Wizards At War

“I can do that for you,” her dad said. “I need to talk to them anyway. In case the school decides to give us any trouble, we’re going to want to present a united front.”

“Okay,” she said. “I have to go check in real quick with Tom and Carl. As soon as I’ve done that, I’ll be going back.”

“Have you got enough stuff in your pup tent?” her dad said.

“Loads,” Nita said. “I’ll come back if I need anything.”

“Okay,” her father said. He looked at the TV, picked up the remote, and very pointedly turned off the TV. “At times like this,” he said, “you can pay too much attention to the news. Either they’ll blow up the world, or they won’t. Meantime, our job is to get on with life.”

“I think you’re right,” Nita said. “Daddy…”

She went to him and hugged him again. He hugged her back, hard. “You be careful,” he said. “But do what you have to. Don’t worry about me.”

She looked up at him. “I’m going to anyway,” Nita said. “But I will do what I have to.”

“Good,” her dad said, and pushed her gently away. “Don’t worry about the phones. Get in touch when you can, or just leave me voicemail. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Then I’ll see you later.” He smooched her on the top of her head, and went into the kitchen, and outside.

“Bye-bye,” Nita said.

Standing there in the living room, she heard her dad start the car up and back out of the driveway. Everything was suddenly very quiet.

Hurriedly, Nita headed out the back door, locked it, and set out on the short walk to Tom and Carl’s.

***

She hadn’t had to ring the doorbell more than once before the door opened. Tom peered out at her. “Oh, hi, Nita. How’re you doing?”

He looked so perfectly normal that she could have wept. “Oh, wow, it’s great to see you!”

“It’s always good to see you, too,” Tom said. He stood in the doorway and looked at her quizzically.

This conversation somehow wasn’t going quite the way Nita had imagined it. “Where’s Carl?”

“At work. Where else would he be?”

That calm reply ran a chill down Nita’s spine. Wrong, this is all wrong.

“Uh,” she said. “Yeah. Listen, I thought I should touch base about where we’ve been.”

Tom raised his eyebrows. “School, I thought,” he said. “Spring break would have ended, I don’t know, last week sometime?”

Nita opened her mouth and closed it again.

“Listen,” Tom said, “I’d love to chat, but I’m on a deadline. I’ve got to get this article to the magazine by Friday.”

Magazine? What’s going on with him?

“Tom,” Nita said. “Uh, this is kind of important. Do you have guests or something?” She leaned a little past him to try to see into the house.

“Guests? No, I’m just working.” His tone was polite, but a little cool now.

Nita was beyond understanding what was going on. “Okay, I won’t keep you. But this is an errantry matter.”

He blinked at her, actually blinked. “Errantry?”

Then he laughed. “Oh, wow, you had me going there for a minute. I remember how serious we used to be about those role-playing games. Wizardry. Spells. The magic Speech that everything understands. It’s great that you still like thinking about that kind of thing even when you’re in junior high.”

Nita stood there absolutely speechless. Tom’s laugh was kind, but he wasn’t playacting.

We’ll lose our wizardry, he’d told her himself. All of us. And also, Wizardry does not live in the unwilling heart… or the heart that’s come to believe that it’s impossible.

Nita had to give it one more try. “Tom,” she said, “the universe is tearing itself apart, and we’ve been out trying to repair it. I just didn’t want you to worry about where we were.”

He sighed. “You’ve been listening to the news, too, huh?” he said. “It’s enough to make anyone want to take their second childhood early.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Look, sweetie, I have to get back to work. Was there anything else? Anything serious, I mean. How’s your dad?”

“He’s fine,” Nita said. Her heart was breaking, and there was no way she could take time to deal with it now. “Uh, where are Annie and Monty?”

“Carl had to drop them off at the groomer’s this morning,” Tom said. “Their fur was getting out of hand again. You can stop in and play with them later if you like.”

“Okay,” Nita said. She knew it was irrational to try to prolong the conversation, but she desperately wanted to. What am I going to tell Kit? This is so awful. And we’re really on our own now. “Do you mind if I go around back and see how the fish are doing?” she said.

“Sure. Anything else? I have to get back to this.”

She looked into Tom’s eyes, desperate to find there the one thing she wanted to see, but it wasn’t there. “Nope,” she said. “Thanks.”

“Come back anytime,” Tom said. “Best to your dad.” And he shut the door.