If anyone had been watching the driveway of 1492 Red Oak just at five-thirty that evening, they would have seen a young man of twenty-some years striding towards the house. From his confident, springy pace and bright smile, anyone would assume that he knew the family well, and was eager for a visit with his friends.
No one would ever guess that he had never met the people living there in his life. Nor that he was nervously running through what he was supposed to say in his head, worrying that he would be kicked out the door.
Jonah mentally winced at that idea. He himself was new to the job, this being his first real round of duty, but his colleagues informed him that it was no fun to be kicked out upon visiting. It required quite a bale of paperwork. It also required going back time and again, sometimes taking dozens of visits.
He didn't want that. His coworkers were always taking little swipes at his cluelessness, him being greenest member of the crew at Muggle Relations. If he were to be booted out of the house, things would probably go from 'little swipes' to 'merciless teasing'.
It didn't help his fretting that the young witch in question thought that the letter was simply a joke. That's nearly everyone's first reaction, he scolded himself. However, no amount of logic could calm the butterflies in his stomach, who seemed to have gotten hold of a forty-eight pack of Mountain Dew. On the contrary, it seemed to make them all the more hyper.
He suddenly realized he was standing in front of the door. He composed himself as best he could, then, hesitating for only a fraction of a second, he raised his hand to ring the doorbell.
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Dinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng. Ro's head shot up from the book she was reading. "I'll get it!" she called, scrambling up and charging to the front door. Finally, she would see who could play such a prank!
She wrenched the door open, ready to greet whichever one of her friends was there, then stopped. Instead of a familiar young teen, there was a college-aged man standing there.
She eyed him carefully. He was fairly tall, at about six feet, with a strong build and firm features. He was dressed in nondescript jeans and a dull green T-shirt with no design or lettering on it. His eyes were a normal hazel, his hair was very black and ridiculously shiny (It couldn't be that way naturally, could it?), and he had a large, friendly grin showing white, if not particularly straight teeth.
Nothing about him suggested that he was a door-to-door salesman, a child molester, or worse, a Jehovah's Witness. Still, Ro knew that it was impossible to be too careful about such things.
"Can I help you?" She asked coolly.
He nodded. "You're Rosemary, I would guess?"
Ro was taken aback. A total stranger knew her name? Everything she had ever heard about Internet predators flashed through her head. She brushed it aside. She never used her full name, ever. And she rarely used her real name on the Web.
Slowly, she nodded her head. "I'm Ro."
His smile grew wider "Excellent! I'm Jonah Hennipen. May I come in, Ro?"
Ro frowned. Once again, he didn't seem dangerous or anything, but to let a complete stranger in. . .
Noting her reluctance, he pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket.
"I'm here about this" he said, passing the paper to her.
She gasped softy as she recognized it. Hastily, she flipped it over. Sure enough, there was her own scribbled message. It was the letter.
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"Let me get this straight " Ro's father, who was a large, imposing man, leaned forward, put his elbows on the table and stuck his face a just few inches from Jonah's.
Dinner was almost over, and Jonah had finished explaining everything to Ro's confused and slightly suspicious family. He had not been kicked out. Yet.
"There is a society of wizards," he continued, " which pretty much nobody knows about, even though it has existed for centuries? And they have a school for training young magicians, hidden under Lake Superior, which is frequently probed by sonar?" He sounded incredulous.
"Yes," Jonah replied, pulling away from Mr. Eagams a little, who, besides being uncomfortably close, had a tendency to spray as he spoke. "Wizards have become adept at hiding themselves. If a Muggle does see something associated with magic, there are spells that can . . . erase the memory of it."
"Hmm. . . don't like the sound of that." He glared at Jonah for a bit, looking as if he wanted to ask if Jonah had altered any memories. "Moving on, Ro is supposed to be capable of doing magic?"
"Yes." Jonah knew that he sounded a little too relieved, but Mr. Eagams inquiring further about Memory Charms would not have been a good turn in the conversation.
Keith Eagams leaned back. "Well, I guess that would explain a few things."
Ro smiled absentmindedly. She appeared to be thinking along the lines of 'that's the understatement of the century!'
Kay, Ro's sister, spoke up for the first time all evening "Am I a wizard too?"
Jonah quickly looked down at his roast beef, so no one would see that he was trying, with little success, not to laugh. He had carefully not said 'witch', as Muggleborn families tended to react poorly to that word. It was general policy for the girl in question to pick it up at school, then bring it home to her parents. However, that policy caused some awkward situations. He forced a poker face and looked back at Kay.
"If I remember correctly from the records, then you'll be getting your invitation in a couple years. I think little Nate here will, too." He said, gesturing to the almost-three-year-old.
Nate, who had previously been absorbed in sculpting grand masterpieces out of his mashed potatoes, started to bounce up and down. "Me too! Me too!" he sang happily.
"You too what?" teased Ro.
Nate stopped, wrinkling his face in thought.
Everyone laughed. Nate said 'Me too' to just about anything. It happened to be one of his favorite phrases, which was not all that surprising for a two-year-old with a pair of older siblings.
Ro's mother cleared her throat. "What I don't understand is, well, how would these three get to be magical? I mean, Keith and I are both very normal." She paused. "For that matter, how does anyone become a wizard?"
Jonah looked at her solemnly. "Well, that's the question, isn't it? I mean, The Really Big Question. Our researchers have been asking it for years, and none of them know for sure." He took a breath, then continued, "Well, until quite recently it was assumed that magic was hereditary. In that case, your children would be 'throwbacks', taking after some great-grandparent who knows how many generations ago."
Mrs. Eagams nodded slowly. "That would make sense. But there are other theories?"
"Yes. A new one was proposed a few months ago. If this one is correct, then genes do not determine magic at all." He stopped talking, and glanced around the table, expecting to see the looks of skepticism there always were on wizards' faces when this theory was mentioned. But there was none. They were all looking at him, waiting to hear more.
"Rather, when a child is still unborn, they can, by being exposed to magic, become magical themselves. Of course, just passing a wizard on the street wouldn't be enough exposure. But if one of your friends or coworkers, someone you saw frequently, were a wizard, then that would be enough. And your younger children probably got it from Ro."
No one had time to respond to this before they heard a loud SPLACK! They all turned to see what had happened.
One of Nate's potato monuments had toppled. Usually, his culinary escapades were stopped well before he got to this point, but mommy and daddy had been distracted today.
Mrs. Eagams groaned "Nate!" and stood up to get a paper towel. Nate stared, crestfallen, at his shattered handiwork. Then he shrugged, and, potatoes forgotten, began to construct walls and pyramids of corn.
Jonah chuckled. One of his nephews used to do exactly the same thing. He recalled all too well the days when he was twelve and a babysitter.
He turned back to Mr. Eagams. "Uh, well, term starts September third, you'll be needing to get her Epsilon-style robes for school. . ."
"Hang on," interrupted Mr.Eagams, "Where the heck are we supposed to get these school supplies? It's not like you can walk into Target and say 'Hello, what isle are the magic wands in?'"
Jonah had a sudden mental image of his straight-laced supervisor, dressed in standard work robes, asking exactly that of a blonde Barbie-like girl in a Target uniform. He bit back a snicker.
"I'm supposed to take Ro supplies shopping. I could pick her up on the fourteenth, I have to take my nephews shopping that day anyway. Or I could just give you directions, but I wouldn't recommend it. The entrance is charmed to partially hide itself, and as you've never been there before, it could take hours to even get into The Ley."
"The Ley?" Ro's dad raised his eyebrows.
"Yeah" Jonah responded "The Ley. It's a whole section of shops hidden in the Mall of America. A ley, that's l-e-y, is supposed to be a 'ground line' of magical energy. Real 'leys' have never been proven to exist, but it's a neat idea."
"Wow." Said Kay reverently "You really CAN get anything at the Mall of America."
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Hello! Kala here. FYI, Some revisions have been made to chapter one, espescially in Ro's section. I took the challenges down, because no one seemed to interested. Ro's middle name is Suzanne, if anyone cares. . .
Thank you, thank you, and thank you again to LNlisa, Sarah29, and Briana Rose for their beautiful, constructive reviews. I love you! (insert big cheesy grin) And Sarah, my friend, all will be revealed in due time. Anyone else who wishs to drop a review is a wonderful angel, though not quite as wonderful an angel as these three.
Okay, I'll quit with the shameless flattery. . .