Arcane Wisdome

by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

  Lucy was glad to go along. “Just the usual. I’m spending a couple weeks with my grandmother, and I’m going back to flute lessons, but that’s about it,” she said, and decided to get one of the last of the creampuffs after all. By the time she got back to her desk, Alison was in the corner talking to Rich Purdy; Lucy hoped this was a good sign, and pulled her copy of Frankenstein from her backpack to turn in to Mister Faccio.

  25

  Leaving school seemed a little anticlimactic to Lucy; this last day of the semester ended the way school did most days, everyone doing the same old thing — maybe talking a little louder and making more of saying good-bye, but no one acting like something was over. There was the usual fleet of cars to pick up students, and buses loading for the trips home. Lucy decided to walk—the weather was fine, warm enough but not hot, and she had grown tired of the chatter about next fall, when they would be Juniors and would be allowed to have cell phones and ‘pods so long as they were turned off during class. It was something to look forward to, she told herself as she headed home, but nothing that needed so much discussion: it was what happened.

  She was three blocks from home, ambling along Jefferson, her thoughts wandering pleasantly, when she heard someone call her name, and turned to see Ben headed toward her, a bit out of breath and his face slightly flushed. “Hi,” she said, stopping to wait for him.

  “Hi,” he responded, shifting his carrier bag on his shoulders. “The Geeks told me. We’re both members now.”

  “Yep,” she said, thinking as she said it that she sounded like her grandmother.

  “They want us to come by on Sunday. Some kind of initiation."

  “Oh." She resumed walking. “I wonder what they mean to do?”

  “Who knows?" Ben laughed a little. “I bet they’ll want us all to wear black.”

  “Wear black?" Lucy gave it her consideration. “You might be right.”

  “Check your messages when you get home,” he recommended. “Tom said he’d send out an announcement.”

  “Okay,” said Lucy.

  “The event’s supposed to be at two. You want to have brunch with me before? Nothing fancy, just Rosario’s. They have a good menu." He blushed.

  “Sure; why not." She smiled at him. “I’ll meet you there at, what?”

  “Eleven-thirty. That way we can get a good table." This time he looked very embarrassed. “My mom’s always saying that it’s important.”

  “At Rosario’s?”

  “So she says,” Ben told her. “I know there’s less of a line at eleven-thirty.”

  “Now, that’s a good reason,” Lucy approved. She realized that she was glad to see him, and that startled her. “So are you doing first period next semester?”

  “Un-huh. I’m doing Calculus. What about you?" The first period was reserved for elective classes, and the subjects offered varied from grade to grade.

  “I haven’t made up my mind yet,” she answered, realizing it was true. “I’ve got til the end of the month to send in my selection.”

  “Right. Right,” said Ben as if he had made a real gaffe in asking her.

  “You know what it’s like, needing to decide. I’ve narrowed it down to three, and I’ll make up my mind in time." She paused. “Or I may just flip a coin if I can’t decide.”

  “I had a hard time choosing between Calculus and History of Science." This admission was a peace offering, and they both knew it.

  “History of Science is one I’m interested in,” Lucy said, although she doubted she’d end up taking it.

  “Ms. Rosenthal teaches it. She’s really good." He blushed a little, as if praising a teacher were another gaffe.

  “So tell me,” said Lucy, “what are you doing this summer?”

  “I’m doing the six-week Astronomy Enrichment course at La Cañada. And we’re spending a week in Seattle with my Aunt Terri, and then doing the Inland Passage. We’ll fly home from Vancouver.”

  “Will you have any time for the Geeks?" The question was out before she realized she had asked it.

  “Oh, yeah, I think so. He slowed down; the corner where he would turn was four houses ahead. “I wouldn’t want to give that up.”

  “Do you get a lot out of gaming?”

  “Yeah. It’s kind of hard to describe, but I do get a lot out of it; yeah." He was playing for time now. “So we’ll meet for brunch.”

  “Sunday. Eleven-thirty. Rosario’s,” Lucy confirmed, and felt a tinge of incomprehensible sadness when Ben nodded and turned the corner, heading for home. She decided it was because school was out for the summer, and let it go at that.

  * * *

  Gothic Geeks: Sunday, 2 pm, installation of new members. Bring snacks for after. Tom

  Lucy read this over, wondering if she was supposed to respond. After a couple of minutes of staring blankly at the screen, she wrote back to him.

  I’ll bring veggies and dips.

  That done, she sat alone for a while wondering what to do with herself. She heard the twins come in with some friends and used that as an excuse close the lid and go downstairs to see what they were up to.

  There were five kids in the family room, all crowded around the TV screen, engrossed in a game that included a lot of sound effects. Conan was flopped down between Jacob and Jason, his tail waving occasionally as the boys and their friends went at their game with enthusiasm.

  Lucy stood watching them, knowing her presence wouldn’t be welcome, and after a couple of minutes, she went into the kitchen and made herself a turkey-and-lettuce sandwich. She ate it standing next to the sink, feeling at loose ends. At last she went back to her room and picked up the phone, dialing her grandmother’s number from memory: Grandmother Doris had had the same phone number for as long as Lucy could remember. She listened to it ring, counting the sounds and wondering if her grandmother were not at home.

  “Hello?" She sounded a bit out of breath.

  “Hello, Gran,” said Lucy, feeling forlorn.

  “Lucy!” her grandmother exclaimed happily. “Good to hear from you. What’s going on with you?”

  “Well, school’s out,” said Lucy, trying to figure out what she wanted to say. “Are you busy right now?”

  “Not really. I was just getting ready to wash the car. Why? Is something wrong?”

  “Not really,” she said.

  “Jared and Melinda are okay, are they?" She paused. “And the twins?”

  ‘They got a dog. They named him Conan.”

  “I heard about that,” her grandmother said. “Is Conan a nice dog?”

  Lucy shrugged even though she knew Grandmother Doris couldn’t see her. “He’s a Belgian shepherd. I guess he’s okay.”

  “You sound a little down. Are you sad school’s out?”

  “A bit,” Lucy answered, and was surprised at herself for admitting it. “I’m kind of at loose ends.”

  “Summer can feel like that,” Grandmother Doris said, then took a deep breath and went on bracingly, “I’m glad you’ll be spending some time with me during your vacation. You and I could use a little girl-talk, and anything else you like. You’ll have to tell me what you want to do while you’re here." There was a questioning note in her voice.

  “Sure. I’ll think about it and let you know.”

  “Don’t email me. You know I forget to read mine half the time.”

  “Oh, Gram,” said Lucy, and suddenly wanted to cry.

  “What is it, honey?" Grandmother Doris asked.

  “I ... I’m afraid I’m forgetting her. Mom." Just saying it seemed to be a betrayal, and Lucy winced, waiting for her grandmother to take her to task for it; she held her breath.

  “Lucy, Lucy, you mustn’t worry. You won’t forget her.”

  “But I don’t think of her every day, not like I used to." She bit her lower lip to keep her eyes from watering. “Sometimes I can’t remember some of the things we did together.”

  “Well, of course. You can’t remember everything you did six months ago, can y
ou? But you’ll discover other memories; it’s like finding parts of a book or a movie you hadn’t noticed the first time through. Memories of people are like that: they don’t vanish, they just slip aside for a while. That doesn’t mean that you’re going to forget her. You couldn’t do that if you tried,” said Grandmother Doris. “I think about her, too, but not the way I did for the first couple of years after she died.”

  “I’ve been reading her books,” Lucy confessed.

  “She’d like that,” said her grandmother. “She loved her books. She’d be glad you’re reading them.”

  “Some of them are kind of ... surprising,” said Lucy, not knowing how much Grandmother Doris might know, or guess about her daughter’s interests. “I didn’t know about how many things she studied.”

  “Such as?" Grandmother Doris prompted when Lucy fell silent again.

  “Oh, all kinds of things. Anthropology. Astronomy. Folklore. There was a book about snakes in one of the boxes.”

  “She liked snakes,” said her grandmother, a catch in her voice.

  “Yeah." Lucy bit back the harsh words that filled her mind. “There’s books on magic, too. Not the stage kind, the”—she almost said real—“the other kind.”

  “She was interested in thought systems,” said Grandmother Doris. “All kinds of thought systems.”

  “Un-huh,” said Lucy.

  “Does it bother you that she was interested in such things?”

  “Kind of." Could she tell her grandmother about the spells she had cast, or the results those spells had produced?

  “Well, it never bothered me, for what it’s worth. Considering some of the weird things I did when I was young ... I knew she was sensible and not likely to get into anything over her head." She paused. “But you know what my generation’s like, don’t you? When I was your age, Flower Power was still a big deal, and everyone wanted to try out something new, or go back to the old, pre-technological world. Sometimes they wanted to do both at once. At least we recycled.”

  “What did you do?" Lucy asked quietly. “Go back or try something— ”

  Grandmother Doris laughed—and Lucy realized what a great laugh she had—then said, “Honey, I spent my first fourteen years on a farm. I can tell you, I didn’t want to go back to milking at dawn and mucking out barns and plucking chickens. Nope. Not this kid. Farming’s hard work. I wanted to find something new, something that was utopian, preferably in a geodesic dome. A lot of us wanted a world like that." Her voice turned wistful. “I took a couple of years in the middle of college and just ... went wandering. But then I came to my senses and went back to school, where I met Roland, and you know the rest.”

  “And Mom knew all about what you did? The wandering and like that?”

  “And then some,” said Grandmother Doris. “Ask your Uncle Oliver if you doubt that. He’s got some cool tales to tell. We can talk about it during your visit, if you like.”

  “Yeah. I think I would like that,” said Lucy. She didn’t know how to tell her grandmother that her mother’s brother made her uncomfortable, and that she hadn’t seen him since her mother’s funeral.

  “Your mother was a fine woman, Lucy. I was always very proud of her, and I’m always very proud of you.”

  “Don’t say that, Gram. You don’t know ... ” The words escaped her.

  “I don’t have to. I know you, and that’s enough for me." She waited a couple of seconds then said. “Don’t be too hard on Melinda. She’s not your mother, but that’s not her fault.”

  In spite of herself, Lucy started to cry. “But I miss her.”

  “Of course you do. So do I. So does your father, and your brothers, and Oliver, but we can’t change her death — all we can change is our own lives." She sniffed and coughed gently. “Don’t be so hard on yourself either, Lucy. You’re a great gal. You’ve got a good head on your shoulders: learn to trust it. Okay?”

  “Okay,” said Lucy wistfully, dabbing at her eyes with the edge of her shirt cuff.

  Grandmother Doris cleared her throat, then said heartily, “Now, I don’t want you spending the afternoon moping. Promise me you’ll go out and do something with your friends, something to celebrate the end of your sophomore year.”

  “Okay,” said Lucy.

  “Keep reading your mother’s books. Remember that I love you very much. And call me whenever you want to talk.

  “Okay,” Lucy promised.

  “Good girl,” said her grandmother, and hung up.

  26

  Lucy had just finished changing clothes, preparing to follow her grandmother’s orders and go out, when her phone rang. She looked at the ID and saw the call was from Tom Foster, so she decided to answer it. “Hi, Tom. What’s the— ”

  “We’re getting numbers again. A different stream, but the same kind of thing. Another string starting and this time ending with five, it looks like." He sounded both worried and angry. “Can you get over here, quick, and tell us what’s going on?”

  “Okay,” she said cautiously.

  “I’ll call Ben, if you like.”

  “Sure. That would be a good idea, and make sure any of the Geeks who’re free can— ” she answered, then realized that Tom had already hung up. She told herself that this wasn’t quite what Grandmother Doris had in mind when she said that Lucy should go out for the afternoon, but it would have to do. She found her big brown tote, put her wallet in it, added a candle and a small box of salt, then hurried down the stairs. Pausing long enough to post a note to her father and Melinda on the refrigerator—I’m with the Gothic Geeks at the Foster house. Back later. Lucy—she called out to the twins that she was leaving, then hurried out the back door. She set off at a brisk walk, figuring she could reach the Foster house before five, with the long summer evening stretching out ahead of her.

  * * *

  Spencer and Curtis were crowded around Tom’s desktop, watching the screen where a cascade of numbers slid diagonally across the black background. Niki and Aaron sat opposite one another, both of them studying the latest downloads in search of any useful information for dealing with this problem.

  “Hi,” said Lucy as she came in.

  “Hi, yourself,” said Niki, but offered a slight smile.

  “Tom says you have a problem,” Lucy prompted.

  “Come and look for yourself,” Curtis recommended. “Maybe you can make sense of this.”

  The stream of numbers moved rapidly and steadily.

  “We’ve broken down the sequence, we think,” said Spencer, and handed her a notepad with this scribbled on it: 553781526545/537815265455. “I don’t know if the double-five comes at the beginning or the end of the sequence, since the sequence is twelve numbers long and wraps at the end of thirteen numbers when it’s going horizontally across the screen.”

  Lucy took the notepad and looked at, hoping she could make sense of it. “This is more complex than the first series.”

  “No kidding,” said Tom with a frustrated sigh.

  “I guess you’ve tried shutting down and rebooting,” said Lucy, knowing the answer.

  “Twice,” said Curtis. “No luck either time.”

  “Who’s been working the desktop in the last couple days?" Lucy asked.

  “I have. Spencer. Gweneth. Bruce. Niki. Curtis. Why?”

  “In other words, all of you but Aaron,” said Lucy. This complicated things, and she made herself clear her thoughts. “When did this start up?”

  “Some time last night, as close as I can figure. Curtis and I were working until eleven, and I didn’t get out here until school let out." Tom flung his hand at the screen. “This was going on when I got here. Curtis showed up about ten minutes after I did, and Niki a couple minutes after that. Aaron and Spencer got here about five minutes after I called you.”

  “I know you lock the garage when no one’s here,” said Lucy, sure that the place had to be locked. “Who has keys?”

  “I do,” said Tom. “And Gweneth. That’s all dad will let me hand out
. There’s another key hidden outside, but I’m not supposed to say where it is." He gave her a direct stare. “Why?”

  Lucy hesitated while she framed her response, not wanting to make it sound like she was accusing anyone. “Things like this don’t happen by accident, not more than once, in any case. And that means someone here, either accidentally or on purpose, is bringing this thing into your machine.”

  “And which do you think it is?" Tom challenged her. “Accidental or deliberate?”

  “I don’t know yet,” said Lucy.

  “That means she thinks it’s deliberate,” said Aaron from his place on the old couch.

  There was silence in the garage. Then Spencer said, “That’s ozwonked. Uber-ozwonked.”

  “Maybe, but I don’t think so, unless there’s some master hacker out there who’s deliberately targeted this machine, and that doesn’t seem likely. One of the Geeks has to have a hand in this, intentionally or unintentionally." Lucy reached out and tapped the keyboard; the numbers sailed on without any sign of interruption. “Nothing.”

  “Yeah, I know,” said Tom.

  “So what are we going to do to stop it?" Spencer demanded, his jaw set as if he wanted to fight someone.

  “That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” said Lucy, wishing she had taken the time to look through her mother’s books again. “For now, put a line of salt around the garage and I’ll get this candle ready for use. That’ll be a beginning." She pulled the box of salt from her tote. “You don’t need to use a lot of this, but the line has to be unbroken, so pour it out standing inside its perimeter." She gave the box to Spencer. “There’s just over two cups of salt in it; it should be enough. Go clockwise around the garage.”

  “If you say so,” Spencer growled as he took the box from her, shoved past Curtis, and went out, saying something under his breath about “dazer magical bulls — “ as he closed the door with a bang.

  “What if Bruce or Ben shows up?" Niki asked.

  “Or Gweneth,” added Aaron.