The Wizards of Central Park West_Ultimate Urban Fantasy

by Arjay Lewis

  “I will need coffee,” Drusilicus headed for the kitchen with Marlowe right behind him.

  “Hey, Dad, where’s Doug?” the older boy asked.

  “He…uh…” Eddie struggled.

  Cerise stepped out of the kitchen. “He’s spending the weekend at Kevin’s.” She walked over and handed Eddie a mug of coffee.

  William came down the stairs and Cerise grabbed him in a hug.

  William tried to move out of her reach. “Come on, Mom, don’t get all sappy on me.”

  “You are my beautiful young man.” Cerise didn’t let go. “And I love you.”

  “C’mon, Mom, I just ate.” William shook himself free. “Is it okay if I go see Marvin?”

  “Marvin?” Eddie thought for a moment. “The kid with the glasses?”

  “Earth to Dad,” William prattled. “That was five years ago. Marvin is the number one greatest master of all video games.”

  “Sure, son, that’ll be fine.” Eddie nodded, “I have to go to work anyway.”

  “Mom said you were suspended.”

  “Well,” Eddie thought fast, “I’m working on getting un-suspended.”

  “You keep your cell phone on you,” Cerise’s voice was firm. “And you call me the minute you go anywhere. Do you understand that? Anywhere!”

  “Yes, ma’am,” William muttered then added in an undertone, “Jeez, it’s like bein’ in prison.”

  “What was that?” Cerise burst out, ready to go ballistic.

  Eddie, who kept his cool, said in a level voice, “Don’t talk that way to your mother, William.”

  “Yes, sir,” William whined. “Can I go now?”

  “Sure, but stay in touch, son, please? We mean it,” Eddie advised.

  “Fine,” William headed into the garage to get his bike.

  “You have to lighten up, Cerise,” Eddie said to his wife.

  “I didn’t mean to—” Cerise stammered, as tears shined in her eyes. “It just…oh God, Eddie, our boy…”

  He took her in his arms. “Sh! I promise, tonight Douglas will be back home where he belongs.”

  “Marlowe said that you were given one of those sticks—”

  “A staff.”

  “Where is yours?”

  Eddie looked at his feet for a moment. “It kind of…well, it was taken from me.”

  “You got to get another one,” Cerise implored.

  Eddie nodded, but didn’t tell her the truth. It wasn’t as if he could walk to the local Wizards R Us and get a brand new shiny one straight from the Forbidden Tree. He decided that to tell her would only make her worry.

  They went into the kitchen and sat at the table to join Marlowe and Drusilicus. Marlowe’s black eye was healed, which reflected that his abilities had improved. They all ate without speaking much.

  Eddie spent the meal watching how his mother puttered about, and was happy that she looked energetic and nimble, up and down, getting this or that.

  He looked across the table and met Drusilicus’ eye. “Thanks for what you did for my mother.”

  Drusilicus reddened and regarded his plate. “It was nothing.”

  Eddie was amazed. Here, outside of the wizard community, divested of his huge house and the need to impress, he acted so differently from the self-important prig he always portrayed.

  “My only regret is that you lost your staff,” Marlowe sighed.

  “Are you going to get him a new one, Marlowe?” Cerise looked at Marlowe, as Eddie nodded his head behind her and hoped the older man got the hint.

  “Of course, dear lady,” Marlowe rose from his seat and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “In fact, we must go into New York and get him one.”

  Drusilicus stood and Eddie followed suit. They praised Eleanor’s cooking and Eddie gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

  As they approached the door, Cerise said in a whisper, “Eddie, you don’t have your car.”

  Eddie glanced toward the kitchen and said, “I don’t need one. I’ll show you later.”

  “I’ll want to see that!” Cerise replied with a curious grin.

  “It’s really cool.”

  “Go save my baby, and take care of my big, black man.” Cerise kissed him full on the lips.

  Eddie went outside. The day was warm and the sun was bright. Eddie inhaled the sweet air and walked off, behind Marlowe and Drusilicus.

  They strolled in silence to the woods. Eddie looked at the fallen branches that lay on the path. He picked up a large one that was about the size of his staff, though covered with bark.

  “Maybe if I wish this to be my staff bad enough,” Eddie said aloud. “Y’know, will and intent.”

  The other two glanced back at him.

  “That would be most impressive,” Drusilicus’ staff leapt into his hand. “Shall we away?”

  Eddie dropped the branch, a germ of an idea in the back of his mind, but he couldn’t quite bring it to the front.

  They walked into the trees and Eddie rested his palm on Marlowe’s shoulder to make the transition with them. Moments later, they exited a grove near 85th Street and the west side of the park, and walked out through the Mariner’s Gate and across the street to Marlowe’s townhouse.

  “Eddie, I’ll get a small hand-mirror to bring with us,” Marlowe suggested. “In case we need to contact anyone.”

  Eddie stopped on the steps. The idea had sharpened into crystalline focus.

  “Can you give me about twenty minutes?” Eddie requested. “I need to do one thing.”

  “What?” Drusilicus demanded snottily. Apparently the teleportation across the Hudson River had returned him to his former nasty state.

  “I’ve got an idea.”

  “But we—” Drusilicus began.

  “Let him go, Drusilicus,” Marlowe said. “I must talk with Daniel.”

  “Humph!” Drusilicus snorted. “That pet vampire of yours—“

  “And it will take time to assemble the potions I intend to bring.”

  “Very well,” Drusilicus turned and walked to the door.

  “What is on your mind, my friend?” Marlowe asked quietly.

  “Maybe nothing,” Eddie considered, “but it wouldn’t hurt to try.”

  Marlowe shrugged. “It appears that you have become the mysterious one, Eddie Berman.”

  Eddie walked quickly across the street and up one block to 86th Street, and turned down the transverse road into the precinct. He gave a quick wave to the desk sergeant, who barely looked up, then he went straight up the stairs to the property room.

  It was Sunday, and no one took much notice of him; the noise of printers, jangling phones, and raised voices covered his presence.

  As he walked into the secure area, he found Hank there like a fixture.

  “Hank,” Eddie said, a little too jovially, “what are you doing here on a Sunday? I thought the point of being property clerk was the regular hours.”

  Hank shrugged. “Weekend guy needed a day off. His daughter’s getting married.”

  “Wow,” Eddie felt like the smile on his face was painted on. “I’m wondering if you have that cane I signed in last week.”

  If it could be here, Eddie thought. No, I must believe it is here. I must want it to be here!

  Hank shrugged again. “I guess so. I locked it away special for you, Lew.”

  Eddie scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. He focused on wanting the cane to be there. Eddie did bring the cane in from New Jersey that day last week, and when Hank brought out the one in the evidence room, the one in his hand disappeared. Could that happen again?

  “Can you get it for me, Hank?”

  The property room did most of its business during the week. Being Sunday and early, Hank was alone. He motioned Eddie closer.

  Hank spoke softly. “I heard you were suspended, Lew.”

  “I am, Hank, but I’ve also been ordered to make sure all of the paperwork on my case is done for the FBI,” Eddie lied, his hands open in a “what-can-I-do?” gesture.r />
  "They’d better pay you for the time you come in to do it,” Hank reached for the keys on his belt.

  “I just have to get it done, Hank,” Eddie tried to sound world-weary.

  “That’s great,” Hank said as he went through the keys. “They suspend you, but you can’t go until you do the friggin’ paperwork. I tell you, it sure is different since I first became a cop. Now every cop has to be one part police officer, one part lawyer, and one part friggin’ bureaucrat. Sign the book, Lew.”

  Eddie signed, as Hank strode out of sight toward the back of the room.

  Eddie closed his eyes. It is here, it is here.

  He could hear Hank in the distance, as he fumbled with the keys, unlocked a door, and grunted at the exertion as he pulled it open.

  It is here, it just has to be, Eddie repeated to himself.

  The footsteps drew closer.

  “You falling asleep on me, Lew?”

  Eddie opened his eyes. There in Hank’s hand lay the ebony stick with the silver ball at the top.

  Eddie gave a small bark of surprise and pleasure, which made Hank stare at him curiously.

  “I’m just happy to see it,” Eddie tried to calm down and sound businesslike. “It’ll make writing my report a lot easier.”

  Hank held out the stick. Eddie slowly reached out and grasped it. A flash of red light went from the cane into him with a small ‘g’zink.’

  Eddie could feel the power as it returned to him, coursed through his veins, and rushed to his brain. He wasn’t aware of how much it invigorated him until he held it again.

  “What the hell was that?” Hank asked.

  “Uh, must’ve been an electrostatic charge or something.”

  “Couldn’t be,” Hank said. “There was nothing to ground it; this stick is wood.”

  Eddie shrugged, “Thanks, Hank,” he waved the cane as he exited.

  “He did say ever since he found that stick things got weird,” Hank muttered to himself and shook his head. “Now look, even I’m talking to myself.”

  Forty-Eight

  Eddie walked quickly to Marlowe’s, the walking stick in his hand. He didn’t want to risk trying to transform it until he was in the safe haven of the townhouse.

  He knocked on the door. Frisha, who appeared to have taken up residence as the official doorman, opened it.

  “Fred!” she blurted. “I hadst a terrible vision of you last evening—”

  “Never mind that, Frisha, I need to know where Marlowe is.”

  “Downstairs with Drusilicus, methinks,” Frisha said. “They came in and went straight down.”

  Eddie held the stick out, closed his eyes, and with the greatest pleasure felt the cane transform into his staff.

  Frisha gasped. “Thou hast another staff!”

  “No, Frisha,” Eddie smiled and held the stick aloft. “I’ve got my staff back.”

  Frisha drew close and gently touched the wood. “Aye! That you did! I’ve ne’er heard of such a thing in all me born days. You truly are a most powerful Magus.”

  “A what?”

  “A Magus. ’Tis the name for a gifted wizard,” Frisha said. “How did thou do it?”

  “A Magus has to have a few secrets, Frisha.”

  “I must say, it doth change things!”

  “It certainly doth. Later, Frisha.” Eddie walked across the huge entrance hall and entered the door that led to the marble steps of the basement.

  Upon his arrival at the bottom of the stairs, he found the room to be entirely different from his last visit. Instead of an empty, cavernous space, it was filled with tall wooden bookcases. They lined the walls and formed what appeared to be an elaborate maze throughout the room.

  “Marlowe?” Eddie called out as he stared up at the tall, heavy racks, which were made from some sturdy wood and stained darkly. Each one was at least twelve feet high.

  There were shelves upon shelves, filled with different containers: glass jars, wooden boxes, and elaborate metal canisters. Under each item was a white paper label with words in an embellished hand.

  Eddie bent and read a label under a large jar filled with an earthy, brown powder. In the intricate script it read:

  Powdered Bat Wing

  Eddie lurched back, and looked up at a smaller jar on a higher shelf. A thousand tiny eyes were staring back down at him. Eddie gasped and leaned in to gaze at the label:

  Eye of Newt

  “Man, they really use crap like this?” Eddie muttered.

  “Eddie?” Marlowe’s voice came out from behind the rows of bookcases.

  “Yeah!” Eddie yelled back, as he tried to get a fix on the direction the sound emanated. “Where are you?”

  “Walk towards the center of the room, then bear right,”

  Eddie walked past the huge wooden structures, all filled with the unique vessels, and his eye returned to the handwritten labels. Each one he saw suggested an ingredient more elaborate and exotic than the last. There were different mushrooms, powders of unsettling colors, and even the occasional container that shook and rattled as if something alive was imprisoned and desperately sought escape.

  “Marlowe?” Eddie raised his voice, as he felt he was close to the center of the room.

  “This way,” Marlowe called and Eddie turned down the row of the huge library to find both Marlowe and Drusilicus. They were both clad in robes, Marlowe’s white, and Drusilicus’s a light gray. Marlowe carried a small metal cauldron that hung from the crook of his arm by its arc-shaped handle.

  “Eddie, you bear a staff,” Marlowe gasped.

  “I bear my staff, the Staff of Fire,” Eddie allowed himself a smug smile.

  “Didn’t you say he lost it in the battle last night?” Drusilicus frowned.

  “It seems quite impossible,” Marlowe marveled

  “In case you haven’t noticed,” Eddie chuckled, “everything you guys do is impossible.”

  “It appears,” Marlowe sought to regain his composure, “that my student once again accomplishes a thing that the master cannot.”

  “How did you get it back?” Drusilicus asked.

  “Tell you what, Dru,” Eddie considered, “you figure it out, and maybe I’ll give it to you.”

  Marlowe laughed. “A dubious gift, if you can take it back anytime you wish. This certainly will foil our adversary’s plans.”

  “Yes,” Drusilicus grew concerned, “Marlowe said you faced the warlock last night.”

  “It wasn’t a fair fight. He blindsided Marlowe, then grabbed my kid,” Eddie related, as Marlowe went to a specific box, reached in, pulled a small stone and added it to the cauldron he carried.

  “From my own encounter, I must concur,” Marlowe agreed and set off toward the end of the aisle. “He does not fight according to wizard traditions.”

  “How do wizards usually fight?” Eddie asked.

  Drusilicus stood up straighter. “Challenges are usually met in an open place, where the wizard can meet his adversary face to face.”

  “This guy ain’t interested in your traditions, he’s out to beat you.”

  “And doing it far too effectively,” Drusilicus exclaimed, then with a look to Marlowe, added, “no offense.”

  Marlowe shook his head, “No, no ‘tis true enough.”

  Drusilicus and Eddie followed as the old man continued down one of the aisles. For the first time, Eddie noticed that Marlowe was wearing a conical, pointed hat on his head. It was black velvet and covered with stars and moons.

  “Where did all of this come from?” Eddie glanced about, still impressed.

  “This is my storeroom of ingredients for potions, Eddie,” Marlowe said. “It’s not as well-stocked as some, but I make do.”

  Eddie indicated the towering wooden structures. “Not well stocked? You mean some people have more than this?”

  “Oh, yes,” Drusilicus concurred.

  “So what’s with the hat?” Eddie asked, to change the subject.

  “It is the Hat of Remembranc
e, Eddie,” Marlowe turned at the end of the aisle and walked up another. He stooped to take a pinch of aquamarine powder from a large jar. “I have collected all of these unique substances over a period of many centuries. Even though they are labeled, I often cannot recall where I put what. By wearing the Hat of Remembrance, I can easily determine each one’s location, as well as recall the recipe of every potion.”

  “But where did all this stuff come from?” Eddie said. “It wasn’t here the last time I was down here.”

  “They are very powerful charms, Eddie. I maintain them in an alternate dimension, so none can find them or use any of them without my knowledge,” Marlowe said, and easily stepped to another box where he took a pinch of a puke-green powder that caused an unpleasant smell to waft into the air. “Once you accept the concept of many realities layered upon each other like an onion, it becomes child’s play.”

  “What kind of children do you know?” Eddie quipped.

  “Lieutenant, you amaze me,” Drusilicus said. “One moment you accomplish surprising things, and the next you can’t even grasp the basics of interdimensional storage.”

  “I’m still tryin’ to get down fourth-dimensional physics,” Eddie complained.

  “Ah!” Drusilicus shook his head in disgust. “I’ve never been a big fan of it myself.”

  “That’s why your house looks fairly normal on the inside.”

  “Wait a few centuries,” Marlowe said to Drusilicus. “You run out of space. Then you must either create more room or move.”

  “Admit it, Marlowe,” Drusilicus remarked, “you just like having a bigger entrance hall than I.”

  “There is that,” Marlowe placed something that looked like the tooth of a small carnivore into his cauldron. “There, that is all I need.”

  “Are you sure?” Eddie questioned. “I mean, you don’t have a recipe or anything.”

  “As long as I wear this hat, I can recall any spell, potion, or enchantment I want in every detail,” Marlowe affirmed. “Now, we should all step onto the platform.”

  “Why?”

  Drusilicus snorted. “So we don’t end up in the alternate dimension, of course. There might not be an atmosphere.”

  “Oh, there is,” Marlowe related as they walked. “But it is frigid and lacks light.” He lowered his voice. “Keeps everything nice and fresh.”