The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic
Page 69
“Of course not.”
“I can’t believe you, Nora! You are so retarded.”
“Don’t say ‘retarded.’” Kathy was strict on this point—no insults that slighted the disabled.
“Why not?” Ramona’s voice rose on strong wings of outrage. “You were learning magic—from a magician—in a castle, and you decided to come back here to be a Muggle. That’s the textbook definition of retarded. You know how lucky you were?”
“Not so loud,” Nora hissed. Leigh was upstairs; Kathy would be home any minute. “I had to make a choice, Ramona. I chose you guys. I missed you. Everyone thought I was dead. When I was here that night, I saw how upset you were. Dad was drunk because of me. And now he’s not drinking. So, yeah, I made the right choice.”
“Oh, Dad getting drunk, that stopped months ago,” Ramona said matter-of-factly. “Mom blew up over Christmas and he goes to AA now. They think I don’t know.”
“Oh. Well, that’s good,” Nora said, taken aback. “But I had to come back so that everyone would stop worrying.”
“Well, yeah,” Ramona said. “But I thought you came back only for a little while, to show them you were okay. I didn’t know you were going to stay. Don’t you miss that other place at all? Don’t you miss the magic?” She was tensed, as though ready for Nora to deliver bad news.
“Yes, I do, very much,” Nora said. She had to take a deep breath, the truth came out so fast. “I can’t tell you how much I miss—everything.” The magic. Aruendiel. Herself.
“I knew it! So you’ll go back?”
“Oh, honey.” Nora hated to say anything to spoil the glee on her sister’s face. “I can’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know how. I came back through a door, and it’s shut now.”
Ramona’s brow furrowed. “But no one said you couldn’t go back, right, the way Aslan keeps telling people they can’t come back? There’s no rule that says you can’t go back?”
“Well, no, but—”
“Arundill will help you get back.” Ramona spoke with utter confidence.
“But I can’t reach him. And he thought I should come back here.”
“Why? That doesn’t make any sense. I bet he didn’t want you to go. And you miss him, too, don’t you?”
By way of answer, Nora gathered her little sister in her arms and hugged her, the way she had wanted to the night when Ramona thought she was a ghost. She felt a little better, although embracing her sister did not crush the loneliness she felt. “How did you get to be so smart?” she whispered in Ramona’s ear.
“I could tell from how he talked to you, that night, he likes you. A lot.”
“I wish I’d been smart enough to see that.”
Ramona studied her for a moment. “You have to go back,” she said simply. “You’ll find a way. We could go camping in those mountains where you got lost, and try to get back from there. Or, your ring!” She grabbed at Nora’s hand. “It’s magic, isn’t it? That’s why it broke the clipper at the hospital?”
“But not good magic.” Nora jerked her hand back. That vile ring. How sickening that it was the only tangible connection she had to her other life. Her real life, she could see now.
But if this link survived, she thought slowly, there may be others. There might be other gateways. Going back to the mountains—I could try that. I’ve traveled between worlds twice now. I know something about magic. Surely I can find my way home.
Ramona was still fascinated by the ring. “The only way to get it off is if you cut your finger off,” she was saying. “They’ll call you Nine-fingered Nora.” Delicately she lifted Nora’s ring finger and gave it a nip, her teeth clicking against the gold.
Nora thought of the expression on Aruendiel’s face when she had once made a similar suggestion, and wondered again how she could have been so blind, stupid and blind, she who had prided herself on her discernment. But she only said, “No fighting, no biting,” the way her parents used to when she and EJ were little, when magic was something you only read about in books.
What was it Aruendiel had said? Pick your path with intent. At least, she thought, now I know where I’m going.
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