Chapter 47

When Mary awoke a couple of hours later, she felt so much better.

In fact, she hadn’t felt this good in ages. She was still tender in places but not in the same level of pain she had been for weeks. She got off the bed and went and grabbed some fresh clothes so she could go and have a shower.

When she stepped out of her room, she was amazed at the transformation of her house. She found herself walking from room to room. Tom had done a serious make-over. The place looked like it had just been built and furnished.

Not seeing her son or his girlfriend in her exploration, Mary guessed they were downstairs. She headed to the shower to freshen up. He mind was a whirl of all that had happened to her in just one crazy afternoon. She suspected that she was still in shock.

If the beating hadn’t been bad enough, learning that Bill had died only a couple of hours later, still hadn’t taken root in her mind. She was conflicted as to whether his death was a good thing or not. She didn’t normally feel ill-will to others, but Bill had started to terrify her.

As for Tom’s revelations, she was just going to suspend her disbelief for now. After all, the evidence of his abilities was all around her, even here in the renovated bathroom that had never looked this good or been so functional.

Showered and shampooed, Mary grabbed an apple from the fridge to sate her hunger, she smiled at all of the food now in it. She then went looking for Tom. She had to chuckle as she realised that he had been busy outside too.

All of the old machinery was gone from around the house, and the grass was cropped as if it had just been mowed. Mary admired her new semi-enclosed double carport on the east side of the house and the fact that the underside of the house now looked more like a huge patio-entertainment area.

The road to the carport looked like it had been graded and then sealed and new paving went around the corner to the stairs, so you didn’t tromp in the mud. Mary was sure those pavers had been piled behind the shed with the pallets of bricks.

She chuckled as realised where the bricks had gone. A new bricked-in room in the back corner under the house and below the kitchen revealed itself to be a downstairs shower and toilet with a spacious laundry beside it. Both had been sorely needed. Even if Tom did no more, the value of the property had just doubled.

Mary looked around but couldn’t see Tom anywhere, so she started calling out for him. “Tom! Tomas! Son, where are you?”

She jumped in fright as she saw him stand up on top of the bus that he had arrived in. She almost screamed as he stepped off the side of it and floated down to the ground. She was still trying to get her heart to settle down while he walked over to her.

“Sorry, Mum, I didn’t mean to frighten you,” Tom said as he hugged her gently.

“Damn, Son that is going to take some time to get used to,” she admonished him as she thumped him lightly in the arm. She looked around as Tom chuckled beside her. “Where is Nena?”

“Sulking in the bus,” Tom responded.

Frowning, Mary asked, “Why?”

Tom gently took his mum’s hand and directed her to the seats that surrounded the long table that was under the house. “She wants to move our relationship along much faster than I do.”

“Ah,” Mary said as she took a seat. The breeze wafted through and stirred her drying hair. She decided that the new owner would be a fool to block this area in, anymore. It was now a lovely place to sit and enjoy the day.

“Where do you see your relationship with her going?” Mary asked her son and then bit into her apple.

Tom shrugged as he sat down opposite her, “I really don’t know. It would be so easy to give in, but we have a few issues that may prove insurmountable.”

“What do you see as the biggest?”

“My magic,” Tom replied glumly. “It’s not an elitist thing, but my level of magic makes it hard for me to be with someone who is not at a level closer to or the same as me. I would just wear that person out, as it gets too much for them unless I have several partners to share the load.”

“When I was studying on Harmony, I had five mages who were helping me. They all wore what is considered a full set of magical items. However only Matte and Jesse wore four-gem sets. The others were all three-gem mages.”

“Nena is not even a quarter as powerful as one of them. Unfortunately, sex is the best way to recharge magic. Being near the magical crystals or a heat source is the next best way. That was why I was on top of the bus.”

“I covered it in crystal shards to help power Bus, and in the sunshine, they make a decent source of new magical energy that I can also absorb. Sex is still faster and far more fulfilling, though.”