Chapter 29

A week before school started, Steve drove into Denver to the wizarding mall. He parked along the curb and waited until Alex showed up. He kept looking over the sheets of paper Principal Vale had given him as he killed time. I’m actually going to do this. He’d seen how fast Alex had gotten the chores done with magic. If he could learn a fraction of what she could do, this would all be worth it. Then there were the stones. She’d gathered in minutes what took him a couple of years of hard work to get. He’d agreed to her spending the summer at his cabin. He’d given her the phone numbers for ordering a refill on the propane tank. Getting the hay in still worried him. Usually he rented a mower to harvest the meadow, instead she’d have to hire someone to come in. She kept insisting that she could take care of it. He had to trust that she could deal with it or call him if she had any problems.

He had to wait ten minutes until the scheduled meeting time. Two minutes before ten Alex stepped out of the door that was under a swaying metal sign that said, The Dirty Dog. He’d wondered if this was the right place as he drove through the neighborhood of deserted brick warehouses. The sign and a few parked cars were the only indications that he’d followed the directions correctly.

Alex led him in the first door through a brick hallway made from the same brick as the building. The hallway extended to the right along the edge of the building, with another door at the end. Next to this door was a chalkboard with a sign that said, “High Tension Lines Present Inside This Building. Management Is Not Responsible For Any Damage to Electrical Equipment. Please Leave All Electronics and Weapons Outside.”

Alex led him through the door into another brick hallway that led back to the left. At the end of this hallway were various-sized lockers with a chalkboard on each one. Steve wondered why they had so many chalkboards and what they were for. The sign on the door at the end of this hallway said, “No Weapons Beyond This Point.” He was too busy looking around to notice what Alex wrote on the chalkboard. She opened the door and led him in.

Once inside, Alex flagged down a waitress. “We have an appointment with Ms. Meggin.”

The waitress led them through the tables toward the back. The restaurant had dark wood tables in the center and booths hugging the walls off to the left and to the right of the door. Dark wood paneling covered the bottom four feet of the walls and a richly colored mountain scene was painted above this. The scene seemed to blend right into the paneling. The colors lightened as the scenes turned to mountains, and the sky above the mountains continued up the walls onto the ceiling. An oil lamp with a red globe was on each of the tables. A wonderful scent of freshly baked bread and soups permeated the air. There were several tables with customers, so Steve wondered if the hours on the outside door hadn’t been correct. There was soft lighting throughout the restaurant cast by the many burning oil lamps hanging from the ceiling. He was reminded of an old-fashioned ale house, one from the nineteenth century.

They were then shown to Ms. Meggin’s office. Alex sat down at one of the tables outside the office. “I’ll wait here while she gets you registered.”

The office was another wood-paneled room with the whole left side covered with bookshelves containing large leather-bound volumes. Ms. Meggin was an older woman who seemed to always be smiling. She rose as he entered her office. After shaking his hand, she motioned for him to take a chair. She added, “Hi, I’m Dana Meggin. Please call me Dana. I’m glad to meet you. Congratulations on being accepted at Aspen Glen. You’ll enjoy your upcoming years there. First, I need to see a picture ID to verify who you are.” He pulled out an ID and showed it to her. “Good, now I need to get you registered so you can access the buildings.”

With this, she opened one of the large volumes that had been lying on her desk. She continued. “You need to sign on the line next to your name. This book is magically connected to the chalkboards located at all of the entrances. To access the buildings, you sign one of the chalkboards, which verifies your signature, and the door will open. To access other malls in the different cities, you sign your name and then print Dirty Dog below. The board will then verify your signature with these books on the shelves. Now to get the bad part over with, I have the math and English tests. If you’ll have a seat at one of the tables, you can get these out of the way.” With this she led him back out to the tables outside her office. She motioned the waitress over and added, “Please have a complimentary milk, tea, soft drink, water, or coffee while you’re working. The tests are only to see if you might need some help in these areas.”

Steve mentioned, “All the lamps on the tables had red globes when I came in. Now they’re all clear.”

“When a nonmagical customer enters the building all of the globes turn red so the other customers know to not do any magic. They, and now you, are not allowed to do magic until the globes turn clear. You’ll notice that the kitchen is completely hidden from view. This is to enable the cook to continue working while nonmagical customers are here. We’ll go over some more of this after you’ve finished your tests,” answered Dana while placing a test, some extra sheets of paper, and a couple of pencils on his table. “Take your time, and please show all work on the test sheet so the teacher can see how you formulated your answer. If you’re not sure about a question, write ‘My best guess is’ in the space.” With this he ordered a drink and sat down to work on the test.

The first page was a math test with ten questions. He could tell that they were checking addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, a little algebra, with a little geometry thrown in. He struggled through but thought he had done well enough. The second part was to write a page or less on either “What is your favorite hobby and tell me why you like it” or “Tell me about your favorite pet.” He wrote a little over a page on the unicorn. He quickly finished and took his answers back to Dana’s office.

After he entered, she added, “As a reward for getting through the test, I have a coupon for you for one free meal in the restaurant. The restaurant is open to the magical community from five a.m. to midnight. From five to eight a.m. and between eight p.m. and midnight we only have a partial selection of menu items available. Whereas, between eight a.m. and eight p.m. we have a full selection. On Friday and Saturday evenings from five thirty to seven thirty, the chef offers some specials that are out of this world. We usually have a waiting line during these times. If you need food at another time, some special arrangements can usually be made. We have one staff member here in the restaurant area twenty-four hours a day. They make sure that everything is running efficiently and can handle almost any problem. There are also rooms for rent on the second and third floors and a couple of suites on the fourth. Let me give you a tour of the facilities.”

Alex got up and followed them.

With this, Dana showed him to a door with a chalkboard on the back, left wall. “I would like you to try the door to make sure your signature has been accepted. If you are entering with someone else, one person needs to sign and write below escorting followed by the other names. Each person needs to personally sign except for the board accessing the garage, where the driver can sign everyone in. This is done as a security measure. If you’re in trouble, sign with your left hand, spell your name wrong, or write completely different; and you will all be sent to the security office for questioning.”

With this, he signed the board next to the door and entered another hallway. The door they had come through had a Dirty Dog sign attached on the back where the door opposite had a sign Mall. To their left was a set of steps with a handrail on each side and one in the middle. As soon as Steve stepped on the first step, it started moving like an escalator. She explained, “Both sides go in either direction, but we always recommend that you only use the right.” She stepped on the other side and it also moved up.

“The second floor has several items of interest.” By now they had reached the top. “To the left is the walkway that connects to the parking garage and is where the arrival and departure booths are located.” They could see a door at the end with a Parking Garage sign. On the right side were about a dozen doors labeled Departures. The left doors were labeled Arrivals. “These will be explained at the end of this summer. Here, near the steps, is where you are to meet your escort on Saturday morning. Now, let’s head down the hallway on the right.” After going a few feet past a series of lockers, she said, “The lockers are available for use for several hours. You sign the chalkboard on the locker, and they will stay locked until you sign a second time. If you need to store something for an extended time, check in at the registration desk. Here is the registration desk for the rooms. We operate them the same as any other hotel would. If there isn’t anyone at the desk, ring the bell and a waitress will be up to assist you. If you call ahead with an estimated arrival time, we can see to it that there is someone here. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me or a waitress.”

Dana added, “The first level of the garage is usually for people staying two or more days and employees. There is a ten dollar fee for parking long-term, regardless of the number of days. The second level is for short stays. On really busy weekends, we usually make people park in the long-term unless they are only here for less than a day. Once the short-term fills up, you have to park in the long-term area. The entrance is across from where you parked. We’ll wait here while you move your car.”

Steve headed back down through the restaurant and back through the two hallways. He got in his truck and pulled into the garage entrance. After pulling in, he noticed a chalkboard where a ticket booth would normally be. Once he signed his name the gates parted, allowing him access. He headed to the first-floor area and pulled into one of the long-term slots. He unloaded his duffel bags as a man came out to greet him. The man performed a spell on the truck and it shrank until it was reduced to about five inches long. The man picked up the truck and entered a room next to the spaces. Then he returned with a numbered key and reminded Steve that he’d need to pay ten dollars when he came back. Steve took his bags up the stairs to the second level and noticed the door labeled “Dirty Dog - Please Sign in for Access.” He signed again and entered the second-floor hallway and quickly went back to where they were waiting.

Dana handed him a book and supply list. She added, “Go to Blue Columbine first for your school robes. It takes some time for hemming, then go to Glenda’s Fine Wands. I would then recommend that you pick up your books at The Dusty Tomes. After you know about a wand, go to the stores as indicated on your list. Don’t forget to pick up your robes before leaving. You’ll probably want to make several trips back to the car to drop off your supplies. Good luck this summer, and if I can be of any further assistance, please feel free to knock on my office door.” With this she shook his hand and headed back into The Dirty Dog.

“I don’t understand. She mentioned meeting someone on Saturday, taking my supplies to the car, and something about a wand. Aren’t I leaving today?” Steve asked.

“That’s probably the spiel she tells all the summer students,” Alex said. She helped him get his bags into one of the lockers, and they headed back to the first level. Finally, they entered the mall door. Immediately, a wave of floral-scented air washed over them with underlying scents of damp earth. The mall was impressive. All of the stores were made from the same old red brick that was on the outside. The aisle was flooded with brilliant light from a row of large skylights. The shops all had three levels, with large display windows on the first level. Several shops had also placed larger windows on the second level, some even had bay windows. The shop signs were very distinct from one another. Some were intricate wood carvings with the names painted or gilded. Others had only the shop’s name painted on their window.

Every so often there were tables with chairs in the middle of the aisles. Most of these were placed so that they were shaded by a tree planting. The plantings usually consisted of a couple of large trees with many different flowering plants spread among them. Usually fragrances from flowers would bother him. But because of all the wildflowers blooming in the meadow, he’d recently built up a tolerance to the smells. As they walked along, butterflies flitted among the plants. Various types of hummingbirds flew to and fro. The hummingbirds would almost hit Alex, they flew so close, but they gave him a wide berth.

Steve asked, “Which direction is the robe shop?”

“Blue Columbine, for robes, is three quarters of the way down on the right. The bookstore, The Dusty Tomes, is a couple stores back toward The Dirty Dog and Glenda’s Fine Wands is in the middle,” replied Alex.

They headed off for the Blue Columbine. This shop had a large window on the first floor where several drawings of robes were displayed. A sheer curtain hung over the bottom half of the window. As Steve opened the door an old-fashioned bell rang. A clerk immediately approached them and Steve said, “I need to get my robes for Aspen Glen.”

The clerk ushered him to the back, right side where a platform was in front of three mirrors. As he stepped up onto the platform the clerk selected two black robes to try on. The robes had a yoke with two pleats on each side of the back with an embroidered symbol on the left front. The embroidery contained a group of aspen trees complete with their white trunks and the branches had green and yellow leaves. The whole design was very intricate. “I believe that this will be the best fit for you, but I’d like to check the second one to be sure,” said the clerk. She was close, but the second one he tried on fit him better in the shoulders. The clerk quickly checked a length then added, “I’ll have two robes hemmed up for you. We also embroider your name below the school patch so please print it very clearly on the form. They should be ready to pick up within a half an hour.” Steve filled out the order form for the clerk and headed back out to go get his wand.