Read Online Wizard's Holiday, New Millennium Edition by Diane Duane - Free Book Online Page B

screen in the Speech and talking into her smartphone. “Come on over and we’ll find out,” Kit said. “I think this’ll go all right.”
    Outside, without warning, the howling started… in chorus.
    “Kit!” his father said.
    “Just hurry up,” Kit said. “I need some moral support!”
     
    ***
     
    To Kit, it seemed to take hours for Nita to arrive. His brain was buzzing with plans and possibilities that couldn’t start getting handled until he’d settled things with his folks. But it was really only about ten minutes before Nita bounced in the back door, grinning. “Here,” she said, and handed Kit a chicken, wrapped in plastic wrap on a little cardboard tray.
    “Thanks,” Kit said, and stowed it in the fridge.
    “What’s that noise? Opera?”
    Beyond, in the living room, the entertainment system was making a sound like a fire siren bewailing its lot. “No,” Kit said, “just ‘Mela’s chat application again. Come on.”
    “By the way, the K-9 Corps is out there again,” Nita said as she and Kit headed through the dining room. “Hi, Mrs. R.”
    “Hi, Nita,” Kit’s mama said from the sofa, where she was still lying with her feet up on the arm and her eyes closed. “Dinner in half an hour.”
    “Thanks!”
    “At least they’re just sitting there now,” Kit said softly. “They were howling before.”
    “I missed that. Where’s Ponch?”
    “Out back somewhere. He got them to be quiet, and after that he took off. H’s never real social after he has to go talk to them. Don’t ask me why…”
    They went into the living room. There Carmela was sitting cross-legged on the rug in front of the TV, her phone now on the floor nearby but, miraculously, not in use. “Hi, ‘Mela,” Nita said. She peered at the screen. “‘Multispecies General Discussion,’” she read off the channel-indicator band at the bottom. “What’s it like?”
    “Interesting, mostly.”
    “What’re you talking about?”
    “Grenfelzing. Which for some reason Kit doesn’t want me to get involved with. He thinks it’ll stunt my growth.”
    “Anything that would keep you from needing to buy new clothes every other week would be welcome,” said Kit’s pop from behind the paper. “If grenfelzing has that effect, bring it on.”
    Kit looked at the screen, which Nita was studying with interest. It was divided into three main parts: a status bar along the bottom; a constantly scrolling column down one side; and the main part of the screen, subdivided into eight squares, each of which featured a live image, or what looked like one. The scrolling column was full of words in the Speech, moving very fast indeed, and the audio was screeching or blatting or warbling or hooting with any number of alien-sounding voices, all talking (it seemed) at once.
    “Which one is supposed to be you?” Nita said, looking at the screen.
    “That one.” Carmela pointed at what appeared to be a portrait of a pink octopus. “I picked it off a screenful of sample cover faces.”
    ‘“Mela,” Nita said, “you know what would be better? Go off-line and pick something more humanoid. Otherwise, if Pink Octopus Guy turns up at school someday and wants to sit next to you, the explanation you’re going to find yourself making is going to sound like something out of a lame sitcom.”
    “Oh,” Carmela said. “Okay.” She tossed the remote to Kit. “But do aliens really turn up on Earth just like that?”
    “There’s no other possible way to explain you,” Kit said.
    “Ooooooooo,” Carmela said, standing up without uncrossing her legs. “I feel unloved now. Nita, come see my catalogs!”
    “I’ll come up in a while,” Nita said. “Thanks.”
    Carmela wandered upstairs. Kit glanced at his pop. “Uh, Popi,” Kit said, “uh, is it okay if I go halfway across the galaxy for a couple of weeks?”
    “Sure,” Kit’s father said from behind the paper. “Is Nita going with you?”
    “Uh, yeah, Pop.”
    “Her dad said it’s