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

rampant, but she had seized on an idea that for her first go she would have to find people who were in need of a miracle, whose need went far beyond the material. They both had that bit of desperation in their eyes.

"I don't know," Jonah's voice was back. "Exploiting the death of someone's son?"

She had said nothing back.

"Well, I'll leave it to you," he had continued. "Your judgment with these things is likely better than mine."

"Uh, you found me," she had said.

"Yeah."

She had been unable to tell if he was kidding.

Sandy looked at the two Hernandezes and forced a smile. “Sorry about Jonah. He hasn’t had the opportunity to get much work done lately. Please, have a seat.”

They sat down in the encroaching silence and Bill tensed, feeling it worm its way in through the seams in the floorboards and the caulking around the window as if it had stalked them here and now was demanding them back.

"I, uh, thought there would be more people here," Bill stammered at a way to get the silence to leave.

"No, just you. I... well, I had sort of an idea of doing these things as a group, but I... ." Sandy bit her tongue.

He felt Jenny glance over at him and his hand gripped the arm of his chair with a slight nervousness. He laughed through his teeth, intent on driving the conversation with all the intensity of a jockey looking for the Triple Crown.

“These things?” the laugh continued into the question.

"Um," Sandy froze like a deer in a pair of skeptical headlights. “Yeah, um, dinner parties. We were going to have a series of them. Sort of get to know the neighbours.”

Jenny speared lethargically at the take out food on her plate. "We're not really your neighbours though."

Sandy swallowed. Her nerves prevented her from actually eating, which was probably a good thing. The last thing she needed was to choke on a half chewed piece of grilled potato from a restaurant called "Southern Comfort Food".

"I mean," she continued, "we kind of want to meet a few different people around town. I had a talk with your husband and you seemed like good people."

Okay Sandy, she thought, how are we going to bring this around to the sale?

She had practised in the mirror for the moment when it would become necessary to pivot to what she had begun to call ‘the pitch’. She had even tried to get Jonah's opinion on it, to little effect. But now the ridiculousness of the situation was laid bare before her, an uncomfortable, awkward thing when it was naked. She realized that no amount of practising was going to prepare either her or them for the sentence 'There's actual magic in the world and I want to teach it to you' shouldering its way into the conversation.

Maybe it would have been easier if she had brought in a larger group.

All right. What's the worst that could happen?

“The two of you have some pretty big credit card debts.”

“I—” Bill went instantly silent again as the sudden shift in tenor first shocked and then built into a slow outrage.

“I got your name from a call list. It’s only people they call if—”

“We’ve got medical bills,” Jenny jumped in almost automatically. “We had medical bills.”

“We want to pay them,” Sandy said bluntly and then waffled. "Or, help you to pay them would be more accurate."

The silence retreated in the midst of an all-consuming shock, the kind that almost always accompanied things that were too good to be true. Bill’s hand shook as he placed it on the table.

“Is this, like, some kind of hidden camera thing? You all trying to start up a streaming channel? That's what you're going to do? Bring people like us up here and pull this…”

It was a reasonable response and something Jonah had said was almost a certainty. Skepticism was a good thing. They had both agreed, if they weren't incredulous then they weren't the kind of people they were looking for. Show them something and if they're still skeptical show them how to do something. And then, if they don't want to hear any more, send them on their way. Jonah hadn't liked that last part, but she had managed to browbeat him into it.

“This isn’t a prank,” she kept her voice even. “And it’s not charity, I want to be clear on that. It’ll take a big sacrifice, from both of you.”

“Like what?” The challenge came from Bill with a snarl.

She sighed. All things considered it was going pretty well for a first try. “We’re looking for people who need something. Who need help. Who need... something to believe in. We want people who need...” Sandy inhaled, scrambling for the word to describe it. "Who need a miracle."

“So what, you’re like a cult?”

“No.”

Bill stood straight out of his chair and grabbed Jenny’s hand. “Come on, let’s go.”

She resisted slightly and then stood along with him, looking over her shoulder at Sandy as she was pulled toward the hallway.

“Wait,” the large woman put out a hand. “Don’t go just yet. I have something to show you.”

Bill stopped moving but kept his legs in a state of readiness. He was now eager to get out of this place. Maybe it was all a big misunderstanding, but he didn’t really care. He had heard of places like this, waiting and ready to prey on people like them. Personally he thought he was smart enough to evade anything like this, but as for Jenny, well, she was weak, suggestible. He placed his hand on the doorframe.

“I can show you from your car if you want. But, you shouldn’t leave until you see it.”

You never got him baptized.

Bill sat, shaking, in the driver’s seat of the car.