by Geof Johnson
“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.”
“Is everybody else here?” Bryce said.
Max pointed at the door to the office. “In there.”
“Fred,” Jamie said, “you want to help with the oath this time?”
“How many have to do it?”
“Three, I think.”
Fred pulled her small white Bible from her purse. They went into the crowded room and found both coaches, the rest of the boys and girls from the track team, Coach Harrison’s wife, and Dr. Tindall and her grad students.
Earlier, Jamie had insisted on one condition for the party — no dates. Only Coach Harrison was exempt. Jamie didn’t want to tell anyone else about the magic. If someone on the team had a problem with that, they could stay home. Nobody did. They all came.
Jamie and Fred wasted no time administering the magic oath, and left it to the others to explain things to the ones who took it, Dr. Tindall talking and gesturing rapidly to her grad students and Coach Harrison speaking gently in one corner to his frightened-looking wife, Suzanne.
Cody and Ivan had musical instrument cases at their feet, a banjo and a guitar.
Rollie eyed them and said, “Hey, Jamie, maybe I should bring my dummy.”
“You gonna do some ventriloquism tonight?”
“I might. Can you make a quick doorway back to my dorm?”
Jamie stepped to the only clear space in the room and outlined a portal, while Mrs. Harrison and the two graduate students, Yvonne and Alan, flinched and turned pale. Rollie walked through it and quickly returned with Rufus, his foam rubber dummy. Rollie put his hand inside it, moved its mouth and said, “I’m ready. I got my dummy, Rollie.”
A few of the boys laughed, and Cody said, “Awesome, man. Hey, Coach, can we use your PA? Then everybody will be able to hear him.”
“Naw,” Logan said. “Then you guys might sing through it, and we might be able to hear you.”
Ivan scowled. “We’re not that bad.”
Jamie wrinkled his brow. “I didn’t know you guys played.”
“We’ve been trying to get a bluegrass group together,” Cody said, “but it’s hard ’cause we’re so busy. We just jam around some. Don’t know a lot of songs.”
“I love bluegrass,” Dr. Tindall said. “I look forward to hearing you.”
“I don’t,” Logan said.
Cody ignored him and turned back to Coach Harrison. “So, can we use the PA?”
Coach gestured toward a closed door near the back of the room. “It’s in that storage closet, on the bottom. Both microphone stands are in there, too, last I checked. Better bring that orange extension cord that’s with it.”
“Is that going to bother the neighbors by the school?” Melanie said.
“It’s a small PA,” Ivan said. “It’s not that loud.”
“If the neighbors hear it,” Jamie said, “they’ll probably come to the party.”
Allison grinned. “That would be cool.”
“I thought you wanted to have a team party.” Jamie said.
“The more, the merrier. Besides, I’ve never partied with people from another planet before.”
“All right. As long as we have enough food.” Jamie scanned the room. “Everybody ready? Grab your stuff and let’s go.”
They filed through the open portal to the playground of the Rivershire School, toting their food, folding chairs, ice chests, instruments, and the PA system. They unloaded everything onto the grass, and Allison announced, “We’re going into town real quick to have a look around, while you guys get the firewood.”
“I brought some money,” Katie said. “I want to buy a souvenir.”
Jamie set down his box full of food. “Well, they don’t sell T-shirts or coffee mugs with Rivershire printed on them. And you’d better hurry, too, because everything closes early here.”
“I’ll go with them,” Melanie said. “I know my way around. We can go to Brinna’s shop, at least. She’ll be open for another hour or so.”
Nova and Fred also went with the girls as they hurried off toward the south gates of town, so many ponytails bobbing at once, it was like watching a retreating herd of eager young horses, except for Fred and Nova, Fred’s thick red curls flowing loose and Nova’s wild dreadlocks tinkling with tiny bells.
Frankie glowered at them as they left. “That’s just like them, leaving us with all the work.”
“Won’t be that hard,” Jamie said. “There are plenty of us to help gather firewood.”
Coach Harrison, who was standing with his shell-shocked wife, said, “I’m going to stay here and finishing explaining things.” He nodded toward her and Jamie thought, She’s having to process a lot in a short amount of time. Hope we didn’t overwhelm her. He couldn’t help with the explanations, though, because his teammates were urging him to hurry, another pack of impatient ponies.
Jamie outlined a doorway and pushed it open, revealing the woods beyond.
“Is that where you got your walking stick?” Rollie asked.
Jamie nodded and went through it while all of the boys followed with Coach Dave.
They were surrounded by tall, mature trees, most of them bare of their leaves with winter approaching. Their trunks cast long, sharp shadows in the slanting afternoon sunlight, stretching uniformly eastward across the forest floor.
Branches and sticks lay everywhere, and Jamie gestured at some and said, “Grab anything you can, and lug it back to the school.”
“What about bigger stuff?” DeSean said. “You got an axe or a hatchet?”
“Don’t need one. I’ll do this.” Jamie aimed one finger at a nearby fallen tree, summoned his will, and sent a stream of white-hot energy that instantly cut it in two.
“Oh…wow! Do that again, man.” He grinned, and Jamie sliced another section off. “Jamie, you’re a handy guy, for a freshman.”
Jamie cut up several more logs and big branches, and they began lugging armloads of wood back through the open doorway to the school and dumping them onto the ground, about seventy-five feet from the main building. Soon they had an impressive pile, with a second one as a reserve, and they stood around it and admired their work.
“That ought to last us,” Amir said as he brushed his hands together. “Anybody bring matches or a lighter?”
“Don’t need it,” Jamie said. “I’ll take care of it.” He turned when he heard someone call his name, and he saw Mr. Bass, the maintenance man, walking across the road, pulling a wheeled ice chest, a popup chair slung over one shoulder. “How’d you get here?” Jamie asked.
He pointed his thumb over his shoulder at the building behind him. “Through the portal in your granddaddy’s warehouse. I came a little early in case you need some help. Heard there was a crowd coming.”
“What do you mean?”
“Word got around about your party, and I think some of the families from the school are coming.”
“Huh. Are we going to have enough food?”
“Most of ’em are farmers, remember? They’ll bring food.” He looked past the mas
sive woodpile to where Cody and Ivan were setting up the small PA, next to the wall of the school. “We’re gonna have music tonight? Great! I’ll go give ’em a hand.”
Mr. Bass went inside and opened the nearest window a few inches for the extension cord, which they passed through for him to plug into an electrical outlet. He returned with a couple of chairs, one in each hand, and said, “You may want to get your buddies to bring some more of these. Not everybody has lawn chairs, you know. Might want to get those two big folding tables from the back of the main room, too, so we’ll have something to put the food on.”
“Good idea.” Jamie turned to a few of his teammates and said, “Can some of you guys take care of that?” Then he raked the fingers of one hand through his hair and looked around at the growing chaos. “Uh, what else do I need to do?”
“Isn’t it time to get your parents?” Bryce said. “They were expecting you fifteen minutes ago.”
“Yeah, geez…glad you reminded me.” He outlined another doorway and pushed it open to see his mother and gramma waiting in his family room in Hendersonville.
“It’s about time,” Rachel said. “Can someone give us a hand, please? We have a lot of stuff.”
Jamie and Bryce went through to find the house crowded with friends and family. Aunt Connie and Uncle Ray were there, along with Granddaddy Pete and Grannie Darla, Fred’s parents and Sammi, and Rollie’s parents, too. Jamie’s father stood at the back door with the grill, a large bag of charcoal at his feet. Cluttering the family room floor were a couple of ice chests, several cardboard boxes of food, lawn chairs, and a stack of old blankets.
Jamie surveyed the jumble of party supplies and said, “Wow. That is a lot of stuff.”
“We have plenty of people coming,” Evelyn said. “Some of the kids from the school and their families are, I think.
“How many?”
“Most of them.”
“Most of them! We could end up having….” He quickly added up the possible numbers in his head. “Over two hundred people! What…we won’t have enough food or drinks, or…ugh! What are we gonna do?”
“We’ll be fine. We can always go to the store and get more. You can make a doorway to Ingle’s, can’t you?”
“Of course, but…but what about—”
“Quit worrying so much,” Lisa said. “Let’s get our stuff to the school. We wanna go to the party.”
“Jamie, are Leora and Milly there, yet?” Sammi asked.
“Are they coming, too?”
“Unh hunh.”
Carl gestured toward the garage. “We need to get the folding tables and chairs. You know where they are.”
Jamie and his teammates began carrying things from his parents’ house to the school, like Sherpas hauling supplies to a base camp at Mount Everest. When they finished, Jamie looked around at the pandemonium on the playground — chairs lying about haphazardly, cardboard boxes, blankets and jackets in piles, firewood. People milling about, seemingly with no direction or purpose. He felt like things were drifting out of control, their original, simple plan for the party woefully inadequate, and the situation getting more chaotic by the minute.
“Nobody’s doing anything. Nothing is set up, hardly.” He frowned and clenched both fists. “We need to get organized…we need more food, and…we gotta set up the tables and—”
Evelyn put her hand on his arm and said in a gentle voice, “Calm down, no need to panic. We can get it under control. You have plenty of help, so don’t feel like you have to do it all by yourself.”
“But I want everything to be great. I want everybody to have a good time.”
“It doesn’t need to be perfect, and we’ll have fun.” She gave him a soft smile, one he’d seen so many times before. “In fact, why don’t you take a break right now? I think we can handle things. You don’t have to do anything else.”
“I have to light the fire.”
“We can manage that, too.”
“But I want to.”
“I know you do. You want to show off your magic around your teammates.”
“Maybe, a little.” Jamie looked over to see the girls returning from their trip into town, some with new scarfs or shawls around their shoulders, others carrying small packages. Fred was with them, and when she reached Jamie, he said, “That was quick.”
“We only made it to Brinna’s shop, and she’s closing early so she can get ready for the party.”
“She’s coming, too? Oh, man.”
“She and John Paul will be here soon so they can help.”
Mr. Bass appeared at his elbow and said, “If it’s all right with you, I’m going to put one of the little desks by the outside faucet under the window. I’ll set some hand soap and some paper towels on it so folks can wash their hands. Otherwise, they’ll have to use the bathrooms, and those might be occupied, with so many people coming tonight.”
“Oh, yeah, good idea,” Jamie said. “Where do you think we should put the grill? We only have one.”
“Don’t worry. Stev is bringing something for that.” He pointed toward the road. “That’s him right there.”
Jamie turned to see the broad shouldered ex-blacksmith’s apprentice, driving a wooden, slat-sided wagon, which was pulled by a single horse. On the bench seat beside him were two girls in long dresses with identical, sandy-colored hair.
Fred broke into a broad smile. “It’s Feather and Flower!” She waved and walked toward them while Jamie followed. The two girls were the first ones Fred had sold a love potion to during spring break, when she was staying at the stone house with Jamie and their friends. The sisters leaped from the wagon before it came to a full stop and ran to Fred to meet her.
“I’m so glad you could make it,” Fred said to the girls. “Flower, I’m surprised you came, though.”
“I am their chaperone.” The younger girl lifted her chin regally. “Pa wouldn’t let them come without me.”
Feather frowned and sighed. “But he let us use the wagon. Stev does not have one of his own, yet.”
While the girls continued chatting, Jamie went to greet Stev. The strapping young man, who was now Mr. Bass’s assistant at the school, jumped off the bench seat and shook Jamie’s hand. Jamie steeled himself for a crushing grip, but Stev’s clasp was surprisingly merciful, though his fingers and palm were rough.
“I heard there be a celebration tonight,” Stev said in the soft burr of the Rivershire locals.
“You heard right. Glad you came.”
“I also heard you may be roasting food, so I stopped by my old master’s shop and borrowed his gridiron.” He led Jamie to the rear of the wagon, and filling the bed was a rectangular lattice of finger-width wrought iron bars attached to a frame.
Stev dragged the heavy-looking metal contrivance from the back and Jamie said, “Need some help?”
Stev shook his head and slung it under one massive arm, and with his free hand, he grasped four long rods, each with a flat head on one end and narrowed on the other, making them resemble giant nails. He gestured with his head toward the bench seat and said, “If you could fetch my hammer and tongs, ’twoud be most helpful.”
Jamie reached under the seat and grabbed the hammer, a short-handled sledge, so heavy that he almost dropped it at first. Then he pulled out the metal tongs, and he and Stev went to where Jamie’s father was setting up his grill, close to the main building, along with Granddaddy Pete, Larry, Garrett, and Mr. Bass. Jamie had noticed years ago that grills had a type of gravity, the kind that attracted fathers like a magnet attracted steel. The men weren’t holding bottles of beer yet, but he knew they would be soon, because, according to Larry, that was required for properly cooking outdoors.
Others gathered to watch — Evelyn, Connie, Fred, Melanie, Nova, and a couple of the boys from the track team.
Stev began driving in the metal rods with short, powerful strokes of his hammer, the ringing tone lowering in pitch as each spike sank into the ground until it was firmly embedded in the e
arth. When Stev had them all evenly set, Jamie helped him place the gridiron on top of them, and the finished product looked like a low patio table.
“Mr. Bass?” Stev said. “May I borrow your shovel?”
“It’s not mine, it’s the school’s, and of course you can. It’s in the maintenance building, same as always. What do you need it for?”
“For putting coals underneath it so that we may cook. I shall wait until the bonfire has burned down a bit, and then scoop them from there.”
“Won’t the heat from the bonfire bother you?” Garrett asked.
“I am used to it. A blacksmith’s apprentice spends most of the day by a fire, keeping it hot for his master.”
Carl poked the bag of charcoal with his foot. “It would be easier to use this, if we have enough. But that’s a pretty big grill.”
“We should get more,” Jamie said. “I’ve got to go to Ingle’s, anyway. We need more of everything.”
Larry looked toward the front of the school. “You might want to go soon.”
Jamie turned and saw two more horse-drawn wagons pulling onto the grounds, and trundling up the road behind them were several more, all full of families.
“Oh, wow. They really are coming, aren’t they?” He felt his pulse quicken and he clenched one hand. “Uh…we need to make a list. What should I get besides charcoal? More paper towels, probably. Meat for the grill, and drinks, and cups and paper plates and—”
“Jamie,” Aunt Connie said, “calm down. I’ll go, and I’ll take a couple of people with me. I know what to get.”
“But what if you forget something and people don’t have enough and—”
“I won’t forget anything, and I’m sure the families that are coming will bring something to eat.”
“Does anybody have any money I can borrow?” He patted his pants pockets. “I didn’t bring any. How are we going to pay for it all? It’ll be a lot, won’t it?”
“I got that covered.” Granddaddy Pete pulled out his wallet and said, “She can take our school credit card.”
“We have a credit card?”
“Of course. It’s much easier than writing checks for all the supplies we buy in Hendersonville.” Pete slipped the card out and handed it to Connie. “Bring me the receipt, if you don’t mind.”