by Geof Johnson
“You don’t have air conditioning?” Sammi asked.
“No. There’s no furnace, either, just fireplaces. But we may get portable heaters this winter if we need them.”
They reached the top of the steps and Evelyn said, “I’m glad you didn’t replace the front door. I like this one.”
“It’s sturdy, solid oak. Renn had it made especially for this house. Got a new doorknob, though.” He touched it and it clicked open.
“Don’t you have a key?” Sammi said.
“Somewhere.” Jamie gave a tiny shrug. “Back at my house in Hendersonville, and Mrs. Tully has one, too. I don’t need it.”
Mrs. Wallace turned to Sammi and rolled her eyes. “He just wants to show off with his magic.”
Jamie opened the door and grinned. “Of course I do. If I can’t use magic on this world, where can I?”
They stepped inside to the main room. It was square and spacious, though not large. There was a stone fireplace on the front wall, flanked by windows, with empty shelves and more windows on the wall to their right. On their left were two bedroom doors with a day bed in between, and the entrance to the kitchen was on the far wall, the big table and chairs just before it near the corner. A furnished sitting area occupied the middle, and a shiny new ceiling fan with a globe light was above it. Jamie pulled the chain on it and the blades began to rotate as the light came on. “Pretty cool, huh? The first ceiling fan on the planet.”
“It’s very nice, dear,” Mrs. Wallace said. “I’m glad you got all of the books out of here. It looks so much bigger now, and more open.”
“It was a lot of work.” Jamie rubbed his lower back and grimaced. “I’m still sore, even though I had a lot of help. But we got them all moved to the new building out back, my personal library.”
“That’s finished already?” Mrs. Wallace raised her eyebrows. “My, you have been busy.”
“Bann and his crew did most of the work. All I did was translocate the stone from Eddan’s old tower. It’s just been sitting there on that hill, a worthless pile of rubble, since Renn destroyed it, so I thought I’d put it to good use. The stone matches the house perfectly. We used it for the bathroom and the new shed, too. I think Eddan would’ve approved.”
“I can’t wait to see it.” Mrs. Wallace set the Tupperware box on a small table in the sitting area, next to the padded bench seat and matching chairs.
“It’s a mess inside of the library right now. We haven’t had time to build shelves yet, so the books are just stacked everywhere.”
“Like they used to be in here.” Mrs. Wallace nodded firmly. “You should have seen it before, Sammi. Books were all over the place, floor to ceiling.” She gestured broadly with one arm. “You couldn’t see the walls for all of the books.”
Jamie put his hands on his hips and surveyed the room. “I had no idea the walls were white. But we’re gonna paint them this weekend, soon as Mom and Mrs. Callahan and Mrs. Wilkins pick out the colors.” He waved them on and said, “Let me give you the five-minute tour.”
Jamie pointed at the furniture in the sitting area. “We’re going to replace all of this stuff pretty soon. I may offer it to Mrs. Tully. She’s already taken the feather mattresses.”
“You got new beds already?” Mrs. Wallace said. “I didn’t know that.”
“Last weekend, when Rollie’s parents stayed here.”
“Is there no TV?” Sammi said.
“Well, yes and no. There’s one in the cellar, but it’s not hooked up to anything at the moment, we’re just storing it there. Our dads wanted one to watch sports, but our moms didn’t, so they compromised. We plan to bring it up for special occasions, or when the weather’s bad and there’s not much to do here.”
“You can always read,” Mrs. Wallace said with a stern look.
“That’s what my mom said, but it’s nice to have it to watch a movie on a rainy day.” He pointed to the corner near the fireplace. “I made a couple of mini-portals and ran a cable TV wire and an extension cord to the Callahan’s house. You can’t see the wires right now because they’re tucked behind that shelf.”
“Can I watch it today?” Sammi asked.
“No, Sammi,” Mrs. Wallace said. “You’re going to the school with me. And I talked to Mrs. Tully about it, and we decided that we don’t want Aiven watching it either. He needs to be reading.”
Sammi looked across the room at a shelf in the corner behind the big table. “Is that a phone?”
“Yes,” Jamie said. “I made another mini portal to my house in Hendersonville. We got a second line installed and we connected this phone to it. It’s easier to talk with Mrs. Tully that way. Now I don’t have to make a doorway every time, though I think Gramma talks to her a lot more than I do.”
“I talk to her almost every day,” Mrs. Wallace said. “Did you set one up for Brinna and John Paul yet?”
“Did it last week. It runs from Brinna’s house to John Paul’s in Louisiana. Now they can talk as much as they want.”
Mrs. Wallace turned to Sammi and smiled. “You’ll like Brinna. You can meet her when we go to lunch. Her shop is in the market, not far from the school.”
“Let’s see the rest of the house,” Jamie said. “I gotta leave in a few minutes.” He showed them the two bedrooms and then took them to the bathroom. “It’s almost finished,” Jamie said and led them inside it. “It’s pretty small, though. We didn’t have much room on the back of the house, since we wanted to put in a laundry room, too.”
Mrs. Wallace eyed the sink. “How’s the water pressure in here?”
“Pretty good.” Jamie reached into the shower and turned the faucet on, and water jetted from the shower head above. “The water tower in the backyard is high enough so that gravity does the trick.”
“Where does the waste water go?” Mrs. Wallace said.
“We put a septic tank in the yard.” He waved with one hand. “Over there on that side, to keep it away from the well. I used my magic to excavate the hole for it, because we were in a hurry and it was too complicated to bring in a back hoe.”
“What are you doing about hot water?”
“There’s a gas water heater in the laundry room. We had to go with a gas model for that and the clothes dryer because electric ones use way too much electricity.”
“I thought you were going to get a wind turbine,” Mrs. Wallace said.
“I think I found one that’ll add enough power, on windy days. I’ve also found these things I can put in the river that look like drums, and they sit on top of the water. They’re a type of water wheel, and if we use about four of them, they’ll produce enough power for the extra stuff, even on a cloudy day. I can put them out of sight downriver a bit so we don’t have to look at them. I own the property about two hundred yards on either side of the house.”
“How do you know that?”
“I went to the courthouse and checked.”
“Good. It’ll be interesting to see what Mrs. Tully thinks of the washer and dryer.”
“And the new stove, too,” Jamie said with a chuckle. “That’s going to be a big change for her.”
“No doubt about that. Can we see it now?”
The kitchen was a long, narrow room at the back of the house. Cabinets with heavy wooden countertops lined the sides, and shelves full of utensils and pots covered the wall space above them. A door was on the far left that led to the backyard.
Jamie showed them the new sink. He pushed up the faucet handle and watched the water flow for a moment, then he nodded at the window. “You can see the water tower and the windmill over there, way over on the left.”
Sammi looked out and saw a large steel cylinder, set high in the air on long spindly legs like a four-legged robot. Nearby stood what looked like a giant fan — the windmill.
Sammi looked past the water tower to see a small stone building near the river, almost out of sight behind some trees. “Is that your library, Jamie?”
“Yes. It’s got a nice
view over there. I’m eventually going to organize all those spell books and go through them again. I might do what Fred is doing and make a greatest hits book or two. That would be helpful for Aiven when he gets old enough to start doing some real magic.”
Mrs. Wallace walked past Jamie to the stainless steel stove. She turned one of the black knobs on the top and the front right burner flared to life. “Oh, that’s nice. Much better than throwing logs in there and trying to get the temperature just right. Mrs. Tully can do it, but I never got the hang of it.”
“We put the spare gas canisters for it in the new shed, along with the batteries for the solar panels. We’ll have to teach Mrs. Tully how to change out the canisters when they run out.”
“She sure has a lot of adjusting to do.” Mrs. Wallace gestured at a gap freshly cut into the countertop near the back door. “Is that where the refrigerator is going?”
“Yes, soon as we get a chance to put it in.” He glanced at his watch. “I gotta go to work. Are you going to wait here for Mrs. Tully?”
“I think so,” Mrs. Wallace said. “We’ll see you later this afternoon.”
* * *
Duane Gundy sat on the edge of the loading dock behind Cooke’s Office Supply, lit a cigarette and rubbed his eyes. Damn. I still feel like hell. Wish I’d taken one of my black pills.
“You okay, Mr. Gundy?”
Gundy looked up to see a lanky young man wheeling a dolly loaded with boxes down a ramp toward a large white van. It was Brett Beasley, a high school dropout just barely out of his teens and still struggling with acne. He stopped by the open back doors of the company vehicle, looked at Gundy and narrowed one eye critically. “You don’t look so hot, if you don’t mind my sayin’.”
“I don’t feel good.” Gundy took a drag from his cigarette and massaged his temple with the fingertips of one hand. “I might have to call in sick tomorrow.”
“Who’s gonna make the deliveries? They still ain’t hired nobody else.”
Gundy exhaled a long stream of gray smoke, then gestured with the cigarette toward Brett. “Maybe you, huh? Could be your big chance.”
Brett grunted a weak laugh. “Yeah. Maybe so. Um...you ain’t sick, I hope. Nothin’ catchin’?”
Gundy shrugged one shoulder, looked away and took another drag. “Don’t know. But I ain’t comin’ in tomorrow, regardless. I got something I gotta do.” Brett stood by the van and looked at him stupidly, and Gundy added, “I gotta find somebody. Somebody special.”
“Is it an old friend?”
“You might say that.” Brett continued to stare at Gundy as if he might elaborate, but instead Gundy took one last silent puff from his cigarette.
Then he flicked the still-smoking butt away, dropped off the dock to the pavement and pulled the van keys from his pants pocket.
Sammi heard his voice as clearly as if he’d been speaking in the same room. “I gotta find somebody. Somebody special.” She stiffened and held her breath. When she felt the gentle hands on her shoulders, she blinked and saw Mrs. Wallace kneeling before her, a concerned look on her face.
“Are you okay, Sammi?”
Sammi shivered and moaned, and Mrs. Wallace took her in her arms. Mrs. Wallace said, “What happened? You looked dazed there for a few seconds. I thought you were having some kind of seizure.”
“I heard Mr. Gundy.”
“Here?” Mrs. Wallace turned and glanced around apprehensively, though they were alone in the main room of the stone house.
“No ma’am. I think he’s at work, back in Bicksby.”
“Are you sure it was him?”
Sammy nodded and sniffed.
“You used your magic just then? Tell me what he said.”
Sammi repeated what she’d heard, and Mrs. Wallace asked, “Are you sure he’s referring to you, that you’re the one he’s wants to find?”
“I’m sure. I think I only hear stuff that’s important to me, so if he were talking about somebody else, I wouldn’t have heard him.”
Mrs. Wallace stood up straight and exhaled through tightened lips. “You need to tell Jamie as soon as he comes back. And tell his father, too, when we get home.” She nodded solemnly. “And the Callahans. Everyone needs to be aware of this.”
Sammi heard the sound of hoof beats, and they both looked out of the front windows to see a horse and two-wheeled carriage pull up to the edge of the lawn.
“Mrs. Tully and Aiven are here,” Mrs. Wallace said. “Let’s go meet them.”
They went out on the front stoop and watched as the sturdy housekeeper and the skinny brown-haired boy stepped out of the wooden carriage.
“Well, you must be the adorable little witch Mrs. Wallace told me about,” Mrs. Tully said as she and Aiven walked up the stepping-stone path to the house. Mrs. Tully was a big woman, but not fat. Her iron gray hair was pulled back in a tight bun and she wore a long dress that seemed old-fashioned to Sammi. The woman had a stern face, but broke into a smile as she neared.
“She’s a stray we picked up back in Hendersonville,” Mrs. Wallace answered with a smile of her own and patted Sammi’s back. “I thought I’d bring her with me today and put her to work at the school, to make her earn her keep.”
Aiven eyed Sammi warily and Mrs. Tully introduced him. “He’s my stray,” she said, putting a hand on his bony shoulder. “I’m just keeping him so that he does not pester the neighbors, begging for food and whatnot.”
Aiven looked up at her and began to frown, until she winked at him. Then he grinned and nodded. “I have to work for my keep, too” he said. “She works me like a miner’s mule, she does.”
The golden brown horse, still hitched to the carriage on the dirt road, tossed her pale mane and nickered. Aiven gestured at her and said, “And that’s Sugar, the best horse around.”
“She’s beautiful,” Sammi said as she regarded the magnificent animal with the glossy coat.
“She’s Master Jamie’s, so I’m told,” Mrs. Tully said, giving Aiven a knowing look.
He shrugged. “We’re just taking care of Sugar for him.”
“Are you going to the school this morning, Mrs. Wallace?” Mrs. Tully asked.
“I’ve got to go through the new boxes of books and supplies and get them sorted. I’m taking care of Sammi this week because everyone else is working.”
“Aiven,” Mrs. Tully said to him, “drive them up there in the carriage, please.”
“We don’t mind walking,” Mrs. Wallace said. “It’s a nice day and it’s not far.”
“Sammi might enjoy the ride, I suspect.”
“Can we, Mrs. Wallace?” Sammi said. “I’ve never been in one before.”
“Aiven needs to go anyway,” Mrs. Tully said. “Otherwise he shall be bored and underfoot here.”
Aiven looked at Mrs. Tully and his face became serious. “Are you sure you’ll be all right without me?”
“I believe I can manage. I shall need to prepare you something for lunch, though, unless you plan to come back here early.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Mrs. Wallace said. “Jamie gave us some Rivershire money from the coin vase before he left so that we can buy something to eat at the market. I’m sure we have enough for Aiven, too.”
“Well, there you be, Aiven.” Mrs. Tully nodded. “If I do not see you by dark, I shall assume you are dead or have taken up with another family, and I shall go home on my own.”
“I’ll be back before dark,” Aiven said quickly and lowered his brow. “Won’t I?”
“Of course.” Mrs. Wallace answered with a trace of a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. “Sammi and I have to be home long before then.” She gestured with her head toward the carriage. “Are you coming, Sammi?”
They all climbed up onto the padded bench seat. Aiven sat in the middle and took the reins while Mrs. Wallace and Sammi sat on either side of him. Aiven waved goodbye to Mrs. Tully, and she let herself into the house.
Sammi felt a tickle of excitement when Aiven c
lucked at Sugar and they began to roll forward.
“You’ve really never been in a carriage before?” Aiven said.
“No,” Sammi said. “How does it work?”
“Most people use the reins to guide the horse, but I use my magic. I can talk to her with my mind.”
“Oh, wow. Does she talk back, like, in human words?”
“Not exactly. It’s hard to explain, and you wouldn’t understand anyway.”
“Aiven, don’t be condescending,” Mrs. Wallace said.
“Yes ma’am,” he said, then drew his eyebrows together. “Uh, what does that mean?”
“Don’t act like you’re smarter or better than somebody else,” Sammi said.
“That’s right, Sammi,” Mrs. Wallace said.
Aiven looked at Sammi sideways and frowned. “How was I supposed to know that word? I’ve never been to school before.”
“Never been to school?” Sammi wrinkled her nose at him. “How can that be?”
“Only rich people get schooling around here.”
“Well, where I’m from, most everybody goes to school. It’s the law.”
“Now you’re being condescending, Sammi,” Mrs. Wallace said.
“Oh.” She covered her mouth with her hand. “I’m sorry...it’s just...I mean —”
“What she means, Aiven, is that we take it for granted where we’re from,” Mrs. Wallace said. “Sammi, in this town, the rich people get tutors for their kids, and everybody else does without, or teaches their kids as best they can.”
“And that’s why Jamie built the school,” Aiven said. “For kids like me, who don’t have rich parents.” He cleared his throat. “Well, I don’t have any parents.” Then his face brightened slightly. “But it doesn’t matter, because Mrs. Tully is looking after me and she’s going to let me go to school.”
“He’s already going, Sammi. On Tuesdays and Thursdays.”
“But it’s summer,” Sammi said.
“He’s using the time to get caught up on his reading skills. I have to go to the school anyway to get it ready for the fall, so he comes with me a couple of days a week and gets some work in, and he’s been helping us assemble some of the new furniture. Several kids from the local farms have been coming, too, on the same days as Aiven.”