“I don’t see Jacquis anywhere,” Helena said. “Anyway, watch my stuff. I’ll be right back. And seriously, read this.”
Helena opened the newspaper and scooted it across the table to him before walking off to the counter to order. In his wand-enhanced vision, Benjamin watched her tail rustle across the ground behind her. He tucked the wand into his hip and reached for the newspaper and his croissant.
It took him a moment to register why something felt off. Everyone around him looked new and mythical, but his own hands were just…hands. No scales, no crust of bark, no talons or feathers or anything. It was a mild let-down honestly. Was it just because he was the one holding the wand, or was he really just too bland for the wand to let him see something else? Surely at least if he was bland, he’d get cool clockwork like the girl by the window who seemed to be running on routine rather than energy?
Benjamin shoved thought to the side for now and looked at the paper Helena hand handed him. She’d annotated the short article in red ink and, with his history with Helena, Benjamin could see why she was outraged. The paper had downgraded the history of serious health code and safety violations to “procedural disagreements” and didn’t mention that the dispersal of the crowd had involved tear gas and batons. He felt ready to snort fire himself as Helena returned to the table with her lemon and lavender tea.
“You’re right,” Benjamin told her. “This is an embarrassment to the paper and an injustice to Doug* McNameFace who’s still in the hospital, right?”
“He is,” Helena responded. “When I visited a few days ago, the doctors say he should be able to walk again but he might have a permanent limp. And the factory owners are trying to blame Doug for it! It was clearly their fault the equipment wasn’t properly secured!” She huffed and a lick of fire hit her tea, making it steam more. “Well, it will be clear if I can get the paperwork to the proper people.” She sipped her tea and took a quick intake of breath. Seemed it was hotter than she’d expected.
“I hope you do, and I hope they get what’s coming to them. They can’t treat people like this.” Benjamin reached for his own cup and was startled to see red scales covering his fingers and sprouting across the back of his hand, petering off as they scattered down his forearm. He turned his hand back and forth until he noticed Helena looking at him strangely. “Oh. Sorry.”
“Anyway. I’ve got to go. Tell Jacquis I’m sorry I couldn’t wait until he got here today, but I’ve got a lot to take care of. See you again tomorrow?” She gathered up the newspaper and Benjamin was honestly impressed she could handle it so well with claws that long. “Hey. Thanks for caring. This means a lot to me and my parents and some of my other friends keep telling me it’s more trouble than it’s worth and it’s not even my factory so why do I care. But I know you understand. Seriously, thanks.” And with a last snort of smoke, she took her tea and was gone.
Benjamin nursed his own cup while it was still warm and waited for Jacquis, occupying himself by watching the people strolling past the window. A deer with long elegant antlers covered in ivy paced down the sidewalk. A mother with children passed, the mother wearing battle-scarred armor, carrying one child on her shoulders that looked like a bouncing anthropomorphic star and followed by two small impish fauns with curling hair tumbling down their shoulders. A wizened mushroom with beady black eyes and a cane peeked in the window before adjusting the bag on its arm and moving along. A slow-moving creature that had to be some river spirit came slowly into view, covered in riverweed and dripping water behind it. The river spirit turned at the door and came in. A face made of smooth stones and plants looked around, fixed on Benjamin, and nodded.
Benjamin was startled for a moment but then nodded back as the river spirit made its way to the counter. This must be Jacquis then. And if Benjamin was any judge, things were going poorly with his aunt. Benjamin folded his arms on the table, noting the dragon-like scales were beginning to fade away, to wait for his friend to join him.
“Hey,” Jacquis said as he set his order down. It was the cafe’s cheapest offering, two pieces of toast with some butter and a glass of water. Definitely not going well.
“Hey,” Benjamin said. “How are you doing today?”
The great pile of riverweed and moss lifted and heaved out a great sigh. “As well as I can be, I guess.”
“Come on man, what’s up?” Benjamin asked.
“Oh, you know. My aunt’s having one of her down weeks. She hasn’t been working, you know, so I’m having to put in more hours, which means less time I can be helping her out. “
“That’s rough,” Benjamin said. He reached over and put a hand on Jacquis’s arm. “Hey, you know I’m here for you, right? Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.” As his hand touched Jacquis, his fingers dissolved into wet pebbled and sodden branches with riverweed tying it all together and the transformation slowly leached up his arm. Jacquis’s mountain of river detritus seemed to shrink at the same time, pulling in and becoming a little more human in form.
“Yeah, I know. Thanks. So, we waiting on Helena or what?” Jacquis looked around.
“Nah, she was here earlier but had to run off on another crusade.”
Jacquis gave a short laugh like falling water and clinking stones. “Sounds about right. Girl’s got a fire in her that won’t die down.”
“She told me to say hi to you though and that she hopes she’ll get to stay longer next time. Oh, yeah, I ate with her and I’m pretty full, you want my croissant?” He nudged the plate across the table.
“You sure you’re done?” Jacquis asked.
“Yeah, I’m good. Besides, it feels like you could use something with a little more joy to the taste than the toast. Good though their bread is. I’ve got jam too,” he said with an inviting wave of the little cellar of jam.
“Is that strawberry? You’re the best, man. Seriously. Not just the jam, I mean, thanks for listening and being there. I know I can count on you to not try to make me feel better but just to understand.”
“Any time, what are friends for?” Benjamin said. As he passed the jam and the croissant across the table, a light flashed across his eyes. It was the light from the window, reflecting off the mirrored surface of his arm. His hand was back to its normal shape but the surface was a smooth, mirrored silver. It was beautiful.
But just as he saw it, feeling in awe of his own arm, he twisted his leg and the wand fell off. Benjamin heard it roll across the floor but as he ducked under the table to get it, the wand had vanished. No sign of it anywhere.
“You good?” Jacquis asked.
“Hm? Oh. Yeah. Thought I dropped something, but maybe I just imagined it.”
After all, that’s what it had to be, right? There’s no such thing as magic in the real world. Is there?
The End
*When I need a name placeholder, I often turn to Doug these days thanks to Brandon Sanderson’s book Tress of the Emerald Seas, where the narrator tells us “there are other people on the ship but if they’re not important to the narrative they’re going to be the Dougs.”
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