Science and Sorcery by Christopher Nuttall Page A

the wrong moment, but he suspected that he could learn.  Clairvoyants were reporting that they actually could talk to the dead, although the dead weren't always happy about being disturbed.  One report stated that a clairvoyant’s house had been torn apart by invisible forces, while the woman herself – and her clients – had been stripped naked, pinched so badly that their bodies were still bruised, and then dumped outside.  Calvin would have found that absurd, if he hadn't read the line that stated that the clients wanted to know where their uncle had hidden his money.  Maybe you could take it with you when you left after all. 
     
    And then there was the story of a girl who had grown bigger breasts, or the girl who had suddenly become the most attractive woman in the world, or the folksinger whose voice seemed to be able to perform magic, or the swimmer who had grown gills and a tail...
     
    A crash from downstairs interrupted his musings.  Calvin stood up, wondering if the police had finally drawn the connection between him and Moe and come to arrest him.  Killing Moe had been a service to humanity, but he wouldn't expect the police to see it that way.  They served the established order, the same order that wanted to keep the nerds and geeks and everyone else with brains firmly under control.  Feeling magic billowing around him, he advanced to the top of the stairs and sighed in relief when he saw Mindy.  His sister might be irritating as hell – little sisters always were – but she wasn't the police.
     
    “You’re so lucky,” Mindy said, as Calvin walked downstairs.  “They didn't cancel my school.”
     
    Calvin shrugged.  “You don’t go to the same school,” he reminded her.  “No one died at your school.”
     
    “Petal might have,” Mindy said.  She smiled, expecting her brother to listen to her.  “No one has seen anything of her for three days and the teachers are worried.”
     
    “I bet they are,” Calvin said sardonically.  No one had given a shit when Moe had treated him like dirt, but someone as attractive as Petal...well, it would be a different story for her.  “I’m sure she’s fine.”
     
    “She normally goes on Messenger or Yahoo Chat as soon as she gets home from school,” Mindy said, seriously.  “Right now...she’s been completely silent.  No one knows what has happened to her.”
     
    “She’s probably ill,” Calvin said.  He found it hard to care.  Petal was seven years younger than him and went to a different school.  Either one would have put a barrier between them, even if Mindy and her friends hadn’t tormented him during one of her birthday parties.  It had just been another reminder that he didn't have any friends to attend a birthday party of his own.  “Why don't you go see her after school?”
     
    “Because mom says that I am to come home and not dawdle on the way,” Mindy said.  Their mother hadn't quite believed most of the reports sweeping the nation, but she’d believed enough to insist that her children came home before dark.  God alone knew what was going to happen during the next full moon.  “And I have tried to call her and there was no answer.”
     
    Calvin sat down at the table as Mindy started to prepare canned soup.  His kid sister got to come home for lunch, unlike him, something else that rankled even though his school was too far away for him to get home for lunch and then back again before classes resumed.  There were times when he wondered if he had been adopted, or if there was some dark secret behind his conception; Mindy took far more after their mother than Calvin did after their father.  But they did look alike...if only he’d had their father’s muscles instead of the face.  His life would have been much easier.  What if his mother had cheated on his father and the man he’d been raised to call daddy wasn't his real father?  The fact they shared the same looks could be the product of wishful