//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 - Sealing the Deal // Story: Of Hearts and Gazing Eyes // by A bag of plums //------------------------------// Lightning Strike sat silently in the back of his mother’s car as she drove him to the doctor’s. Cold Front sat in the driver’s seat, occasionally glancing back at her son in the rearview mirror. He had been so disheartened when he had found out that Cinch had chosen to expel him, but there hadn’t been anything she as a mother could have done about it. It made her heart ache to see her son like this. Not that Lightning Strike seemed all that upset now. He was staring out the car window, deep in thought. “What’s on your mind, Lightning?” Cold Front asked as she stopped for a red light. “Huh?” Hearing his mother’s voice seemed to shake Lightning out of his funk. “Oh, uh, nothing. Just thinking about what I’m going to do with my bike, that’s all.” Lightning’s mother was sympathetic. “I understand, Lightning. You’ve had that bike for years, haven’t you?” The boy made a noncommittal grunt and returned to gazing out the window. His mind kept wandering back to the Heart’s Desire Art Supplier from the day before. The shopkeeper had been… eccentric, to put it nicely, but she had seemed honest enough and had even given him food, drink, and shelter without asking for anything in return. He just didn’t know if he wanted to work there, especially since the job requirements and responsibilities weren’t exactly very clear. And it just felt a little sketchy to him, to be honest. He scratched his right arm with his left hand, and noticed with some degree of surprise that his broken arm seemed to be feeling quite good. There had been the occasional ache and twinge of discomfort before, but since he had woken up this morning there had been nothing. Maybe it was finally healing up. Arriving at the doctor’s clinic, they were shown inside by a nurse. The doctor, a man by the name of First Aid, smiled as they came into his office. “We’re just going to do a basic X-ray scan of your arm, Lightning,” he said, taking the boy over to the machine. “This will show us just how long you have to wear that cast.” Lightning nodded silently and got into position. A few minutes later, the X-ray scan was printed out and delivered to First Aid by the nurse. The doctor took the scan out of the envelope and examined it. His face grew confused as he stared at the scan harder and harder, seemingly searching for something on the sheet of plastic. “So how is he doing, doctor?” Cold Front asked after ten minutes of staring. “It doesn’t make sense…” First Aid mumbled as he stroked his chin with his fingers. “This is physically and medically impossible, but...” “What’s the matter with my arm?” Lightning asked as he peered at the scan results.  The doctor turned in his chair and held Lightning’s cast-covered arm. “The matter, dear boy, is that nothing is wrong with it. Why, according to this X-ray, it’s not even broken. All the bones are perfectly fine and intact, good as new!” “Wait, what?” Lightning’s head began to spin. “But you said it would take two months at least to heal a fracture like what I had. How the heck am I fine?” “I don’t know,” First Aid stood up and went over to the X-ray machine. “The scanner isn’t broken, at least I don’t think it is, and there’s no chance that your scan got swapped for someone else’s…” He sat back down at his computer and called in the nurse. “Can we have another scan of this young man’s arm?” Another scan was shortly done and the results printed out. They were identical to the first one. “So… does that mean my arm isn't broken?” Lightning asked as he, his mother, and the doctor all stared at the plastic printout. “Bizarrely, yes,” First Aid said at last. “I suppose there’s no reason for you to wear that cast any more. I’ll get it off you while you’re still here.” The doctor spent about five minutes taking the cast off Lightning’s arm, and soon the boy’s left forearm was free. Lightning wheeled it around, enjoying the feeling of the cool air on his bare skin again. First Aid spent some time talking to the nurse and Cold Front, but in the end, all the doctor could do was wish his patient good luck and let them go. In the car, Lightning stared at his arm while Cold Front drove home. She was avidly talking about how good it was that Lightning’s arm had healed so quickly, and was talking more to herself than Lightning, who simply said ‘yeah’ and ‘that’s good’ automatically as he pondered about the doctor’s visit. There was no way his bones could have fixed themselves like that naturally. There had to be some kind of… magic involved. He thought back to the Friendship Games, where he had seen magic for the first time. The Canterlot High girls seemed to be capable of doing extraordinary things. Perhaps…  I need to go back to that art shop, he decided. After catching a cab back to the other end of the city, Lightning practically threw the fare at the cabbie and sprinted out of the taxi, leaving the driver quite bewildered as he drove away. It was easy enough for Lightning to find the street where he had walked the day before, and just like yesterday, the Heart’s Desire Art Supplier was open, the doorway half covered by a bead curtain.  Lightning pushed the beads aside and went in. This time the woman in white was standing behind the counter, resting her elbows on the surface and propping up her smiling face with her delicate hands. “Welcome back. I trust you liked the little gift we gave you?” Her smile widened. “You healed my arm,” Lightning Strike waved the limb around. “You used magic, didn’t you? Like those girls from school.” The woman stopped leaning on the countertop and walked to the side, examining the flowers in the vase. “Well, since we’re all friends here, yes. I did use magic. But I would wager mine is different from any magic you might have experienced before. It seems a little narrow minded, in my humble opinion, to think that there is just one kind of magic.” “Look, about my arm,” Lightning said quickly. “Thank you. Really. Why’d you do it, though? We don’t even know each other.” The woman in white put a finger on her bemused lips. “I simply thought that, should you make up your mind about taking the courier job, you would need all your limbs intact. Are you still thinking about it?” “I don’t…” Lightning began, but trailed off. He did need some money to fix his bike, and he had to admit he wanted to know more about this art shop and its occupants. “I know you’ve been feeling powerless recently,” the hooded and cloaked woman said gently. She walked out from behind the register and came closer to Lightning, wearing her self same smile. “Like things are out of your control. And you want to find a place to belong. If you run with us, maybe we can provide that for you. What do you say, Lightning Strike?” Hearing his name seemed to stiffen Lightning’s resolve. “How do you know my name?” “I told you, I’m magic,” the woman replied with a playful shrug. “I know a lot of things.” Lightning Strike found himself agreeing to this person’s every word, as if it were the most tempting food dangling in front of him. He wanted to accept the offer, but there was just one thing holding him back. “You mentioned you needed packages delivered,” he remembered, narrowing his eyes. “You’re not involved in anything illegal, are you?” At this, the hooded woman let out a small, musical laugh. “Oh, you’re a cautious one. I like that; no, we are not involved in anything unlawful. We simply help make people’s heart's desires come true. If for any reason you want to leave after taking the job, we’ll let you go, no strings attached. Does that sound good to you?” “Uh, do you have those like, those things where if you get hurt, you’re covered.” Lightning forgot what it was called. He’d only worked one summer and it hadn’t been covered. “Insurance?” the hooded woman said, tilting her head a little bit to the right. “Not in the traditional sense of the word, but we will help you should you become, ah, injured in action. You’ve seen some of that already, haven’t you? We will also do our best to keep you unharmed and safe both while on the job and off it.” Lightning thought about what he was being told. This lady seemed honest enough, and she had healed his broken arm, there was clearly some kind of magic at work here, like with the Friendship Games. Perhaps she could fly too. “Well, the terms seem… reasonable,” Lightning said at last. “When can I start?” The hooded woman clapped her hands together with obvious joy. “So you’ll take the job?” “I suppose I would, yes. You’ve done me quite a solid, after all.” “Oh, that’s wonderful news!” the woman exclaimed, and there was a faint flash of pink from beneath her hood again. “I’ll notify my superior and staff immediately. It’ll be so good to finally get our packages to the proper people.” In spite of himself, Lightning found himself smiling at the other person’s excitement. For once, he felt as though he had done something right. “So, are there forms I need to fill out for this job?” he asked, leaning against the counter. “Like health checkups and criminal history?” “That’s not important to us,” the woman replied. “So long as you have a good head for directions and two working arms and legs, we couldn’t care less if you robbed a bank or burned down an orphanage. Come back in tomorrow after school, and we will have all your equipment and instructions ready.” “Uh, okay,” Lightning said hesitantly. “I guess I’ll do that.” He turned and pushed aside the bead curtain, but then something occurred to him. “Hey, miss? I don’t think I got your name.” The woman nodded her head. “My name is Merlina Moonshadow. I’ll introduce you to everyone else later. Oh, by the way, take this,” she held out a small bundle of dollar bills held together with a metal clip and a single half-dollar coin. “The taxi driver will ask for twenty-seven dollars and fifty cents for the trip back to your home, on account of bad traffic. You can pay him with this. See you tomorrow!” “What? But I was gonna take the bus.” Lightning looked at the bundle of money. “You can keep it, I don’t need that much.” “There’s already a taxi outside waiting for you,” Merlina waved him off. “Besides, you can think of it as your first job benefit. Goodbye!” She turned away and walked back into the depths of the shop. Lightning watched her disappear, looked down at the money in his hands and slowly left the art shop. Just as promised, there was a slick silver luxury cab idling on the roadside, with the driver looking at him expectantly. “Hey, kid! You getting in?” He called out to Lightning as he stood there staring at the cab. “Oh, uh, yeah.” He broke out of his trance and climbed in the back. Lightning gave the driver his home address and sat back as the warm air of the car’s interior washed over him. The cabbie put on some music on the radio, calm and soothing. It was just as well, because just as Merlina had said, there was bad traffic and the ride home was delayed by about fifteen minutes on the road.  It still came as some surprise when the driver stopped the car on Lightning’s street and the meter read exactly twenty-seven dollars and fifty cents. “She was right…” Lightning mumbled numbly, handing over the cash. “Huh?” The man took the money and counted it. “Thanks, kid. That’s just enough.” “Goodbye, mister,” Lightning said automatically as he got out of the taxi and went back into his house.  That evening Lightning Strike ate dinner in relative silence, answering his mother’s questions in as few words as possible before going up to his room and preparing to go to bed. He was looking forward to seeing what Merlina had in store for him tomorrow. It would almost make up for having to go to Canterlot High again, he hoped. As he lay down on his bed, he thought about what had happened to him in recent days. He still missed his friends at Crystal Prep, but now he felt as though there was something to keep him going through the day, whatever the next week might bring.