Quiet Magic (10 page)

"And we'll put in some of everybody's
candles into it," said Jeffrey. "So instead of having only one
candle at a time, I'll have--" his eyes flicked to the girl. "How
many are in the family now, Phoenix?"

"One hundred and twenty-seven,
counting Great-great-grandpa and great Uncle Hilary and Great-aunt
Ellie."

"Just think, Rob, a candle from
everybody, everyday! And no matches for Miss Lyle to get all
worried about." He reached out and took up a curl of butter-yellow
wax and slid it into the hollow candle. "That's Uncle
Tulaine."

Phoenix took up a sliver of
red-and-white stripe. "That's Dad."

Elmira put down a long hand, selected
a scrap of indigo and deposited it. "That's Aunt
Phyllis."

There was a pause, then Jeffrey pushed
the bowl across the table. "Go ahead, Rob," he said.

Slowly he put out his large hand to
gently take up a shred of mint-green. "That's Aunt Elmira," he
said, and released the shred into Jeffrey's candle.

The names were confusing to Rob,
though neither Jeffrey nor Phoenix faltered in their
identification. After all it was obviously so-and-so's bit of wax,
wasn't it? Bit by bit, Rob began to feel that there actually was a
difference between the tiny shreds and glanced up to say so to
Elmira --

Her eyes were closed, hands miming the
insertion of each bit of wax, naming each shred before it went in;
following each name with an unvoiced phrase or word.

Familiarity grew as the ritual went
on; Rob began to feel as if he knew the people whose names were
called, almost as if he recalled them from the last time they'd
met. But, of course, that was impossible, he told himself. He
couldn't have possibly met so many people by accident.

Yet still there was a little shiver in
the air as each name was called, as if a small bit of attention--or
of power--was somehow activated.

The last shred of wax--real beeswax,
Rob was certain--was named by Phoenix as
"Grand-uncle-Robert-or-whatever-his-name-really-was-Alkehine."
Everybody laughed but Rob.

Elmira's laughter dimmed to a
smile--tinged with sadness, Rob thought. "That's the last from
Uncle Robert," she said. "He didn't make all that many candles. I'm
sure he's proud to be part of your candle, Jeffrey."

"Wait!" came Jessie's voice from the
stairwell. "Wait!"

She came clattering upstairs and
huffing down the hallway.

"You forgot something, I bet. You've
got a guest to think of!"

"Jessie," said Elmira, half smiling as
the older woman entered the room, "How rude do you think we
are?"

"Well, it wouldn't do for you to
forget this guest. Isn't a matter of being rude!" She held out her
hand, displaying several well-formed drops of deep brown wax. "The
guest-candle dripped," she announced, to a stare from Jeffrey and a
gasp fron Phoenix. "I caught some fresh wax for you."

Rob blinked at the dark droplets,
absurdly pleased at the deepness of the brown; then he blinked
again. "The guest candle? But the candle I lit was
white!"

"Oh," said Elmira softly, smiling at
him warmly. "Was it?" She took the wax beads and carefully slipped
them inside Jeffrey's candle.

"Uncle Rob Davis," she
said.

* * *

DINNER WAS AT nine o'clock and he was
ushered into the dining room by a radiant Phoenix.

The branched candelabrum in the center
of the table was blindingly bright. Rob picked out Uncle Tulaine's
butter yellow, father's multicolored, mother's dark gold, Elmira's
mist blue.

As he took his seat, Elmira came into
the room flanked by Jeffrey and a bright-eyed old gentleman who
could only be Uncle Tulaine. She was carrying a thick brown candle,
which she placed with great care into the solitary empty branch.
She closed her eyes a moment, and Rob thought he saw her speak an
unheard word. The she smiled and looked directly at him.

"We have a large family," she said.
"And it keeps getting larger. Slowly, but very surely."

First published in
Pulphouse #19,
1995

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
have been making beautiful fiction together since 1984. Together,
they built and maintain the Liaden Universe®, which now numbers ten
novels, well over two dozen short stories, and is still expanding,
as well as several other novels, and numerous science fiction and
fantasy short storie
s.

Liaden
Universe
®
novel
Balance of
Trade
is winner of the Hal Clement
Award for best Young Adult Science Fiction of 2004, while
novels
Local Custom
and S
cout's
Progress
received second and first
prize, respectively, for the prestigious Prism Award given by the
Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal Chapter of the Romance Writers
of America.
Scout's
Progress
was also named Best Science
Fiction Novel of 2003 by the reviewers of Romantic Times
Bookclub.

Sharon and Steve live in Central Maine
with lots of books, four erratic muses in the form of cats, and a
large cast of characters. They maintain a web presence at
www.korval.com.