Part 27 (1/2)
”Are you running out?”
”I don't know.”
”Then do it, Danny. We have to have something to work with, don't we? We can't work on the gate back to the Silvermans' cowshed every time, can we? And what if you do learn to close or take back your gates? Do you want it to be that that one?” one?”
She always had an argument like that. She always would. Compelling reasons for him to do exactly exactly what she wanted-now. If he didn't put his foot down now, would he ever? what she wanted-now. If he didn't put his foot down now, would he ever?
Probably not. But it would be worth it, if she could actually help him get control of this thing.
So they leaned over the Gulfside balcony of her condo and chose a spot mostly sheltered by palms near the condominium tower next door. She could come and go from there without being observed. So he created a gate to the spot and she gleefully went through it. When she appeared down in the sand, she waved merrily to him and then held out her arms like a two-year-old wanting to be picked up.
Danny decided to make it a challenge for himself. Instead of going through the gate himself and then making another to bring them both back up, he decided to try to make the second gate from right there on the balcony. After all, it's not as if he touched anything or connected to the gates when he made them. So why would it matter if the starting point was far away, and the endpoint was right next to him?
But as he started to form the gate down near Veevee, on impulse he made the beginning of it be the exact point where the first gate exited, and the endpoint the exact beginning of the original gate. Wasn't that what Leslie had asked about? What would happen if he made gates with the exact same start and end points, only going opposite directions? He'd never tried to make two gates exactly overlap before. But it wasn't hard-he could clearly see the exact points where the gate was anch.o.r.ed at both ends.
Down below, Veevee's hands clapped to the side of her face like a mime portraying stunned surprise. She reached out a finger to the endpoint of the gate and then she was beside him on the balcony. ”You little devil, you didn't tell me you could do that!”
”Do what?” he asked.
”Oh, don't pretend with me.”
”I know I made the beginning and endpoint coincide with the first gate, just in reverse,” said Danny, ”but wasn't that the obvious thing to do?”
”But that's all? Because to me it looked as if the gate went from being a tiny tube to being the interstate. Well, not quite, but very big, and going both ways at once. It's not as if you merely doubled it. It must be ten times bigger.”
”Well ain't that cool,” said Danny, impressed. Partly with himself, but mostly with the discovery about how gates worked.
”Now it's my turn,” said Veevee.
”Your turn to do what?” asked Danny. ”Do you think you can make a gate?”
”The more I study what you do, the better my chances, don't you think? But no, what I mean is that Keyfriends are sometimes Lockfriends, too.”
”And that would mean...?”
”If I can figure out how to close and lock one of your gates, maybe you you can see what can see what I'm I'm doing and learn the skill from me!” doing and learn the skill from me!”
”Since you're the only one who can use my gates,” said Danny, ”and any locking I did wouldn't keep out a Keyfriend, what's the point?”
”To learn! Isn't it fun just to learn learn? Come on, you aren't one of those kids who hates school, are you?”
Danny shrugged. ”It's worth it for you to know how to close them.”
”Especially that one you just made. Because I think you've hit on how to make a gate public.”
”And that's a bad thing?”
”A public gate is one that anyone can use-a Finder, of course, but also any drowther who happens to run into it.”
”Oh,” said Danny. ”So you mean a drowther could walk into that spot and just pop through the gate and be on your balcony.”
”Honestly, that might be a pretty good way to get a date,” said Veevee.
”Or a burglar,” said Danny.
”Oh, I don't need a burglar.” Then Veevee laughed. ”Oh, have some fun with this!”
”So we need to lock the gate-if it's public-so that people won't accidentally use it.”
”Imagine if I had somebody over for lunch and they walked out on the balcony and then suddenly-poof! They think they somehow fell off this tower and lived!” They think they somehow fell off this tower and lived!”
”Okay,” said Danny. ”Close the gate. Lock it. Whatever you do.”
”If I can do it. Opening your gates was easy enough-I came, I saw, I poked it with my finger.”
”Kind of like what you did to Marion and Leslie,” said Danny, for no better reason than he thought of it.
Veevee whooped with laughter. ”That's exactly what I did! Oh, Danny, you have such a dirty dirty mind for a child.” mind for a child.”
Dirty? Danny had no idea what she was talking about.
”All right, let me fiddle around for a little while trying to close the gate, and you do it too.”
”Do what?”
”Close it!”
”Do you think I haven't tried? I'm like a little kid trying to wish really hard. I make my hands into fists, I close my mouth and squinch my eyes shut and then I puff out my cheeks and think, 'I wish I wish I wish.'”
Veevee didn't laugh this time. ”I know,” she said. ”That's what I spent more of my life doing. Couldn't raise a clant, couldn't find my outself. But I made a lot of wisecracks and played tricks on people and learned foreign languages easily, so I thought, I must be a gatemage! Then I did just what you described, or the mental equivalent. Wished really hard that I could make a gate.”
”So you know that isn't the most likely way to succeed,” said Danny.
”We give up, then? And hope n.o.body ever walks into the gate on my balcony?”
”I'll move this end of it, if you want,” said Danny.
”See, that's the strange thing. n.o.body ever talks about moving gates. They just talk about closing them or gathering them in.” Then she started to laugh. ”Yes, Danny. Move the gate. By all means. Move it straight into the middle of your own body.”
Danny closed his eyes and thought for a moment. ”Not to put a damper on your idea or anything, but that would only send me through the gate. That's how I force other people through, anyway-I move the gate to them. Almost like I use one end of it to eat them.”
”Now, that's an interesting thought. Which end do you bring to them?”
”The mouth end, of course. The entrance.”
”What if you moved the exit to them?”
”I don't know,” said Danny. ”Want me to try it on you you?”
Apparently she didn't. ”What if you moved the exit right to the entrance?”