Matt Posner's Blog: You've Been Schooled - Posts Tagged "magic"

Pleased to present a draft sample from School of the Ages 4: Simon Myth. This is from a chapter near the end. Simon is speaking, and his team is assembled in his grandmother's house in Mumbai (Bombay).


It was hours later when the doorbell rank. The naukar* admitted a small man in a tattered gray suit with a wilted flower in his boutonniere. He was about fifty and had wet brown eyes and pouty lips and was holding a cane made of rosewood with a bronze cap.

“That is him,” said Devi. “Bakshi, this useless excuse for a jaadugar*.”

“Useless?” Bakshi countered. “Madame, I protest. Things are difficult. They take time. With patience, we will be able to…”

“A refund,” my father said. “The full amount, minus one month’s fee as a courtesy. Write a check.”

“Absolutely not,” said Bholenath Bakshi. He wrung the ends of his stick. “There are no refunds from jaadu*. I have been paid for ceaseless efforts to…”

“To what?” Goldberry interrupted.

“My dear,” said Bakshi, lifting his cane which he shook like a wagging finger. “You must leave this matter to the…” He mouthed ‘experts’ but then he looked at her with broader recognition. “Oh, well,” he recovered, “I see I must acknowledge you as a junior colleague.”

“Oh, you see that, do you?” she pressed. “What else do you see?”

“I see that when you mature, young woman, you will understand better the true nature of…”

“Rubbish.”

Bakshi gripped his stick tightly. “In time, you will know the…”

“She knows the ten rimzas, the secret seals of the planets,” I said.

“All well and good,” Bakshi said, noticing with a glance that Rocco and Balaram were now standing behind him. “The ten rimza seals are useful in some conditions, but…”

“There’s only nine of them,” Rocco said into his ear.

“Keep your distance, boy!” Bakshi blurted. He raised his cane in a warning pose.

“Thanks,” Rocco said, and snatched it from his hand.

“Give her a refund,” I told Bakshi. “We offered you one month as a courtesy, even though you don’t deserve it.”

“You fake,” Balaram added.

Bakshi made a grab for his stick. Rocco, taller and sprier, easily evaded him.
“You have one more chance to accept these conditions,” I continued.

“There are no refunds for jaadu,” Bakshi insisted.

“You didn’t do any jaadu, yaar*,” Balaram said. “Right. You just took the money and spent it on what? Liquor? Gambling?”

“Give me that!” Bakshi snarled as he grabbed for his stick. “Do not test me, for I am Mahamayakar*, Mahaabhyosi*. I am Sarvajna, all-knowing! If you challenge me, you shall…”

“All-knowing,” said Rocco. “Okay. What’s my name?”

Bakshi thought about it. “Cretin,” he answered.

“Yep,” said Rocco. “He’s good. Mr. Moore, can I kick his ass?”




* naukar (Hindi): a house servant. pronounced like "knocker"
jaadugar (Hindi): magician, wizard.
jaadu (Hindi): magic
Mahamayakar (Sanskrit): A great wizard
Mahaabhyosi (Sanskrit): A great spiritual aspirant. Clumsily used, indicating what a phony he is.

This is from Chapter Thirteen. Mr. Tinker (Goldberry's father) is a guest teacher.



“You’re to learn advanced concealment,” said Mr. Tinker. “Should have been taught to you second year, but..." He paused. He knew a criticism would not be well-received. “Well, then. Advanced concealment differs from our general concealment magic mainly in its force. Advanced concealment hides you from the notice of even fellow magicians unless they are searching for concealed individuals or are extremely alert by nature. There is only one student present in this building who I expect to become able to hide from me or the Dean, and no one has ever been able to evade the attention of Maestro Morgan. As for Rabbi Horn, he has a set of magic cuff links.”

I assumed Mr. Tinker meant Rocco when he named the superior student. Rocco was and always had been expert in going unnoticed, and had developed a spell for total invisibility, although it had an unacceptable side effect.

“A simple tactic was used in my day to intensify focus on concealment as required. To become and stay concealed under the conditions created by the tactic, you will in some way, particular to you, break through to a deeper level of presence of mind. I need a volunteer.”
Rocco raised his hand.

“Good. Leave your hand up. Spread your fingers wide.” Mr. Tinker seized the upraised right hand. “Between each finger is a web of skin of varying size. Grasp the web between ring and index finger, so.” He clamped his fierce fingers in that spot on Rocco’s hand. “Now pull vigorously.”

Rocco winced, yelped, then settled into the pain.

“Now, turn on power of concealment,” said Mr. Tinker.

“I can’t hide while you’re holding onto me,” Rocco protested.

“Make me forget that I am holding onto you.”

“Can I make you let go of me first?”

“That’s not the goal.”

Rocco gritted his teeth. “Maybe I need to practice first.”

Mr. Tinker lifted his hand still higher. “When Cornelius Archer did this to me, I lost feeling in my hand for a month. I’m being gentle, boy. Turn on power of concealment.” He then began to tell us a story about breaking a man’s kneecap on the rugby field and then throwing the man’s sister into the River Mersey after the game. “Proved to me that cows don’t float.”

Then he went to the front of the room and discussed a spell to make mold grow in a butter dish. Then he rubbed his hands together. “Turn it off!” he announced.

“Turn what off?” asked Rocco, who was standing next to him at the podium.
I hadn’t seen him follow Mr. Tinker to the front of the room. My classmates conferred and we concluded no one had noticed when Rocco became concealed, nor had we seen him during the off-color rugby story.

Rocco returned to his seat and was rubbing the sore spot where Mr. Tinker had been pinching him.

“You have one week to master this,” Mr. Tinker declared. “Practice with your partners. When the class assembles next Tuesday, enter concealed. I’ll have a guest in the room. Anyone who is spotted by my guest will get six hours of scrubbing the floor of Conjuration Room C without knee pads. Go away and practice. Rocco.”

“Yes, boss?”

“If Goldberry can’t do this in three days, I’ll go and tell the cabala school seniors you’re a Palestinian.”

“You sodding well will not,” said Goldberry.

“It’s okay,” Rocco said. “We got it covered.”

It was true that Goldberry and I weren’t getting along well, but we could still work together on school work. What did he mean, assigning Rocco to work with her instead of me? I stayed after class to confront Mr. Tinker.

“Goldberry doesn’t need Rocco’s help,” I told him. “I’ll do it with her. Don’t you think I can learn to do this?”
“Of course you can.”

“Then why did you assign Rocco to help her? Am I not good enough for her all of a sudden?”

Mr. Tinker turned his back to me.
“Don’t play games with me,” I said.

That was a mistake.

He came around suddenly. “Or what, boy? Or you’ll thrash me? Or go whining to the Dean that I hurt your feelings? Or curse me into the shape of a hobby-horse? Just what will you do?”


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