The Lost Gate Part 34

"No it doesn't," said Danny.

It obviously bothered Lieder that Danny was not flattered to be offered a place on the team. "How much of this do you think I'm going to take from you?"

"Track is voluntary, sir," said Danny. "And I don't race."

"You don't race race?" asked Lieder.

"I like running with with people. When you race, one of you is supposed to leave the other behind. What's the point of running people. When you race, one of you is supposed to leave the other behind. What's the point of running with with somebody, if you end up by yourself?" somebody, if you end up by yourself?"

Lieder was going to have a stroke. "To win!" he said.

"To win what?" asked Danny.

"The. Race."

"I don't race." Danny started walking back to the gym.

"Run that again and let me time you this time!" demanded Lieder.

Danny just kept walking. "I've already run it twice. It's going to be ninety-five today. I'm going inside."

After gym he had biology and then drama. In biology he sat there silently, judging how current the teacher's information was. In drama, he made a huge splash just by being male in a cla.s.s with eleven girls and only two other guys.

By the end of the first day, Danny was legendary in exactly the way he wanted. Everybody knew his name. He had defied a teacher. He had shown that he could really, really run. Yet he didn't care about winning. And Sin-Cynthia Arnelle, the Goth who was allergic to her piercings-was convinced that he had done something magical to heal her. "He even erased the holes," she was telling people.

"They just grew over," Laurette told them adamantly. "He didn't heal anything." didn't heal anything."

Danny was leaving school right then, jogging past. "Hey, you!" Sin shouted. Danny jogged over to her. "You erased my piercings, you a.s.shole."

Danny looked her over closely. "You have piercings?" he asked.

"Not now, now," she said. "Thanks to you."

"When did I do this?" asked Danny, showing a puzzled expression.

"When you got up from the table at lunch. You jostled me, and now my piercings have completely healed over."

Danny looked from Sin to Laurette and the other girls. "Wow," he said. "For a girl named Sin, she's doing pretty well with faith-healing."

Sour Girl's complexion was now clear, and if she smiled she'd probably be pretty. Danny reached out to stroke her cheek. She slapped his hand away, a.s.suming, no doubt, that he was mocking her. She didn't like to be touched on a cheek covered with zits.

But now that Danny had almost touched her, Laurette and Sin were staring at Pat's smooth skin, probably for the first time, since as friends they had trained themselves not to notice her complexion.

Now my work here is done, Danny said silently. He jogged off down the hill.

This was going to be a great year.

IN THE FIRST two weeks of school, Danny never ran fast except when Lieder wasn't timing him. It was a running joke and got him called to the princ.i.p.al's office. two weeks of school, Danny never ran fast except when Lieder wasn't timing him. It was a running joke and got him called to the princ.i.p.al's office.

"He can time me whenever he wants," said Danny. "He times me a lot."

"But you never run fast when he's timing you," said Princ.i.p.al Ma.s.sey.

"I don't like being timed."

"That's like saying you don't like being graded."

"I don't," said Danny. "Takes all the fun out of it."

"But your teachers tell me you're doing excellent work, and they they all grade you." all grade you."

"So far I was interested in all the a.s.signments."

"Listen, Danny Stone, I know you were home-schooled, but you need to understand that in public school, you fulfill your a.s.signments, you obey your teachers."

"I fulfill my a.s.signments, sir. I obey my teachers."

"Listen, Danny, I'm telling you: Obey Coach Lieder. Let him time you at your best!"

"I can't help it if he drops the watch," said Danny. "Or falls down. I run my fastest a lot, but the only runs he ever manages to time happen to be the slower ones."

"You have an att.i.tude," said Princ.i.p.al Ma.s.sey.

"How can I not not have an att.i.tude?" said Danny. "Everybody have an att.i.tude?" said Danny. "Everybody always always has an att.i.tude, even if it's only apathy." has an att.i.tude, even if it's only apathy."

"See? It's smart remarks like that..."

"How is that a smart remark? It's just... true."

"Get out of here," sighed Princ.i.p.al Ma.s.sey.

Thursday of the second week, a few girls discovered the healing properties of the Tripping Place in the lunchroom and word of it quickly spread, even among those who regarded it as an urban legend. Those who tested it were freaked out when it worked, but more and more girls were arranging to pa.s.s through the spot.

As far as Danny could tell, though, only one person connected him with the Tripping Place. "You did this," said Pat, touching her cheek.

"Did what?" asked Danny.

"I had the worst acne in the school," said Pat. "Now it's gone."

"So you grew out of it. What does that have to do with me?"

"You did it," she said. "The Tripping Place in the lunchroom-I was the first person to trip there. You did it, and it healed me."

"Just like that?" asked Danny. "Wow, I must be, like, really magic."

"You show up at Parry McCluer and strange things start happening."

"So I'm in control of, like, the s.p.a.cetime continuum."

"Why did you decide to cure my acne and heal over Sin's piercings?" demanded Pat.

"You and Sin seem to think I care about you way more than I actually do."

"Then why do you keep sitting down at the same table as us during lunch? And bringing those dweebs Hal and Wheeler with you? Are you trying to destroy our reputation?"

"Just studying Laurette's cleavage," said Danny. "She's still averaging two, but I keep hoping for changes."

Pat called him a name and walked away. But she couldn't fool Danny. He had seen the smile playing around the corners of her mouth. She liked her new face. She liked him. him. And pretty soon she'd work up the courage to admit it to Laurette and Sin and Xena. And pretty soon she'd work up the courage to admit it to Laurette and Sin and Xena.

Danny enjoyed doing things for people. Especially for his friends.

Unfortunately, Danny also enjoyed toying with people who weren't his friends. Especially jerks who were begging to get pranked.

But Danny didn't want to be the typical gatemage, playing nasty tricks on people and laughing at them without compa.s.sion. If there was anything he had learned from the Silvermans, it was that you should use your magery to make the world a better place. And he already learned for himself that you don't walk away from somebody else's need, not if there's something you can do about it. Even Coach Lieder didn't deserve to be abused; whenever he left Danny and Hal alone, Danny left him him alone. alone.

One night, when Danny was having dinner with Veevee at her favorite little Italian spot in Naples, he asked her, "If this whole theory about gatemages serving s.p.a.cetime is true, then if I don't don't play vicious pranks on people, does that make my power to influence s.p.a.cetime weaken or go away?" play vicious pranks on people, does that make my power to influence s.p.a.cetime weaken or go away?"

"I have no idea," said Veevee.

"Okay," said Danny. "Just wondering."

"Danny, you're a natural smart aleck. You can't help it. It just doesn't stop. And the worst thing is, when you want to, you get away with it. That's That's how you prank s.p.a.cetime itself-you don't ever have to suffer the consequences of your pranks." how you prank s.p.a.cetime itself-you don't ever have to suffer the consequences of your pranks."

Danny didn't really set out to prove her wrong about consequences. It just happened.

On Danny's sixteenth birthday, he went to school as usual. It was a Tuesday. Over the P.A. system in the morning, Danny's birthday was read out by somebody from student government. It was cool how many people commented on his birthday as they pa.s.sed him in the hall between cla.s.ses. And at lunch, Laurette and Sin and their friends got him outside at lunch to sing him a deliberately off-key version of "Happy Birthday" that replaced the word "to" with another word that started with F F.

"Is that, like, my present?" asked Danny.

"Somebody had to say it to you," said Sin, "or it wouldn't really be your birthday." She had gotten two new piercings on one ear, and one of them was already infected. A slow learner, Danny figured. Not his job.

"Well, thanks," said Danny.

Coach Lieder had also noticed the announcement. "Sixteen years old, right, Stone?"

"Yes sir," said Danny.

"Well, I have a present for you." He pointed to the thick rope dangling from the ceiling near one wall of the gym, with a bunch of mats under it. It hadn't been hanging there yesterday.

"We're having a hanging," said Danny. "Cool."

"Climb it," said Lieder.

"I don't know how to climb a rope," said Danny.

"Your other teachers tell me you're a quick learner."

"But, see, they they make an effort to teach me," said Danny. make an effort to teach me," said Danny.

"Put your hands on the rope and pull yourself up," said Lieder. "Then grip the rope with your legs so you don't slide down, while you reach up to raise yourself to the next level. There, I've taught you. You have a new skill. It's my present to you, Birthday Boy."

It took three tries, but Danny made it to the top without using a single gate. His legs and hands were raw. And getting down without rope burns was nearly impossible. But Danny made it a point not to show any reaction to the pain-though he also refrained from using a gate to heal himself. He wanted the other kids to see that even though his skin was red and raw, he showed no sign of minding the pain.

It clearly rattled Lieder that Danny made it up the rope and didn't complain about the discomfort. So he started in on his favorite victim. Hal was tall, but he was skinny. There wasn't an ounce of muscle on his body. His arms looked like Amish buggy whips. His leg muscles looked like he went home to a concentration camp every night.

Hal couldn't lift himself up by his arms. Period. Not even a chin-up. Certainly not the first upward surge of a rope climb. And even when a couple of guys lifted him up off the ground as a "boost," he just slid down, yelling in pain the whole time.

"Get him up the rope," Lieder ordered Danny.

"What do you want me to do?" asked Danny. "Push him up?"

"I want to see him at the top of the rope," said Lieder.

"Sorry, dude," said Hal to Danny.

"Not your fault," said Danny. Of course, Danny could could get Hal to the top of the rope whenever he wanted. But it might be a little too spectacular. As in, make-the-newspapers. get Hal to the top of the rope whenever he wanted. But it might be a little too spectacular. As in, make-the-newspapers.

Danny remembered what he used to do for himself, before he even knew he was a gatemage. Short little gates that he didn't even realize were were gates. gates.

Danny had vowed never to use gates to help himself win a contest. But to help a friend silence a tormentor? That was different.

Danny tried to figure out how to do it so it wasn't obvious, even if someone was watching. Maybe a spiral set of gates, so you couldn't see as easily that Hal's hand movements had nothing much to do with his rise up the rope.

Lieder was busy yelling at some other poor sap, and everybody was watching him. Danny grabbed onto the rope and then set it-and himself-to spinning. While he spun, he made a series of gates rising up the rope. He figured that if Hal was twisting on the rope while he climbed, it wouldn't be so obvious that what was happening was unnatural.

Then, as the rope started unwinding, Danny made another bunch of little gates spiraling back down from the ceiling.

Danny beckoned to Hal, who really was in pain from rope burns on his thighs and hands. "Try it again," he said softly. "Keep your hands moving so it looks like you're really doing it."

"What are you talking about?" asked Hal.

"Just grab onto the bottom of the rope and start spinning clockwise. You'll see."

n.o.body was watching at the moment, which was a good thing. Because it didn't work at all the way Danny expected. Hal grabbed on, started spinning, and shot shot upward in a spiral. Only he didn't stop at the top. He just disappeared. upward in a spiral. Only he didn't stop at the top. He just disappeared.

About half a minute later, though, he reappeared spiraling down the rope. He fell on his b.u.t.t and then flipped over and crawled along the mats to get away from the rope. All his rope burns were gone.

"What happened?" Hal demanded hoa.r.s.ely.

"I don't know," said Danny. "What do you think think happened?" happened?"

"I start spinning, and suddenly it's like I'm a mile up, looking out over the whole Maury River Valley, I mean I can see the cars going into and out of the McDonald's drive-through in Lexington, I'm up so high. And I feel great. But I'm still spinning, see, and then all of a sudden I start to fall, only whatever it is catches me and sucks me down, still spinning. To here. I think I'm going to puke. Motion sickness. Fear of heights. You're a dangerous friend to have, man. What is it, some kind of drug? Cause if that was a hallucination, it seemed pretty d.a.m.n real."

Danny had made gates that all led to points on the rope. None of them could have taken Hal past the ceiling. Danny hadn't made anything like the gate Hal was describing.

Hal reached for the bottom of the rope and handed it to Danny. "You try," he said. "Show me how to do it right, if that was wrong."