Eva’s fitness class was a big hit, as usual. The kids that participated had more color in their cheeks and seemed to be energized. When she’d first suggested it last year, there was a lot of skepticism about it from the parents, but when Dr. Hodges showed them studies indicating that there were real benefits to the kids, even if they were varied, most of the parents signed their kids up.

  Afterwards, we played some group games like ‘I spy’ and Math Challenge. The hospital employees had chipped in to set up a prize box for the kids and we gave out prizes to the game winners. Sometimes we made up a contest, like Best Lyer-Downer or Most Somber, just to be able to give a kid a prize and cheer him or her up.

  Today, Evan, a seven-year-old boy that I’d made friends with over the past few months, showed me his new magic set. He’d won it from the prize box last week for Best Hair. The Mohawk wig that he’d worn had us all in hysterics. The magic set had a top hat, cups, balls, string and an instruction booklet. Evan had been practicing all week and he showed me his tricks. He wasn’t bad at all and I applauded every trick. When he asked me if I wanted to try it out, I stopped for a few seconds and thought about it. I could use my field to do things that professional magicians could only dream of, but I couldn’t show that to anyone. However, nothing was stopping me from doing small magic. Stuff that the kids and the parents could explain away in their minds.

  “I used to do some magic tricks when I was your age, Evan.”, I began. “I can show you, if you’d like.”

  He indicated that he’d like with a vigorous nod of his head.

  “Ok, but this magic was taught to me by my grandfather who learned it from his grandfather who learned it from an old swami that lived on the top of a mountain in Tibet and my grandfather made me promise to never tell anyone how I did the magic. I can show you the magic, but I can’t teach it to you. Is that ok?” It was mysterious so of course it was.

  Sitting down on the floor in the play area, I said, “Let’s start with something simple. I’ll need that top hat and a ball.” Both were supplied to me and I put the ball on the floor in front of me. “Now, Evan I’m going to ask you to put the hat over the ball.” He did it. “Now stand back while I say the magic words, “I Love Chocolate Chip Cookies!” and presto!”

  “You didn’t do anything, Abby.”, Evan complained.

  “Sure I did. Look under the hat.” He did and the ball wasn’t there. I had put a field around it and sent it into R1. The look of complete awe on his face was priceless.

  “You didn’t even touch the ball or the hat. How’d you do that?”

  “Remember, I promised my grandfather that I would never tell anyone the secrets of the swami from Tibet.”

  “Can you make it come back?”, he asked, and I told him to put the hat back on the floor where it was before. I walked around the hat and pretended to think. I asked him to move the hat over a bit to the right and then back an inch to the left. When it was just over where the ball was I told him to stop and I said the magic words again and brought the ball back to reality with a lot of hand waving and finger flourishes.

  Evan’s delight at seeing the ball when he lifted the hat was something that I’ll always treasure. I spent the next hour doing all sorts of tricks for him and for the other kids. I had quite the crowd by the time the parents started coming back and the shift ended. Eva joined me and we both signed out of the ward.

  “Abby, I’ve never seen you do magic before. Where did you learn to do that?”, Eva asked me with genuine curiosity.

  “Well, my grandfather’s grandfather met a swami in Tibet.”

  “Don’t give me that bull. I’m not seven. Those tricks you did were amazing. I can’t figure out how you did any of them. Most of the time you weren’t even near the trick. You should go on America’s Got Talent. If you could make the tricks bigger, you’d win the million dollars for sure.”

  “Nah, Simon doesn’t like magicians. If only I could sing. Then he’d love me.” Using my best southern drawl, I broke out into “Buy me a Boat” by Chris Janson. She joined me at the chorus, and we sang all the way to Mark’s room.

  Connor was waiting outside Mark’s door when we got to his floor and he saw us coming down the hall. He ran over to us and gave us the rundown on Mark. He was awake and doing great. Everyone was in the room and it was boring, so he decided to sit outside for a bit. There wasn’t cell phone coverage in this area, so he was stuck playing off-line games that he had on his phone, like Crossy Road. As usual with 13-year-old boys, you either got too much information or not enough. This was definitely the former.

  When we got to the room, Connor barged in without knocking and formally announced us. “Mark! Abby’s here with her friend from the video.” Turning back to Eva, he asked, “What’s your name?” The room felt like it was packed with people, but there were only five people in it besides Mark and us. Mr. and Mrs. McKenzie were there with Rose and two other men that looked to be Mark’s age.

  “Connor, this is Eva. Eva this is Connor, Mark’s brother.” I introduced her to Mark’s parents and got introduced to Jerry and Steven, Mark’s now ex-roommates. As Stacey took a step away after giving me a quick embrace, I saw Mark and gave him a little wave.

  “And I’m Mark. It’s really great to meet you, Abby. Thank you for saving me.” With him not being unconscious this time, I could see his blue eyes and his ready smile.

  “No problem. Although, I would have preferred if you’d supplied a wagon or a cart to carry you in. You’re very heavy.”

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  Everyone laughed and spent a few minutes talking about the fire. They weren’t sure exactly what caused it yet, but it definitely started in the kitchen where Jerry was cooking lunch. Right now, they suspected some sort of electrical fault. With the house being so old and made of mostly wood, the small fire spread too quickly to be contained. Jerry told us that the house had burned almost completely to the ground and there didn’t seem to be anything to salvage.

  Mr. McKenzie, who insisted that I call him Andrew, said, “I’ll got have a look tomorrow anyways, if the university and their insurance company will let me. I’m still hopeful that we can find Grandma Nancy’s pendant. The setting might be damaged, but the diamond would only need to be polished.”

  Stacey explained that Jake, Mark’s grandfather, was in mining and he put the first diamond that he ever mined in a pendant for his wife, Nancy, and she wore it for over 40 years before she passed away last year. Mark was supposed to take the pendant to a local jeweler to have it set in a bracelet and they were going to present it to Jake next month for his birthday.

  “Well, if you’d like some help, I’d be happy to meet you there after school tomorrow.”, I offered.

  “That’s very kind of you, Abby, but I’m not even sure if I’ll be allowed to yet. I have to contact the university first and figure out who to speak with. Even if I do get permission, I can’t ask you to come help after all you’ve already done.”

  “You didn’t ask. I offered. As to permission, give me a minute.” I pulled out my phone and searched my contacts for Harry. Dad and I usually saw Harry once a month for dinner and I rarely spoke to him on the phone. Lately though, he’s called me a few times regarding my ‘post secondary educational career’. I hadn’t had the heart to tell him that I wasn’t really interested in going to college anymore and even if I did, the idea of school as a career was not for me. I was forming other plans.

  “Hi Harry, it’s Abby.”

  Harry’s, “What the hell did you think you were doing, Abby?” could easily be heard by everyone in the room, even though I didn’t have him on speaker. I held the phone a bit farther from my ear as he launched into his own version of dad’s rant. I looked around and saw that most everyone in the room was covering up smiles and trying hard not to laugh. Connor failed miserably.

  I broke into Harry’s harangue, “Harry. Dad already gave me the speech and you can give it to me again later. I called because I’m with the McKenzie’s right now and Mr. McKenzie wants to go to Mark’s place tomorrow to look through it for something. Is that possible to arrange?”

  I listened to Harry and then handed my phone to Andrew. “He wants to speak with you.” Andrew took the phone with a puzzled expression on his face and walked out of the room to speak with Harry.

  Mark asked, “Who’s Harry?”

  Eva piped up, a wicked grin on her face, “You should know him Mark. Although you would usually refer to him as Mr. Kronin or Dean Kronin.”

  “You know Dean Kronin? That man is intense. He does some of the interviews with likely incoming applicants. I’ve never been so terrified in my life. I was sweating like I’d just run a marathon.” Jerry shuddered at the memory.

  “Harry and my dad have known each other for years. When he became the dean, he came over and offered dad a job.” I didn’t want to get into how Harry had been mom’s boss because then there’d be all those questions about mom.

  Andrew came back in and handed me back my phone. “Well, we’re all set for tomorrow afternoon, if you’re still game to go. The fire department has already cleared the site as safe to inspect, since there's not much left, and the insurance people should be out of there by tomorrow morning. Campus security will be informed that it’s ok for us to look around for a bit. Harry said that he’d take care of everything.”

  Stacey looked at her husband skeptically and asked, “Harry, huh? You’re on a first name basis with the Dean of the university now?”.

  Andrew gave her a bewildered look. “Harry’s not the dean of the university. The dean is Mr. Kronin. Dad’s known him for years, but I’ve never met him. I think Harry’s one of their building supervisors.”

  Eva sputtered and I turned red in embarrassment. “I’m sorry Andrew. I should have introduced you properly before I handed you the phone. That was Harry Kronin, the dean.”

  Andrew paused for a few seconds and then turned back to his wife and said, “Oh. In that case Stacey, I guess I am on a first name basis with the dean of the university.”

  Shortly after that a nurse came in and kicked everyone out. I set up a meeting time with Andrew for tomorrow and Eva and I made our farewells.

  As we rode down the elevator, Eva commented, “Mark’s hot. You didn’t happen to notice that did you? I’m only asking because you left that part out when you gave me play by play of the rescue.”

  “He’s kind of cute, I guess.” Disinterested nonchalance was what I was going for. I think I pulled it off.

  “Uh huh. Right. You’re not pulling off the indifference very well.”

  Ok. I didn’t pull it off. “How did you know I was thinking that?”, I asked.

  “Because I know you. He’s your type.”

  “I have a type?” We got off the elevator and walked towards the exit.

  “Yes. Tall, dark hair, blue eyes. Kind of like that guy over there in the black hoodie.” Eva indicated with her chin and I turned my head to look at the guy just as he saw me and said, “Hi Abby! How are you feeling?”.

  Eva gave me a ‘How the hell do you know this guy?’ look.

  “Hey Tyler! I’m fine, thanks. How about you?” I could see Eva’s eyebrows rise as she connected Tyler with the stories that I told her this summer.

  “I’m not the one running into burning buildings and saving random strangers. I was shocked when I came to see you this morning that you had already been released. Seriously, what the hell did you think you were doing?”

  “Why does everyone keep asking me that question? I thought that helping people was a socially acceptable activity, but when you actually do it, you get yelled at.” I sighed dramatically and tried to look put out by the whole affair. They didn’t buy it. They just laughed at me.

  “If you came this morning, why are you back now?”, Eva asked him once I’d introduced them.

  “One of the nurses said that Abby would probably be back for her regular volunteering shift and that she got off right around now. I wanted to make sure that she was ok.”

  “I’m ok. Really. Not a scratch on me.” I pirouetted around so he’d see that I had no injuries anywhere. “But I really do appreciate that you cared enough to come check up on me. Twice.”

  “Well, it was either catch you here or ask your dad about you in class and I really didn’t want to do that. I don’t think he likes me very much. Not that I blame him, after how I treated you.”

  “That’s all in the past. You apologized. I’m sure that he’s forgotten all about it.”

  “I guess I’ll find out tomorrow when classes start.” He looked at his watch and said, “I’m glad you’re alright, Abby. What you did was amazing, but please don’t do it again. It was nice to meet you, Eva.”

  “Where are you off too? Big family goodbye dinner?”, Eva asked.

  “I’m just off on my run. I like to keep to a set schedule, if I can.” He’d ignored the question about his family, but I wasn’t going to press him. I know that family questions can sometimes be hard to answer.

  “You’re on fire today, Abby. First Mark and now Tyler. Hot and hotter. Did you notice Tyler’s muscles?” Eva was enjoying herself and I decided to join her in the fun.

  “I did mention to you that Tyler was cute.”

  “If that’s cute, I’d really like to see the guy you think is hot.” Eva continued to point out Tyler’s interesting features as we made our way home.