Matthew and Art looked at the basement door and the looked back at each other, then Art looked back at the basement door. They weren’t sure what just happened, but something set the kid off.
“I know you warned me that the kid had a short fuse, but I didn’t think it was that bad. What did we even do?” Art asked his older brother.
“I’m not certain.” Matthew quickly put the kid out of his mind. “Though that’s not important, the important thing is getting to Tyler and talking about what happened. I just hope the poor kid is alright.”
“You know,” Art continued as they made their way towards the front door to leave, “I didn’t think a regular kid could do what you described, but after seeing him I believe it. Kid looks like he was made to be a linebacker.”
Matthew nodded. “I know what you mean. He actually was recruited for the football team in his freshman year, but he quickly got kicked out for fighting during a game.” Matthew spoke as he turned the doorknob lock on the front door to the ‘locked’ position and closed it behind them. “I don’t really know his full situation, but Sidney doesn’t get along well with anyone.”
Art thought on that for a while as they got back into the car. Art stowed his cane under the side of the seat and buckled his seatbelt. It made sense to Art, though. If he didn’t have his older brother and his parents weren’t around to keep him in check, he probably would have gotten into loads of trouble. Well, a lot more trouble than he got into anyway, although he was sure he wouldn’t get angry so quickly. Art wondered again what they did to make him angry like that, but quickly put it out of his mind and thought up a new question to tease his brother with.
“Is this really what your life has been like up here? Interviewing children about magical mishaps, Detective Johnson?” Art asked with a cheeky side grin, looking at his brother only through the corner of his eyes. They were pulling onto the main thoroughfare towards the other end of town.
“Hah! Not at all” came his brother’s response with a jovial laugh. “It was a fairly normal life: Wake up, make breakfast, get to work, teach some kids more about how to behave than about history, take a lunch, teach some kids some more, make sure the world-destroying artifact stayed safe on its shelf, which took only a glance, walk home, make dinner and sleep. Sometimes I’d take the weekend to go hiking. Honestly, it was boring until I decided to quit, now I’m wondering if the principal will take me back. I miss my boring life.”
“Your boring life of pining after the gayest girl in the whole state.” Art teased some more. They had talked a lot on the long drive back from Florida; about how things had been going for Matthew since they talked last, about how he found out the girl he’d been talking about for the better part of a decade had come out as gay to him and how he was trying to make peace with that, and about magic, of course. By the look of the blush his older brother gave him back, he knew he had hit a good spot to prod some more, but he decided to save it for later. When you got to this age, you knew how to hide all kinds of feelings, and he didn’t want to spoil his fun just yet by getting his brother’s guard up. “That girl, she lives close to you, right?”
Matthew nodded, “Next door.”
Art just whistled at that. He couldn’t wait to meet the only girl that kept his brother’s interest all these years.
◊◊◊
Tyler snuggled up closer to her mother on the couch. They had turned on some cheesy romance movie they both had seen a hundred times. The movie somehow never managed to get old for either of them. The characters on the screen played out some convoluted plot that could be resolved in five minutes if they just talked to each other, and despite the obvious plot holes and the socially inept characters the movie never failed to make Tyler, or her mom, feel better. It became a kind of ritual to watch the movie whenever something major happened in their lives, and they needed a moment to just return to normal.
Tyler looked at the door to the upstairs and thought about Eris for a bit. She was tired so decided to go lay down and try sleeping since, “she hasn’t done that in centuries”. Tyler wondered for the hundredth time what that must be like for her. She couldn’t help her mind from running through a million scenarios of things that happened to her. She promised herself to sit Eris down and ask her to tell as many stories as she’d be okay with sharing, for no other reason than to satisfy the story gremlin in her head and her burning curiosity.
Between the major life changes, finding out about Eris, and a fight at school, Tyler just couldn’t focus on the movie so much and turned to her mom and asked, “Hey mom. Are you okay?”
Christine just gave a short laugh with a snort and took another sip of her wine before she replied. “Honestly kiddo? No. I’m not fine. I learned today that magic and goddesses exist and have lived among us for longer than recorded history, maybe longer than humans. But the biggest shock was finding out my child was a girl.” She quickly added, “not that it was a bad experience! Just the opposite. But it was still a shock. I might need a couple of days to digest everything.”
“So, you’re okay with me being like this?”
“You mean being who you are?” Her mom turned towards Tyler, shifting slightly on the couch, and gave her a long look and smiled. “Honestly, looking at you, it’s hard to think of you any other way. I know it’s only been a couple of days, but it’s like you’ve been this way your whole life and the idea you were anything different is strange to me, like I read it in a what-if novel.”
Tyler’s felt the blood rush to her cheeks. Darn hair-trigger blush response, she thought. All the fear from earlier ran off her shoulders and she just hugged her mom on the couch. “Thank you, mom. I love you.”
“I love you too, honey.”
At that moment, the doorbell rang. “I wonder who that could be.” Christine said as she stood up and walked to the front door.
Tyler continued trying to watch the movie but found she couldn’t focus on it anymore when she heard a familiar voice came from the front door. She couldn’t place it right off the bat, but she could never forget her old history teacher’s voice.
“Hello Ms. Underwood. Is Tyler home?”
“Oh! Mr. Johnson. Come in, what are you doing out so late? Weren’t you in Florida?” Tyler heard the kettle turn on again as she headed out to the kitchen.
“I was in Florida but came back when I heard what happened. Is he okay?” Mr. Johnson continued. Tyler winced at the pronoun. She recognized that feeling as familiar and realized that she felt it her entire life when someone used it for her. I guess I really have always been a girl. The thought made her feel a lot better and fed the butterflies in her stomach.
She decided she couldn’t keep her curiosity at bay and walked into the Kitchen. The front door was ajar, and right behind Mr. Johnson was a person she’d never seen before. “Mr. Johnson? What are you doing here?”.
“Ah. Hello miss. I don’t think we’ve met just yet. Are you a cousin of Tyler’s?”
Tyler shook her head, feeling braver than she ever remembered being. “No sir, I am Tyler. And I’m fine; I didn’t get hurt too bad.”
It was at this point, Tyler took full notice of the other guest they had. He looked like a slightly younger but way more disheveled Mr. Johnson. Tyler figured he was a brother or something, but what really pulled her attention was his eyes turning into saucers and a face that took on an unbelieving stare.
“Matt,” he spoke the name with a rising tone that Tyler thought sounded like anxiety, “I thought you said Tyler was a boy.”
“I thought so, too. I guess I was wrong.” Mr. Johnson said to his brother, “Hello, Tyler. It’s nice to finally meet you. I assume you’d prefer she/her pronouns? And do you have another name you’d prefer?”
Tyler couldn’t help but grin a true grin and nodded a bit too eagerly. “She/her is just perfect, sir. I think I’ll be sticking with Tyler, though. I love the name, and it’s one of the last few things I have from my dad.”
Mr. Johnson smiled and looked back at his brother, who still looked shocked. His smile didn’t leave his face, and Tyler thought he had a teasing tone to his voice as he said, “Oh, come on, Art. People like Tyler have existed for as long as there’ve been humans. I know we grew up in Florida, but please keep whatever comment you’re thinking back there to yourself, okay?”
Art just shook his head and replied, “No comment from me. I got nothing against anyone, so long as I can keep on with whatever. I’m just so surprised. You said the last time you saw hi… her that she was clearly a boy. This person in front of me doesn’t look anything like how I’d expect.”
“Art…” Matt facepalmed and joined it with an exasperated sigh, “that’s a comment.”
“Oh.” And for his part, Art looked thoroughly chastised. “My apologies, Tyler. I didn’t get out much later in life, so I’m a little… crude.”
“It’s okay sir. Are you Mr. Johnson’s brother?”
“That I am.” He replied.
At that moment, Tyler’s mom put four cups of tea on the table in front of everyone. “I hope chamomile is okay with everyone. It’s the only non-caffeinated tea I have left.”
“It’s perfectly fine, Ms. Underwood.” Came the reply from Mr. Johnson.
“I’m okay with that as well, thank you.” Art replied.
It was silent for a bit while everyone sat down at the kitchen table and sipped their tea. Tyler looked at her old history teacher and decided it was now a good time to ask a question. “Mr. Johnson? I’m glad you’re retired and all, but I heard you moved away. Why are you back here? It can’t be just because of me.”
Mr. Johnson looked a bit uncomfortable at the question, but he smiled as well. The look confused Tyler a bit. “Well, you’re right. There is another reason I came back. But I was also worried about you. How have you been feeling?”
Tyler decided her old teacher just had a personal reason and decided to drop the quest, “I’m just fine, Mr. Johnson. In fact, I’m completely healed already. It kind of sucks I’m not able to go to school until Thursday though…”
Mr. Johnson smiled warmly at her, but it also felt like he was looking at her a bit intensely. Like he was trying to figure something out. The look made her slightly uneasy. “Not to worry, Tyler. I’ll be talking to the school tomorrow about the incident. It’ll probably be too late to get you back in class any sooner, but I could also tell them about you needing your files changed around and to expect you to come in. I can print out the forms you need to sign if you have a printer. The school will probably kick up a fuss about changing names or gender markers without a court order, but I know for a fact that there’s a way to put in a preferred name and pronouns so at least the staff will know how to call you. The forms are basically there to help students who want to start using new names or pronouns and haven’t been able to get a court order yet. If you sign, I’ll deliver them tomorrow.”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Tyler and she smiled and tried to show her gratitude to her old teacher, “Thank you, sir. This is one of the nicest things anyone has done for me.”
“Thank you from me as well, Mr. Johnson. This means a lot to us.” Her mom spoke up.
“It’s alright, Ms. Underwood. When you’re a teacher for as long as I have been, you tend to see everything, and I’ve seen a lot of kids hurt because no one was in their corner.”
Then Mr. Johnson gave her an envelope. It was small and square, almost postcard sized. Tyler must have had her question on her face because he said, “That’s a small apology gift for coming over so late. It’s a gift card to a deli close to your house, walking distance, I believe. Their sandwiches are among my favorites.” The teacher smiled, probably reminiscing about the last time he ate there. She knew the ex-teacher had a penchant for hiking up mountains in his spare time, and was sure his idea of “walking distance” far outshone anyone else’s definition. She didn’t say that though and resolved to take the bus. “Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Really.”
It was then that Tyler’s mom spoke up, “Do you two have a place to stay tonight? We have a pull-out couch that’s not the most comfortable, but you’re welcome to it.”
Art spoke up, “And they say northerners can’t be just as hospitable as us.” He said with a grin.
Mr. Johnson laughed at the comment, “No one says that Art.”
“You haven’t been around the people I have, Matt.” Art prodded back.
Mr. Johnson must have decided to just leave that comment alone, though because he turned to her mom and said, “Thank you for the offer, Ms. Underwood, but we have a hotel already booked, and we wouldn’t want to put you out.”
“It’s no trouble at all, but If you have a hotel already paid for, then there’s not much I can offer.” She gave a friendly smile back and the two brothers left.
◊◊◊
The next day, Tyler found herself bored out of her mind. She’d already caught up on homework yesterday, and daytime television was just as bad as everyone complained about. In her brief attempt at filling the space with sound she watched all she could have, a mere twelve minutes of a soap opera where she thinks the aunt of the main character went back in time to warn herself about her cheating husband, but also, she’s a witch. She couldn’t quite keep the clashing genres and intermingling plot lines straight and decided to just leave the TV off. Her mom was out at work and the chores were all done, and Eris was holed up in her bedroom. Eris looked like she was meditating when Tyler looked in on her. She wasn’t upset at all that opening the door startled her out of her trance, and she said she was just trying to figure out “this new flow of magic I never felt before”. Apparently, it was a big deal, so she wouldn’t be able to bug her for some stories today.
So, Tyler was hanging upside-down on the couch, clicking her shoes together, trying to think of something to do when she remembered that gift card Mr. Johnson gave her last night. She decided she was feeling just hungry enough and was about to ask Eris if she wanted to come with but didn’t want to disturb her again. She figured she could just bring something back for the goddess and got on her new sweater her mom got her at the local thrift shop. She got a few new clothes yesterday when her mom came home from work. They didn’t fit quite right, but it was enough to get her through to the weekend. Her mom promised she’d take her to the thrift shop to pick out all new outfits for school this weekend after she got paid.
She walked out the front door and realized that this would be the first time she stepped out of the house as herself. A little blush colored her cheeks as she tightened her grip on the second-hand purse her mom brought home, took a breath, and stepped outside her house. The world didn’t look any different to Tyler’s eyes, at least, not in any way she could point to. She could swear that things were different in some way, though. Something was different about her little neighborhood, some je ne sais quoi made the sun brighter, the paint on their house bluer, and the dog barking in the Edgerton’s lawn sharper. She stood there on her stoop and admired the afternoon, relaxing in the still warm August sun.
The day was warm and chilly in the way that only late Summer in the mountains could be. A sleepy kind of cold that made you want to drink tea and read books, and signaled the approaching Fall.
She was lost in thought on the bus ride downtown; imagining a new story about a novelist whose fantasy stories she wrote tended to cause changes around her. Starting with the coffee shop she completed her first novel in, which turned into the maid café from the book, complete with real life cat girl hostesses. She was just about to get to the part where, halfway through her second novel, the house she lived in grew legs and her wardrobe only contained witches’ hats and robes when the bus arrived at her stop. She was surprised to note that the deli was right next to the bus stop, and that it was indeed close to her home, only four stops away.
Still too far to walk, though. She smiled to herself.
Walking in through the red double doors, she walked around and took in the rustic, barnyard vibe the deli had going for itself. It kind of doubled as a mini market, with chest fridges filled with seasoned meats and even a wall dedicated to freshly baked bread. Closer to the register, there was a fridge of sodas and even some condiments Tyler never saw before. She assumed they had made them in the store, since the labels looked like those glossy stickers you can put in a regular ink jet printer. She was staring up at the menu, deciding what to get, when a familiar voice startled her.
“Tyler? What are you doing here?” Came a voice from her side.
Her name brought her out of her head. When she realized who was speaking, it made her jump. She wasn’t ready to meet anyone from school yet, especially not Durian, and she was deciding if she should just bolt for the door now but was stopped when the next thing Durian said was, “Oh, I’m sorry, miss. You look remarkably like a friend of mine from school. Do you know Tyler Underwood at all?”
She decided to latch onto the life-raft given to her, all the bravery from coming out to Mr. Johnson last night vanishing into thin air, “Uhm. Yeah! He’s… my cousin!” Referring to herself as “he” left a bad taste in her mouth, but she didn’t let it show on her face, “I’m in town for the week visiting.”
She felt a blush coming on and a knot in her stomach. She still didn’t know how she felt about Durian. She had thought that he was a standard bully, but the way he had saved her from Sid was still fresh on her mind. An image of broken glass flew across her mind that she internally winced at as it fell into that mind hole where she kept all the stuff she wanted to avoid thinking too much about.
“Oh, that’s cool! Tell him I said hi. The name’s Durian, by the way.”
“Hi Durian.” This is going okay, she thought. Now to just order and leave. “Uhm, this is the first time I’ve been here, and I’m not sure what to order.”
“Oh! For sure. I recommend the burgers we make, they’re wonderful! And dad is amazing at bread, so all the bun selections are fresh as of this morning. The sandwiches are great too! In fact, our old teacher, Mr. Jay, used to come in practically every other day for them. Or if you’re in the mood for some soup, our menudo sells out almost every day.”
It was remarkable to see Durian act in a customer service role, especially when she compared how he acted towards her at school. Thinking about it now, though, there wasn’t all that much different. Had she completely misread him? She even wondered if this was the same kid she was so intimidated by. “Your dad makes the bread?” She asked, trying to come up with a new line of conversation.
“Yup.” Durian looked a little proud as he continued. “He’s an excellent baker. I’m working here while I’m on susp—I mean, while I’m out of school until Thursday. Normally, I’d just help on the weekends, but dad says, ‘if I don’t go to school then I have to go to work.’”
Tyler cringed a bit as she caught the slip of the tongue but chose to ignore it for her own peace of mind. “That’s really cool, actually. Uhm. Those sandwiches sounded good. Can I get two to go?”
After ordering, she ordered all the customizations, she thought Eris and her would like she handed over the gift card from Mr. Johnson and her debit card her mom refilled every Friday for doing her chores and Durian scanned both rather quickly. He must have worked here for a while to get that quick with the terminal.
“So, the total after the gift card is $2.18. Huh? That’s funny. Your name is Tyler, too?”
“Hahaha.” She laughed nervously and felt her face pale. She was regretting her decision to stay, and all the courage she had last night with her old teacher instantly vanished. “Yeah, funny coincidence, right?”
“That’s crazy!” Durian was smiling, obviously taking delight in the not-actually-a-coincidence coincidence. “You’d think your parents would have talked to each other about names to each other. Well, Ty, here’s your food. Have a lovely day!”
She blushed brightly at the nickname. No one had ever given her a nickname before. “Thanks!” She replied and left, a little too quickly.
It was about halfway home on the bus as she was wallowing in her decision to not just tell Durian who she was and wondering how she was going to explain everything come Thursday when she calmed down enough to realize something.
Wait. She suddenly said, eyes widening. Did he say we were friends?
◊◊◊
He sat at his desk and reread the email once more. He liked to have a clear head whenever he interviewed someone after a task went awry, but in this case, it was such a monumental failure that he wasn’t sure exactly what the punishment should be. Their youngest member had managed to infiltrate the school after the warden had left, and now had utterly failed them. He was trying to decide between expulsion, which wasn’t ideal considering their dwindling numbers, and demotion. He was leaning towards expulsion, despite the massive lack of manpower. Although the newest member being the youngest, she had ample field experience up to this point which should have spelled an easy win, especially since a significant portion of the group's finances and effort went into supported this task.
A knock came on the beautiful mahogany door, and he replied with a monotone “Enter”.
In walked the member he had summoned. For her part she looked like she knew why he had called her in since her eyes were downcast and an obvious look of repentance was upon her face. “You wanted to see me, sir?” her voice was equal parts dejected and fearful.
“Come, have a seat.” He replied, and she took a seat at the medium-sized desk. The wood it was made from matched the door, and it was a brilliant piece of craftsmanship. He loved this desk. “Do you know why I summoned you?”
“Sir, I can only surmise it was due to my recent failure.”
“Yes. It is.” He leaned forward into the arched fingers of his hands, elbows on his magnificent desk. “Please, regale me. How can the member with the most field experience, fail to secure an old, forgotten trophy from a local high school with minimal security?” He paused and typed out a search query into the computer, and the most recent missions came up on the computer. “You’ve been able to extract precious artifacts from museums, a private personal collection which was under armed guard, and your greatest achievement, gaining access to a government database through a DoD contractor to see what kind of information they had on us. You had every advantage in this case, and on top of all of that, this should be easy enough for a teenager to accomplish. So please, tell me, how could this have happened?”
“Yes sir, for my failure I have no excuse. As I said in my report, everything had managed to go according to plan. I paid off a student to break into the glass display case, but by the time the cup was in my possession, and I confirmed it was the artifact we sought, the magic had drained from the cup. None of the tests we’ve developed over the years told me anything other than it was a simple brass trophy from the earliest days of the school.”
“Thank you for the repeat of exactly how your report read, but that doesn’t tell me what happened to the cup. Our reconnaissance told us this was one of the most powerful artifacts to date, but for some reason between that report earlier this year and your report on Monday the artifact was… what? What happened to the artifact?”
“Sir, I do not know much more than what was in my report. I was able to confirm what the reconnaissance team reported though, as of last Friday, the test I used outside the school confirmed the presence of an artifact. Something between then and now must have happened. Either the trophy was replaced with a duplicate or…” her voice trailed off.
“Or what, Marisa?” he asked, a little impatiently. His voice had managed to carry very little emotion through this entire interview, and he chastised himself for letting his voice reveal his frustrations.
“Or somehow the artifact was drained of magic, sir. I recommend I remain at the school to do some reconnaissance of my own. I have a few leads already.”
“Oh? What are they?” he asked, clearly interested.
“Some students interfered with the operation while it was happening, while I’m pretty sure none of them were involved, it wouldn’t hurt to check on what they might know. I’ve already confirmed the house location of one of them, and the short test I was able to do outside their house confirmed the dwindling presence of magic. While the amount registered is well within the margin of error for the test, the fact that it happened outside the home of one of the students involved seems to point to them knowing something. The warden has also come back and has been doing an investigation of his own. If I can follow them around, I might be able to come across the artifact then.”
The man smiled, completely fine with his emotions leaking out now. He was pleased to know that their most valued member was not actually losing their ability to run field missions, or worse, turning against them. And everything she said, while it was convenient, was a good reason for failure if someone with prior knowledge like them got to it first.
“Alright. Finish the school year and give me updates as they happen, or once a week if there’s nothing to report.”
“Yes sir. Thank you, sir.” She said as she got up and bowed slightly before leaving quickly. He leaned back in his chair for a moment to think about the conversation as it happened before leaning forward again and began typing an email to another member to see if they were free. If there was another group out there with prior knowledge of the artifact like we were, Marisa was going to need all the help she can get.