Magi Saga 1: Epic Calling

by Andrew Dobell

  ‘What?’ she said, a little surprised at this turn of conversation.

  ‘Psychic powers, do you believe in them?’

  ‘Em, I’m not sure, why?’ she said hesitantly, feeling a little worried by the direction the conversation had just taken.

  ‘Well, it’s just that I get premonitions sometimes, you know, see things, like the future, and…well, I think I’ve just had one about you.’

  ‘Give over ye gobshite, what are you talking about?’ she scoffed, incredulously.

  ‘I think you’re destined for great things. You’re going to do something important, I know it,’ he said with conviction.

  She looked at him quizzically for a moment.

  ‘This won’t get you a freebie mate, we’re done don't ye know,’ she said flatly.

  ‘Oh, of course, I didn’t mean to frighten you, I just thought you’d like to know,’ he said defensively, raising his hands in submission.

  ‘Yeah, well, thanks for the vision.’ Suspicion in her voice, she didn’t like it when her John’s turned weird. The man smiled rather sheepishly and walked out the alleyway with her, said his goodbyes and walked off into the night. Stuart ambled over and stood next to her.

  ‘You done for the night then? It’s been a busy one.’

  She nodded absently as she gazed after the suit as he receded into the distance.

  ‘Hey, Amanda, you in there?’

  She snapped out of the daze and looked at him as if realising he stood there for the first time.

  ‘I am, I’m fine.’

  ‘What’s the matter with you, did he do something to you?’

  ‘He didn’t do anything. Just something he said made me think a little, that’s all. Nothing to worry about,’ she said dismissively, although for some reason, what the man had said stuck in her mind, and it bothered her more then she had just let on to Stuart.

  She thought back to her time growing up in the Orphanage in Ireland, to her dreams of living in New York, and the feeling that she had some kind of great destiny, an epic calling of some kind to fulfil. She hadn’t thought about that for a long time, not really since making it to New York, but the John had just touched on those half remembered memories with his comment, bringing them back to the forefront of her mind. It was probably coincidence, nothing to get uptight about.

  ‘Hey, Amanda-Jane, wake up. What’s gotten into you?’

  ‘Huh? Oh, nothing, I’m grand, seriously, stop worrying.’ Hearing her real name snapped her out of her reverie for the second time. She had always had a slight interest in the Occult, the unexplainable, but did she believe in it, like the John had asked? She didn’t know. She had never seen anything to make her believe in it anyway. ‘Sorry Stuart, yeah, I’m done for the night,’ she said. ‘I need to get home to bed, it’s gonna to be a busy day tomorrow.’

  ‘Georgina?’

  ‘Yeah, she should find out tomorrow. I’m not looking forward to it. I’m dreading the worst so I am.’

  Stuart nodded. ‘Let me know won’t you.’

  Amanda nodded back. She would let him know, it affected him just as much as it affected her. A short while later, her income for the night counted out into her handbag, she made her way back to her studio apartment, feeling well past ready for bed.

  As usual Amanda had slept in and wasn’t up until late morning. She groaned when she saw the rain, work was never as much fun and never as busy in this weather. She padded around her apartment getting breakfast and watching some TV on her slowly dying set. She’d have to get a new one someday, but not today, Georgina would be here soon and they would be off to the clinic. She had no doubt it was going to be an emotionally charged day whatever happened, and depending on the results, good or bad, it might mean they wouldn’t be working later on. Since the news of her illness Amanda had been working for both of them, taking on Georgina’s regulars, but fingers crossed, today Georgina would be back to work.

  Amanda soon finished her breakfast and started sorting out her clothes for the day when there came a knock from the door. She opened it and let Georgina in..

  ‘How are ye Georgie,’ she beamed at her friend. Amanda hugged her warmly, Georgina hugging back just as tightly.

  ‘I’m good, you know. Not really looking forward to today, but I’m good.’

  Amanda ignored the comment about what they were going to do, she wanted to stay off the subject if she could, for Georgina’s sake.

  ‘That’s grand, I’m glad. The girls were asking about you again,’ she said, meaning the other girls that Stuart looked after on his patch.

  ‘Oh really? What did they say?’ Georgina asked.

  Glad for the opportunity to cover other ground, Amanda moved the conversation into idle gossip.

  Older than Amanda’s mere seventeen years, Georgina looked to be in her mid-twenties much younger than her actual late thirties age. Of average height, slim and attractive with more angular features than Amanda, Georgina had long wavy brown hair, quite in contrast to Amanda’s red. Today she wore a simple outfit of jeans and t-shirt under a jacket. She lived in the same apartment block and had found Amanda’s flat for her about a year ago.

  They talked as Amanda dressed, unconcerned by Georgina’s presence as she stripped. Georgina, sat perched on the edge of Amanda’s bed, examining the clothes her friend pulled on.

  ‘You’re planning on working tonight?’ Georgina asked.

  ‘I am, got to if we’re going to pay this rent.’

  Georgina nodded and waited as Amanda pulled on her heels. ‘I wish I had your legs,’ Georgina mused. Georgina often commented that she was envious of Amanda’s legs. They had the defined calf muscles of someone who kept fit.

  Amanda worked out several times a week and she enjoyed keeping her body in shape, it made her feel good to work up a sweat. Plus it was good for business. Amanda smiled warmly, She took pride in her bodies wellbeing, she enjoyed the feeling of being fit and toned, and it also made her feel good to know her best friend appreciated it.

  ‘Hey, don’t be getting a big head over that comment,’ Georgina said.

  Amanda looked back at her friend and raised her eyebrows in mock indignation.

  ‘I’ll stop now, if I said anything else, your head would swell to be as big as your tits, and that’s big,’ Georgina mocked.

  ‘Ooh, you gobshite,’ Amanda remarked. ‘You wish you had these bad boys Georgie,’ she said.

  ‘What? So men would constantly talk to my chest rather than my face? Keep dreaming girlfriend,’ Georgina said dismissively, waving her hand.

  Amanda gasped melodramatically. ‘How dare you insult “The Cleavage!” You’ll pay for that!’ Amanda leapt at a shocked Georgina and pushed her back onto the bed. She sat on her belly and grabbed her wrists, pinning them to the bed. ‘Breast attack,’ she called, laughing as she leant forward and pressed her chest into Georgina’s face.

  Georgina yelped and struggled beneath Amanda. ‘Arrrgh, get them off me, its death by cleavage,’ Georgina exclaimed. She struggled a little more, but she was laughing so much now that all the strength went out of her.

  Amanda howled with laughter as well, fell off her friend and lay on her back next to her.

  Georgina just laid where she was, giggling in mirth. ‘Those things are dangerous.’

  ‘Lethal weapons,’ Amanda remarked between sniggers. ‘They’ve never failed me yet,’ she muttered proudly.

  Amanda had blossomed early in life, something she had found embarrassing as a young girl. Now however, her busty chest had become something she felt more than a little proud of, and they were great for business.

  ‘I thought you were thinking of getting an enlargement soon?’ Amanda said.

  Georgina went quiet, she slowly sat up, moved to the edge of the bed and stopped laughing. Amanda watched as Georgina’s mood changed, so she let the smile drop from her face and scooted up next to her friend.

  ‘Hey sweetheart,’ Amanda said, putting her arm round her. ‘I didn’t mean to u
pset you.’ She had mentioned the future, and also something that had related to her getting back to work. She should have realised it would strike a nerve, today of all days.

  Georgina sat there, her head lowered, fresh tears sparkling in her eyes.

  ‘You’ll be grand,’ Amanda comforted. ‘Look, we’ll go and get these silly results, which I’m sure will be negative, and then we’ll go on the lash. We’ll celebrate! Work can wait a night, it’s no big deal. It’ll all be fine, you’ll see, and you’ll wonder what all this fuss was all about.’

  Georgina nodded her head and sniffed back the tears that had formed. ‘You’re right Mandy. I know. You’re a good friend,’ she sniffed.

  Before long, the pair of them had walked arm in arm through the rain to the clinic, only to sit and wait, their umbrella dripping rain water to the linoleum floor of the musty waiting room. They waited for half an hour before Georgina got called through. Amanda had asked if Georgina wanted some company, but she had refused and went in alone. Now Amanda sat looking through the window at the city outside and at the throngs of people walking the streets in the rain going about their business for the day.

  She had often thought of the choices she had made to get here, whether she had done the right thing in life. It felt right, or at least being in New York felt right. It might be a world away from where she had grown up, but she knew she wanted to be in New York. This city had fascinated her for years as a child, and it still did. A wonder of the modern world, it was unique. Arriving in the city had always been breath taking and the huge sky scrapers were astounding to see. She had always maintained that everyone should visit it at least once in his or her lifetime. You could walk down any one street and hear several different languages spoken within moments, like a true melting pot of culture and religion. It had its ugly areas, its seedy side, every city did, but even that made it all the more appealing in that sexy paradoxical way that big cities seem to embody.

  As a child, Amanda had looked at photos and pictures of the city and longed to wander its streets, now she worked those same streets most nights as a prostitute. She pondered this, wondering if she would have followed the same path had she known that little fact a few years ago?

  Amanda continued to stare out of the clinic window from her plastic seat an hour later, looking out into the rain. Georgina had been in the consulting room for a long time. It couldn’t be good, no good news takes that long to explain. Amanda sighed, since Georgina had come through her door and told her about her possible infection; Amanda had worked the streets alone. Georgina didn’t want to spread it around, if it was indeed AIDS. So Amanda worked double time and supported both of them. Georgina’s condition had worsened a little over time and she seemed constantly ill, which worried Amanda. Why do bad things happen to good people she thought. It wasn’t fair, but then life generally isn’t. Amanda knew that better than most. Some people would say a hooker deserved to get infected, but Amanda didn’t agree. No one deserved to get something like AIDS, that was horrific, she wouldn’t wish that on her worst enemy.

  Amanda turned from the window and crossed her legs, she wished the clinic would fix their broken heater; it was freezing cold in here. She had goose bumps showing all up her thighs.

  Off to one side a man sat in a seat reading a magazine. He’d been glancing over at Amanda for the past half hour since he’d arrived with his wife; it was probably the tiny denim skirt and high heels that were doing it. When he noticed her looking back he quickly pretended not to have seen her and went back to his magazine, so she did her best to ignore him and continued to wait patiently. Every now and then the man would steal another look, but he wasn’t leering any more. When his wife came out from her appointment, he got up to leave with her and had one last look over at Amanda. She looked right back at him and raised one questioning eyebrow, and as they passed by she just couldn’t resist.

  ‘Had your eyeful yet?’ she challenged. The man’s wife looked back at him, then at Amanda, then back at her husband in disgust. The man just looked embarrassed and ashamed.

  ‘Let’s go,’ the wife said, and they made their way towards the exit. ‘She’s probably a whore,’ the wife muttered as they walked outside.

  Amanda raised her eyebrows to herself, the man had probably realised that little fact already, so she wondered if she would see him on the street one night. She had serviced her fair share of men like him. Most of the tricks she turned were married men. Even if the ring was off, you could see the indentation it left on the finger. She wondered whom they were kidding, trying to hide that fact from her. She just pitied their wives living under the impression they were sharing a monogamous relationship when in fact the men they loved were getting their rocks off with a hooker.

  The sound of a door went again and Amanda looked up quickly. That sound made her jump every time, but this time it was justified as a nurse stepped out, saw her and beckoned to her. Amanda jumped up and darted over, heels clicking all the way. The nurse smiled at Amanda, a smile that said things were bad.

  Reaching the consulting room, the nurse led Amanda inside to where her friend sat in front of a desk. Georgina looked up at Amanda, stood, and wrapped her arms around her friend. The tears came quickly, but fell in silence and without drama, she seemed almost resigned to her fate.

  ‘Hey, hey. It’s OK, I’m here,’ Amanda said. But Georgina just kept on crying.

  The nurse stood next to them, her hand on Georgina’s back, her face nothing but sympathy.

  Amanda looked at her, her expression a silent question.

  The nurse leaned into Georgina and whispered, ‘Shall I tell her?’ Georgina nodded. The nurse turned to Amanda. ‘I’m afraid its bad news. It’s as we feared, she has indeed got AIDS. The prognosis isn’t good.’

  Georgina went weak at the knees and the pair of them fell to the floor, Amanda held onto Georgina as she collapsed. Kneeling, Amanda hugged her friend, she didn’t have the words to express herself to her only friend, so she just held her close, tears making tracks down her own cheeks. Her friend was dying, that’s all that mattered now.

  In the following weeks there were more tests, and more results. Georgina had a few years to live at most, but Amanda sensed they weren’t telling them everything. The tests kept coming and the prognosis got worse.

  A few weeks after finding out that her friend had AIDS, Amanda stopped by Georgina’s apartment to find her looking a little shell shocked. It turned out that she had received a letter that morning from a solicitor in Ireland who had been sorting out the estate of one of Georgina’s few remaining family members. Her parents had passed away years ago having had Georgina late in life. She knew she had some more family somewhere, but she had never been close to them and had never been that interested either. The man had been her uncle and it seemed like he had chosen to leave Georgina something in his will. Amanda accompanied Georgina to the meeting with the New York branch of the firm, where they discovered that she had become the proud owner of a cottage in the north of Ireland, Donegal to be precise.

  Amanda’s jaw had dropped, she’d grown up in Donegal at an Orphanage there. Amanda had often spoke of Ireland and made no secret of her desire to return to her country of birth someday so it didn’t come as such a huge surprise when Georgina suggested they both move over there. Georgina seemed to be deteriorating right before her eyes, every day she seemed a little worse. Spending her last few months in the countryside of Ireland would clearly be preferable to wasting away in this dingy apartment block.

  Georgina had been saving her earnings for years meaning that she could go over to Ireland pretty much straight away, her savings paying for the flight over there, the shipping of some of her things and the professional home care that she would need. In addition to the cottage, her uncle had left her quite a large sum of money, but Georgina couldn’t get to it as it had to be used purely for the cottages utilities and would last for years to come, meaning only food needed to be bought.

  It became clear ear
ly on that Amanda wasn’t able to go over right away, for a start she just didn’t have enough money. Georgina nearly pulled out, she didn’t want to go to Ireland on her own, but Amanda remained insistent. She wouldn’t see her friends dream fall apart now, and Georgina was in no shape to argue.

  Amanda could have been over within a few weeks if she only needed to pay for the flight. But Amanda needed a passport, and as an illegal alien, that meant she would need to buy one off the black market, something which turned out to be an expensive endeavour. Meanwhile she worked hard to earn as much as she could and to save enough to pay for her flight, food for weeks if not months as well as having a little something extra for emergencies.

  Shortly before she left, the doctor told Georgina she had the JC Virus, which caused something called PML. It had a long-winded name that Amanda couldn’t remember but the effect was clear. Georgina would die in less than a year, maybe within a few months. Amanda felt devastated, but she remained strong in front of her friend, only crying alone in bed at night.

  A week later Georgina had departed for Ireland and Amanda promised she would follow as soon as she could, working the streets harder than ever in the meantime. Alone, in her apartment, Amanda would offer a silent prayer to whoever might be listening that she would see her friend again before she died.

  “We found what we think is the entrance to the final tomb today, it’s just a huge stone slab, but the guys are pretty sure we can break through it tomorrow morning. Amy was on our back again today. We know she represents the patron of the dig, but does she have to be so anal and superstitious all the time? She scared off the local guides with her mumbo jumbo, now she’s ranting on about curses and magic. It’s ridiculous, all Amy does all day is rant and look at the finds in her tent, you’d think she’d have better things to do. Jonathon spoke to us tonight, we’re going to wake up early and get started without her. Stephanie loved that idea.

  I have to admit though, now I think about it, when I passed by that final door today by myself, I did feel a little freaked out by something. I couldn’t say what, but I got a shiver down my spine. It’s probably nothing, just some nerves brought on by Amy’s idiocy. After all, I haven’t been scared of the dark since I was four.”