"She suffered a moderate concussion," said Nurse Mulligan, a fox woman with
stubby red hair, to Augusta and Dr. Portinari. "We expect her to make a full
recovery. With luck, we may release her as early as Monday afternoon."
"I'm glad to hear that," said Augusta, who was again wearing her turquoise embroidered dress.
April lay in the hospital bed in front of them, her right arm bandaged, a dressing covering the left side of her head. Through her drowsiness and headache she dimly made out the faces of Augusta and the nurse...but what was the creature standing next to them?
"Does your daughter participate in athletics at school?" asked Nurse Mulligan, lifting a pen to write on a clipboard.
"She's not our daughter," Portinari replied.
"She's...my roommate," Augusta explained.
April knew she had to be hallucinating. It was natural to do so, given her head injury and the drugs the nurse had given to help her sleep. The being she saw had Portinari's size, shape, and clothes, but not his physical appearance. It had green, scaly skin, an overhanging forehead, eyes like red dots, and a grossly elongated nose with a point at the end. It clearly was not human.
She felt the warm contact of Augusta's hand against her own. "We'll be back soon," she heard the rabbit woman say. "Stay alive, okay?"
"I will," she choked out weakly. "Did you find the stone?"
"I looked all over the spot where the accident happened," Augusta answered. "It wasn't there."
Through foggy eyes April watched Augusta and Portinari turn and walk out of the hospital room; the back of Portinari's head looked like a chunk of ripened avocado flesh.
As she dropped off to sleep again, she recalled George's admitted suspicion that Portinari was a space alien, and figured that the power of suggestion might have caused her to suffer a similar delusion.
She felt more refreshed after an hour's rest. Augusta and Portinari returned for another visit, and to April's relief, the psychiatrist appeared to her as a normal, unremarkable talking bulldog.
----
"I am invisible...I am invisible...I am invisible..."
Alan opened his eyes, and beheld to his disappointment that he was very visible. Dressed in his Sunday outfit complete with suit jacket and tie, he stood in the middle of his bedroom and clutched April's red stone in his closed hand. He had enjoyed no more success at vanishing than Fern had the previous evening.
His mother's blond head popped through the doorway. "We're leaving for church in ten minutes," she announced.
He was beginning to think it might be hopeless; either the stone wasn't magical after all, or it operated on a principle that Augusta had explained to April but to no one else. As he was about to drop the stone in his pocket and leave, he heard Fern's voice drawing closer.
"Any luck, Alan?" asked the poodle girl as she bounded into the room, her blue dress skirt flopping about.
"Nothing," the boy replied sadly. "I don't know how to make it work. I guess there's nothing left to do but destroy it so April can't use it."
"Too bad," said Fern as she straightened her hair bow in Alan's dresser mirror.
Alan held out the sapphire-colored stone and dropped it into Fern's palm. "You've got another hour before your church meeting starts," he said to her. "Maybe you'll get lucky."
As she lowered the object into one of her pockets, Alan began to speak somberly. "I've been thinking. All my life I've been taught that God is watching us, and knows if we're good or bad, and gives us rewards for being good, and punishments for being bad. But now Augusta has come onto the scene, and she can control how good or bad I am if she wants to. What I want to know is, what happens to the whole system of rewards and punishments if someone else can take away my ability to choose, and force me to be good or bad?"
"Hmm, I don't know," Fern answered. "Maybe God will reward Augusta if she makes people good, or punish her if she makes people bad."
"That's a scary thought," said Alan, taking a seat on the edge of his bed.
Fern sat down next to him and kept up the conversation. "Before the incident with the ghost, I believed that people go to heaven when they die, and just stay there. But Rubella believes that some people get stuck here instead of going to heaven, and that there are some kinds of spirits who were never people at all. And with all the magical stuff that happened after Dolly showed up...I don't know what I should believe anymore, Alan."
"Me neither," Alan admitted with a sigh. "Maybe we should just believe what we hear in church without question, and not let those things bother us."
They pondered for a few seconds, then Fern's face lit up. Pulling the stone from her pocket, she returned it to Alan.
"Stand up," she ordered, and they both stood. "Now hold out the stone, close your eyes, and concentrate." Alan did so.
Fern could still see him.
"Omigosh!" she suddenly blurted out. "Alan, where did you go?"
The boy's eyes flew open just as his body faded into nothing.
"It worked!" Fern cried joyously. "You're invisible!"
"You're right," came Alan's astonished voice from the empty air. "I can't see myself anymore. This is incredible."
"So that's the secret," Fern marveled. "To turn invisible, you have to believe you're invisible. I tricked you into thinking you were invisible."
Alan reappeared, starting with his ears and going down. "Oh, I'm visible again," he complained.
"You have to believe without question that you're invisible," Fern explained. "It doesn't work if you have doubts."
"Interesting," said Alan, gazing at the stone in his hand. "I wonder if that's how April sees it."
"Let me try it," said Fern, snatching the stone away from him. Holding it in front of her, she closed her eyes, pursed her lips, and started to flicker.
"It's working," Alan told her. "Believe harder."
A moment later, Fern blinked out of Alan's view. "Am I invisible?" she asked, and immediately reappeared.
"Don't ask that question," Alan instructed her. "Here, let me try again."
Tightly grasping the stone, he caused himself to quickly vanish. "You're doing good," Fern told him. "I can't see you. Wait, I can see you again."
Alan instantly rematerialized.
"Psych," said Fern, giggling.
Mrs. Powers stepped into the bedroom, wearing a floral dress and pearl necklace. "Time to go, Alan," she told her son. "You can play with Fern later."
"Okay, Mom," said Alan, handing the stone back to Fern.
As the two kids made their way out of the house, Alan made his fears known to Fern. "Keeping the stone away from Augusta will be a big problem. If we hide it, she'll use truth spells on us to find out where it's hidden."
"I guess the only thing we can do is stay away from her," said Fern.
"But that would be hard to do 24/7," was Alan's response.
"You're right." Fern was now standing with Alan in front of the Powers family car. "We could threaten to destroy it unless April tells us her plans."
"Let's talk about it later," said Alan, noticing the impatient expressions of his parents.
TBC
"I'm glad to hear that," said Augusta, who was again wearing her turquoise embroidered dress.
April lay in the hospital bed in front of them, her right arm bandaged, a dressing covering the left side of her head. Through her drowsiness and headache she dimly made out the faces of Augusta and the nurse...but what was the creature standing next to them?
"Does your daughter participate in athletics at school?" asked Nurse Mulligan, lifting a pen to write on a clipboard.
"She's not our daughter," Portinari replied.
"She's...my roommate," Augusta explained.
April knew she had to be hallucinating. It was natural to do so, given her head injury and the drugs the nurse had given to help her sleep. The being she saw had Portinari's size, shape, and clothes, but not his physical appearance. It had green, scaly skin, an overhanging forehead, eyes like red dots, and a grossly elongated nose with a point at the end. It clearly was not human.
She felt the warm contact of Augusta's hand against her own. "We'll be back soon," she heard the rabbit woman say. "Stay alive, okay?"
"I will," she choked out weakly. "Did you find the stone?"
"I looked all over the spot where the accident happened," Augusta answered. "It wasn't there."
Through foggy eyes April watched Augusta and Portinari turn and walk out of the hospital room; the back of Portinari's head looked like a chunk of ripened avocado flesh.
As she dropped off to sleep again, she recalled George's admitted suspicion that Portinari was a space alien, and figured that the power of suggestion might have caused her to suffer a similar delusion.
She felt more refreshed after an hour's rest. Augusta and Portinari returned for another visit, and to April's relief, the psychiatrist appeared to her as a normal, unremarkable talking bulldog.
----
"I am invisible...I am invisible...I am invisible..."
Alan opened his eyes, and beheld to his disappointment that he was very visible. Dressed in his Sunday outfit complete with suit jacket and tie, he stood in the middle of his bedroom and clutched April's red stone in his closed hand. He had enjoyed no more success at vanishing than Fern had the previous evening.
His mother's blond head popped through the doorway. "We're leaving for church in ten minutes," she announced.
He was beginning to think it might be hopeless; either the stone wasn't magical after all, or it operated on a principle that Augusta had explained to April but to no one else. As he was about to drop the stone in his pocket and leave, he heard Fern's voice drawing closer.
"Any luck, Alan?" asked the poodle girl as she bounded into the room, her blue dress skirt flopping about.
"Nothing," the boy replied sadly. "I don't know how to make it work. I guess there's nothing left to do but destroy it so April can't use it."
"Too bad," said Fern as she straightened her hair bow in Alan's dresser mirror.
Alan held out the sapphire-colored stone and dropped it into Fern's palm. "You've got another hour before your church meeting starts," he said to her. "Maybe you'll get lucky."
As she lowered the object into one of her pockets, Alan began to speak somberly. "I've been thinking. All my life I've been taught that God is watching us, and knows if we're good or bad, and gives us rewards for being good, and punishments for being bad. But now Augusta has come onto the scene, and she can control how good or bad I am if she wants to. What I want to know is, what happens to the whole system of rewards and punishments if someone else can take away my ability to choose, and force me to be good or bad?"
"Hmm, I don't know," Fern answered. "Maybe God will reward Augusta if she makes people good, or punish her if she makes people bad."
"That's a scary thought," said Alan, taking a seat on the edge of his bed.
Fern sat down next to him and kept up the conversation. "Before the incident with the ghost, I believed that people go to heaven when they die, and just stay there. But Rubella believes that some people get stuck here instead of going to heaven, and that there are some kinds of spirits who were never people at all. And with all the magical stuff that happened after Dolly showed up...I don't know what I should believe anymore, Alan."
"Me neither," Alan admitted with a sigh. "Maybe we should just believe what we hear in church without question, and not let those things bother us."
They pondered for a few seconds, then Fern's face lit up. Pulling the stone from her pocket, she returned it to Alan.
"Stand up," she ordered, and they both stood. "Now hold out the stone, close your eyes, and concentrate." Alan did so.
Fern could still see him.
"Omigosh!" she suddenly blurted out. "Alan, where did you go?"
The boy's eyes flew open just as his body faded into nothing.
"It worked!" Fern cried joyously. "You're invisible!"
"You're right," came Alan's astonished voice from the empty air. "I can't see myself anymore. This is incredible."
"So that's the secret," Fern marveled. "To turn invisible, you have to believe you're invisible. I tricked you into thinking you were invisible."
Alan reappeared, starting with his ears and going down. "Oh, I'm visible again," he complained.
"You have to believe without question that you're invisible," Fern explained. "It doesn't work if you have doubts."
"Interesting," said Alan, gazing at the stone in his hand. "I wonder if that's how April sees it."
"Let me try it," said Fern, snatching the stone away from him. Holding it in front of her, she closed her eyes, pursed her lips, and started to flicker.
"It's working," Alan told her. "Believe harder."
A moment later, Fern blinked out of Alan's view. "Am I invisible?" she asked, and immediately reappeared.
"Don't ask that question," Alan instructed her. "Here, let me try again."
Tightly grasping the stone, he caused himself to quickly vanish. "You're doing good," Fern told him. "I can't see you. Wait, I can see you again."
Alan instantly rematerialized.
"Psych," said Fern, giggling.
Mrs. Powers stepped into the bedroom, wearing a floral dress and pearl necklace. "Time to go, Alan," she told her son. "You can play with Fern later."
"Okay, Mom," said Alan, handing the stone back to Fern.
As the two kids made their way out of the house, Alan made his fears known to Fern. "Keeping the stone away from Augusta will be a big problem. If we hide it, she'll use truth spells on us to find out where it's hidden."
"I guess the only thing we can do is stay away from her," said Fern.
"But that would be hard to do 24/7," was Alan's response.
"You're right." Fern was now standing with Alan in front of the Powers family car. "We could threaten to destroy it unless April tells us her plans."
"Let's talk about it later," said Alan, noticing the impatient expressions of his parents.
TBC
