Chapter 14: Mortal Danger

Before leaving, Pendragon gave me the Unimportant Hat, as he explained, it was the thing that made people ignore me.  "But I'm not giving you the Forgetting Fig."

I looked confused.

"Forgetting and ignoring are not the same thing, so do not interact with anyone, this time.  Once they realize you're there, they'll see you."  He turned me around and shoved me out of the backroom.

Aine read my look as I exited, and straightened up her back at once.  She rested her hands on the glass counter, but for once I didn't mind the fingerprints.  They were the last thing on my mind.

"That was fast!" Aine said, biting her lip. 

"It's not over," I said simply.  "Christ almighty it's not even close to over..." I felt like a zombie, or more like a guy on death row walking to his doom.  I must've looked sick because Aine retrieved me one of the bottles of water we keep in the mini fridge. 

I thanked her, and started to drink.  I hadn't realized how dry my throat had become.  

"Hey, whatever it is.  You'll live."  She smiled sweetly in the face of my concerned gaze.  Her endless positivity was greatly appreciated, so I didn't tell her what lay ahead of me.

"And if I don't," I said half joking, "Cayce is yours." 

"Awww I love her!"  Aine clasped her hands over her mouth and looked conflicted.

"You're hoping I die now," I stated factually.

"Well, I'm neutral," she replied as she grabbed her pink feather duster. "For me, it's a win win!"  Aine felt her job done in comforting me, so she went about dusting off the artifacts with a sing song hum in her voice.

It was odd but the momentary distraction helped.  As the situation sank back into my awareness it felt more like a possibility rather than a death sentence.  I headed out the door of The Shop with a "See you later" and I made my way to the only place I could picture putting myself into mortal danger.

The Brooklyn Bridge.

I placed the Unimportant Hat on my head and headed downtown.  Strangely enough, it felt like another one of Pendragon's weird errands.  'Bring this rusted copper to Yerba's Plant Shop', 'Drop this penny, heads up, on the corner of 9th and Broadway,' and even 'Deliver this seed to a squirrel in Washington Square, it will be waiting under the arches.  You can't miss it.'  Oddly enough, the squirrel was there and the delivery happened.  I chalked it up to Pendragon being insane and a coincidence, but now I realize that I've been toying in magic all along.

I arrived at the bridge and walked about halfway down making sure not to bump into anyone.  I was still impressed at the effectiveness of the hat, which made it nearly impossible to walk on a crowded sidewalk.  I skirted around people until making it to a part of the bridge that was easy to jump off.

Double checking that no one was watching me, I climbed up the iron railing, swung my legs over, and sat on the edge with my legs dangling off.  My heart was pounding through my chest but I just pretended like I was dropping a penny heads up.

I was just delivering a pipe.

I was just bringing a seed to a squirrel.

I slid off the edge of the bridge and felt the weightlessness of free fall.  

A great pit in my chest alerted me to the mortal danger.  I closed my eyes and held the hat to my head with both my hands.  As the fall went on for an entire second, two seconds, three seconds, I waited for the impact of water.  After seven or so seconds, the impact never came.  

I opened my eyes, and found myself falling in mid air.  At least it felt like I was falling, but I wasn't.  I was just hovering above the water.  How strange the sensation!  I closed my eyes and felt like I was falling through space, but when I opened them I could see plain as day that I was not moving at all.

I leaned over from my position in the air and stirred the water beneath me.  It rippled.  I looked up to the bridge and saw cars moving, people walking.  I was just floating there, alive.  I laughed.  I roared with laughter.  Exhilarating!  Fantastic!  It was like something straight out of a comic book!

"Okay!" I said once the novelty wore off, and my senses returned to normal.  "Now how do I move..."

Chapter 13: Here Endeth the Lesson

"By the age of five," began Pendragon immediately, "My son was able to light candlewick in utter darkness."  He heaved his suitcase to the table and rested it gently thereon.  "By your age," a scoff, "this will be like raising an infant all over again."

This, just as I had entered the backroom.  I didn't know whether to be offended, impressed, or inspired.  The information itself was interesting, as I had no notion of what magic would truly entail beyond the charms I had worn on my clothes.  And that was all so passive.

I put my hands in my pockets nervously and rocked onto my heels as I awaited instruction. 

As Pendragon spoke, he unpacked his new import of baubles and trinkets from his suitcase, and placed them with timely care beside their brethren upon the dusted shelves.  "You," he began pointedly, "come from his mother's stock."  It was as if he spat out her mention. 

Again, I wasn't certain whether to be offended.  It all seemed so personal, but I refrained from reacting.  Even had he been cutting me down I wanted to hear every detail of this shadow world.

How different my life would've turned out if I quit my job at the Shop and shirked this change of pace.  I can't even consider.  Knowing what I know now I still wouldn't make a different decision back then.  It was the right thing to do, even if I just thought it was cool.

Pendragon completed stocking his wares and finally turned to consider me.  He rested heavily upon his cane, and pursed his face as if sucking on a sour candy.  "Had you been raised properly, we would already know what sorcery you brand, and in which tongue."

"But I wasn't raised properly," I conceded.  I felt like I needed to join into the conversation in order to progress it along into the lesson.  I felt like my parents had done an all right job before they just kind of faded out of my life.  

"No, you weren't.  By wolves from the look of it," Pendragon sneered, "And that hair."  He shook his head very disapprovingly and went on.  "We'll have to discover your brand, first."

"All right," I mustered.  I withdrew my hands from my pockets and crossed them over my chest, "I'm ready."

"Oh I doubt that very much," Pendragon laughed.  He seemed giddy, excited.

I no longer felt confused whether to be offended.  I was.  My chin raised defensively and I very nearly shouted at Pendragon, "Tell me what to do!"

"Put yourself," instructed the old man slowly and venomously, "in utter, absolute, mortal danger."

"Kill myself," I corrected him.

"No.  Put yourself in the path of something to do so.  A train, a bus, jump from a building.  Do not shoot yourself.  We've learned that doesn't work."  He paused, tracing the lines of confusion on my face, and replied, "No, I was wrong.  This is actually easier with an infant.  Simply leave it in a bath and watch.  Someone your age, though, I'm afraid you'll have to be more proactive in the approach."

All of that horrified me.  Especially the potentially drowned babies.  I discovered later that he wasn't being entirely honest.  Most children simply revealed themselves in one of a few ways during infantile tantrums.  Any signs I displayed in my youth would have been disregarded as passing health concerns.  Still, it worked as a very effective illustration for my instruction.

I breathed deep, and clenched my jaw to avoid stammering some incomplete thought.

"I can see you need some time to consider this," said Pendragon more gently than I expected.  He approached me and said, "If there was something I could do to help you, I would.  But if I was there to push you in front of a train, you'd know I could just as easily pull you out.  You need to be alone." And then, with a pat on my shoulder, he opened the curtain to the backroom.  "Here endeth the lesson."

Chapter 12: Calm Before the Storm

Nothing seemed real as I left The Shop and headed back to my apartment in Brooklyn.  People walked past me but I regarded them as emptily as the world did me while under Pendragon's enchantments.  The train ride was inconsequential, while in thought I was no different.  

After having experienced magic for the first time, my body was sort of numb to the original five senses I had been dealing with.  I was a rock in a river who had no choice but to simply sink to the bottom and allow everything to go rushing by.

Cayce, my Jack Russell, greeted me at the door as she normally did.  Her cropped nub of a tail wriggling back and forth wildly with a need to be let outside.  So I did.  She walks herself to the bushes down the sidewalk, which is nice.  She took her time but returned through the open door to find me readying for bed.  I locked up behind her, and we both caved in for the night.

I slept a dreamless sleep.  Whoever was out their telling people to kill the magical members of my family took a night off.  Considerate of them, particularly because Mr. Pendragon was going to kick my ass tomorrow in ways I could never have anticipated. 

It started like any other day at work.  I arrived at the Shop to find Aine dusting with her pink feathers.  She smiled sweetly at me in that way that made me forget I had no idea what was in store for the rest of my life, and pointed her duster at the counter.

"Croissants!" I said obviously once I spotted her offering.  I snatched one of them out of the box, which was still warm to the touch, and paired it with sips of my coffee.  

Aine finished what she was doing and hopped behind the counter like a child into puddles.  Her elbows rested on the glass countertop and her chin upon her palms.  She looked upwards at me, almond eyes blinking furiously.

I tilted my head back that way I do when I'm feeling suspicious.  She caught it.

"Dude.  The stone.  You're going to do, like, magic with it..."  She seemed mildly impressed.  I wondered what it would take for her to be really excited.

"I don't know it sounded like I would just be protecting it," I deflected.  Not that I would ever have admitted it to her but I was doing what I could to keep my hopes down about this brave new world.  Yes, it was enchanting to believe that some parts of my childhood imagination would become reality.  

But only because people I never knew, people who were my family, were killed.  To enjoy this felt irresponsible.  

"Duh," said Aine unceremoniously, "You protect magic with magic.  Even I know that."

Finishing the croissant I wiped my hands on my shirt and folded my arms defensively.  "I didn't even know any of this existed until yesterday, I guess."

"But you work in the Shop.."  Aine rolled her eyes and shook her head.  "I swear, boys are seriously oblivious.  The second I walked in here, I was like, okay Harry Potter."

I laughed.  I honestly never drew the comparison between this shop in Manhattan and anything in a story book.  I think I just expected there to be a market for rusted over antiques and outdated medical equipment, with cobwebs.  If you told me then that they were magical items I would have scoffed anyway.

"I never read the books," I lied.  My girlfriend made me.

The bells jingled and the front door slammed shut forcefully.  Hobbled on his cane with a wretched look on his face, Mr. Pendragon had joined us.  He grumbled incoherently as he removed hat and coat to place them on the rack by the door.  "Mikey, backroom." 

"He's no Dumbledore," I joked softly, but reality was starting to set in.

Aine and I shared a look of brief concern, which she turned into an opportunity to be supportive.  She put her hand on mine and patted it while gently offering, "Don't blow yourself up."

Headed to the backroom, I called over my shoulder in response: "If I do I'm taking the whole shop with me."

Chapter 11: Consequences

 

By the time I made it back to the Shop, I no longer felt as if I was being followed.  That fear had melted into sheer excitement, or concern, or terror.  I wasn't able to process any of it until I was certain whether the ring in my hands was the stone they were looking for.

Before I opened the door to the Shop I removed the hat from my head and the herb from my shirt.  

I saw within, Pendragon at the front desk and Aine beside him.  They both looked at me with the same immediacy, which to me meant she was fully informed of the situation.

Without a word I walked up to the counter and placed the man's ring on top.  It looked pathetic, the clouded yellow stone, wrought with imperfection and poorly set onto the tarnished silver setting.  We all looked at it briefly, with myself waiting to see what Pendragon had to say.

"Explain," was all.  As I told the story, his eyes fixed on the ring.  Aine, on the other hand, watched me tell the story.

"Once I got to the building I was able to get into the lobby without a key," and here I paused.  I wanted to see if Pendragon reacted but he didn't.  "Front door unlocked for me, too.  Only there were guys inside already, two of them."  Still no reaction from Pendragon, but Aine was looking increasingly nervous.  I put the hat and herb on the table and scratched my head, "One of them pulled a gun on me when I walked in."

Aine gasped and covered her mouth, fearful eyes  looking for a wound on my abdomen.

"Well obviously I didn't get shot..."

She relaxed with an, "Oh."

I moved behind the counter and wrapped my arm around her shoulder to pull her in.  She hugged me tightly like I imagine a little sister would've.  So, rocking her, I continued, "The one guy told the other guy, whose name was Coop, that they had to find a rock."

Still no reaction from Pendragon, himself just staring at the ring, so I finished the story.  "I figured I'd look for something that belonged in The Shop.  This is what I found."

Aine and I stood, rocking back and forth like idiots, for what seemed like hours.  In reality we only waited two minutes for him to stop eyeballing the ring. 

He cleared his throat and transferred his gaze up to me.  "I'm afraid it's bad news."

"Damn.  I thought I found what they wanted."  I separated from Aine and stepped forward to look at the ring more closely.

"Yes, bad news, you did," said Pendragon with certainty, "And now it's going to be our responsibility to protect it from them."

Chapter 10: The Stone

What Rock could they mean, I wondered with a bit of a panic.  I was standing in a living room with two armed mob-looking types and a dead body.  They couldn't keep me in their memories long enough to deal with me, so I was able to look for the rock at the same time as they did.

What rock they could mean, though, was anyone's guess.  I tried looking for a literal rock, and then I started to wonder if it was a metaphor for something else.  A relic like something in the Shop, called by a nickname to belie it's true purpose.

I slid papers to the side, opened desk drawers, and even went into the bedroom to look through the deceased's dresser.  Nothing to me was a rock, other than the obvious gem stones and geodes all over the guy's place.  A new age shrine with assorted crystals was in plain sight, but if the gangsters hadn't taken them by now, I doubted they were the ones being looked for.

So I paused, closed my eyes and thought for a second.  Rock, rock, rock.  Rock music.  Rocking back and forth.  A rocking chair.  What a rock!  Then it hit me.  The ring.  

In my vision, the woman who killed our fellow on the ground here, she was happy about an engagement ring.  There's no way he would put something valuable on another person.

My heart sank into a pit.  What if the rock everyone is here is looking for is a stone on the hand on the murderess.  I wondered if these guys knew her.  Knew to come by because she had told them the coast was clear to come find the rock.

If that's the case, then they don't know they already have it.  Or maybe... maybe she thought she had it.  Maybe these guys were sent to make up or her mistake...

I decided to creep back over to the old man on the ground, who was all but being ignored by the two others who were turning the place over.  I wondered if they were still looking for the stone, making this look like a robbery gone wrong, or both.

I knelt beside the corpse and looked at his left hand for a wedding ring.  Nothing.  The right hand, bingo.  A silver band, tarnished, with a big old chunk of yellow crystal in the setting.  It didn't look polished at all, rough and opaque with little light getting through.

Exactly the sort of thing I'd see on the shelves at the Shop.

You smart bastard, you gave her a fake and kept the real one for yourself.  Good for you.

I slid the ring off the finger and slipped it into my pocket before standing back from the body slowly.  Coop was looking in my direction.

'I think the body just moved,' he muttered, suspiciously squinting at me.

Okay, that's enough, I'm out of here.  My fear rang into my head as the gun was revealed once more.  I trusted Pendragon's charms this much, but what if there was a time limit.  Anything still here, they can have...

On my way out of the apartment, they only seemed to briefly notice that the door had opened, and by the time I slipped out they had gone back about their business.  

My heart hammered as I reached the elevator, and waiting for it seemed to take forever with me looking over my shoulder.  I kept expecting to see a gunman.

Once safely in the elevator, I breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back against the wall.  My head was throbbing, my feet vibrating.  Every part of me felt charged and alive with adrenaline!  I wanted to run out of the lobby as fast as I could and scream at the top of my lungs.

Contrarily, I put my hands in my pockets and kept myself together as more people filled the elevator.  They still didn't seem to be able to remember me after their initial glance in my direction, and so I came up with a new idea.

Once the elevator doors opened and people started spilling out, I put my hand on the shoulder of a nice looking old lady and looked her in the eyes.

'Oh!' she gasped, 'I didn't see you!'

'And you won't remember me,' I said calmly, 'But I need you to tell the police there's been a murder in 23-E.'

Her face went white and she backed up with a gasp.  My hand slid off her shoulder and she began to look confusedly back and forth in front of her.  'Oh dear,' she said, 'Someone call the police!' she shouted. 'Murder!  Murder!'

I was sure that her age would prevent her from being a suspect even if she did miraculously know about the body's location.  And with the police coming to meet Coop and his friend, I decided to make my way back to the Shop with the yellow stone.

Chapter 9: Staring Down the Barrel

There were already people in the apartment.  We didn't see this coming.  It wasn't the police, I could tell that much, because the police don't make it a habit of sliding a gun barrel against the back of your head while they ask you who you are.

'What ya doin' over there?' spoke another voice.

I could hear the gun man behind me turn in his leather jacket to shout behind him, 'Moron, I'm pointin' my gun at someone.'

'Alls I see is you threatening to shoot the wall, Coop.'

It clicked for me.  I was invisible unless I did things.  Slowly I leaned forward until the last of my hairs fell off the tip of the barrel, and I shut my eyes hoping that would work.

I heard Coop shout 'He's right--', and then fall silent.  'He was right there.'  

My heart pounded something awful, I could feel it in my eyes.  I decided to turn, to look.  I put my hands tightly to my side and shifted on my feet, careful not to touch anything as I did so.

I looked down the barrel of a gun, and found myself praying to a god I never believed in. 

The gunman held the gun out still, and stared in my direction with  a squint in his eyes.  I doubted the power of Pendragon's charms to withstand the scrutiny.  He was looking right at me, but I could see him struggling with trying to keep me in his mind.

Ah, I thought.  I'm not invisible.  I'm forgettable.  I stepped to the side to see if the gun barrel would follow me.  It didn't.  Finally the man called 'Coop' put the gun down and turned to his partner.  

'You done having a Mexican stand off with the lamp?' said the partner.  I could see him now.  A large, robust man in a suit.  Nothing fancy, just a sports coat.  He wore those leather gloves you see in mob movies when people don't want their prints all over the place.  That made sense, considering he was standing over the dead body from my vision.

It was hard to see him there.  To know my vision was real, and that I watched him die without doing anything to stop it.

Coop walked over to the corpse as well and knelt to check pockets of the robe.  He didn't find anything, but he took a moment to close the robe up for the poor guy, and he tied it off.

'Anything?'

'No,' said Coop as he stood.  He was a lanky guy, too thin even for the suit he was wearing.  His gloves looked oversized.  His spiked blonde hair was out of place, though.  Like someone took a skateboarder for Union Square and put him in a mob costume.  'Can we maybe get a blanket for him?'  

Hard to believe this was the same guy that was just pointing a gun at me.  He looked like he cared about how the guy was found by the police.

'Nah, leave him,' said the partner apathetically, 'Can't have it look like people was here after the murder.' He spoke with more authority, than suggestion.  'We find the rock, and we leave.'

Find the rock, I thought to myself.  Whatever this rock is, I have to get it before they do, and get out of here...

 

Chapter 8: When All Else Succeeds

Walking uptown in Manhattan's nightlife was a weird change of pace for me.  The upper east side was essentially reserved for the higher echelon.  Doormen, clean streets, medians lined with tulips, they just knew how to take care of their surroundings up there.  Even on my most well dressed day I would still look like someone running an errand here.

Now, walking weird from the sand in my shoes, wearing a pinstripe fedora, and smelling from some dried herbs on my shirt, I was sure I was sticking out like a sore thumb.  But as self-conscious as I was, no one seemed to pay me any heed.  They ignored me, flat out.  Good for them, I thought bitterly, I'd ignore me too if I could.  

It suited me fine, I guess, til I reached the address Pendragon gave me.  The doorman just stood there pretending I didn't exist.

Pendragon told me not to speak, so I just rolled my eyes and opened the door.  Immediately he startled to life with, 'I'm sorry, sir!' and grabbed the handle from me to pull it open as I walked through.  

I gave him one of my weirded out looks and walked towards the resident door.  

How was I supposed to get in?  Pendragon never told me what I was supposed to do about doors, only people.  But here I am at a door that was most likely locked, separating me from the elevator and, presumably, another locked front door.

I felt like an idiot, which I hated.  But I was certain that returning to Pendragon would only get me slapped or insulted given his state recently.  I could just envision him now saying, 'You should have tried the door.'

So I did, I reached down and pulled it open without an issue.  My head jerked back with surprise.  Maybe someone left it open, I considered, and I entered the room with the elevator.  

Twenty-third floor.  I stepped out into the carpeted hallway which was vacant and dimly lit.  I was glad I wouldn't have to use the excuses I came up with in the elevator as to why I was here, if confronted by a curious resident.

Twenty Three C.  Twenty Three D. Twenty Three E.  There it is.  Without hesitation I turned the knob and marveled at the door for opening without an issue.  Both doors could not have been left unlocked.  This was something Pendragon did.  

I slipped in through a narrow opening and turned to close the door gently.  

Relief, but of a strange sort.  Relief at making it into a room where a dead body would be waiting for me.

That's when I heard the gun cocking behind me, and felt the barrel pressed against my the back of my head.  'Who might you be?' asked a gruff, cruel sounding voice.

I didn't turn around, I didn't respond.  I just put my hands up and stood facing the closed door for what felt like an eternity.