Well, joke is on them—because I can’t.
I rub my throat, as if I could feel the binding Sev laid on me, while I walk past a couple more cars parked on a gravel pull-off. My feet take me to the barn, where I spy Jack standing beside a short blonde woman, a white man with a thick brown beard, and a Black man with broad shoulders.
When I get close, Jack steps forward and begins to point. Starting with me.
“Bo, you know Ophelia. And this is Lee.” He points to the bearded man. “And that’s Xavier.” He finishes with the tall Black man.
Concise introductions done, he steps back next to Ophelia, who I met when she came to the library with Mor’s brother the other day.
“All right now, you can use any of the machines that you want. But don’t be bringing out that super strength on them. These are delicate pieces of machinery.” The warning comesfrom Xavier as he pulls out a key and unlocks the door to the barn.
“Machines?” I ask, still not sure what exactly we hope to accomplish in this gathering.
“Our mates want us to talk about our feelings. What it’s like to lose years.” Lee is the one who offers this through his thick beard. His voice is scratchy and rough. A lot different from the pretty boy I remember from high school. “Figured we could do it while not staring at each other.”
As he finishes explaining, Xavier opens the large door, and inside, I spy something beautiful.
Pinball machines.
Rows and rows of pinball machines.
“Welcome to my hoard.”
The scene starts to make sense. If Xavier is friends with Lee, then there’s a high chance he’s a dragon. Most dragons pick some kind of item that they hoard.
But I’ve never heard of a dragon hoarding pinball machines.
Though it seems like a much better option to me than the massive amounts of scrap metal Dimitri had piled high in his home.
As I step over the threshold, I realize that this barn likely has the same magic seeped into its old wooden planks as the house Mor lives in. And if any of us were to attempt to steal one of these pinball machines, chances are, the protections would come to life and enact some type of punishment that would be just as bad as what I experienced.
Silently, I try to make my intentions clear to the dragon magic in this place.
The owner of this hoard has invited me here. I plan to be respectful to everything in this room. I will take nothing that is not already mine. Please don’t hurt me.
“I … I’ve never played pinball before.” This gentle confession comes from Ophelia. She blinks around the room with big eyes, taking in all the colorful machines and missing the way that Xavier gapes at her.
Lee gives his friend an elbow to the ribs, and the guy clears the shock off his face before the small firebird turns her attention to him.
Xavier clears his throat and offers her a kind smile. “Well then, you’re in for a treat. It’s a pretty easy game to learn. But you’re gonna have a lot of competition to get the high score.” He waves her toward a game with a steamboat theme. “Let me show you how it’s done. Then I’ll leave you all to it.”
Not too long later, the four of us set up at four machines that are side by side, and soon, I realize the genius of Lee’s choice.
We don’t have to look at each other. We don’t even have to talk to each other. We all get to focus on something fun. Something that all of us either knows how to do, no matter how long we were away, or can figure out easily.
“Before the sorcerer, I grew up pretty sheltered,” Ophelia offers as she starts her game over. “My dad didn’t let me leave our homestead. That’s why I’ve never played pinball before. I didn’t know a lot of things about the modern world even though I had only been trapped for three years.” Her voice is quiet but strong as she slips a quarter into the machine.
Xavier gave each of us a bag of his own money, grinning and saying that he wasn’t going to charge us for the use of his hoard and this was easier than having to open up the change slot for every round that we played.
“How’s it been?” I ask, counting her as the bravest among us since she shared first. “Trying to learn all the modern stuff? Mor showed me her phone, but I was worried that I’d crack the screen.”
Ophelia tosses me a grin as she presses the buttons on the side of her machine. “Smartphonesareconfusing. But once you get the hang of using one, it’s really fun. All the information that you can search online. I get lost on it sometimes, and Broderick has to gently take my phone from me just so I realize what is going on in the world around me. And don’t worry so much about breaking the screen. I’ve dropped my phone while flying, and it still survived.” She slips her hand into her back pocket and pulls one of the devices out to show me no cracks on the glass. “Google is also great when someone says something I don’t understand.”
Jack snorts beside her, but the sound doesn’t come out as derisive. More like he thinks the slang is ridiculous.
“Town is different.” This observation comes from Lee. “I know what it was like. When you were here before. What the people thought like back then.” The dragon keeps his intense blue stare on the game in front of him, but I feel like he’s digging into my brain and pulling out the questions that mean the most to me. “Not gonna tell you everyone’s changed. But the close-minded ones, they have less power than they used to.”
“Really?” I hear the doubt in my own voice.
