Delali, unsure what to do with the nervous energy coursing through her after receiving the letter, was halfway to Tompkins on foot when her phone started shaking life into her freezing hand.
Maya
Maya
Maya
Maya
Maya
Maya
Maya
Maya
Now she stood on the corner of two concrete paths inside the park, shivering against the wind. Gabbie came slowly into view, puttering along in light-wash jeans and a red peacoat, smiling absently and not at all matching Delali’s urgency.
“Hi!” Gabbie said.
“Hey.”
“Maya’s not here yet?”
“No.” Delali checked her phone. Nothing from Maya yet.
“She totally seems like the type to always be late,” Gabbie said with a laugh. Delali looked at her quizzically, then said nothing.
The temperature had plummeted since morning and she pulled her jean jacket, stiff with cold, closer to her. After she’d gotten over the shock of the letter, Delali had texted the girls frantically. When she asked if they wanted to meet up, it took everything in Delali to write it as a casual suggestion, instead of the frantic demand it really was.
Gabbie and Delali stood in a loaded silence, which grew heavier each minute Maya was late. Outside the park, they could hear the sounds of New York as usual, cars, kids, and the rest. But inside the park, surrounded by trees, they felt an odd sense of privacy, even seclusion. Finally, they heard a shallow panting, and Maya, running, appeared from the girls’ left, her face crumpled with stress and her makeup streaked with tears.
“Maya!” Delali asked.
“Are you okay?” Gabbie asked. She stretched her arms out toward Maya, and instinctively Delali did, too. Maya landed in them, and the girls fell together in a clumsy embrace. It was then, huddled in each other’s arms, that they felt the jolt of something powerful shake them. They released each other and stepped back, watching as beams of blue-white light appeared between them. The beams aimed out of their chests and toward each other, forming a perfect triangle. The light radiated upward, forming sheets of light that darted into the sky. Outside the park, unknowing onlookers ignored the display, taking the lights for just an ordinary part of the city’s skyline.
For a moment they were stuck in the formation. Then whatever had taken hold of their bodies released them.
“I turned into a man!” Maya said, as soon as the light let go of them.
“You what?” Delali asked.
“In the middle of the street. I just turned into a man. A white man,” Maya said, her voice bubbling over.
“Woah,” Gabbie said.
“Yeah, woah. And then it just—” She waved her hand. “Then I just became myself again.”
“That’s . . .”
“Can we go back to my apartment?” Maya asked hurriedly, shivering. “I’m freezing, and it’s getting dark and I just . . . Can we go?”
The girls walked the ten minutes to Maya’s. It was weird to see the city so normal, when they’d just experienced the kind of weirdness that should make the whole thing come to a halt.
Inside, Maya locked the door behind them.
“Where are your roommates?” Gabbie asked, looking around.
“I don’t know?” Maya said, shaking her head. “Probably downstairs.”
“Oh, right,” Gabbie said, remembering The Bar.
Maya walked to her overstuffed cloud sofa in a haze, too deep in her thoughts to answer. She curled her legs under her, and Delali and Gabbie followed.
“The phone thing was real,” Delali said emphatically.
“Maybe it was real, but what the fuck was it?” Maya asked. As her shock subsided, it was replaced by her trademark annoyance.
“Magic,” Delali and Gabbie said in unison.
Maya put her face in her hands. “What the fuck does that mean? And why did you guys both say it?”
As if on cue, a sanctions letter dropped through the air and fluttered into Maya’s lap, causing her breathing to stop again. She stared at it.
“Read it,” Delali urged. “I think it’s the same thing we got earlier.”
Maya looked at it for a moment, then touched it. She watched, her face fixed in tentative wonder, as words began to crawl across the page. Gabbie leaned over Maya’s shoulder to read it, while Delali watched from her spot on the sofa. Gabbie read aloud:
To the Recipient at Coordinate 40.61, -78.99
This is an initial letter of sanction regarding your recent magical behavior. We are instructing you to please cease your conspicuous acts of magic immediately.
Should you continue to practice magic in a manner that is inconsistent with the objectives of the Sphere, you will receive further sanctions.
In the instance that you receive five sanctions, you will be located and transported to 33,26 to discuss your behavior with the Council. You will be afforded the option of attending with your mentor, instructor, or closest elder if you so choose.
With the utmost love and affection,
The Council
“Acts of magic?” Maya whispered. When she said she wanted a more interesting life she meant more invite-only parties and a diversified hookup roster. Not whatever the hell this was.