by Tom Larcombe
The two girls headed down into the basement and started in on the boxes. It was slow going, having to repack each box after they surveyed the contents, but they were finding some clothes they could use. After a while Alicia got bored of sitting and stood up. She danced to music only she could hear as she continued to work her way through the boxes.
Every now and again she'd ignore the boxes entirely and twirl, her eyes closed as she spun.
“Alicia, watch out. You're going to knock things over,” Amber said.
Alicia calmed back down, for the moment at least, sitting on the floor as she went through another box. It wasn't long before she was back on her feet though, dancing away. When she closed her eyes to twirl next time, she was too close to the other section of boxes, the ones belonging to apartment owners.
Amber was sure there was a tiny gust of wind in the basement for just a moment when Alicia started spinning again. Everything seemed fine, but then Alicia leaned too far out of her spin and struck the boxes, sending several of them flying across the floor.
“Alicia!” Amber said.
“Oops, how'd those get there?” Alicia asked.
“Come on, give me a hand picking these up,” Amber said.
“Sure, sure, just a second,” Alicia replied, sounding distracted.
Amber wasn't paying attention to her, she'd already picked the first box up and was putting it back on the stack when Alicia spoke again.
“How he got a picture of you down here?” Alicia asked.
“What?”
Alicia reached over and pulled out a picture from the top of a box. It looked as though it had been slid through the gaps in the top after the box was closed with part of the picture still hanging out.
“This be you. I know it, that's just what you look like when I get to the building.”
Amber took the picture and looked at it. The little girl in the picture looked vaguely familiar to her, but it didn't remind her of herself.
She flipped the picture over and sure enough, written on the back in a feminine hand was:
Amber 7-20-78
“It can't be me,” Amber said. “This picture's almost forty years old.”
“But Charles say that wizards age weird and all that, why can't it be you?”
“Do I look like I'm forty years old?”
“No, but you only look six when I meet you five years ago and still looked that way two years ago. Then all the sudden you look like this. Being forty any weirder than that?”
Amber was trying desperately to count up the years she'd spent in the building. She knew that there'd been three different men in charge over the time she was there. Andrew, the first of them, was really old, probably in his forties, when Jay had taken over.
But how old was Andrew when he found me? I don't remember, just that he looked really old then too. But if I was only six, then could really old have been his twenties? Eric was only around for a few years, maybe five, but how about Jay? I don't remember, it's all a blur.
“You think this is really me?” Amber asked.
“I do think it is.”
“Then let's stop for a minute and go ask Charles. I'm sure it isn't me, but he should know whose box that is, right?”
Alicia looked nervous.
“We got to tell him how we found it?”
“We can just say we were moving around and knocked some boxes over. Then found it when we were putting them back. It's all true.”
“Good,” Alicia said. “Let's go ask him then.”
The two girls headed upstairs to look for Charles. They found him in his apartment, talking with Kathryn.
“Charles,” Alicia called out, “I think I found Amber.”
“I wasn't aware that she was missing,” he said.
“No, I mean, not her. But a picture of her, down in the basement.”
“What?”
Alicia handed Charles the photograph.
“That's just how Amber look when I got to the building. I mean, exactly. I'm sure of it. Plus her name is on the back.”
Charles turned his gaze to Amber, who just shrugged.
“I don't think it's me. I'd have to be forty years old, and just... no.”
“You found this in one of the boxes you were looking through?” he asked.
Alicia got suddenly quiet.
“No, we were moving around and knocked over some boxes from the other stack. The picture was tucked in the top of the box just under the ones that fell over.”
Charles raised an eyebrow.
“Just moving around? Those stacks were several feet apart.”
“Well, one of us might've been spinning around in a circle. But there was a gust of wind that pushed her into the boxes, I'm sure of it.”
Kathryn looked at Charles.
“You don't think it was...” she said.
“If there really was a wind involved, especially in a closed basement, then maybe we ought to at least take a look,” he replied. “But was there really, or is that an excuse?”
“I didn't feel wind at all,” Alicia said. “I was just spinning and it be like someone gave me a little push, knock me off balance.”
Charles looked as though he weren't sure if he should believe them or not, but Kathryn stepped in before he could say anything.
“Well, it doesn't cost anything to go and look. Besides that, stranger things have happened, recently even.”
Charles raised his hands, palms out, to signal defeat.
“Okay, let's go look then,” he said.
The two girls led Charles and Kathryn down to the basement and to the pile of boxes.
* * *
“Alicia said it was tucked in the flap on that one,” Amber said, pointing towards a box kind of in the middle of the pile.
Charles removed a few more boxes so he could get to the one she pointed at. He examined the top of the box.
“Apartment 3-E, it was actually purchased instead of rented, if I remember correctly, but there's been no-one living in it for almost...”
He turned and looked at Amber with a heightened interest.
“Almost forty years,” he finished.
Kathryn was examining Amber.
“I don't see it. Even for a wizard, looking fifteen or so when they're forty is pretty far-fetched.”
Charles looked back at Amber, and this time he looked closely.
“I could swear you look older today than you did when we met. I remember we were talking about you looking about thirteen or fourteen, but you do look older now. Like Kathryn says, you look fifteen, maybe a young-looking sixteen.”
Kathryn's eyes moved over to Charles and one of her eyebrows raised.
“Not that I make a habit of looking at younger girls and guessing their age or anything, I've never been any good with ages, but suffice it to say that you look noticeably older today than you did a couple of days back,” he said.
Kathryn's lifted eyebrow lowered as she broke into a smile.
“Good recovery,” she mouthed to him silently.
Charles rolled his eyes and shook his head.
“So, can we open this then?” Amber asked. “I still think it's crazy, but if you think there's the slightest chance it's tied to me in some way, then I want to know. I'd given up trying to find anything about my parents years ago, but if I can, I want to.”
“See,” Kathryn said. “It's things like that which make me believe there might be some truth to this. How many years ago did you give that up Amber?”
“I don't know. Ten, maybe twelve?”
“So, you were looking for clues about your parents when you were three to five years old? If you were actually your apparent age, that's how old you would've been.”
“Oh...” Amber said, her face going thoughtful. “Maybe it was less than that?”
“I don't think so,” Kathryn replied. “Not with the certainty that you first answered the question.”
“So, there's a chance,” Charles said. “Wizards and aging ha
ve always been strange. Would it be so strange that instead of a wizard's magic keeping them in the prime of life for decades, hers kept her in single digits? From what she's said, the first people that were in charge where she was didn't do anything with kids that age except give them a place to live, maybe groom them for that style of life, but she was safe that way, until Eric started the younger kids on snatch and grab missions.”
“Sort of like a survival instinct?” Kathryn asked.
“I don't know,” Charles replied. “But it sort of makes sense. If magic keeps most wizards in their prime it's probably a survival thing. But if it did that to keep her safe? I mean it's too much like considering magic to have its own intelligence.”
“Wait a moment,” Kathryn said, turning to Amber.
“Amber, do you remember how you felt about the man who found you after the car accident?”
“Oh yeah, Andrew was great. He was nice to his ladies, and even nicer to me. The ladies were too, they're the ones that taught me, them and Andrew. You know, taught me normal things? Like math and reading and writing.”
“So, you felt safe with him?” Kathryn continued.
“Definitely. He kept his ladies safe when they worked and he called me his little lady. Not like his other ladies, just a pet name, but he said that meant he'd keep me safe too. He never did let anything happen to me, even when he got older and had to hire other muscle to protect his ladies. Andrew told me I was his little girl and that was that.”
“See Charles? Her magic was probably working off of how she felt. If she thought that being Andrew's little girl was that safe, it may have kept her that way to keep her safe. No intelligence at all, just more of the survival instinct thing.”
“What about Jay though,” Charles asked.
“I still felt safe with him, but in a different way. I'm pretty sure he thought I was a freak since I didn't age. So anytime he was around me, he just kind of overlooked me. Like I wasn't there, but by that point I was kind of a mascot for everyone else so he didn't want to get rid of me. So, safe, but in a different way.”
“I'm guessing when Eric took over you didn't feel safe any more?” Kathryn asked.
Amber shook her head.
“No, he made it clear from the start that everyone would be helping bring in income, one way or another. Then he assigned people to his groups and told them to get working. I never felt safe with Eric. I always thought he'd toss me out if I didn't help, although from what he said the other night before...”
She shuddered and her face paled.
“before what happened, I'm guessing he would've kept me around even if all I did was sleep twenty-four seven.”
“So, her magic responded by finally letting her body mature? Because being young was no longer good protection?” Charles said.
“It's a theory,” Kathryn replied. “But who knows if it's right.”
“Are you going to open that and see?” Amber asked. “It's my past we're talking about and if there's more of it in that box, I'd really like to know.”
“Yeah, she got a right to know,” Alicia said.
Charles shook his head.
“Well, since the owner's haven't been around in so long, I suppose we could open it.”
Kathryn nodded her head.
“If it's really been forty years? Well, that's a pretty long time for even a wizard to up and disappear. I don't think they'd be upset if they showed up and we explained why.”
Charles pulled out his utility knife and sliced the tape holding the box shut. There'd been a small section of tape removed in the middle already, probably for someone to slide the picture into the box, or most of the way in at least.
The contents of the box were a disappointment, at first. There was a pair of bronzed baby shoes, and a bunch of infant and toddler sized clothing on the top. One they'd worked their way through those, there were a few more interesting items. Several maternity dresses were beneath the baby clothes, then a thick book. When they removed the book from the box they discovered it was a photo album.
Amber reached out for the album, she was already holding one of the maternity dresses, clutching it to herself tightly. Her eyes were glistening as she took the album and opened it.
The very first page was a large photo of three adults and an infant. Two of the adults looked to be in their twenties, but the third one was much, much older. Her hair was entirely gray, her face wrinkled, and her stance suggested that straightening her back completely was a chore.
The glistening in Amber's eyes spilled over, tears running down her cheeks.
“Mom and dad,” she said softly, “and grandma. Grandma always used to sing to me, every night.”
“I remember them now,” Charles said, “Molly and Peter. They were a young couple, both wizards, that moved in with her grandmother. So I think that's actually your great-grandmother, Amber, at least if those are your parents.”
“Don't know,” she said. “I just called her grandma.”
“Was the grandmother a wizard also? Or just a talent?” Kathryn asked.
“Fairly powerful Air Wizard if I remember right,” Charles replied. “You don't suppose...”
Kathryn nodded, but held her index finger to her lips.
Amber was running her fingers over the picture, still on the first page.
I'm afraid to turn the page, she realized, Afraid that if I do, this picture won't be here any more when I turn back to it.
She forced herself to turn the page, wondering what else she might find.
There were pages and pages of photos of her; sleeping, crawling, tottering around taking her first steps, having her first slice of chocolate cake. They were labeled with tiny, precise letters beneath each photograph. After a while, there were other photos as well. Her grandmother, all dressed up looking ready to go out. Her mom in a light sundress, the smile on her face saying that all was right with the world. Her dad, hunched over a desk with papers covering it.
Most of the photos felt familiar, bringing up a tiny warm feeling in her gut. Even if they were blurry from the tears still running down her face.
“Can we...” she started to ask, “Can we go into that apartment? It's them, I know it is. I recognized them when I saw the pictures.”
“Of course we can,” Charles said. “But I might be able to do one better even. There's maintenance fees on all the apartments here, even the unoccupied ones. I should have an address for a trust, or a lawyer, or something of the sort associated with it. We might be able to find out more that way. Like Kathryn said, forty years is a very long time for anyone to go missing, even a wizard. So whoever is in charge of disbursing those fees might be interested to know that you're alive. They might know other things also, like if anyone has drawn on any funds since the apartment went empty.”
“You think they might be alive? But why wouldn't they have come back here to their home?” Amber asked.
“I don't know if they are or not, but I can't imagine them not looking for you if they were. As wizards they'd have ways to find you that lots of others couldn't,” Charles said. “So, I wouldn't hold too much hope for that. But you may have other family we could find that way.”
“Like who? Who wouldn't come looking for their family when they went missing?”
“I don't know, I never talked to them about that. Not that I can remember at least, but we can check, right? Let's go up to my apartment and I'll find the spare keys for 3-E.”
Amber had let the maternity dress spill to the floor as she paged through the album. Now she tucked the dress back in the box, but kept the album clutched to her chest, ready to give Charles a belligerent stare if he suggested she put that back also. He didn't say a word, just closed the box when everything else was back in it, then replaced the box on the pile.
* * *
The two children headed up the stairs first, Kathryn and Charles following along behind more slowly.
“Do you think those are really her parents?” Kathryn asked.
“I don't see why they couldn't be. Peter and Molly had a child that was around six when they disappeared. I can't believe I'd forgotten about them, but forty years is a long time.”
“Yeah, but that's kind of a coincidence, isn't it? Her showing up here after all those years?”
“It's less unlikely than you think. Most of the wizards in the city live here, or have lived here. It's almost like a beacon for a wizard with all the magic in this building. So once her magic started actively coming in she was drawn here as well. If she's been in this city all that time, it makes sense her parents were here also, see?”
“Okay, I understand that. But the boxes and a wind?”
“Either they made that story up because they were doing something they shouldn't have, or Amber's magic is more responsive to her subconscious than she knows. If she wanted to find something out about her parents and has even a tiny bit of Spirit Magic, then it's just possible that her Spirit Magic found that box and her Air Magic made the breeze that pushed Alicia into it. It's a bit of a stretch, but I really don't believe in coincidences, and it's certainly possible. Especially with magic that's working on a subconscious level.”
Kathryn was nodding as they walked.
“I can see it, but like you said, that's a stretch.”
“You heard her admit to unlocking the window with her magic, right? That was totally subconscious also, she had no control at the time. But that's what makes me think it might have actually happened like I said. A wizard working through subconscious intent?”
He shook his head.
“That's a scary thought, especially when the wizard is a girl just going into puberty.”
“Charles? Should we try to get some help with this?”
“What, finding out about her family?”
“No, I mean with trying to train her. What you just described sounds dangerous.”
He thought for a moment.
“Not yet, if we have minor problems, we can bring Greg in on it. If we have major problems, then we'll consider it.”