Monday, July 13
Dear Journal,
The day started off with a simple idea. “So, from what I understand, none of you heard the radio message we’ve been sending,” Jessica said. “So what if we could broadcast it on a few local radio stations?”
“That could work,” Dana thought. I’d have to see the radio you’ve set up, and maybe drive out and find an antenna, but it’s not impossible. I’ll need someone to help me, though.”
“I can do it,” I volunteered, but Jessica stopped me.
“Scott, you shouldn’t be going out or working. What if something happens?” he said.
“Jessica, I’ll be okay. I’m not made of glass.”
“Is there some reason why Scott can’t do it?” Levi asked. Crap. Now I’d have to give some reason. I don’t look sick, and an injury wouldn’t be convincing enough. What if they don’t react well to my news? What if they run me out of town? I was overreacting again. I decided to just say it.
“Uh, well, I’m kinda pregnant.” The room fell silent.
“And he’s the father?” Levi asked.
“Yeah.”
The whole room erupted in cheers as everybody congratulated me at the same time. “Well, that would be reason enough,” Levi said.
“Yeah. But that means that the two of us are going to have to stay here for the time being.” Jessica said. “It’ll be tricky, but we can manage.”
“I can help you with the radio project, Dana,” Levi said. They left the room, and everyone split off and did their own thing. Al checked out our current cars (we had already got a private car and a work car for each of them), Levi tried to fly when Dana didn’t need his help, and everyone else explored. Not Jessica or me, though. He kept me laying on the couch all day with him right by me. It was fine for the first hour, but tedious after that.
“Remind me why I can’t get up again,” I said.
“Because something could go wrong, and we don’t have a doctor,” Jessica replied.
“Something could go wrong with anybody else here, too. We don’t have a doctor for them, either. Should they stay in, too?”
“They’re not pregnant.”
“I’m only a month pregnant. Six weeks at the most. That’s not very far along. I don’t even look pregnant!”
He sighed. “Fine. You win. I won’t make you rest all day, but when it starts getting more serious, I’m cracking down.”
“Alright.” We kissed.
For the rest of the day, I went back to meditating to try and control magic. I still remembered my session over a month ago, and I did the same thing. After a while, I felt a weird pressure at the base of my horn along with a tingling along it. I opened my eyes and saw a pen floating in the air in front of me, surrounded by an emerald green glow. I fell asleep for an hour after that, and when I woke up, Jessica was tending to the garden.
Since I had nothing else to do, and it was only three in the afternoon, I meditated again. This time, when the pen floated, I could feel it. I could feel every inch of the pen and the room around it. I concentrated more and tried to visualise the pen in a different location, to see and feel it moving, and it floated a few inches to the right. I was so excited I broke my concentration, and the pen fell to the carpeted ground.
But I can use magic! Yay! Now to see if I can turn it on and off at will. I visualized picking up the pen, and saw the full outline of the pen and where it sat. I tried to copy what I did and get to what I felt, and it worked. I could, after a lot of practice, float the pen behind me while I walked.
I trotted out to the garden, with the pen in my magic grasp. “Hey, Jessica! Want to see something amazing?” I asked. He turned around and his eyes widened.
“That… shouldn’t be possible,” he said.
“We’re cute, fluffy ponies, and I’m pregnant. What was that about impossible?”
“So, you can use magic. This is a game-changer.”
“I know! There’s so much I could do with this!” I tried to visualize the trowel, embedded in the dirt beside him, and lifted it up, dumping the soil off it. He clapped.
The next few hours consisted of me lifting up various things and then resting. So far, the largest thing I can move around with me as I do other things is this laptop. The largest thing I can lift more than a foot off the ground is a bicycle.
Jessica started making food as the others trickled back in. Al and Ben were talking a bit, Levi and Dana cracked some jokes as they came back into the house, and the others chatted in groups, too. I decided to show off before dinner.
I stood up. “So, today, I learned how to control magic. This defies all laws of physics, but it’s awesome. Check this out.” I grabbed an unopened can of food from the counter and floated it over with magic, waved it around a bit, and then put it back and slumped in my chair.
Dana was fascinated. “You can do all that with your horn? And you learned this in one day?”
“I used it before now, and tried some things earlier, but I can control it now, yeah. It helps that I practiced a bit on slow search days, but I didn’t make any major accomplishments until today.” I meditated about twice a week during the expedition. It helped break up the boredom of fruitless searches. Nothing else had happened, and I didn’t do magic then, so I didn’t write it down. I really should have, but all it would be is a bunch of short entries about that.
I really should have done that. Anyways, after dinner we all sat in the living room. “So, with the house packed and Scott pregnant, we need a plan. I want you guys to think of things we need to do to make this a permanent home base. Scott, can you use the voice-to-text thing on your laptop to get down all the ideas?”
I floated over my laptop and pressed a few keys. “Sure thing. All set up.”
And so we planned. We made a list of some of the most important things to survive in Phoenix. It took a while to flesh out everything, and some of them are a bit up there, but if all of it gets done, then everything will be so much better.
-Scott