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

You're in for it now, Bucko," he said with what Jenny would have called the swagger of a ranch hand. "The black mass is about to start. That's the demon lord himself knocking on the door."

Jenny reached out a hand to wave him off. There was nothing to be gained by agitating Bill any further. But the damage was already done with her husband's feet scraping against the gravel and, with a single look back at her, carrying him back down the road in a pathetic display. His pace slackened and the staggering stutter-step returned as soon as he was far enough away from the house.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Jenny turned on Ezra.

"It got him out of here," the older man replied.

He turned away and made his way for the corner of the house that led into the backyard where the pop had come from, stopping on his way to pick up the pages he had left under the tree.

"I thought that's what you wanted."

"I..." The explanation of what she did want died in her throat. Bill needed someone around, someone to help hold the weight of guilt, but she needed the same help and they were both so worn out that they were of no help to each other anymore. It might be better that he left, but having him out there, raising a stink with the town might prove dangerous to the house. Fortunately, from what she could tell, he had come up here alone... This time.

"You're gonna have to do something about that sooner or later," Clay echoed her concerns as the sound of a car starting up echoed against the trees of the road.

After the two of them stared at the gravel for several seconds, Clay started walking away from the lawn mower and towards where Ezra had disappeared.

"All right, don't you want to see if the world's coming to an end?"

A Quick Game of Cards

Paul Kwon was just surrendering a game of solitaire at the kitchen island table when the large shape of Ezra Mansfield appeared around the corner. His thick hand grasped the chair across from Paul and pulled it out. Despite the relatively lukewarm atmosphere provided by the air conditioning in the house he wiped away long ribbons of sweat from his face and plunked himself down. The chair and floor squeaked in slight protest. He placed a small plastic bag on the table with a clunk.

"Don't see too many kids your age playing solitaire," he said. "It's one of those things that must be becoming a lost art."

Paul gathered up the cards, his nimble fingers scooping them into a reasonable pile.

"My grandfather used to say, if you're ever lost you could sit down at a tree stump with a deck of cards and within five minutes some would show up and tell you to put your five on your six," Paul said. "I like that. And I find the modern world disorienting sometimes. Besides, no cell signal out here to play anything else by yourself."

"Are you always preaching something?" Ezra cocked an eyebrow.

"Umm. I like sharing the little nuggets of wisdom that people come up with," he replied. "Sorry if it sounds like preaching."

"Don't worry about it. I guess I'm just the old cynic around here."

Ezra reached into the plastic bag and pulled out a long cribbage board.

"Can you handle an opponent?"

Paul finished shuffling the cards, placed the deck between them and cut up a seven. Ezra cut a five and dealt slowly with his thick fingers.

"The rest of us had a talk yesterday, up at the carnival grounds," Paul said after the first hand was counted. "Clay and Jenny think that the secrets the kid is keeping are not... healthy."

Ezra frowned. "How do you know he's keeping secrets?"

"You saw the lightning. And that's just what he's willing to bring out of that cabin."

"Huhn. What do they want to do?"

"Jenny wants to help people. Clay wants to bring in more people."

"We definitely should not be doing that," Ezra pitched two cards into the crib. "The, um, economic shock would cause riots."

"And giving that kind of power to people would be disastrous," Paul inserted. "At least, with some people."

"Agreed." Ezra moved his peg ahead two holes. "What about you? What do you think?"

Paul managed a three count while thinking of a response. "In the bible, God chooses worthy people to receive miracles. I'm not sure seeing everyday miracles is necessarily a good thing for everyone."

"You think we are worthy?"

Paul mused. "Well... It's kind of a circular argument, isn't it? We have miracles, therefore we must be worthy, but I have to admit that when I think of righteous people a twenty year old atheist hermit is not one of them."

Ezra counted his hand and moved his peg twenty holes. "Maybe that's why you're here," he said.

Paul frowned, moving his own peg a paltry six holes.

"All flocks need a shepherd. Even sheep that have learned to bend the laws of nature."

Running his fingers over his fading hair Paul scooped up the cards and began shuffling.

"'For you should wage war with sound guidance—victory comes with many counsellors'," Ezra said.

"Proverbs," Paul replied. "You think we're waging war?"

"I think that with new power comes conflict. Especially with the amount of power that we saw yesterday afternoon. We're all going to have to rely on our own morality. And some of us could use some... girding of our morality."

Paul spread the cards of his hand, selecting two from its ranks and tossing them on the table. He had shared living quarters with more than a few others during seminary, but he had never really felt much of a kinship with them. Those people had their own paths already laid out. But this place was a