Doorways to Infinity (22 page)

“Maybe next time, Milly,” Bryce said.

“Bryce,” Frankie said, “you know these kids, too?”

“Most of ’em.”

“I love the way they talk. Sounds Irish.”

Miss Duffy, who had been sitting at the picnic table under the big oak tree, rose and walked toward them. Jamie waved to her and she waved back, but then her eyes settled on someone else. Jamie turned to see Coach Dave, staring at her with his lips slightly parted.

“Who’s that, Jamie?” the young coach asked quietly.

“Miss Duffy. She’s our music and art teacher.”

The young coach didn’t respond, but continued to stare at Miss Duffy, their gazes fixed as if they were held by an invisible bond.

Oh, no
. Jamie thought as he recognized the look that passed between them.
Not again
.

Coach Harrison cleared his throat and said, “Come on, guys, we need to get moving. We’ve stopped long enough.”

They began to run again, away from the school, Coach Dave stealing a couple of glances over his shoulder as they went. Bryce maneuvered next to Jamie, leaned close to him and said in a low voice, “Did you see that?”

“Yes,” Jamie said tersely.

“Remind you of anyone we know? Like maybe John Paul and—”

“Don’t even think about it. Just don’t.”

“Why? It worked out okay for them, didn’t it?”

“It was just a look Bryce. That’s all. Don’t read too much into it.”

“Riiiigght,” Bryce said slowly and smirked. “Just a look.”

Coach Harrison clapped his hands again and said, “We need to pick up the pace over the next five miles. We’re runnin’ like a bunch of old ladies.”

They kicked into high gear and the talking ceased the rest of the way.

They finished in front of the stone house, some of the boys stretching, some walking around with their hands on tops of their heads, all of them breathing heavily. Jamie noticed that they were looking at him differently since they’d come to Rivershire. Before, he had been just a lowly freshman to them, who had to work his way up the ladder of esteem one hard-earned rung at a time. Now it was if they viewed him with more respect, maybe even a little awe, with furtive sideways glances or unexpected widening of their eyes.

Jamie worried that they might be afraid of him, but they seemed to be trying to follow Bryce’s example as to how to handle these stunning, newfound facts — Jamie was a powerful sorcerer and they were on another world. Bryce was as casual and nonchalant as before, as if to say,
So what? It’s just Jamie and it’s just magic. No big deal
.

“Good run,” Coach Harrison pronounced to the winded boys. “Don’t you think so, Dave?”

“Best one in weeks. That’s a good little course, Jamie. Nice scenery. Made it go by really quick.”

“Jamie,” Ivan said, “we should run here tomorrow. It’s supposed to rain back in Cullowhee, and this beats the heck out of running in the gym.”

“Runnin’ in the gym
sucks
,” Amir declared. “We’ll all have shin splints if we have to keep training in there.”

Frankie held up both thumbs and nodded. “We should bring the girls’ team tomorrow. They’re probably sick of the gym, too.”

“Ah, man,” Jamie groaned. “Do we have to?”

“It’s only fair,” William said. “Besides, they’re going to wonder where we went today. I’d rather bring them with us than lie to them.”

“But it’s more people that’ll know about my magic.”

“Relax, dude,” DeSean said. “Nobody’s gonna tell the NSA, or the CIA, or the FBI, or anybody else. Your secret is safe with us.”

Is it?
Jamie thought disconsolately.
I hope so
.

“William’s right,” Bryce said. “It really isn’t fair. Why should we get to train outdoors and they don’t? We’ll be in shape for the first indoor meet and they won’t.”

He grinned, and Jamie felt a flash of anger at his friend. Jamie knew Bryce was manipulating him, playing Jamie’s deep-seated sense of fairness against his fear of being found out by a government agency. “Darn it, Bryce. You’re puttin’ me in a bad spot.”

Bryce spread his hands and shrugged. “So, yes or no? Do the girls get to come or not?”

Jamie gritted his teeth and growled, “Yes.”
I hope I don’t regret saying that
. “But if I have to go into hiding for the rest of my life, it’ll be your fault.”

“You won’t have to go into hiding. You can always move here. You already have a house.”

“So you’re not denying that it’ll be your fault?”

Bryce shrugged again.

Jamie looked at Coach Harrison and said, “How about you? Are you comfortable with the girls coming, too?”

“They need the training, so…yes. I think it’s a good idea.”

Jamie sighed, deeply and slowly, with his eyes closed, trying to think of a way to say no, but he couldn’t. Finally he said, “Okay.”

Most of the boys broke into wide smiles and Coach Harrison said, “So it’s settled, then. Plan on training here, same time tomorrow, and the girls will come with us.”

* * *

The next day, both the girls and boys from the track team crammed into the coach’s office so that Jamie could get the girls to take the oath. Fred helped this time, adding her magic to the binding vow, and when they finished, the girls stared at their hands in shock and wonder, just as the boys had the day before. Then Bryce passed out paper cups full of the inoculation potion while Fred took Jamie out into the hall.

She kissed him quickly and tapped his chest with one fingertip. “You better behave around those girls.”

“I will. I always do.”

“I know, but you know me. I had to say it.”

She left, and Jamie went back inside the office and made a doorway to the front yard of his house in Rivershire. The boys hurried through, all of them talking at once and urging the hesitant girls to follow.

Allison, the team captain, went first, looked around quickly and her mouth fell wide open. “Holy crap! It’s true.” She turned to the girls who still waited on the other side of the glowing portal and waved them on. “Come on! You gotta see this!”

The rest of the girls came, too, and Jamie closed the doorway. “This is it. This is my house on Eddan’s world. You are now standing on another planet. We are the first track team in history to do that, I believe.”

The girls gawked at their surroundings while the boys bombarded them with explanations. Coach Harrison shouted to be heard over the din, “Everybody needs to warm up. Now! I want to add some sprints at the end of our training today, and we’re wasting precious time.”

“Coach?” Charlotte said. “Can’t we have at least a minute to get used to this? I mean…this is…this is
really
strange.”

“You can get used to it while you warm up. Let’s go!”

Jamie had noticed that of all the people who’d done the oath, some adjusted to the concept of real magic quicker than others did. The younger they were, the easier it seemed to be for them, and the girls were starting to get it.

Especially when they ran into town with the boys.

“Ooohh, shops!” Katie said as they neared the first narrow two story wooden buildings, with brightly painted trim and inviting signs hanging over the sidewalk. “Coach, can we stop and look? We won’t take long.”

“No. Keep running.”

“Aw, you’re a party pooper. Please? Just for a sec?”

“What are you going to do for money, Katie?” Logan said. “You didn’t bring any.”

“Even if you did,” Jamie said, “they don’t take American money. They have their own currency.”

“If I had some money with me, could I exchange it somewhere, like a bank or something?”

“You could take it to Brinna’s shop,” Bryce said. “She uses the American money to buy stuff at Costco that she resells in her store.”

“Who’s Brinna?” Rosa said.

“She’s Mrs. Tully’s daughter, the lady who takes care of Jamie’s house. She’s from here, but she married a cop in Hendersonville. Pretty awesome, huh? Intergalactic romance.”

Wish you hadn’t mentioned that, Bryce
, Jamie grumbled to himself as he ran.

Coach Dave maneuvered next to Bryce and said, “Really? How’s that work?”

“She lives with him at his house in Hendersonville, but she kept her shop after they got married. Jamie made a permanent doorway from John Paul’s basement to her shop here in the market, and that’s how she gets to work every day.”

Jamie wanted to punch Bryce in the shoulder and say,
Stop. Stop it right now, before Coach Dave gets any ideas
.

They thundered on through town, one huge mass of runners, twenty-eight in all, and the girls marveled at the sights just as the boys had the day before. More locals watched them go by, staring openly at them, which prompted Katie to say, “They act like they’ve never seen two college track teams from Earth run through their town before.”

Bryce laughed. “They used to stare at me and Jamie when we ran here this spring and summer, but after a while they seemed to get used to it.”

“Are there no cars?” Ella said. “I haven’t seen any.”

“Just horses and wagons,” Bryce said.

“Dr. Tindall and her two grad students will have an electric pickup truck here pretty soon,” Jamie said. “They’re going use it to get some soil and water samples from the surrounding area and take them back to their lab and study them.”

“Awesome,” Bonnie said, bobbing her head appreciatively. “I had a class with Dr. Tindall. She’s great.”

Jamie had them turn left at the next intersection. “The school is this way.” He quickly related how they’d built it, and the cluster of yellow buildings came into sight. Their progress slowed when they passed the playground, despite the urgings of Coach Harrison.

“Look at those cute kids!” Violet eyed the children playing on the field. “Are they students here? Let’s stop for a minute, just to say hello.”

“Absolutely not,” Coach Harrison said, though their pace had dropped to a jog.

She wrinkled her nose at him. “You’re no fun.”

“Jamie? “ Charlotte said. “Can we come back sometime and see the school and the town?”

“When Coach isn’t with us,” Lakshmi added quickly.

“Can you make a doorway for us? We want to see everything. It’s so pretty here, and it’s another world and everything. It sounds like it would be fun, and I bet it’s safe.”

“Sure,” Jamie said grudgingly, “and you’re right. It’s safe.”

Miss Duffy, who was at the picnic table, waved to them, and Coach Dave stopped. “I’ll meet you guys back at Jamie’s house.” He turned and trotted toward the playground where Miss Duffy waited.

“What’s that all about?” Bonnie said. “Why’s he going over there?”

“Why do you think?” Allison said. “Did you see that look in her eyes when she saw him?”

“Coach Dave?” Bonnie scrunched up her mouth. “Really?”

Jamie wanted to groan aloud.
No! Let’s keeps thing simple
. Then he realized that it was too late for that. He’d told twenty-eight more people about his magic and brought them to Rivershire, and now his assistant coach was acting like a love-struck schoolboy.

Coach Harrison was obviously unhappy. “If you guys don’t start moving faster right now, you’re going to run suicides when we finish.” They accelerated to a respectable training pace as they passed the first farm, and kept it up the rest of the way back to Jamie’s stone house.

At the end of practice, Coach had them run sprints up the gentle sloping road that ended at the front yard. He pushed them mercilessly, shouting and clapping his hands as if cracking the rower’s whip, but everyone seemed to be in good spirits when they finished. Coach Dave had returned from seeing Miss Duffy. He stood off to the side and didn’t participate, a distracted look on his face.

“Thanks for letting us run here, Jamie,” Allison said. The tall senior with brown eyes and a long brown ponytail was smiling, walking around with her hands on her hips, cooling down with the other girls.

“Wasn’t that the best practice ever?” Amir said. “I mean, we just ran on another
planet
. How awesome is that?”

“Too bad we can’t brag about it,” Cody said. “But I guess it can be our own little secret.”

“Little secret?” Katie lifted one eyebrow. “This is probably the biggest secret in history. Do you realize that?”

“I do,” Jamie said. “That’s why you had to say the oath. Now you can’t tell anybody, no matter what.”

“I don’t want to, anyway. It would spoil it.” She spread her arms, tilted her head back and smiled at the sky. “It’s so beautiful.”

“Speaking of beautiful,” Charlotte said, “we want to see your house, Jamie. Give us a tour before we go back.”

“Yeah, man,” DeSean said. “We’ll take off our shoes so we won’t mess it up.”

Jamie looked at Coach Harrison, who said, “It’s okay with me.”

Jamie led them inside and called out for Mrs. Tully, but she was gone for the day. Relieved, he let his teammates roam at will, into each bedroom, the kitchen, the cellar, and the backyard.

“Hey,” Alberto called from the kitchen, “there’s a river back there. Any fish in it?”

“Yes,” Jamie answered from the main room, where he waited by the fireplace. “Do you like to fish?”

“Love to, but I didn’t bring any gear with me to school.”

“There are three rod and reels in the shed behind the house. You can borrow one sometime, if you want.”

Jamie heard the back door open and Alberto called, “William! He said we could fish here, and he’s got some poles and stuff we can borrow.”

Bonnie reappeared in the main room with a hopeful look on her face. “There’s a little stable in the back. Do you have a horse?”

“Sorta. I bought a mare, but I let Mrs. Tully and her son use it to pull their carriage.” Bonnie continued to stare at him with one corner of her lip tucked under a tooth. “Um,” Jamie said, “do you want to ride the horse sometime?”

“Could I?” She clapped and smiled broadly. “Oh, yes, I mean, if you’re going to let Alberto and William come here to fish and everything. I could come with them.”

“I want to ride the horse, too,” Ella said.

Jamie waved one hand loosely. “Fine. Whatever.”

Coach Dave was inspecting one of the watercolor paintings that hung on the wall near the big table. It was a scene from a farm, a wagon full of hay sitting by a rustic barn, the sunset coloring the sky in glowing orange and red. “This is nice.” He looked at Jamie. “Looks like an original.”