The New Magic - The Revelation of Jonah McAllister - Landon Wark (bill gates best books TXT) 📗

At the mention of the price the man seemed to come to life. His head pricked up and he swung towards Henderson with a speed that nearly caused him to jump.

“Do you take cash?”

He did not.

The wheels of the real estate world turned far too slow for the liking of Jonah McAllister. There were forms to be signed, escrows to close and a million other little details that he failed to understand. Buying something meant buying something and he wanted it as soon as was humanly possible. His new protégé warned him to be patient and, as it was her name on all of the applications and forms, he was forced to stay on her couch for another two weeks.

The time was passed by making money. By the time they were ready to move they had four months worth of mortgage payments in Sandy's bank account.

Most of the work was done by Sandy. She had suggested that they ferret out some dollar coins, but had yielded to Jonah pointing out that because they were uncommon in these parts they would attract attention at any bank where they deposited them. She made up for the difference by working quickly with the quarters, adapting her voice faster than Jonah had when he was first feeling his way through.

For his part, Jonah did what little he could to flush out new words, but with the quiet and care needed in Sandy's apartment he didn’t get very far and after the first week had passed he reverted to helping make the money.

By the end of the second week she had entirely replaced what they had spent on the house and he was beginning to wonder if the economy was being affected by their activities. He reasoned that with the recession in full swing anything they did would be swallowed up in the mix and forgotten. A little unexplained inflation in a rural region would not even show up on the radar.

They hired a contractor to finish the siding and the shingling on the house while they moved in. The siding had come the wrong colour, but the mistake was accepted and so was the discount. The house was an ear splitting teal by the time they moved in their meager possessions.

Sandy took to the idea of an infinite amount of money as quickly as she had to making it. Jonah began yelling at delivery men arriving at the house, forcing them to leave until one of them produced an invoice with her signature. He grit his teeth and waited out the parade of furniture and fixtures in the small cabin in the backyard. Though, when he did come back he had to admit, if only to himself, that the house did look better.

All of this splurging attracted the attention of a few people, both in town and out. Rumours began circulating about celebrities that had moved in just beyond the city limit, and about the time people got it in their heads to investigate the property a large fence had sprung up around the edge of the forest. After that deliveries to the house promptly stopped and nothing more was heard from within the fence.

With the end of the extravagant activities the rumours died down a little, but the silence increased curiosity and they never really disappeared.

The first night they stayed in the house there was a sense of foreboding. For the most part Jonah stayed in the small cabin in the back and left Sandy to make the money and determine how it would be spent.

She sat in front of the small pile of coins she had created and sighed. What once had been great joy had turned into a chore. Even if it was as easy as speaking the words, making money was less fun than it was spending it, and even less fun than learning to do new things would be.

The idea of being the woman on the cover of the fantasy novel seemed as far off as it ever had in the days before she had met Jonah McAllister. Those women stood up for something, helped the weak, afflicted the comfortable and all that.

A pang of disgustful resentment surged through her, but she stayed put, told herself to be patient and he would give her new things when he thought she was ready. Or when the words were. The words slid across her tongue as the coins multiplied before her.

It was late at night when she decided to go to bed. Being alone had never bothered her very much. She had been alone for most of her life. But the silence of the country and the largeness of the house troubled her. She flicked each light switch she came to, doubling back to turn off the last one at each instance.

Jonah’s black form standing before one of the downstairs windows nearly caused her heart to shatter in her chest.

He took no notice of her condition, merely remained musing.

"It's kind of quiet out here," he said solemnly.

"Well, it's just the two of us," she replied.

"Are you looking to remedy that?"

"I... well, you're out back. There's people who maybe need what we have."

"I'm not sure we can help people with just some quarters," he muttered.

"Well, more people, more quarters. It all adds up after a while. And you're coming up with new things all the time. Maybe someday we... well, we can save the whole world."

Jonah tapped his foot. The memory of that girl on the hotel roof in the bitter cold came back to him. If he could do something good enough then... And, if he were being honest with himself he would need more people, test subjects as it were. Nothing so grotesque as experimental subjects, but people to... feel things