Joplin, Wishing by Diane Stanley

Author:Diane Stanley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-05-11T04:00:00+00:00

15

Whatever It Takes

OUR UNEATEN LUNCHES WERE STILL in the Gristedes bag. So we moved the bag aside and shook out the blanket, and Barrett calmly rolled it back up. Then we strolled away from Strawberry Fields toward the Seventy-Second Street station—cool and calm, like we didn’t have a worry in the world.

Like we weren’t being stalked by a four-hundred-year-old demonic magician.

As soon as we were out of sight, we broke into a run.

I gripped Sofie’s hand as we raced down the stairs to the subway station, out of the sunlight, and into the eerie, fluorescent-lit darkness. It occurred to me about halfway down that the whole escape thing was pointless. Lucius Doyle didn’t need to follow us. He already knew where I lived.

Even so, I was glad he still hadn’t appeared on the platform when the train came into the station. And I didn’t mind when Barrett got all Sherlock Holmes and had us get off at Columbus Circle, switch to the D train, get off at Rockefeller Center, wait for the next train, then get back on. It was all pretty silly, like something out of a movie, but also kind of exciting. And when we came back up at the West Fourth Street station, Lucius Doyle was nowhere to be seen.

We walked over to Washington Square Park to eat our lunches. Barrett suggested we sit near the tables where the local chess freaks played speed games for money. Lots of people hung around to watch them play, so there would be safety in numbers. If Doyle should suddenly appear, he wouldn’t bother us in public.

I’d watched the speed games in the park before, and I still couldn’t imagine anyone figuring out a chess move that fast. Their hands were absolutely flying, plopping their pieces down and hitting the timer in no more than a second. You’d have to be a genius to do that. Or have a mind like a computer, with every chess move preprogrammed and ready to use.

I wondered what it would be like to have a mind like that. Would everybody you meet seem unbearably stupid and slow? And were they all-around geniuses, or just brilliant about chess?

“Earth to Joplin,” Barrett said.

“Sorry. Did you say something?”

“I was just wondering why Doyle would go to all that trouble—disguising himself, following us to the park, hiding behind a newspaper. What did he have to gain?”

“The thing he wants most in the world,” I said. “The platter and the power to make wishes again.”

Barrett shook his head. “He already knows where the platter is. And he can’t steal it—or rather he could, but it wouldn’t do him any good. He could try to force you into giving it back, but he didn’t do that either. He just sat there and watched us talk. He couldn’t hear what we said. He was too far away. So what was the point?”

“He learned a lot, actually,” Sofie said. “First of all, he saw me with you. So he knows that Joplin has discovered the power of his magic and has wished for me to become a person again.

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