Wizard's Holiday, New Millennium Edition by Diane Duane Read Free Book Online

common.”
    Her dad looked thoughtful. “They wouldn’t be, you know, saving the world or anything while they were here?”
    Nita wondered what he was getting at. “I don’t think so,” she said. “The manual says it’s supposed to be a chance to see what the practice of wizardry looks like in some place really different, so that you get some new ideas about how to handle it at home. You’re never formally sent out on errantry when you’re on one of these, the manual says. If something minor comes up in passing, sure, you handle it. Otherwise… ” She shrugged. “Pretty much you take it easy.”
    Her dad nodded, stopped the car at a traffic light. “We did get the milk, didn’t we?”
    “Plenty.”
    “I keep having this feeling that I’ve forgotten something.”
    Nita pulled out her Post-it note and once again compared it against the list in her head. “No,” she said. “I don’t think so… ”
    Her dad brooded briefly. “This is going to drive me crazy until I remember what it is I think I forgot,” he said. “Never mind. Nita, why don’t you go?”
    “Where, to Mars?”
    “No. On this exchange.”
    Nita stared at him. He glanced back at her. Then the light changed to green, and her dad turned his attention back to his driving.
    “Are you kidding?” Nita said.
    “No,” said her dad, turning the corner off Nassau Road onto their street.
    At first Nita didn’t know what to say. “Uh, I don’t know if I can,” she said at last. “Tom may already have used the energy for something else.”
    “Somehow I doubt that,” her father said.
    “Did you talk to him about this?” Nita said, still very confused.
    “In generalities, yes,” her dad said. “I doubt you would have heard it, as you were occupied. I could hear you sneaking up the stairs.”
    “Uh, yeah,” Nita said, “okay… ”
    “Well?”
    Nita was flummoxed. “But, Daddy,” she said at last, “what about the aliens?”
    “They’re wizards, you said.”
    “Yeah, but—”
    “And they’ll be able to disguise themselves, so the neighbors won’t get into a panic and call the cops or the FBI or anything like that?”
    “Daddy, you’ve been watching too much TV. I don’t think the FBI really does aliens.”
    “All right, Area 51 or Warehouse whatever-it-is—”
    “Daddy…”
    He chuckled a little. “Okay. So these other wizards can cover up for themselves?”
    “Well, sure, that would be part of it, lots of times you have to do that when you’re on another planet, but—”
    “And Dairine’ll be here. From what you’ve told me, she doesn’t have any trouble with aliens.”
    Nita considered that. Dairine’s response to aliens could range from partying with them to blowing them up, but so far she didn’t seem to have misjudged how to handle any given situation involving sentient beings who weren’t human. It was her own species she seemed to have trouble with. “No, she does okay.”
    “I hear another ‘but’ coming,” her father said, as they paused at the last traffic light before their block.
    “I don’t know if this is a good time to go away and leave you alone,” Nita said at last.
    “If Dairine’s here, I won’t be alone,” her dad said.
    “I mean—”
    “Sweetie,” said her dad, “I think maybe a break would be a smart thing for you right now. Dairine and I would be capable of coping here. And among other things, it’ll give me a chance to practice talking to her without a mediator. Possibly a useful life skill.”
    Nita smiled half a smile. “You really have been talking to Millman,” she said.
    “About this? No. Some things I can figure out for myself. I am forty-one, you know.”
    “Uh, yeah,” Nita said, and then was quiet for a moment.
    “You need time to think about it?” her dad said. “Maybe the thought of going so far away scares you a little?”
    “Daddy!” Nita said, scandalized. “I’ve been a lot farther away than this.”
    “On ‘business,’ yes,” her dad