by Ike Hamill
“When enemies would come for Abil-Ili, he would rise to his feet and declare himself protected by God. But it wasn’t God who protected Abil-Ili, it was the demons on the wind. Through my study, I too have mastered those demons. I say, ‘Carry me, demons of the Eastern Wind. Carry me away from my foes and deliver me from their attacks.’”
A light wind rolled through the crowd from the back to the front. Lily shook her head, rejecting the notion that Ricky could have orchestrated the wind. It must have been a coincidence. She lifted herself up to her tiptoes. The reflected sun wasn’t very bright. She wondered how he was going to pull off the optical illusion that he was levitating.
Ricky raised one hand and switched off the microphone clipped to his lapel. The speakers gave out a little squeal and then went silent. Meanwhile, Ricky had closed his eyes and was whispering his mantra. Even from her distance, Lily could see his lips moving.
She heard the gasp from the front row before she saw the trick.
At first, Ricky just looked like he was standing taller. Someone in the front row jumped up from their seat and ran off to the side. One kid started clapping, but stopped after only a few claps. Ricky kept getting taller and taller.
Lily knew what was supposed to happen, but the suspense still made her chest feel tight.
She saw his feet as he rose up over the stage. He must have been two or three feet above the level of the box on the stage when the murmurs broke out. Lily caught individual words like, “Strings,” or “Wires.” One confident man in front of her said, “Magnets,” over and over, like saying it would make it true. Still, Ricky rose. Sarah reached down and peeled Lily’s fingers from her arm. Lily hadn’t realized how tight she was squeezing.
Sarah took her hand and they watched.
Ricky was at least eight feet above this stage when his eyes flew open. His head was even with the top of the backdrop. When he looked down at the audience below, a look of horror made his eyes grow wide.
Somewhere in the crowd, a woman screamed.
Lily and Sarah both took a step back. People at the edges of the crowd were beginning to disperse. The idea of Ricky defying gravity was more than they cared to deal with on a lovely Saturday afternoon.
Sarah jerked her arm until Lily looked at her. Sarah pointed with her free hand and Lily looked over her shoulder. There were at least a dozen of the hovering things in the sky now.
When another person screamed, they both looked back to Ricky. He had been busy for the split second that they had looked away. Ricky was now high above the stage. He was higher than the roofline of the Village Peddler shop, and that roof was tall. She wondered if he would just float away, like a hot air balloon.
“We have to help him,” Sarah said.
Chapter 21 : Prescott
[ Trick ]
WHILE RICKY DUNN PERFORMED his little magic show, Trina was only giving him maybe a third of her attention. She was keeping an eye on her cousin, and trying to spot the things that were giving him such fits. She had only really gotten a good look at the one near the rock. It had left a mark on Gerard’s hand before it ran off into the woods. Trina was surprised at how protective she felt about him. She had wanted to bandage up his cut and tell him it was going to be okay. But he was a grown man. Just because she was responsible for him didn’t make her his new mother.
Trina also spent some of her focus on the woman who had run through the woods. She vaguely recognized her. She was one of those fancy newcomers who had bought a place up on the hill. At one time, those houses on that side of the road would have been affordable for locals. They didn’t have shorefront or a good view, but they were easy walking distance to both. Once the golf course went in, even those places started to rise in price. Some of the people who bought them seemed like perfectly nice folks, but then they did something crazy, like running through the woods with a vacant look on their face. Trina watched the woman thread through the crowd and wondered what she was up to.
Then came Ricky’s big trick. She had known Ricky forever. At one point, before Ricky was born, Trina was actually pretty good friends with Ricky’s mom, Mary. Then that whole mess with Vernon Dunn and Jim Stratton had upset the applecart.
Ricky spoke with a deep voice and talked about ancient times or some such.
“They’re closing in,” Gerard said.
Trina shushed him.
Some kid clapped and Trina looked back to Ricky. He looked like his feet were rising up over the stage. Trina looked for some kind of ropes lifting him, or maybe he was on a glass platform. She couldn’t see anything. Her eyesight wasn’t the greatest—the day had brought plenty of reminders of that.
“How’s he doing that?” Trina whispered to Gerard.
“He’s not,” Gerard said.
Ricky kept floating up. The people around her were starting to get disturbed by it as Ricky went higher than the curtain. He must have been twenty feet in the air when real panic set in with the crowd.
Their attention was drawn back to the stage as a skinny woman in a dress climbed up and turned to face the group. Trina recognized her—it was April Yettin. She was batshit crazy, and to Trina’s mind it should have been completely obvious, even if someone were seeing her for the first time.
“You better run,” the woman screamed. “You better run before they come for you. You’re all going to be torn apart by their metal claws.”
The reaction from the crowd was mixed. Some people seemed worried or afraid. Others tried on cautious smiles. They looked around as if they thought this might be an elaborate hoax. Trina looked in the direction of some pointing fingers and saw a little squad of little hovering helicopters. She thought they might be cameras there to video the event. Maybe they were all part of a hoax. But no stunt would involve April Yettin. She was legitimately disturbed.
“Come on, Gerard,” she said. She glanced up at Ricky—the boy looked like he was beginning to panic—and then she started to move around the crowd. She would try to get April settled down before she hurt herself.
“Oh, good,” she whispered. She saw Harold Yettin, April’s uncle, climbing the side of the stage. If anyone knew what to do, it was him. Still, she kept approaching, just in case he needed help. She saw Mary Dunn at the side of the stage. The concerned mother was pointing and shouting something up to Ricky. Her voice was lost. The crowd’s murmurs had erupted into loud arguments and conversations. The mood was turning on the gathering.
Trina was almost to the stage when she saw Vernon Dunn sprinting towards the stage from the road. His truck was still moving. He must have abandoned it and forgotten to shut if off. It rolled slowly into a tree.
Trina wondered if this was all it took. Just one little thing went sideways and suddenly the whole world looked like it wanted to fall apart. Panic was sweeping through the people like an infection. Chaos blossomed.
She saw Lily and her friend Sarah. They had found a big orange extension cord and they were trying to throw it up to Ricky. The boy had stopped rising, but he was floating towards the lake. Trina thought that might be fine—at least the water wouldn’t break his legs if he suddenly tumbled down.
As she got to the stage, April pulled away from her uncle and ran.
“You’re too fat!” April yelled at Harold. “They’ll come for you first.”
April jumped down and practically fell right into Trina’s arms.
“It’s okay. It’s okay,” Trina said. She tried to sound calm, rational, and reassuring as the world was falling apart around them.
“It’s not okay,” April said, shaking her head. “I know you.”
“That’s right. I went to school with your brother, remember? I came to your Y2K New Year’s party, remember?”
April looked in her eyes and Trina thought that she was going to be okay. She seemed to be getting ahold of herself. Then, April looked over Trina’s shoulder and saw Gerard.
“Marked!” April shouted. She worked her arm free from Trina and pointed at Gerard. “He’s
got the mark.”
“April, that’s just my cousin,” Trina said. She had to raise her voice to be heard over the crowd. She glanced at the mass of people. Some were trying to leave and others seemed content to stand and argue. Trina couldn’t tell what they were shouting about, but the exchanges were growing heated.
April cackled a crazy laugh and Trina looked back to Gerard. He was running.
“Shoot,” Trina said. She looked from April to Gerard—one crazy person to the other. “Go with your uncle,” she said. She pushed April towards Harold, who had climbed down from the stage and was coming towards them.
Trina ran after Gerard.
She didn’t make it far.
Chapter 22 : Dunn
[ Rescue ]
VERNON COULDN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT he was seeing. He steered the truck to the side of the road, came to a stop, and jumped out. He sprinted by the playground to get to the main part of the park where everyone was gathered. There was someone floating in the air above the stage. It was his son.
He saw the two girls, trying to throw an orange extension cord up to Ricky while the people behind them erupted into a riot. They didn’t have the strength to throw the cord high enough. Ricky was drifting towards the lake.
Vernon grabbed the cord as it fell to the ground. He began to make big loops in the extension cord and stacked them up in his left hand. The other end of the cord was attached to something. As he lifted it, it came up taut and tripped a woman who was running towards the back of the stage. It was Trina.
“Sorry,” he said in her direction. “Ricky!” he yelled. “Ricky, you need to catch this.”
He made a ball out of the end of the cable and tried to throw it up to his son. He barely had any more luck than the girls. The end didn’t have enough weight to give a good toss. Meanwhile, Ricky was still drifting.
“Here, Dad,” a voice said. He looked down and saw his son George. The kid had dumped out a pitcher of water and was holding the plastic jug with the handle pointing towards Vernon. He nodded and handed the end of the cord to his son. George looped the cable through the handle and whipped a quick knot in it. The tension was relieved from the other end of the cable. Vernon looked up and saw that his wife, Mary, had untied it from the pole where it was plugged in.
“Go ahead,” she called.
He nodded again and took the jug from George. Vernon set the coils down so he could dedicate both hands to the throwing. He swung it once in a quick windup and hurled it upwards. Ricky put out his hands but flubbed the catch. George chased after the jug and ran it back while Vernon and the girls collected the slack back into coils.
“Catch it this time,” George shouted.
“I’m trying,” Ricky yelled down.
Vernon’s second shot nearly hit his son in the head. Ricky got his hands up and the cord tangled around his arms. Soon he had a grip.
“Hold tight,” Vernon said. He took hold of the cable and began to pull. He was no match for Ricky’s buoyancy. Vernon’s feet skidded across the ground as he tried to reel his son in.
“I can’t hold on!” Ricky yelled.
“Tie it off,” Mary yelled up to him. She had moved underneath their son. Some woman was trying to herd her kids out of the park and Mary waved her away. She kept a clear spot underneath Ricky.
The girls, Lily and Sarah, added their hands to the cord and the three of them waited while Ricky finished his knot. He had looped the extension cord around his shoulders and waist. Vernon, Lily, and Sarah pulled. Ricky closed his eyes and looked to be praying.
The cable—at least the plastic jacket—was stretching under his grip. Vernon felt the plastic heating up as he pulled. With the weight of all three of them hanging on Ricky, he began to descend. Vernon saw that a lot of the audience had dispersed. Some of the people who were still there were fighting each other. Vernon didn’t waste any effort trying to figure out why. His focus was on his son.
He gave a good tug and looped the slack around his arm. Using that extra friction, he was able to jerk Ricky down a little more. Behind him, the girls helped him secure his progress by making sure that Ricky didn’t float back upwards while Vernon took up the slack.
George was throwing rocks.
“George! Cut it out!” Vernon yelled between clenched teeth. The cable pulled back upwards with a fierce tug. Ricky cried out. He was caught between whatever was compelling him to stay aloft and the pressure that Vernon was exerting to pull him down.
“Hold tight, Ricky,” Vernon called.
Vernon knew that he couldn’t continue to pull his son down like that. The power cord would break or it would tear his son apart. Ricky was gasping for air up there—struggling to pull in a breath while the power cord tried to squeeze it out of him. Vernon held tight and looked around frantically for something or someone to help.
“Pull down, Ricky,” George yelled.
“Yes!” Vernon said. “That’s a good idea, Ricky. We’ll hold and you pull down.” He didn’t imagine that his son could successfully rescue himself, but any pressure that Ricky took off the cable could only help.
“Vern!” his wife yelled from behind him.
He turned to see her moving fast with a heavy load. She had enlisted the help of John Endicott. The two were humping a big red ladder across the grass. Vernon looked around for more help.
“Lily, go get your parents. Get them to come over here and help.”
Lily looked down at her hands and then let go all at once. She looked up to make sure Ricky wouldn’t fly away. Vernon barely felt the loss of her contribution to the pulling. Between the two girls, Sarah was making the most impact.
Lily ran to where her parents were standing. There were only a few people left out in the park. Everyone else had fled.
Before Lily got back, Trina Prescott came. She took up the orange cord before Vernon could ask.
Vernon ran to where Mary and John Endicott were manipulating the ladder. It was an extension ladder and they struggled to work the mechanism to extend it. With Vernon’s help, they had it squared away quick. He looked up. His son was still floating there at the end of the stretching extension cord. If the ladder reached, it would be a miracle.
Mary secured the base while John helped Vernon push it upright. Their position was off. The ladder tipped and nearly overbalanced as Vernon walked it to a spot directly beneath his son. Even straight up, it didn’t reach Ricky’s feet.
“Hold it steady,” Vernon said. “Can you do that?” He started to climb.
“No! Vernon!” Mary yelled. “You’re too heavy. You hold. I climb.”
Vernon looked up. Even if she got to the top, she wasn’t tall enough. He couldn’t argue with her. The look in her eyes couldn’t be denied. She was going to have her way.
“Go,” he said.
Vernon tried to anticipate the effect of her weight on the ladder, but his arms were no match for the pressure. The higher she climbed, the more the thing wanted to tip. Worse—he felt the base wanting to kick out. He and John were just about to lose the battle to keep it upright when Bruce Hazard ran over. He put his feet on the bottom rung and hung off the thing, pulling the ladder back to square. Meanwhile, Mary climbed. With every rung, the entire equation changed and they had to adjust. Vernon looked up and blinked at the falling sand from Mary’s shoes. Her hands were beyond the top rung. She was trying to balance herself so she could go even higher.
“Careful!” he yelled. Vernon saw a rock sail over her head. He looked down at saw George throwing again. “George! Quit!”
“I’m trying to hit the bugs,” George yelled.
Vernon ignored him. When he looked up again, he blinked and had to take a deep breath to keep himself steady. Mary was on the second-highest rung, balanced on one foot. She had her other leg out for balance. She was a graceful person, but what she was attempting would take a superhuman amount of coordination. Vernon tried to loosen his grip on the ladder a little, so his shaking hands wouldn’t topple his wife.
/> [ Reaching ]
Mary swiped at Ricky’s foot. She was convinced that if she could just grab her son, their combined weight would pull him down. He was just beyond her reach. There was one rung left. Her shin was pressed against it. Without looking down, she pulled her other leg back in and felt for the last rung. She used her swaying arms to keep her balance and maintained perfect focus on her levitating son. Ricky would never tell her how he did his tricks, but she resolved to beat this secret out of him when she got him back to the ground.
Her foot touched the top rung and she felt stable. His foot was just a few inches above her hand. If she still couldn’t reach him, she would just jump. Mary made her resolution and immediately acted. There was no sense in procrastinating.
She knew she had made a mistake as soon as she put her weight on the top rung. Ricky had been suspended in the same patch of air during her whole climb. Right now, when she was committing herself to reaching him, he began to float away. She pushed up and her hand swiped through empty air.
Her weight pitched forward and there was nothing to stop her. As her eyes turned back towards the ground, she saw that nothing was going to stop her son either. All the people holding onto the orange cable were being dragged across the ground. Mary kicked at the ladder. She was doomed to fall, but she could at least push herself far enough that she wouldn’t land on Bruce Hazard’s head.
The straight line of the orange extension cord was right there in front of her. She grabbed at it with both hands. Her momentum was too much for her grip. Mary tried to hold on, but the cord slipped between her hands, taking a generous amount of skin with it. Mary didn’t give up, she pulled the cord in towards her body as she fell and used the friction to slow her fall.
She felt the bottom of the extension cord go slack. After being dragged by Ricky, and weighed down by Mary, people were losing their grip below. She looked up as she fell and saw Ricky’s body bending with her added weight. As he folded over, the cord slipped from him. Mary tumbled the last five feet to the ground and landed in a heap. She looked up for Ricky, but instead saw the ladder. Her husband and a couple other people were wrestling with it as it fell. It crashed to the ground too.