Chase Tinker & The House of Magic (3 page)

"Good try, shrimp, but you have to wait. My
thirteenth birthday is almost here so you owe
me
a present."
He grasped Andy's arm. "Come on, the light's changed."

The sun hung low in the sky when they entered
the park. A cooling breeze rustled through the tall, leafy trees as
they followed a curved walkway onto a wide-open grassy field. A
noisy baseball game was being played at one end, and other parts
were filled with Frisbee players, dog walkers and joggers.

Picking an empty patch of lawn, the boys
began kicking the ball back and forth and bouncing it off different
parts of their bodies. Shoving thoughts of his strange ability and
his missing dad to the back of his mind, Chase helped Andy learn
some new moves.

"Hey, watch this!" yelled Andy as he whacked
the ball with his knee.

It flew over Chase's head. "Don't worry, I'll
get it," he called. His eyes on the ball, he sprinted across the
grass and straight into the path of a speeding skateboarder.

"Chase! Watch out!" screamed Andy. He threw
his hands up as if he thought it would keep the accident from
happening, and suddenly, everything, and everyone, stopped.
Everyone except Andy.

"Holy F—Frankenstein," he choked out as he
gazed around at joggers in mid-stride; a dog high in the air with a
Frisbee in its mouth; the pitcher standing on one foot as he threw
the now stationary baseball; the skateboarder and Chase, both
totally motionless. "Wh—what's going on?” Andy ran to Chase's side.
He paused for a moment to stare into his brother's lifeless face.
"Chase? Are you...alive?" Not knowing what else to do, he grabbed
Chase's arm and shook it with all his might. "Come on. You gotta
come back! Please? Something really bad is happening and I don't
know how to fix it."

Unfreezing, Chase tumbled to the ground.

"You're okay!" cried Andy. "Look! They're all
statues! How did this happen? What do we do? I don't
understand!"

Chase gaped at the immobile people. "Oh,
geez," he gasped out. "This is too crazy!"

It was like being caught in some sort of
weird science fiction movie. He stared at the skateboarding boy,
his face frozen in wide-eyed fright as he realized he and Chase
were about to become roadkill. The kid looked as if he were made of
wax or something. For a few moments, the only thing Chase heard was
the sound of his own pounding heart.

Then, for a mere fraction of a second, the
world…rippled. Instantly, it came back to life as if nothing out of
the ordinary had happened.

With a quick, puzzled glance at Chase, the
skateboarder whizzed by and disappeared around a bend in the path;
the Frisbee-catching dog landed on the grass; the batter hit the
ball and ran to first base.

Andy gripped Chase's shoulder. "It was me! I
did something, but I didn't mean to. I wanted you to stop. You were
going to be squashed!" He wouldn't stop babbling. "No one was
moving. What's going on? I don't get it. Why—"

"I—I don't know, Andy. I don't know," said
Chase, his voice shaking slightly as he clambered to his feet.
"Calm down, okay?" He needed time to think. There had to be some
kind of explanation for this weird supernatural stuff. He just
didn't know what it was at the moment. "Come on, let's go home.
Grab the ball."

Neither boy said anything as they hurried
across the noisy, traffic-filled streets and dodged past the other
pedestrians. Chase, his mind spinning, kept sneaking glances at
Andy. He was afraid his brother would faint dead away right there
in the middle of the sidewalk.

Chase breathed a sigh of relief when they
finally reached their apartment building. Andy pushed through the
revolving door. Chase was about to follow when, out of the blue, an
eerie, icy breeze ruffled his hair and swirled around him. Rubbing
the goosebumps popping out on his arms, he glanced back over his
shoulder. A hooded man was just passing. As he turned his head,
Chase caught a glimpse of cold, piercing, light-blue eyes that
seemed to cut right through him. Seconds later, the man slipped
into a waiting taxicab and zoomed off down the street. Feeling
oddly threatened, yet not understanding why, Chase stepped through
the rotating door.

Now that was weird
, he thought, but
then he promptly forgot the incident as he raced across the lobby
to where Andy waited at the elevators. The doors creaked open. A
short, older lady and her fluffy dog waddled out.

"Why hello, boys," she said, smiling and
patting her frizzy hair. "Have you been outside enjoying the
sunshine?"

"Yes we have, Mrs. Pagel," they answered
together as they tried to squeeze by and hop into the open
elevator.

"We were at the park," mumbled Andy,
"where—where nothing weird happened."

Chase poked Andy's shoulder and sent him a
quit-blabbing look.

"How lovely," said Mrs. Pagel, noticing
nothing odd about their behavior. "I'm taking my little
Snookie-Dumpling for a walk." At the mention of his name, the dog
bounced and barked around the kids.

Andy flicked his hand back and forth as he
tried to shoo the slobbery animal away from his bare legs.
Instantly, Snookie-Dumpling and Mrs. Pagel were frozen in place,
like pale, waxen statues.

He staggered back. "Oh no! Not again!"

"Oh, crap!" said Chase, having the good
fortune to not be caught in it this time. He grabbed Andy's arm and
dragged him into the elevator. The doors couldn't close fast enough
for Chase. He wanted the heck out of there.

Back in the apartment, he watched Andy pace
back and forth across the living room, too jittery and spooked to
sit still. "I just don't get it," he kept muttering. "How did I
make everything stop like that?"

Not sure what else to do, Chase decided it
was time to share his secret. Taking a deep breath he said, "Okay,
Andy, I have something to show you. You better sit down for
this."

Andy perched himself on a corner of the sofa,
his fingers clenched together. "I sure hope it's something to take
my mind off all this weird stopping stuff."

Chase walked to a shelf and grabbed a
knick-knack of his mom's, a glass penguin. Setting it in the palm
of his hand, he licked his lips and squinted at it. The penguin
wobbled from side to side then floated into the air. It
somersaulted across the room. Hey, maybe he was getting the hang of
this. But, at that very moment, it switched directions and zoomed
toward him. He dove for the floor as the figurine whistled past his
ear. The penguin crashed into the wall. Chase flinched at the
tinkling sounds of breaking glass. Maybe not.

"Uh-oh!" he said as he climbed to his feet
and quickly brushed the fragments behind the TV with his toe.
"Um…let me try that again."

He turned and stared at the couch. A
lemon-yellow pillow rose, soared over to Andy, whose eyes were
about ready to pop out of their sockets, and landed on the top of
his head. Several more pillows began to dance and hop all around
the living room, like puppets without strings.

Andy knocked the pillow from his head and
jumped to his feet. "What're you doing?"

"I'm showing you what
I
can do," Chase
answered.

Andy grabbed one of the pillows and threw it
at his brother. It bounced against his chest and flopped to the
floor. "Well quit it right now 'cause I don't want to see it!
Normal people don't do these kinds of things." He flung another
pillow, this time whacking Chase in the face.

Chase rubbed his nose as he shook his head.
He'd thought Andy would be happy to see his brother was able to do
something freaky too. "Then I guess I'm not normal! And neither are
you because we both seem to have some sort of magical power."

"
Magical power?
" Andy dropped back
onto the sofa and crossed his arms tightly across his chest. "Why
the heck would we have magical powers? That's—that's crazy!
Maybe…maybe it's all just some weird accident and it'll never
happen again."

Chase dragged a chair to the sofa and sat
down in front of Andy. "I don't think it was an accident because
mine's been happening for a while." He paused as he chewed on the
inside of his lower lip. What else was there to say to help them
both feel better? Andy was right. It was all way too crazy for
words. "I know. This whole thing is pretty wild, but it helps I'm
learning to control it. Uh…" He glanced at the shattered penguin
mess. "…sometimes. And it's not so bad. You'll learn too, if you
give it a chance. I'll even help you practice."

Andy turned away and looked out the window
where several pigeons roosted on the fire escape of the building
next door. He snorted. "Yeah, right. Instead of watching TV, we'll
practice our weird magical powers. Great. What's next? Zooming
around on flying carpets?"

"At least it's good to know I'm not the only
freak in the family," Chase said lightly.

"I don't want to be a freak!" Andy cried.
"And I don't want to joke about it either. This is serious! Do you
suppose Mom and Dad can do anything magical? I mean, if we do have
some kind of—of powers, they have to come from somewhere, don't
they?"

"I've never seen Mom or Dad doing anything
weird so no telling where they came from."

"But if they do have powers? Why wouldn't
they tell us?"

Chase shrugged. "I dunno. You know as much as
I do."

"Maybe it's why Dad's gone," said Andy. He
stuck out his bottom lip and plucked at some loose strings on his
shorts.

Chase shrugged. "Unless he comes home, I
guess we'll never know that either."

Andy got to his feet and stomped to the
kitchen. "I don't want to talk about Dad or dumb old magic stuff
anymore! You can do what you want. I'm eating dinner."

"Okay, okay," said Chase, following him. "But
ignoring it won't make it go away," he mumbled to himself.

A
ndy and Chase were
sitting down to eat when loud knocking at the door caused them both
to jump.

"It's probably Mrs. Pagel and Snookie-Dork
wanting to know how we disappeared right in front of their noses,"
said Chase as he went to answer it. "I don't know how I'll explain
that one."

But it wasn't their chatty neighbor. When he
opened the door, he saw a tall, mustached, silver-haired man
wearing a dark-blue suit, a red and white, polka-dot bow-tie and
gold wire-rimmed glasses. He also had on an old-fashioned,
bright-red driving cap, the kind Chase had seen some taxi drivers
wearing.

"Hello. I'm looking for Mister Chase
Nathaniel Tinker and Mister Andrew Bartholomew Tinker," said the
man in a slightly accented voice. "Which one are you?"

"Um..." They weren't supposed to talk to
strangers.

"Don't worry, I'm not a stranger," said the
man, before Chase had a chance to tell him to get lost. "I'm your
grandfather."

"But—but our grandpa lives in Florida
with—with our grandma," sputtered Chase, "and our other
grandparents are…dead."

"Oh, I can assure you," said the man, his
dark-brown eyes sparkling, "I'm very much alive." He glanced into
the room and sniffed. "Spaghetti and meatballs. My favorite."

Their visitor strolled into the apartment,
dropped his cap on the sofa arm and joined a gaping Andy at the
small, round dining table tucked into a corner of the room. Pulling
Chase's plate of spaghetti across the table, he twisted a bunch of
noodles onto the fork and gobbled it down. "Delicious," he said,
smacking his lips. "Could use a bit of onion."

"Chase doesn't like onions," said Andy.

"That's quite all right," said Grandfather.
"We're all entitled to our different likes and dislikes. Imagine
the world if we all liked the same things." He slurped down another
bite. "Mmm. Traveling makes me ravenous."

"Where'd you come from?" Andy asked as he
slowly took a bite of his own dinner.

"I—"

"Wait just a second!" Chase cut in. "How do
we know you're who you say you are and not some weird old guy from
off the street?"

Grandfather chuckled. "I guess you
can
say I'm a weird old guy. I'm also Hiram Tinker, Benjamin Tinker's
father, thereby your grandfather."

Chase's eyes met Andy's. Was this man really
their grandfather? He did have the same dark-brown eyes the boys
and their dad had.

"Our dad's been missing for a really long
time," said Chase sadly. "And we haven't heard anything from
him."

"Yes, I'm well aware of this," said
Grandfather, looking solemn. "But I'm confident all will be fine
and he'll be home presently." Then, before either boy could ask him
how he knew this, he said, "Now, I would certainly enjoy a
refreshing beverage to wash down my spaghetti." Andy started to
stand, but Grandfather stopped him. "No need to get up on my
account. I can take care of it myself." With a flick of his finger,
a tall glass of iced tea with a slice of lemon and a tiny blue
umbrella popped onto the table.

The boys gawked as if they'd just seen a
green, polka-dotted extra-terrestrial fly through the window. Andy
almost fell off his chair. "How'd you do that?" he gasped.

It was Grandfather's turn to look wide-eyed.
"You mean you have
never
seen real magic? Not even your
own?"

Chase and Andy looked at each other again.
"Um, we have seen our own," said Chase. "I can move things with my
mind, and it looks like Andy can stop time. His started today."

"Whew!" Grandfather leaned back and swiped
his hand across his forehead. "You boys had me quite worried there
for a moment. And yours truly started today?" he asked Andy.

"This afternoon at the park! It was scary! I
waved my hands and, poof, everyone stopped."

"Excellent! It's precisely on time," said
Grandfather. "After all, today
is
your
Dimidiatus
Anniversarium.
"