You think this alien s a wizard
Hard to tell, Tom said. There are lots of creatures all over the universe who both use the Speech andwork to oppose the Lone Power without being wizards. He shrugged. For the time being, I d keep trying to get through, I suppose, and see if you can work inward to a mode where there s more clarity.
Yeah.I m going to try the lucid dreaming again tonight, I think. So far, that s where I ve had the best results. Nita frowned. I guess that s the other thing that s worried me. The possibility of getting stuck in adreamworld
I m not sure I see that as a danger for you, Tom said. I d almost suggest the danger would lie in too much hardheaded practicality in being too tough onyourself . For the time being, you seem to be okay. Let me know how you progress with your alien, anyway.
Yeah.
Nita got up and slipped into her parka, glancing at Tom s stack of manuals again. You have to learn that wholething this year
Andkeep Carl from blowing up the house, Tom said. Even wizardry may be insufficient to the task. See you later.
Kit,querido , Kit s mama said, ifyou feed that dog so many dog biscuits, you ll spoil his appetite for dinner.
In the kitchen, adding a last few seasonings to what would shortly be a pot of minestrone soup, Kit s father laughed out loud. Impossible.
Kit was sitting on the dining room sofa, trying to read one of the books on autism his mom had brought home for him. The language was pretty technical sometimes, but he was more than willing to struggle through it; the analysis of autism in this book was making some sense to him in terms of what he d been getting from Darryl. There were apparently autistic people who found the complications of life and emotion so threatening, the book said, that when they did artwork, it often featured landscapes that looked sterile and empty to a casual viewer but the artists intent was to express a desire for a little peace, for relief from the assault on their senses that caused them such pain. Since coming across this idea in the book, Kit had been doing his best to get the whole thing read, mining it for ways to make sure that he actually got some good out of his conversation with Darryl, when it finally happened.
Unfortunately the reading was being made difficult, if not impossible, by the large black muzzle that kept insinuating itself between Kit and the open pages, and the big brown eyes that looked beseechingly up into Kit s.Just one more ,Ponch said.
You regonna turn into a blimp, Kit said.
I llbe a happyblimp ,Ponch said.What s a blimp
Kit s mama laughed. Kit glanced up at her.
He s loud sometimes, honey, his mama said, handing Kit s papa the pepper shaker as he held his hand out for it. I don t know whyyou can t hear it.
Kit s pop shook his head as he looked down into the pot, grinding pepper in. From what Kit says, I don t know whyyou can hear it at all. None of us should be able to.
Maybe it s because I usually feed him in the mornings, Kit s mama said. I m used to hearing him complain that he s not getting enough. She made a kind ofrrrgh noise that went up into a whine at the end, a fair imitation ofPonch s reaction to an empty dish when there was someone around who could give him the rest of the can of dog food.
Ponch seyes moved at that, a sideways glance.Her accent s not bad. I could teach herCyene .
Let s not deal with this right now, Kit said. He could just see his mom going down the street to try to talk sense toTinkerbell .
One more!Ponch said.
One, Kit said. He gavePonch the last dog biscuit in the box, put the book aside, and got up to throw the box away.
The onions done yet his mama said.
Nearly, said Kit s pop, as Kit stomped the box flat to make it go in the trash can. Behind Kit, the emphatic crunching noises by the sofa came to an end, andPonch ran into the kitchen.Out
Sure, Kit said, opening the door. A fierce cold wind came in asPonch shot out.
Shut that, sweetie. It s freezing! Kit s mama said.
Gonnasnow tonight, they said on the TV, said Kit s pop, picking up the frying pan in which the onions had been sizzling, and scraping them out into the soup as Kit shut the door.
A lot Kit said.
Six to eight inches.
Kit sighed. It wouldn t be anything like enough to make them keep school closed on Monday. That would take at least a few feet. Not for the first time he wished that it wasn t unethical to talk a snowstorm into dumping three feet of snow onto his immediate neighborhood. It was fun to think about, but the trouble he would have gotten into with Tom and Carl, not to mention the Powers That Be, would have made the pleasure short-lived.
Still, if I told the snowstorm to dump, say, twelve feet of snow just on the school, and then only enough everywhere else so that everybody could have fun for a day; say six inches or so
Kit sighed again. Though such a course of action would be less trouble to the snowplow crews, the emergency services, and everybody else who wanted to go on about their lives, something like that would cause a whole lot of talk, and still get him in trouble. But the image of his school completely buried under a giant snowdrift made him smile. By the way, Pop, Kit said, is the TV still okay
Seems fine, his pop said. Every now and then the thing insists on showing me a news program from some other planet, but He shrugged. As long as nothing happens to interfere with the basketball games over the weekend, I don t mind seeing who s grown a new head or whatever.Darlin , you know what I need
Less time on the couch watching basketball Kit s mama suggested.
Dream on.Celery seed.
We re out of it.
You re just saying that because you hate celery.
Iknow celery seed is different from celery, or celery salt. But we re still out of it. Look for yourself.
Kit s pop went to the cupboard to look. Kit, looking at his mama, thought that her expression was far too innocent. She caught him looking at her, and said, Isn tPonch a long time out, Kit He hates being out this long when it s cold. But he hasn t scratched.
She had a point there, though Kit thought she was more intent on him not saying anything incriminating about celery seed. Kit grinned. I ll go see what he s doing, he said, and got his winter jacket off the hook.
He went out, shutting the door hurriedly behind him, and looked up and down the driveway forPonch . To his surprise,Ponch was sitting at the street end of the driveway, looking up at the sky.
Kit walked down to him, looking up, too. The clouds were, indeed, coming in low and fast from the south on that wind. Past and above the houses across the street, only a few streaks and scraps of the low sunset remained in the west, a bleak, bleached peach color against the encroaching stripes of dark gray. Westward, the reddish spark of Mars could just be seen through the filmy front edges of one of the incoming banks of cloud.
Ponchlooked over his shoulder at Kit as Kit came to stand next to him. You okay Kit said to him in the Speech.
Pretty much.
Kit wondered about that. I mean, about what happened the other day. He reached down to scratch the dog s head.
I think so.
The clouds drew together in the west, blanking Mars out, slowly shutting down the last embers of the sunset. Whatdid happen
Isaw something .
Yeah What was it
Not that way,Ponch said. Imean, I noticed something. I never really noticed it before .