DIANE DUANE - A Wizard Alone

She came back from Tom and Carl s the quick way, popping out into the backyard. The snow there was untouched, rather to her surprise.Dairine was as much a snow fiend as their mom had been. It was unusual to find that she hadn t been out here at least long enough to make a couple of angels. Under more normal circumstances, there would have been a whole snowman by now.But the circumstances aren t normal 

Nita went in, shucked her parka off and left it by the back door, and went up the stairs to see whatDairine was up to. She found her in her bedroom, staring at her desk. Spot was sitting in her lap, also staring with its littlestalky eyes at the construction sitting there.

Nita looked at the desk. It was covered with tinfoil. On the foil and on a subsidiary bed of newspaper rested what appeared to be a model volcano sculpted out of wetpapier-mache. The volcano was extremely broad and flat, of the shieldtype, and Nita recognized it immediately.

 How does it look  Dairine said.

 Not bad,  Nita said.  What s it for 

 We re doing a geology unit in our science class.

Nita raised her eyebrows.  Bending the rules a little,Dair    she said.  That s OlympusMons . It hardly counts as geology.

 Okay,areology , then. Dairine sat there wiping her hands on a towel.

 It looks a little bare right now,  Nita said.

Her sister turned a look of withering scorn on her. Spot cocked one eye in Nita s direction as if to suggest that she d asked for this.  Of course it looks a little bare, Dairine said.  I have to paint it first. Myreal project for today is constructing an airbrush out of nothing but wizardry.

 Sounds like a moderate challenge,  Nita said.

 And when the volcano s done, I m going to make it blow up in class, Dairine said.

Nita s eyes widened slightly at the first image that occurred to her.

 Withlycopodium powder, Dairine said, more scornfully than before, if that was possible.  Sheesh,Neets .

 Just checking,  Nita said.

 Yes, Dairine said,  I know you were.  She rolled her eyes.  Tell Dad I m being good.

 If you re good enough, I won t have to tell him anything,  Nita said. She turned away.

 Wouldn t it be fun to do it with real lava, though  Dairine said from behind her as Nita headed to her room.

 There are times,  Nita said,  when I think a nice big lava flow would improve that school a lot. You know any card tricks 

The silence in answer to that question was unusually eloquent.

Nita sighed and sat down in her room.You awake yet  she said silently to Kit.

She waited for a few seconds.

Huh  Kit said.

Well, that s half my question answered, Nita said.You sound pretty tired. You okay 

I guess so.

Nita raised her eyebrows. This wasn t exactly a normal response for Kit. Either he was okay or he wasn t, but the middle ground wasn t usually an option for him, in Nita s experience, especially when he sounded as dulled as he did.I m coming over in a while , she said.There s some stuff I have to show you .

Okay.

And that was it.

Either he s exhausted, Nita thought,or there s something wrong 

She knew what her present hunch suggested, though. She was starting to get worried about him.He s been hitting this problem with Darryl so hard , Nita thought,that he s just been wearing himself down. That s one possibility .

Why don t I think that s what s really going on

Nita headed downstairs to make herself a sandwich.  By the way, Dairine said in a piercing voice as Nita went past her door,  someone seems to have eaten all the bananas.

Nita sighed.  I ll stop byBrazil on my way home.OrPanama .

 Costa Rica.

 Please,  Nita said as she went down the stairs. She had never been any good at remembering which exports came from which countries. It struck her as information that, for someone in junior high, was aboutas useful as dissecting the history of the gold standard.When I get a job at an import-export firm , Nita thought, turning the corner into the kitchen, thenI'll worry about who exports bauxite and who exports tin. Not before .

She opened a can of tuna fish, drained it, mashed it in a bowl with mayonnaise andTabasco sauce, made herself a sandwich with it, and ingested the sandwich without paying it much attention. Darryl was on her mind.He s more important than all of us, Carl said . The thought was sobering. She and Kit had done some moderately important and useful things in their time working together, but what Carl seemed to be describing was a different level of function, one in which just being there, just being alive and breathing, could be more important to the world than any amount of running around doing things. It made a strange kind of sense when Nita put it together with what Tom had been saying about the Powers finding the difference between active and passive work  illusory. If just by being here, Darryl is channeling the One s power into the world, then if something were to happen to him suddenly 

It was a scarier thought than any Nita had had in quite some time.Whatever else I do , she thought,I ve got to find a way to help him .

Because he doesn t know it, but he s helped me

Nita went to get her coat, and then went out to walk over to Kit s.

 Hola,Carmela .Que-pasa  Nita said as she came in Kit s back door.

 Watasbiwaureshii! Carmelasaid, more or less dancing past Nita into the living room, with the TV remote in her hand.

Nita blinked as she slipped off her coat and dropped it on the floor beside the dining room sofa. The Japanese thing was somethingCarmela had been working on for a while, and now that she was getting good at it, you never quite knew which language you were going to get from her.  Let me guess. You re saying you re going to turn into a giant robot 

 No, Carmela said,  that would be,Watashi,imakarasugo-ku o-kinarobottoninamno !

 I m impressed,  Nita said.

 If I really did turn into a giant robot, I bet you would be, Carmela said, heading back into the living room.

Nita followed her.  Oh,  she said.  Is this the new TV 

 Ohayogozaimas  !  shouted the TV and the DVD player together.

 Oh,  Nita said. Hi, cousins.Nice to meet you.

 Dozoyoroshikul

 Uh, yeah. ToCarmela she said,  Don t you find that a little unusual 

 I m used to it now. Kit says he thinks we re having some kind of wizardry leakage in the house, Carmela said, very matter-of-fact.  Mama can hearPonch . And Pop and I can hear the TV when it shouts at the DVD. Mostlyit s friendly shouting now, since Kit fixed the remote. Carmela plunked herself back down on the sofa, stretching out her legs.

 Fixedit,  Nita said, still having some trouble with this concept.

 It was a lot worse before. He said he was going to ask Tom what was going on. Meanwhile, in case you re wondering, Kit s in his room. Mama and Pop are out shopping, and they did not take Kit with them because they areannoyed with him.  She lowered her voice.  But also because he slept real late, and he looks like hell. Mama thinks he s coming down with something.

 Thanks for letting me know,  Nita said.  Uh, have you been having any trouble with    She glanced in the general direction of the TV and DVD while turning enough to conceal the look.

 Trouble Not at all.Weird stuff turns up sometimes, but all the regular TV s there, the cable and all. I don t care how many aliens I see, as long as I ve got my MTV and the shopping channels.

Nita grinned. This wasDairine s attitude as well, though it was the music channels that interested her more than the shopping.  Half the time, with some of those videos, you can t tell what planet they re from anyway,  Nita said.

Carmelasnickered.  Later,  Nita said, and went back to Kit s room.

He was lying on the bed, his manual open and facedown on his chest, looking up at the ceiling.Ponch was lying next to him on the bed, with his head on Kit s chest.Ponch s eyes shifted to Nita as she came into view, but he didn t move or say anything.

Nita paused in the door and knocked on the door frame.  Hey,  she said.

Kit glanced over at her. It was the least-interested glance that Nita could remember seeing from him in some time.Why doesn t he just come out and say that he wishes I wasn t here  Nita thought, shocked. But it occurred to her then that she d been distant enough with him lately. Maybe he was giving her a taste of her own medicine.That wouldn t normally he his style, either. But if he s really feeling sick, maybe he s just saying what s on his mind, stuff he d keep to himself otherwise .

Nita felt briefly guilty, then put the feeling aside.  You look kind of out of it,  she said.

 Yeah,  Kit said.  I feel that way, too. I didn t sleep real well after I got in last night.

 Late   Nita said, going over to sit in the chair by his desk.

 Yeah.

She waited a moment to let him tell her what he d been doing, but he just turned his head away and looked up at the ceiling again. He wasn t going to tell her.  You have any luck with Darryl   she said.

 Not really.

Nita started feeling around for something sarcastic and angry to say to Kit, and then she stopped herself.He didn t push me when I didn t want to talk , she thought.I m not going to push him now .

But there s still something that needs saying.  Kit,  she said,  about Darryl  I m getting the feeling that you going after him the way you are isn t doing you any good.

 Uh-huh.

Nita pursed her lips. That was the same  uh-huh that she used onDairine , as code for the message,  I am not listening to you. Bug off.

He doesn t mean to be rude. He just doesn t want to tell me what s on his mind, or hear what s on mine.

Did I sound like this  He should have hit me on the head with something until I paid attention.

Nita let out a breath.  Okay,  she said,  forget about it for now. But I have a message for you. You need to go see Carl.

That finally made Kit look at her again.  Huh How come 

 Tom s out of town,  Nita said. Some Advisory or Senior thing. Carl s handling his interventions for the next day or so. You owed Toma debrief on what s up with Darryl, and Carl wants to know where it is. Just between you and me, I think he s steamed. So if I were you, I d get over there and take your medicine.

 I ve taken enough medicine for one weekend,  Kit muttered.

 After you got in late 

 Yeah.My pop didn t say much, but my mama did.

 Tore a few strips off you, huh 

 It wasn t my fault,Neets ,  Kit said.  The timing got blown, that s all.  He sighed.  But it doesn t really matter.

Nita looked at Kit with concern. That was a theme she d been singing too much herself lately, and Nita wasn t going to be indifferent to it when someone else started in on it.

 They didn t ground you or anything 

 No. Anyway, they would have done thathow , exactly   Kit said.

Nita had to smile, despite her worrying. It was extremely difficult to ground a wizard without the wizard s consent. Still, you had to live with your parents  and rubbing their noses in the fact that they couldn t control you no matter how much they wanted towasn t a great way to make that life an easy one.

Kit sighed.  Neets, I m sorry, I m just   He trailed off. It wasn t that he was too tired to pursue the thought. It was just that he didn t care.

 Okay,  Nita said, and got up.At least he talked to me a little. It s possible he really is coming down with something  Well, we ll see .  Look call me when you feel better. There s stuff we have to discuss about Darryl.

 Sure.

 But go see Carl first.

Kit turned his attention to the ceiling again.

Nita gave him one last look as she turned away. As she did,Ponch glanced up at her. His eyes had been all for Kit until now, but the lookPonch gave her had even more concern in it than Nita was feeling.

Nita met the gaze, glanced fractionally at the door, and went out.

That could have turned into an argument, Nita thought,if he d had enough energy to bother. But he didn t . She passed through the living room, whereCarmela was curled up on the sofa, watching the TV, where models in frilly things pounded up and down acatwalk. Nita paused briefly, eyed the things the models were almost wearing.

 Not for me, Carmela said, not taking her eyes off the screen.  Drafty. How is he 

 He looks tired,  Nita said.  Anyway, tell your mama and pop I said hi.

 Sure, no problem.

Nita got her coat and headed out the back door. She didn t shut it right away, because after about half a minute,Ponch came trotting out of the dining room and headed outside, past Nita.

She closed the door, brushed some stray snow off the back steps, and sat down.Ponch sat down next to her.

 Ponch,  Nita said in the Speech.  What s with the boss 

He s sad,Ponch said.But there s more to it than that .

Ponchlooked down the driveway toward the street.I m sad, too , he said.And I m afraid. Something s happening to him, and I don t know how to stop it .

Somewhere down the street, a dog began to howl in a high little voice, like something out of a cartoon.

 It s about Darryl, isn t it 

We were there again this morning.

 Again I thought you went last night.

We did. I took him there. But the second time we went, he started to go by himself. I had to follow him.Ponch licked his nose nervously.It wasn t easy. Hewasn t going the way I go .

 Was he dreaming 

Yes.

 Lucid dreaming, though The guided kind 

No. He was worried. His dream took him there without him wanting to be there, at first. Then he couldn t get out. They were getting alike

Nita pondered this. Her ownnonlucid dreaming had brought her to Darryl, or Darryl to her, and those dreams hadn t been good, either. But this experience, at least asPonch described it, sounded slightly different. Ibet their minds are starting to get locked together because of all the time Kit s spending in there , Nita thought.This is not good 

And reality doesn t feel terribly real to Darryl,Ponch said. Ithink it s starting to feel the same way to Kit .

 That would make a nasty kind of sense,  Nita said.  Ponch, I don t think you should take him back in there for a while.At least not until he s feeling better. And when you go, I want to go with him.

I want you to do that, too.

Nita lifted her head, listening, realizing that the howling of dogs down the street had increased. Three or four more dogs had joined the first one.  What s the matter with the dogs   Nita said.  Is someone using one of those silent whistles or something 

No. I think it s because I m afraid,Ponch said. Ithink they hear me being that way, and they re upset for me .

 But that s not all, is it,  Nita said, looking thoughtfully atPonch .  Something else is happening to you besides just being afraid for the boss. Isn t it