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  “It is definitely different enough that no one would be able to place you, Jae,” insisted Meghan, wishing she could change her appearance as easily.

  “I think I have come up with a good story as to why your parents are not around,” Sebastien told the group.

  “We can say your parents work in town during the day, and if you are with us at night, they have been working hard all day and have already crashed for the night.” The three waited for Jae to make the call.

  “I think it’s just brilliant enough to work!” 106

  Sebastien shook his head as the foursome departed the wagon.

  “This is a lot to take in,” he admitted.

  “You had better hope you don’t have an encounter with those Scratchers,” said Colin. “They will make an instant believer out of anyone.”

  “That is certainly the truth!” agreed Jae. “Let’s not think about it now, though.”

  “You’re right!” yelled Meghan, spinning around in circles. “We are all free. Let’s have some fun!” She took off running. The others laughed and followed.

  Later that night, as the twins crawled into bed, Uncle Arnon walked in their room.

  “Your big thirteen is practically here,” he sighed. “I hate to be so blatant, but are there any particular gifts that you have in mind? I am plum out of ideas.”

  The twins laughed, as this happened each year.

  “At least you know you are a terrible shopper,” joked Meghan.

  “Terrible indeed!” he agreed.

  “Besides, you already bought me my gift,” reminded Meghan, tapping her nose.

  “This is a special year, though,” Arnon said. “You only turn thirteen once.”

  The twins connected their minds.

  “I think we should answer the same as we always do,” said Colin.

  “Yeah. I know he doesn’t have a lot of extra money to spend, thirteenth birthday or not,” Meghan said, somewhat dreamily. Colin caught on to her thoughts on 107

  wearing clothes that were actually black, not faded black.

  Their thoughts then disconnected.

  “I will leave it up to you, Uncle Arnon,” Colin said.

  “There really isn’t anything in particular I would like.” Meghan nodded her head in agreement. Arnon eyed them suspiciously.

  Being paid for handyman jobs in trinkets, casseroles and cobblers made it hard to afford the daily essentials, never mind splurges like birthday parties.

  “I think I am mostly happy that once we hit the big one-three, we get the extra hour on curfew,” added Colin.

  Arnon patted his shoulder.

  “Could I ask for more in two youngsters?” he muttered.

  “Goodnight, you two. Sleep tight.” He left the room, closing the door behind him.

  Mere minutes later the twins were out cold. Having not been able to visit with Jae over the last few days had interrupted their sleep in the previous nights.

  The days leading up to their birthday party were much the same; lounging by the lake, wandering around the campground or into town, and overfilling themselves on ice cream and whoopee pies. Uncle Arnon met Jae with great success. He was thrilled they had another friend to invite to the birthday party.

  The day before the big birthday, Sebastien told the twins he had to go into town with his parents. Jae decided to tag along. The twins had a sneaking suspicion they were shopping for birthday gifts. Uncle Arnon was out making a last minute camp call; someone’s shower had gone berserk.

  They also had a feeling this was a ploy, after they caught 108

  him arm in arm with Kanda Macawi, hightailing it out of the campground. They fully suspected that he had joined up with Jae, Sebastien, and his parents, in birthday shopping.

  Colin, eager to learn more about his new book, leaned against a granite rock near the trailer and flipped through the pages of the Magicante.

  As the hours passed, Meghan, bored, lazily turned the pages of a magazine, looking at new hairstyles and clothes.

  Speaking of clothes, this sweater is killing me. She took it off, feeling overheated.

  “You feeling okay?” Colin asked, seeing her wipe sweat from her forehead.

  “Fine. Just a little hot out here.”

  Colin did not think it was hot at all.

  Meghan’s thoughts strayed to how cool it would be if she could change her appearance, like Jae. She then wondered what she would change if she had the choice.

  She had always thought about cutting her hair shorter, but had never dared. She grimaced at her chest, thinking, something there would be nice, too.

  “Eeeeewww,” shouted Colin. “I didn’t need to hear that!” Meghan’s temper grew fiery at once.

  “Then why were you listening?” she slammed down her magazine. “You shouldn’t butt in if you don’t want to hear!” She knew she had let her guard down, and would have done the same to him. She stomped off angrily, storming down the camp road, too easily allowing her fury to escape.

  Colin threw the book down, leaning back. Her temper gets worse by the day! He forgot to block the thought and felt his sister’s mind go blank as she put up her own block, 109

  but not before hearing her scream profanities, meant for him.

  The sun popped out from behind a cloud, pouring comforting rays of heat across his face. His eyes closed and he started to doze, forgetting about his sister. A short while later, cloud cover blocked the sun, stealing his sleeping potion. A strong breeze made him shiver and he opened his eyes. The breeze continued to pick up.

  Colin jumped up, alarmed, when his book flew up into the air and then fell, landing with a thud. It opened itself and the pages began to flip back and forth. The leaves began to shimmer and glow, and then, detached themselves from the pages. They formed a whirling tornado, which sped down the camp road. The cranky voice spoke, with concerned sternness.

  “Find your sister, Colin, and do so with haste! She cannot face what is coming alone!”

  “What do you mean?” he yelled at the book, his heart pumping heavily. “How am I supposed to find her, she’s blocking me. I don’t know where she went!” The book said nothing else and slammed shut.

  Colin grabbed it off the ground and ran after the tornado, hoping it would lead to Meghan.

  “I hope it’s not the Scratchers!” he then thought. He listened, but the skies were quiet. “I’m sure I would hear them. But what else could be happening?” His panic heightened as he followed the tornado, which veered off into the woods. Surprisingly, it destroyed nothing in its path; plants and trees miraculously bent out of the tornado’s way, allowing Colin to pass through, before standing erect once again.

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  He opened up his mind, searching for Meghan. At first, he could only sense that she was close by, and then like a flooding river, her thoughts poured into his mind. It was a mixture of panic, fear and confusion. She was fighting something, but he could not make out what.

  “If its Scratchers, we are so screwed!” he shouted to no one. “I cannot fight those things.”

  His short legs darted easily through the pathway cleared by the leaf tornado. He could sense that she was somewhere just ahead. Then, a clear picture entered his head of Meghan, doubled over in pain, kneeling underneath a twisted oak tree.

  “Meghan! Hold on I’m coming!” he yelled, hoping she could hear him. The pain she was feeling intensified and Colin nearly fell over as the same feeling filled his own mind. He blocked her for fear that he would not be able to continue standing if he did not.

  Seconds later, he skidded to a stop and dropped the Magicante onto the ground. The twisted oak towered in front of him. The pages of the book began flipping back and forth, as previously, and the leaves once again affixed themselves back to their pages.

  Colin found Meghan on the ground beneath the oak.

  “Get it off me!” she screamed. “Get it off!” her arms flailed as if she were trying to bat away a horde of stinging insects. Colin leaned down and tried t
o pick her up, only to instantly let go when she shrieked in anguish.

  “Tell me what’s wrong,” he begged her. However, the only reply was another horrifying scream, followed by incoherent thoughts in which Colin believed he heard the words ‘please let me die.’

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  Fire consumed Meghan’s surroundings. Orange and crimson flames burnt the trees, the ground, the sky, and an approaching figure. She gasped, horrified as the flames edged closer to her own body. She tried to move but was frozen, unable to move away from the approaching fire.

  Meghan screamed as the first of the flames touched her skin. This time, unlike her nightmare, she felt the fire burn her. She tried to push her body away from the flames, but still could not move.

  “Get it off me!” she yelled. “Get it off!” The flames licked at her legs, spreading to her arms, and then to her head. The heat burned at her throat cutting off her air and she gasped for breath. She wished desperately to pass out, or even to die.

  “Why haven’t I died?” she wondered. “It cannot take this long to burn to death!”

  Meghan left the thought behind as a new wave of pain overwhelmed her. The burning figure had touched her.

  Each touch of the figure’s hands left the sensation of a sharp knife cutting into her already burning skin.

  She let herself fall to the ground, wishing for it to end, even if that meant death.

  Colin, desperate for help, opened the Magicante, hoping it would take them home as before, but this time the voice had an unwelcome response.

  “I am truly sorry boy, but you are on your own this time.

  You have another way.”

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  Colin did not understand. What did the book mean by another way?

  “Colin,” mumbled Meghan.

  “I’m right here. Hang on,” he told her, furiously thinking of how he would get her home. In his haste, his hand brushed against her forehead.

  “Ouch!” he yelled, yanking it away. Meghan’s skin was a hot as a skillet. “She shouldn’t even be alive,” he said aloud. He had never heard of a fever like this before.

  Colin pleaded with Magicante.

  “I don’t understand what you mean by another way.”

  “I am not without compassion, boy,” replied the book.

  “But you have little time to prepare. You must do this on your own!”

  Colin stared at his moaning sister, blocking her thoughts so he could think.

  “What’s my other way?” he asked himself. He had no idea what the Magicante wanted him to do.

  Meghan wanted to sink into the fiery ground around her. Somehow, though, through the pain and fear, a strange thought popped into her mind. Am I really on fire? Flames had spread across her body, but underneath them, her skin was still there. There was no smell of burning flesh. The fire felt a though it were burning from the inside.

  “Boiling blood,” she whispered aloud in her delirium.

  She laughed hysterically.

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  Colin heard her and decided that one way or another, he had to get her home, fast! He took hold of Meghan, trying to lift her off the ground to see if she could stand. An agonizing scream tore at his eardrums and he let her sink back down to the ground, dropping her.

  “She’s dying,” he thought, horrifically. “And I can’t stop it!”

  Meghan heard a muffled voice echoing snidely through the flames, and recognized it as the voice from the Magicante.

  “You can stop the pain faster if you would just let Colin help you already!”

  Realizing that the figure had to be Colin, she did not stop him when he attempted to come near her again. She was afraid, though, that she might burn him if he touched her. She focused all her remaining energy on seeking out his thoughts.

  “Meghan, can you hear me,” he kept repeating. “I do not want to hurt you, but I have to get you home, okay.” She could not answer but managed to nod her head that she had heard him. She then lost his thoughts and her own returned. The pain, if possible, intensified. She could not help but scream.

  Colin held the now useless Magicante under one arm and grasped Meghan with the other. He closed his eyes tightly and wished desperately to understand what the book meant by another way. Meghan’s breath started coming in gasps.

  “I just want to go home!” he bellowed hopelessly.

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  As soon as he had said it, the ground began to whirl beneath him. He gasped, grasping Meghan tighter. She screamed louder. Her mind opened up and he could no longer block her thoughts from penetrating his mind. He was overwrought with pain and anguish and screamed along with her. For a brief moment, he could feel exactly what she could feel.

  A moment later, they were inside their uncle’s trailer.

  His thoughts of, “How the heck did I do that?” vanished instantly, replaced by the need to help his sister. He gently laid her on the couch, grabbing a glass of cold water. She knocked it from his hand when he tried to get her to drink it.

  Familiar voices echoed in the distance. He sprinted out of the trailer in one long step, at the same time wailing,

  “Uncle Arnon!” The distress in his voice caused his uncle to drop the packages he carried, and dash toward Colin.

  “What is it?” Arnon pleaded, taking hold of his shoulders.

  “Meghan. She’s having some kind of fit, and she’s burning up.”

  Arnon ran to the trailer followed with Kay Jendaya’s petite frame at his heals.

  “You all stay here,” she ordered as they disappeared inside.

  Colin collapsed to the ground. He could not recall ever feeling this tired, or, more relieved to have a grown up around.

  “Help him up, boys,” instructed Milo. Sebastien and Jae took one arm each, and helped him stand.

  “What happened?” asked Sebastien, his voice trembling.

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  “I have no idea.” He did not wish to explain what had truly occurred, at least, not with Sebastien’s father around.

  “This might take awhile,” said Milo. “Why don’t we all go back to our camper, and I will make us something to eat.” Milo tried to smile, but after the horrified look on Colin’s face, the last thing any of them wanted was food.

  Colin wanted to go back into the trailer, but he let the others lead him the other way. On the walk to the Jendaya camp, they attempted to make themselves feel more confident about Meghan’s condition.

  “She probably just has a bad case of the flu,” suggested Jae. “My aunt did once, had a real high fever and hallucinated like crazy, but she was fine after.”

  “She can’t possibly be sick on your thirteenth birthdays,” reminded Sebastien. “She has been waiting for this one forever. I bet you by tomorrow morning she’s good as new.”

  Hours went by without a word. Evening became night, and Jae disappeared at one point, saying he needed to go home and let his parents know where he was. He returned about thirty minutes later, looking more worried than ever. It also put the boys in a situation they had hoped to avoid, a conversation with adults about Jae.

  “So what do your parents do, Jae?” asked Milo a few minutes later.

  “Teachers,” he answered without hesitation. “They travel around helping students having difficulties, keeps‘em real busy.”

  Colin and Sebastien took noticeably deeper breaths, and tried to get back to the topic of Meghan before Sebastien’s father could question Jae further.

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  “Should we go and check on them, maybe they need help?” asked Colin, unsure of how much longer he could sit and wait for news of his sister. The others agreed, but Milo said he thought it best for them to wait, and continued monotonously stoking the fire.

  As the night crept on, the chill of the air forced them closer to the fire. Sebastien excused himself after awhile, disappearing into the camper. Upon returning, he brought along some tonics. Colin noted that his face was ashen as he handed them out.

  Finally, shortly after midn
ight, tired footsteps faintly headed in their direction; they each stood and breathlessly waited for a shadow to emerge from the darkness. It was Arnon. Colin was the first to bombard him, followed by the rest.

  “How is she? What happened? Is she all right now?” Arnon sat down, wearing exhaustion on his face. He raised his hand for them all to sit.

  “She will be all right.” Everyone sighed in relief. “But…” he continued, pausing as they inhaled, waiting with baited breath. “It may take some time.”

  They exhaled again.

  “How long?” asked Colin.

  “A week, maybe longer,” he replied, adding, “We’ll have to postpone the birthday party.”

  “Of course,” Colin said expectantly.

  Sebastien braved the next question.

  “So what is wrong with her?”

  “We had a local doctor come by. She picked up some kind of fever, but on the good side, it is not contagious in any way.”

  “Well that is something at least,” said Milo.

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  “Kay is going to sleep with Meghan tonight. I hope that is okay.”

  “Yes, of course it is perfectly fine. We can all crash here tonight, give Meghan some space to recover,” declared Sebastien’s father. “Jae, you are welcome to stay if it suits you.”

  “Actually, I think I will go home and come back first thing tomorrow.”

  Colin and Sebastien escorted him to the dirt roadway.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to stay?” asked Sebastien.

  “There is plenty of room.”

  “I might be able to see if anything happens from my wagon. I will keep watch and report to you guys if I see anything.”

  Colin was jealous and at the same time, glad that Jae would do this.

  “Is there anything… magical you could do for her?” he asked, not sounding hopeful.

  “No, I am afraid I do not know much about healing, other than cuts and bruises. I am more apt to make it worse. When I disappeared earlier I did try to get a closer look, but I did not see much.”

  Both Colin and Sebastien watched as Jae evaporated into the night, to where his pretend parents were supposed to be camped, jealous that shortly, he would be closer to Meghan.

  “He wouldn’t actually try anything that would make her worse, would he?”