Ghosts are cool when they’re on your side. We sprinted through pallets of electronics in the underbelly of the mall with a mall cop in hot pursuit. A glance over my shoulder revealed Eddie tipping a very large box into the path of the security guard. This caused him to stumble and cast glances around in search of hidden accomplices.

He screamed at us, “Halt. Get back here you little turds. You’re responsible for stealing over $1000 worth of mall property.”

THUNK

Eddie had responded by throwing a Rubik's cube at the hapless guard’s head. The guard paused again, looking for the culprit. I could barely hear him at that point, “Aw come on. My promotion is counting on this.”

Kalli and I laughed as we made our escape out into the mall. We worked our way into the crowd, past the many stores en route to the exit by Mrs. Fields cookies. Once outside, we ran across the street to another shopping center.

Ten minutes later Eddie burst triumphantly out of the mall. Kalliphae and I jumped up and down to get his attention. Once the kid managed to work his way over to us, I held a hand out to him and asked, “Can I please borrow your phone.”

Eddie took it out of his pocket and clutched it apprehensively. In a low voice, he muttered, “It's pointless. I’ve tried using it multiple times and it's completely dead. Not the battery, mind you. I can plug it in. It just doesn’t work. No internet. No bars. I can’t even make it play offline games. No electronics work if I’m touching them. Do you know how frustrating that is?”

I held out my hand and informed the kid, “I have a skill that can un-ghost things. I think I can make your phone work.”

Eddie shook his head vigorously, “No, that won’t work. Can you just un-ghost me instead?”

I sighed, “Sorry kid. I tried that earlier. I can’t do it since you’re higher level than me.”

He put the phone back in his pocket, explaining, “If you un-ghost the phone, my parents will be able to track you. I was at my house when the police first arrived. They can’t track my phone right now, but I’m positive that if you make it work the police won’t be far behind.”

I groaned, thinking about the repercussions of using the kid's phone, “That won’t work. Even if we just used it to make a phone call, they would know what we were up to.”

“So what are we going to do?”, Eddie asked expectantly, looking up at me.

Kalliphae had remained silent for a while just listening to our conversation, but she finally asked, “What is that little box? Some kind of magical tracking device?”

I couldn’t help myself and laughed. This elicited a glare from Kalli. I was still fighting to stop laughing as I jovially explained, “A cellphone is a type of communication device. It’s electronic like the lights or the microwave. It allows us to talk to people over great distances.”

She looked adorable as she tried to work out what I was describing to her. After giving it some thought, she lit up, “Ah hah. We have those in our world too, but they are magical devices. The people in your world went out of their way to avoid using magic. I suppose that has to do with the highest level person on the planet being level 5.”

“No it's not”, Eddie announced proudly, “Father is level 27 and he says that the enchanter is even higher level than he is. Grandfather is only level 22 though. Father is considered something of a prodigy.”

We both stared at the kid in disbelief. Kalli turned her attention to me and asked, “Where exactly do you get your information from?”

The truth about my long and glorious life as a man of the world was finally coming into question. I couldn’t think of any way to sugarcoat things, so I admitted, “I met a librarian who is a level 2 scholar and she told me what she’s seen.”

It was Eddie’s turn to be surprised, “I don't think he knows anyone else who’s awakened.”

Kalli turned her attention to the kid, pressing him, “What is awakened?”

Eddie raised an eyebrow at Kalliphae, “You really are from another world, aren’t you? An awakened is someone who knows about the true world. The majority of people on Earth are newbs. You know, peasants who can’t level up.”

I frowned, expecting Kalli to make fun of me for having been a newb. She had called me a peasant several times after all. To my great surprise, she rounded on the boy and chastised him, “How dare you look down on people just because you were born into a better situation than they were. Where I come from a third-generation mage would have more respect for the commoners in the world around him.”

The boy recoiled at the accusatory tone of Kalli’s voice. I was equal parts impressed and terrified by the fiery rage she was displaying. Eddie started to defend himself, “Father always says that…”

Kalliphae held up a hand and spoke in a clear voice that echoed in my ears, “That’s quite enough out of you. Be silent.”

My jaw snapped shut at the redhead’s command. I struggled to remember to breathe through my nose. A glance at Eddie informed me that he was stricken by the same spell Kalli had cast on me. He wasn’t struggling though. The kid was glaring daggers at Kalliphae.

The girl finally noticed my predicament and whispered in my ear, “You can talk you know, Melvin.”

When I heard my name, something released in my brain that allowed my mouth to fall open. I gulped in some air and asked, “What did you just do?”

She grinned at me, “Words of command. It's a pretty common bit of magic. Anyone can use them quite effectively on people who are lower level than they are. I used to use it on the boys in the monastery all the time to stop them from pestering me. It only works on a mage if they don’t know how to block it. Parents usually don’t teach their children on purpose so that they can use commands to punish them.”

“Did you mean to command me too?”, I asked curiously.

Kalli giggled and whispered in my ear, “No. Not really. You shouldn’t assume I was talking to you. When it comes to magical commands, the way you interpret the command is just as important as the way it’s spoken.”

I nodded absentmindedly, refocusing my attention on calling for a taxi. I could have edited a rock and made it into a cell phone, but I didn’t want to give away too much about my special abilities to either Kalli or Eddie.

It wasn’t necessary either. I walked into the grocery store and headed up to customer service, “Hello, can you please call a taxi for me?”

The manager looked down his nose at me through a set of rimless spectacles and asked, “Name please?”

“Melvin Murphy”, I replied confidently.

He dialed a number on the store phone and called the taxi company. When he hung up, he turned to me and recited, “It will be here in approximately 20 minutes sir.”

I grinned, “Thanks.”

As I turned to leave, I suddenly realized that I had lost Kalliphae. I power walked through the store, searching aisle after aisle. I was just about to ask someone to page her when I found her in the bakery. She called out to me when she saw me, “Look, Melvin, this master chef made all of these delicious-looking treats.”

Behind the counter was a man in a white apron with a name tag that said, Pedro. I had seen eyes like his many times. They looked dead inside like he was counting the minutes until his shift ended. He informed Kalli, “Look ma’am, we don’t make any of the cakes in-house. They are all delivered.”

I tugged on Kalliphae’s arm and said, “We have to go. Our ride is going to be here any minute.”

She looked longingly back at the aisles, “But there is so much food all in one place.”

I laughed, “Wait until you see Costco. This is nothing.”

“Where to Mac”, the cab driver looked back over his shoulder at us as we entered the cab, “When they called me to a grocery store, I thought you’d have some groceries?”

I leaned over a grumpy Eddie to pull the door shut and told the driver, “We just needed to use their store to call you.”

He laughed, “Kid’s without a phone? That’s a first. Where do you want to go?”

I looked patiently at Eddie for directions. Kalliphae watched patiently for a second before saying, “Oh, right. You can talk again.”

The cab driver gave her a quizzical look. Eddie looked furious. He barked, “You didn’t have to get all butthurt on me. I was just trying to tell you how this world works if you are in fact from another world.”

Kalli glared at the kid and said, “You heard the driver, tell him where we need to go.”

The driver turned his attention to me. Eddie gulped and admitted, “Fine. It’s 12345 Enchanted Forest Way. That’s in Fallbrook.”

My jaw dropped, “Wait a second. The enchanter lives at 12345 Enchanted Forest Way?”

Eddie laughed, “She’s an eccentric enchanter like that. What can I say?”

Kalliphae echoed the address back to the driver who plugged it into his meter. A map showed up on the screen and he muttered, “That’s quite a distance. Gonna cost you around sixty bucks. You got that kinda cash?”

I handed him the hundred and said, “This should cover it right?”

He was looking at the bill in the sunlight while Eddie yelled, “Hey. That’s my money you just gave him. How did you do that? It was ghosted.”

I shrugged at him and whispered, “You did give it to me, didn’t you?”

“Because I thought it was worthless”, he muttered, folding his arms.

Once the driver was satisfied, the car lurched into motion. This time, I gave Kalli a guided tour as we drove through my hometown. Fallbrook was on the other side of town from where the mall was. After we left vista, we drove down a long winding road through the woods before we arrived in Fallbrook.

Enchanted Forest Way was exactly where I expected it to be, right smack in the middle of the forest. It looked enchanted too. Colorful trees with foliage of every color lined the lonely street that led to the heart of the forest. I couldn’t see the sky because the canopy covered the road.

The cab driver stopped suddenly, making me think something was wrong. I looked up and realized that there was a closed pink gate in the middle of the road. A placard with the number 12345 rested at the top of the gate.

“You sure you want to get out here?”, the driver asked, looking skeptically between us and the gate.

I was unsure, but Kalliphae seemed committed to finishing the quest.She opened the door and flashed the man a breezy smile, “Yes sir.We’re fine.Thank you for the escort.”

I accepted the change the cabbie was offering and muttered, “It’s not like we can afford the trip back.”

I offered him a twenty for a tip, and he happily accepted, “Don’t hesitate to call me the next time you need a ride. Those Uber drives have been taking all of my business lately.”

We stared at the gate after the cab was out of sight and I asked Eddie, “So what do we do now? Climb over the gate?”

He clicked his tongue at me and said, “My driver usually takes me right up to her door.”

“It’s a short walk and the exercise will do you some good. You have all been eating too much junk food lately”, a sultry voice caused me to nearly jump into the forest.

I looked around and noticed an access panel with a keypad on the side of the road. It had a built-in speaker, which was speaking to us. It continued, “Welcome Melvin Murphy and Kalliphae Hellquist. Thank you for returning my wayward apprentice. Please, come in.”

The speaker cut out with a little pop followed by the gate lurching into motion and sliding open. Kalliphae didn’t hesitate and started marching down the road. I followed in her wake but paused when I noticed that Eddie was still hadn’t moved.

The kid looked like he wanted to run away again, so Kalli told him, “Come along Eddie. Keep up with us.”

I felt kind of bad for the kid as he tagged along behind us. The gate closed in our wake. We were off to meet the enchantress.