by Geof Johnson
They watched him walk out, and Cassandra, the tall witch, held up the black and red porcelain urn she had cradled in her arms. “What do you want to do with this?”
Rita took it from her, looked around to see if anyone was watching, and took the top off. Then she poured the powdery contents into a large potted plant that stood nearby. Cassandra looked at Rita with one eye squinted and one side of her mouth pulled up.
“What?” Rita said. “She always loved nature.”
“Rita, that’s a plastic plant.”
Rita reached over and rubbed one of the long leaves between her thumb and forefinger. “It is, isn’t it? Well, it’s more natural, now.” She chuckled.
Cassandra frowned, which couldn’t have been easy with the quantity of makeup she had plastered on her face. “You’re sick, you know that?”
“I know. I’m thirsty, too.” She patted Cassandra on the shoulder. “Feel like getting a drink?”
Cassandra grinned. “Thought you’d never ask. I could use a cigarette, too. Can’t believe we’re not allowed to smoke in here.”
They walked out to their rusty old car, and Rita held up the empty urn. “What do you want to do with this?”
“Take it home and put potpourri in it.”
They both snorted laughter as they climbed into the car.
Chapter 3
“Rachel, do you need more coffee?” Lisa said as they sat on her concrete patio, the sun slipping below the poplar and pine trees that lined the edge of the back yard and the air already cooling from the late September heat.
“No, I’m fine.”
“Something I’ve been wanting to ask.” Lisa took a sip from her cup and got a thoughtful look. “That doorway to that three moon planet? Can Jamie make doorways to other places?”
“He can make them just about anywhere on Earth. Two weeks ago, he made one to Waikiki Beach. Oh my gosh, it was so great!” She closed her eyes and shook her head slightly.
“He just…opened up a portal, and you stepped right onto the sand?”
“He made the doorway on a nearby building so no one would notice.”
“I hadn’t thought about that. I guess it would look weird to pop out of nowhere.”
“Right. But nobody thinks twice about people stepping out of a door from a building.”
“Well, that explains why you were so sunburned at church the next day.” She put her hand on Rachel’s arm. “Do you think he’d make one for me and Larry? I’d love to go to Hawaii.”
“Oh, sure. Don’t forget about the time difference, though. It’s five or six hours, I think.” Her eyes widened. “Maybe we could go next Saturday!” She shook one hand excitedly. “Yes! Your family and my family…dinner on the beach!”
“Could we? Oh, but wouldn’t that be late?”
“No, it’ll be dinner for us, but lunch in Hawaii. There’s an outdoor café right by the shore. It’s got thatched umbrellas and an outdoor bar and a fellow playing steel drums and —”
“Say no more, Sugar. I’m there.” Lisa wiggled her shoulders and smiled sinfully. “Tell me, can Jamie make doorways to other worlds besides the one he took us to?”
“Quite a few, I think. Not all of them have breathable atmospheres, though, I hear.”
“How about the world where the old sorcerer came from?”
“Eddan? Jamie can make one there, I think, but he’s afraid to. He doesn’t want to run the risk of drawing the attention of any other sorcerers.”
“I can see why. I guess one crazy wizard showing up in your family room is enough.”
“Hah!” Rachel put her hand to her face. “You have no idea.”
There was a long silent moment while they both sipped from their cups. Lisa sighed. “I sure wish Adele and Garrett could go to Waikiki with us. I hate it that they’re getting left out.”
“But there is no possible way we can tell them. None. Garrett would freak out.”
“We’re going to have to think of other ways to stay close to them. Adele is too good of a friend.”
Rachel held up one finger and said brightly, “Nail party. At the spa. Just the three moms.”
Lisa nodded. “Nail party it is.”
* * *
Jamie pulled on his sunglasses to block the glare of the morning sun as Fred and Rollie clicked their seatbelts.
“We’re good,” Rollie said from the back seat. “Let’s roll, Baby.”
Jamie backed the car out of his driveway and said, “Hey, Gramma wants to know if you guys want to do another show.”
“Give me the details. What? When? Where?”
Jamie put the car in drive, and they headed down the road toward school. “It’s next month, the third Saturday, at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville. It’s for the Young American Talent Search.”
“That’s on TV,” Fred said, checking her makeup in the mirror on the sun visor.
“I don’t know if this one will be, since it’s the first round. Second round is in Atlanta. Finals are in New York, and those are definitely on TV.”
Rollie frowned. “New York? Who’s gonna pay for our air fare?”
Jamie looked in his rearview mirror at Rollie. “I don’t know, but the grand prize is fifty thousand bucks. Second prize is twenty-five.”
Rollie gave a low whistle. “That’d go a long way toward paying for college, wouldn’t it?”
Fred turned in her seat so that she could face Rollie. “If you’d get your grades up a little higher, you might be eligible for some kind of academic scholarship. That’s what I’m shooting for.”
“Yeah, well you’re a lot closer than I am to getting that.”
“If you didn’t spend so much time practicing basketball, you’d make better grades.”
Jamie smirked. “You’re assuming he’d study if he wasn’t shooting baskets.”
Rollie lowered his eyebrows. “Hey, I’ve been studying harder, for your information. I studied with Tanisha all afternoon on Sunday.”
“I bet you studied. Studied, Tanisha, I’m sure. Studied her legs, studied her lips, studied her —”
“Stop!” Fred said. “At least he’s trying.”
Rollie rolled his window half-way down and took a deep breath of the fresh morning air. “If my GPA slips even a little bit, my mom’s gonna make me quit basketball. Might ground me from dating, too.”
“We’ll help you study, Rollie.” Fred nudged Jamie. “About this talent show.”
“Yeah, sorry. It’s in about three or four weeks, so I thought we’d enter. We could own it, don’t you think?”
Fred nodded. “We’ve done a ton of shows, that’s for sure. We’re almost pros.” She patted her chest with one hand. “I’ll do it.”
“I’m in,” Rollie added. “For fifty grand, heck yeah.”
“I’m not going to try to win,” Jamie said. “I don’t need the money for college, but I think it would be a cool show to do.”
“Cooler than the doin’ old folks’ homes,” Rollie said.
Fred put her makeup back in her purse and arched an eyebrow. “Maybe the best show yet.”
* * *
Jamie and Bryce were already dressed out and ready to run when their coach called them into his office. The room was small, with cluttered shelves lining the walls and a small wooden desk. “Have a seat, boys,” the coach said as he closed the door behind them. He sat in his chair, leaned both elbows on his desk and steepled his fingers. “Do you have any idea why I called you in here?”
They shook their heads as they sat and he said, “It’s about Spencer. His dad called me last night and reamed — me — out.” He gave his head a shake with each of the last three words. “He’s pretty upset because he thinks you guys are picking on his son. Says you’re running him ragged. Any truth to that?”
Jamie glanced at Bryce and looked back at his coach. “Not really. We’re all running the same workout. We’re not asking him to do anything we’re not doing.”
“But whose workouts are you runn
ing? Mine? Or your own?”
The room was silent for a long moment before Bryce said, “Actually, we’re running some of Manny’s.”
The coach crossed his arms and gave them a level look. “You changed the workouts without talking to me first?”
They looked at their laps and mumbled, “Yes sir,” in unison.
“Are these Manny’s workouts from last year?”
“No sir,” Jamie said. “They’re from his college coach.”
“Where did you get them?”
“Manny sent them to me. We stay in touch….mostly e-mail and text.”
The coach drummed the fingers of one hand on his desk. “And how are you doing in these workouts?”
“Pretty good, actually,” Bryce said, his face brightening slightly. “They’re hard, but not that much harder. We’re getting close to the times we’re supposed to be hitting.” He held one hand up, thumb and forefinger an inch apart.
“We’re sorry, Coach,” Jamie said. “We didn’t mean to go behind your back, but it’s just that we really wanna do good this year.”
The coach leaned back in his chair, put his hands behind his head, and took a long breath through his nose. “Good. That’s why I made you captains.” He leaned forward and shook one finger at them. “But next time, clear the workouts with me, understand?” Both boys nodded and he continued, “I don’t want you overtraining.” He stood and walked to the door. “Run my workout today. From now on, forward me any workouts Manny sends you so I can look ’em over.” He opened the door and gestured for them to leave. “Now get out of here.”
Chapter 4
Jamie was the first through the magic doorway into the brilliant sunshine of Waikiki. He squinted and raised his hand to shield his eyes from the sun, then looked around to see if he’d been observed. Nobody seems to be paying attention, he thought. He turned back to the opening. “All clear.”
Fred strolled out, totally nonchalant, her sunglasses and white beach hat already in place, a long T-shirt covering her bathing suit, and white sandals. Carl and Rachel were next, followed by Lisa and Larry.
Larry tilted his head back and looked up at the towering hotel where the magic doorway was affixed. “Wow. That’s huge.”
Lisa squealed with excitement, her hands fluttering and her eyes wide. “We’re really here! We’re in Hawaii. Larry, can you believe it?” She squeezed Larry’s arm as he nodded.
“Jamie,” Rachel said, do you think anyone saw us?”
Jamie shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. They don’t know that doorway wasn’t there before.”
“Where’s the restaurant?” Larry said.
Carl pointed. “Just past the pool, close to the beach. Next to that stand of koa trees.”
“So that’s what those trees look like,” Lisa said, her head on a swivel as they started down the sidewalk that wound through the carpet-perfect lawn.
I feel so conspicuous, Jamie thought. Are people looking at us? He felt better, though, when a portly man crossed in front of them, his checkered shorts pulled up past his bellybutton, chomping an unlit cigar. He wore black dress socks with black wing tip shoes.
Fred turned to face her parents and said in a low voice, “Gee, Dad, that guy looks dorkier than you.”
“Thanks a lot.” Larry gestured at his clothes. “I’m not dressed all that bad.”
“Untuck your shirt.”
“I like it tucked in.”
Without a word, Lisa reached over and snatched his yellow shirt loose from his waist.
“Hey!” Larry said.
Rachel laughed. “I agree with Fred.” She pointed ahead of them. “This is the spot.”
The outdoor restaurant was at the edge of the beach. Wooden tables, edged with bamboo, were covered by thatched umbrellas, and palm trees lined the perimeter. An open-air bar was at one end, covered with a matching thatched roof, and the bartender wore a blue flowered Hawaiian shirt. A musician playing steel drums was set up in one shady corner.
“I love this!” Lisa said as they entered. “Look!” She pointed at the azure water, sparkling in the glorious sunshine, where catamarans with colorful sails zipped just outside the breaking waves. Countless tourists lounged on the sandy beach, many under red and yellow striped beach umbrellas. Palm trees, slender and graceful as ballerinas, lined the shore as far as they could see.
“Look down there.” Carl pointed to their left, past a long row of hotels, to a volcanic ridge that dominated the horizon. “That’s Diamond Head.”
Lisa pulled out her camera and snapped a picture.
Rachel shook her head, frowning. “You know you can’t show that to anybody. You’d have to explain how you got here.”
“I know.” Lisa put the camera back in her purse. “It’s just for us. Don’t want to forget this, do we?”
A hostess was already seating Jamie and Fred at a long oval table, so the parents joined them.
“I asked to be seated over here,” Jamie said, “so we won’t be overheard if we accidentally say something about you-know-what.”
“Good thinking,” Lisa said, picking up a menu. “I want one of those tropical drinks with a little umbrella in it.”
“Try a Hawaiian Margarita,” Carl said. “It’s made with pineapple.”
“Can I have one?” Fred said.
“A virgin one,” Larry answered.
Fred wrinkled her nose and pursed her lips. “That means no alcohol, right?”
“No, it means they’ve never had sex with another margarita.”
Lisa patted Fred’s arm. “I’ll let you have a sip of mine, if you stop making that I-smell-a-fart face.”
As they surveyed their menus, Lisa said, “Rachel, is this the only place y’all have visited?”
“We went to Switzerland, remember? To get the money Eddan gave us.” The old sorcerer had taken the money from the house he’d sold Jamie’s parents, put it in a Swiss account, and left it to them when he died.
“Oh, I forgot about that. Was that awkward when you went there? Don’t they speak German or something?”
“Enough of them spoke English, but I was a nervous as a tight rope walker with the hiccups.”
Larry put down his menu and looked at Jamie. “I have a question. If that evil wizard guy, Renn, or whatever his name was…if he was from another world, then how could you understand him when he talked?”
“He spoke English,” Jamie replied, gazing over the top of his menu.
“He had an accent, though,” Rachel said. “With a slight burr…Irish or Scottish sounding, I thought.”
Larry’s brow furrowed. “How could he possibly know English?”
Jamie worked his mouth slowly from side to side and sifted through his cache of Eddan’s memories. “I think there used to be a lot more coming and going between our two worlds.” He scratched his cheek. “A long time ago. Centuries, maybe. Most of the sorcerers knew how to make doorways. They stopped for some reason, and most of the wizards who knew how to make them died off. But culturally, the two worlds weren’t all that different. Must’ve been a lot of cross-pollination going on.”
Fred smiled and patted Jamie on the arm. “My boyfriend, the geek. He uses big words.”
Rachel put her menu down beside her plate and leaned back in her chair. “I don’t remember Eddan, or Mr. Edwards as he called himself, having an accent when we were dealing with him about the house. Maybe a little bit of one, but not much. I figured he was from Europe somewhere.”
Jamie nodded. “He’d been to Earth a lot. He liked it here, especially the Western part of North Carolina. He loved the scenery, and he really liked the people.”
“It’s a good thing,” Carl said, “or you never would’ve been born. Eddan would’ve helped a childless couple somewhere else have a baby, instead of us.”
The whole table was silent for a moment.
“That’s too weird to think about on an empty stomach,” Lisa said and looked at her menu again. “Let’s order.”
* *
*
Lisa finished her drink and set it next to her empty plate. “That was yummy.” She looked at Rachel. “One more?”
Rachel gave her head a little shake. “Maybe in a few minutes.”
“You need to slow down, Honey,” Larry said. That’s your second one.”
“Oh, foo.” Lisa waved her hand loosely. “It’s not like I have to drive anywhere, right?” She giggled and shook her reddish-blonde head. “There’s no law about walking through magical doorways while under the influence, is there?” She giggled again.
Rachel couldn’t help but smile. Lisa’s really enjoying herself. Everyone was, she thought. She looked around slowly at their tropical surroundings. It’s hard to believe we’re doing this. Dinner at a beach in Hawaii. So amazing.
Fred pushed her plate back and stood. “I’m done. Come on, Jamie, let’s go in the water.”
“You’re supposed to ask him, Honey,” Lisa said. “Don’t be bossy.”
Jamie dropped his napkin and stood, too. “That’s not bossy, Mrs. Callahan. Not like I’m used to, anyway.”
Fred dropped her hat in her chair and pulled off her T-shirt. She nodded at Jamie. “Take yours off, too.”
“Now you’re being bossy.”
“Yeah, Jamie,” Lisa said. “Take it off. We wanna see your muscles.”
Jamie’s face grew red and Rachel said, “You’re embarrassing him.”
“Fine,” Jamie grunted. “I’ll take it off.” He slipped his tan cotton shirt over his head and dropped it on the chair. “Satisfied?”
“Oooh!” Lisa said admiringly, and turned to Rachel. “He’s starting to fill out, isn’t he? His shoulders aren’t as broad as Carl’s, but he’s not skinny anymore.”
“He’s as tall as Carl now,” Rachel said.
Jamie scowled. “Are you done with your critique?”
Lisa waved her hand in a shooing motion. “You kids go play.”
Fred rolled her eyes, let out an exasperated sigh, and grabbed Jamie’s hand. “We won’t stay long.” She kicked off her sandals and Jamie did, too.
“Don’t get lost,” Carl said. “Jamie’s our ticket home.”
* * *