Marvels: Maggie

Part 7

by DarkMark

After I told my tale to Professor Xavier, he deliberated, then gave me his decision. I took it home with me and made it in time for a couple of sandwiches from the fridge and bed. I barely had time to wave to the kids. I can't say that any of them gave me a funny look. But Dorrie did.

Maggie didn't. I still maintain that Maggie didn't.

In bed, Doris asked me, "So. What'd he say?"

I turned to her and said, "He said he wants to see Maggie."

"You told him."

"If he's going to help her, I had to."

"You sure he's going to help her?"

A great pause. "Maybe he can give her something we can't, Doris. Like an open environment. A, a school. Some people who will be her friends."

"But maybe he can't give her something we can."

"Goes without saying. I wanna go to sleep, Doris."

She didn't say anything, didn't even act cold to me. But she turned over and lay there with her back to me, and I supposed it was as civil a reception as I could hope for.

I took what I could get from it, and went to sleep.

-M-

The next morning, I made breakfast for two before anybody else could get up and went down to the basement with two plates. Maggie was asleep in her bed. For an instant, I flashed on how she would look to an interloper, like a changeling who has stolen a human kid and taken her place, her bed, and her p.j.'s. But it was an effort for me, because I only saw a little girl there.

I sat her plate on the bedside table beside her clock, her Bama water glass, and a little photo I'd made of her. "Maggie, darling, the giant walks," I said.

"Unhmm?" Large eyelids came partly back from large eyes. "Uncle Phil?"

"Yup. Breakfast beside bed. We eat, then we talk."

She roused herself enough to sit up in bed. "Sure. What about?"

"Never talk on an empty stomach. Eat." I was scarfing down scrambled eggs, hash browns, and toast. It was one of the few meals I couldn't screw up. Much. Maggie gave me a curious look, then dug in.

After we were both done noshing, I put my plate on top of hers. "Maggie," I said. "We're gonna have company tonight."

"Oh, okay. You want me to stay in your bedroom or my sisters' bedroom?"

A twinge went through me. I realized that she'd been referring to Beth and Jenny as her sisters for some time now, and I hadn't even much noticed it. Well and good. "Not, not exactly, Maggie. You see, I want you to meet our guest."

Her face almost went white. "Uncle Phil," she said, clutching her blanket with both hands.

I reached out with both hands and put them on her shoulders. "Not to worry, Maggie. This is a special guest. He's..."

"You told him about me?" She was sucking in great breaths. "You told him about me?"

"Maggie. His name is Professor Xavier, and he's a...he's a professor of mutants."

Her eyes were even wider than usual, which was an unsettling sight. She looked like a frightened Martian cat. "You told somebody about me," she breathed.

"Maggie, yes. I did. Because I had to. Because he can help you."

"Nobody can help me," she said. "Nobody, Uncle Phil."

"Not even us, Maggie? Listen, I know--"

"Nobody can keep me from being a mutie, Uncle Phil." She was starting to tear up. "I'm gonna be like this forever, and nobody can help me with that."

"Sugar, listen. Listen to me. This guy is...you remember when the Sentinels were loose? The night you left us?"

She nodded, still trying not to cry. I stroked her cheek, as if she were a cat I was trying to get to purr.

"This guy, Professor Xavier, is the one who was defending mutants that night. He was on TV, with the guy who made the Sentinels, and the Sentinels got him. I don't know if that makes him one or not, but by golly, he knows mutants. And I think he runs a school for them, in Westchester."

"You want to get rid of me," she said, her voice cracking. "You want me out of your house."

"I do not! But, Maggie, darling, listen. Please listen to your uncle Phil, okay?"

"You want me--"

"Maggie!"

She stopped trying to talk then, and kept choking back the sobs, but the tears were starting up in her eyes. I was kneeling beside her bed. Damned if I knew how to play this, but I was going to have to play it anyway.

"Maggie, darling, nothing would please me more than to have you here in our home for the rest of our lives. And maybe it can be like that later, darling. Maybe it can. I'd like that. Would you?"

She nodded her head, still leaking saltwater. I plowed on.

"But maybe, maybe it isn't the right environment for you here, Maggie. If there's a place you can go where you can be among people who won't treat you like a--a mutant--"

"You don't treat me like a mutant," she said, crying openly. "You and Aunt Dorrie and Beth and, and Jenny don't treat me like a mutie."

"I know, Maggie," I said, holding her arms. "I know. But, baby, this might not be the healthiest place for you right now. You're only among the four of us, in this little house. Xavier's got a great big place, out in the country. And he can teach you things, honey. Things Doris and I can't. Better yet, Maggie...I don't think anybody out there would treat you badly. I don't think anybody out there would treat you as anything but another student."

"I didn't even finish first grade," she whimpered.

"Professor Xavier can help you," I said, hoping I was right. "He's got a bigger world out there than we do, Maggie."

"Uncle Phil," she said, looking directly at me with those big wet eyes. "Don't you know that I love your world? An' Aunt Dorrie's and Beth's and Jenny's, too? Don't you, don't you know that?"

"Maggie, I--"

"You're my family, Uncle Phil. You're my real, real family."

My God. Did I ever want to take that little girl in my arms and hold her close to me and promise her I'd never, never let her go into that cold and predatory world again, that I'd always be here for her, that this house would be her haven and her home. The terrible thing is, I could make a lot of it come true. But not all.

"Maggie. Maggie, you always will be part of my family. Part of our family. But, Maggie, I promised that you could attend school someday. Didn't I promise that?"

She nodded her head again, and said, "Yes," in a voice only slightly louder than a fireplace crackle.

"And Professor Xavier's school is a place which you can attend," I said. "If he accepts you."

"He hasn't?" There was a look of hope in her eyes.

"No," I admitted. "He wants to see you first. Even if he can't take you in, he wants to see if he can help. That's what he's coming here for tonight."

"Uncle Phil, what do you think of him?"

Another tough one. "Maggie, I don't know. I know he's not Mr. Warmth or anything like that. But--I have to say--in this matter, maybe I trust him. Teachers are not always Mr. Warmth. They don't have to be, so long as they teach you something. And that's what he wants to do with you, Maggie. Maybe."

"But you teach me, Uncle Phil. And so does Aunt Dorrie."

"I know, Maggie. But if that was all there was to it, Beth and Jenny wouldn't have to go to school. And they do. They even like it, most of the time."

"Why do I have to go?" She looked at me as if she were being drafted. "Why do I have to go, Uncle Phil?"

I sighed. "Because, honey. Because you need to learn more about this world than just running and hiding and snatching bread loaves from trucks. Because you need to learn more than just the space where this house stands on Earth. Because...every little bird's gotta leave the nest. If you don't want to, I won't make you. But, Maggie, I think it'd be the best thing for you. And I don't want you to make a decision before you meet Professor Xavier."

"Will he tell anybody else about me?"

"He's said he wouldn't."

"Do you believe him?"

"Yes, Maggie. I think I do."

A long pause. "I'll see him, Uncle Phil."

I smiled. "Good girl." I chucked her under the chin. "You help Aunt Dorrie out around the house today. And I want you to promise me something."

"What?"

"Want you to promise you won't try to run away today. That wouldn't be nice to our guest, or to us. And, Maggie...it wouldn't be safe."

A long pause. Then she said, "I promise."

I hugged her. "This could be the start of a new life for you, Maggie," I said. "But it all depends on what you want."

I feel right now like willing my foot across time to give myself a good swift kick in the pants.

For starters.

-M-

I filled Doris in on the rest of it before I left for work, making sure she was in the kitchen, away from Beth and Jenny. She paled a bit, even though she knew a lot of it and had figured out a good percentage of the rest. She spoke to me. "Are you sure about this man?"

I hesitated, and she caught that. "Doris. As much as I can be for meeting the gentleman only one time, I am. What's done is done. He knows, now. It's up to Maggie to see if she trusts him."

The girls were looking at us from the other room. We kept our voices low. Doris said, "You realize we may be giving her up, Phil. Giving her to a stranger."

"We do that every day with Beth and Jenny for eight hours, Dorrie. Someday soon, we'll have to do it entirely."

"They're not what Maggie is."

"I know." I waited.

Finally, she went to the sink and started running hot water into it, shaking dish soap into it. "You want me to tell Beth and Jenny," she said, not looking at me.

"If you would," I said. "After they get home from school."

Doris looked up at me. "I'm in two pieces right now, Phil. I wish I could feel good about this thing. But I won't know until it's over. And you'd better be right."

I shook my head. "I never know when I'm right, Dorrie. All I know is that I'm trying to do the right thing."

"So far, I think you've done that. And look where it's gotten us." She paused. "But I'm glad you did."

I smiled. "She's going to help you with the house and fixing dinner tonight. She promised not to run away."

"Hope she can keep that promise, Phil."

"So do I, Dorrie. So do I."

-M-

The day passed with a flurry of pictures. For Jameson, I did a few shots of the Avengers at their mansion. I remember it because it was the first time I got to shoot that big galoot, Goliath. He used to be Giant-Man, and I preferred him as that, since I'd once gotten a great shot of him that later made the cover of MARVELS. When I asked if he'd mind changing to normal height for a before-and-after picture, he looked grim, and said, "Sorry." Captain America defused the situation by saying that Goliath couldn't be pictured at normal height for security reasons. I said okay and went back to my shooting.

I didn't learn until later that, at the time, Goliath couldn't shrink. He was stuck at 10 feet tall until they invented a means by which he could get back to regular height.

Things were tough all over, that year.

I gave the negatives to the Bugle and headed back home, my brain disengaged from driving, my body on automatic.

When I got home, Jenny and Beth wouldn't talk to me. "Evening, girls," I said. "Where's your mom? And Maggie?"

Jenny sullenly pointed to the kitchen. Beth wouldn't look at me.

Time to play Daddy again. I put down my camera case and valise. "You think this is easy for me, either? You think I want to get rid of her?"

Now neither was looking at me.

"You want to answer me, or spend the rest of the night in your rooms?"

For a long time, neither one spoke. Then Jenny said, "You're giving Maggie to somebody else. We'll never see her again."

"That's not true, Jenny." I knelt on one knee before her. "And you know it isn't. Do you think your dad would be that uncaring?"

Pause.

"Okay, if that's the case, you can both go up to your rooms. Now."

"Daddy," said Beth. "We know you're not trying to be mean. It's just..."

"Just what, Bethie? You think I've forgotten what she did about your hand? You think I haven't come to love her, too?"

"That's just the point, Daddy," Jenny burst out. "She came here, we loved her, she ran off. Now you bring her back, we love her again, and you say she's got to go. We just can't take it like that!"

I sighed. "Okay, little girls. Let me sit down, and then Daddy will give you an answer. Deal?"

"Okay, Daddy," said Beth.

"All right, Dad," Jenny agreed. Neither of them sounded very enthusiastic.

I went in the front room. I sat down on the couch, and pointed at the opposite end of it. Beth and Jenny sat down where I had indicated. Then I began.

"Love," I said. "You think you know about love. Jenny, Beth, I assure you: you don't know half about love. You're going to learn.

"Do you think that love is just some, I don't know, some kind of miracle fluid that gets injected into your heart and all of a sudden you feel good all over, like you're walking on Cloud 76? Well, it can be. That's part of it. But not the whole.

"Love is more than, 'Oh, I love you, Beth, and I love you, Jenny, and I'm never gonna let you go.' The truth is, girls, it's more like, 'I love you, Beth, and I love you, Jenny, and that's why someday, I'm gonna have to let you go.'

"Do you doubt it? Do you doubt that someday, you're gonna get outta high school and pack your bags and go off to college? And that you're gonna graduate, and don't think you aren't, and that you're going to move off and get jobs and get married? You sure as hell are. Because I'm going to make you. Because I love you enough to give you the things you're gonna need to survive in the big world out there, darlings, and I love you enough to kick you out there when the time comes."

They were both staring at me, wide-eyed. I'd spoken to them before about future plans, but I don't think they ever got it in their gut. Now they knew, and I cursed myself on one track of my mind for having to tell them. On the other track, I knew that I was doing the right thing, and that was love, too.

"Don't get me wrong. We'll be here for you if you need us, we'll give you a place to stay if you need it. We'll always be family. But someday you're going to want to get out of here, because that's built into the human animal. It's built into all the other animals, too. You go out, you get a job, you get a guy, you get married. The cycle repeats itself. It's not just something out of a storybook or a TV show, Beth, Jenny. It's life. We all gotta leave, sometime. I had to, your mom had to, and you will, too. Faster than you think.

"If it was the best thing to keep Maggie here for the rest of her life, I would. If there were no other alternative, you bet. This has been a good place for her, and she's probably had the happiest time of her life here. Both of you have been part of that. But she's still being stunted, to a large degree, by just being with us and nobody else. I can't give her the education she deserves, just by having Doris sit her down with an arithmatic book. She's a lot younger than Doris and I, and we'll die long before she does. When we do, she needs to know more about the real world than just how to run and hide in it."

I paused, and wondered how much I was arguing to convince them, and how much to convince myself. Then I went on.

"Now. If there was any chance that I thought this school would be bad for Maggie, or that Professor Xavier would be bad for her, there is no way I would agree to her doing this. Absolutely no way. Do you think I'd turn a little girl out into a trap? Especially one whom I love almost as much as I love either of you? Well?"

I waited.

Beth finally said, "I don't think so, Dad."

Jenny shook her head.

"Well, I'll tell you how much I love Maggie. I love her enough to want her to get some learning, in the classroom, and with people who might--might--not be so different from her. I will not relinquish her before I see the facility where she'll be learning. I will not let her go without meeting the students. And I will not let her go if she does not want to. At the same time, I want her to go, because I think it'll be the next step in her development. She can't go through the next sixty years or so just being a little scared rabbit-girl. Maybe out there--" I sighed. "Maybe, out there in a place where there aren't a bunch of people who fear mutants, she'll learn something. I think it's darned well worth a try.

"That's how much I love Maggie, children. I love her enough to let her go, when the time comes.

"That's just about how much I love you, too.

"Now. If Maggie does not want to go, she does not have to go. If I don't think it's a good idea for her to go, she doesn't go. Either way, I will insist that we get visitation rights, that we can go and see her at times. But, darlings...which is better? Maggie having to hide in the house all the time, and only knowing us? Or Maggie getting into part of the real world, where she can be out in the open, among other people?"

Beth finally said, "Dad, it may be best for her, but I still don't like it. I don't want her to go. She's our third sister."

"I don't want her to go," said Jenny. "I just don't, Daddy."

"I understand, Beth, Jenny," I said. "But later, maybe when you get older...you'll understand me, too. I expect you to behave nicely to Professor Xavier tonight. Promise me you'll do that?"

"We'll try, Dad," said Jenny. "At least I will."

"I'll be nice to him," said Beth. "I guess."

"No 'I guess' about it. You treat him as a guest, or you'll answer to me. Clear?"

"Yes, Dad," they both said, approximately.

Dorrie called from the kitchen. "Phil, I think company's coming."

"Great," I said. To Doris I called, "I'll be ready." To the girls, I said, "Jump up to your room and make yourselves look even neater. Make me proud of you, and, most of all, make Maggie proud of you."

They scooted off to do so. I took a peek through the window and saw the big touring car of Xavier's heading up the street. I straightened my tie and was about to grab my camera case and valise from the floor and stow them away. They weren't there.

Maggie was.

She was wearing a pink dress and sensible white shoes and bows in her hair, which had grown in thickly enough to cover the formerly bare spots on her head. There was a Band-Aid on one knee where she had scraped it, playing with Beth and Jenny on the basement floor recently.

I looked at her and wondered how anybody could see her as a little gargoyle. All I could see was a lovely little girl. Then again, I saw with my heart.

"I put your things away, Uncle Phil," she said. "Hope you don't mind."

"Mind? No, no, Maggie. You look gorgeous."

"Thank you." I could tell she was tense. Didn't blame her.

"Maggie." I stooped and took her in my arms. "I guess you heard some of my conversation with Beth and Jenny?"

"Yes," she said, as the doorbell rang.

"Listen well. What I said, I meant. You don't go anywhere unless I say it's all right, and you wnat to. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Uncle Phil," she said, embracing me. "At least, I'll try to."

"Good, good. Now go in the other room, andale." I set her down and she scurried into the kitchen. The doorbell rang again.

I opened it. A huge guy was there, wearing glasses, and sporting the biggest pair of hands I had ever seen on a human being in my life. He was wearing a cardigan, a tie, a blue shirt and dark blue pants, and a pair of brogans the size of which rivalled the dimensions of his mitts. His brown hair was cut short and well-combed, and he gave me the impression of an intelligent guy who could mop the field with any ten football players.

He smiled, and stuck out his big hand. "Hank McCoy. Mr. Sheldon?"

I took it and shook it, looking over his shoulder. Xavier was at the bottom of the steps in his wheelchair. "Uh, yeah. Phil Sheldon. Do you, uh..."

"Mr. Summers couldn't make it," he said. "You may have assiduous assurance that any secrets given to me are as safe as they would be in the hands of James Bond. Or Price Waterhouse."

I wasn't sure that assured me, but I didn't seem to have any choice. From below, Xavier called, "Good evening, Mr. Sheldon. Hank, if you'd be so kind."

"Absolutely, Professor," he said. The big guy turned, stepped down to Xavier, went to the back of his chair, and gripped the back handles of his wheelchair.

Then he lifted the thing right off the sidewalk, stepped up the three steps to our porch, and sat Xavier and chair on it without even seeming to strain. I must've been gaping.

"Hank is one of our stronger students, Mr. Sheldon," said Xavier, as if that explained everything. "May we come in?"

"Sure, sure," I said, moving aside. I was wondering if I hadn't gotten in way over my head, wondering if I'd made the wrong decision for a confidante. But it was a bit late for that, now.

McCoy came in behind Xavier, and I could swear the floorboards groaned under him. I shut the door and locked it. Then I called out, "Ladies, we have company."

Xavier looked at me, appraisingly. I sensed he'd played this scene out before, like a football coach recruiting players for a team by going to their houses. I felt numb and inadequate. I think I prayed, and I hope I prayed the right thing.

Beth, Jenny, and Doris, still in her apron, appeared in the doorway leading to the kitchen. Doris stood protectively beside the girls and pasted on a smile. "Dr. Xavier?" she said.

"Professor Xavier, Mrs. Sheldon," he said, holding out a hand. Tentatively, she came forward and shook it. "And this is Mr. McCoy."

"How do you do, ma'am?" asked Hank, with surprising warmth. He did the handshake with her as well, and I could see her gape when her hand was engulfed by McCoy's massive paw. Despite themselves, I saw Beth and Jenny giggling. "Don't worry, ma'am, big hands run in the McCoy household," he assured her.

"Uh, I'm sure they do," said Dorrie, disengaging.

"And these would be your children, Mrs. Sheldon?" prompted the professor.

"Yes, yes, they are," said Doris, trying to be cordial and still size the guys up at the same time. "This is Beth and this one is Jennifer."

"Call me Jenny," said Jen, and both held out their hands. McCoy smiled and offered them his two forefingers, which were about big enough for them to shake.

"It is an honor, ladies," said McCoy, not laying it on too thickly. "Henry P. McCoy, at your service."

"Thank you," said Beth. "Do you play football or something?"

McCoy looked innocent. "Well, I used to, but they made me quit. You see, I had the simply awful habit of hiding the ball in my hand, so the other side couldn't see it, and kind of walking for a touchdown. They didn't think that was fair to the other players, so they made me quit." He winked. This time Beth giggled. Doris still looked suspicious, but we were in for the whole enchilada, like it or not.

Professor Xavier said, "I believe there's someone else here, Mr. Sheldon. Could you call her in, please?"

I hesitated, took a deep breath, and called out. "Maggie. It's all right. Professor Xavier's here." Another pause. "Come on out, darling. Please."

Another pause.

Then a tiny form in a pink dress poked her upper head past one side of the jamb, tentatively. She was scared as hell. I didn't blame her.

I shot a glance at McCoy and Xavier. The big-handed guy looked straight at her, without hesitation. He didn't look frightened by her at all. Instead, he looked sad...very, very sad. Xavier didn't smile, but his expression, or what I could read of it, looked much softer.

"It's all right, Maggie," he said, quietly. "Believe it or not, I'm somebody like you. My name is Charles Xavier."

Hesitantly, with a step that took her the longest second in the world, Maggie stepped into view. I don't think even the insects in our immediate vicinity would have moved at that moment, if there were any.

For a moment, Maggie didn't say anything. Xavier drew a bit closer in his chair, though keeping his distance. McCoy went to one knee and said, "Hi, Maggie. My name is Hank."

"Maggie, we've come from--" Xavier started.

She cut him off, looking straight at him.

"Stop walking around in my head," she said.

To be continued...