The Magic Book by Fredric Shernoff

Author:Fredric Shernoff [Shernoff, Fredric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-10-21T16:00:00+00:00

“She doesn’t trust me,” Nathaniel said as he and Lilli exited what she called “the Ethos Diner.”

She turned left and he followed after her.

“No, she doesn’t,” Lilli said. “Because you seem to be a recovering drug addict who is either full of shit or doesn’t remember who he is. Your appearance is weird, you’re jacked as hell, which means you’re probably a roid head on top of everything else, and you speak with an accent that I’ve literally never heard before. So, she’s right to be worried about me. Lucky for you, I’m a sucker for confused, helpless men. So, God help me, please don’t prove Nicole correct.”

She reached into the bag she carried over one shoulder, and produced a small knife. It flashed in the sunlight for a second before she put it away. “I don’t want to have to use this,” she said with a hint of a smile.

“I understand. You will be safe with me. I promise that.”

She nodded. “My car is right over here.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

She rolled her eyes. “You don’t know what a car is? Jesus. What do you know?”

“I know of the baby Jesus.”

“Okay…so you’re religious?”

“Nay. I know of him. And his father the Klaus. And the prophet Weber. But I don’t believe in them, or the cult gods…Khedis and Ra and all the others. Didn’t believe in them, I should say. The Goldman says that Weber exists in this time and place.”

She fished in her bag. “I don’t get most of that at all, but I mean, Weber’s the president. Everybody knows that. I don’t care how long you were away wherever you were. The guy’s been in charge damned near forever at this point.” She produced a small black object and squeezed it. There was a high-pitched sound a short distance away.

Nathaniel followed the sound and saw a dark blue carriage sitting near other similar transports.

“Where is the horse?” he asked.

“The horse?” Lilli laughed. “Like to pull the carriage?”

“Exactly. I saw some of these moving around without horses. I assume it’s sorcery?”

“It’s science, bud. We haven’t needed horses for like, I don’t know, a hundred and fifty years or something like that. Get in the car.”

“Car. I’ll remember that.”

Lilli walked to one side of the car and Nathaniel walked to the opposite. He pulled on a small handle and the door opened. The seats of the car were coated in a soft fabric, like a very thin rug.

Lilli used a wheel to navigate the car onto the black path. Nathaniel watched with fascination.

“You control it.”

“Sometimes,” she said. “On the highways it can drive itself. You know, there are plenty of cars out there that could drive themselves anywhere, but I don’t have one of those.”

“Nicole asked why you weren’t working. What is your responsibility to this town?”

“You have the strangest way of putting things. My job is a bank teller. Kind of the opposite direction from where we’re going. You know what a bank teller is?”

Nathaniel shook his head.

“Wow. I’m starting to think you got hit in the head at some point.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.