Read Online The Magic Touch by Jody Lynn Nye - Free Book Online

he wants to come of his own free will,” he added at the last moment, “he’ll be here on time.” Matthew sat with a rigid spine, clutching Rose’s hand, as Ray stirred the wand one more time.
    He felt a force rushing through his whole body, speeding toward his right hand, gathering into a mass around the wand. Then pale blue light shot with silver flowed out of the tiny star, forming a cylinder on the floor of the apartment. Small images seemed to flash by, floating on the invisible surface, seen, and then unseen. He heard tiny voices, the far-off sounds of telephone connections, the roar of a jet engine, and little, bitty voices singing the last line of “Happy Birthday to You.” When Ray was sure he’d shaken his whole string of instructions into the magic, he stilled his hand. The cylinder skittered away from him across the floor like a rampant tornado. Ray ran after it, wondering if he had done something wrong. The magic framework stopped only fifteen feet away, centering itself around a bowlegged telephone table near the living room door. Ray cartwheeled to a halt beside it, watching it spin more images and sounds, cotton candy-like, along its inner surface. The cylinder narrowed swiftly in diameter until it was the width of a drinking straw, then spiraled along down the phone cord and sank straight into the wall. All the noises and sounds died away as if they had swirled into a magical drain. Ray stared at the place where the cord connected to the wall, almost expecting to see smoke rise from it. He felt exhausted and exhilarated.
    “Very good, Ray!” Rose congratulated him. “Very nice.”
    “What happens now?” Matthew asked timidly. All the cynicism with which he had greeted them was gone. He was a humble, slightly scared little boy in the presence of a fabulous force he could not understand. Ray knew exactly how he felt. He was pretty well in awe of what had just happened, and he had done it.
    “Now? We wait for a phone call. That seems to be the way that Ray made the spell work. Sit down, Ray,” Rose said, patting the couch on her other side. “You look a little dazed. Magic can be a little hard on people, Matthew.”
    Ray tottered over and sank onto the spot she indicated. He rested his hands between his knees. His wand hand tingled. The sensation was like the goodness, but so much stronger. There must have been other forces in there, too: more direct, active forces that took his intentions and transformed them into energy that ought to be making reality happen. If he had done everything right.
    “That was really cool. I bet you do this a lot,” Matthew said to him. “You have a lot of … fairy godchildren, huh? Lots of kids you’ve helped.”
    Ray sat forward, his elbows on his knees, and looked him directly in the eye.
    “To tell you the truth, I’m new at this,” he said frankly. “This is my first day. And you’re my first, uh, godchild.”
    Matthew’s eyes widened. They studied Ray, then turned to follow the path of the magic tornado all the way to the telephone cord, trying to balance out superhero-power-movie-magic with the first try ever. Ray admitted it was hard for him to reconcile, too.
    “Wow!” Matthew said at last.
    “So that makes you special,” Ray said.
    “It was special. I’ll never forget it,” Matthew said solemnly. “That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Even if it doesn’t work.”
    “It’ll work,” Rose said confidently.
    The three of them waited there on the couch, staring at the telephone across the room. Several times, Rose tried to draw them into conversation. Matthew and Ray might offer one statement apiece. Then silence would fall again. Matthew was hoping with every bone in his body. He had his fists clenched on his knees. Ray could just see that his first and second fingers were crossed.
    The telephone rang suddenly into the silence. Matthew sprang up and ran across to answer it. Ray trembled with anticipation. He watched the