Chapter 34

"That's what Mary told us." Mike said. "I thought she was shitting us."

"Well, you could think of it as me sitting there staring at a wooden disk, if it will make you feel better." I was slouched down so that my head rested on the back of the couch. I had trouble keeping my eyes open.

"OK, why were you doing that?"

"I was enchanting it."

"So you really believe in magic, then?" Terry asked.

I started humming a little tune about believing in magic that was popular when Arthur was younger. "Guys, I'm feeling really punchy right now. That spell casting stuff takes it out of me." I began humming again.

"Man," Mike said. "I never thought you'd believe in something so off the wall, Art."

"Have you seen anything that makes you think it actually works?" Terry asked.

"Before I tell you guys any more, you have to promise not to tell anyone what you saw or heard this afternoon." It was worth a shot. Still, I didn't think they would be good at keeping the secret. They both enjoyed telling weird-Artie stories too much, and Terry liked to gossip. Nevertheless, I had to try.

They looked at each other. "You're not including Mary in that, right?" Terry said.

"Right."

"Fine," Terry said.

"All right," Mike said.

I wanted nothing more than to drift off. "I'm sure magic is effective," I said. "If you want an example, it's one of the reasons I managed to beat those four guys in a fight."

"Did you, like, hex them, or something?" Terry asked. Mike had a small smirk on his face.

"No, I put a protective spell on myself. It made their strikes miss more often than they would have otherwise and weaker when they did hit."

"Damn," Mike said. "You almost have me thinking that you're not putting us on about believing that shit."

"As long as you keep your mouths shut about this, I don't much care if you believe me or not," I said.

"Well, that's a fine attitude," Mike said in straight-laced voice.

I grinned, but I said, "I really need to get some sleep before dinner. We can discuss this some other time, if you want."

"We brought our new instruments over for you to give them a fine tuning," Terry said. "Could you do that before you crash? I think we got them pretty close using Mom's piano, but we wanted to double check."

Part of me wanted to tell them to shove them sideways, but another part of me wanted to check out their new stuff. "Yeah, get some kitchen chairs out of my new bedroom, and take them over to the chord organ. I'll be with you as soon as you set up."

I must have drifted off, because the next thing I remember is Mary giving me a shake. "They're ready, Artie."

Mary helped pull me up, and I lurched over to the empty seat near the organ. "Jeez," Mike said. "You look like you're about to fall down."

"Magic is energy intensive," I said.

"Will you show us something, sometime?" Terry asked.

"You already saw what it looks like, at least from the outside. It's not that flashy," I said. Ursus amended to me, It can be, but we haven't yet experimented with magic on this node enough to know what all it can do.

Mike handed me their new guitar. It looked good. It had a sunburst finish going from light yellow near the center of the single-cutaway body, through orange, to dark red near the edge, and reddish brown right on the edge and back. Unlike their brother's guitar, which had three single-coil pickups, this one had two twin-coil humbuckers, each with separate volume and tone controls.

I strummed it. "Nice sustain. What are the woods?"

"Solid mahogany body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard," Mike said.

"Those are good materials," I said. There were other good options, but from my reading and Ursus's experience, I knew that what they had were solid choices without being overly costly. Mrs. Prestor was a smart woman. I was sure she had done the research to get the most for her money.

I brought the tuning is as close to perfection as my ears and Ursus's skill could get, and then played a selection of chords and about a minute of the melody to "The Shepard's Lament" before handing it back. "Beautiful," I said. Their new guitar amp was small and mostly suited just for practice, but it didn't sound bad. "Do you have the whammy bar?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's in the case. I've learned that the one on Jeff's guitar messes up the tuning."

"'Tis the price of cool," I said. Terry passed me their bass. It, too, was a handsome instrument, but not as flashy as the guitar. It had a double-cutaway body painted reddish brown, lighter in the center and darkening toward the edge. A pickup was near the bridge and another by the neck, each with separate tone and volume controls.

I knew that the standard bass tuning was the same as the standard tuning for the four lowest strings on the guitar--E, A, D, G--but one octave lower. I fine-tuned the bass and finger picked it a little before giving it back. Unlike the guitar, the bass caused serious sympathetic vibrations around the basement. "That thing is really going to mess up your hands at first," I said. "I suggest only small doses of bass practice while they toughen up."

"What in hell was that?" Mom yelled down the stairs.

"That was Mike and Terry's new bass," I called back.

"Well, if you're going to be playing that thing around here, you're going to have to figure out some way to tame it."

"We'll work on it, Mrs. P.," called Terry. "Although I don't know how," he said much more quietly.

"Thanks for the help," Mike said. "Which guitar do you think is better, this new one, or Jeff's old one?"

"Both sound good and look well built. I couldn't say which one was better, overall. They do have somewhat different tones, though. Personally, I'd just use whichever one had the tone I was looking for on a particular song. I think you both should practice on each guitar, maybe alternate every day.

"And now, I must sleep," I said. I got up and headed straight for the couch.

I heard Terry ask, "Are we going to practice tomorrow?" but I don't think I answered.

I don't remember anything between then and when Mary shook me awake for Christmas dinner. "Dinner's ready, Artie."

"Just hold the pillow over my face until I quit moving."

"Come now." Mary took my arm, tugged me up, and herded me upstairs. I ducked into the bathroom for a couple of minutes.

I still felt sleepy. When Mom saw me enter the kitchen, she asked in a scolding tone of voice, "Were you asleep all afternoon?"

"Yeah, I didn't sleep much last night."

"He was dead to the world when we were down there playing pool," Rich said.

Mom shook her head. "You're going to mess up your sleep schedule."

"I have no excuse, ma'am," I said.

"Smartass," Mom said.

"Agnes, Agnes," Aunt Kate said in a rueful tone.

Mom thumbed her nose at her and then grinned. She said to me, "I hope you aren't going to go around like a tranquilized sloth all evening."

"Why's that?"

"Mrs. Kennedy invited us all over for dessert later. I told her that there were seven of us, plus two more for company, and convinced her that the three of them should come here instead."

I was mostly glad that Mom and Mrs. Kennedy seemed to be hitting it off so well, and Arthur was happy to see Kirsten, but I really wanted to get more sleep. "Oh. You and Mrs. Kennedy must be becoming friends."

"Is there any reason we shouldn't be?"

"Not that I know of. You just don't seem that much alike."

"Helen says I'm 'refreshing.'"

"I suppose that's one way to put it," said Aunt Kate.

Dinner was a big turkey, baked ham, squash, sweet potato, maize, stuffing, wild-rice casserole, deviled eggs, poppy-seed rolls, mixed vegetables, and whipped potatoes. Aunt Kate had helped Mom prepare it. They were both good cooks, so we all ate too much.

The Kennedys were scheduled to arrive at 7:30, so I slipped away right after we were finished eating to get a bit more sleep. Part of me felt bad about that, but there was a demon after me, and I had to be rested enough to do what I had to do.

The next thing I knew, Mary was shaking me awake again. "Kirsten's here."

"Wake up, sleeping beauty," Kirsten said. She bent down and gave me a kiss. It was a hell of a lot better than an alarm clock.

"Merry Christmas," I said as I got up. Arthur took over primary control, as he usually did when Kirsten was around.

"Merry Christmas."

The two girls helped me put the afghan over the back of the couch neatly. When I sat back down, Kirsten sat beside me. I put an arm around her, and she immediately snuggled right in. We had held hands a lot, but we hadn't got quite so cuddly before. As Mary sat down at the far end of the couch, she said, "I'm sorry, but both Mom and Mrs. Kennedy forbade me to leave you two alone. I can go over to the far corner and practice the organ, though, if you want."