The Problem With Black Magic Read online

  ***

  When Cassie came to, she was on the fluffy patchwork couch in the Daily Grind's cafe that Dwight liked, saying it gave the place a "homey" feel. A few customers looked up from their newspapers at her stirring.

  "Look, Sleeping Beauty's awake," said one elderly man with a smile. “I wish I could sleep on the job when I worked in a shop back in the day."

  "Don't bother the help, Irv," said the older woman across from him, not looking up from her paper.

  "Cassie!" called Khalil, jogging over to her from behind the counter.

  With some difficulty, since she still felt a little dizzy, she sat upright and frowned. She wanted to believe her memories of everything that happened before she passed out were a dream, but one look at Khalil's face told her otherwise.

  "Are you okay? Can you stand?"

  "I think so...I can't believe Dwight kept the shop open," she said incredulously, taking in the almost full cafe area. She stole a glance at the wall clock as Khalil helped her to her feet: 11:30 a.m. So she'd been out for around three hours.

  Khalil shrugged. "He said we were better off doing something normal than sitting here staring at each other in shock and awe for the whole day," he said. Cassie noticed as they passed the front counter that there was a fist-sized hole in the bakery display case. The glass shards from all the shattered French presses and espresso machines had been cleared away.

  Steadying her, Khalil led her into the back room, where she dropped into a folding metal chair. The back room was divided, half of it set up for cleaning and storing supplies, the other half an impromptu break room with a round table, chairs, a shelf of lockers and a refrigerator for the employees' use. A short hallway outside led to Dwight's tiny office and the back alley.

  "Now are you sure you're okay? Do you need to go to the hospital?" he said anxiously. "I would have taken you there already, but Sam told us not to move you— I swear Cassie, I almost choked him to death. When he was finished with you, you weren't moving and for a second I couldn't find a pulse. I thought he killed you."

  Cassie swallowed; he didn't talk about it much, but she knew that Khalil had attended medical school for one year before dropping out to piss off his parents. If he was checking her for life signs and he couldn't find them, it must have been a close thing, because he knew what he was doing.

  "I'm fine, just a little dizzy. As long as I feel okay, I don’t think I should go to the hospital, because it’s not like we can tell them what happened.” She swallowed, dreading her next question, but unable to avoid it. “Where is he?"

  Khalil hesitated a moment before answering, and she knew Sam was gone. "Dunno. He took off once we were sure you were alive, didn't say where he was going. I don't know Cassie, I want to know what the hell happened but maybe it's better if he never comes back, y'know?"

  Cassie wasn't sure how she felt about that yet. "So I take it Sam fixed the building."

  Khalil shook his head in amazement. "You wouldn't believe it— well, I guess you would, but you know what I mean," he said. "After you guys touched and you both screamed, you both were unconscious for a few minutes. Then we were really scared, because we didn't know if that was supposed to happen or not. Then he just got up, like nothing happened, walked outside and like, waved at the building, and it snapped back into place. Then he came back, punched his hand through the display case, and the frozen people started moving again."

  "Then he took off," she finished, sitting back in her chair.

  "Yeah," Khalil said softly.

  Dwight walked into the break room from the back hallway. "You okay?" he asked, concern obvious on his face.

  "Yeah, I'm fine," Cassie lied. She was a mess, but she didn’t see what good upsetting Dwight would do.

  "Good." He turned to Khalil. "Just checked online: People are figuring it out. All the clocks were off, and anyone who was on the phone in the area froze too, so a lot of people realized it. I don't know how anyone's gonna explain this."

  Khalil knitted his brow in thought. "How big an area was frozen, anyway? It was as far as I could see when I walked outside, but that was only a few blocks."

  Dwight paused. "A circle twenty miles in diameter. They haven't said, but I'll bet this place was the center of it."

  Khalil swore thoughtfully. "Son of a bitch, and he was busy doing the goddamned dishes all day? I knew the guy wasn't normal, but man...."

  "Can I go home?" Cassie asked quietly. Both men turned to look at her. "I mean, I think I'd like to work and take my mind off stuff, but I just feel really...tired," she finished.

  "Of course, I wasn't going to let you work the register today," said Dwight quickly, sounding a little embarrassed that she might have even thought he expected her to work. "Khalil, take her home."

  "I can get home myself," Cassie said, getting to her feet with a small effort. "I usually do."

  Dwight turned around on the way to the door. "Khalil, take her home," he said, smiling for the first time since the earthquake. He nudged open the door with his shoulder, turning around to go deal with the customers.