Barefoot Pirate (25 page)

Joe appeared next to Nan. “If it’ll help her stay, I’ll do
it,” he said. “I mean, I like it here and all, but I miss my brother, and heck,
I miss my computer.” He grinned sheepishly. “But I’ll give them all up so Nan
can stay.”

Master Dalved sighed. “You don’t understand that spell, my
children. Two came, and the same two have to return, or there is forever an
imbalance between the worlds.” He considered his hands, then faced the kids. “Nan,
you have to go back, but now I want you to take something back, and that is faith.
Until now, you’ve only had yourself to believe in. Know this: that there is a
greater purpose behind your being chosen to be here. There is a greater purpose
behind us all. I will go back to my Council, and see if there is someone who
wishes to study your world, who can go back in your place. And if that person
comes forward, then I will come for you. Remember, magic is real here, and if
you came across worlds once, it can happen again. And you might learn enough to
travel back and forth, and figure out how to help. Even if it’s one child at a
time.”

Nan gritted her teeth, fighting against a grief so large it
seemed to fill the world.
Faith. I’ve got to have faith
.

It seemed the hardest challenge of all.

“All right.” Her whisper was desolate.

o0o

The look on Nan’s face as she said those words stayed with
Joe through the rest of the meal. He laughed and joked with the others, but his
mind kept returning to Nan’s face, her words.

She’s so serious
, he thought helplessly.
Like this
is a life and death thing.
And then he understood at last that it was. This
was her whole life she was talking about. Not just the business about crossing
worlds, and hating her foster parents, but wanting to help kids. Like Blackeye,
who knew she wanted to be a ship captain, Nan knew what she wanted to do. It
was like they’d crossed some kind of invisible barrier, and for a short time,
anyway, they were adults. Or at least making adult decisions. Joe shook his
head; he didn’t even know what he wanted to do next summer.

After they ate, the musicians played, and a lot of kids got
up and danced. Even Nan did, though from time to time Joe saw tears glittering
on her face, as bright as any of the jewels the toffs wore.

Joe didn’t want to dance—he felt stupid doing it. A kind of
restlessness seized him, which the others didn’t notice.

Suddenly Master Dalved was next to him, and touched him on
the shoulder.

Joe got up and followed the magician further back into the
room.

There, away from the music and the noise of the dancers,
they faced one another. The man smiled. “So what will you take back, Joe
Robles?”

Joe grinned. “A set of great muscles.” He slapped his arms.

The magician laughed. “And?”

Joe sighed. “Is this like a quiz? Am I going to be graded on
right or wrong answers?”

“There is nothing to take back besides some weeks of weapons
training?”

Joe rubbed his jaw. Truth was, he hated conversations like
this. But, remembering Nan’s, he said, “I don’t know, I guess I have to think
it through. One thing is, that I’m lazy. I mean, about serious stuff. Like what
you do with your future. Like thinking you can’t do anything while you’re a
kid, so why try? Only I don’t know what I want to do as an adult.”

“Are there things you can do while you’re young?”

“My brother,” Joe said. “The parents just don’t seem to
notice him. I keep waiting for them to take over and be parents, but lately
I’ve been wondering if they ever will. He trusts me the most. If there’s a
problem, he always calls my name first. I guess I never thought about it
much—until that long day I was in the potato sack.”

Master Dalved laughed. “A sense of responsibility is a fine
thing to take back, Joe. Come! Enjoy the rest of your visit. We’ll have to
perform the spell at midnight, for then the crossing will be easiest since it
was at midnight when you left.”

Joe went back gratefully, and found some of the guys had
already gotten tired of dancing, and were busy with an arm wrestling match. He
joined in, delighted to find that there were some people he could beat—though
Warron won, of course.

Then came the play, which was a kind of enactment of the
freeing of the prince. It was full of adventure and laughter and surprises,
made by the magician who did stage illusions. Joe enjoyed it, though the
characters didn’t talk even remotely like he and his friends had. The one who
played him kept making all these heroic statements. Joe shook his head, half
proud, and half embarrassed.

And finally it was time to go.

Master Dalved led them out onto a terrace. Blackeye’s gang
came with them, and one by one said their good-byes.

“You’re a good hand in a fight,” Warron said, gripping Joe’s
shoulder.

“And a good friend to have by in the good times,” Tarsen
said.

“Thank you for helping us,” Blackeye said. “If you ever
cross worlds again, you always have a berth on my ship, and a bunk at the
island.”

The others said quieter good-byes, passing on to Nan, who
stood hunched and white-faced, her lips compressed. Sarilda gave Nan a big hug,
which made Nan sob again, and to Joe’s relief Master Dalved didn’t prolong the
moment, but did the magic suddenly, so they wouldn’t have to wait for it.

The same weird swirling sensation gripped them, and when it
cleared away, Joe found himself standing, alone, in front of his house.

The street was quiet, and cold. It smelled of car exhaust,
and wet trees, and
home
.

He dashed inside and up to his room, where he realized he
still had on his clothes from Blackeye’s world. Quickly he shucked them off,
and folded them, and put them high in his closet, where he could take them out
and look at them whenever he started thinking the whole thing had been a dream.

He pulled on some jeans, noticing that they were tight in
the legs. The shirt was worse. He looked in the mirror, grinning, and wondered
if he flexed his arms the shirt would rip, like some kind of idiot TV
superhero.

Then he thought: Unless I keep working out, all this
definition will go away.

Working out. Working.

He went in to his little brother’s room. Benny was still
sleeping. He bent down and kissed the soft little boy cheek, and noticed the
trace of tears. Bad dream?

I think I’ll tell him all about Blackeye’s world, Joe
decided, looking down at his brother. He can think it’s make-believe, but what
he’ll learn is how kids as small as he is can band together and make a difference,
just like Blackeye and the others in the Work House.

And so he did, starting the next day.

He joined the basketball team, and found that all that work
he’d done had gotten him into great shape for sports. The coach promised he’d
be on varsity by the next year.

He still saw Nan at school. She was as skinny as ever, and
pale, and grim-faced, but she didn’t slink around corners any more. In one
class, he saw that pest McKynzi start ragging on her, and wondered if he should
say anything, but Nan just turned around and
looked
. It was not a
threatening look, but not a nice one, either. It was a kind of look that went
right through, and McKynzi giggled, said something stupid, then backed off.

In subsequent days, he noticed, McKynzi left her completely
alone.

At home, Joe put his plan into action—with an unexpected
result. Mar Tee started listening in on the stories. At first Joe refused to
talk when she was around, but she kept trying, and finally he gave in,
threatening that if she did anything stupid, he’d call her Martha all the next
year, when she came to his school.

But she didn’t make fun of the story, she sat and listened. Benny,
of course, drank it in, and asked a zillion questions about details, which Joe
provided—and when he couldn’t remember, made up. He figured Blackeye and the
rest wouldn’t care.

When it was done, Mar Tee said grumpily, “I suppose you’ll
say I plagiarized you if I write it all down.”

“Write it down? Why?” Joe asked, amazed.

She shrugged sharply. “Because I have this assignment due at
school. Because I like stories like that—except I’m not as good at you at
making them up, obviously. As usual.”

Joe wondered then if Mar Tee wasn’t so different from Benny.
She didn’t get much attention, either, unless she was yelling—Marie’s problems
seemed to use up all Mom and Dad’s energy. Mar Tee and her tantrums were a way
of getting attention, any attention. Bad was better than none at all.

“Sure,” he said. “Be my guest.”

“Can I use your computer?”

“We’ll negotiate,” he said. “First off, no more hassling Ben
or his pals.”

Mar Tee snorted—but she agreed.

And so they worked it out, and the days sped by. Mar Tee
finished her project, and got an A, and basketball season ended, with the
school taking second place at the playoffs. Benny started karate lessons.

And then spring came.

And one day, when Joe got to school, Nan wasn’t there. At
first he was afraid that the Evanses had just sent her to another foster home...
until he got home from school and found in the mail a little package addressed
to him in a kid’s handwriting.

He ripped it open. Then he stared down at a little book, one
he’d thought left behind on another world:

Barefoot Pirate
.

Surprised, puzzled, hopeful, he dropped his backpack onto
the ground and sat on the front step, opening the book. Yes, it was the same as
before—but there were more pages added to the end.

He flipped back, and instead of the appeal that had first
sent Nan and him to the other world, Kevriac had written an account of what had
happened after they arrived. Joe grinned, swiftly discovering that—unlike the
play presented before the prince at the celebration—Kevriac had worked hard to
get everything right.

And at the very end, it said:

So Blackeye and her crew finished refitting the
Blue Falcon
and set sail for new lands. Joe and Nan returned to their own world.

But only for a time. The Mage Council found a way to bring Nan
back, sending a young mage in her place to study that mysterious world called
Earth.

And so Nan joined Kevriac at the magic school as a new student,
with a new name, and a new life.

The book vanished with a flash like sunlight on water.

www.bookviewcafe.com

Barefoot Pirate

Sherwood Smith

Copyright © 2010 Sherwood Smith

ISBN: 978 1 61138 053 8

Published by Book View Café April 2011

Cover by Gillian Standing

All Rights Reserved.

This book is a work of fiction. All characters, names,
locations, and events portrayed in this book are fictional or used in an
imaginary manner to entertain, and any resemblance to any real people,
situations, or incidents is purely coincidental.

www.bookviewcafe.com

Crown Duel
A Stranger to Command
Senrid
Fleeing Peace
Remalna’s Children
A Posse of Princesses
CJ’s Notebooks
Over the Sea
Mearsies Heili Bounces Back
Poor World
Hunt across Worlds
The Wren Series
Wren to the Rescue
Wren’s Quest
Wren’s War
Wren Journeymage
Exordium
(with Dave Trowbridge)
The Phoenix in Flight
Ruler of Naught
Short Fiction
Excerpts from the Diary of a Henchminion
Being Real
Book View Café Anthologies
Beyond Grimm
Brewing Fine Fiction
Ways to Trash Your Writing Career
Dragon Lords and Warrior Women

Sherwood Smith
was a teacher for twenty years, working with children from second grade to high school, teaching history, literature, drama, and dance.

She writes science fiction and fantasy for adults and young readers.