8

Mr Peaceman was tall and skinny and just as, maybe even more, welcoming than Mrs Peaceman.

“Bev love, please call me Bev,” she said again. Mr Peaceman, effortlessly, as if made of rubber, reached over the two girls between us, extending his hand in a greeting.

“Regan, call me Hoff.” He sat and said, “So cool that Will has crossed the gender divide.”

“Daaaaaaaad,” Will groaned. “You promised not to be weird.”

Will’s parents enjoyed this in that weird way that parents do when they think they are being funny, when they are, in fact, causing years of trauma that a therapist like Dr. Klein will need to unpack. I wondered if Dr Klein had a therapist.

“Lu,” declared Mrs Peaceman, reaching for an extra placemat. A small brown boy stood in the kitchen doorway, lighting the room up with his smile.

“Lu!” Making space beside her, Amber greeted the boy enthusiastically. He looked vaguely familiar, from school, perhaps?

“How do you get past the front door?” Mrs Peaceman winked playfully.

"How do you get past the front door?" Will asked thoughtfully.

I caught a whiff of something awful and faintly familiar, like rotting eggs and burning matches. Will turned his nose up as he sniffed at the fork full of Brussels sprouts. Lifting his nose a little further afield, he sniffed again and grimaced. It definitely was not the Brussels sprouts. He shrugged and shovelled them in.

Lu’s eyes widened as his gaze settled on something behind me. I had my back to the window, so I turned casually. There, on the lawn, a full-blown battle was taking place between the Dragon and a winged creature with an owl for a head. I dropped my fork in fright. Mr Peaceman frowned.

“Did you hear something too, Regan?” He got up and headed down the passage.

Lu was mesmerised by the scene behind me, and now Amber was too. The Kleepoth clawed at my firewall, but it seemed to be keeping them at bay. They were fizzing and popping and did not seem to present a real danger, but the flapping of wings cast a shadow over the window. The Dragon was here.

Damn! I didn’t think to cast the firewall over the house. The Dragon had access from above. Everyone paused, wondering if they’d imagined the sudden darkening across the window. A young girl with intricate woven braids and a bow and quiver of arrows strapped across her back appeared behind Amber. The girl, young in age but ancient in spirit, even I could tell, tipped her chin to me and smiled.

“Regan, you look like you’ve seen a spook,” whispered Sinead from next to me. My code raced. I zipped my hoodie all the way up to my chin and pulled my sleeves down. With a tone as even as a two-times table, Amber said, "There's no such thing as spooks.” The girl with the bow placed a reassuring hand on Amber's shoulder. “They are ‘displaced spirits’,” she added. Mrs Peaceman rolled her eyes. This was obviously something Mr Peaceman had said.

Will focused on his greens as if they were a game of Rocket League with his highest score yet. The three girls and Lu tittered and chirped like a nest of baby birds. The doorbell rang, and Mrs Peaceman got up to answer it.

“Hey, Artemis." Said Amber, acknowledging what was clear to me: Amber's protector was none other than the Greek Goddess of the hunt, the moon, and wild things, the patron and protector of young girls. It made total sense. Will stopped sprout shovelling for a second and blushed as Artemis blew him a cheeky kiss. He looked from me to Artemis, making sure his eyes were not deceiving him.

“Wait a minute.” He said, putting his fork down.“ How are you always getting into our backyard when you don't come in through the front door, Lu?" Amber and the boy exchanged glances. The penny dropped in my brain. This kid was cruising around the same way Blue and Seth were, using some or other quantum highway.

“And there I thought I was special,” I said.

“Oh, you are,” said Lu. “You are.” Who is this kid, I wondered.

“Young Lu has been training in Pathway travel since he was a baby,” began Blue, who popped in to join us for dinner.

“He’s a gifted see-er,” added Amber proudly. Will’s eyes went wide with accusation.

“You know about all this?’ He demanded from Amber as he waved his finger between me, Lu, Artemis and Blue.

“Technically, you knew first,” said Amber. “You just forgot.” Will’s pink was rising.

“Will,” began Blue. “Your Innocence, while in fairly good shape, has begun to make you prone to the loss of memory that adults suffer from.” Blue shuddered. “A terrible affliction that renders them susceptible to this Virus in the first place.” He said the next thing with such tenderness. “It’s called losing your Wonder.”

Will’s thoughts raced, so I leaned back and strengthened my firewall.

“Will,” prodded Sinead. “You seem angry. You only get that red, like a lobster, when you're angry. Are you angry, Will?”

“Well, I didn't do it!” squealed Shireen. “Cos I was learning about putting poop on veggies!”

“Don't be disgusting, Shireen,” reprimanded Amber. “Remember your imaginary friend.” Asked Amber. “That went everywhere with you until you were seven?” She laughed. “Mom and Dad tell hilarious stories about it all the time!” Sinead and Shireen tittered in agreement. Will shook his head as if trying to clear some brain fog.

“Where are you going with this, Amber?

“Will,” she said gently. “They aren't imaginary.” She gestured towards Artemis. A purple and blue sphere of light appeared behind Shireen. The light pulsed and glowed, forming a shield around the little girl. She knew her protector was there. I picked up two directives: love and protection. I wondered about my own imaginary friend. Where was mine? This was a lot of new information, even for me, so my code went a little crazy. Will's eyes widened at the silver glow of my embossed skin.

“Dude,” he said. “You can't do that inside the house.”

“Regan, still your mind and focus on your breath,” said Blue. “Focus only on your breath. You too, Young Will,” Blue added. I closed my eyes, but I was buzzing. I had so many questions about so many things. “Notice the tip of your nose…” He gave us a few seconds to do as instructed. “Notice the temperature of the air as it moves in, slightly cooler, and moves out, slightly warmer.”

I brought my attention to these physical sensations, and probably for the second time (the first when I hid in the toilet with Will) in my life, I noticed my breath.

It helped. I felt it slip across my top lip and glide into my nostrils. I felt the calming sensation almost immediately as I exhaled. In my mind, right between my eyebrows, I saw a light with a golden glow at its centre. The white/gold sensation slid simultaneously down my spine and further up towards the crown of my head as if I had just activated the lightsaber I had for a spine. It was calming yet energising at the same time.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Now,” said Blue. “Bring your awareness to your code and gently draw it beneath the surface of your skin.” The glow on my body began to dim. I remembered controlling the wind. While Will was having a hard time, I was not. I opened my eyes, and the only thing beaming was my smile. Blue was gone.

Grinning through a mouth full of potatoes, Amber said, “See William? A little Wonder goes a long way.”

I heard the otherworldly morse code, the energy I felt earlier when I made the wind move, the rhythmic tapping swelling in the sudden soundtrack to my life. It hummed through me, from the soles of my feet, rode up through my being, and reverberated from the top of my head. I followed the feeling of the energy and felt it disperse into the quantum field.

I brought my awareness back to the room. I saw Amber and Artemis’ thoughts. Their thoughts intertwined, making a pattern. Their coding was identical in some ways, but I was missing a vital bit; the signature of the coder. Who was coding them, all of us, all of it, into being? I concentrated and thought I saw a gossamer-like golden shimmer, but I lost it.

“Lu, can you see spooks?” Shireen burst into my mental laboratory.

“You two,” said Amber pointing at Sinead and Shireen. “Can you keep a secret?” The little girls shared a glance.

“Mommy says never to keep secrets.” Said Shireen. She glanced back at the light and smiled, leaning into its safety.

“In my experience,” I said, “adults always think they know better and half the time don't believe anything we say. So tell them the truth. I wouldn't worry too much about it right now. Especially since you seem to be in less danger than those already exposed.”

“Exposed?” Asked Sinead.

“Doesn’t that mean naked?” asked Shireen with a giggle.

“TMI, Regan,” said Will. “TMI.” He shovelled in a brussel sprout angrily as he observed the golden glow taking shape behind Sinead.

The golden glow spread around her but faded into a dark and vivid blue. The light pulsed in response, and it appeared to draw her into a cuddle. This one had three directives: love, protect, and amuse. Sinead giggled. There was a language between them that was private. Someone else knew how to use a firewall. Sinead grinned at me.

I looked closer. There was something different about Lu. I couldn’t tell without intruding and actually reading his thoughts. But unlike everyone else, his had a much more ordered pattern, a rhythm. There it was, the tap tap tapping. And a hum? Lu exuded the tapping and the humming. It was coming from him! He was perfectly in tune with it. His thoughts lapped about him like gentle waves on a beach. He was in perfect syncopation with the tapping and the hum. He was a walking mystical one-man-band and knew how to play it.

“But are there dead people that haunt alive people,” asked Sinead. I glanced around the table. Where were the adults?

***

In the garden, the Bird-man and Dragon danced around each other like wrestlers in a ring. The Bird-man stood two or three meters taller than the house. His muscular body was burnished silver, and he wore a wide ornate silver belt. He looked like he belonged on the set of WWE.

Turquoise feathers gathered and shimmered down his legs. The feathers were razor-sharp armour, which I would hazard a guess to be impervious to a bullet, bomb, or sword, which was helpful because I had no doubt the Dragon was deadly.

As the Bird-man faced me, his indigo eyes darted from side to side, calculating his surroundings, weighing up his options. He spotted me in the doorway and waved as if he were a child on a Ferris wheel, beyond excited to see me down below. Despite having a beak, he smiled broadly, revealing a shimmering set of spikey mother-of-pearl teeth. I had fought many a dragon and recognized the tell-tale inhalation that broadened the throat as it prepared to blast.

“Look out!” I shouted, but the Bird-man spun away from me before the words left my mouth. He flexed his wings and spread them like a shield. Fire blasted the turquoise and silver, causing sparks to blaze that shot into the night sky in a spectacular fountain of fire.

Someone was coming! I felt this rather than hearing it. I breathed my code under my skin before I spun around to see Mr Peaceman flick the light on. “Regan, are you alright?”

He strode through the French doors onto the porch. “Oh, dear.” He bent down to retrieve a shattered plant pot as the spiked tail hurtled towards him. The elusive golden gossamer thread twinkled into my vision. The tapping tapped. The humming hummed. I thought about the breeze and the whirlwind.

In the same way, we yank the gamepad to the left to encourage our avatars to jump, shoot or run. I lifted my hands and shoved them with the intention of sending the dragon’s tail away from Mr Peaceman. I generated much more force than I thought I would, and the Dragon thundered through the air, flailing as it tried to regain its balance.

My code buzzed. I buzzed. The ground hummed. The Bird-man grinned, and so did I.

Mr Peaceman was oblivious. He stood back up with the remains of the clay pot in his hands.

“This must have been what I heard. I’ve looked everywhere.” He ducked down again to pick up the plant and missed several dozen razor feathers shooting past his head.

“It’s the neighbour’s cat, I think.” He said as they thwacked into the wall behind his head. THWACK! THWACK! THWACK! He frowned and looked over his shoulder. Mr. Peaceman paused.

The other feathers zinged through the air and hit their target, ZIP! ZIP! ZIP! The dragon shrieked and spluttered sparks.

“Did you hear that?” He listened. He leaned towards the battle. He shrugged and said, “I’ll sort this out. Go finish your dinner.” He smiled, oblivious to it all.

***

I sat back down at the kitchen table. The dragon was gone, and the Bird-man waved at me through the window. The voices from the passage got closer, and there was tinkling laughter. I was relieved to see Fikile behind Mrs Peaceman.

“It's for you Regan,” Mrs Peaceman smiled as she arrived at the table, blissfully unaware of the extra not-so-imaginary dinner guests.

Fikile nodded a shy hello to everyone. The girls squeaked and squealed their hello’s.

“Fikile tells me you are off to the coast early tomorrow.'' Mrs Peaceman started stacking dishes. “I guess you can work on your project online.”

I moved closer to Fikile.

“Um, unfortunately, my Gran is off-grid so...” I shrugged, grateful to let go of our lie.

“Living the dream,” said Mrs Peaceman wistfully.

Fikile frowned. “But you take the dongle, you always take the dongle.” She questioned.

“It’s part of the project!” Will jumped in.

Fikile’s frown deepened, and Mrs Peaceman raised an eyebrow.

“It’s part of the project.” He repeated. “Um, we are doing it the old-fashioned way. The research.”

“Yes!” I said, catching on. “We have to use books!”

“And only face-to-face hours will count!” He added. We nodded vigorously.

Mrs Peaceman shook her head. “I’m not sure how you'll get anything done if you can’t be online.” She paused, pulled a face, and said, “Mind you, I’m all for research with actual books and giving your brains and bodies breathing space from the internet.”

Fikile suddenly brightened. “William, why don’t you join us? It’s Regan’s birthday too!”

Will and I went from nodding vigorously to shaking our heads with no words to explain why. Mrs Peaceman put the stack of plates down and looked directly at Fikile, and said, “Are you sure? That is very kind.”

“I can send you all the details, so you know where we are going and that he will be safe,” added Fikile, ever diligent and trustworthy.

Mrs Peaceman turned to Will. “Will? Would you like that? I think I can get your dad behind it.”

“What am I getting behind now?” Said Mr Peaceman, emerging from the passage and wiping his hands. Mrs Peaceman repeated, “Will’s been invited to go on holiday with Regan.” She paused and looked at us pointedly. “They have a school project and whatnot.”

My eyes darted towards Will. Not surprisingly, his pink levels began to spike.

“Will?” asked Mr. Peaceman. It was so quiet I could hear Mojo, the dog, slobbering at something under the table. The whole room had their eyes fixed on him. Even the glowing orbs of light, invisible to the adults, seemed to move their attention towards him. Artemis and Amber enjoyed his discomfort tremendously.

“I mean, sure, that would be... great. If it’s okay with you, Regan?” The whole room shifted to look at me, and suddenly I wished the Poth had gotten me.

“Only if you want to come, Will.” Everyone waited. “Do you? Want to come?”

“Like an old married couple, hey Fikile?” Mrs Peaceman chuckled, and Fikile nodded in agreement. “Are you sure it would be okay with Mrs Grace?” Mrs Peaceman asked again. “Shall I give her a call?”

“That won’t be necessary,” I said. “My mother trusts Fikile implicitly. She has full parenting rights.” I knew why Fikile had done this. It was Dr Klein and her stupid socializing and not having other kids at my birthday rubbish. “The invitation is legitimate.” I said.

Will, folded like a lawn chair. “Great, sure, yes. I’d love to come. Great, sure, yes.” He finished weakly. We both smiled with slightly too much enthusiasm, and I think I was, for once, just as red as Will when he said, “Great, sure, yes,” for the last time.