Wizard's Holiday, New Millennium Edition Read Free Page A

sense. I just hope that it happens in time to be of some use. Because for sure, something’s going to start happening shortly. The darkness hadn’t felt very far away in time. I’ll mention it to Tom when I have a chance.
    Meanwhile, there were plenty of other things to think about. That Martian project, for example, she thought as she finished her sandwich. She got up to go into the kitchen and get rid of the plate. That’s gonna be a ton of fun —
    From outside the house came a splash and hiss as someone drove through the puddle that always collected at the end of the driveway in rainy weather. Nita glanced out the kitchen window and saw the car coming up the driveway. Daddy’s early, she thought. Must have been quiet in the store this afternoon. But where is Dairine? I thought she’d be back by now…
    Nita ran some cold water from the tap into a measuring cup, filled up the water reservoir of the new coffee-maker by the sink, put one of the premeasured coffee capsules her dad favored into the top of the machine, and hit the on switch. The coffeemaker started making the usual wheeze-and-gurgle noises. Outside, the car door slammed; a few moments later, shaking the rain out of his hair, Nita’s dad came in—a tall man, silver-haired, big-shouldered, and getting a little thick around the waist; he’d been putting on some weight these past few months. He was splattered with rain about the shoulders, and he was carrying a long paper package in his arms. “Hi, sweetie.”
    “Hi, Daddy.” Nita sniffed the air. “Mums?” She recognized the flowers’ slightly musty scent before she saw the rust-and gold-colored blooms sticking out of the wide end of the package.
    Her dad nodded. “We had a few left over this afternoon … No point leaving them in the store. I’ll find a vase.” He put the flowers down on the drain board, then peered into the sink. “Good lord, what’s that?”
    “Lettuce,” Nita said. “Previously.”
    “I see what you mean,” Nita’s dad said. “My fault. I meant to make some salad last weekend, but it never happened. That shouldn’t have gone bad so fast, though… ”
    “You have to put the vegetables in the crisper, Daddy. It’s too dry in the main part of the fridge, and probably too cold.” Nita sighed. “Speaking of which, I was talking to the fridge a little while ago… ”
    Her father gave her a cockeyed look. Nita had to laugh at the expression. “You’re going to tell me that the refrigerator has a problem of some kind? Not a mechanical one, I take it.”
    “Uh, no.”
    Her dad leaned against the counter, rubbing his face a little wearily. “I still have trouble with this idea of inanimate objects being able to think and have emotions.”
    “Not emotions the way we have them,” Nita said. “Ways they want things to be… and a reaction when they’re not. And as for inanimate… They’re just not alive the way we are.” She shrugged. “Just call this ‘life not as we know it,’ if it helps.”
    “But it is life as you know it.”
    “I’ve just got better equipment to detect it with,” Nita said. “I talk to it and it talks back. After that, it’d be rude not to answer. Anyway, Daddy, it’s weird to hear you say you’ve got a problem with this! You talk to your plants all the time. In the shop and here. You should hear yourself in the garden.”
    At that, her dad looked nonplussed. “But even scientists say it’s good to talk to plants. It’s the frequency of the sound waves or something.”
    “That’s like saying that telling someone you love them is good just because of the sound waves,” Nita said. “If you were from Mars and you didn’t know how important knowing people loved you was, you might think it was the sound waves, too. Don’t you feel how the plants like it when you talk to them?”
    “They do grow better,” her dad said after a moment. “Liking … I don’t know. Give me a while to get used to the idea. What’s the