by Geof Johnson
“I thought he ran cross country.” Cassandra looked confused.
“He does, but he’s also a sorcerer, and he can blast you into a pile of slag if he feels like it.” Fred scowled and pointed at the women. “Go ahead, Jamie. Blast ’em!”
Jamie laughed as he shook his head. “That’s a little harsh.”
“Not to me it isn’t!” Fred protested.
Rita shrunk back a step. “How did you find us?”
“Fred kept in touch with me through our dreams,” Jamie said. “We just needed for you to tell us where she was so we could come get her.”’
Rita looked at Fred incredulously. “You’re a Dream Talker?”
Fred rolled her eyes. “I prefer Dream Fairy. But yes, I can talk to him in dreams.”
“You gave us the nightmares, didn’t you?” Cassandra said.
Fred nodded and smiled wickedly.
“That still leaves us with the problem of what to do with these two,” Carl said.
“Shoot ’em,” Fred said.
“No.” Jamie stepped to an open space in the room. “I have a better idea.” He traced the glowing outlines of another doorway as the two older women watched, suspicious looks on their faces. He pushed it open, revealing a wide field and a dirt road beyond. A startled bird tittered and flew away.
“Where is that?” John Paul said.
Jamie stepped back. “Not sure. It’s another world, though.”
“As in, planet?”
Jamie nodded. “It’s where Eddan used to banish weaker wizards when they tried to attack him.”
“Who’s Eddan?”
“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you some time.” Carl said. “So you’re going to send these women there, Jamie?”
“Yep,” Jamie said. “It’s perfect.”
“Oohhhhhhhhh no!” Rita said, backing away with Cassandra “We’re not going to…to another planet!” They bumped into Carl, who blocked their path to the hall.
“Yes, you are,” Jamie said firmly. “It’s not so bad. There’s a village nearby and the people there should be used to strangers.” He grinned and nodded. “’Cause Eddan sent them a few, through a doorway just like this one. That means there are a few wizards around, so you better watch yourself. Might even be a few witches, too. You’ll fit right in.”
Carl herded them closer to the magic portal, but when the witches turned and tried to push past him, John Paul fired his gun into the ceiling. They froze and the room became silent.
Cassandra looked from face to face and squeaked, “I can’t! It’s got aliens…it’s —”
“Relax.” Jamie chuckled. “It’s like Earth, pretty much, except a little behind technologically. I don’t think they have electricity yet.”
Rita stamped her foot. “We are not going. We have rights! We should be —”
“Enough!” Jamie shouted. “You’re going and that’s final.”
She raised her chin. “And if we refuse?”
Jamie extended his arm from his side, palm out. He narrowed his eye lids and a stream of white fire exploded from his hand, blasting a bowling ball-sized hole in the wall near the window.
“Amazing,” John Paul muttered.
The women’s eyes grew wide with terror and Carl gave them another push toward the portal.
Cassandra moaned. “Nooo….”
Jamie extended his other arm and sent a bolt of energy through the opposite wall, narrowly missing the wash stand. John Paul joined Carl and pushed them to the edge of the open doorway.
“No!” Rita shrieked. “We can’t!”
“Just blast ’em, Jamie,” Fred said.
Jamie turned his extended hand toward them and the women scampered through the portal, stopping at the edge of the grass on the other side and turning back to them.
“But….but what about clothes?” Cassandra said pitifully.
Fred grabbed the two dresses and the pile of clean underwear from the top of the dresser and hurled them through the doorway at them. “There. That should do.”
“But…my makeup. What about money! What about —”
“You’ll be fine,” Jamie said. “Somebody there will offer you a meal or two.”
As the women stared back at them with stunned looks on their faces, Fred waved and said, “’Bye now. I’d say it was fun, but it wasn’t.”
Jamie snapped his fingers and the doorway vanished. The room was quiet for a long moment as John Paul gaped at the empty space.
“Whew!” Carl wiped his forehead.
“Huh.” John Paul said. “So that’s it? They’re gone?” He turned to Carl. “You realize what we just did is highly unethical and illegal, don’t you?”
Carl shrugged. “You got a better idea?”
“I can bring ’em back if you want,” Jamie said.
John Paul shook his head firmly. “No thanks.”
Fred picked up the stack of books from the bedside table and handed them to Jamie. “Here. We’re taking these.”
“What are they?”
“Spell books.” She picked up the a little plastic tube of green goo. “And this is healing jelly. This goes too.” She waggled it with her fingers. “Made it myself.”
“Your mom’s not gonna be happy about the spell books,” Carl said.
But Fred gave him a steady look and crossed her arms. He sighed and waved one hand dismissively. “Fine. You can sort that out later. Anything else you need?”
Fred looked around the room, her prison of the last two weeks, and shook her head. “Can we go home now?”
Chapter 38
Rachel pushed the plate of fried chicken across the table to Lisa. “You certainly seem to have gotten your appetite back.”
Lisa grabbed a drumstick, indelicately. “I’m starving!” She took a vicious bite, the suburban barbarian.
“She’s been eating like that all day,” Larry said, sitting next to her, leaning his elbow on the table, chin in hand.
“What time did you get to bed?” Rachel said.
“Around three-thirty, I guess.” Larry sighed. “Fred had to take a shower first. A loooooong shower.”
“I don’t blame her. I would too.”
Carl looked at the mob of teenagers in the living room, congregating around Jamie and Fred, who held court from the couch. “How long has it been this crazy?”
“Since right after lunch,” Larry said. “Rollie was the first one over after Jamie.”
Lisa put down what remained of the drumstick, nothing left but bare bone, and licked her fingers. “Fred cried when she found out Rollie didn’t do the talent contest. She didn’t know.”
Larry picked up a piece of chicken from the plate. “But then all three of them did their little chant, and they were all smiles again. We’re the crew, we can’t be beat.” He chuckled before taking a bite.
Rachel added, “Everybody smell our feet.” She laughed. “Jamie’s sure that chant does something, in a magical way. He thinks they have a pretty powerful triad of their own.”
“Speaking of powerful, how’s your finger, Larry?” Carl asked. “Did Fred’s potion do the trick?”
Larry held it up and said, “Totally healed. Can’t tell I cut it at all. That green jelly Fred put on it really worked.” His grin was lopsided. “I guess her bein’ a witch isn’t all bad, huh?” He rubbed his jaw for a moment. “She wants to go back to the witches’ house with Jamie and get the rest of their spell books. I don’t know what to do about that.”
Lisa picked up another piece of chicken. “I think we should let her, as long as we supervise her when she uses them. If she can make a healing potion like that….” She shrugged and took a bite.
“There might be other helpful spells she can do,” Rachel said, then put her hand on Carl’s arm. “Honey, we need to do something nice for that policeman that helped you last night.”
“I invited him for dinner this Saturday night. Hope that’s okay. Jamie said he’ll make a doorway for him.”
“I’ll cook,
” Lisa said.
Rachel frowned. “Carl invited him. I’ll cook.”
“He helped rescue my daughter,” Lisa said. “I should cook.”
“But I think I….” Rachel held up one hand and shook her head. “We’ll both cook.”
Larry stood and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “I think it’s time for a little peace and quiet around here.”
* * *
Fred, still on the couch with Jamie, couldn’t help but smile, watching her father trying to send her friends home as tactfully as he could. When he herded the last of her well-wishers, Bryce and Melanie, to the door he said, “Thanks for stopping by. You can come back tomorrow, but we need a little family time now.”
Melanie paused at the door and said, “Can I borrow somebody’s phone to call my mom to pick me up?”
“Bryce,” Fred said, “why don’t you give her a ride?”
Bryce and Melanie looked at each other, and Melanie said, brown eyes sparkling, “Is that okay?”
“Oh,” Bryce blinked a couple of times. “Yeah. Sure.” He glanced at his watch. “It’s still early. Wanna, um, get some coffee or something?”
She flashed her brilliant, dimpled smile. “Sure.” She looked back at Fred as Larry held the door open for them. “Let’s go shopping or something tomorrow. I got money for Christmas. I’m not broke anymore!”
Fred laughed and waved goodbye. Larry closed the door behind them and rubbed his hands together. “Finally!” He looked at Fred and Jamie. “Now, are you two okay here? ’Cause we’re going down in the basement to watch the game.”
“Who’s we?” Lisa said from the table.
“You, me, Carl, and Rachel.” He walked toward the basement door, motioning with one hand for Lisa to follow him.
“But I don’t even like football.” But when Rachel and Carl stood and started to follow Larry, she rolled her eyes. “Oh, what the heck. Somebody bring the chicken, will you?”
Jamie watched them go and said, “Fred, your dad is acting funny.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, he’s usually hanging around us, watching us like a hawk, but now it seems like he wants us to be alone.”
She draped her arms on his shoulders and wrapped her hands behind his neck. “Are you complaining?”
“No, it’s just…different.”
“He’s ecstatically happy that I’m home and grateful to you for rescuing me.”
“You did most of the work. All I did was make a doorway.”
“Well….” She put her face close to his. “I’d still be there if it wasn’t for you, and the closest we’d ever get would be in our dreams.” She kissed him lightly on the cheek and chuckled. “But you watch. Give my dad about ten minutes and he’ll be back up here, checking on us.”
“Fred, I don’t mean to change the subject, but did you give Melanie a love potion?”
“Didn’t have to. She and Bryce are falling in love the old-fashioned way.”
“But…I don’t get it.”
“They’ve spent a lot of time together lately, working on the search for me, but Melanie’s furious with Michael because he didn’t lift a finger to help. Bryce and Sally haven’t been getting along since he decided to stop sponging off his dad. Sally’s kind of a gold digger.”
“You know all this and you haven’t even been back for twenty-four hours yet?”
“I’m a witch. I have powers, remember?”
“Hmph.” He looked at her like he was going to say something more about it, but seemed to change his mind. “Fred, about your powers: have you noticed that when we kiss in a dream that we don’t get the tingle? At least I don’t. In fact, we haven’t had a really good one since you came home.”
“Are you wondering if we still got it?” She smiled slyly.
He returned the smile with a slyness of his own. “Yeah. I think we should do a little test.”
“Me too.” She drew his face to hers and pressed her lips firmly against his. Goosebumps formed up and down her arms and she felt the warm, electric tingle surge throughout her body. The hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stood out and she shivered. “Ooh,” she said softly, then kissed him again. She pulled back and they locked gazes. “So what do think? Do we still got it?”
But she didn’t need to hear his answer. His eyes told her everything she needed to know.
Chapter 39
Rita leaned her elbows heavily on the rough wooden table, her face resting in her hands, staring dully at the unfinished planks. An earthenware mug appeared before her, and she looked up to see the lean fellow with the scraggly blond beard, smiling a yellow-toothed smile.
What’s his name? Larda? Larva? The strong yeasty smell of the brew inside the mug hit her nostrils, and she wrinkled her nose. “Is this all they serve here? Don’t they have any wine or whiskey or something?”
The smile on the lean man’s face faded, and she said quickly, “No, it’s fine. I like ale. Thanks.” Beggars can’t be choosers.
His smile returned and Cassandra, sitting across from her in the lap of a burly, dark-bearded man, said, “I kinda like it.” She picked up her own mug and took a sloppy sip. “It’s okay once you get used to it.” She touched her man-of-the-moment on the end of his nose, giggled, and looked at Rita. “He’s kinda cute, dontcha think? Looks a little like Big Dan.” She tapped his nose a couple of times with her fingertip.
The lean fellow and the burly man had attached themselves to Rita and Cassandra from the moment the witches had stepped into the smoky, low-beamed tavern. The men offered to buy drinks, and since credit cards and American money were now useless on this strange world, the women accepted.
The serving girl, a pale, flat-chested waif with stringy brown hair and a slight overbite, set four bowls of stew on their table, curtsied and walked away. Rita couldn’t help but notice the lean man’s gaze follow the girl as she left. He’s had his eye on her all day. A thought occurred to Rita and she said, “She’s pretty, isn’t she?”
A slight sigh escaped his lips, and he continued to watch her for a moment before turning to Rita. “Yeah,” he grunted.
Quite the conversationalist. Then Rita had an idea. He could use a little help. “Cassandra, hand me your purse.” Cassandra pushed her black leather pocketbook across the table and Rita opened it, pulling out a small bag containing the amore powder. Now I remember his name. “Larson.”
She held the clear plastic packet toward the lean man and waved it as she spoke. “I’ve got just the thing for you.”
Cassandra caught her gaze and winked.
About the Author
Geof Johnson lives in Atlanta Georgia with his family, a dog and a cat. He enjoys running, water color painting, and playing guitar a little too loud and a little too much.
You can contact him at: [email protected]
Table of Contents
Cover
Title
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
About the Au
thor