.” He tapped his temple again.
“You could work at Jamie’s research place, Dr. Tindall,” Aiven said. “Or you could teach in our school. You would like it there, you would. It is the best school around.”
“It’s the only school around, Aiven,” Mrs. Tully said, then glanced at Dr. Tindall. “But we are proud of it and grateful to have it.”
“Well,” Dr. Tindall said, “I already have a job, but it’s nice to know I have another option if need it.”
After dinner, Pete and Darla left, claiming they had another party to attend, though Evelyn suspected that they didn’t want to help clean up. Everyone else stayed and cleared the tables, then the men did the dishes while the women relaxed. Lisa and Adele came over and met Dr. Tindall, then retreated to the sunny backyard of the stone house with Rachel, Brinna, and Gina.
Evelyn, Connie, Mrs. Tully, and Dr. Tindall settled in front of the fireplace with cups of coffee to talk, and Mrs. Tully made herself some tea. Before Jamie went to Fred’s house, he changed the magic doorway so that it was a regular-sized opening on one wall of the main room, connected to his home in Hendersonville. Aiven disappeared through it with Sammi and Leora, who had eaten dinner with Sammi. They went to play basketball in Rollie’s driveway, but they didn’t stay long.
The kids soon ran back into the stone house and headed for the kitchen, but Mrs. Tully called out, “Where do you think you are going, Aiven?”
He stopped with the two girls near the big table and turned to face her. “We’re going to pet Sugar.” He showed Mrs. Tully an apple he held in one hand. “Mrs. Wilkens let us have these so we may give them to her.”
“I thought you were playing basketball with Rollie and Nova and Mr. Wilkins.”
“It’s starting to rain over there. We came back because it’s nice and sunny here.”
Dr. Tindall shook her head. “I’m still having a hard time getting used to that idea. The weather is completely different just a few steps away.”
“’Tis a good thing,” Mrs. Malley said. “If it were raining on both worlds, they would be inside and underfoot.”
“May we go now, Ma?” Aiven asked.
“Wait a second,” Dr. Tindall said, and waved them closer. “Leora, did Mrs. Wallace tell you that my last name used to be Hale, like yours? And that my younger sister looked just like you when she was your age?”
“Yes ma’am.” The girl with the pale red hair and freckles curtsied. “She said we may be related.”
“What do you think of that?”
“Um…I think it is lovely.”
Dr. Tindall studied her for a long moment before saying, “Me, too. I’ll have to do some checking to see if we can find out for sure.”
“Would you be my aunt?”
“Cousin, probably. Very distant cousin.”
Leora didn’t reply, and she and the other two kids waited awkwardly until Mrs. Tully shooed them away, and they raced to the back door.
“Larry could probably help you check to see if you have a common ancestor,” Evelyn said. “He’s gotten pretty good at doing genealogical research.”
“It would be simpler to do a DNA test,” Dr. Tindall said, “if Leora would let me take a sample. It would be even better if her father did. Do you think that’s possible?”
“I feel sure that he’d let you,” Connie said. “He’s a nice man. The whole family is.”
“Almost all of the parents from the school are,” Evelyn said.
“I suppose I could stop by their farm when I’m here with my grad students.” Dr. Tindall turned to Mrs. Tully and said, “Jamie suggested that I stay here in this house while I’m doing my field work in Rivershire. I hope that won’t be a problem.”
“Why would it be?”
“I feel like I would be imposing on you.”
“Imposing? How?”
“I’d be making extra work for you.”
“Are you a slovenly person?”
“Not really. I’ll pick up after myself and wash my own dishes and laundry.”
“Think nothing of it, then. ’Tis my job. I am a housekeeper, after all.”
Evelyn patted her on the knee. “Though we consider her more of a friend of the family.”
“I shall prepare your meals for you,” Mrs. Tully said.
Dr. Tindall
glanced toward the kitchen. “I can probably do it myself.”
Connie narrowed one eye at her. “You’re going to work all day and come back to an unfamiliar kitchen and make dinner?”
“You shall do no such thing,” Mrs. Tully said. “I am a housekeeper and a cook, and I shall prepare your dinner, at least. If it is all right with you, Aiven and I would like to dine with you.”
“That would be nice. Then I wouldn’t have to eat alone.”
“It would be good for Aiven to spend time with a professor of higher learning. It is all he has talked about since he found out you might be working here.”
“He’s fascinated by the fact that you are a scientist,” Evelyn said. “He knows how much Jamie loves science, and anything Jamie loves, Aiven does, too.”
Mrs. Tully sighed deeply. “I think it is Aiven’s goal in life to be exactly like Master Jamie.”
“There are worse role models,” Connie said.
“I am not complaining. Master Jamie is a fine young man.”
Dr. Tindall rubbed her chin and her face grew thoughtful. “I have a few details to work out before I come here. We will need a way to store our blood samples during the week, but I don’t want to use the refrigerator here. On the weekends, we’ll take them back to our lab in Cullowhee for analysis.”
“Rent a refrigerator and keep it in Pete’s Warehouse,” Connie said. “You’ll be able to come and go there as you please, once Fred gives you a counter charm bracelet. Then you can go through the permanent portal in Pete’s headquarters in Rivershire.”
“In fact,” Evelyn said, “you should probably drive to Hendersonville on Monday mornings and leave your car at his warehouse, since it’s not that far from Cullowhee. That way you’ll have easy access to it if you need to get anything that’s not available here.”
“Like coffee!” Connie said. “They don’t have that in Rivershire.”
“Or anything else, for that matter. Your favorite breakfast food, or deodorant, or whatever. It’s too bad you didn’t come this summer, because the market in town was full of wagons and carts selling fresh fruits and vegetables.”
