“Of course,” he says, dropping it in the water. He reaches back into the rucksack. “This one takes itself too seriously, but I know you’re a sucker for Westerns.” He pitches another book over the rail. “I would have brought more, but I didn’t know I was coming. I did get this, though, on the way.” He holds up a radio. “Waterproof.”
“No shhuchh thing,” she drips.
“Well, water-resistant,” he says, dropping it in. The water gushes up to catch it. “I’ll be back when I can to change the batteries.”
“Thankshhhep. You’rre a good frriend.”
Simon has wandered down the walkway a bit, now that we have as much as we’re going to get about Agatha. He’s flapping his wings to look farther over the rail.
A wall of water rises up in front of him, and the woman’sshape seems to walk through it, reaching for Simon’s chin. “I know you,” she says, daubing at him.
Simon lands on the pavement, standing very still.
“You werrre the drrrain.”
He nods. “Yeah.… Sorry. Did I take your magic?”
“Not mine. The worrrrld’sh, yeshhh?”
“I’m sorry,” Simon says again. “I didn’t know.”
She smooths his hair back, sopping it. “Shhookay,” she burbles. “You put it back. And morrre.”
He bows his head and lets her hand fall over him.
Baz and I are transfixed. So is the security guard a few feet away.
I hold up my amethyst.“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for!”
“These aren’t the droids I’m looking for,” the man says, turning away. “Why was I looking for droids.…”
“We have to go,” Baz says. He looks at the river. “Thank you.”
“She wasn’t that much help,” I mutter. Baz elbows me.
The water has returned to Shepard to say good-bye. He’s promising to come back as soon as he can. To visit her headwaters at La Poudre Pass. “Shhhep,” she implores of him, “won’t you blow up the dam forrr me?”
“Not this time,” he says. “But I’ll continue to think about it.”
“It would be betterrr for everryone.”
“Everyone but me,” he says. “But I’ve got it on my list of long-term goals.”
“That would be terrorism!” I say.
“Liberrrashhion,” the river disagrees.
“Magic save us from radicals,” I say, sounding, to my dismay, pretty much exactly like my mother.
41
BAZ
Sometimes Bunce’s boldness is just arrogance. She harangues Shepard all the way back to the truck. As if there’s no way the guards will see through our magic, and like the river definitely won’t change its mind and sweep us all off the top of the dam.
“Why did you throw litter into the water?” Bunce asks at full volume.
“Because she gets bored,” Shepard says. “People used to drop all sorts of things into her. Newspapers, matchbooks, divorce papers. Now all she gets is chemical runoff and iPhones that break as soon as they touch her.”
