Read Online Any Which Wall by Laurel Snyder - Free Book Online Page A

which would probably be ‘what,’ and let me tell you, a glimpse of ‘what’ is sure to be vague. No fun at all.”
    “Should we close our eyes?” asked Susan.
    Merlin chuckled at the suggestion. “You can, but if you do that, you won’t be able to see the glimpse. Visions are awfully visual. Now, who wants to go first? I’m due for a three-day nap as soon as the four of you leave.”
    “A three-day nap?” Henry couldn’t believe that anyone would voluntarily surrender to such a fate.

    “Yes, I don’t have any visitors scheduled for a bit, and I don’t rest easy when I do rest, so I like to put myself to sleep for a good stretch every few weeks. Gives me a chance to dream.” Merlin got a faraway look on his face. “Such dreams …” He shook his head so that the bird’s nest dangled precariously, and pointed at Susan. “You, nearly grown! You go first!”
    Susan, startled and unprepared, leaned over her bowl and said the first word that came to mind. She murmured the word “love” and then blushed as soon as she’d said it.
    Henry snickered.
    Slowly, a wisp of faint smoke curled up from the bowl and turned into what looked like a round pictureframe. In the center of the frame was a small group of people jostling each other. Susan couldn’t help noticing that at the center of that crowd was a young man in a blue T-shirt, with a shock of blond hair that stood straight up. Only his back was showing, but he had a confident posture and he seemed to be laughing at something. Susan barely noticed the other people standing beside him, until something happened to jerk him so that he almost fell over and toppled onto an old lady.
    Henry made a snorting noise in his throat and rolled his eyes, but Susan ignored him and stared at Merlin. “What is it?” she asked. “Who’s that guy? Why am I seeing him?”
    “I can’t answer that for you,” said Merlin. “I only know that it’s just some part of your future. Fate is limited, my dear, and so are visions. I can show you a moment in your future, but what it will mean to you—well, that’s up to you. Free will and all its bothersome trappings.” Susan’s vision began to fade and the wizard turned his attention to the others. “Now you!” he said, motioning to Henry.
    Henry pushed his tongue against his teeth in concentration, thinking deeply before he grinned and said into the bowl, “Trouble.”
    His wisp rose—a paler color than Susan’s—and inno time at all they were all staring at Henry’s picture frame. Inside it was a palm tree on a beach set against a blazing tropical sun. The palm tree waved and small waves rose and fell behind it, crashing to gentle surf before the scene faded.
    Henry was indignant. “That’s not trouble!” he said. “That’s, like, the opposite of trouble!”
    “Be careful what you ask for,” said Merlin as he watched the scene fade. “You just might get it.”
    He patted Emma on the head. “Your turn!” he said brightly.
    Emma’s hands shook as she held her bowl. “Friends?” said Emma, with her lips to the bowl but her eyes on the wizard.
    Emma’s picture frame rose before her, but inside it was not a person or a scene. It was a plain black oval, a circle of absolute darkness.
    “It’s broken, I think,” she said, shaking her bowl of weed water gently from side to side.
    “I don’t think so,” said Merlin. “My magic is pretty unbreakable. I guess you’ll just have to wait and see what that darkness is.”
    Now it was Roy’s turn. “I can’t figure out the best word to say,” he said. “This magic is tricky.”
    Merlin laughed. “By definition! Perhaps it’s best notto overthink. That can be just as dangerous as under-thinking, and sometimes far worse. Maybe you should just say the first word that pops into your head.”
    Roy thought this advice through carefully before he nodded. Then he leaned into his bowl and whispered, “Home!”
    His dish steamed and popped and a wisp of smoke curled