Doorways to Infinity (37 page)

“Mrs. Tully,” Jamie said, “do I not pay you enough?”

“That’s not it,” Mrs. Tully answered quickly. “It just seems wasteful to spend money on clothes when I can make them myself.”

“I gave her a quick lesson on it right before dinner,” Dr. Tindall said. “She’ll be able to use it right away, I’m sure.”

“Brinna has one in her shop now, too,” Aiven said brightly. “It’s for sale. John Paul got it for her in Hendersonville. John Paul said he can get more, if that one sells.”

“Oh, great,” Jamie said dryly. “Things will never be the same around here.”

Dr. Tindall levelled a finger at him and narrowed her eyes. “That’s what I’m talking about. You need to get some researchers in here soon before things change beyond recognition.” Jamie didn’t respond right away, so she added, “Think of it as the beginnings of your research institute. You still want to do that, don’t you?”

“Yeah, but…it’s complicated.”

“You can’t have a research facility without researchers. Otherwise, it’s just a building.”

As much as he was frightened by the prospect of telling more people about his magic, the idea of having more scientists around was appealing. A research facility was a fantasy, but maybe it could be more than that. Somehow. “All right. One or two researchers, but that’s all, for now. And I need to meet them, first.”

“Excellent.” Dr. Tindall smiled broadly. “I’ll make a list of my recommendations and give it to you when we get back to Cullowhee.”

* * *

Jamie lay in bed that night, staring into the darkness, letting his imagination run like a greyhound set free of its leash.
A research facility
. He put aside, for the moment, the fact that he could never tell that many people about his magic — all of the researchers and assistants and the large staff it would require to make it work — and he fantasized about what it could be like to create one.

In his mind, he pictured a multi-story, rectangular building, with a sign out front that said The Rivershire Institute of Science and Magic.
Or Magic and Science
? He couldn’t decide which was better. Inside, the corridors would bustle with people of all descriptions, clamorous with conversations in languages from all corners of the Earth, white lab coats everywhere.

One spacious gallery, full of magic portals, would be the heart of the institute. Glowing doorways would be spaced at even intervals along the walls, dozens on a side, and researchers with expensive-looking equipment would be lined up, waiting to go through to other worlds. They would wave when he walked by, eager to get his attention for a special project that they had in mind. “Mr. Sikes, do you have a moment?” Or, “Mr. Sikes, I have an interesting proposal I’d like to run by you.” Or possibly, “Mr. Sikes, you should see what we discovered yesterday on the newest unnamed planet.”

At the far end of the room he’d find scientists putting on their pressure suits, adjusting straps and tightening helmets, preparing to go through special airlocks to worlds with no atmosphere — Mars, the Earth’s moon, recently discovered worlds. At their feet, they’d have aluminum cases, and nearby, a vehicle, a rover, sporting large knobby tires and a tubular frame, with NASA stenciled on the sides.

Once a year, Jamie could change the doorways to open up to new places, after an Institutional Review Board (made up of top-notch researchers and his trusted friends) had carefully studied proposals. Universities from all over the world would be desperate to have their project chosen, and the competition for a special portal of their own would be fierce. Jamie would tell them,
Have you spoken to my staff? They make those decisions. Oh, and have you made arrangements for scholarships for the Rivershire School graduates?

Some scientists would want to stay in Rivershire for the convenience, since that’s where the research institute would be. Others would move to Hendersonville and commute through the permanent doorway in Granddaddy Pete’s warehouse. The ones from distant countries might bargain to have a portal that would connect the institute directly to their colleges: Oxford, Kyoto University, the University of Melbourne, Universität Heidelberg.

In the physics lab, which would be loaded with the most modern equipment, Jamie could work with world-renowned physicists to study things he had wondered about for years, such as the amount of energy he could generate with his most powerful blast, whether or not the doorways opened to quantum universes, and how his shield worked. They could also study how Rollie was able to fold space and run so incredibly fast, or how Aiven was able to communicate with horses.

Another lab, full of chemists and medical professionals, would study witches’ magic — how women like Fred and Keeva were able to take ordinary substances and infuse them with magic to make amazing potions and powders. Cancer could be cured. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, too. Severed limbs and spinal cords regrown. Miracles that would improve the lives of millions.

And all of it would be financed from the fortunes that Granddaddy Pete would generate for Jamie with his own special magic, the gray-haired man with the golden touch. There would be plenty of money, enough for the entire operation, and Jamie could hire his magical and non-magical friends, like Bryce and Melanie, and the kids from the track team. People he liked and trusted.

He put his hands behind his head and sighed toward the dark ceiling, his breath escaping like a genie from a bottle.
That would be cool
.
Working with my friends all the time
. The institute would be right next to Grannie Darla’s new park, and the landscaping would match so that it would be beautiful. Everything would be perfect.

He closed his eyes.
If could I only tell all of those people about the magic, the scientists and everybody. Too bad I can’t
.

Chapter 16

Saturday, the last one before school started back for the new semester, Jamie and Coach Harrison went to Rivershire to lay out the track. It was a relatively simple procedure, using a long tape measure, string, and wooden stakes. Coach brought along a manual published by Track and Field Magazine, and selected a standard 400-meter design from it because it would be big enough to incorporate a soccer field.

After they had all of the string staked in place, Jamie stripped the grass away with his magic, slicing it cleanly in sections and translocating it to a pile at the back of the property in case they needed any of it later. When he was finished, a huge oval of bare dirt remained.

Coach nodded as he appraised the results of their work. “That was fast. We’ll get the gravel spread on it tomorrow. Anybody coming to help us?”

“My dad’s driving the dump truck with the gravel, and I sent a message to everybody on the team, but I had to be vague about it in case someone’s snooping. I don’t know who will be back from vacation in time to help us, but I imagine a few will show up. I’ll borrow some wheelbarrows and yard tools from my parents and our neighbors.”

“Coach Dave will be here, though I don’t know how much help he’ll be if Miss Duffy comes, too.”

“I think he’s here today, somewhere.” Jamie turned and looked toward town. “They’re off courting, I suppose.”

Coach grunted a laugh. “Courting. Sounds funny to hear you put it that way.”

“That’s what they call it here, because they’re pretty old-fashioned about things like that. I remember when John Paul was dating Brinna. I doubt he spent the night with her until their honeymoon, even though both of them had been married before.”

Coach gazed toward town, too. “I guess I should be happy for Dave, but I don’t want to lose him. He’s a good coach, even if he’s only been with us a short time.” He shook his head and frowned. “I can’t be replacing assistant coaches year after year. It’s bad for the program, and it’s hard on me.”

“I’ll tell him I won’t make doorways for him if he doesn’t keep coaching for WCU.”

Coach laughed harder. “That’ll work. Do that for us.”

They returned the next day to finish the track, and many of Jamie’s teammates came with them, both girls and boys, all eager to help, a few of them with rakes or shovels that they’d managed to scrounge from somewhere.

Jamie made a doorway to Hendersonville, and his mother, the Callahans, and the Wilkins came through with wheelbarrows and yard tools. Sammi carried a toy rake in one hand and proudly showed it to Jamie. “I’m gonna help. Leora’s comin’, too.”

Then Jamie made a bigger doorway, and Carl drove through it in a dump truck full of gravel. Carl dropped the load on one side of the bare track, and before he’d moved the empty vehicle off the field, several horse-drawn wagons arrived. Families — mothers and fathers and kids — spilled put and began unloading shovels and rakes and wooden wheelbarrows of their own.

“All right!” Max raised a fist in the air. “Reinforcements have arrived.”

The mothers set out baskets full of food on the backs of their wagons: cookies and cakes and bread and jugs of cider. The men started working side-by-side with the track team, spreading the tiny gray rocks over the huge oval of dirt.

Mr. Bass came, too, and brought a sod roller to smooth out and compress the gravel. It looked like an oil drum turned on its side, with metal bars attached to each end that bent upward to form a handle. “It’s your day off, Mr. Bass,” Jamie called to him when he approached, pushing the contraption across the road from Granddaddy Pete’s headquarters.

“I want to help,” he replied. “I think it’ll be fun.”

Miss Duffy came with her flute, and she sat close by and played for them, and the event began to take on a festive atmosphere, like when they’d first built the school, with music, food, and occasional laughter mingling with the work, and children playing in the grassy field encircled by the track.

Coach Harrison stood with his shovel in one hand and admired the scene. “Jamie, is it always like this when you build stuff for this school?”

Jamie looked around for a moment and shrugged. “Pretty much.”

“It’s like a party!” Allison said, pushing an empty wheelbarrow past them.

Coach chuckled and nodded. “The kids from the team are certainly enjoying it. They seem to get along pretty well with the Rivershire folks.”

“I thought they would,” Jamie said.

The work went so quickly that they decided they had time to expand the facility. After making a shot put circle, they had just enough gravel left over to make a long jump runway, so Carl and Mr. Bass took a couple of the boys back to Hendersonville to fetch bags of sand for the landing pit from the hardware store.

When it was nearly completed, Carl watched Coach Harrison level the last of the sand, scraping a board across the surface until it was smooth.

“The pit looks good, Coach,” Carl said. “Everything does. Now all you need to do is paint the lanes on the track.”

Coach tossed the two-by-four aside and wiped his hands. “It’s not hard. You use this little machine with wheels, and it lays down the paint as you roll it around the track. I can get you one of those, cheap. You only have to do it every few months, depending on how much you use the track.”

“Then I want you to teach me how to do it,” Mr. Bass said.

“Don’t you have enough to do around here as it is?” Carl said.

“It should be my, job, if it’s part of the school. I’ll teach Stev how to do it, too. Besides, I want to make sure it gets done right. We can’t have anything shabby-looking around here. Got to be first rate.” He gave one firm nod.

By the look in his eyes, Carl could tell that Mr. Bass took his job seriously.
He’s proud of this place,
Carl realized. He glanced at his watch and said, “It’s getting late. Anybody seen Jamie?”

“He wandered off a few minutes ago,” DeSean said.

Carl found Jamie near the road, gazing at the field catty-cornered from the school. “Why are you over here by yourself?” Carl said when he neared him.

“Hunh?” Jamie spun to face him. “Oh, just thinking. Trying to picture how everything’s going to look once it’s finished.”

“Is that where the park is going to go?”

“Yeah, I guess. Next to Granddaddy’s headquarters. I thought we could build the playground at the front of it so the kids from the school can use it, since it’s so close. I want it to have swings and slides and everything.”

“It’s going to be great, Jamie.” Carl nodded and looked in the direction Jamie had just been facing. “The work went really fast today, with all the help we had. Your track friends seem to get along really well with the Rivershire folks.”

“I figured they would,” Jamie said. “After the bonfire and all. My teammates like it here.”

“Your coach said you guys can train here tomorrow if you want to. It might rain in Cullowhee.”

Jamie only mumbled a response and turned to gaze again at the empty pasture next to his grandfather’s building. He stared in that direction for a long moment before Carl said, “Something on your mind?”

“No, not really. Well…maybe, kinda.” He pointed off in the distance. “There’s still going to be room over there for a research facility, if we ever build one.”

“What do mean, if? Is it a matter of money?”

“No, Granddaddy said we’ll probably have enough once we sign another mining deal, and the facility itself would generate some income, too, according to Dr. Tindall.”

“So what is it, then? Is it because you’d have to tell so many people about the magic?”

“At least a hundred, maybe more. There’s no way I can tell that many people. I’m scared to tell even one more person.”

“Don’t give up on your dream so easily, Jamie. There might be a way to make it happen.” Carl looked across the road again and tried to picture the big building that Jamie had described to him once. “What do you suppose Eddan would’ve thought of a research center right here in Rivershire?”

“If he were still alive, he’d move in and never leave. Security wouldn’t be able to keep him out. He’d sleep on the couches in the lobby, if he ever remembered to sleep.”

“He might not be the only one like that, from what I’ve heard of scientists. Better make sure you have showers installed, when you build it.”

“And a cafeteria, too.
If
we build it.”