Диана Дуэйн: Wizards Holiday

Yeah You are such a softie, Nita thought, with a sudden great rush of love for her dad. Okay, Nita said. Thanks, Daddy! One thing, her dad said. I really would be happier if Kit was with you. You two ve been pretty good backup for each other in the past, and he s worked hard, too. I don t think a break from routine would hurt him, either. Obviously it s going to be up to his folks, but when you go over there, see what they think. Without knowing how she knew, Nita was already certain of what they d think. You talked to them about me going already! Nita said. When you didn t even know what I was going to say! Her dad shot her another amused look. We have many mysterious modes of communication, he said as he signaled the turn into their driveway. Aided by the fact that not even children who are wizards can keep an eye on their parents every minute of the day. Nita had to grin as the car splashed through the puddle at the bottom of the driveway. Let s get this stuff unpacked, her dad said. Then you d better go talk to Kit and make plans. Planning Your Trip KIT WAS SITTING IN HIS room, riffling through his wizard s manual, frowning in concentration and trying not to be distracted by the sound of his dog s snoring, when his sister stuck her head in through the open doorway. You busy Carmela said. Kit sighed, pushed back from the desk. No. What is it You are busy, his sister said, walking carefully around Ponch, who had stretched his big black self right across the rug in the middle of the floor and was lying there with his paws in the air, taking up most of the spare floor space in the room. Good, I ll hang around and make you crazy. She leaned over his shoulder, so far over that her single long dark braid hung down in front of Kit s face. What s that little red glowing thing in the air there Just a wizardry. I m playing with the speed of light. I thought that was supposed to be a law, Carmela said. You shouldn t break laws. I m not. I m not even bending this one, Kit said. Just bending space. For the fun of it, his sister said in wonder. You make my brains bleed sometimes, you know that Not half as much as I wish I did, Kit said. Mela, what is it She turned away, sat down on Kit s bed, and grinned. I wanted to know what you thought of Mark. Endless possible answers spun through Kit s mind, all of them true, but none of them particularly kind. He settled for one of the less injurious ones. He looks like a dork, Kit said. How cruel! Carmela cried. Then she smiled, and the smile was wicked. True, but cruel. It s the backward baseball cap, Kit said. I m sorry, but that s getting pretty ancient. Plus his cap s too small for him, and the pop-fasteners in it always leave these marks like little rivets on his forehead Kit stopped himself. I m seriously discussing my sister s would-be boyfriends, he thought. This is not something I want her to get used to. Listen, Kit said, there s something more important than this that we need to discuss. You ve been having a lot of fun with the TV… Since you fixed it so it shows alien cable, his sister said, I ve revised my opinion of you way upward. That concerns me so deeply, Kit said. The fix hadn t been intended to add that particular feature to the new entertainment system, but when Kit had later tried to remove the alien content, the TV and DVD player had gone on strike. Kit had been forced to restore the system, and had had to admit privately that his sister s demands that it be put back the way it d been after the fix were even more annoying than the system s refusal to function normally. So what s your problem his sister said. We need to talk about that first thing you ordered off the Mizarthu shopping channel. Which thing The laser dissociator. Oh, that! It s in my bedroom somewhere. Kit sighed. It sometimes seemed that the contents of whole planets could be accurately described as in Carmela s bedroom somewhere. Where, exactly I don t know. I ll look for it later; I m busy right now. What s the matter with it I need to make it safe. From what Kit rolled his eyes. Not from, he said, for. As in, safe for being on the same planet with. Oh, come on, Kit. There haven t been any problems since we figured out where the safety switch was. There haven t been any problems, Kit thought, his eyes nearly crossing with frustration. Repairing the tile and the plastering in the bathroom had been a week s work, at a time when he had much better things to do and his pop had insisted Kit do it the old-fashioned way, meaning by hand and not by wizardry. There was nearly a problem, Kit said, when you thought you had it set for hot curler and it was set for low disintegrate. I got that sorted out, Carmela said. You always have to harp on the small stuff! I thought that wasn t good for a wizard. I will not kill her, Kit thought. It would speed up entropy. But only a little… Kit let out a long breath. Just find it for me in the next day or so, okay he said. You can still use it on your hair, but I want to make sure that nobody else, like one of your friends when they re over, can find it accidentally, go off with it, and blow up their bathrooms. Or more valuable real estate, like the insides of their heads. An odd look grew on Carmela s face. Like the inside of my head isn t valuable Kit gave her a dry look. His sister opened her mouth. Left yourself open for that one, Kit said. And another thing. These alien chat rooms you ve been using… You re just jealous because I m getting good at the Speech, Carmela said, producing a pouting expression resembling that of a cranky supermodel. Kit rolled his eyes. No, I m not jealous. I just think you should be careful about who you talk to! he said. It s like any other kind of Net chat. What they show you and what they sound like may not have anything to do with who or what they really are. I know that! I don t think you know how much you don t know that! I don t want you thinking you re having harmless clothes-and-hair-and-pop-star talk with some alien girloid, and then have Earth get invaded because it turns out you were actually talking to some twelve-legged, methane-breathing centipede prince who s decided to turn up with a battle fleet and demand your hand in marriage! Carmela s face wrinkled up. Euuuuuu, she said. Centipedes. You just said the unmagic word. Kit kept his face straight. His sister was not wild about bugs of any kind, and he knew it. So don t give people in alien chat rooms your real name or address or anything, okay he said. Okay, Carmela said with a long-suffering sigh. Then she looked curious. What is the Earth s address, by the way I m not telling you, Kit said. You don t trust me! No. And, anyway, it s complicated, and you don t have the technical vocabulary to say it. Yet, Carmela said. I don t think it s going to take me that long. And once I m really good at the Speech, maybe I should look into becoming a wizard, too. It doesn t work that way, Kit said, feeling incredibly relieved that it didn t. Yet the very idea still freaked him out somewhat. Just what I need. My very own version of Dairine…! Oh, please, no. You can t be a wizard unless the Powers invite you, Kit said. And you re too old. Oh, please, let her be too old! Besides, it s a lot of hard work. I m not sure I believe that, Carmela said. Nita makes it look easy. She just reads out of her book, or waves that little white wooden wand of hers, and things happen. It is not that easy, Kit said, starting to get irritated, possibly by the insinuation that wizardry was easier for Nita than it was for him. It s like saying that someone just sits down at their computer and fiddles with the keys and things happen. Wands are just hardware. At the end of the day, it s the software that does the job…and you have to write it yourself. Carmela gave Kit a not-entirely-convinced look. Well, she said, getting up, I ll go get the thingy for you. Downstairs, the phone rang. In a while, Carmela said as she ran out, pounding down the hall. Читать дальше