DIANE DUANE - A Wizard Alone

Darryl looked at Nita with eyes that were beginning to believe. Besides, Kit said, imagine how funny it ll be when It finally gets back in here, and locks Itself in,and then discovers that what It s locked in with isn t you. It s your autism.

Darryl looked from Kit to Nita with that expression of absolute delight, edged again with mischief.

Yeah, he whispered. Let s do it.

I don t think there s a lot of let s about this, Kit said. I think you get to do this part yourself. Otherwise, it s not going to take.

Use the kernel, Nita said. You set the configuration into it for the way you want this world to behave. The Silence will show you how. I had to take classes to find out, but this is your own world that you made. You re not going to need authorizations to work with it.

Darryl nodded, looking down at the kernel for a moment.

Then, Oh, he said. Oh!

He was quiet for a long time. While he was concentrating, Kit bent his head over to Nita s and said, Thanks.

It was my turn to save you, Nita said, that s all. Now I want a few weeks off.

Kit smiled a crooked smile at her.

Nita looked down atPonch . I thought you said you weren t going to take the boss out again without me, Nita said.

Ponchdropped his head a little.He went , he said.So I had to go, too . Then he brightened.But you got here when I thought you would, so it s all right !

Nita gave Kit a look. Your dog has me on aschedule she said.

Kit shrugged. He has a very well-developed time sense, Kit said. Ask him about feeding time, for example.

Ponchbegan to jump up and down in excitement.

Speaking of time, Darryl said suddenly, I think this looks right

Nita glanced over at the kernel in his hands, judging the way the tangle of light looked and felt. The parameters feel right, she said. You ready

Darryl nodded, looking nervous and elated.

Do it! Nita said.

Slowly, all around them, the brightness dimmed down. I left you a space to slip through, Darryl said, as the space darkened, like a stage at the end of a play. Just behind you there. But this iswhat U be left inside.

Darkness,and a spotlight.

In the spotlight, a clown rode a tiny bicycle around and around, never stopping, never looking up. Its eyes were empty. It was a machine, just a fragment of personality without the soul that had once animated it: hopeless, mindless, animate but insensate. Kit looked at it and thought of a windup mouse going around and around in little circles, waiting for the cat.

Let s get out of here, Kit said. Darryl You know the way back

In my sleep, he said, and grinned.

Kit held out a hand. Welcome to the Art, brother, he said.

Darryl took the hand, then pulled Kit close and hugged him hard. He let go, turned to Nita. He hugged her, too.

Later, she said. Go home.

Darryl vanished with the ease of someone who s been doing it for years.

Kit and Nita looked at each other. Your place or mine Nita said.

My folks are going to yell at me, Kit said, so let s do mine first.

Nita smiled a small wry smile. You just want me to help you take the heat.

Mind reader, Kit said.Come on .

They vanished, too.

Some distance away, in a special-ed classroom inBaldwin , the afternoon routine was proceeding as usual when one of the teachers saw something unusual happen.

Darryl McAllister looked at him, looked at him straight on.

The teacher went over to the boy, and got down beside him where he had been sitting on the floor and rocking. Hey there, Darryl, he said. What s up

I don t think, Darryl said, in a voice that cracked and creaked with not having been used for words for a long time, I don t think I need to be here anymore.

The teacher s mouth dropped open.

Can I go home now Darryl said, and smiled.

Liberations

The explanations to parents,Seniors , and others, as usual, took nearly as long as the events themselves had done, so it was several days before Nita and Kit found time to go off and relax. The chosen spot was a favorite one, by the edge of a crater close to a well-known site in MareTranquillitatis . They were leaning back against the very top of the upper crater wall, looking down over at the rising half-Earth, whilePonch lay on his back in themoondust , snoring, with his feet in the air.

A fourth figure suddenly stepped into the vacuum nearby, looking around him.

Wow, Darryl said. He wandered over to where Nita and Kit sat, bouncing a little as first-timers tended to do, because of the lighter gravity.

Are we allowed to be up here Darryl said, looking about half a mile away, toward where the feet and base of Apollo11 s lunarlander sat.

As long as we don t mess it up, Kit said. This is a heritage area.

Hearing that, Darryl burst outlaughing, looking in mischievous admiration at the rough sculptures Kit had been doing on this site for some years. Thisis what you do in a heritage area

I ll clean it up before they build the hotel here, Kit said. After that, I guess I ll have to amuse myself carving rocks on Mars into faces.

Darryl snickered.

How are your folks doing Nita said.

Youkidding They re in shock, Darryl said. He sat down on the rock beside Kit.

I wouldn t have thought they d let you out of their sight right now, Kit said.

They haven t, Darryl said. I m home in bed.

Oh, Nita said, and laughed. Wow, that two-for-one deal really does come in handy, doesn t it

She d already had a word with Kit about the genuine source of Darryl s ability to be in two places at once. They d agreed that there was no need to be too cagey about mentioning Darryl s ability to co-locate, as long as they stayed away from discussing the reasons for it. If Darryl just thought it was a personaltalent, that was fine.

I looked at the transit spells, Darryl said. But except for the air, they looked like a waste of energy. We re not supposed to waste. And besides, why go to all that trouble when I can just do this

For a moment he was standing behind a large boulder some feet away, while also sitting on the rock beside Kit. Kit shook his head in admiration.

It s a slick trick, Kit said. I ll do it my way for the time being, though. Seriously are your parents coping

They re coping great. Darryl s eyes shone. It was plain to Nita that this was an understatement. My mom and dad are He broke off, shook his head.

It s all new, Darryl said after a moment. They hardly dare to believe it. And I can t really tell them why theycan believe it, not yet. Eventually I will. But right nowwizardry d be one shock too many. They d probably think I was coming down with some kind of nuts to replace the autism.

Give them some time, Kit said. Neither of us came right out to our parents, either. I think you re probably right, though. Too much strange at once isn t a good thing for them. There s going to be enough of that later, once you start getting into your serious work, whatever that turns out to be. For now, just enjoy how happy they are, and take it easy.

Well,happy s good, but the take it easy part s not going to last, Darryl said, and grinned. I heard my mom thinking that if I was really going to be better now, she was going to start giving mechores .

Nita and Kit groaned in unison.

She was kind of nervous about it, Darryl said. I think I get a few weeks of being lazy before they really start expecting me to be normal.

Take advantage of it, Kit said. Once they start, they never let up.

Darryl nodded, looked over at the Earth. So now we get to take care of that, he said.

That s the job, Nita said.

I d better get on with it then, Darryl said. You guys come here often

Often enough, Kit said.

I mightbe needing some advice as I work into this job, Darryl said.

For you, we re available any time, Nita said.

Kit grinned. We re in the book.

Darryl nodded and waved. A second later he was gone.

Nice kid, Kit said after a moment.

No argument there, Nita said. Come on, your mom said dinner was at six.

Kit was looking over at the Earth. It really is the best job, isn t it he said.

Nita nodded. None better. And the company s good, too.

The best, Kit said. Welcome back.

Nita smiled. Comeon , she said. I want some of that chicken you re always raving about.

Kit stood up and dusted floury pumice dust off him. Yeah, well, if you think you re going to get a bigger portion than I am, think again!C mon,Ponch .

Ponchrolled over and bounced to his feet in a cloud of silvery dust. Kit and Nita vanished.

Ponchstoodthere, looking thoughtfully at the half-Earth for some moments then wagged his tail.

Chicken!he said silently, leaped up, and vanished.

The next morning Nita walked to school quietly by herself, noticing a lot of things that had passed her by recently: the snow, the slush (of which there was a great deal), the icicles hanging down, glittering, from the eaves of people s houses; the color of the sky, the sound of people s voices as they said good-bye to each other on their way to work.If it wasn t for what s been going on this past week or so , she thought,how much of this would I have noticed She had been locked up in her grief as surely as Darryl had been locked up in theotherworlds of his own making. It had taken a major blow to jar her loose, and Darryl had gone through something similar.

But he was free now.And as for me

Nita mused as she turned the corner, thinking of Carl s mention of the concept that right across the fields of existence all is done for each. As far as she could tell, that meant that every good thing that happened to everybody had some effect on all the rest of everybody, from here to the edges of the universe. It was like that saying about the chaos-theory butterfly in the rainforest, which, just by waving its little wings, contributes to the hurricane half a hemisphere away if not actually causing the hurricane. But more specifically, the all done for each principle seemed to mean that the Powers That Be had designed the world so that everything that happened in it every victory, every sacrifice, from the largest to the smallest was pointed specifically at every separate living thing. At first Nita had found this almost impossible to imagine. Now she found herself wondering if what she d just beenthrough, besides being about Darryl s liberation, had been about helping her find her way out of her own pain as well.

Nita shrugged as she walked in through the gates that led into the parking lot. There was plenty of time to get into the highly theoretical stuff later. For now, she had work to catch up on and some other business to finish.

She went down to the temporary office where she usually found Mr.Millman . There he was,sitting behind the desk and reading a magazine while eating the last couple of bites of a bagel with cream cheese.

He glanced up as Nita came in. Morning, he said.

Nita sat down, put her book bag on the floor, reached into her jacket, and came out with the cards.

Before you start in with those, Mr.Millman said, one thing. We left on a slightlyjangly note the other day

Did we Nita said, refusing for the moment to smile at him, refusing to let him off the hook.

I think we did, especially since you cut half your classes shortly thereafter.

Nita shrugged.Millman s eyebrows went up as he took note of the gesture. I just wanted you to know something, he said. Whatever the secret is about what s going on in your life right now I want you to know that there s no need for you to tell me, ever, and I have no intention of pressing you.

Nita looked at him with surprise, because this wasn t what she d been thinking. She also looked at him with amused suspicion. What is this, some kind of reverse psychology