Chapter 31

As we rode home, I explained to Mary what I had seen during my inadvertent scrying session. I didn't mention Ursus's speculation about the chain and collar.

"So he's really another magician, then?" Mary asked.

"It looks all but certain. I want to get home and try scrying his place some more."

"Why are you so concerned about this man?"

"I don't know, but I keep seeing visions of him and his house even when I'm not trying to. Something about him is important."

When Mary and I got home, I left my pack in the garage and we went in. Mom said, "Where have you two been all this time?"

"Just around," I said. "We never went far."

"I'm surprised you haven't frozen your asses off." I looked behind myself as if checking for the presence of my buttocks. Mom continued: "The phone has been ringing off the hook."

"Why is that?"

"People calling to see if band practice is at one."

Oh. I hadn't known anything about a band practice at one. "What have you been telling them?"

"I've been saying that you never told me anything, but to show up then if they don't hear from you."

"I didn't really have band practice in mind. I just figured Mike, Terry, and I, and maybe Mary, would be practicing today after supper."

"If you're going to be a bandleader," said Mom, "you need to communicate with your troops better."

"Who elected me leader?"

"You're the one they all seem to listen to."

Shit. "All right, I'll straighten things out."

"Don't tie up the phone for very long."

It looked like my plans were about to change. I called Danny's place first, because I knew there was a good chance that Mike and Terry would be there. They were, and so was Sean. Since they already expected a practice, I told them to show up at one. Then I called Kirsten's house.

Kirsten answered. "What have you and Mary been up to all morning?"

"We were on a top-secret mission involving espionage and black arts. Mom said you were concerned about band practice."

"Is it at one, as usual?"

"I guess. I hadn't really thought about it, but that's when everyone is going to show up."

"I don't want to be mean, so please don't take this the wrong way, but if you're going to be band leader, you need to make sure everyone knows the schedule."

"Mom already said much the same thing. I didn't know that I was leader until a few minutes ago."

"Who else would it be?"

"Well, Danny's usually the leader in most stuff our little group does together."

"He seems to be deferring to you during practice."

"I guess. Anyway, I've been forbidden to tie up the phone. I'll see you in a few minutes. I have just enough time to grab a sandwich."

Mary handed me a plate with a salami sandwich and some chips on it. I had seen her working at the kitchen counter, but I hadn't really been paying attention to what she had been doing. "Thank you," I said. "You're a good sister." She smiled at me.

After we ate, I fetched my backpack from the garage and went downstairs to put my magic equipment away. That done, Mary and I moved the old kitchen chairs over to the chord organ and got out some folding chairs, in case Pam and Sean showed up with the others.

Sean, Mike, Terry and Danny arrived first. Danny had brought the pedal car, so Mary and I slipped on our coats to give it a quick look. Until Danny got his hands on some windshield material, the car was basically finished. It had red bicycle lights in the back and on each side and a bicycle headlamp centered in the front. A pair of six-volt batteries, wired in parallel, powered the lights. It also had two reflectors in back and three down each side. "It looks really good," I said.

"Thanks," said Danny. "Think it'll get me an 'A' in shop?"

"Is that why you made the battery holder so fancy?"

"Yeah, I wanted to show some woodworking skills along with metal and welding."

"If I were a shop teacher, I'd give it an 'A, '" I said.

"Are you going to decorate it any?" asked Mary.

"I was thinking about a narrow orange pinstripe down the side."

"No flames or anything?" said Terry, who had come out of his house with the guitar while his brother Mike carried the amp.

"Nah, those are tacky on anything that isn't a race car. Even a pinstripe has to be narrow so that it doesn't look like I built the car for Halloween."

We went inside. Kirsten and Pam arrived while we were setting up. I heard Mrs. Kennedy talking to Mom upstairs. Pam lent Sean her claves, and we were soon down to work. Sean was pretty good at keeping time, and he was a musician himself. The summer before the previous, he, his older brother, and his father had all taken up the Scottish bagpipes. They didn't have full sets of pipes yet, but they had practice chanters that they blew into directly. Even without the drones, they sounded plenty scary.

We went through the three folk songs we had been practicing and then got ambitious and added a fourth. Why not? Mike, Terry, and I had all become good at switching between open chords, and Kirsten and Danny could pretty much instantly play all of the easy stuff that we were working on. We chose an upbeat song in four-four time, "The Paragon's Parade." The chord changes were faster than anything we had tried so far, so it would stretch the skill of the beginners.

I kept passing Mary manna, and occasionally Kirsten. I planned to test all of the band members, eventually, to see who could accept magical energy, but not just yet. I was willing to begin training Mary just as soon as she could maintain her grip on manna, and I hadn't decided when or if I was going to start confiding in Kirsten about true magic, but I flatly doubted the maturity of Danny, Mike, and Terry.

On the other hand, I might be able to use their hypothetical manna collecting and transmitting abilities without their knowledge. I had no ethical problem with this, for manna itself was good for one's disposition and was neither dangerous nor addictive. The use of manna to work magic, however, could be both.

We practiced as a group until about 2:30, when Danny had to go home and take over Jenny-watching duty, because his brother Tommy had to go to work. Sean decided to go with him. Before they left, I announced to everyone, "There will be no practice Christmas day." I saw Danny and Sean to the door, and Mom handed them each a wrapped gift, plus one for Jenny.

"I take it you knitted them something." I said to Mom. I recognized what her creations looked like when they were wrapped.

"Of course. Haven't you noticed all the stuff I've been making?"

"Sure I have."

The rest of us split into two groups when I went back downstairs. Mike, Terry, and I went to the other side of the basement to work on guitar scales while Kirsten and Pam taught Mary how to play the melody of "The Paragon's Parade" on the chord organ.

My dad got home about three and soon headed into the basement with Mom, Mrs. Kennedy, and the rest of the kids. He mixed the adults drinks at the bar. "Play some Christmas music," said Mom. So we did. When Mrs. Kennedy started to sing along, Mom decided to sing, too. She couldn't really sing in tune, but who cares? Being in tune isn't always the point.

At about 3:30, Mrs. Kennedy said to Kirsten, "Dad should be home by now, and I have to start supper. We need to go." Pam, of course, went with them. Mom handed them each a handmade creation, plus one for Mr. Kennedy. We saw them to the door, and I collected my parting hug and kiss from Kirsten.

"Merry Christmas," she said, and gave me another.

Mary remained upstairs to help Mom. Mike said, once I was back, "Kirsten's mother is pretty hot, you know, for an old lady."

"I try not to think about it," I said.

"I wonder if Kirsten is going to end up as well built as she is."

"It looks like she's heading that way," Terry said.

I changed the subject. "You know what you guys should do?"

"What?" Mike said.

"You both should sign up for choir."

"Why in hell would we want to do something like that?"

"You both want a band. Choir will teach you how to sing better."

"Wouldn't signing up for band be even more helpful?" Terry asked.

"Guitar isn't exactly a school band instrument, is it?" I asked. I really wasn't sure.

"They use it in jazz band," Mike said.

"I didn't know they taught jazz in school," I said.

"Sure do."

"In your school?"

"Not little Saint Dionysius, but most high schools."

"Can anyone just sign up?" Terry asked.

"I'm pretty sure you have to pass an audition," Mike replied. "Do you think I'll be good enough next year?" he asked me.

"I have no idea at all," I said. "It must have a lot to do with the level of competition. If you keep practicing like you've been doing, though, and your mother gets you lessons like she said, who knows?"

"Well, I'm not going to join choir if I can join jazz band," Mike said.

"That's fine," I said. "Let me rephrase: you two should sign up for music training in school, whatever it may be."

"I can sign up for choir next year," said Terry. "I don't want to play any of the instruments they use in St. Dio's band."

"What about percussion?" Mike asked.

"I want to play either guitar or bass, or both. Besides, Danny has his heart set on being the drummer for our group, and he can always hang his harmonica from one of those neck things to play it, too."