by Geof Johnson
“Good run,” Coach Harrison pronounced to the winded boys. “Don’t you think so, Dave?”
“Best one in weeks. That’s a good little course, Jamie. Nice scenery. Made it go by really quick.”
“Jamie,” Ivan said, “we should run here tomorrow. It’s supposed to rain back in Cullowhee, and this beats the heck out of running in the gym.”
“Runnin’ in the gym sucks,” Amir declared. “We’ll all have shin splints if we have to keep training in there.”
Frankie held up both thumbs and nodded. “We should bring the girls’ team tomorrow. They’re probably sick of the gym, too.”
“Ah, man,” Jamie groaned. “Do we have to?”
“It’s only fair,” William said. “Besides, they’re going to wonder where we went today. I’d rather bring them with us than lie to them.”
“But it’s more people that’ll know about my magic.”
“Relax, dude,” DeSean said. “Nobody’s gonna tell the NSA, or the CIA, or the FBI, or anybody else. Your secret is safe with us.”
Is it? Jamie thought disconsolately. I hope so.
“William’s right,” Bryce said. “It really isn’t fair. Why should we get to train outdoors and they don’t? We’ll be in shape for the first indoor meet and they won’t.”
He grinned, and Jamie felt a flash of anger at his friend. Jamie knew Bryce was manipulating him, playing Jamie’s deep-seated sense of fairness against his fear of being found out by a government agency. “Darn it, Bryce. You’re puttin’ me in a bad spot.”
Bryce spread his hands and shrugged. “So, yes or no? Do the girls get to come or not?”
Jamie gritted his teeth and growled, “Yes.” I hope I don’t regret saying that. “But if I have to go into hiding for the rest of my life, it’ll be your fault.”
“You won’t have to go into hiding. You can always move here. You already have a house.”
“So you’re not denying that it’ll be your fault?”
Bryce shrugged again.
Jamie looked at Coach Harrison and said, “How about you? Are you comfortable with the girls coming, too?”
“They need the training, so…yes. I think it’s a good idea.”
Jamie sighed, deeply and slowly, with his eyes closed, trying to think of a way to say no, but he couldn’t. Finally he said, “Okay.”
Most of the boys broke into wide smiles and Coach Harrison said, “So it’s settled, then. Plan on training here, same time tomorrow, and the girls will come with us.”
* * *
The next day, both the girls and boys from the track team crammed into the coach’s office so that Jamie could get the girls to take the oath. Fred helped this time, adding her magic to the binding vow, and when they finished, the girls stared at their hands in shock and wonder, just as the boys had the day before. Then Bryce passed out paper cups full of the inoculation potion while Fred took Jamie out into the hall.
She kissed him quickly and tapped his chest with one fingertip. “You better behave around those girls.”
“I will. I always do.”
“I know, but you know me. I had to say it.”
She left, and Jamie went back inside the office and made a doorway to the front yard of his house in Rivershire. The boys hurried through, all of them talking at once and urging the hesitant girls to follow.
Allison, the team captain, went first, looked around quickly and her mouth fell wide open. “Holy crap! It’s true.” She turned to the girls who still waited on the other side of the glowing portal and waved them on. “Come on! You gotta see this!”
The rest of the girls came, too, and Jamie closed the doorway. “This is it. This is my house on Eddan’s world. You are now standing on another planet. We are the first track team in history to do that, I believe.”
The girls gawked at their surroundings while the boys bombarded them with explanations. Coach Harrison shouted to be heard over the din, “Everybody needs to warm up. Now! I want to add some sprints at the end of our training today, and we’re wasting precious time.”
“Coach?” Charlotte said. “Can’t we have at least a minute to get used to this? I mean…this is…this is really strange.”
“You can get used to it while you warm up. Let’s go!”
Jamie had noticed that of all the people who’d done the oath, some adjusted to the concept of real magic quicker than others did. The younger they were, the easier it seemed to be for them, and the girls were starting to get it.
Especially when they ran into town with the boys.
“Ooohh, shops!” Katie said as they neared the first narrow two story wooden buildings, with brightly painted trim and inviting signs hanging over the sidewalk. “Coach, can we stop and look? We won’t take long.”
“No. Keep running.”
“Aw, you’re a party pooper. Please? Just for a sec?”
“What are you going to do for money, Katie?” Logan said. “You didn’t bring any.”
“Even if you did,” Jamie said, “they don’t take American money. They have their own currency.”
“If I had some money with me, could I exchange it somewhere, like a bank or something?”
“You could take it to Brinna’s shop,” Bryce said. “She uses the American money to buy stuff at Costco that she resells in her store.”
“Who’s Brinna?” Rosa said.
“She’s Mrs. Tully’s daughter, the lady who takes care of Jamie’s house. She’s from here, but she married a cop in Hendersonville. Pretty awesome, huh? Intergalactic romance.”
Wish you hadn’t mentioned that, Bryce, Jamie grumbled to himself as he ran.
Coach Dave maneuvered next to Bryce and said, “Really? How’s that work?”
“She lives with him at his house in Hendersonville, but she kept her shop after they got married. Jamie made a permanent doorway from John Paul’s basement to her shop here in the market, and that’s how she gets to work every day.”
Jamie wanted to punch Bryce in the shoulder and say, Stop. Stop it right now, before Coach Dave gets any ideas.
They thundered on through town, one huge mass of runners, twenty-eight in all, and the girls marveled at the sights just as the boys had the day before. More locals watched them go by, staring openly at them, which prompted Katie to say, “They act like they’ve never seen two college track teams from Earth run through their town before.”
Bryce laughed. “They used to stare at me and Jamie when we ran here this spring and summer, but after a while they seemed to get used to it.”
“Are there no cars?” Ella said. “I haven’t seen any.”
“Just horses and wagons,” Bryce said.
“Dr. Tindall and her two grad students will have an electric pickup truck here pretty soon,” Jamie said. “They’re going use it to get some soil and water samples from the surrounding area and take them back to their lab and study them.”
“Awesome,” Bonnie said, bobbing her head appreciatively. “I had a class with Dr. Tindall. She’s great.”
Jamie had them turn left at the next intersection. “The school is this way.” He quickly related how they’d built it, and the cluster of yellow buildings came into sight. Their progress slowed when they passed the playground, despite the urgings of Coach Harrison.
“Look at those cute kids!” Violet eyed the children playing on the field. “Are they students here? Let’s stop for a minute, just to say hello.”
“Absolutely not,” Coach Harrison said, though their pace had dropped to a jog.
She wrinkled her nose at him. “You’re no fun.”
“Jamie? “ Charlotte said. “Can we come back sometime and see the school and the town?”
“When Coach isn’t with us,” Lakshmi added quickly.
“Can you make a doorway for us? We want to see everything. It’s so pretty here, and it’s another world and everything. It sounds like it would be fun, and I bet it’s safe.”
“Sure,” Jamie said grudgingly, “and you’re
right. It’s safe.”
Miss Duffy, who was at the picnic table, waved to them, and Coach Dave stopped. “I’ll meet you guys back at Jamie’s house.” He turned and trotted toward the playground where Miss Duffy waited.
“What’s that all about?” Bonnie said. “Why’s he going over there?”
“Why do you think?” Allison said. “Did you see that look in her eyes when she saw him?”
“Coach Dave?” Bonnie scrunched up her mouth. “Really?”
Jamie wanted to groan aloud. No! Let’s keeps thing simple. Then he realized that it was too late for that. He’d told twenty-eight more people about his magic and brought them to Rivershire, and now his assistant coach was acting like a love-struck schoolboy.
Coach Harrison was obviously unhappy. “If you guys don’t start moving faster right now, you’re going to run suicides when we finish.” They accelerated to a respectable training pace as they passed the first farm, and kept it up the rest of the way back to Jamie’s stone house.
At the end of practice, Coach had them run sprints up the gentle sloping road that ended at the front yard. He pushed them mercilessly, shouting and clapping his hands as if cracking the rower’s whip, but everyone seemed to be in good spirits when they finished. Coach Dave had returned from seeing Miss Duffy. He stood off to the side and didn’t participate, a distracted look on his face.
“Thanks for letting us run here, Jamie,” Allison said. The tall senior with brown eyes and a long brown ponytail was smiling, walking around with her hands on her hips, cooling down with the other girls.
“Wasn’t that the best practice ever?” Amir said. “I mean, we just ran on another planet. How awesome is that?”
“Too bad we can’t brag about it,” Cody said. “But I guess it can be our own little secret.”
“Little secret?” Katie lifted one eyebrow. “This is probably the biggest secret in history. Do you realize that?”
“I do,” Jamie said. “That’s why you had to say the oath. Now you can’t tell anybody, no matter what.”
“I don’t want to, anyway. It would spoil it.” She spread her arms, tilted her head back and smiled at the sky. “It’s so beautiful.”
“Speaking of beautiful,” Charlotte said, “we want to see your house, Jamie. Give us a tour before we go back.”
“Yeah, man,” DeSean said. “We’ll take off our shoes so we won’t mess it up.”
Jamie looked at Coach Harrison, who said, “It’s okay with me.”
Jamie led them inside and called out for Mrs. Tully, but she was gone for the day. Relieved, he let his teammates roam at will, into each bedroom, the kitchen, the cellar, and the backyard.
“Hey,” Alberto called from the kitchen, “there’s a river back there. Any fish in it?”
“Yes,” Jamie answered from the main room, where he waited by the fireplace. “Do you like to fish?”
“Love to, but I didn’t bring any gear with me to school.”
“There are three rod and reels in the shed behind the house. You can borrow one sometime, if you want.”
Jamie heard the back door open and Alberto called, “William! He said we could fish here, and he’s got some poles and stuff we can borrow.”
Bonnie reappeared in the main room with a hopeful look on her face. “There’s a little stable in the back. Do you have a horse?”
“Sorta. I bought a mare, but I let Mrs. Tully and her son use it to pull their carriage.” Bonnie continued to stare at him with one corner of her lip tucked under a tooth. “Um,” Jamie said, “do you want to ride the horse sometime?”
“Could I?” She clapped and smiled broadly. “Oh, yes, I mean, if you’re going to let Alberto and William come here to fish and everything. I could come with them.”
“I want to ride the horse, too,” Ella said.
Jamie waved one hand loosely. “Fine. Whatever.”
Coach Dave was inspecting one of the watercolor paintings that hung on the wall near the big table. It was a scene from a farm, a wagon full of hay sitting by a rustic barn, the sunset coloring the sky in glowing orange and red. “This is nice.” He looked at Jamie. “Looks like an original.”
“Miss Duffy painted that. She did all of the art in the house.”
Coach Dave nodded and turned back to the painting. “She’s really good. My mom is a watercolor artist. I never got the hang of it, but I love it.”
A few of the girls emerged from one of the bedrooms, led by Allison, who said, “Jamie, you’ve got to have a party! This house would be excellent.”
“For sure,” Logan said, relaxing on the couch with Max and Bryce. “Bring some tunes and pizza…it’d be perfect, like our own special place.”
Frankie, who was one of the seniors on the team, nodded and said, “We didn’t get to have an end-of-season party this fall.”
“We’ve never had a real party here, Jamie,” Bryce said.
Suddenly, everyone had returned to the main room, and they were all looking at Jamie, waiting for his answer. He felt as if they were ganging up on him.
“Uh….” Have a party? Here? Jamie glanced at the expectant faces around him, and his mind began to race as he tried to think of a reason why they shouldn’t. Would they mess up the house? Would someone find out, like the NSA or FBI? He took a deep breath and held it until he decided. They’re my teammates, and I should trust them. “Okay, but you gotta help clean up afterward.”
The smiles spread quickly among them, some of his teammates exchanging fist bumps, a few girls hugging. Even the coaches looked pleased.
Jamie was surprised by their reaction, which was stronger than he expected, and he quickly searched inside himself for his own. It might be fun, he realized. A party.
Allison patted him on the back. “We’ll clean up. Even the boys will help, ’cause I’ll make ’em. We’ll bring the food, so you won’t have to buy anything. Do you have a grill here?”
“No, but I could probably borrow my dad’s. For that matter, he and my mom may want to come for a little while. They’ve been wanting to meet everybody on the team. Is that okay?”
“’Course it’s okay,” DeSean said. “It’s your house, your rules.”
Chapter 11
Jamie realized that he needed to tell Dr. Tindall about the CIA agents and the assassin, so he went by her office on Thursday to talk with her. She listened quietly while he explained about Eric and Terry and how Jamie and his friends were now involved in the search for Phillip Cage.
“I’m sorry I waited to tell you,” he said when he finished. “There was just so much other stuff going on and I was afraid it would complicate things.”
“Well….” She leaned back in her office chair and draped her hands over the armrests. “It’s complicated all right, but no more than any other part of this craziness.”
“The CIA business shouldn’t affect you and your grad students while you’re working on Eddan’s world, though.”
“That reminds me. We still need to get Yvonne and Alan to do the magic oath and take a tour of Rivershire before we begin the project. We’d like to get started with our research in about a week and a half, which is the Monday after finals. Is that okay?”
He said it was, and she added, “By the way, your gramma called and invited me to the party this Saturday. Maybe we could go a little early and bring my grad students with us so they can see the town and the boarding house where they’ll be staying, and maybe meet a few of the locals. It might be easier on everybody that way.”
“My Gramma’s coming to the team party?”
“Well, yes. You didn’t know? You invited your parents, and I think they invited her, and maybe Fred and Rollie’s parents, too.”
“Oh. That’s more than I expected.” Jamie stared vacantly at Dr. Tindall for a few seconds until he recovered his wits. “Uh…yeah, sure, that’s fine. Is anybody else coming that I don’t know about?”
“I would imagine your aunt and uncle would.”
Jamie massaged the
bridge of his nose with the fingertips of one hand while he thought it over. “That’s a lot of people in my little house. Maybe we should have the party at the school. It’s bigger, and it’s got two bathrooms.”
“Maybe we could have it outside. Will it be cold? You could have a bonfire. That would be fun, wouldn’t it? Or would that ruin the grass on the playground?”
“It shouldn’t be too cold, and I can fix the grass.” He wiggled his fingers. “With my magic. I can get it to grow back in about two minutes.”
“Really? I’d love to see that.”
“It’s an easy spell, one that I worked out myself.”
“Where would you get the firewood? Do we have to bring some with us?”
“I know a spot where there’s plenty. I’ll make a doorway there and get my teammates to help gather it.”
“I can’t remember the last time I went to a bonfire.” She smiled. “I’m looking forward to it. I’ll bring some food.”
“And a lawn chair and a lightweight jacket. Tell your grad students, too.”
“But I can’t tell them why.” She chuckled. “I’ve been keeping them in the dark ever since I asked them to work on this project. All they know is that we’re doing sample surveys, but they don’t know where.”
“They’re going to be surprised.”
* * *
Jamie and his friends walked up the stairs to the second floor of the athletic center around four o’clock Saturday afternoon, carrying their supplies for the party. When they reached the top step, they found a disorderly assemblage of ice chests, folding chairs, cardboard boxes full of food, blankets, and Jamie’s teammates, filling the hall near the open doorway of Coach Harrison’s office.
Nova frowned as they picked their way through the clutter. “Looks like a bomb went off in here.”
Max was leaning against the wall with several of other runners, and he waved when he saw them. “Hey, Jamie and his buddies finally made it.”
