Dust Balls, Bats, and Geckos

Once inside my studio apartment, I flicked on the light switch and threw my bag onto the small desk next to the nightstand, holding my computer and stack of books that I'd planned on reading over the summer.

I stripped off my wet clothing and jumped into the shower. It was my firm belief that there was very little a hot shower could not fix.

Fifteen minutes later, I was feeling so much better in my nice soft bathrobe, with my thick wet hair coiled up inside a towel turban.

I stood in front of the open window, basking in the feather light breaths of the sultry night air. A few geckos scurried past, pausing at the edge of the seed tray.

I reached into the seed bin and placed a few sunflower seeds in front of them. They stuck their tongue out and licked it a bit but ignored the seeds completely.

Their tiny reptilian minds did not have much of a capacity to carry on a conversation, but they could indicate yes and no.

'You like sunflower seeds?'

'No.'

'You like fruit?'

'No.'

'What do you eat?'

They stared at me, stuck out a tongue and zapped a mosquito out of the air.

Well that was a good enough answer. Obviously, they were only hanging out by the seed tray to avoid the evening shower.

I looked out into the evening sky at the light bouncing off the water droplets. Although it was still raining, it was a gentle summer drizzle and not the torrential downpour that Corwin and I had surfed through. It was good enough to keep my flowers alive, at the very least.

The sweet scent of the potted lavender flowers hanging off the sill, wafted up to my nose and I held in a sneeze. The poor things. If it hadn't been for the almost nightly rains keeping them well-hydrated, they would have died by now. I hadn't watered them for weeks.

I sighed and reached out to touch the gentle rain. I had been negligent about a lot of things lately. My room was starting to get more than a little dusty, but every night when I came home from work, it was all I could do just to take a shower and pass out on the bed until morning.

The worn Raggedy Ann doll sitting on the bookshelf smiled at me in silent understanding, but she looked abandoned and alone and more than a little raggedy.

There was a half empty plastic bottle of water sitting on the little-used nightstand against the side of the wall. I grabbed it and emptied the contents into my throat and then threw the container towards the trashcan on the other side of the bed. It bounced off the rim and fell to the floor.

Of course.

Why would I expect it to do anything other than that? I was so lame that as light as the empty bottle of water was, I couldn't even levitate it the tiny distance from the floor to the trashcan.

I dragged myself to the other side of the bed and reached down to pick up the bottle. This close to the floor and I realized how dirty the place was starting to get. If Mother saw the state of my existence, she would be apoplectic. I really had to do something before it got too bad.

I straightened my body, clambered onto the bed and held out my arms, palms up.

"Chinglihuechen" I muttered the Dustball Command and raised my hands in a slow and steady motion.

The grey dust from the floor and all other surfaces began to rise up into the air. I moved my hands to the left. The dust moved to the left. I moved my hands to the right. The dust moved to the right. I smiled, jiggling it about for a bit, and then I held still, watching the suspended particles go through a lazy drifting brownian motion.

Stop playing with the dust, I heard Mother's voice inside my head.

She had spent years trying to teach me the Dustball Command, and it never failed that I would always get stuck at that one spot, admiring the random movements of the particles in the air.

But I was not a child any longer. I had my own little apartment now, and I needed to act like an adult and dust as adults should.

Nice and steady, keep your hands moving, Mother's voice picked up again inside my memories. Nice and steady, so you don't drop any dust. Gather it all up and roll it together.

With a dough-roll motion, I moved my palms together. If could maintain the steady rolling movement, I would be able to collect all the dust into one sphere and then aim the sphere, like a basketball, straight into the trash can.

I kept the rolling motion steady as the dust whirled faster and faster, clumping together into a sphere the size of a softball. It was moving really fast. Too fast! I tried to slow down the motion, but my fingers could not move as quickly as I needed it to.

I could see the edges of the dust ball starting to unravel. Oh no! I moved my hands in a frenzied motion, trying to keep it together. The dust obliged, banging into each other.

POOF!

Particulates scattered into the air in a silent grey drift.

As they fluttered and floated onto every surface in the room, I stood there choking on the dust and wondering why I even bothered with high magik at all.

Instead of a cleaned apartment, the dust had now been released into the air and was much worse than it was before.

Grumbling with resigned acquiescence, I jumped off the bed and went to the corner where I kicked the robot vacuum's orange ON button with my big toe. It rumbled to life and began scuttling about, sucking up the worst of the spilled dust.

I sniffed in disdain. Why was I even bothering with high magik when high tech worked so much better?

In all honesty, I loved human tech magic, despite my parents' disdain of its negative connotation about how low-class it made me look to the mage community.

As the robot vacuum worked its own version of magic, I plopped my body on top of the bed, groaning with fatigue.

I was still in my bathrobe and my wet hair still in its towel turban, but I could not make my body move. I just wanted to fall asleep on top of the comforter, spreadeagled, just—like—so.

RING—RING—RING

My eyes popped open. It was my phone. Who would call me at this time of night?

I reached out for the phone by my bed and looked at the screen, then I tapped the phone twice.

"Professor Morton?"

"Inanna." Professor Morton's voice called out through speakerphone.

He heaved a big sigh of relief. "I'm glad you haven't fallen asleep yet. Listen. I'm going to be staying at the Primate Compound for the next few days."

"What's wrong Professor Morton?"

"There have been some—disturbing situations that have occurred with the Primate Workers…" He paused for a moment, his voice trailing off. "…but don't worry. I will be here to protect them and make sure nothing bad happens to them."

"Do you need my help at the Primate Compound?"

"No. This is something that I have to take responsibility for. What I do need for you to do is check in a couple of times a day with Thaumaturge Hall to make sure things are running smoothly over there."

"Of course, Professor Morton."

"Thank you Inanna." He sighed. "These are tough times. Be careful and take good care of yourself."

"You too."

As he disconnected the line, I wondered why Professor Morton's voice sounded so dejected. What could possibly happen to make him change so dramatically?

I had also seen the dramatic change in my parents, Professor Nimitz, Professor Quimby, Professor Pomello. There were big changes even with the great apes I handled.

I hoped things were not as bad as I feared.

My eyes were closed as I absently scratched at a mosquito bite on my arm. My bug bites itched something fierce.

I gave a huge tired yawn causing tears to well up at the corners of my eyes and dragged myself back up to a sitting position. I still had a few important things I needed to do before I could turn in for the night.

Reaching over with a weary hand, I grabbed the white plastic digital alarm clock on the nightstand. It blinked a bright blue 11:05 pm.

I called out a few voice commands and set the time for 5 AM, then I replaced the clock and got back up on my feet. There should still be some food left in the refrigerator.

I was in luck. Tucked in the back of the small fridge, I found a couple of old wrinkled apples. I took those and went to the closet.

"Hello, little guys. It's dinner time!" I announced, tapping on the doors to avoid startling them. The bats began to stir from their slumber once I opened the door, and they came out, dancing around my head.

One by one, I fed them pieces of apples, and when there was no more, I opened the window so they could fly out into the night to forage. With some luck, they might even be able to fly home to their master and then I wouldn't have to take care of them any more.

But just in case they decided they wanted to come back to my apartment for whatever reason, I left the window slightly ajar.

I dried my hair, changed into my night gown and crawled under the comforter.

The bright blue digital clock showed midnight, give or take a few minutes. Hopefully, I wouldn't toss and turn all night, because that would just be poetic justice, given how my day had turned out.

I barely snuggled my head into the pillows when the alarm clock went off.

I sat up in bed, eyes wide open as the alarm buzzed its way into my consciousness.

What the heck? No way could it be 5 am. I had just settled into the pillows!

My eyes were gritty and I was still so tired that I felt as if I hadn't slept at all.

Reaching out with dead accuracy, achieved by a decade of perfunctory motion, I slammed my hand onto the alarm button, silencing the annoying noise.

I could have just as easily told it to stop, but this was much more satisfying.

With that single ritualistic act, my day officially began. My brain went from zero to Demon Book in a matter of seconds. Was it just a dream? Did I really bring such an ominous object back to my home?

In a single motion, I rolled off the bed and ran to the small writing desk. My messenger bag was still sitting right where I had plunked it down the night before.

With a quick deft flick of the wrist, I unzipped the bag and pulled the book from the pocket where I had jammed it in with haste.

There was no doubt about its existence. It was very real.

I fingered it for a moment, tracing the gold-stamped Demon symbol on the cover with my finger. Then I shoved it back into the bag and reached for my mobile phone.

It was 5 am, and for the first time, I was grateful that Simon's number was on my speed dial. I took a deep breath and hit the first speed-dial number, hoping he would pick up even though it was still early.

A yawning Simon came on the line, "Nana, is that you?"

"Yeah. Hey listen. You remember I told you that I could find someone who could open the book for you?"

At his grunt, I continued. "Well, I found two of them. They said they want to meet you within the hour."

There was a short silence on the other end.

"What time is it?" Simon came to life.

"It's 5 AM right now. You need to get up. We're going to be outside your place at six am, sharp."

"Yeah, yeah," Simon said. "I'm up, I'm up. I'll see you here at oh-six-hundred. Over and out."

I hung up with him and went to the closet to get my clothes.

I almost groaned out loud when I saw four sets of eyes staring back at me. The bats had apparently found their way back without any issues and were shuffling their wings in greetings.

I considered taking them with me and returning them to the bookstore clerk, but realized that if I didn't hurry, I was going to be late.

I took a quick five minute shower and ran out with my hair still dripping wet. Since I had a feeling I was going to be running all over the Academy today I threw on the Overlord bodysuit and black air surfing shoes. Then, I dragged a brush through my still wet hair, grabbed my messenger bag, and ran out the door.

I had fifteen minutes left to run to the Alchemy lab.