His words flowed forward through the crowd. People craned to get a look at him as his words were repeated all the way to the front. The crowd parted around him, allowing him to walk into the store. He started to feel a little woozy, the same sensation that had preceded his departure from the past.
A young girl stood on the counter wearing a red dress and a ruffled white apron. A pink satin patch covered one eye. She wore white ribbons in her auburn hair, and had a light spray of freckles across her nose and cheeks. Pigeon was right—even with the patch, she was pretty cute.
“I hear you bring a message,” she said imperiously as Nate walked down the impromptu aisle.
Nate felt dizzy. He wanted to sit down. Instead, he glared at the little girl standing on the counter. “Belinda, enjoy this now, because none of it is ever going to happen.”
The girl frowned. “I’m Linda,” she said. “Who are you?”
“Somebody willing to do anything to prevent all of this.” Nate blinked several times. Blackness was creeping in from all directions.
“Too late,” the girl said, smirking. “Care for some fudge?”
“See you yesterday,” Nate said, looking at her through a tunnel.
The little girl’s eyes narrowed, and then widened. “You!” he heard her say as he fell backwards into darkness. He began to soar, and then slowed, feeling compressed, like he was folding in on himself. He had not experienced this uncomfortable sensation previously. Without form, Nate struggled. With a final burst of exertion that he could not explain, he was soaring again, leaving everything behind, dwindling into nothing.
Chapter Twenty
Yellow
“I should have warned you,” said the coyote embodiment of Mr. Stott. “You went to see Belinda, didn’t you?”
Nate nodded, back in the Candy Wagon, feeling unexpectedly weary. He wiped drool from his lips. “She won,” he mumbled. “She was young. She had control over everybody who had eaten the fudge.”
“You almost didn’t make it back,” the coyote said. “Belinda must not have realized who you were until the last moment; otherwise you wouldn’t be here. Having regained her youth, she had become the most powerful magician in history. Puissant enough to override any enchantment of mine. I should have forewarned you to avoid her. I did what I could to pull from this end. You were thrashing around and foaming at the mouth.”
“Can she still get to us?” Nate asked.
“You were visiting a possibility,” the coyote said. “Now that you’re back, the possibility does not yet exist. You should be safe for the moment. Just make sure you stop her.”
“Now I have to eat the yellow,” Nate said.
“Right. Did you learn what you needed?”
“I don’t know. I hope so. I know how Mrs. White succeeded. I’m still working out the details of how to prevent everything from happening the same. I’m not sure if this is something I can do, Mr. Stott.”
“You have to try,” the coyote said. “You’ve come this far, Nate. At least you have a chance of stopping her. You’ve already done better than most people would have. Try to stay calm. During the drive back into town you’ll have to try to piece everything together and come up with a plan.”
“We’ll see,” Nate said, shaking his head. “The magic guarding the water from the Fountain of Youth makes people age. Pigeon looked like he was in his eighties. If that happens again, could he be cured?”
“Aging due to a spell is different from natural aging,” the coyote said. “It would be beyond my capabilities, but I know that some types of aging magic can be reversed.”
“I’ll try to keep it from happening in the first place,” Nate said.
“You need to eat the yellow sand promptly, but let me explain a thing or two first,” the coyote said. “This magic does not produce clones. It will divide you into three linked manifestations of the same individual. If one gets hurt, they all suffer the same injury, because they are the same person. If one uses magic candy, they will all exhibit the effects. If one self uses a certain candy while another self ingests a different treat, you risk the side effects of mixing magic.”
“Will my candy be linked also?” Nate asked.
“Yes, the same way you are,” the coyote said. “Everything the yellow sand splits into three is connected. You will not triple your candy supply. If one of your selves eats a particular candy, the corresponding candy will vanish from the other two selves as it is chewed and digested. If you use up the magic of a candy and spit it out, the other two corresponding candies will become useless.”
“And you said before that I can’t keep anything I find, because only linked items will teleport with me when my selves reunite,” Nate said.
“I think you’ve got the idea,” the coyote said. “Hurry and finish the sand. You may want to go outside—it will get cramped in here with two more of you.”
Nate held up the hourglass, examining the sphere of yellow sand trapped in the central chamber. “Do I break the glass to get it out?”
“We merged the yellow sand into a solid lump to keep the rest of the sand separate. You’ll find that the glass is edible—just chew it all up and swallow. Nate, this is a tough assignment. Good luck.”
“Thanks,” Nate said. “I’ll do my best.”
With the Candy Wagon on its side, the passenger door was facing the sky. Hanging the hourglass chain back around his neck, Nate unclipped his seatbelt, stood on the side of his seat, and pushed the door open. He boosted himself up onto the side of the truck, surprised by how far away the brushy ground looked.
Nate crouched and dropped into the brush, rolling when he struck the dirt to help break the fall. The glass portion of the hourglass did not feel edible, but, trusting Mr. Stott, Nate put it in his mouth and chewed it up. The glass was sugary, like fragile rock candy. The sourness of the yellow sand made his mouth pucker.
As Nate swallowed, he realized that he was staring at two other exact replicas of himself who were also swallowing. In unison, the three Nates raised a hand, waved, and said, “Hi.”
They laughed at the simultaneous action, and then all together said, “It’s going to be fun working with such studly guys.”
Again the three Nates laughed. “Seriously,” they said. “We better get going.”
The three Nates all ran toward the bushes where they had hidden the Explorer. “I hope it’s still there,” they all said.