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

a stop in the parking space that arguably was two sizes too small. Jonah mulled the matter over in his head for a few moments, coming to the conclusion that either Sandy had some sort of sentimental attachment to it, or she had never considered coming into town often enough to make the purchase of one worthwhile. He imagined her saying to herself that each time in would be the last and then sighing and climbing into the vehicle anyway.

He put the gear shift into park. And rolled his head back onto the seat. It had been a long time since he had driven and he had been terrified of being pulled over and submitted to some sort of identity check. So he had crept along the highway at a fraction of the speed limit.

He congratulated himself on being a decent friend and delegating preparations to the others, but he had an ulterior motive in returning to the hospital. The last time he had been there he had entered through a side door, narrowly but consciously avoiding some of the lacklustre surveillance equipment lining the hallways. This time, in addition to being a good friend, he meant to charge right at security and surveillance devices that hadn't been upgraded in a decade. His countermeasures would likely work regardless of the system’s quality, but better to have ideal conditions for a field test.

Giving the sharp tug necessary to pop open the driver's door he warily set a foot out into the parking lot, immediately certain that everyone was looking at him.

The incident back home at the dingy motel with the two dingy cops seemed like forever ago, and he had hidden himself well, but there were undoubtedly still alerts being issued. If they were going to move on to the next step he was going to need counter measures. He drummed his fingers on the car door and pulled himself into the cool breeze outside, already whispering.

The visible world shifted above Jonah as he began the short walk from the rusted car to the hospital door. Nearly two dimensional the plane should be more than enough to scatter the light from anything below it. Making them invisible to any camera overhead, but going unnoticed by the people around, unless anyone decided to look up. Then they would see a tinge to the air above.

Automatic doors slid open and he walked inside cautiously, staking out a chair on the periphery of the entrance. Not seeing Sandy waiting he wondered if maybe he should have asked for her at the desk. The camera above the transparent plastic window leered at him as he moved around the small lobby. He thought back to the first time he had brought Sandy here with her terminal case of orange thumb and chuckled a little. Despite the length of time only having been a couple of months it had seemed like a lifetime ago.

He doubted any of the staff recognized him as he sat down and slumped against the back of the chair. They seemed a little busy to take any sort of notice of the shimmer that existed just above him. A small child wandering around the play area with its wires and beads and assorted budget toy cars, stared over at him, clearly wondering at the shining air above him, but the couple that watched over her remained glued to their phones.

He was in the process of wondering if it would be necessary to recharge the field and how durable he would be able to make it when Sandy Jenkins appeared around the corner of the hallway.

Her spirits seemed high as he stood in greeting, noticing the lightning circles around her eyes and the deepening hue in her cheeks as a nurse awkwardly wheeled her large body into the entrance in a wheelchair.

"Hooray for liability laws," she said upon seeing Jonah's arched eyebrow.

The little girl in the play area was staring at them, her attention drawn away from the glimmering air to the wheelchair. Jonah's protege/science experiment smiled at her and then her face went slack as the child ran behind her father's leg. The skin around her eyebrows tightened slightly and the corner of her mouth turned down.

As her designated pusher abandoned her to pursue some paperwork with the clerk sitting behind some dingy germ shielding, Sandy's fingers curled tightly around the armrests of the wheelchair.

"Something wrong?" he asked, his attention still mostly focused on the translucence above him.

"I-is there something wrong with my face?"

"Can't you just look in the mirror?"

"It's not like there's one around here. Just... Everything went okay right? I'm not going to grow—like—whiskers, am I?"

"I..." Jonah swallowed, his sparse experience in reassuring women about their appearances severely lacking. He thought back to more than a dozen television shows half absorbed while reading in his parents' living room. "You look... nice." Was all he could manage.

"Ma'am," the clerk interrupted. "You still have some out of pocket expenses that need to be taken care of."

"I—yeah. Everything came back okay, right?"

"All of your tests look good," the nurse explained with the best assuaging voice that her long shift would allow. "Bad cholesterol is down. Good is up. You have to stick with the diets."

"Okay. Okay. Jonah?"

His brow furrowed. "I... I don't think that—"

"Could you be a little more certain? I'm kinda freaking out." Her right hand released the steering wheel and began clutching at his hand on the seat.

"I don't see how me saying..." he trailed off as a well of moisture became visible around the corner of her eye. "It's going to be fine," he said, unconcerned about the truth of what he was saying.

"Okay. Okay." She exhaled.

Jonah stepped a few paces down the hospital hallway, his shoes squeaking against the ancient, but recently polished linoleum. When he was out of grasping range he turned to