14 - Right Now!//Lea

"So all we need to do is steal this purple knaws?" Lea asked.

"Noiz," Paxton corrected.

"Pretty much," Nora said.

"Sure," Lea agreed.

"Are you sure?" Nora asked, looking concerned.

Lea's father had gone to prison for stealing costumes and selling them off, and she'd always been taught that stealing was wrong. When he'd broken the law, her father had also broken his dream, and her brother's leg.

But no matter how much she tried to dissuade herself, she couldn't bring herself to it. Confronted with magic and wishes, living with a giant burden over her that she had to face again once she left for school next Monday, Lea felt completely okay committing a few robberies.

Nobody was going to miss a historical gem, she told herself.

"If you can really grant my wish," Lea said. "I'll do anything."

"Sure, you can have the wish," Nora agreed, turning to her blond friend. "Now Paxton just has to do his thing."

"His thing?" Lea said as Paxton returned to her sofa and pulled out apaper bag from Homend DIY. "Crafts?"

"Magic crafts," Paxton said as he dumped the bag out on Lea's coffee table. A mishmash of knick-knacks poured out and Paxton placed the red Noiz in the centre of all the madness. "And it's not my thing; I could teach you guys to do it."

"It's too fiddly," Nora complained, making a face. Lea observed Paxton keenly, this was the first time she'd be observing magic whilst completely aware of her surroundings.

She couldn't have been more disappointed if she'd tried. When people performed magic on TV shows the room began to spin with wild colours and beautiful sounds. All Paxton was doing was a crafts project straight off of YouNow.

"Ah, Lea! Want to see the process up close?" Paxton asked excitedly, putting on a pair of heavy duty gardening gloves and pulling out a piece of cloth. "This is a 100% cotton fabric, soaked in wood spirits overnight."

"Wood spirits?" Lea asked excitedly, unable to control herself.

"It's just a fancy name for methanol," Paxton said, holding up a bottle that reeked of medicine. "Now we tightly wrap it around the Noiz."

Just as Lea was about to space out on Paxton's crafts project, the Noiz glowed and the opaque layer of cloth around it transformed into a transparent glossy finish.

"Wow," Lea said, her voice quiet but full of wonder.

"I know!" Paxton said. "I've already done this twice, but it amazes me every time. The ones Nora brought were pre-wrapped."

"Really?" Lea asked.

"That's how my parents found them," Nora said, looking away. Though both Nora and Paxton were the same age as she was, they both seemed mature beyond their years.

In Paxton's case, it was because his enthusiasm over strange magical mysteries made him seem like a science teacher. Nora was different; as if she was carrying the weight of history itself on her shoulders. Lea didn't know why, but she suddenly felt sorry for her.

"Now the soft aluminium sheets!" Paxton said, grabbing a few printer paper sized sheets of metal and a pair of heavy duty scissors. He placed a paper pattern on top of the metal sheet and began to cut.

"This part takes a while," Nora said, going to settle in front of the TV.

"You have to cut carefully," Paxton said defensively, cutting tiny pieces out of the sheet of metal and wrapping each one around the gem. He wrapped one around the top, bottom and mid-sections of the Noiz. After fifteen minutes of work, he picked out a tube of soldering paste from his tools. "These three form the magical connections that allow for the Noiz transformation. The Mooar Shee calls them the 'Voice', 'Wind' and 'Instrument'.

He cut out a smaller piece of metal and soldered it onto the top metal sheet.

"What's that for?" Lea asked as Paxton picked up a metal chain.

"This is to loop the necklace through," he said happily. "There, all done."

"You're done already?" Nora said. "You took forever last time!"

"It was the middle of the night," Paxton said slowly, emphasizing each word.

"Here you go, Lea," he said, holding out the completed necklace that mirrored his own. "Let's go!"

"Is it really done?" she asked, unsure of his magical credentials. She changed her mind as soon as she touched the red gem on the end of the necklace. Though there were no words she could find to explain it, she felt connected to something new. Something amazing.

"You'll see," Nora said, jumping off Lea's couch. "Let's go."

"Right now?" Lea asked.

"Right now!" Nora said excitedly.