Finders Keepers

by Peter Speakman

  “I am trying. My senses seem dulled in this place. I cannot locate you.”

  Parker felt a hot wave of panic flush over him. In the fog, he could hear the sickening clatter of the mother spider’s legs.

  “Fon-Rahm! A little help here!”

  “I cannot find you!”

  Parker was lost in sea of darkness. Fon-Rahm was nowhere and the spider was close. Parker could smell the thing’s fetid stench. He could feel its hot breath on the back of his neck. Parker panicked. He broke into a run, pushing his way blindly through the fog.

  He hit something in the smog. Parker braced himself for the worst.

  “Hey, slow down, chief!”

  Parker looked up, stunned, to find himself in the arms of his father.

  Fon-Rahm waded carefully through the mist. It felt odd to have his senses so constrained. Not knowing what was ahead was a novel and wholly unpleasant feeling for the genie.

  “Hello, my dear.”

  Fon-Rahm whirled to find Professor Ellison, dressed in the robes of magic she wore three thousand years ago when she was still a feared sorceress known as Tarinn.

  “Professor Ellison…Tarinn,” he said. “Have you come to guide me?”

  “My goodness, Fon-Rahm,” she said, amused. “You’re way off.” She waved her arm to the side. The fog parted and Fon-Rahm was confronted with the object of his deepest fear. The metal lamp that had held him captive for three millennia stood on the ground next to her.

  And it was open.

  Parker held his dad tightly. “What are you doing here? I thought you were still in jail!”

  “Easy, champ. I just got here and you’re going to crush me to death!”

  Parker looked into his father’s face. J.T. was exactly the same as when Parker had last seen him over a year ago. He had the same swept-back hair, the same sly eyes, the same I-know-everything-there-is-to-know grin.

  “Dad, we have to get out of here! There’s a spider, a really big spider, and I can’t find Fon-Rahm, and I don’t even know where we are.”

  “All right, all right. Don’t worry. I’ve got you.”

  “Yeah, but we have to go. The spider…”

  “The spider? Come on, buddy boy. The spider is the least of your worries.”

  “What do you mean? Why are you…” Parker tried to back away, but he was held tight.

  His father’s smile twisted into a sneer. “I never liked you, you little punk. You think I was sorry about going to jail? I was happy to get away from you.”

  Parker was stunned. He could only gape in terror as J.T. leered at him in the darkness.

  Fon-Rahm fell to his knees. “No,” he said. “Please. Not again.”

  “Oh, don’t be such a baby,” Tarinn said with knitted brows. “It’ll just be for another ten thousand years or so.”

  “Please. Please don’t.”

  “Look at you. The great Fon-Rahm, first of the Jinn, the keeper of a power great enough to level mountains, begging. I always knew that underneath it all you were pathetic.”

  She raised her hands and chanted words straight from the genie’s nightmares. A hurricane wind began to swirl around her, clearing away the fog and pulling Fon-Rahm toward the open lamp.

  J.T.’s eyes bored into his son. “It was all your fault. If you hadn’t been such a spoiled brat I wouldn’t have had to steal. But no, you needed toys and sneakers and video games.”

  Parker closed his eyes tight. It’s not real. It can’t be real. His father wasn’t a monster. He wasn’t holding Parker in a death grip.

  “Your mother and I were happy before you came along.”

  Parker’s father was in jail all the way across the country. He loved his son.

  “I wish you had never been born!”

  A calmness flooded over Parker. His dad might have made some mistakes but he would never say something like that. “You’re not real,” he said. “You’re not real at all.”

  Of course he wasn’t real. Parker opened his eyes. His father was gone.

  Tarinn laughed as Fon-Rahm clutched at cold stone, desperate to avoid being sucked back into his metal prison by the gale-force winds that swirled around him.

  “Don’t fight it,” she said. “Parker’s a big boy. I’m sure he’ll have no trouble defeating the most powerful wizard the world has ever known all by himself.”

  Fon-Rahm almost gave up. The forces pulling him into the lamp were just too strong.

  “Fon-Rahm!”

  Fon-Rahm craned his neck to see Parker. “Parker! Get back!”

  “It’s not real. Whatever you think is happening, it’s not real!”

  “The lamp…”

  “You’re not going back, Fon-Rahm, I swear, and if you did I would just free you again! You have to trust me. There is no lamp!”

  All at once the winds stopped. The pit was quiet once more.

  The genie was confused. He looked for Tarinn and her cursed lamp, but neither was to be found. He was alone with Parker in the fog. “I…I do not understand.”

  “It’s some kind of an illusion. It’s a trick to keep us from getting the egg.”

  Fon-Rahm got unsteadily to his feet. “I thought—”

  “It doesn’t matter. Look!”

  Parker pointed. The glowing egg was just a few feet away.

  “Let us take the egg and depart. I have had my fill of this place.”

  “I’m with you, big guy.” Parker reached for the egg.

  “No!” Fon-Rahm pushed Parker aside just as the mother of all spiders sprang from the gloom and swiped at the seventh grader with a razor-tipped leg. Fon-Rahm took the blow to his own left arm and screamed as he unleashed bolts of lightning that crackled with blue fury. When the smoke cleared, all that was left of the spider was an oily black outline on the cold stone floor.

  “That,” said Parker, “was intense.”

  The genie was exhausted from his battles. “Do you have the egg?”

  Parker picked up the glowing orb. “Got it right here.”

  They each put a hand on the egg. They could feel the baby spiders moving inside.

  “Um, what are we supposed to do with it?”

  They didn’t have to do anything. The egg began to rapidly expand in size, like a bubble growing out of control. Parker and Fon-Rahm were smashed against opposite sides of the ballooning egg and helplessly pushed away from each other.

  “Fon-Rahm!”

  “Parker! Hold on!”

  In an instant they were at the limits of the tether that bound them to one another. The pressure inside their heads was too much for anyone to bear. Their skulls were on fire. Blood came from Parker’s nose and ears and he heard nothing but the deafening roar of his brain exploding. His vision went red. This was the end for both of them.

  “Fon-Rahm!”

  Parker sat bolt upright, scaring the crap out of Theo and Reese.

  Theo leaned in with his jaw on the floor. “Holy…! Parker, are you okay?”

  Parker looked around. He was sitting on the floor in Professor Ellison’s sprawling library. Fon-Rahm was a few feet away, bewildered by whatever had just occurred.

  Parker ran his hands over his own head. He was dripping with sweat and out of breath, but he was very much alive.

  “I think maybe he’s got brain damage,” said Reese with genuine concern.

  “Just give him a minute!”

  Parker blinked into the light. “What…what just happened?”

  Professor Ellison strolled into his view. “Just a minor decoupling ritual of my own design. It’s never been tried before and I was genuinely curious to see if it would work. It looks like you both survived, so there’s that.”

  “But…” Parker said. “The spiders, and that egg…”

  “Again with the spiders?” Theo said. “Dude, you’ve been babbling about spiders for the past twenty minutes.”

  Twenty minutes? That couldn’t be right. They had been traveling for hours, for days.

  “I do not understand.
How did we escape the abyss?” asked Fon-Rahm.

  Reese said, “Um, there was no abyss. You guys didn’t go anywhere. You’ve been here the whole time.”

  “I suppose you could call it hypnosis,” the professor said. “I put you under and made a few tiny suggestions and you two took it from there. The tether was a psychic bond and it had to be severed using psychic means. You created your own challenges and overcame your own fears.”

  Fon-Rahm began to understand. “You gave us a mission. What happened as we completed it was all up to us.”

  “Of course.” She looked into the genie’s eyes. “I would have loved to have been there to see what made you so very frightened. You were curled up on my floor like a scared toddler.”

  Theo asked, “What was it like? What did you think was going on?”

  “It was pretty frickin’ horrible. I had to face—” Parker stopped. Maybe what he had to face was no one’s business but his own. “It’s not an experience I would recommend to anybody.”

  With the help of Theo and Reese, Parker got to his feet. Fon-Rahm stood on his own. His reserves of energy were already being refilled.

  Reese said “So…did it work? Is the tether gone?”

  “Only one way to find out.” Parker started to walk away from Fon-Rahm. He got to twenty feet, and then fifty feet, and then a hundred. He could have kept walking forever. His head was clear. The tether was gone.

  He ran back to his genie. “It worked! No more sneaking around and inventing jobs and worrying about staying within range all the time! We’re free!”

  Fon-Rahm nodded grimly. “Yes. We are…free.”

  Parker got it. While Parker was alive, Fon-Rahm would never truly be free.

  “Come on, buddy. This is a good thing! You don’t have to watch me twenty-four-seven. You can see what life is like for regular people. And besides, you know I’m not going anywhere. We’re a team!”

  Parker grabbed Fon-Rahm in a bear hug, and the genie winced.

  “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  Fon-Rahm rolled up the left sleeve of his flowing blue robe and revealed an angry red slash that tore through his arm. “I am afraid I have been injured.”

  Parker’s face fell. “Oh, man. I didn’t even know you could be injured.”

  “I was unaware of this fact myself. It appears I did not move quickly enough to evade the spider’s final attack.”

  “But…” Reese said, “There was no spider. It was all in your mind!”

  “The girl is exactly correct,” Professor Ellison said. “The spiders were a manifestation of your shared subconscious. I suppose I should have warned you that breaking the tether might produce some unexpected consequences.”

  “Will it heal?” Theo asked.

  “Hard to say.” Ellison said. “Magic can be so unpredictable. But besides this little boo-boo you feel normal, yes?”

  Fon-Rahm pulled his sleeve down. “I feel no different than before.”

  “Lovely.” The professor smiled coyly. She was keeping something else to herself as well. Something she would keep in her back pocket in case she ever needed it.

  11

  FON-RAHM STOPPED HIS TAN CAMRY in front of the Merritt farm. Theo jumped out of the backseat. “Later, Mr. Rommy. Thanks for the lift,” he said, just in case anybody was watching. He slammed the door and jogged to the house.

  Parker undid his seat belt. As a general rule, Parker and the genie tried to be seen in public together as little as possible, but after their shared ordeal at Professor Ellison’s, they were too exhausted to care. Parker wanted nothing more than to crash out in front of the TV for the rest of the day. And the next day. And maybe the day after that.

  “Well, I guess this is it,” he said. He was well aware that this might be the last time he and Fon-Rahm would be alone like this. Everything was changing. “Where will you go?”

  “I will as before disguise the automobile and secure myself in the barn, if that is your command.”

  “Well, yeah, I mean, you can do that if you want, but I was thinking maybe you would want to get out a little bit, take a look at the world on your own.” Parker was torn. He wanted his freedom, but he also wanted the genie close enough to protect him if anything crazy went down. “You don’t have to.”

  Fon-Rahm could feel the hesitation in his master’s words. “You are concerned I will abandon you.”

  Parker just sat there. The smell of apples drifted by on a gentle breeze.

  Fon-Rahm said, “You are my master. It makes no difference where I go. If you require my assistance, all you need do is wish me near. I will always come.”

  Parker’s heart fell. He was glad that the genie was loyal to him, glad that Fon-Rahm would continue to be his sword and shield against Vesiroth and the Path. He was also disheartened to know that Fon-Rahm still thought of him only as his master. After all they had been through, Parker had hoped the genie considered him a real friend.

  “Okay. Great! So, I guess I’ll see you later, huh?”

  “Yes.”

  Parker opened his door and climbed out of the car.

  “Parker.”

  Parker turned back to Fon-Rahm.

  “You need not worry,” said the genie. “You are not rid of me so easily.”

  Parker smiled and nodded his head. As the Camry drove away he involuntarily braced himself for a searing pain in his skull that never came. It wasn’t until Fon-Rahm was out of view that Parker understood he was truly alone. He wondered idly if he would miss the dull headache he usually felt when he and Fon-Rahm were more than a few feet away. It was a reminder of his bond with the genie and the price he paid for having his wishes come true.

  As Parker approached the house Theo ran out, slamming the screen door in the precise way his father forbade him from slamming it.

  “Dude,” he said, a look of wonder in his eyes.

  “What? What’s going on?”

  Theo just held the door open. Parker rushed in to find his mother, his aunt Martha, and uncle Kelsey sitting around the living room drinking coffee with a visitor. All eyes went to Parker. The visitor stood up nervously.

  “Hey, Parker,” he said.

  Parker blinked. “Dad,” he said.

  Parker’s mom stood. “He was released a little earlier than we expected,” she said. “Surprise?”

  “Come on, chief, aren’t you going to give your old man a hug?”

  Parker crossed the room slowly. Uncle Kelsey had his arms crossed over his burly chest. Kelsey never put much faith in J.T. Quarry. Aunt Martha’s gaze went back and forth between Parker and J.T. like she was watching a tennis match. Parker’s mother, Kathleen, had her hand over her mouth like she was witnessing something important. Theo watched leaning against the doorway.

  Parker finally reached J.T. His experience in the pit was still raw in his mind, but Parker embraced his dad with as much strength as he could muster.

  “I know, kiddo, I know,” said J.T. “I missed you, too.”

  12

  “WOULD YOU LIKE A LOLLY?”

  The bank manager shoved a purple lollipop wrapped in cellophane across the desk. “Wow! Thanks, Mr. Muhleman!” Duncan smiled his best ten-year-old aw-shucks smile and took the candy. He and Vesiroth were seated in leather chairs in front of the bank manager’s desk. Duncan was in a tie and he already missed his skateboard. Two Path members posing as bodyguards stood silently by the door.

  “My secretary keeps a jar of these on her desk,” Mr. Muhleman said, leaning in to speak conspiratorially to Duncan. He had a receding hairline and spoke with a thick accent. “When she is not looking I take one for myself.”

  Duncan unwrapped the candy and stuck it in his mouth. “Purple’s my favorite flavor.”

  The bank manager winked at the kid and leaned back. “As I was saying.” He straightened an already-straight computer monitor on a sleek desk made from blond wood and brushed aluminum. “You are sitting in one of the most secure financial depositories in all the world. W
e serve a very small, very select clientele with unique economic situations—”

  “You cater to the obscenely wealthy.” Vesiroth glowered. Duncan had convinced him to comb his hair and trade his black robes for a dark suit that cost more than Kathleen Quarry’s used car, but there was no hiding the red scars that covered the right side of his face and no disguising the naked disgust in Vesiroth’s eyes.

  The bank manager huffed. “I prefer to think of them as well-off.”

  “Of course you do.”

  Duncan wished his boss would just shut up. It had been a long trip to reach the Swiss town of Lucerne and he had not been able to talk the scarred wizard into staying home. Duncan would have liked to do the talking himself, but it was no use. His physical appearance was simply too limiting. It seemed unlikely that a ten-year-old would gain entrance to a facility as secure as this one. There was nothing for Duncan to do now but hope that Vesiroth didn’t make this any messier than it had to be.

  “Well.” Mr. Muhleman said, ready for the meeting to be over, “if there’s anything else I can do for you…”

  Vesiroth said, “I wish to see the vault.”

  “The vault? No, no, I am afraid this is out of the question. No one but senior management is allowed in the vault.”

  “I wish to see the vault.” Vesiroth’s eyes practically glowed with intensity. Duncan felt the bank manager scooch back in his chair.

  “Um,” Duncan said, “my father doesn’t mean to be rude. It’s just that these jewels have been in our family for hundreds of years and he’s a little nervous about letting them out of his sight. He just wants to make sure our stuff will be secure. You can understand that, right?

  “Well, yes, of course, but—”

  “We get that you have security protocols you have to follow, but surely you could make an exception for someone of my father’s stature?”

  The bank manager relaxed slightly and turned to Vesiroth. “Your son is a very unusual young man.”

  “Yes. He is. Now.” Vesiroth fixed the man with his gaze. “I wish to see the vault.”

  “I am not unaccustomed to dealing with the rich and the powerful. Princes and kings have sat where you are sitting now and, were they to ask, I would have told them the same thing. No one is permitted to see the vault.” The bank manager smiled condescendingly. “I am sure you will understand.”