Turned Around

Later on that night, I finally got the answer to an important question. Why was I losing so much body fat, and feeling starved, every time I used the Text? It shouldn't have surprised me that the answer was "you're dumb".

"Wait a minute, you've just been teleporting yourself home, over and over?"

"Well, yeah," I said, shrugging. "It's faster than walking. But if I'm going to die of malnutrition from Reading, what good is the Text anyway?"

"It's only the really big stuff that drains you so severely," Lee explained, looking at my diminished frame and shaking her head. "Teleporting is probably the worst of all. By far. I'm surprised you didn't land yourself in the hospital."

I laughed to cover my embarrassment. "It was a close thing."

"You should be okay, as long as you eat enough, and don't throw around big, flashy magic all the time."

"You hear that, Buck? Fire up the grill."

"All right," Lee yawned, stretching her arms and looking at her strange watch, "I need to get going. I have to admit, this was actually sort of fun."

I looked at her, surprised. We'd been at it for hours, flipping through my Text and identifying Glyphs that I was able to understand. Throughout the evening, Buck and I had sat and listened while Lee outlined some of the more arcane aspects of the Text, and how it worked.

As it turned out, I had a workable Glyph on nearly every page. While the vast majority of the book remained scribbly and useless, I could already perform a small collection of interesting abilities, and most of them with something resembling competence. 

In addition to the Force spell (I called it that specifically to irk Lee,) I had a Glyph to make myself almost weightless, one that would enhance my sight, another for my hearing. These were apparently only the tip of the iceberg as far as self-modification, and they only lasted for a few seconds to a minute each. 

There was a Glyph to open simple locks, which I thought was pretty neat, and another that would produce a small, glowing globe in midair. In addition to my fire spell, which Lee showed me how to aim properly, and the Glyph to teleport myself to my apartment, I was starting to feel like a pretty capable guy.

"So, what now?" I asked, flexing my right hand. It wasn't painful to Read, but my brand felt tingly and ticklish. I'd been doing a lot of different things, and each Glyph came with a different color and quality of light from the silvery mark. I had the impulse to scratch at it, though I did my best to resist.

Lee shrugged. "Take some sticky notes and mark the Glyphs you've already learned. Tomorrow we'll see if there are any new ones yet."

"Cool."

She turned to leave the store, and hesitated. After a second, she looked back at me. "You're a quick study. I wasn't expecting that."

"Neither was I."

"But there's more to being Conclave than magic tricks. Knowing how to use the tools is important. But that's really only the beginning." She looked me up and down, analyzing some quality I could only guess at. "If you keep up this pace... well. We'll get there when we get there."

Buck looked up from the counter, where he was preparing his pipe in anticipation of Lee going home. "So what are the odds of me getting one of those?" he asked, indicating the Text on the arm of my reading chair. 

"Absolute zero," Lee said, but the corner of her mouth twitched. "But then again, I would have said that about this guy too." She opened the door, now talking more or less to herself. "Life does take odd turns."

And she strode into the dark street.

"I think she's warming up to me," Buck said thoughtfully. "You want a hit?"

I looked at the door, thinking. I could still feel a tingle on my hand. I could still see Lee, almost smiling.

"I think I'm good, man. Thanks."

And that was the first time I said no.

* * *

My phone chirped at about ten, indicating a text message from Beck.

From: Beck

Sent at 09:57 P.M.

miss u hun. cant wait for l8er. hows work?

I hadn't even realized how late it was. Since Lee had left, I'd been slowly looking through the Text, marking pages where I'd learned one of the Glyphs, and jotting down a quick summary of what they did. It was a surprisingly satisfying task; I could see at a glance what I had accomplished today. I couldn't remember the last time I'd felt good about getting anything done.

I also learned something about sobriety. If you've never been high, it's hard to explain, but basically you're just fascinated and amused by the dumbest s**t. When you're high with friends, you more or less take turns saying and doing the dumbest s**t, and everyone laughs and smiles and is just as happy as can be.

When you're sober and the people around you are high, however, you realize that the dumbest s**t is actually some dumb s**t. I was an accomplished stoner, but even I found myself becoming frustrated and annoyed with Buck's company after about an hour. Slow responses, inane babble, Buck seemed like no less than a perfect stereotype. One of those caricatures you see in D.A.R.E. commercials. 

The biggest surprise of the night was that I started to see what Beck and Lee were talking about. 

"Hey, Buck?"

A pause. Was I always this slow to acknowledge people? "Yeah?"

"You cool if I take off early? I'm supposed to meet Beck."

"...Yeah, what's going on with you guys?"

I shrugged. "Don't know."

"Yeah, you can go. I'll close up. Since you're on the wagon, now, right? I can see why my company wouldn't be helpful." He grinned at me, to show there were no hard feelings. I think. I was having a hard time deciphering his sentences. 

"Cool, thanks man. I'll cover for you whenever you like."

"I got nowhere to be. But thanks."

I stowed the Text in my coat, pulled on my black yarn gloves, and waved goodbye to Buck. Stepping into the night, I shivered at the sudden cold. Autumn would be short, apparently. I took a step towards home, but an angry voice from behind me made me stop.

It sounded like half an argument, with the half I could hear being argued by Lee. 

"He's doing fine. No, he's still at work, I just left... you're doing what?!... No! That's my assignment, you can't just... No. This is such bullshit, Dolan, I've been working that case for how long?"

I turned and followed her voice, tracking her to the same side alley she'd vanished down before. She began to sound desperate.

"I don't care what's been determined, it's my case!... No. No!... No!... I don't care. F**k this. I'm coming to the office... well, if that's the case then they shouldn't have reassigned me!"

I came around the corner just as she snapped a cell phone shut and rammed it into her pocket. I watched, fascinated, as she rummaged in a belt pouch for a moment, producing a token of some kind. It looked like a wooden nickel, more than anything. 

She slapped the item against the brick wall of the alley, producing a flash of violet light that quickly dimmed to reveal a vague, shimmery aurora, seemingly stuck to the bricks, about the size of a large door. I rubbed my eyes, and as a result almost missed her walking into the wall as though it wasn't there. She vanished, and the light curtain dimmed away to nothing almost instantly.

I blinked. I hadn't heard her say anything, and her Text had been hanging on the silver chain at her side. What had she just done?

I went to the wall, touching the bricks. They were slightly warm, so slight that it may have been my imagination. Solid as... well, bricks. I looked around for the token, thinking perhaps it had fallen down, and found something even weirder instead. A napkin, with a restaurant logo on it. 

What?

There was certainly nowhere like that around here. I figured it must have blown through the 'door' of light Lee had created. Which would seem to mean that wherever she'd gone, there was mediocre pizza.

And where was the Nexus? Was it some mall? I'd never heard a name like that. 

I decided to ask her about it tomorrow. And in the meantime, to let it go. Lee had been surprisingly pleasant and helpful for most of the evening, and I assumed she would answer any questions I had. 

I pulled out my own phone and dialed Beck's number. She answered about halfway through the first ring.

"Hey Tyler!"

"Hey, how's it going?"

"All right. I haven't had much to do today. How's work? Do you still want to come over?"

I opened my mouth to say, "Sure," but nothing came out. I tried again. "Uh. Yeah, that'd be fun. I, uh, can't stay too long though."

"Oh. Why?"

"Work in the morning. The boss wants us to do some... thing. I don't know."

"That sucks. Ugh, why are you so busy all of a sudden?"

"Life does take odd turns," I found myself saying. 

"What?"

I paused. "I mean... you know. Things come up... things you'd never expect." I thought for a second, musing, then cleared my throat. "So yeah. I'll see you in a little bit."

Reviews

[UponATyme]

I really liked the interchange between Trick and Buck; you made the contrast between sober/high very understandable. I like how you focus on the fact that Beck answers so quickly. It's subtle, but it says a lot without saying a lot. Also: I'm very excited for the Nexus.

[Ness]

Good Chaptah! I like the visuals, they help create the scene. Also you did a good job of showing how Trick is relating more to Lee and his new life than Beck and his old life