The Magic Touch

by Jody Lynn Nye

  Why stay in at all? Why couldn’t he just quit the DDEG? If he had the guts, he would resign, bracelets and all, but would they let him? Oh, God, he thought, flying over the park where they used to hang out in more innocent days, where was Ray?

  “Hey!” There was an explosion like a returning crack of thunder, and Zeon appeared next to him, lying on the air like Superman. “Hey, man, the Big Bulb wants you.” That was the gangbangers’ name for the guildmaster. “You shouldn’t’a split. He’s bummed.”

  “Sorry, man,” Hakeem said. “I had to take care of a family thing.”

  “Well, you better come now,” Zeon said, looking at him sidelong under his lashes, an expression that meant trouble. “We got things to do.” He turned flat on the air toward the north, beckoning Hakeem to fall in behind him.

  With a final, regretful look at the park, Hakeem followed.

  O O O

  “You don’t have to try so hard,” Rose said, following Ray out of a home in the neighborhood east of theirs. Jeff Doyle tactfully trailed several yards behind them. He waved happily to the child, now looking out the window at them. Ray scowled.

  “I was doing what he wanted, wasn’t I?” he demanded. “You don’t have to nag me.”

  “I’m not nagging you,” Rose said. “You were getting the job done, of course, but you can take your time. You’ll get the same results, anyway, and,” she added with a smile, “the same brownie points.”

  “Yeah. So you and the other bigwigs can rip me off one fine day, when you think I’m not looking?”

  Rose looked stunned at the sudden outburst. “What?”

  “Yeah,” Ray said, all of his rage boiling out of him. “You old-timers make us young fools do all the work, and then you take our rewards. And there’s nothing I can do to stop you, so why don’t you just take them now?”

  “Hold the phone!” Rose said, catching his arm. He tried to throw her off, but she held on. “Where on earth did that come from?”

  “From Mr. Guthrie,” Ray admitted at last. From the surprised expression on her face he wasn’t so sure all of a sudden that his informant was right. “He said you’d just soften me up, let me think I was in control, then, one day, bam!”

  She shook her head sadly. “You’ve been carrying that around with you for how long?”

  “Since yesterday’s meeting,” Jeff said, coming up. “I saw Mr. Guthrie take him aside. That’s what he was saying to you. Wow. He’s an even bigger jerk than I thought.”

  Rose laid a hand against Ray’s cheek. “Oh, my poor dear. Don’t you have any more faith in us than that? Or if not us, how about your own judgment? Do you think, knowing what you do in here”—she tapped his heart—“that we could ever undermine your self-esteem like that? How long do you think we could exist as a benevolent organization if we were always ripping one another off?”

  “Not long, I guess,” Ray mumbled. “I’m sorry. I feel dumb.”

  “I suppose it’s only natural,” Rose said, including Jeff in the conversation. “My mother always said, if something seemed too good to be true, it probably was. But not always,” she said. “We do have access. But we trust one another to keep hands off. Of course,” she said, “there’s always emergencies. In that case, feel free to draw on me.”

  “Or on me,” Jeff said. “Distance is not a factor, as far as I can tell.”

  “Thanks,” Ray said, staring at the ground between his feet. “Now I feel like I don’t deserve it.”

  “Of course you do!” Rose said encouragingly. “Now come on. It’s getting late, and you’ve got to get home for Sunday dinner. One more stop, and then we’ll go.”

  O O O

  Rose looked down at the young Hispanic girl sitting on the concrete stoop and put her hands on her hips so that the gleaming star on a stick bobbed against her shoulder.

  “You don’t really need a fairy godmother to have a baby,” Rose said, trying to sound reasonable. “There’s the usual method, of course. But I’d absolutely forbid it for you. What are you, Honoria, eleven?”

  “Ten,” the child said, hunkering her shoulders down closer to her knobby knees and tilting her head to look at them. Her face was half in shadow and half painted yellow by the bulb from the enclosed porch. “You don’t understand.”

  “All right,” Rose said, sitting down beside her and putting her wand across her knees. Ray remained standing in front of them, watching warily for anyone coming out of the house. “Make me understand why you want to do something unnatural and unhealthy at your age.”

  “My sister’s pregnant,” Honoria burst out unhappily. “But she’s not very strong. If she has this baby, it’ll kill her. The doctor said so. But she wants it so bad, and it means everything to my brother-in-law. It’s going to be a boy, and that’s all Paulie wants in the world. A son,” she said bitterly, and turned to appeal to each of them in turn. “You said I can have a miracle. Put the baby in me, so my sister won’t die. She’s my only sister.”

  Ray watched Rose’s face change up and back among outrage, astonishment, and admiration. He felt taken aback, too. Of all the visions he’d had since the first night of granting wishes to kids, he’d never have dreamed up anything like this. He knew where Honoria got the idea. Surrogate maternity had made the news dozens of times.

  “Yes, well,” Rose said at last. “Honoria, this is not your miracle.” The girl cried out wordlessly. “No, this’ll be his miracle, your unnamed baby nephew.” Rose raised her wand and felt around her as if she was testing the wind. “Here’s my interpretation of your wish, that he is to be born alive without harming his mother.” Ray felt the backwash of good feeling as the pale pink light poured out of the wand and swept backward over their heads, going into the house. That must be where the sister was.

  Honoria watched the magic light with shining eyes. Rose flicked the wand in a tight circle, and the veil faded.

  “There,” she said. “All done. Your sister will know better after this, maybe have her tubes tied. Once they have a son—who thought up this nonsense about primogeniture anyway?—they won’t feel the need to have any more. They can adopt. As for you”—she turned to the girl—“you’re a generous young woman. You have the right name, Honoria. We’ll have something really special happen for you one day. I’ll be watching for you. The day your wish is supposed to come true, I’ll be back with bells on.” Rose stood up and patted the girl on the shoulder.

  “Me, too,” Ray said hoarsely, too overwhelmed to come up with anything snappy to say.

  “I’ll come whenever they call me,” Jeff added.

  “Yes,” Rose said, enthusiastically. “We’ll make it a real princess’s coming-out.”

  Honoria looked at all of them with her mouth open. “Why would you do this for me?”

  “Because you’re so unselfish,” Rose said. “I don’t know how many kids have begged me for a Teenage Morphin Whatzit Turtle doll, but not many want to do something really heroic for someone else.”

  Honoria bounded to her feet, her eyes bright in the porch light. “Dios mio! You are so kind. Maybe one day I’ll be a fairy godmother, too.”

  Rose tilted her head to look up at Ray and slowly closed one eye in a wink. “Maybe you will, sweetheart.”

  O O O

  “I could never have made a call like that in a million years,” Ray said, as they walked down the path to the sidewalk.

  “Me, either,” Jeff said, behind him.

  “Nonsense,” Rose said, bringing up the rear. “All it takes is experience.”

  “It’s more than that,” Ray said, stopping lightly on the pavement. “It’s so natural with you. You’ve got the magic touch.” The imp got into him as he remembered one of the old standards Grandma liked to sing. He struck a pose, spotlighting her.

  “You-oo-oo’ve got—the Ma-aagic Touch.”

  And Jeff chimed in with “Oh-oooh.”

  “Oh, go on!” Rose said, blushing.

  “—You ma-ake me ga-low so-oh much. You cast a sp
ell, your magic’s swell, the ma-gic tou-ouch!”

  Rose laughed and applauded. “Bravo!” she cried. “You’ve got quite a musical talent, too.”

  “Naw,” Ray said, falling into step next to her as she headed toward the bus stop. “My sister and Grandma Eustatia are the ones with talent.”

  Rose tucked her hand into his arm, and he held it close against his side. “You have absolutely unplumbed depths, honey. You’re amazing.” Ray just shook his head, enjoying walking in the warm summer night with good friends. If anyone came up at that moment to make fun of him or his companions, he’d punch them in the nose.

  O O O

  “Well, I’ve enjoyed myself,” Jeff said, after they had walked back within a few hundred yards of the Assembly Hall. “I’d better get home. It’s a long drive back. Come out our way soon, and I’ll try and show you a good time. Ray, stay in touch, huh?”

  “You bet,” Ray said. He watched Jeff drive off, thinking he’d made a new friend. Rose waved good-bye until Jeff’s car was out of sight.

  “What a nice young man,” she said, turning them around toward their part of the neighborhood.

  “Yeah, he is. So, how about Monday?” Ray asked, starting the familiar banter, as he walked Rose home. He knew she’d say Wednesday, and he could start negotiating. He was feeling pretty good about things. The betrayal Guthrie had suggested had turned out to be just a ploy to divide him from his peer group, and they’d had a really good day.

  “Tomorrow,” Rose began with significant emphasis, and Ray felt his hopes soar, “my son and his family are coming over to spend a few days visiting the old lady.” Ray felt his spirits plummet. “So I’ve got to do some fairy-grandmothering.” She laughed. “And my son is going to install my new air conditioner. It’s been so hot these last few days I hate to go home. It’ll be nice to have it in for August. The Farmer’s Almanac said it’ll be the hottest month in ten years.”

  Ray felt bereft. “For how long?”

  “Oh, a week. No longer than a week. They can’t stand my little apartment for that long.” Rose chuckled. “And I need my privacy. I never thought I’d say that after raising a houseful of children, but there you are. People change.”

  “What am I supposed to do?” Ray asked. The question came out a wail, and Rose looked sympathetic.

  “I know! How about coming over on Tuesday for supper? It’s the fourth. We can watch the fireworks together.” Ray shook his head, too disappointed to accept a substitute for fairy-godmothering. A whole week! “No?” Rose asked, watching his face, and completely misinterpreting his unhappiness. “How about cookies and lemonade? My son would like to meet you. You’re both so smart.”

  “Okay,” Ray said, accepting a compromise. A snack wouldn’t take up much time. He liked Rose, but he didn’t want to spend hours talking to her kids, since they weren’t interested in fairy-godparenting. He’d rather be out with her, granting wishes. “We can go out after that?”

  Rose frowned. “Not really, sweetheart. Not with them there. But you don’t need me. Go ahead and practice on your own. You’re developing good judgment. Or you could always hook up with one of the other senior members for a day or so.”

  Ray kicked the pavement, and a pebble, invisible in the dark, bounced off into traffic. “I’d rather wait until you’re free. I’m more comfortable with you.”

  “I like you, too, dear, but sometimes I have to do family things. I really cannot go out granting wishes while they’re around.”

  Ray sulked. “You don’t want your family to hang with me because I’m a kid. Or because I’m black.” He knew that was dishonest and untrue, but it escaped his lips before he could call it back. In the pale neon light of the next store front he saw that Rose looked very hurt.

  “No, dear, dear Ray,” she said, very gently. “For the same reason you don’t want to haul your little sister with you everywhere you go, I don’t want my son hanging over our shoulders. He complains about everything. He thinks magic is uncontrollable and unpredictable. And he would worry! ‘Where are you going?’ he would ask us. ‘When will you be back? Mother, you can’t go out walking at night! The streets are dangerous!’” Her mimicry had so many characteristic gestures it was obviously taken from life. “And it’s too bad he’s so skeptical about magic. I think he’d make a wonderful tooth fairy.” Ray grinned in spite of himself.

  “Okay, I’m overreacting. I’m sorry I said that. Really. I’m just tripping over my tongue today.”

  “Yes, you are overreacting, but I understand,” Rose said, reaching up to pat him on the cheek. “Look, you don’t need to hang around the old lady to have fun. The summer is so short, you’ll be back in school before you know it. Go be with your friends. Enjoy.”

  “You’re my friend,” Ray said softly.

  Rose squeezed his hand. “And you’re my friend, too. But I meant the friends who are your age. We’ll be together again very soon. You know that.”

  Ray wasn’t completely satisfied. “What about clients who come up while you’re ‘doing family things’? Emergencies?”

  Rose said briskly, “You can go out and take care of any cases you think you can handle on your own. You’re very capable. I trust you.”

  Well, that did it. Ray wouldn’t dare to take on a major wish-granting session on his own, particularly not emergencies. He’d sooner call in one of the bigwigs to do the job for him. “I’ll take the week off,” he mumbled, as they got to her door. “See you next week, I guess.”

  “Monday,” she said, pulling open her purse. She put the wand inside, and extracted her house key. “That’s a promise.”

  “Monday?” he asked, surprised. “Don’t you have to grade papers or serve juice or something?”

  “No school,” Rose said. “Summer vacation. It’s July. Remember?”

  “Right,” Ray said, shaking his head at his own obtuseness. “Great! See you soon.” He glanced at the dial of his watch, and gulped. “I’ve got to roll. I’ve got to get home for dinner, or Grandma will skin me.”

  O O O

  Ray threw her a quick wave and dashed away into the night. Rose felt sorry for him. He was such a good, eager pupil she hated to deprive him of any opportunity to practice, but there it was. She could not be in two places at the same time. Soon enough he’d be out on his own, and he wouldn’t want her hanging around him while he worked. He was going to be a star, Rose thought, as she closed the door and locked it. What a terrific kid. She was very angry at that Guthrie person for filling his head with lies. Rose promised herself she would see to it that Alexandra evicted him from the next meeting.

  She dropped her purse on the floor next to the telephone table and hit the button on her answering machine. Nothing special, except for the message from her son.

  “Mother, we’ll be coming by about three. I have reservations at Le Chat Noir for dinner. The kids are looking forward to seeing you.”

  “Me, too, sweetheart,” she said fondly. The rest of the messages were trivial. As she was about to go to the kitchen and get herself a cold soda she heard the doorbell ring. It must be Ray. He probably forgot to ask her something about going out on his own. He’d like a soda, too. She opened the door.

  The caller on the doorstep was about the same size and build, but it was not Ray.

  “Can I help you?” she asked.

  “Mrs. Feinstein?” the young man said. She nodded. “Uh, I’m a friend of Ray’s. Can I talk to you for a second?”

  Was this Hakeem? He didn’t look like the picture Ray had in his wallet of the two of them.

  “I don’t know,” she said uncertainly. “I’m a little busy. I’m waiting for my son to come back.…” She smelled the burning ozone smell, saw the wristbands. It was the genie-Jackals Ray warned her about! She started to back away and close the door, but the grasping hands came right through the wood and grabbed her wrist. Rose fought madly, but she was outnumbered. More boys piled into the apartment, through the doors, the walls, even the floor, until she was
surrounded. She kicked one of them in the shins, and two of them sank deeply enough to seize her legs. One of the brutes picked up her purse, and opened it.

  “Hey, young man,” she said indignantly, struggling with her captors, “that’s personal!”

  “The wand’s in here,” said the boy who had rung her doorbell, ignoring her. The other youths nodded. A black fume rose around them until it obscured the walls of her apartment. Rose heard the ceiling smoke detector howling as they all vanished together.

  Chapter 23

  Ray strode quickly down Madison Street, heading for Michigan Avenue. It was bright and very hot. Sweat ran down his body under his coveralls. He had just enough time to get to Roosevelt College and pick up his placement papers for the fall semester. His boss wanted him back in double time to keep working on getting Grant Park and the area around Buckingham Fountain in shape for the fireworks display on Tuesday night.

  “Every minute counts,” Landis said. If Ray had not wanted to go do something that was involved in furthering his education. Landis would have insisted he eat his sandwich and go back to work right away with the others, skipping the rest of his lunch hour. Thank heavens for small mercies. Ray put a new CD he’d bought at a used disc store onto the thumbtack player in his pocket, and timed his walk to the rhythm in his head. He was so intent on the music he hardly noticed when Hakeem fell into step beside him.

  “Hi, brother,” Ray said, surprised. He dislodged the disc with his thumb to turn off the music. “I haven’t seen you around lately. Where have you been?”

  “Around,” Hakeem said casually, but Ray could feel tension in him. Hakeem walked scrunched over with his hands in his pockets, always a bad sign.

  “Me, too,” Ray said. They walked in silence for a moment. Hakeem seemed to want to say something, but he was having trouble getting it out.

  “Uh, hey, you want to do something sometime?” he said at last.

  “Yeah. I’ve missed seeing you,” Ray said, hoping to elicit more details with a hopeful attitude.