by Tara Maya, Elle Casey, J L Bryan, Anthea Sharp, Jenna Elizabeth Johnson, Alexia Purdy (epub)
“No, I want to see what you guys are doing,” Katie said.
“Katie, we need to talk alone for a minute,” Jason said.
“Then I'll tell Mom you had a girl come over!”
Jason sighed. Katie really had him trapped on that one.
“Okay, Katie,” Jason said. “But you can't tell Mom and Dad what I'm about to show you.”
“Is it a secret?” Katie whispered, with her hands over her mouth.
“Yep, it's a big secret.”
“I like secrets,” Erin said. She winked, and Jason thought he might melt.
“It's out in the garage.” Jason led them down the steps to the living room, and from there into the garage.
“Are we going to play?” Erin took out her harmonica.
“Maybe.” Jason knelt by his dad's old Corvette and slid out a cardboard box covered with a drop cloth. He'd moved the instruments into it when they shrank to toy size.
Now he removed the drop cloth. Erin and Katie leaned forward to look at the little instruments, all of them carved with fairy runes: the lute with the amethysts in the soundboard, the reed pipes, the silver harp, the drum.
“Oooh, pretty!” Katie said.
“What are these for?” Erin asked.
Jason took a deep breath. “Okay. So the other night, this...goblin sneaks into my house.”
“Goblin?” Erin raised an eyebrow.
“It's true!” Katie said. “He was a ugly green monster!”
“Oh...a goblin,” Erin said, as if this were just a game for Katie's benefit, and she was playing along. “I bet that was scary.”
“But Jason runned him off!” Katie added.
“Yeah...” Jason actually felt a little relieved Katie was here to back up his story. “So I chased the goblin over to Mrs. Dullahan's house. You know Mrs. Dullahan?”
“I know of her,” Erin said. “With the creepy house on the edge of town?”
“She's a witch!” Katie said.
“So, I chase the goblin there, and then...I follow him into the fairy world.”
“I like fairies!” Katie contributed.
“And I found these instruments,” Jason said. “They're magic.”
Erin looked from Jason to Katie, as if trying to figure out the joke.
Jason picked up the lute. “The problem is, they shrank when I brought them back. Just like the goblin—he was smaller when he was here, but he was taller in the fairy world. Still pretty short, though. Everyone over there was short, except for the ogres.”
“Of course…the ogres.” Erin looked puzzled. And a little worried. She crossed her arms tight and leaned back, away from him.
“Yeah, I know it sounds crazy,” Jason said. “But these things make amazing music. Just listen to this, okay?”
Erin stared at him, frowning.
“This isn’t really funny, Jason,” she said.
“You’ll see what I mean. Trust me.” Jason touched his guitar pick to one string of the lute, took a deep breath, then plucked it and let it hum. A deep, melancholy sound filled the garage, and he suddenly felt very sad.
He plucked the next string, a higher note, and now he felt wistful, nostalgic, thinking of the time his team had won the county Little League championship. And his fifth birthday party. And his Grandmother baking sugar cookies on Christmas Eve.
Erin frowned and looked away. “That's really powerful,” she said, and she sounded a little sad, too.
He plucked the next string, and as it vibrated its slightly higher tone, he felt lonely.
“I wish we had a dog,” Katie said. “I would hug him all the time.”
The fourth string cheered everybody up. He was glad to be here, with Erin and even his pesky little sister. The girls smiled a little.
The fifth string made everyone laugh and brought fresh, happy energy into the room. The sixth put a huge, blissful smile on everyone's face.
“I like that one best,” Katie said.
“It's like each one makes you feel something different,” Erin said. “Three kinds of sadness, three kinds of happiness.”
“And when you play them all together...” Jason strummed the pick across all six strings.
Erin closed her eyes as the music passed through her. “Oh...wow. That's really beautiful.”
“Play it some more, Jason!” Katie demanded. “I want more!”
“That's what we like to hear from the audience,” Erin said. She smiled at Jason.
“Want to try a whole song?” Jason asked.
“Sure.” Erin took out her harmonica.
“You should try this.” Jason handed her the matchbook-sized set of reed pipes. “You play it like a harmonica.”
“Pan pipes,” Erin said. “That's neat. But they're too small to play.” Erin held them to her lips. “I'd just blow all the pipes at once.” She set it aside and put her harmonica to her lips. “I'll stick with old reliable Monica here.”
“What should we play?” Jason set the small lute face-up on his lap.
“I'd really like to hear how 'Remember' sounds on that lute,” Erin said. “Think you can handle it?”
“I think so.” Jason began playing Erin's song 'Remember' on the lute strings. He used the same hand positions and strings he would have used if he were playing his guitar. The music came out deep, rich and heartbreaking. The lute grew warm in his hands.
Erin followed along with her harmonica for a few bars, then she sang:
Remember the day when you were young,
Remember the time when you believed,
Remember the world where you were loved,
Remember the years when you felt free...
The guitar squirmed like a live animal in Jason's hands. The bent neck straightened out, and the whole lute swelled larger.
“Whoa, what's happening?” Jason asked. “Are you seeing this?”
“That’s not possible, is it?” Erin poked at the lute. “It looks like it’s alive or something.”
“It’s magic!” Katie said.
“Let's keep playing,” Erin said. “I want to see what happens.”
They played all the way through ‘Remember,’ while the lute grew and shifted in his hands. The enchanted instrument brought an incredible power to the song, and all three of them were in tears by the time Erin sang the last verse:
Remember the promise you never kept,
Nothing you said was ever true.
I know you’ve forgotten all about me,
But I’ll never forget about you.
Jason couldn’t stop crying. It felt like the song had ripped him open. Katie was blubbering loudly, while Erin held her hands over her face and shuddered.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Jason whispered. He patted Katie’s head with one hand. “Erin? That was really good. You write amazing songs.”
Erin kept sobbing into her hands.
“Are you okay?” Jason asked.
Erin slowly lowered her hands, revealing a face that was red and streaked with tears. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cry.”
“Everybody is,” Jason said.
“You know why I was such a spaz about that necklace?” Erin asked. “That was the last birthday present my dad gave me. When I was nine. He left like a month later. Now it’s a five-dollar bill in my birthday card, if he remembers at all. And he usually doesn’t.”
“I’m sorry.” Jason took her hand. “Is that what the song is about? Your parents’ divorce?”
“It’s stupid.” Erin pulled her hand away from him and pushed blond and green hair back from her face. “Stupid song.”
“It’s not,” Jason said.
“Can you play something happy now?” Katie asked.
Erin laughed and wiped her eyes. “That’s a good idea, Katie. Let’s play my happiest song.”
“‘Stolen Rhino’?” Jason asked.
Erin smiled and blew a few jazzy, upbeat sounds on her harmonica.
“Wait,” Jason said. He picked up the little pan pipes and held
them out to her. “Play this.”
“It’s too little.”
“It might not stay that way.” Jason thumped the instrument in his lap, and Erin gaped.
The lute had transformed into a guitar. Not only was it full-sized, but it fit perfectly in Jason’s arms, as if it had been custom-built for him. The fairy runes were carved all over the guitar, giving it a strange, engraved texture under his fingers. The little amethysts were still embedded here and there in the soundboard, but they hadn’t changed size at all, so they looked tiny.
“That’s amazing,” Erin said. She took the little pan pipes from his hand and studied them. “Where did you get these instruments, again?”
“It’s just what I said,” Jason told her. “There’s a door to the fairy world in Mrs. Dullahan’s yard. That’s where I found them.”
“I want to go to the fairy world!” Katie said.
“It’s very dangerous over there,” Jason said. “And crazy. I’m not going back.”
“But I want to,” she complained.
“You really don't,” Jason said. Now he felt like an idiot for talking about fairies in front of his little sister—of course she'd be interested. “They aren't nice fairies like in stories. They carry big swords and they walk around threatening everyone. They're nasty, scary fairies. You have to stay away, Katie.”
“Scary fairies?” Katie pouted. Her eyes were still puffy from crying.
“Scary fairies,” Jason repeated, nodding.
Erin held the tiny pipes to her lips and blew. The sound was haunting, and a cool breeze seemed to pass through the garage, though the doors to the outside were closed.
The pipes swelled in her hands as if she were blowing up a row of balloons. Then the instrument was large enough for her to play each pipe individually. As with the lute-turned-guitar, each pipe gave a different sound and inspired a different, overpowering emotion. As Erin blew on the pipes, Jason felt like his brain was working faster, generating lots of ideas. He was getting excited.
“Are you ready to play yet?” Katie asked.
“I’m ready,” Erin said, giving Jason a smile. She blew some bright notes through the more cheerful-toned pipes. “I’m not too sure how to play this thing.”
“Just treat it like it’s your harmonica,” Jason said. “I think it adapts to you.”
“Cool!” Erin played more notes, and the pan pipes wiggled to fit better into her fingers. Erin laughed. “It tickles.”
Jason began playing “Stolen Rhino” on his guitar. It was a fast, peppy, simple song.
Erin accompanied him on the pipes. The guitar vibrated in his hands, tuning into the pipe sound and harmonizing with it. Hot wind tousled his hair, but he couldn’t tell where it was coming from.
Erin lowered the pipes and sang:
You took me for a date at the zoo
Said my love left something to prove
So I did all I knew to do
I stole a fat rhinoceros for you!
Stolen rhino, in my car
Stolen rhino, now love me more
Stolen rhino, I did it for you
Stolen rhino, don’t make me steal two!
Katie was laughing her head off. Erin played a musical interlude. The pan pipes shifted and molted in her fingers, and finally settled into the shape of a wooden harmonica carved with fairy runes.
After the fun song, the whole room seemed to glow, as if everyone and everything were infused with a warm, golden light.
“I love that song!” Katie shouted. “Play it again now!”
Jason and Erin’s eyes met, and they both burst into uncontrollable giggles, and then full-blown hysterical laughter, as if they’d both had nitrous oxide at the dentist’s office. It was a few minutes before they could calm down enough to talk again.
“Wow,” Erin said. She looked at her new harmonica, Jason’s guitar, and the little drum and harp still in the box. “Wow, wow, wow. I’m starting to believe you really got these from fairies.”
“I wasn’t kidding.”
“We have to call Mitch and Dred!” Erin said. “Like, tonight. We have to get together and jam with these new instruments and see what they can do.”
“I want to come!” Katie said.
“I can’t go anywhere tonight,” Jason said. “I’m grounded, plus I have to work at my new job. My dad could check to make sure I’m there. He does that.”
“Where are you working?” Erin asked.
Jason looked down at the floor. “Buddy McSlawburger’s.”
“You’re working at Bloody McSlobberbooger's?” Erin laughed. “Do you wear the funny hat?”
“Everyone has to wear the funny hat.”
“We have to do this soon,” Erin said. “I’m dying to see Mitch and Dred’s faces when they see this.”
“Then it’ll have to be during the day when my parents are gone,” Jason said.
“I wanna come, too!” Katie said.
“And it’ll have to be a day I’m not babysitting Katie.”
“I’m not a baby.”
“Okay,” Erin said. “Let’s call them and figure out a time. I’m so excited, Jason!”
Erin hugged his neck tight, and Jason wished he wasn’t sitting in a chair, and that there wasn’t a guitar between them.
Chapter Twelve
In Mitch's garage, Mitch sat at his keyboard and Dred sat behind her drum kit. They stared as if Jason and Erin had lost their minds. It was Thursday afternoon, the first time all four of them could get together.
“I'm serious,” Erin said, holding up her new, rune-engraved harmonica. “Magic instruments.”
“Right,” Dred said.
“There are two more.” Jason took the two remaining toy-sized instruments out of the cardboard box he'd brought over. “Dred, obviously you get the drum. So that leaves you with the harp, Mitch.” He gave Mitch the little silver harp, and Mitch just looked at it, puzzled.
“How am I supposed to play this thing?” Mitch asked.
“You'll see.” Jason held out the muffin-sized drum to Dred, who just stared at it like it was a dead fish. He set it down on her snare drum.
“This is really sad, you guys,” Dred said. “How can you both go completely insane on the same day?”
“Let's just play a little,” Erin said. “Watch.”
Erin started the tune to “First Road Out of Here” on her harmonica. A cool breeze passed through the hot garage, stirring some magazines stacked next to Mitch's keyboard. The Claudia Lafayette poster on the wall billowed out at the bottom, since it was secured only by thumbtacks at the top.
Dred and Mitch looked at each other while the gentle breeze tossed their hair.
Jason joined in, and the breeze became hotter. The guitar was warm.
The little wind stopped when Erin lowered the harmonica to sing the lyrics. The song conjured intense feelings in Jason, a combination of loneliness and wanderlust and a touch of nostalgia, a stronger reaction than he’d ever had to it before.
“Those are amazing,” Mitch said, when Erin stopped singing for a harmonica interlude in the middle of the song. Mitch strummed the little harp with his fingertip. “Great sound, but how do I play it?”
“Turn it on its side,” Jason said. “Pretend it's the strings of a piano.”
“It won't work that way,” Mitch said.
“It will in a minute.”
Mitch rolled his eyes and turned the harp on its side. He tapped at the strings, as if his fingertips were the hammers inside a piano. The harp expanded and reshaped itself, growing more strings in between the existing ones. A keyboard grew out of the side facing Mitch, the black keys made of onyx, the white made of opal.
“Whoa!” Mitch stood up and backed away. “That's all kinds of messed up. What's happening?”
“It's adapting to you,” Jason said. “You have to keep playing so it'll finish changing.”
“Changing into what?”
“Whatever works best for you.”
Mitc
h played the keys, and the strings vibrated as he did it, though there weren't any hammers tapping them. A gleaming silver lid unfolded from one edge of the harp and closed over the strings. Buttons made of gemstones blossomed across the top, imitating his synthesizer keyboard.
Mitch shook his head, but he kept playing. The keyboard's sound was deep and rich.
Dred just gaped. She hadn't touched the little drum Jason had given her.
They reached the end of the song.
“This must be some kind of weird dream,” Mitch said. “I'm dreaming, right? This can't happen.”
“Let's do another song,” Erin said.
“How about 'Nuclear Morning'?” Mitch suggested. “I want to hear how that sounds on these things.”
Erin started with the harmonica part, and Jason and Mitch joined in. Dred sat back, arms folded, shaking her head.
The keyboard sprouted silver wires that snaked around and plugged into Mitch's other keyboards, as well as the small laptop he kept connected to increase his range of sample and sound options. The old keyboard and the laptop turned silver, and the fairy runes etched themselves all over the surface of them, as if the magical instrument was infecting them like a virus.
“Whoa, whoa!” Mitch backed away again. “That is crazy.” Jason and Erin stopped playing.
“Keep playing!” a voice yelled.
The elementary school kids from Mitch's neighborhood who sometimes watched them practice, two boys and a girl, were standing in the driveway. All three were watching the band intently.
“Mitch, the audience demands more,” Erin said with a grin. “Are you ready?”
Mitch looked at Dred, who still had her arms folded. “Dred?”
“I think you're right, Mitch,” Dred said. “I'm the one having a crazy dream. I'm just going to sit here until I wake up.”
“It's not a dream,” Jason said. “These were made by fairies—”
“No, no, I heard the story,” Dred said. “It's nonsense. This is all just...nonsense.”
“Play some more!” another kid demanded. A fourth kid, one Jason hadn't seen before, who had just arrived on a skateboard.
“Something for the skater kid,” Erin said. “Which song do you think, Mitch?”