Real Magic (35 page)

Vincent finally found the strength to stand, and he slid up next to Duncan. "What are we going to do with that boy? And all these Doors?"

Something in Vincent's voice, perhaps the questions themselves, snapped Duncan from his self-pity. "First things first," he said. "What happened to you? Where have you been? I was worried about you."

"All these Doors," Vincent said, his usual state of mirth lost to an unsteady whisper.

"Are you okay?"

He pushed back his hair and plunked his hat back on his head. "Walter's men got me. Beat me up a bit and locked me away. In the evening, Walter came and pressed me to tell him where the Door was and how to use it. I didn't tell him anything or even let on whether I knew anything or not. But the funny thing is now I think I didn't have much to tell."

"Good thing Walter didn't know that or you'd be dead right now."

"Perhaps. But he did kill this boy's father. What do you think we should do?"

The strangest thought popped into Duncan's head yet the more he considered it, the more it made sense. "I could take over the job."

He meant far more than acting the role of parent to this boy — a difficult job in itself. He also meant taking over the farm and the house and the responsibility of the Doors. Because what other life did he have set out for himself? He had no real identity in this era, no credentials, no way to earn his keep other than playing cards and fooling people with magic tricks. He could have succeeded in that realm, of course, but that would be too easy, almost like cheating. And while he had never been above the idea of cheating men at cards, he also didn't believe in sullying his own backyard. It felt like all of 1934 was his backyard.

Because if he took over for Dominic Rose it would explain why he never heard family stories of some relative that had died young or simply disappeared. He could raise the boy as his own. "No, not could. I already did," he whispered. That boy was Frank Rose, his grandfather. A quiet man who never spoke of his past.

Now I know why.

Growing up, Duncan always heard that Pappy had raised his son on an old farm. All of this had already happened. Pappy knew all along. Duncan had spent some time worrying about the effects his actions would have on the future when all along, he had already done all of this. He'd been through this cycle before. All of those using the Doors had a first time through and then it was like this — a cycle. That's why the Timeline was safe.

For Duncan, taking over Frank's parenting meant taking Dominic's role in the family line, too. "Oh, crap. I'm Pappy. I'm my own great-grandfather."

1934 - 2013

Even though you have purchased this book

long after we wrote it, 
and even though there

is no way we could know which card you'd pick

or

what your secret number would be, 

we made this prediction:

The face down card is the furthest one to your left.

Not only is it the only face down card on the table,

but it is also your selected card.

 

 

 

 

Life was hard at first.
Duncan and Frank didn't get along. Though the boy understood that Duncan would stay, would take care of him, Duncan did little to encourage confidence. He knew nothing about running a farm, raising a boy, or maintaining a family.

They had to keep the farm to house all the Doors, and the chickens produced eggs but beyond that, Duncan had no interest or aptitude in an agricultural life. He recalled Pappy's stories of performing magic whenever possible to make some money and even more so, Pappy's tales of card-cheating. After all, that's where Duncan learned it all — from Pappy.

Nope. I learned it from myself.

So, when times got too rough, Pappy — for that's how Duncan decided he should be known from then on — headed into town for a poker game, or took the weekend in Philly and cheated his way to enough money for a few months. Lucy and Vincent moved to Lancaster and set up a magic shop of their own. Lucy struggled to keep it running, but she refused to give up.

Vincent didn't seem to care much about where they were. He had lost his vigor for life, and many of the nights that Lucy spent with Pappy, they discussed their fears for Vincent. Seeing that Door disappear, seeing real magic, shook the young man to his core.

One afternoon in late-autumn, Pappy called his son into the kitchen. The boy rarely spoke, but he was respectful enough. Pappy knew Frank couldn't wait to be old enough to head out on his own, and in fact, in six years, he would join the army and head off to Germany to fight the Nazis, but for now, they had to live together. Pappy thought it only fair to give the boy a say in their future.

"I got something to show you," Pappy said.

The boy listened politely enough, his narrow mouth never more than a flat slit on his face.

Pappy pulled out the small box in his pocket and opened it to reveal a diamond ring. Nothing fancy, but perfect for a straight-forward, honest gal. "I'd like to ask Lucy to marry me, and that would mean she would be part of our family. She'd be living here. I know we don't have a typical family, so I figured you might have some feelings about all this. Now's the time to speak up if you got any thoughts."

The boy offered only a stoic shrug that reminded Pappy of his grandfather. It was hard to remember that the boy was his grandfather, too, but whenever it struck Pappy, an uneasiness wriggled along his skin as if a ghost had crossed his shadow.

"Okay, then." Pappy closed the small box with a sharp snap. He placed it in one of the kitchen drawers. A car engine grumbled in the distance, and he pulled back the curtain on the kitchen door window. "I invited her over for the afternoon. She'll be here in just a moment. You go feed the chickens. Give us some time alone."

Another shrug and the boy left. Pappy paced the kitchen, futzing with the tablecloth as if such little touches mattered to him. He had placed a single rose in a glass on the table thinking it looked sweet and romantic. But as he listened to Lucy's footsteps approach, the rose now looked all wrong — sad and ridiculous.

She knocked on the door. As he rushed to answer, he snatched the rose out, made to throw it in the garbage, then tossed it back in the glass instead. He inhaled a deep breath and opened the door. One look at the tear stains on her cheeks stopped him from saying anything stupid.

"What happened?" he asked, escorting her to a chair.

"Oh, Duncan, what am I going to do?"

He was about to correct her — he wanted everybody calling him Pappy — but thought better of it this time. Instead, he said, "Did someone hurt you?"

She shook her head. "It's Vincent. He's gone."

"Somebody took Vincent?"

"No, he's just gone. He left."

"What? Why would he do that?"

"He hasn't been the same since the barn. He sits around our shop and scowls at everything. The few customers we get, he berates them. 'There's bigger stuff out there,' he would say. 'Card tricks are nothing.' I wanted to tell you before but he made me swear to keep it secret. I'm so sorry. It's terrible of me to have kept a secret after all I've said about such things but Vincent said you wouldn't understand, and he got so crazy when I broached the idea of telling you."

"Slow down. What exactly did he do?"

"Here." She pulled a wrinkled piece of paper from her purse. "Read it."

Pappy took the paper and leaned toward the sunlight coming through the window. He read:

 

My Dearest Lucy,

You know the struggles I've had of late. Everything I thought I understood about the world was turned on end by what we saw. Frankly, I don't see how you or Duncan can slip back into your lives but perhaps it's easier when you're in love. Before you start to argue, I know you love him. I can see it clear even if you can't. But I don't have a love. I don't have somebody to hold onto, to pat my head, to tell me the world can still make sense. That door was real in a way that it shouldn't have been. How do we come to terms with that? I'm not fool enough to believe a door like that was just a one-time thing. That would be crazier than the idea that magic is real. So, I've decided to find some answers. I've heard about a man who can deal middles from a deck of cards as smooth as I can deal seconds or from the bottom. Middles? Can you imagine? I have to find this man and figure out if he is amazingly skilled, or as I suspect, he is using some real magic to accomplish this feat. From there, I'll see where the trail leads me. I'm going to find out all I can about real magic, and someday I'll come back to you and show you all that I've learned. Maybe even show the whole world. Don't be sad. You've got Duncan. My love has always been magic but now it's real instead of tricks. I suppose we should both be happy for me. In all honesty, though, I'm a little worried. I'll miss you terribly.

 

Pappy rested the letter on the table. He stood behind Lucy and embraced her. "I'm sorry, dear. I know how much Vincent means to you."

"He's gone. He left me. He said we'd always be there for each other, but he left me. How could he do that? And now I'm all alone."

"Never." Pappy stepped around and knelt before her. "You've always got me in your life. I won't go anywhere. I promise."

Lucy sniffled and pressed a handkerchief upon her eyes. "That's sweet. I'd love to believe you, too."

"Then believe me."

"But you've been trying to leave here from the start."

"You know I can't."

"But if you could. What if Vincent finds a Door to help you? The one you need."

"You're not alone. And I know now that no door exists for me."

Squaring her shoulders, Lucy tried to smile. "I should have known this was going to happen. I did know. Vincent's been itching to go for a while. When we finished that day at the barn, I knew he would be leaving me, but ..."

"You convinced yourself it wouldn't happen."

"What else was I going to do? Vincent and I have stuck by each other for so long. I couldn't, I can't, believe he'd go." With a cleansing breath, she said, "This all just happened. That's why I'm a little late. I'm sorry. But I am here and you said you had something important to discuss."

"Oh. That. Um ... now isn't a good time for that. You're upset and you need to figure out what you're going to do."

"Nonsense. If Vincent wants to cavort around the globe without me, I can't spend all my days crying for him. He's gone. That's the way Life is. One day you have something; next day it's gone. Enjoy it while you can. Right?"

"I guess. But this thing I wanted to talk about — maybe it was a mistake to bring it up."

She looked to her lap sadder than before. "I see."

Frank walked in with a filled egg basket. Looking from Pappy to Lucy, he frowned. He set the basket on the kitchen counter and then slid open the kitchen drawer. He pulled out the ring box and rested it on the counter.

Pappy looked at him. "You're sure?"

The boy nodded.

Lucy looked from one to the other. "What's going on?"

Smiling, Pappy reached out and the boy handed him the box. Looking in the soft eyes of the only woman to ever capture him, he said, "Lucy, I have a question for you."

 

The years rolled by
quite strangely for Pappy. After marrying Lucy, he set about having a steady life, but that was never easy. Gambling and farming only went so far with more than one mouth to feed.

On numerous occasions, Pappy was tempted to invest in the stock market. He didn't know the day-to-day outcomes, he had never followed Wall Street much in his old life, but he did know the big companies that would succeed. He had the ultimate line on long-term, insider trading. But he didn't want to call attention to himself, and he didn't want to screw up the future by out-performing everybody else. Besides, he remembered his youth well enough and his Pappy never had a huge bundle of money. So, he invested a little here and there, enough to keep his family comfortable but never so much as to draw unwanted focus from the government.

He also started destroying the Doors. Dominic had done it — he and Lucy had seen the cut Door in Wilkinson's basement — and they had all seen it happen in the barn. Based on the differences between these two Doors, he thought that if he could cut a Door in half without it opening, straight through the frame, he would be okay. The bullet hole that pierced the activated Door had caused all the trouble. Or so he hoped. Cutting a Door, however, proved more difficult that he had expected.

When he took a saw to the Door, the teeth ground to a nub and only the slightest indent showed in the wood. He tried an ax, too, but it failed. He imagined Dominic must have worked steadily for years to break that one Door. He knew a bullet had the force required but small holes would never do the trick. Pappy knew the technology would exist years later to make the job possible. Until that time, he had to be content with housing the Doors in the barn, and collecting any others that might turn up.