Magicalamity Read Free

Basic Flying
    L orna froze. “Who’s that?”
    “I don’t know—probably a delivery. We get them all the time.” Tom was trying to sound confident, but his heart was beating hard. Did this mean the Falconers had come to kidnap him? Would his godmother be able to save him if they had? “Shall I go down?”
    “Yes, we should try to look as normal as possible. But I’ll come with you.” She led the way down the stairs to the deli.
    Through the glass door Tom saw the untidy blond hair of his best friend.
    “Charlie!” He almost laughed aloud with relief.
    “Hey, Tom!” Charlie called from the other side of the door. “Why are you closed? Let me in!”
    “Just a minute.…”
    “Wait!” Lorna grabbed Tom’s arm before he could unlock the door. “Do you know him?”
    “Oh yes. His name’s Charlie Evans. I’ve known him for years.”
    “Are you expecting him?”
    The question made Tom remember that he was not. “Well, no. I thought he was away in Turkey.”
    “Hmm, that sounds dodgy. Are you sure it’s him?”
    “Of course it’s him!”
    “Look at him again.” Lorna’s grip on his arm tightened. “You mortals never use your eyes properly. Never mind what you EXPECT to see—what do you REALLY see? Is there anything different about him?”
    Tom looked carefully at his best friend’s face. As soon as he did, he noticed that Charlie’s hair was a little darker than usual—and his upper lip was a slightly different shape—and the expression in his eyes was all wrong. Once again Tom had the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach—it had been horrible seeing Dad turn into a bat, but this poor imitation of Charlie was worse.
    “That’s not him,” he whispered.
    “I knew it!” Lorna shoved Tom behind her and banged angrily on the glass. “BOG OFF!”
    The boy who was not Charlie suddenly sneezed violently and changed into a tall young man with untidy dark hair and a big turned-up nose. And then he vanished.
    “Well, it’s started,” said Lorna. “Best foot forward, boy!” She marched back upstairs, dragging Tom behind her. “Here’s what we’ll do. You’re coming back to my place, which is still hidden from the Falconers. We can’t use any kind of mortal transport—far too risky—so we’ll be flying.”
    “OK,” Tom said faintly. He was still shaking from the very creepy sight of someone suddenly vanishing into thin air.
    “You go and pack a few clothes while I set up my wings.”
    “Right.” He went into his bedroom and hastily stuffed all the clean clothes he could find, plus his iPod, into his school backpack.
    In the kitchen, Lorna was pulling a lot of flimsy, dirty-looking white material out of a shopping bag. She gave it a couple of shakes, and Tom saw that it was a leather waistcoat with two long, droopy white shapes attached to the back.
    “My wings,” Lorna said briskly.
    “Oh.”
    She chuckled. “I know they don’t look like much—wait till you see them spread in full flight. Are you ready?”
    “Yes, but—are you sure they still work?”
    “Fairy wings never wear out.” She took the jar of sun-dried tomatoes from the shelf, wrapped it carefully in two tea towels and stuffed it into Tom’s backpack.
    “Do we have to take that?” he asked. “What if it breaks? I don’t want oily tomatoes all over my stuff.”
    “I’m very fond of sun-dried tomatoes—don’t you dare take it out, do you hear? Ooof! Give me a hand with this harness, boy—it seems to have shrunk!”
    The waistcoat part of Lorna’s wings had been made for a slimmer fairy, and it took a lot of heaving and huffing before she was safely strapped in.
    “Thanks, Tom—by the way, before I forget, Elvis says goodbye and good luck.”
    “Elvis! I’d forgotten all about him. I can’t leave him here by himself!”
    “He’ll be fine,” Lorna said. “He’s gone to stay with his other family.”
    “What are you talking about? He’s our cat!”
    “I hate to give you yet another