Mike and Davy waited anxiously in front of the neighbors’ door.
“Are you sure this is going to work?” Davy asked.
Mike shrugged. “Hey, man, if you’ve got any better ideas, I’d love to hear ‘em right now.”
Davy sighed. “No, I guess not.”
Sally Parker answered the door. “Hi, guys. What’s up?”
“Hey, uh, Sally… we need your help,” Mike said hesitantly.
Sally frowned. She was fifteen, and evidently had enough of a head on her shoulders to understand that something strange was going on. She looked at Mike, then Davy, then Mike. “What for?”
“Well, the, uh, the short of it is that… we need money,” Mike said.
Sally crossed her arms. “What’s the long of it?”
“There’s this really long and complicated thing we’ve got to do and in order to pull it off we need money to rent a boat,” Davy said.
“Well,” Sally said thoughtfully, “I do have a little bit of babysitting money I’ve saved up…” She looked meaningfully at Davy. “….But I’m going to need more of an explanation than ‘We need to rent a boat’.”
“Here. We’ll show you. It’ll save time,” Mike said, gesturing for Sally to follow them. Sally did so, frowning curiously.
Her jaw slammed open when she saw Peter sitting on the beach, watching over three romping unicorns! “Th-those are… are….”
Davy nodded. “Will you help us?”
“I’m assuming I can’t tell anyone.” At their nod, she sighed. “I’ll be right back with the money.”
“Thanks, Sally,” Peter said gratefully as she handed him the money.”
“Here, Peter… I’ll take that,” Mike said, taking the money from Peter and sticking it in his pocket.
“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. I should listen to the babies,” Peter said, nodding.
“I don’t know how we’ll ever repay ya,” Micky said.
Sally smiled. “I do. Take me with you.”
“What?” they cried, then Davy stammered, “B-but your parents!”
“Yeah, what’ll they say?” Mike asked.
“It’s going to be dangerous,” Peter said. “I’m not sure you should come.”
“Why do you wanna come, anyway?” Micky asked.
“A million reasons,” Sally said. “Because nothing ever happens around here… because I’ve wanted to get to know you guys better… because I love fantasy stories… because I think Micky’s really cute….”
“Oh, well, yeah, I’d have to agree with you there,” Micky said immodestly, beaming.
Davy cuffed Micky lightly on the arm.
“Uh, while we appreciate your offer, we don’t know that you know what you’re really getting into,” Mike said carefully.
Sally stood silently for a moment, thinking this over. “Well… I’m not going to whine and say please if it’s not going to make any difference, and I’m not going to throw a temper tantrum to show you how mature I am, so.. .if that’s your final decision, I guess…” She shrugged. “I guess I’ll go home, if you really don’t want me to come.”
“Thank you, Sally…” Peter smiled.
“…and of course, I’ll sell this story to every newspaper around…” Sally went on.
“Blackmail! That’s despicable! There’s only one person who’s allowed to be so evil, so crazy, so desperate to get his own way that he’s allowed to use blackmail!” Micky said indignantly.
“You,” Peter, Mike and Davy said in unison.
“That’s right!” Micky said, nodding firmly.
Peter sighed, looking at Sally. “I guess we don’t have a choice… I guess she’ll have to come.”
“Okay,” Davy said, although his tone of voice showed that it clearly was not okay.
“Listen, Sal,” Mike said, walking over to Sally, “if you’re coming with us, you got to go by our rules. You do what we say when we say it and don’t go off and do your own thing because you think it’ll help. That’s what all the chicks do in movies and they always get in trouble. And one thing we don’t need is more trouble.”
Sally folded her arms. “I am not a chick in a movie. I am a real life chick and I will play by your stupid rules. Even if I do think they’re sexist and immature.” A horn bumped her and she smiled down at the roan baby. “Well, hello there….”
Half an hour later, the five humans and three unicorns were on their way.
“So what are we looking for exactly?” Sally asked as the boat motored steadily along.
“The place where the two worlds touch,” Davy said, feeling infinitely silly as he said it.
“Don’t worry, Sally. I get the feeling we’ll know it when we see it,” Micky said.
“It looks like an island,” Peter said. “And you can only find it if you’re from there, or you’ve been sent by someone who is.”
Mike looked at Peter. “Lady told you all that?”
“No,” Peter said, blushing. “I just… have a feeling, that’s all. No one in Avalon wants people to ruin the magic of the place; that’s why it’s hidden.”
“Yeah, I can just see the mayor trying to put up a parking lot,” Davy said, looking mischievously at Mike.
“Man, would you just forget that ever happened?” Mike asked, looking a little embarrassed.
Sally gasped, pointing to a place just off the bow of the boat. “Guys! Look…”
In the mist, the shoreline of an island was plainly visible. The unicorns got restless, excited.
“I think we’re here,” Micky whispered in awe.
Mike steered the boat over to the shore of the island, and slowly, they all got out, looking around.
“I get the feeling we’re not supposed to talk,” Sally said in a whisper.
Peter nodded; he felt the same way.
Suddenly, a human figure shimmered into reality before them. “Hello,” he said.
“I thought there weren’t any people on this island,” Davy said.
“There aren’t,” the man replied. “I simply took your form so that you wouldn’t be frightened of me.”
Mike raised an eyebrow. “Well, that’s great, but who are you?”
“We have no need of names.” Then he fell to his knees. “….ooh….” he whispered in wonder, holding his arms out to the baby unicorns.
Adam and Eve went into his arms willingly. Auburn hung back, looking out from behind Micky’s legs.
“These are her children,” the man whispered. He looked up at Peter with a faint smile. “Lady? Is that what you call her?”
”Yes, it… we did,” Peter said.
The man smiled, looking back at the unicorns as they nuzzled him playfully. “They will be safe here. Thank you for journeying to bring them home.”
“It was our pleasure, sir,” Micky smiled as he held out his hand to shake.
The man shook his hand, then fixed Micky with an odd look. “You have been touched by the magic….”
“Huh?” Micky asked. Then he remembered when they’d all been sitting around Lady. “Oh…that. Purity. Sure.”
The man shook his head. “That might be it, but… I’m not sure. I sense something…”
“What? What do you sense?” Peter asked curiously.
“I can’t really describe it…” He touched Peter. “You have been touched by the magic…” He turned back to Micky. “And so have you. You are unaware of your talent.”
“Uh-huh,” Micky said, sounding as if he didn’t believe a word of what this guy was saying. “I know what my talent is, man. I’m a drummer. That’s all I do. And Lady might’ve… y’know… done something, but that’s it. That’s all she did. I’m no different from anybody else.”
“It’s not bad, being different,” Peter said quietly.
Micky smacked himself in the head with the palm of his hand. “I didn’t mean it like that, Peter. Really.”
“I know,” Peter said, “but really, this is one of the best things that’s happened to me. So… once you find out what your talent is …you might not think it’s such a bad thing.”
“What about the two of us?” Mike asked. “We still mere mortals, or do we have something going on too?”
The man touched them both. “Yes, you two have magic as well… but it is buried deep.” He pointed at Micky. “This one’s is about to emerge, and the blond’s already has.”
Peter grinned. “Thanks to lightning!”
Auburn got back in the boat and whinnied.
The man smiled. “Your friend seems anxious to go.”
Micky looked at the man. “They’ll be well cared for.” It was a statement about Adam and Eve, not a question.
“Yes,” the man said, nodding. “They will.” He crossed over to Sally. “Try not to worry so much about your mother. She’ll be all right.”
Sally’s jaw dropped. “How… how did you know she was sick?”
“That is not important,” the man said. “She will be all right. I promise you this.”
Sally looked at the man. “I believe you. I don’t know why, but I believe you.”
The man nodded, and then bowed to each of them in turn. Then he turned and, with the unicorn babies flanking him on either side, disappeared into the forest.
The five got in the boat. Micky hugged Auburn as Peter used the pole to push the boat from shore. “Let’s go home, huh, Auburn?”
Auburn nuzzled him, and four gasped as Micky’s form began to glow.
“Uh, Mick?” Mike said finally.
“Yeah?” Micky asked, unaware of what was going on.
“You’re…uhm… glowing,” Sally said tactfully.
Micky looked at himself and yelped. “Aah! What does this mean?”
“You’ve got me,” Davy said, shrugging.
“If this is my magic, I don’t want it,” Micky said, shaking his head. “I don’t wanna be a human night-light!”
As if his words were a trigger, Micky’s body suddenly flared with black light, leaving him a white, featureless silhouette surrounded by multicolored dots. The light and dots both died down, leaving Micky sitting there.
Not glowing.
But looking absolutely stunned.
Sally blinked. “This is… if I pinch myself, am I going to wake up?”
“Not hardly,” Mike said, looking at Micky. “What, uh, what was that?”
“I think that’s part of what I have,” Micky said with a strange look, “but there’s more to it.”
Suddenly, Micky disappeared.
“Micky!” Peter said in surprise, craning his head in every direction. “Where’d you go?”
It was a very surprised Davy who spotted him. “Fellas…he’s over there.”
And Micky was over there… on top of the water, walking toward them.
“Hi, guys,” Micky said, waving once he’d reached the edge of the boat.
“How’d you do that?” Mike asked.
Micky grinned. “I didn’t. I’m still sitting in the boat with you.”
“You’re out of your bird! There’s nobody there!” Davy said, looking at the place where Micky had been sitting. It was empty.
Then, just as suddenly, Micky was there. “Hello,” Micky said nonchalantly.
Sally almost fell out of the boat in her surprise.
Steadying her, Peter smiled. “Illusion casting?”
“Among other things,” Micky said. “There are several different colours of the glows, and each one does something different.”
Mike smiled and pointed to a tri-coloured band on Micky’s left temple. “What’s with those streaks in your hair?”
“Oh, they show up when I’m using the power,” Micky said nonchalantly. A strange look crossed his face. “And I still don’t know how I know this stuff.”
Peter smiled. “It just happened. Like I knew I could talk to… wait a minute!” He leaned over the edge of the boat, smiling into the water. “I thought that was you, Cotton! How are you?”
Mike smiled wryly at Davy. “Feel a little bit like an idiot in a class full of geniuses?”
“How’d you guess?” Davy said.
“I feel like a sane person in a boat full of crazies,” Sally said.
“But you like it,” Mike pointed out.
Sally shrugged, smiling a little. “Well… it is the most exciting thing that’s happened to me in a long time.”
By now it was dark. Micky shifted his glow to yellow and lit the way as they headed for shore. One by one, the others went to sleep, until it was just Peter and Micky awake.
Peter steered the boat, every now and again petting Auburn, who lay with his head in Peter’s lap. “How does it feel?” Peter asked softly.
“Hmm?” Micky turned and looked at him. “How does what feel?”
“I thought you’d be freaking out by now.” Peter smiled. “But you seem okay with being powerful.”
“Well, it’s weird,” Micky said, forehead wrinkling as he tried to explain. “It’s like… it fits, you know? It’s not so much something weird that happened to you as it is… a part of you, kind of. Know what I mean?”
“Yeah,” Peter said with a smile. “I know exactly what you mean.”
Micky grinned. “Hey, nobody expected me to freak out more than I did!”
They laughed quietly as they headed toward shore.
As they got closer, a mist began to close around them. Even Micky’s light couldn’t dispel it. When it burned away, it was full daylight.
And they were emerging onto a rocky beach. “Uh…Micky…” Peter whispered. “I don’t think this is Malibu Beach…”
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