The Key (The Magnificent 12 3)

Here’s the thing you need to know about assistant principals: they are usually responsible for discipline. But very few of them are prepared to deal with supernatural phenomena. Coping with violations of the Laws of Nature was not the purpose of the Chair of Doom.

So the golem was sent home.

He lumbered happily along the street, enjoying the totally new perspective he was getting: he could see the upper branches of trees now. And enjoying, too, the crunch crunch crunch of the cracking cement in the sidewalk.

Mack’s mother had been called and she was on her way to meet him. And frankly, the golem wasn’t looking forward to it. He liked Mom—well, Mack’s mom—in fact he wished sometimes she really was his mom. After all, he’d never had a mom. Or a dad. In any case, though, he wasn’t looking forward to it because he had the sense that possibly he worried Mom a little. And he had the feeling that being sent home from school would worry her more.

When he reached the house, Mom was just pulling into the driveway in her hybrid crossover vehicle.22

The golem gave a cheerful wave.

The hybrid crossover vehicle came to a stop in the driveway. Mom stepped out.

And then a girl the golem had never seen before stepped out of the passenger side.

The girl and Mom were chatting somewhat awkwardly. The golem was no judge of ages but he guessed the girl was maybe sixteen or eighteen years old. She had amazing red hair, and even more amazing green eyes. He was pretty sure she was beautiful, though again: he was not a great expert on female beauty. She was dressed in a very mature, grown-up, Nordstrom sort of way, very businessy.

Mom was saying, “I really do hope you’ll stay for dinner, Risky.”

And the girl or young woman, Risky, was eyeing the golem with amusement. “So this is your son? Mack, was it? Are you Mack?” She addressed that last part to the golem.

“I’m Mack,” the golem said, feeling just the slightest reluctance to talk to her. He didn’t have a lot of experience with people and therefore he was usually inclined to think that people were basically good.

But this girl didn’t seem good.

Also, despite the fact that her clothing fit her perfectly, she didn’t seem to fit the clothing. It was like when you see a monkey wearing pants. Only in this case it was like seeing a crocodile wearing a business suit: the outfit may say, “Safe,” but the eyes said, “Danger.”

“I’m a big boy,” the golem said.

“I have got to stop feeding him,” Mom said.

Risky gave a knowing little laugh. “Oh, I doubt that would have much effect. But I bet I can slim him right down.”

“Diet and exercise?” Mom suggested.

“That never works,” Risky said. “Except in rare cases where people actually eat less and exercise. No, I have a better way. A more … high-tech way. It turns out there’s an app for that.” She pulled a smartphone from her purse. Two, actually.

“I don’t see how an app …,” Mom said doubtfully.

“Silence, fool!” Risky snarled. Then, “I mean … trust me.”

“Mack,” Mom said, “I happened to meet this young lady at the salon. I started telling her about you. About some of the … well, the issues … we’ve had lately. She’s already at the university and doing a paper on … On what is it, Risky?”

Risky smiled, showing too many brilliant white teeth. “I’m doing a paper on pseudosupernatural phenomena. Things that seem to be supernatural, hard to explain, but are really quite normal.”

“She thinks you’re probably quite normal, sweetie.” Mom said this with such a mix of hope and love and lingering fear that, well, if the golem had had a heart, it would have swelled.

As it was, the rest of him was still swelling.

Risky was finished thumbing the phone. She smiled up at the golem and said, “Just put this in your mouth.” And she held the phone out to him.

Nothing about this seemed the slightest bit strange to the golem, of course, but Mom was a different story. She had her doubts and she said so in no uncertain terms. “I hope this app is suitable for his age group.”

“Everything I do is suitable,” Risky said.

The golem put the phone in his mouth and began to chew.

“No! Don’t bite it!” Risky said. “Just hold it in your mouth.” Then she thumbed a text message into her own phone and hit Send. Seconds later, the phone in the golem’s mouth chimed as the text arrived.