Chapter 46: The Presidential Preparations
Days later and Wil had no idea how to leverage his position in the middle of the basin to utilize all the leylines around him. It was hard, theoretical work and the only one he could’ve asked about it died decades ago, alone and insane. After wracking his brain to try to understand how it all worked, Wil felt his own sanity slipping. The solution, of course, was work orders.
It was as impossible to be done with work orders as it was to comprehend whatever the hell Marlowe had been smoking when he designed his manor, but at least he could make headway with the former. Wil put away his battered copy of Mysteries of Marlowe Manor and put on his work overalls. Harper Valley needed him.
First it needed him to sort out a property border dispute, which was easily done with some wards and free beer for both of the feuding neighbors. Easy. Then it turned out that parts of the road through town had bad potholes, and their increased carriage and car traffic faced difficulties with damaged wheels and shocks. No problem, moving earth was what Wil did, and the potholes were not only filled in, but the roads reinforced and leveled out more evenly to make transportation smoother. Then finally, he helped change the water level of the river to avoid the flooding of lowland farms. All in a day’s work!
By the time he breaked for lunch and returned to the book, Wil was that comfortable level of weary that meant he could take a break without feeling guilty. Of course, that’s when he got the most important work order of the day.
“Sweetie?” Sharon had knocked on the door but walked in anyways, as parents did. She walked into his office and sat down at his desk with him. “Could I trouble you for a favor?”
“Of course, Mom.” Wil put his book down again. If he had to choose between being annoyed at having his work disrupted or grateful that he didn’t have to brave the book again, he’d choose grateful. “What can I do for you?”
“It’s not for me, it’s for the mayor’s office. We’ve got time to get it done, but I figured you could help us do it for cheaper, much easier. Any money we can save means our taxes go further, right?” She laughed.
“Yeah, no problem.” Wil smiled. “So what do you need me to do?”
“Grow a lot of flowers.”
Wil waited for the other shoe to drop. When Sharon said nothing else, he said, “That’s it? Just grow some flowers?”
“A lot of flowers,” said Sharon, seriously. “We’re arranging for the welcoming ceremony for the President and others, and there was a dispute over who was going to provide floral arrangements and decorations. Your father has been so busy juggling other things that he dropped this ball and it’s up to me to get it in the air again. Which means it’s up to you!”
Wil laughed. “Yeah, that’s understandable. I got to visit the Ambrose Estate’s gardens, and those will be hard to top. In fact, I suggest not even trying. Do you have a plan for what you want for the arrangement, or can I come up with something?”
Sharon pulled out a rolled up picture from her purse. When she unrolled it on Wil’s desk, he saw the picture had been drawn by Sarah. It showed two scenes in miniature: the train station and the fairgrounds, both covered in flowers and with banners and the like. Wil looked over it, nodding as he went.
“You don’t need me to do any actual decorating, right? Just, what, grow flowers to maturation and maybe keep them in a sort of stasis so they don’t die over the next week and a half?”
“Yes!” Sharon tapped her finger on the picture. “We have a list of the flowers we need, but some of them are out of season. It’s what caused the dispute between the two florists who were bidding on the job. They could’ve filled our request, but they were asking for a lot of money for it.”
“As opposed to me, who is salaried and will do anything you guys ask of me,” Wil said wryly.
“Exactly! Besides, I know how much you love working with the earth.” Sharon smiled. “Are you going to try to tell me you don’t want to do this?”
“No ma’am,” he said. “Gather everything you need and I’ll meet you at the train station tomorrow and we’ll get started. Is there anything else I can help you or the mayor with, Mrs. McKenzie?”
His mother laughed and stood up. “Yeah. Is Bram’s party still next weekend?”
In the middle of all of their hard work and planning, Bram had it in his head to dedicate his remaining time to not only perfecting the Time Stretcher, but also to re-do his brewery and house to take advantage of the leyline. His home, they had decided, would be proof of concept for the house of tomorrow. And naturally, that meant throwing a big party to show it all off.
“Should be,” said Wil. “We’re really looking forward to displaying all of our work and getting an initial impression before the group from Cloverton shows up. The place is currently a mess, though.”
Sharon laughed. “Can’t be worse than when we all put it together. Glad to hear things are going so well for you two. Is there anything your father and I could be doing to help you in the final stretch?”
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Wil gestured to the picture on his table. “You’re already doing it. The better an impression the entire town makes on Bullworth and his advisors, the better it looks for me and my decisions leading up to this point. I should be fine by now, but…better safe than sorry, right?”
The talk with his mom ended up being the highlight of the day. He finished four more work orders after lunch before coming home to Darlene and spending time with her. Before bed, he read more of Mysteries of Marlowe Manor and wished he had a chance to go back to the property and examine the leylines there. There had to have been something there he could learn from.
Work orders continued the next day, and he managed to knock another three down before he showed up at the train station to find his mother already there with several bulging burlap bags of seed. Wil had the picture his sister drew on him, and hugged his mom in greeting.
“There’s a problem,” said Wil when he felt the area. “There’s no leyline to tie this to, so I might need to make stops here every few days to make sure the growth is even and not, you know, explosive or dead. The fairgrounds have one, though.”
“Is that too demanding?” Sharon asked, unsure of herself. “If we need to do this closer to the time, then we can postpone it another week.”
Wil looked around the train station. Other than being cleaner than the train station in Manifee City, it was ordinary and badly in need of some decorations and life. Plants would do a lot for the place, and his brain itched with possibilities.
“I can work with this,” he said. “We can use a faricite battery and a basic spellbox to care for the plants and keep them in a sort of stasis for the next week and change, once I get them grown to the proper age.”
Sharon clapped her hands together. Thanks Wil. I appreciate you so much!”
The work could hardly be called that. Wil was glad he didn’t get paid by the job. It would’ve felt wrong to charge for making plants grow and prettying up a place. By the time he’d finished growing all the flowers and vines around the train station’s main building, he wondered why he didn’t fill out parts of his week doing it with all the public buildings in town. Between him and Sarah, they could make Harper Valley so much more aesthetically pleasing.
He stood outside the train station, admiring his work. His mother, or the two feuding florists, or whoever, had designed it based around Harper Valley’s natural wildflowers and some of the most commonly grown crops, like bundled wheat and, to Wil’s amusement, some of Mr. Carrey’s beans.
Apparently the old man had complained to Bob at length about Wil’s antics, but his father knew how to deal with cranky old men. Wil promised himself he’d pay for the damages and to rebuild the house after the presentation and getting paid. Without those beanstalks, he might never have found the answer so easily.
“Why beans?” A nearby boy of eleven or twelve asked. He gawked at the display of ‘Welcome to Harper Valley!’ framed by two beans bigger than he was.
Wil saw his chance to have fun and grinned. “Well, once upon a time a greedy farmer abused the generosity of the fae and his farm got overrun by magic beans. Now they’re his main crop and part of town history. Where you from?”
“Kappala,” answered the kid. He looked Wil up and down. “Who’re you?”
Wil stroked his short beard and posed dramatically. “I am the master wizard of Harper Valley! Call me Wil.” He produced a glowing green fire, which he rolled back and forth between his hands.
The kid scoffed at him. “My uncle’s fires are like, three times bigger than that.”
“Oh, your uncle is a wizard?” Wil stood with his hands apart and produced a second flame, this one purple. A second later they both ballooned in size, becoming the size of carriage wheels each. “How about this?”
“Not bad, I guess,” said the boy. “What else can you do?”
“Oh, just not bad? Okay, okay.” Wil nodded melodramatically, then dismissed the fires. He twisted his arms together in a slow, ridiculous build up. Every detail of the kid’s appearance, from his black hair to the field of freckles on his cheeks, Wil recreated them into an illusory double. “What’s your name?”
“Jake,” said the kid. His jaw dropped and he hesitantly leaned in closer. His eyes remained wary.
The illusion waved enthusiastically. “Hi, my name is Jake!” it said in his voice. “I like eating boogers and my feet smell bad.”
“They do not!” Jake shouted, but he busted up with that uninhibited, surprised laughter that kids had.
“Yes they do,” the double said. Wil twisted his hands again and the illusion soon mimicked every motion he did, half a second later. “They stink because I love dancing!” And sure enough, he directed the illusion to dance like a lunatic while Wil hummed a goofy tune.
Jake clapped, which finally drew the attention of his parents. They came up behind the boy, his father an image of what he’d be in twenty years. He put his hands on Jake’s shoulders and said, “Who’s your new friend, Jake?” His voice had a wary edge to it.
“That’s my son,” said Sharon as she came up beside Wil. “He’s the town wizard, and I’m the mayor’s wife. Welcome to Harper Valley!”
“O-oh,” said Jake’s mother, visibly relaxing. “Well, nice to meet you two.” She and Jake’s father pulled the boy away. He frowned and looked over his shoulder at Wil as he was pulled away.
“Was it something I said?” Illusion-Jake said before disappearing.
“Naw.” Sharon wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “Parents are protective, and wizards can be scary.”
“He said his uncle is a wizard,” said Wil. He watched the family’s retreating form for a while. Something in his stomach twisted, a pang he didn’t understand.
Sharon noticed, and turned towards her son. “Got something on your mind, kiddo?”
Wil chuckled and lowered his face. The flush came on, right on schedule. “I…I think I might want kids.”
“Well, that’s good timing,” said Sharon with a wry smile.
He rolled his eyes and said, “You know what I mean. I’m not prepared, and I don’t think I ever will be, but I like kids. And I’m having weird feelings right now about it.”
Sharon squeezed his shoulder. “You might not be prepared, but you’re ready. Make sure to talk about it with Darlene. She needs to hear it. For now…are you done for the day?”
He nodded and looked over his work. “Bram and I will work on a way to keep the plants in stasis. But that’ll come later. I think I’m going to go home to Darlene and talk a bit.”
His mother reached up and patted his cheek. “You’ll be a good father, Wil. I know it.”