Prologue~Ch. 1~Ch. 2~Ch. 3~Ch. 4~Ch. 5~Ch. 6~Ch. 7~Ch. 8~Ch. 9~
Howard and his magical aspirations, Jessica tried to tell herself, were nothing to get worried about. In the week since their conversation she’d seen him twice, once when he needed to know her height and weight and once when he stopped by to fix their leaky faucet. Both times he seemed like the same old Howard she’d always known.
As Saturday approached, though, Jessica started getting increasingly jittery.
“If you’re that worried about helping Howard, why don’t you phone one of the people who’re helping him?” Ellen suggested. “They can tell you better than anyone what’s going on.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Jessica said. “But then it would seem like I don’t have any faith in him.”
“Do you?”
“It’s not so much a question of faith in his abilities, it’s more a question of his sanity. He said he’s going to cast a spell to teleport me.”
“There you go, then. Nothing to worry about.” Ellen picked up her purse and headed for the door. “You want anything while I’m out?”
Jessica shook her head and Ellen left.
She sighed and sipped her coffee, and remembered the incident with the plant. Maybe just to be on the safe side she should check on Howard’s so-called powers. But who to call? She flipped through the phonebook looking for inspiration.
“Here we go, Samuel Russell. He and Howard go way back.”
The woman who answered the phone at Sam’s place gave her another number to call, and the man who answered that yet another number. Even then, Jessica had to listen to Sam recap everything that had happened to him since high school before she could get a word in edgewise.
“Listen, Sam, the reason I’m calling is Howard.”
“Howard? Great guy, real talented too.”
Jessica jumped on the word. “Talented, that’s it exactly. Just how talented is Howard?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Sam, you know exactly what I mean. I know you and he are up to some kind of magical something or other, I just want to know if it’s, you know, dangerous.”
“Dangerous,” he squawked, “Us?”
“Howard got me to agree to participate is some kind of magical experiment of his and I’d like to know what I’m in for.”
“Oh, that. Listen, Jess, you’ve got nothing to worry about. Howard couldn’t magic his way out of a wet paper bag, trust me.”
“But he did do something pretty extraordinary with a violet . . .”
“Look, I’ve seen people do a lot of weird stuff like moving objects or bending spoons. It’s psychic energy, not magic. The magic the coven raises is totally different. We agreed to this experiment of his to get him off our backs.”
“So what’s he trying to prove?”
“He’s drawn up solar charts and moon charts and mapped out ley lines, all to work a magic spell. He thinks that under the right conditions the group can raise enough power to feed to him so he can work a bona fide, pure magical spell.”
“Can he?” Jessica asked, interested in spite of herself.
“Are you kidding? We’re going along with him to humour him. Maybe when he embarrasses himself he’ll leave us alone and we can get on with other things.”
“Poor Howard.”
“Well, he’s brought it on himself. Wicca’s a religion, a way of life really. We gather at the sabbats, observe the three-fold law and generally just try to make the world a better place to live in.”
“Sounds harmless enough.”
“Then along comes Howard with his spells and cones of power. The sooner we get this over with, the better.”
“Well, thanks, Sam. If nothing else, you’ve put my mind at ease.”
“I’ll let you know when we’re ready to take over the world.”
“You do that,” she grinned. “I can see it now, Howard, King of the World.”
Sam made a noise between a snort and a laugh and hung up.
Jessica stared thoughtfully at the phone. She almost felt sorry for Howard. Maybe it was for the best though. She was getting worried about how much time he’d been spending on his “magic” lately.
Even when they were kids, Howard had been intensely interested in magic. She could still remember his ninth birthday when his mother hired a magician for his party, and his acute disappointment when he learned it was all just tricks.
He had bookcases full of books covering everything from religion, through the occult, right down to psychic phenomena. When she wanted to learn more about herbal healing she went to Howard, who supplied her with half a dozen books on the subject.
These last few years though, his interest in magic had bordered on obsession. Maybe this let down he was headed for was just what he needed to cure him of it.
1 comments:
I have no idea where that thought came from, but somehow I have to think of 'The Magicians Nephew' (First Narnia book), where that old man experiments with magic without exactly knowing what he's doing ... and somehow I got the feeling, that Howard's magic IS going to work, just not the way he imagined. Not just from one place to another, but from this world to somewhere different. You haven't written that very first chapter without purpose, haven't you?
The question is, how wrong (or maybe right) am I? Well, like always, we have to wait!
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