The Four Queens
Copyright© 2026 by Uncle Jim
Chapter 8
The following new characters appear in this chapter:
Miss Washburn
Third and fourth grade teacher, 5’-9’’ tall (175 cm), 135 pounds (61 kg), 31 years old, short brown hair, hazel eyes
Mike Horn
Shift supervisor, 5’-10’’ tall (178 cm), 170 pounds (77 kg), 39 years old, short brown hair, blue eyes, strong Talent, already a Dragon
Maly has the Narrative
We knew that we were in trouble as soon as our parents returned from their trip to find a new school for Kiry. They appeared in the large parlor of our house along with a young boy who we presumed was Kiry and his mother, Mliss.
“Gather around girls and meet those whom you will be teaching Magic starting tomorrow,” Mother called right after they had appeared.
The young boy, Kiry, appeared to be a rather plain looking boy; not handsome or anything unusual. Of course, he was only eight years old. His mother, Mliss, was dressed very well and appeared to be a very nice-looking Cambodian woman. We could all detect their Talents, of course, and were surprised by just how strong they were, especially Kiry’s.
“Are you sure they don’t know any Magic?” Daeva asked. “With such strong Talents, that is hard to believe.”
“No, they don’t know any Magic. Your job will be to teach them as much Magic as they can handle. Before you start on that, however, you need to take them to purchase clothing appropriate for his new school. This booklet outlines the type of clothing to be worn for class and for other things, such as gym and sports. I believe that you three are more knowledgeable about the current style of clothing for school than I am, or your father is.
“You may also buy some new clothes for Mliss if she is interested in obtaining any. I’ll give Maly the store charge card. Be sure to get sufficient changes of clothing so Kiry can change clothes every day or so. Also footwear, as he will need different shoes for gym or sports,” Mother reminded us.
We looked at the list of clothing for the various activities such as class, gym and sports, but had questions.
“Are you interested in basketball or tennis,” Daeva asked him after looking at the list.
“No,” he told us
“How about swimming?” she asked next.
“Maybe,” he replied. “Or soccer,” he quickly added.
“Okay, soccer,” Botum said as she had started a list of what clothes we needed to get him. We turned to Mliss following that.
“Are you interested in additional clothing,” I asked her.
“What kind of clothing?” she asked.
“Do you have other nice clothes if there are meetings to go to at Kiry’s school or for other business?” I asked her.
“No, I don’t go out much. I just go to work mostly,” she told us.
“You should get some additional clothes to attend meetings or parties. Or to go out with a man for an evening,” Daeva told her with a smile.
“But nice clothes are expensive here. I can’t afford them,” she protested. I held up the store credit card to show it to her.
“That’s why Mother gave us this,” I told her, showing her the card.
“Well ... maybe,” she answered a bit unsure.
“You should go with us anyway to help us get Kiry’s clothes for school,” Botum told her.
“How will we go? Do you drive?” she asked.
“No, we transfer,” I told her before looking at my sisters. “Our favorite store,” I told them. We then touched Kiry and Mliss before we five vanished.
We appeared outside of our favorite clothing store a second later. Previously, they had asked us to not appear inside the store, as it upset their customers. The store was in the town where Dr. Graham has her office. Mliss and Kiry were still startled, as it was only the second time they had transferred. They soon recovered.
“Can all of you do that? Not just your mother and father?” Mliss asked.
“Yes, we can all transfer. Both of you will be able to do it once you learn enough Magic, and have learned to visualize where you want to go correctly,” I told her.
We spent a good bit of time in the clothing store. We needed to get sufficient clothing for Kiry to attend school in, and for gym and soccer. The school has specified the types of clothing for each activity. Mliss was very strict about what type of clothing we got for her son, but the colors were prescribed by the school. We also convinced her to look at some dresses for herself. She eventually chose two. We put all of the clothing on mother’s store credit card. There weren’t any questions as we had shopped there many times previously. All of the clothing went to the Timeless Zone before we left the store.
Arriving back home, we had a problem. It seems that both of the Queens had gone off to a meeting, and our father had accompanied them. We three had never been to Mliss’s house, and they needed to go home for the night. What to do?
“Who do we know, who has been to their house?” Daeva asked when we learned of our parents’ absence from their note.
“Deirdre,” Kiry instantly told us, having heard our discussion.
“Why didn’t we think of her?” I asked.
“We would have ... eventually,” Botum told us.
“I’ll go get her,” Daeva told us and vanished. A couple of minutes later both of them appeared. Kiry appeared very glad to see Deirdre and took her hand.
“Are we ready to leave?” she asked shortly after appearing. Obviously, Daeva had explained the problem to her.
“Yes, I believe so. We’ll need to cast a marker at their house so we are able to transfer there the first couple of times,” I reminded my sisters before we all joined hands and vanished. We appeared outside of a small house in a subdivision.
“Why are we outside?” Daeva asked as we looked around. The other houses that we could see appeared to be much the same as this one.
“It would be impolite to appear inside without an invitation,” Deirdre told her.
“Do come in,” Mliss told us and opened the front door with her key. Inside, the house was very neat and clean.
“Where would you like us to have the clothing appear?” I asked her.
“Here in the main room would be good, over on the sofa,” Mliss told us. We called the clothing and shoes to us a bit at a time from the Timeless Zone and had it appear on the indicated sofa, so the two of them could arrange like items together to be put away later.
We, that is the three of us, had also been looking around at the house to try to determine where we could assist both of them in learning Magic and using their Talents. We didn’t see an obvious place other than the living room where an area could be set up. I decided that we would need to ask Mliss about a location.
“Is there somewhere that we can set up an area for both of you to study in, especially while we are here?” I asked her.
“Wouldn’t this room be suitable?” she asked.
“Possibly, but it would be better if there was an area where one or both of you could study and not be interrupted or distracted by other things going on in the house such as cooking, cleaning, or the radio or TV,” I told her. On hearing this, she looked thoughtful for a short time.
“There is a room that we don’t use. It is one of the sleeping rooms. It is empty. There is no furniture or anything in it,” she told us.
“Could we see it?” Botum asked.
“Yes,” she answered and led the way to the unused bedroom. It wasn’t all that large, but it would do for a study room for two people.
“We will bring a table and comfortable chairs along with the books when we begin teaching you Magic. The two of you can study together for the first part of the instruction, but Kiry will need to study the last part of the instruction by himself, as it is about becoming a Dragon,” I told her.
“When will you start?” she asked.
“Tomorrow. Two of us will come to start both of you learning about Magic. Normally, one of us will be here two days a week to assist you. You will need to determine which days of the week you would like us to come,” I told her. “You can decide on that later,” I added on seeing the look on her face.
“Yes, alright,” she answered.
“When does Kiry start at the new school?” Deirdre asked.
“He starts on Monday. There is to be a car from your business to take him there,” Mliss told us.
“Hmm, it might be better if someone went with him the first day or so, until he is sure of where to go and what to do,” Deirdre told us. Kiry was smiling on hearing this.
“Are you volunteering?” I asked.
“Yes, we get along very well,” she answered.
“That will work for us. We may all need to know where the school is in case of an emergency,” I told everyone.
It turned out that teaching them Magic (actually just helping them learn Magic rather than actual teaching it) was not as big a problem as we had foreseen. Botum and I arrived the first day with the books and furniture to set up their study room. We had recently upgraded our own study room at home in preparation for going to college and still had our old furniture in storage. The books that we brought were some of the standard Magic books in English used at Georgia State in their Magic Course. The Gaelic books were from the same course.
We anticipated some problems with them learning Gaelic, as both Thai and Khmer are tonal languages, and there are some sounds that those speaking them have trouble hearing in other languages. We still remember our own initial problems with Gaelic even though we spoke English very well at the time. Now, of course, we had no trouble with it. It was Gaelic that would require the most teaching and patience.