Son of Shadow E-Book

John Lenahan

• Herausgeber: Lightning Books
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 437

Beschreibung

From the author of the Shadowmagic trilogyA world of faeries, leprechauns and dragons – and magic fuelled by the blood of trees.A mystery portal to the Real World.And a pair of curious young adventurers who know they shouldn't step through it…Meet Fergal the Second, nicknamed 'two'. Or 'Doe', in his own language. He can do magic. But, for the moment, he's forgotten where he's from. Or what's happened to his blind friend Ruby.He's actually from Tir na Nog, the enchanted world of Shadowmagic, where a new generation of the royal House of Duir are cheeking their parents, preparing for adulthood and itching to see the Real World for themselves – whatever the peril.

Leseprobe

Published in 2022

by Lightning Books

Imprint of Eye Books Ltd

29A Barrow Street

Much Wenlock

Shropshire

TF13 6EN

www.lightning-books.com

Copyright © John Lenahan 2022

Cover design by Nell Wood

The moral right of the author has been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 9781785633188

For Yvonne, the uber-hyphenator,with love

Contents

INTRODUCTION

PART ONE

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

PART TWO

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

PART THREE

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

THANKS

Hello readers. John Lenahan here.

I’ve always been impressed by the editors who put together those ‘Previously on…’ for TV shows. They seem to find just the right moments to remind you of what you saw last week. Unfortunately, a lot of you who are reading this book last read the original Shadowmagic Trilogy ages ago. So I have to write my own ‘Previously on Shadowmagic…’ It makes me admire those TV editors all the more.

This is a new set of stories but it carries on from the saga in my Shadowmagic Trilogy. If you really want to enjoy this book, I recommend you read them first (they’re really good; honest) and don’t read the spoilers below. But if you just want to get stuck in – or need a refresher – then here you go. I have one recommendation, though. This book is divided into three parts. If you need to read the refresher below, wait until you have finished part one. Trust me; it’ll be more fun.

Book One: Shadowmagicis a story about Conor, a normal kid from Scranton, Pennsylvania…or so he thought. Conor lived with his father, a one-handed ancient language professor, until they were attacked in their home and whisked off to Tir na Nog, the Land of Eternal Youth. In this otherworld populated with immortals, his mother is an outlaw sorcerer and practitioner of the forbidden art of Shadowmagic. His father’s brother, Cialtie, is the tyrannical king. Worse still, because of a prophecy that says, The son of the one-handed prince will spell doom for the Land…everyone wants Conor dead.

Conor teams up with his half-Banshee cousin Fergal, a taciturn Imp named Araf and a warrior-princess, Essa, to retake the throne for his father and defeat his evil uncle. Conor’s prophecy is lifted and his uncle is defeated, but at the expense of the life of his beloved cousin Fergal. Conor’s father and mother become king and queen. Then Conor foolishly returns to the Real World.

Book Two: The Prince of Hazel & Oak begins with Conor despondent at his choice of leaving Tir na Nog. He confides the truth about his adventures to his girlfriend, Sally, who reports him to the police for being crazy. He is then erroneously arrested for the murder of his absent father by Scranton police detective Brendon Fallon. Conor is broken out of jail by his mother and aunt, but during the rescue Detective Fallon is accidentally transported back to Tir na Nog with Conor.

After returning to the Land, Conor discovers that his father is sick. He and his companions must track down a mythical creature, whose blood saves his father’s life.

Book Three: The Sons of Macha begins with Conor and Brendon returning to the Real World to bring Brendon’s blind daughter, Ruby, back to Tir na Nog. They are almost thwarted by a corrupt FBI special agent named Andrew Murano. Back in Tir na Nog, the Land’s master at arms, Dahy, leads Conor, his parents and his companions to Mount Cass, where they rescue Conor’s grandmother, Macha. Macha was long thought dead but had been held captive by the evil sorcerer, Lugh. Once back at Castle Duir, Macha proves that she was only pretending to be a captive. She escapes and kidnaps Ruby, who, according to prophecy is The One. Before Conor rescues her, Ruby’s blood is used to revive a ghost army.

Macha, the evil Uncle Cialtie, the sorcerer Lugh and the ghost army are defeated in the end, but not before the death of Conor’s father. Dahy, who once loved Macha, escorts her to Thunder Bay, where she agrees to row out to sea, sacrificing her immortality and her life. Conor’s mother becomes queen. Conor marries Essa and, after taking a ritualistic ceremony called the Choosing, becomes the new Dean of the Hall of Knowledge.

There you have it. The whole story – just a lot shorter. I hope you enjoy the adventures of this new generation.

ONE

‘Look, kid, just tell me what you did with the coin and we can make this all go away.’

It wasn’t a ridiculous question but at the time I thought Officer Billingham was being a bit thick.

‘I told you,’ I said. ‘I made it vanish.’

The policeman gave me an exasperated look.

‘You know that’s the same look my…my…my…’ That’s when it happened again. The thought was there but just at the moment when I tried to access it…it was gone – slipped out of reach. ‘Damn it,’ I said. ‘What is wrong with my brain?’

‘Ok, son, from the top. You say you woke up on Spruce Street?’

‘I didn’t wake up – I was just standing there… By the way, where are the Spruce trees?’

The policeman ignored my question. ‘And you don’t know how you got there?’

‘No.’

Billingham leaned in and looked closely into my eyes. ‘Where do you come from? Where’s home?’

‘I’m from…ah…’ I hit my head with the palm of my hand. ‘Oh, the answer is so close,’ I said, pointing to my forehead. It’s like there’s a Muirbhrúcht in my head.’

‘A what? In your head?’

‘A Muirbhrúcht.’

‘What’s a mail book?’

‘It’s a…’ Again the answer slipped just out of reach. I flailed my hand in front of my face, hoping that that would release something. ‘Damn it. What is wrong with me?’

‘OK, relax, kid. So you appeared in Spruce Street and you do what?’

‘Well, I freaked out a little bit. It’s crazy there.’

‘Yeah, I’ll give you that.’

‘And then I saw a samochod and then another. There were so many and they went so fast.’

‘Samo-what?’

‘The machines with the wheels. Oh, I mean cars. Sorry, in English it’s cars.’

‘And what language is samochod?’

‘Polish.’

‘You speak Polish?’

‘Apparently.’

‘Are you maybe from Poland?’

I shrugged. ‘Maybe.’

Billingham shook his head. ‘And you were freaked out by cars. Don’t they have cars in Poland?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘You just said you were from Poland.’

‘No I didn’t; you did.’

The policeman raised his voice. ‘Then why are you calling cars, samoshooes or whatever?’

‘Oh, because there were some people on Spruce Street and when I asked them what those noisy contraptions were, they spoke Polish.’

‘Lucky for you they didn’t speak Japanese.’

‘Indeed, my Japanese isn’t anywhere near as good as my Polish.’

‘You speak Japanese?’ Billingham asked, incredulously.

‘Hai.’

‘French?’

‘Oui.’

‘Italian?’

‘Sí.’

‘Greek?’

‘Na.’

‘You don’t speak Greek?’

‘Yes, I do. Na means yes in Greek.’

‘Oh. Klingon?’

‘Ah…no.

‘So there’s no Star Trek where you come from?’

‘What is Star Trek?’

‘Alright, alright. So, you woke up in downtown Scranton and conversed in Polish – then what?’

‘Well, I was afraid to cross the path with all of the samo…cars, so I walked on the white road next to the black road to a place that looked quieter.’

‘Adams Street.’

I shrugged.

‘And then you snuck into the magic convention at the Hilton Hotel?’

‘I didn’t sneak in,’ I said. ‘I saw the sign for the Scranton Magician’s Convention and went inside, looking for answers.’

‘Answers to what?’

‘Where I was. Who I am.’

‘And you thought magicians would have those kinds of answers.’

‘Of course.’

‘Didn’t anyone stop you?’

‘Oh yes, one man looked at my clothes and said, ‘You must be one of the gala performers,’ and before I could answer a cricket chirped in his pocket. He took this little cricket box out of his pocket and spoke to the cricket. After that he didn’t seem interested in me, so I just went inside. In the room there was a table with a group of men. One of them was incanting over paper marked with runes and numbers.’

‘What kinds of runes?’

‘There were black clovers and red hearts.’

‘Let me guess, they don’t have playing cards where you come from either?’

‘Playing cards?’

‘Never mind. Go on.’

‘So I sat and watched, not wanting to disturb him. The rune cards had powerful magic. Some changed while he held them. I didn’t know what the results meant but the others at the table must have been happy with the prediction because they all applauded.’

‘You’re pulling my leg?’

I looked under the table and saw nothing. ‘If someone is pulling your leg it is not me. That is very strange.’

The policeman sighed and testily said, ‘Go on.’

When the man was finished with his runecasting he noticed me and asked if I was a magician.’

‘And are you?’

‘I must be because I said, “yes”. Then he handed me his coin and said, ‘Let’s see a vanish.’ I said I didn’t know what he was talking about but he explained that he wanted to see how I made a coin vanish. I took it and asked if he was sure because it looked like a very nice coin. They all laughed and assured me that it was alright – so I placed it on my palm, incanted and sent it into the ether.’

‘And how did you do it?’

‘Well, like I said, I’m pretty sure I’m a magician.’

Officer Billingham ground his teeth together and asked what happened next.

‘They were all delighted with the vanish. It was like they had never seen anything dematerialise before. So I then said I needed help with my problem. The man who gave me the coin said he would be delighted to help me as soon as I gave him his coin back. I was confused and said, ‘Didn’t you ask me to vanish it?’ The officer kept saying that he didn’t think I was funny and I kept trying to explain that his coin was gone. They all became very upset and then they called you people.’

‘So where is the coin now?’

‘Haven’t you been listening to me? Why can’t you people get it through your heads? It’s gone!’

‘Don’t take that tone with me son. You are in a lot of trouble. That was a very special coin. It was,’ he looked at the paper in front of him, ‘a gold-gilded mint-proof silver crown. The magician doesn’t want to press charges; he just wants his coin back.’

I held my head in my hands. ‘Then why did he ask me to make it disappear?’

Billingham leaned back in his chair and started to laugh. ‘This is a joke, right? Where’s the camera? I know they have tiny ones these days.’ He looked around and behind him then said, ‘Stand up.’

I stood. He first looked carefully at my chest then in my hair. When he felt my left sleeve, I winced.

‘Take off your shirt.’

I did and was surprised to find a bandage on my upper arm that was stained with blood. Officer Billingham called for a med kit and a very nice healer came in. She put on the thinnest pair of gloves I had ever seen and unravelled the bandages. Underneath were almost fifty cuts in lines and crosses. They had stopped bleeding but were quite sore.

‘What happened here, son?’ Billingham asked.

Again the answer came to me then fled from my mind but I saw enough of it to answer, ‘I did that.’

The policeman told me that he ‘hadn’t bought the “amnesia bull” but self-harming was enough to get me a shrink.’

So they took my belt and put me in a dungeon with an unconscious man who smelled pretty bad. When he woke up he told me he had an awful headache so I asked the guard for some Willow tea but he laughed at me.

Sometime later I was given what was described as a baloney and cheese sandwich, which was very pleasant. Finally, a young man called Social Worker came and asked me the same questions Officer Billingham had asked, and then asked to see the cuts on my arm. When I asked him what he thought, he said that he was not supposed to say but he was pretty sure I was ‘crazy’. I said I didn’t feel crazy but he assured me that the crazy ones never do.

That night I was taken to a place that was really white and bright and all of the surfaces were covered with this really thin stuff that I at first thought was marble but people told me was called ‘plastic’. They took my clothes and made me wear a thin white thing that didn’t cover me up in the way I was used to. I was introduced to a man with the largest neck I had ever seen. He said his name was Vince. He said as long as there was no ‘funny business’ that we would get along.

I was given some food that was awful and then Vince marched me in to see The Shrink. I was hoping that he had some answers but my first impression was that he didn’t like me very much.

He wore a white coat and sat behind a desk that had a block of wood on it that read Dr Neil Fergus. The rest of the desk was covered with piles of papers. He lifted up his glasses and bent forward to read one. Then he leaned back and sighed.

‘So, Mr Doe, you have amnesia?’

Boom! That sentence hit me like a rock. A tiny piece of the wall that my memory had been hiding behind broke through. ‘Yes, yes, that’s my name. How did you know?’

He dropped his glasses back down onto his nose, looked up at me, sighed, then he slid the glasses back up to the top of his head and read. ‘Reporting Officer Billingham. Subject: John Doe, amnesia, self-harm.’ Fergus tossed the paper onto the hundreds of others on his desk and sighed again. ‘It’s good of the officer to give a neurological diagnosis. I wonder where he went to medical school.’

‘No, John’s not my name but Doe is. You know, like ha, doe, tree.’

Fergus tilted his head like a lost puppy.

‘Ha, do, tree,’ I repeated. ‘You know, one, two, three?’

‘What language is this?’

‘It’s…you know the regular language.’

‘Look, Mr Two.’

‘No,’ I corrected, ‘it means two but my name is Doe.’

Sigh. ‘So, Mr Doe, you say you have amnesia.’

‘No, I don’t.’

‘You don’t have amnesia?

‘Do I?’

‘Don’t you?’

‘I’m sorry, Mr Shrink, I don’t know what am-maw-sa is.’

‘You’ve never heard of amnesia? And my name is Dr Fergus.’

‘No…Dr Fergus.’

‘Amnesia is when you…say…don’t know your name.’

‘I do know my name. It’s Doe.’

Sigh. ‘Do you know your first name?’

‘Yes… It’s Doe.’

‘Oooo-K, how about your last name?’

I thought about that for a while and said, ‘Nope. Just the one.’

Dr Fergus smiled to himself. ‘Which means two.’

‘Excuse me, Dr Fergus, I’d be careful. Vince said “no funny stuff”.’

‘Where are you from?’

‘Ahhh…’ I shook my head.

‘Parents? School? Friends?’

‘I…want to tell you and I feel like I almost can but then the Muirbhrúcht.’

‘The what?’

‘Muirbhrúcht. Officer Billingham asked what that was and I don’t know that either. It’s like there is a wall in my head and important things just can’t get through.’

The doctor took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes with his palms. ‘Here’s the thing, Mr Doe. Amnesia doesn’t work like that. With amnesia the subject is almost always pretty messed up. The vast majority of amnesiacs are victims of major trauma, with the patient presenting with difficulties not only cognitively but also physically: i.e. trouble walking, talking and general coordination. You, sir, are reasonable and lucid. I find it very convenient that the only things you can’t remember are the things that might help the police charge you with a crime.’

‘So you don’t think I have amnesia?’

‘No.’

‘So what do I have?’

He chuckled. ‘Well, you seem to have persistence. How about your arm? Why did you cut yourself?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘You remember doing it though?’

‘No, sir.’

‘Officer Billingham says you told him that you did it to yourself.’

‘I did but I don’t remember it.’

‘If you don’t remember it how do you know you did it?’

‘Because… Because I almost remember it. As it came to me I knew that I had done it to myself and I knew that it was important but then…’

‘Important how?’ the doctor said, showing interest for the first time.

I rubbed my forehead, trying in vain to shake something out of my head. Then it was my turn to sigh.

‘OK, Doe, relax. Let’s talk about this coin you stole.’

‘I didn’t steal it. The magician told me to make it vanish. I said, “Are you sure?” and he said “Yes”. So I did.’

‘Where did it go?’

‘Into the ether. Why is this so hard for you people to understand? He asked me to make it disappear!’

‘OK, Doe, calm down, calm down. Here.’ Fergus reached into his pocket and presented a small silver coin. ‘Can you do it again?’

‘Gods, no. I’m in enough trouble already.’

‘I promise Doe if you make that vanish I won’t mind.’ He handed me a coin.

‘You won’t be able to have it back.’

‘I don’t care. It’s only a quarter.’

‘A quarter of what?’

‘A quarter of a dollar. You do know about money, right?’

I shook my head no.

Dr Fergus reached behind him and brought out a leather wallet from which he extracted an ornate piece of paper that had a drawing of a man’s face in the middle. ‘So you are telling me you have never seen a dollar bill before?’

‘Nope.’

‘This is a quarter of that?’ I said, pointing to the coin, then the bill.

‘That’s right.’

‘Four metal coins equal one piece of parchment?’

‘Correct.’

I picked up the bill. ‘What does the dollar do?’

‘It doesn’t do anything; it’s money. You buy goods and services with it.’

‘Oh,’ I said. ‘It’s a promissory note. You give people this and then they promise to give you gold.’

Dr Fergus looked confused. ‘No… Actually, now that I think about it…it used to be like that, but not now. But we are getting off-topic. You were going to make my quarter disappear.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes,’ he said, sounding annoyed, but then he calmed himself and said, ‘yes’ again in a more even tone.

‘Seems a waste, but OK.’ I picked up the coin and laid it on my palm. Almost immediately I knew it wasn’t going to work but I stretched my senses into the metal to be sure. ‘Nope, can’t do it.’

‘Now there is a surprise. Why can’t you do it?’

‘There is no longer gold in this coin. It must be used up.’

‘There was never gold in this quarter,’ the doctor said.

‘Why would you make coins with no gold in them?’

‘So you are saying you can only make gold coins disappear?’

‘Well, duh,’ I said.

TWO

After Dr Fergus threw me out of his office Vince told me that the doc has a granddaughter who always annoys him by saying, ‘Well, duh,’ and that I shouldn’t worry about it ’cause the doc will get over it. Vince asked me where an amnesiac who doesn’t even remember where he’s from learned an expression like ‘Well, duh.’

Immediately I said, ‘From Ruby,’ and my head exploded. An image of a young woman with sunglasses broke through the wall in my memory. The effect was so intense that Vince had to catch me before I fell.

‘You OK, Mr Doe?’ Vince asked. He was holding me up by the shoulders. He was so huge it looked like a normal-sized person holding a baby at arm’s length.

‘I remember,’ I said woozily.

‘Do you remember your real name?’

‘Doe is my real name,’ I said. ‘No, I remember Ruby.’

‘Who she?’ Vince asked as he released me. ‘A girlfriend?’

I started to reply but the memory was gone. Only the name and an image of a woman in sunglasses remained. ‘No…it’s gone,’ I said, as I let go of Vince’s huge biceps. ‘Thanks for the catch.’

‘No probs. I think you should maybe eat something. Maybe that’s why you were so wobbly on your feet.’

Lunch was…well. I may not know who or where I am but I know one thing – the food in this place was just horrible. I pushed some kind of poultry into my mouth so as not to die of starvation but I left most of what was graciously called ‘food’ on my plate. That’s when two arms came past my cheeks from behind me. One of the hands held a small bottle. Slender fingers opened it and peppered some of the liquid contents onto my remaining dinner.

‘Try it now,’ a squeaky voice said behind me. ‘Extra Tabasco is the only thing that makes this crap edible.’

I only saw her slender frame and her long blonde hair as my mysterious condiment-ninja bounced away.

I tried the food. It was different and indeed it was better but then my cheeks began to sweat and a fire started in my mouth and throat. I jumped to my feet and screamed, ‘WATER!’

Vince escorted me to my room after that. He again warned me about ‘funny stuff’ but I assured him that there was nothing funny about being poisoned. He said he would add paranoia (whatever that was) to my chart. Then he locked me in.

I was alone in this white room with only my thoughts. And since I only had a day’s worth of thoughts it wasn’t much to mull over. It’s amazing how lonely it can be when you don’t even have memories to keep you company. I finally slept, and didn’t dream.

A different person unlocked my room the next day. He didn’t seem very friendly, even when he said ‘Buenos Dias’, but when I started speaking to him in Spanish he lightened up. His name was Dylan and he told me about his new daughter as he escorted me to the cafeteria. He even showed me a really amazing drawing of her. She was very cute and I told him so. Breakfast was better than dinner but I couldn’t really enjoy it. I had to keep my eye out for the woman who had tried to kill me the previous night.

When I had finished, I felt a touch on my shoulder that made me jump. It was a woman that I had seen before. The other patients called her Nurse Ratchet. She said I had to go to ‘group’.

‘Will this group help me find out who I am?’ I asked.

‘That’s what therapy is for,’ she said with a smile.

It turned out that group was just a bunch of people talking about their problems. And what problems some of these people had. One man talked about how he couldn’t breathe every time he tried to leave his house. Another woman spoke about how she thought that everyone in her family was trying to steal her things, so she hid all of her valuables in holes all over town. She now realised that no one was trying to steal from her but she couldn’t remember where she had buried her gold rings.

There was a woman who seemed fine except she had pulled all of the hair out of one side of her head. The half-bald woman was in the middle of telling us why she did it when the blonde woman from dinner rushed into the room, apologising for being late.

I was on my feet and pointing. ‘She tried to kill me last night!’ It took maybe ten seconds before Dylan came up and pushed me back into my seat.

‘Sarah tried to kill you last night?’ Dr Fergus asked incredulously.

‘She tried to poison me,’ I said, still feeling Dylan’s pressure on my shoulders.

‘Sarah?’ Dr Fergus asked. ‘Did you try to poison Mr Doe?’

‘No,’ she said instantly. ‘Well…’

‘What did you do?’

‘I just seasoned his food a bit. I was trying to be nice.’

‘Seasoned how?’

‘Tabasco sauce.’

‘Regular?’

‘Ah…extra hot.’

‘I see,’ Dr Fergus said. ‘Let me guess, Mr Doe, they don’t have Tabasco sauce where you are from?’

‘What’s Tabasco sauce?’ I said.

‘Food seasoning. Some people think it’s very pleasant.’

‘No one thinks the extra hot is pleasant,’ one of the other members of the group added. ‘She did it to me once, kid. I feel for you.’

‘Sarah?’ Dr Fergus intoned, ‘I think you owe Mr Doe an apology.’

Sarah sat down hard in her chair. ‘I was only trying to be nice.’

‘I understand but next time maybe you should warn people before you are being kind.’

‘Yeah, I guess,’ Sarah said. It was the first time our eyes met. Her eyes were piercing blue, framed with scraggly straight blonde hair.

‘You weren’t trying to poison me?’

‘No,’ she said emphatically. ‘The food in here is just so crap… Sorry, Doc, but it is… I was just trying to spice it up for you.’

‘You actually like food that burns your mouth?’

‘The hotter the better, I say.’

‘You are very strange.’

‘Yeah,’ she said and then smiled. ‘I get that a lot. Sorry.’ She stood, came over and offered her hand. I shook it as she said, ‘I’m Sarah.’

Before I could answer Dr Fergus said, ‘Hey, hey, no touching during group.’

Sarah turned, tilted her head, sighed and said, ‘Really, Doc F? I was just saying hello.’

‘You know the rules.’

Sarah sat back down in her seat and said, ‘As you can see, I seem to get into trouble…well, all the time.’

‘And why is that?’ Doc F asked, slipping back into his professional voice.

‘Really, you’re starting in on me? I just got here.’

‘Exactly, maybe you won’t be late next time. Now why is it that you seem to get into trouble all the time?’

Sarah lowered her head, making her hair flop in front of her face then swiftly flicked her head up, sending her hair sailing back over her head. ‘I guess, mostly because of my delusions and my memory loss.’

‘You want to talk about any of those?’

‘You’ve all heard about the delusions but I never talked about the memory loss ’cause…well, ’cause I don’t remember it.’

Everyone laughed at this, even Doc F.

‘I have this ring.’ She reached to her neck and pulled out a silver chain on which a plain silver band hung. ‘See, my grandmother gave it to me…’ It quickly became obvious that she was having trouble talking about this. ‘My grandmother gave me her gold wedding ring on her deathbed. She told me I could have it for when I got married. I loved her soooo much and I loved the gift so much that I kept it around my neck on a silver chain.’ Sarah stopped talking while she tried to compose herself.

‘So what happened to the ring?’ Dr Fergus prompted.

Sarah’s head was down again, her hair hiding her expression, but it was easy to tell she was crying. ‘I…I don’t know. I…I lost it or…sold it. I don’t know. I somehow replaced it with this silver ring.’

‘Why would you do that?’ Dr Fergus asked.

Sarah looked directly at him. Her eyes were full of water and tear tracks smeared her cheeks. ‘I don’t know. Honest, Doc, I’ve tried to remember. I really tried. I just can’t.’

I reached and placed my hand on Sarah’s back. She instantly dropped her head on my shoulder wiping her nose with the back of her hand.

‘Mr Doe,’ Dr Fergus warned. ‘No touching in group.’

I didn’t move. ‘That’s a dumb rule,’ I said.

Sarah laughed while she straightened up. ‘I like this one, Doc F,’ she said. ‘Can we keep him?’

Sarah sat across from me at lunch. She took out her bottle of Tabasco sauce, sprinkled it liberally on her chicken nuggets and then offered it to me with a sheepish smile. I declined. She got up and came back with a little paper tub filled with a red sauce. She said it was called ketchup and it would help. I was nervous but didn’t want to be rude so I tried it. It was surprisingly good.

‘Thanks for being nice to me back there in group. And I really am sorry about the Tabasco thing.’

‘It was nothing and you are forgiven,’ I said. ‘Saying that, I really thought I had swallowed a bunch of tiny sewing needles. Do you actually like that stuff?’

‘I do but I admit you have to work your way up to the extra hot. I’ll get my aunt to bring a bottle of regular next time she visits.’

‘Your aunt knows you’re in here?’

‘Of course.’

‘Why aren’t you staying with her? Doesn’t she want to help you?’

Sarah stopped eating. ‘She says she is helping me by having me in here.’ She leaned in close and said in a whisper, ‘She doesn’t believe me.’

‘About the ring?’

‘Oh no. I really don’t know what happened to Gran’s ring. No, I mean she doesn’t believe I have premonitions.’

‘Premonitions?’

‘Yes,’ she said loudly and then caught herself and leaned in close again, whispering. ‘Doc F insists I call them delusions, and I do when he’s around but I know what I know. I’m not crazy.’

I looked to see if anyone was listening. ‘You know, I met a man the other day. His name was Social Worker and he said that that’s what the crazy ones always say.’

‘You’re not helping, Mr Doe.’

‘Just Doe.’

‘No first name?’

I shook my head.

‘No last name?’

‘Nope, just Doe.’

‘Like Prince?’

‘I don’t think I’m a prince.’

Sara shook her head. ‘Well then, Doe, let me ask you this… Are you crazy?’

‘I don’t think so, but then again I can’t remember anything so maybe I am.’

‘Do you feel crazy?

‘No.’

‘So maybe we are the only sane people in here.’

‘Seems improbable,’ I said.

‘Ah ha!’ she said with a flourish of her index finger. ‘But not impossible. Have hope Doe, have hope.’

She bounced up from the table saying, ‘We are peas in a pod, amigo.’ Her hair twirled with her as she turned away, then twirled back as she quickly whipped her Tabasco from the table. ‘Mustn’t forget my bottle of needles.’

I smiled as I watched her bounce out of the double doors. I thought to myself, I’ve never met a woman like her before, but then realised I couldn’t remember meeting any woman…except for that image of Ruby, whoever she is. But even though I couldn’t remember Ruby I sensed that she was nothing like Sarah. I picked up a chicken nugget and dipped it in the ketchup.

You know this ketchup stuff is really good.

THREE

I had a one-on-one session with Doc F that afternoon. ‘What am I going to do with you?’ he asked.

‘You could let me out so I could find help,’ I said.

‘What makes you think there is no help here?’

‘Do you know who I am or where I came from?’

‘No,’ he said, shrugging.

‘Then you can’t help me. When can I leave?’

‘Not until we can ascertain that you are no threat to yourself or others.’

‘I can tell you that now – I’m not.’

‘Have you tried to cut yourself since you have been here?’

‘No.’

‘But you did cut yourself. You admitted to it.’

‘Yes but I don’t remember it.’

‘Well, maybe you should stay here at least until you do.’

I sighed in resignation. There was nothing I could do about it. Without a memory or even the knowledge of where I was, I couldn’t formulate a plan. ‘OK, do you have any more ideas?’

‘Well, let’s talk about this idea that you believe you have magical powers. I’m going to try something that is controversial in my profession. It’s called aggressive confrontation. As a matter of fact, many in my profession think it’s dangerous and they are not wrong. If, say, your delusion was that you thought you were Superman and I challenged you to provide evidence of that, you might jump out of a third-floor window to prove that you could fly.’

‘Do you know people who can fly?’ I asked.

‘No, I do not know people who can fly and you are getting off the subject. The other danger with aggressive confrontation is that, once suddenly forced to face the reality of the situation, the patient’s ego may be crushed to the point where they regress into a debilitating state.’ Dr F reached into his pocket and brought out a coin. ‘Saying all of that, you seem pretty stable to me so I’m going to try it.’

‘Try what?’ I asked.

‘All I am going to ask you to do,’ Dr F said as he reached into his pocket, ‘is make this coin disappear.’

‘I told you I can’t make your coin vanish unless it is gold.’

Doc F held up a finger. ‘And I listened to you. That’s why this morning on the way here I stopped into a coin shop and bought a gold-gilded mint-proof silver crown.’ He flipped over the coin in his hand and showed the face of a woman shining in gold on the silver coin. ‘It’s identical to the one owned by the magician who is pressing charges against you.’

I took the coin in my hand and felt the weight of it. Then I passed my senses into the metal. ‘There’s not much gold but there is enough.’

‘There should be lots of gold in there – it cost me 250 bucks.’

‘You traded deer for coin?’

‘No, and stop doing that. The coin was expensive but the coin dealer said he would buy it back tomorrow.’

I returned the coin to the doctor. ‘Then I’m not going to dematerialise it.’

‘Again with the deflection. I want you to make it disappear.’

‘You won’t get it back.’

‘We’ll see,’ the doc said with a smile.

‘Why is it so hard for you people to understand that things that vanish don’t come back? I don’t know how to make a rothlu.’

‘Rothlu – what’s that?’

‘It’s an amulet that allows people to vanish and appear somewhere else.’

‘Can you do that?’

‘No, I’m not that good.’

‘Again, we are getting off topic. Can you make this coin disappear or not?’

‘Well…yes, but I don’t want to get into more trouble.’

‘You won’t get into trouble.’

‘Promise?’

‘I promise.’

As I reached for the coin Dr Fergus said, ‘Hold on a minute, roll up your sleeves.’

I did as he asked. I still had a bandage on my left arm.

‘And can you do it with only one hand?’

‘Sure,’ I said.

Dr Fergus put the coin in my right palm, grabbed my right wrist and pulled my hand holding the coin towards him. Can you do it with my hand holding your wrist?’

‘I think so. Are you sure you want me to do this?’

‘Yes,’ he said, never taking his eyes off my hand.

‘OK,’ I said. Then I closed my hand over the coin. Words came softly to my lips in a language even I didn’t understand. When I opened my hand, the coin was gone.

Dr Fergus’s mouth dropped open. Without letting go of my wrist he lifted my arm up and looked underneath my hand. Then he quickly and painfully turned my hand over.

‘Ow.’

‘How did you do that?’

‘I told you, I’m fairly certain I am a magician.’

‘Where is the coin?’

‘Oh don’t you start, too. It’s gone.’

He ordered me to stand up and I did. He looked on the floor and turned over the chair I was sitting on.

‘Where is it?’ he demanded. He was getting agitated.

‘It’s gone. I told you this would happen.’

Dr Fergus pressed a buzzer on his desk and Vince came in almost at once. By then Dr F was on all fours looking for the coin and when Vince saw me standing over him he tackled me to the floor.

‘Hey, hey, hey,’ I said, as he pinned my arms behind my back and knelt on the back of my legs. ‘Honest to the gods, Vince, I didn’t even crack a joke.’

Dr Fergus ordered Vince to have me strip-searched. As Vince was dragging me out I said, ‘You promised I wouldn’t get into trouble.’

Doc F ignored me. ‘Find that coin,’ is all he said.

Vince was really rough when he dragged me out of the room but he lightened up when we got out of earshot of the doctor. ‘What do you do that gets the doc so riled up?’ he asked.

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I did exactly what he asked me to do and he promised I wouldn’t get into trouble.’

‘Well, you’re in trouble now. What’s this coin he’s talking about?’

‘He asked me to make a coin disappear and now he wants it back.’

He still had me by the arm as we walked towards my room. ‘Let me get this straight,’ Vince said, stopping. ‘He asked you to do a magic trick?’

‘Yes.’

‘So he gave you a coin and you made it disappear like – poof?’

‘Yes.’

‘So where’s the coin?’

‘It’s flipping gone. Why is it so hard for you idiots to comprehend the fact that when things dematerialise they are gone?’

Vince’s good humour also dematerialised with that outburst. He grabbed my arm again and pulled me towards my room. ‘You know that funny stuff I warned you about?’

‘Yes,’ I said as he opened the door and pushed me into my room.

‘This is what I was talking about.’

‘How?’ I asked. ‘Nobody has even smiled.’

Vince crossed his massive arms. ‘Strip.’

‘What?’

‘Take off your clothes one at a time and hand them to me.’

‘Seriously?’

‘Take a good look at me,’ Vince said pointing to himself. ‘Memorise this face – this is my no-funny-stuff face.’

He certainly looked serious, so I took off my shirt and tossed it to him. Vince squeezed the fabric between his hands and shook it vigorously. Then I took off my trousers. He went through the pockets and did the squeezing and shaking thing again. He pointed to my underwear. I almost repeated, ‘Seriously?’ but he was still wearing the no-funny-stuff face.

When he didn’t find anything there he told me to stand with my legs apart and my hands straight up as he walked around me.

He finally stood in front of me and said I could relax. He was about to give me my clothes back when he said, ‘You didn’t hide it…you know.’

‘Seriously?’

He threw my clothes at me. ‘If you did, you can keep it. You’re confined to your room until…well, until the doc cools off – or you produce that coin.’

‘Again, the coin is gone and it’s not coming back.’

Vince shook his head as he ducked through the doorway. Before he locked me in he said, ‘I like you, Doe, I really do, but if you keep pulling stunts like this, you’re never getting out of here.’

Again I was left to my own thoughts – and they were as empty as my room.

I wasn’t let out that evening. Dylan brought me dinner. There were two packets of ketchup on the tray. Dylan told me that Sarah had put them there.

‘Did she put anything else on my food?’

‘Nada,’ he assured me.

‘Tell her gracias.’

Vince was at my door in the morning with a breakfast tray.

‘How long am I going to be locked in here?’

‘Don’t know. Doc F is still mad,’ he said.

‘Do I get to go to group?’

‘Doubt it but I’ll ask.’

Lunch was delivered to my room too. Then, late in the afternoon, Vince and Dylan arrived together. ‘Sorry, amigo, but we have to inspect your room. Doc F’s orders.’ The two of them made me stand in the corner while they looked everywhere. Not that there were many places to look. They stripped the bed and took all of the empty drawers out of the dresser and the bedside table. Then they made me take off my clothes again.

After I redressed Vince said, ‘Come on, Doe, where’s the coin?’

I slid down the wall and looked forlornly at the ceiling. ‘I don’t know what to tell you guys. Doc F promised I wouldn’t get into trouble if I made his coin disappear and ever since I’ve been in nothing but trouble. When I told you what happened, you said I was doing funny stuff and you got mad at me. So maybe you could help me? What do you want me to say?’

‘Just tell the truth, amigo,’ Dylan said.

I laughed. ‘I haven’t told a lie since I’ve been here… Oh, except to the cook when he asked how lunch was.’

‘OK then,’ Vince said, tossing a coin at me. ‘Prove it.’

‘Oh no. I’m in enough trouble already.’ I looked at the coin. ‘And anyway this is one of those quarters, right?’

Vince nodded yes.

‘I can’t dematerialise this. It has no gold in it.’

‘You can only poof gold coins?’

‘Well, no, but you need gold to execute magic. Everyone knows that.’ The two of them looked at me like I was speaking Greek. I had a quick mental rewind to make sure I hadn’t. I pointed to Vince, ‘What’s that around your neck?’

Vince put his hand protectively across the thick braided necklace he was wearing. ‘That’s my bling.’

‘Is it gold?’

‘Y…yes. But you ain’t dematerialising my bling.’

‘No but if I had a necklace like that I could use the gold to dematerialise quarters. Doc said quarters aren’t worth much so no one would mind. Is that right?’

‘You ain’t dematerialising my bling.’

‘I won’t dematerialise it, I’ll just use up a tiny bit of gold. You won’t even notice.’

‘Whatcha mean, use up a piece of gold?’

‘You use gold to fuel magic right?’ Again their faces made me check I was speaking English. ‘In order to dematerialise one of these quarter things I have to use up a bit of gold.’

‘What bit?’

‘I don’t know – a speck. It’ll turn into silver. You won’t even notice it.’

‘My bling will turn to silver.’

‘Of course, but just a bit – like the size of a grain of sand.’ Again they turned their heads like confused puppies. ‘When you spend gold on magic it turns to silver. You guys know that, right?’

That’s when it hit me. I knew what happened to Sarah’s grandmother’s ring.

‘Oh my gods,’ I said. ‘Do you guys know why Sarah is in here? What did she do?’

‘We can’t discuss other patients, amigo.’

‘Oh, come on. I can help her. Look, if I make the damn quarter disappear, will you tell me?’

They looked at each other and nodded yes.

‘All right, give me the bling.’

‘Hell no,’ Vince said.

‘It’ll be fine, I promise.’

‘Give it to him bro,’ Dylan said. ‘I wanna see this.’

Vince reluctantly placed the necklace in my right hand. I sent my senses into the metal, feeling the power in the gold. It was not as pure as I was used to. Used to? How often had I done this? I placed the quarter in my left hand. Since I didn’t need to use the gold in the coin, I didn’t have to close my hand.

‘You swear on your lives you won’t be mad if I make this coin disappear?’

‘We swear,’ they said in unison.

I mumbled some words that I didn’t know I knew and a small sound like the ding of a faraway bell rang. The coin was gone.

‘What the...’

‘Ay díos mío!’

‘How did you do that?’ Vince asked, hardly even closing his mouth.

‘I’m not sure. Like I said, I think I’m a magician.’

Vince reached into his pocket searching for another coin. ‘Do it again.’

‘First, tell me what Sarah is in for.’

‘That girl is crazy,’ Dylan said. ‘She went loca and broke some kid’s arm.’

‘That doesn’t seem like her. Did she say why?’

‘I once heard her say that she didn’t mean to hurt the kid and that she had, in fact, saved her.’

‘Saved her how?’

‘Don’t know. Like I said, the girl is loca. Now do it again.’

Vince shook off his amazement. ‘Hey, come on now, this is just a trick. Here, I’ll prove it to you.’ Vince made me roll up my sleeve and then held my wrist with two hands while Dylan placed another quarter in my palm. Both of them had their faces inches from my hand when the second quarter disappeared. This time they didn’t seem shocked or excited – they looked scared.

‘This is way too weird,’ Dylan said.

Finally Vince spoke. ‘Could you, like, make a lock on a door disappear?’

‘I suppose,’ I said.

‘Give me back my bling.’

I handed over his necklace. ‘I don’t want to escape,’ I said. ‘Where would I go? I have to get my memory back. I thought Doc F could help me but now I’m not so sure.’

‘If you can really do this stuff,’ Vince said, ‘then the Doc can’t help you. He won’t believe it and if you convince him…well, then he’ll call somebody like the CIA and you’ll be locked up and examined and…hell, you’ll probably be dissected. You gotta keep this stuff secret.’

I looked to Dylan, who nodded and said, ‘Truth, amigo.’

‘Can you get me to see Sarah?’

FOUR

Vince waited until Doc F left the building and then walked me to Sarah’s room. She was confused when Vince told her I wanted to speak to her but she let us in. She motioned me to the only chair and sat on the edge of her bed.

I leaned in and asked, ‘Sarah, why are you in here?’

‘I’m cuckoo. Hasn’t anyone told you that?’

‘No, seriously, what happened that made them lock you in here?’

‘I’m not supposed to talk about it.’

‘Please, you have to tell me; it’s important.’

Sarah looked up to Vince and gave me a look like she was saying, ‘Not with him around.’

I looked at the orderly and said, ‘Could you leave us?’

He shook his head. ‘No way. You shouldn’t even be out of your room and if something happens in here, it’s my butt.’

I couldn’t figure out what Vince’s butt had to do with anything but I got the gist. ‘Tell me. Vince promises not to tell anybody about this.’ I looked at the big man, who nodded in agreement.

‘The doc says they’re delusions,’ Sarah said, her hair falling and hiding her face.

I reached out and pushed her hair back behind her ear. ‘What do you think?’

She nervously looked up to Vince and then leaned in as she quietly said, ‘I used to be able to tell what was going to happen to people.’

‘You have the Feict?’

‘Huh?’

‘Sorry,’ I said quickly. ‘You have the Sight.’

‘I always called it the Shining. You know after that Stephen King book.’ I shook my head no. ‘Doesn’t matter, I can’t do it any more.’

‘But you once could see into the future?’

‘I used to be able to tell what was going to happen to people. Not very far but, like, in the next day.’

‘Dylan said you hurt a child.’

‘Yeah, that’s how I ended up in here. I was walking through the park when a little three-year-old girl ran in front of me and fell. So I picked her up. That’s when I saw the nothingness.’

‘You didn’t see anything?’

‘No, I saw…nothingness. I sometimes can’t see anything and often I can force myself not to see but this time I experienced a nothingness – a void like never before. It was cold and it frightened me so I reached deeper into it and that’s when I realised… She was dead. I mean, she was going to be dead. Her mother came up to me and demanded I put the girl down. I must have been standing there, zoned out. The girl was crying and the mother reached for her. When she did I saw the mother lying in a hospital bed with her face all bruised and tubes coming out of her arm as the police told her that her child was dead. It was awful.’

Sarah teared up at the thought of it but continued. ‘I don’t remember much of this but the police said I told the mother that she couldn’t have her and she tried to wrestle her daughter from me. I remember grabbing the girl’s arm and I remember feeling the little pop as her shoulder was dislocated.’ Sarah face crackled up in regret but then brightened. ‘But then the last vision I saw, which was the girl in the hospital getting her arm bandaged and her mother was sitting next to her without a scratch.’

‘You saved them,’ I said.

‘I think so, or at least I thought so. When I hurt the girl, I changed their futures. Now I’m not so sure. But that’s what I told the police, and apparently that gets you a one-way ticket to the nuthouse.’

I reached out and held her hand. ‘Can you read my future now?’

She pulled away. ‘No. It’s gone. Ever since I hurt the girl. I’m glad. It was a curse, or maybe it was only in my head. I don’t know…except I know it’s gone.’

‘When did it start?’

‘It started when my grandmother died.’

‘You said the ring was your grandmother’s. Did you get it when she died?’

Sarah looked at me, confused, but still she answered. ‘Just before. She gave it to me in the hospital the week she died.’

‘Did you have any gold jewellery before that?’

‘No. I never liked gold. I had lots of silver things but no gold. Why are you asking me these things?’

‘One more question,’ I said. ‘The ring, when did you notice it wasn’t gold any more?’

‘The police took it from me when I was arrested. When they gave it back it was silver. I told them it wasn’t my grandmother’s ring but the inscription had the date of my grandparents’ wedding, so... It was just one more thing that proved I was crazy.’

‘You’re not crazy, Sarah. You’re a mystic.’

That made her smile. The first smile since I sat down.

‘That would be comforting, Doe, if you weren’t crazy too. Even so, it’s sweet.’

‘Vince,’ I said, ‘give her the bling.’

‘No way, José. You know what she did to her ring.’

‘She was trying to see into the Great Void. No wonder she burned up her gold. Don’t worry; you won’t even notice – I promise.’

Sarah stood up and then backed away. ‘What are you two talking about?’