Magic's Child Read Free

me.
     
     
"Just call me Jennifer."
     
     
"Jennifer," Jay-Tee said, obediently. "There's fruit. Though some of it's kind of weird." She slid the fruit bowl even closer to the social worker.
     
     
"Or something to drink?" I asked.
     
     
"That would be lovely. Is that orange juice?"
     
     
Jay-Tee jumped up, got a glass, and poured her some.
     
     
"Thank you," she said, taking a sip. "So you both live here too?" she asked Jay-Tee and Tom.
     
     
Jay-Tee nodded. Tom shook his head.
     
     
"She's a friend," I blurted. "From America."
     
     
"I live next door," Tom said at the same time.
     
     
Jennifer Ishii smiled. "That's interesting. I didn't realise you'd ever been to America, Reason. How did you two meet?"
     
     
"Her parents are friends of Esmeralda's," I said, quickly, hoping she wouldn't ask to see Jay-Tee's passport or anything. I didn't think Jay-Tee had a passport. Or if she did, it was probably back in New York City, on the other side of the door.
     
     
"Do you always call your grandmother by her first name?"
     
     
I nodded, blinking again, and found myself surprised once more by Jennifer Ishii's total absence of magic. With my eyes closed, it was like she wasn't there. I dreaded the moment when Jay-Tee would disappear like that.
     
     
"We all call her that," Jay-Tee said. "I think she wants to seem younger or something." Jay-Tee held her hands out palms up as if to say, I dunno . "At first I thought it was an Australian thing. Reason never calls her mom 'Mom.' But then Tom does. Well, 'Mum' anyways. My parents said I could come visit. Seeing as how Esmeralda's never looked after a teenager before."
     
     
"Your parents thought it would be easier for her to look after two?" Jennifer Ishii didn't raise her eyebrow or change her tone, but she was definitely teasing Jay-Tee. I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
     
     
"I think Mom and Dad were anxious and wanted Reason to have company."
     
     
"And how long will you be staying?"
     
     
"Dunno."
     
     
"How long have you been here?"
     
     
"Not long. Just a week or so. I really like it. Back home it's freezing right now. Plus we don't have flying foxes. I really like flying foxes."
     
     
"And where is home?"
     
     
"New York City."
     
     
"That must be wonderful. I've always wanted to visit."
     
     
Jay-Tee shrugged. "Yeah, it's pretty cool. Great…" She trailed off. I wondered what she'd been going to say.
     
     
"Great what, Jay-Tee?"
     
     
"Pizza. The pizza in New York's much better than the pizza here. The pizza here has all this weird stuff on it. And it's way too thin. There's even pizza without cheese. It's not pizza unless it has cheese on it."
     
     
"How do you get along with Reason's grandmother?"
     
     
"I really like her," Jay-Tee said. "It's much more fun living with her than with my parents."
     
     
Jay-Tee lied so effortlessly. Her parents were dead. Her mother had died not long after she was born, and her father she'd just found out about. She'd run away from him, hadn't lived with him for at least a year. Neither of her parents had known Esmeralda. I turned away from Jay-Tee before my next blink. I didn't want to see her smudge of magic again.
     
     
Jennifer Ishii sipped at her orange juice. "And what do you think of Esmeralda, Reason?"
     
     
"She's okay," I said cautiously. She'd have to know that I'd spent most of my life running away from my grandmother, that I'd begged not to have to live with her. I could barely remember feeling like that. It wasn't as if I trusted Esmeralda now. Not entirely. But there was nowhere I wanted to be other than here in her house. "It's not as bad as I thought."
     
     
"Esmeralda's ace," Tom said. "She's been great to me. Been teaching me, er, stuff, and— "
     
     
"Stuff?"
     
     
"Clothes," Jay-Tee said. "Esmeralda taught Tom how to make clothes. He's really good at it." She pointed at my pants. "See those? Tom made them. He's gotten better than