Wizard Born: Book One of the Wizard Born Series

by Geof Johnson

  “Yeah, all except the last one, I think. Somebody had a spell that was powerful enough to get through, somehow. He got wounded and escaped here.” Jamie gestured at his house. “Must’ve been right before he died in the yard.”

  As they walked toward the deck, Rollie said, “Is there a way to make it stronger?”

  “Maybe. That’s why I want to take physics.”

  Rollie groaned. “Here we go with the science again.”

  “No, really. The old man was always looking into ways to make his magic stronger, but they didn’t call it science where he’s from. I don’t think they had a concept of it.”

  “Well, I don’t have a concept of it, either.” Rollie opened the back door. “Got a concept of hunger, though. You got some brownies or something?”

  “No. Haven’t had any since Gramma moved out.”

  “Man, I miss your gramma.”

  “Me, too, Buddy.” He clapped Rollie on the shoulder. “Me, too.”

  Chapter 41

  Jamie, Fred, and Rollie sat in the gazebo, playing with their new cell phones. Fred said without looking up, “What would you do with a million dollars?”

  Rollie tapped his phone. “I’d buy a car.”

  “Why? You can’t even get your learner’s permit for another year.”

  “I know, but every time I see Jamie’s Buick sitting in the driveway, I think about it. You’re a lucky dude, Jamie, having your gramma just give you a car.”

  “It’s not doing me much good right now,” Jamie said.

  Fred looked up. “Jamie, what would you do with a million dollars?”

  “I’d take my family to Hawaii. That’s a big dream of my parents.” He looked at Fred. “We didn’t even go on a real vacation this summer ’cause we couldn’t afford it.”

  “If I had a million dollars,” Fred said, “I’d buy a better phone.”

  “Me, too.” Rollie shook his head. “Why’d our moms make us all get the same crummy phone?”

  “Because our moms talk and plot and make these agreements,” Jamie said. “They know if one of us got a good phone, the rest of us would want one, so they agreed on the cheaper one.” He shook his finger for emphasis. “So they stick together, and they don’t budge on stuff like that.”

  “Same with allowance,” Fred said. “Have you ever wondered why we all get the same?”

  “Same with everything,” Jamie said.

  “Man, we gotta get our mommas to stop being friends,” Rollie said.

  “Right,” Fred said. “Good luck with that.”

  * * *

  The last Friday before school started, Jamie was at work, putting a dog back in a cage when he got a buzz on the intercom to come up to the front. There he found his father and Granddaddy Pete talking to Cousin Earl.

  “Jamie, I was just telling your dad and your granddad what a good job you’ve been doing for us.” Earl smiled.

  “Thanks,” Jamie said, feeling his face grow warm.

  “Cousin Earl wants to know if you’d like to keep working during the school year,” Carl said. “It would just be Saturdays.”

  “We’re only open ’til 1:00,” Earl said. “You’d have the rest of the day to yourself.”

  “Really? Yeah, I mean, yes sir. Do you think Mom will go for it?”

  Carl put his hand on Jamie’s shoulder. “I’ll work on her. Gotta keep your grades up, though.”

  “You might be able to pick up some hours during the holidays, too,” Earl said. “Lots of people board their pets then, and we need the help.” He looked at Pete. “And there’s nobody better with dogs than this young man. If I have to give a shot to a particularly ornery one, I just send somebody to fetch Jamie, ’cause he’ll calm that dog down like that.” He snapped his fingers. “It’s amazing, just amazing.”

  Earl looked at Carl and said, “You’re doin’ a fine job raisin’ this boy. Mighty fine job.”

  Pete patted Carl’s back. “Yes you are. You ought to be proud.”

  “Does this mean I get a raise in my allowance?” Jamie said.

  Carl laughed. “Don’t push your luck.”

  * * *

  Starting high school was a big change. The school was bigger, and so were the kids. Even Fred seemed intimidated on the first day. “They all look so tall,” she said as she walked down the hall with Jamie. “Some of them look like grown men and women.”

  But after about a week, Jamie noticed that some of the big boys noticed Fred. “Fred, those guys are staring at you,” Jamie said, standing by his locker.

  “Oh really?” Fred flipped her hair back behind her shoulders with one hand. “I didn’t notice.”

  “Yes you did.”

  “Are you getting jealous?” she laughed.

  “No!” Yes.

  * * *

  Jamie was a missile flying straight at a huge finger-like projection of rock, his hair blowing back and the wind shrieking in his ears. At the last possible instant, he fired a bolt from his hand, blasting the rock into rubble that bounced off his shield as he streaked through the debris.

  “Woooo hoooo!” he screamed and turned in midair, pausing to admire the destruction. The isolated range was a perfect place to practice magic, and since he’d remembered how to make a doorway to it, he took advantage of it whenever possible. It was beautiful too, in a desolate sort of way, even though only one of the three moons was visible that day.

  He didn’t get long to pat himself on the back, though, because he felt a tug from one of the wards he’d placed on a door back inside his home. Someone had stepped through from the garage, tripping an invisible magic wire that ran all the way upstairs and through the doorway to the three-moon world.

  “Oh crud,” he said. Mom’s home. He streaked to the open portal on the ridge below, landed awkwardly, and stumbled through into his bedroom beyond. He fell heavily on the wooden floor and banged his head on the dresser.

  “Ow!” He rubbed his skull and the doorway winked out.

  “Jamie, are you all right?” his mother yelled from the bottom of the stairs.

  “Yes ma’am. Just tripped.”

  Having a reputation as a klutz had its advantages.

  Chapter 42

  One Friday in early November, Fred found Jamie at his locker.

  “Wanna go to that new 3D movie tomorrow night?” Jamie asked. “My mom said she’ll drive.”

  “Are you asking me out on a date?” Fred batted her eyelashes.

  “No, I just want to know if you want to see that movie.”

  “Is anybody else going?”

  “Everybody else has seen it and Rollie’s grounded.”

  “So, it’s just you and me? Sounds like a date.”

  “It’s not a date. We’re just going to a movie like we always do. Besides, we’re still not old enough to date.”

  Fred raised her chin. “My mom said I can go out on a date if it’s with you. She’ll make an exception.”

  “That’s what my mom said.” Jamie looked exasperated. “Just forget it. We can stay home and watch TV.”

  “Is that a date?”

  Jamie stared at Fred with narrowed eyes.

  “Okay,” Fred said. “I’ll go, and you can call it whatever you want.”

  But I’ll call it a date, she thought.

  * * *

  There were now four mounds on the barren hillside. Renn buried Mother, the only family he had known since the plague had killed his natural family, and now she rested beside the child-sized mound, his sister.

  Mother had lost her family that year, too, and had taken him in, a scared, half-starved ten-year-old boy, raising him as her own. And when she grew old and her health failed, he did the best he could to care for her, to do everything in his immense power for her.

  But he was no healer, and her time had come. She’d told him so many times.

  Let me go, she said.

  And he finally did.

  Now he stood on the hill, completely alone. He drove his staff in the ground
and a wave of flowers spread before him and overwhelmed the ugliness of the rock.

  He lingered there, a statue wrapped in purple, until long after sunset.

  * * *

  “I want to try out for cross country next year,” Jamie told his parents during dinner.

  “It’s only April, Jamie,” his mother said. “Isn’t cross country in the fall?”

  “Yes, but Bryce said there’s a meeting next week for all rising sophomores trying out. Coach is going to give us a workout sheet.”

  “I heard this coach is really gung-ho,” his father said. “Supposed to be a lot tougher than the old coach.”

  “Yeah, we’re supposed to get in shape before practice starts in the fall. Bryce said we have to start running on the first day of summer, and it’s going to be really hard.”

  “Well,” his mother said, “you have to —”

  “I’ll keep my grades up,” Jamie said.

  “You’d better. You can’t get a scholarship without good grades, and you need to get a scholarship.”

  “I’m glad you’re taking an interest in a sport,” his father said. “Colleges look at that on your application, too.”

  “That’s not why you want him to do a sport, Carl,” Jamie’s mother said.

  * * *

  Bryce wasn’t kidding about the workouts being hard, and Jamie had never run much before. They were supposed to start out with two miles a day in early June, every day, and work up to five to seven miles a day by mid-July. And July was hot — record-breaking, plant-wilting hot.

  Jamie still had his job at the veterinary clinic, too, so finding time to run was tough. He tried running before work, but didn’t have time to cool down completely, so he’d still be sweaty after showering. He preferred to run after work, even though he was tired from being on his feet all day, because then all he had to do was shower, eat, and fall asleep watching TV. Jamie’s summer could be summed up in five words: work, run, eat, shower, sleep.

  Sometimes he fell asleep watching TV at Fred’s house, or Rollie’s, or at the movie theater with his friends, but wherever he was, he was zonked before 10:00.

  “Wake up, Jamie; it’s time for you to go to bed,” Rachel said one July night, shaking her son’s shoulder. “You can’t sleep on the couch.”

  “Mmmph,” Jamie said, sitting up. She helped him stand and guided him to the stairs.

  After he’d trudged up to his room, Rachel said, “Carl, do you think he’s okay? All he does is sleep. I’m worried about him.”

  “He’s fine. When I had summer practice for football, I came home every day and died. I even slept on the sofa sometimes, because I was too tired to go to bed.”

  “I think there’s something wrong with that.”

  Carl shrugged. “Won’t kill him. Probably be good for him.”

  “Because it will make a man out of him?” She crossed her arms.

  “Something like that. If it gets too hard for him, he’ll quit. But so far, he hasn’t. I’m proud of him.”

  “He shouldn’t have to kill himself to make you proud.”

  Chapter 43

  Tenth grade started off with much promise. One day during the first week of school, Bryce caught up with Jamie in the hall. “Jamie, ol’ buddy, I need a big favor.” He patted Jamie on the shoulder. “How do you feel about double dating?”

  “What?”

  “Sally’s cousin is coming to town this weekend, and Sally won’t go out with me unless I get a date for her cousin. She asked me to talk to you.”

  “What would we do?”

  “I thought we could go to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and go back to my house and play pool and stuff in my game room.”

  “What’s she look like?”

  “Sally said she’s cute.”

  Jamie scratched his cheek for a moment. “Sure. Why not? Never been on a double date.”

  “Great. But are you sure it’s gonna be cool with Fred?”

  “What’s she got to do with it?”

  “Well, you know, everybody in school thinks you’re boyfriend and girlfriend.”

  Jamie threw his hands in the air. “What’s with that? Is she saying that?”

  “No, it just seems like it.”

  “She’s not my girlfriend and it’ll be fine.”

  * * *

  But the following Monday on the bus ride to school, Fred sat by herself, angry-eyed, with her backpack on the seat next to her.

  Jamie tried to sit by her, but she said, “This seat is taken,” and turned to look out the window.

  Jamie sat by Rollie, two seats farther back. “What’s eating her?”

  “She found out about your date,” Rollie said.

  “So? What’s it to her? She’s not my girlfriend.”

  Rollie looked at Jamie and shrugged. “I think you need to talk to her.”

  Jamie got up and went to Fred’s seat, picked up her backpack and sat down. Fred refused to look at him. He said, “Why are you mad at me?”

  She turned to face him and said angrily, “How could you?”

  “How could I what?”

  “You know what.” Emotion strained her voice.

  “It was just a favor to Bryce, that’s all. His girlfriend made him do it.”

  “Did she make you?”

  “Well, no, but —”

  “Did you kiss her?”

  “No!”

  “Good. Are you going to see her again?”

  “No. That was it. She lives in Boston.”

  “Good.” Fred crossed her arms. “Well, I think you ought to know that I’m going on a date, too. This weekend.”

  “Fine.” Jamie said, though he wasn’t sure if it was, all of a sudden.

  “Gerald Tomasino called, and I said yes.”

  “What? He’s a senior.”

  “So?”

  “Seniors only ask out younger girls for one thing, and you know what that one thing is.” “And what’s that?” she said.

  “You know what.”

  “Don’t worry. I can handle myself.”

  * * *

  Apparently, Fred found out that Jamie was right. Gerald found out something, too. He came to school the following Monday with a splint on his finger, claiming he dislocated it playing basketball. Jamie knew otherwise. Gerald learned the hard way that it’s a bad idea to mess with firecrackers.

  Especially the red-headed kind.

  * * *

  Run eight miles in sixty minutes or less. That was cross country tryouts. And it was hot. But Jamie made it, barely.

  Though he and Bryce weren’t fast enough to score in the meets, they still got to run, and Jamie’s parents and grandmother came to cheer him on as he and the other sophomores pulled up the rear. Coach told them it would take a year or so of steady running to get good, so not to worry. Have fun, he said. So they did.

  Road workouts followed a familiar pattern. The faster guys, juniors and seniors, ran ahead while Jamie and his friends hung back, often talking while they ran, enjoying the camaraderie. Sometimes random dogs would join them, running a mile or so before Jamie would stop and tell them to go home. And they did.

  “You’re a freak,” Bryce said one day, watching the dogs turn and head back in the direction they’d come.

  Jamie shrugged as they resumed running. “They bit one of the seniors last week.”

  “Okay, you’re a good kind of freak.”

  If they weren’t talking on a long run, Jamie would often daydream. He would fall into a trance-like state, and pieces of the older sorcerer’s life would float up from his subconscious, sometimes in extended sequences. It was like watching home movies from the old man’s point of view, some mundane, some exotic and exciting, especially the magic. Any spell the old man knew, Jamie knew, when they were revealed to him that way. And the more he saw, the more he wanted to see. He looked forward to the trances.

  “Hey, snap out of it,” Bryce barked in Jamie’s ear one day, jarring him back to reality. “You look like y
ou’re on another planet.”

  “Where are we?” Jamie said. “How far have we run?”

  “About four miles,” Bryce said in between breaths. “Boy, you are out of it.”

  “Do you ever daydream when you run?” They ran down a sidewalk past a newer subdivision.

  “All the time.”

  “What about?” Jamie swerved around a fire hydrant.

  “Different stuff. Girls, mostly. How ’bout you?”

  “Um… girls. I think about girls, too.”

  And magic.

  Jamie liked cross country and ran hard. A little too hard, because by Halloween, he had mononucleosis.

  * * *

  “Well, that explains why he’s so tired all the time.” Carl looked at Jamie asleep on the couch. “I just thought it was from running eight miles a day and school and homework.”

  “We should’ve known something was wrong when he started going to bed at 7:30 every night,” Rachel said.

  “Are you going to be able to take off from work to stay with him? I don’t think I can.”

  “I talked to Mom, and she wants to. She’ll probably stay here in her old room if that’s okay. She’s worried about him.”

  * * *

  A familiar sweet smell filled the house, a smell of warmth and love.

  “I sure did miss your brownies,” Rollie said to Jamie’s grandmother, dribbling brown crumbs down his shirt.

  “I missed making them for you,” she replied, picking up the empty plate from the coffee table. “It’ll be just like old times, me and you kids together again.”

  “We’re glad you’re taking care of him.” Fred stroked Jamie’s head. She sat on the end of the couch next to Jamie, who was stretched out, asleep and oblivious.

  When Jamie’s grandmother took the plate to the kitchen, Rollie whispered, “We gotta do the chant and make him better.”

  “We can’t. His gramma will hear. Besides, I think he has to be awake for it to work.”

  As if on cue, Jamie opened his eyes, propped up on his elbows and said, “He’s coming to kill me.”

  “Who’s coming to kill you?” Fred asked.

  Jamie’s eyes were unfocused. “Renn. He’s coming to kill us all.” And he dropped his head back on the couch and fell asleep again.