Twists Of Time

Casey, Mitch, and Kim worked much better together once the air had been cleared, so to speak. They all had a new understanding of what they stood to lose if they failed. This doesn't mean that they didn't continue to insult one another; they just did it with a better attitude after their talk in the corridor. Mitch also explained to Casey that when a new door suddenly appeared in the tower, it did indeed mean that the wizard who could see it had to go through it for some reason at some point. He had seen the door that led to Casey's room appear about a week before his mentor had to leave and go back to his own time, and could not go through it until the night he did so. His mentor had not been able to see the door at all. This had gotten Casey and even Kim curious as to who Mitch's mentor had been.

"He never told me if there was a family connection like there is between us," Mitch explained. "I can show you a picture of him if you want to see him, though. The Wizard's Gallery on the top level of the tower has portraits of all the Time Wizards in it. Some of them have already been here, and some of them will be here in the future of this place."

"How can you have a picture of people who haven't been here yet?" Kim asked.

"Magic," the two wizards replied at the same time, both smiling.

"This I have got to see," Kim told them. "Pictures of the future sound kind of cool."

"Can we get there from here without any practical jokes this time?" Mitch asked aloud as he looked at the walls around him. There was no response.

"Practical jokes?" Casey questioned. "I can't imagine this beautiful and wonderful tower ever doing anything naughty like that." The hard back upright chair he was sitting in suddenly transformed into a large and comfy sofa.

"Suck up," Mitch mumbled quietly. Just as he did, his chair completely disappeared and he fell to the floor with a thump. "See? Practical jokes like that, or suddenly putting a wall in front of me as I'm walking down the hall. The one that really gets me is when the hall spins around and I'm walking on the ceiling."

"I think that one is fun," Kim told him. "I get to do that all the time. It wouldn't be good for you though, Casey. Your skirt would fall over your face."

"They are robes, not a skirt. Besides, I think the tower and I get along just fine," Casey told them both. "I think this is the coolest place I have ever lived. I would love to be able to live here forever."

"It will feel like forever by the time you get to go home, Dad," Mitch told him. "Let's go check out the gallery."

The three of them walked along the corridors spiraling around and around until Casey was beginning to feel a little dizzy. Just as he thought about the fact that he felt the world spinning around him, they arrived at a door. Mitch opened the door and Casey saw the first actual stairs he had seen in the tower. The steps curved around and up to a large round room. On the opposite side of that room was a spiral staircase leading up to a balcony level where there were actual windows.

"Windows, those are real windows, I see the sky out there!" Kim exclaimed. She raced across the room and up the staircase. The two wizards followed her. The view from the top of the tower was incredible. Casey and Kim discovered that the tower was perched on top of the tallest mountain they could see in a narrow range that separated a desert on one side from a lush green valley on the other. The desert stretched out as far as they could see to the north, south and west. Lower mountains and hills tapering down to an inlet from what appeared to be an ocean bordered almost all the way around the valley on the east.

"Don't let the windows fool you," Mitch warned. "It may look like the valley is a short distance away, but it takes two days to walk there and three to get to the edge of that bay. It's twelve days to cross that desert, I am told, but I was also told not to try it. There are dangers in that desert that my mentor refused to describe to me."

"Really?" Kim asked.

"I thought there were pictures of the wizards in this room," Casey said, looking around the round room below them now.

"You have to ask to see them," Mitch explained. "The tower is very picky that way."

"Aww... I'll bet there were some guys that took extra special care of the tower and it would be happy to show them off all the time," Casey commented. Suddenly about a dozen pictures appeared in different places on the walls below.

"That had to be the sneakiest suck up I have ever heard," Mitch whispered. "I'm sure my picture would only show up if you asked which wizard the tower hated the most." As he said it, another picture appeared in the room below, but it wasn't a portrait of Mitch. "Who is that? I've never seen that portrait here before."

Casey went down the stairs and looked at the portraits that were showing, saving the hated wizard for his last viewing. "I don't get it... some of these pictures are of old men and some are of little kids."

"The boys you see are wizards that haven't been here yet," Mitch explained. "The geezers are the ones that have already served their purpose here and gone," he added as he joined Casey. "This guy here was my mentor," he said pointing out one of the portraits. "His name was Darien." Casey visibly staggered as he looked at the portrait.

"That guy is my grandfather," he explained. "I've never met him, but I saw him in a picture with my grandmother once. Mom told me who he was, but said I should never mention him to my father. The picture was gone the next day."

"I got a hunch all these guys are in your family," Kim told them. "Look close at all these guys. There's a real strong resemblance, don't you think?"

Casey went over to the last picture that had appeared in the room. He stood in front of it shaking his head and mumbling. "No... That can't be right... why would he... I know he ... But why is he the most hated?"

"Why is who the most hated?" Mitch and Kim asked.

Casey pointed at the picture of a rather mean looking little boy and whispered, "My father."

"That nasty looking brat is my grandfather?" Mitch asked.

"Are you sure that's your father? You don't look anything like him," Kim observed.

"Oh, that's him all right," Casey told them both. "I've seen pictures of him at that age all over my grandmother's house."

"Wait, I thought you didn't know your grandparents," Kim questioned.

"I know my grandmother, but not my grandfather," Casey explained. "They're divorced and my grandmother and my father both hate him. It was a nasty divorce. She got everything, and he left town. I always hoped I would meet him someday to see if he would tell me what happened." As Casey spoke, it was as if the tower shivered for a second. Casey felt a tingle all over and got really dizzy and light headed. He sat back into the chair that had appeared behind him and closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them again, he gasped in surprise. "Mitch! You're a kid again."

Mitch was indeed a child again. He looked to be about 10 years old. He was staring down at himself in shock before looking up at his parents. "You two had better be ready, because this means you don't have any more time. I would guess that you only have a day or so before I have to go back to my old room and my old life."

"Your old room maybe, but not your old life," Casey told him. "I will make sure of that."

"Ok, Dad, now you and Mom go back upstairs, so I can show you stuff," Little Mitch ordered. He turned around to walk with them and promptly tripped over the too long clothes he was wearing. "REALLY?? You let Darien's clothes adjust with his size, but you have to let me trip?" he asked the tower in frustration.

"Mitch, don't you think you could try to ask nicely for the tower to do things you need it to do instead of expecting it to do them automatically?" Casey asked softly.

"But it is supposed to do them automatically, Dad," Mitch complained.

"Does the grown up me give you chores to do that I expect you to do every week?" Casey countered. At Mitch's nod, he continued, "Do I ask you to do them, or do I just tell you to do them?"

"Well, you mostly just tell me," Mitch answered.

"Do you think you would like doing your chores a little better if I asked you to do them, instead?" Another nod from Mitch followed by a blink as realization struck.

"Tower, could you please make my clothes fit me better?" Mitch asked politely. His clothes immediately adjusted to the proper size, and Mitch giggled loudly. "That tickled," he squealed.

"Someone's ticklish," Kim grinned impishly at Casey. A second later, she and Casey were chasing a squealing little boy up the stairs to the windows.

"Tower, help me!" Mitch called out. As he did, the stairs under Casey and Kim's feet turned into a slide, and they went tumbling back down to the gallery below. "YES! Victory!" Mitch called out as he hugged the nearest pole supporting the balcony and the dome above it.

"Working together seems to have gone pretty well," Casey pointed out. "What do you think you should say to the tower now, son?"

"Thank you," Mitch called out.

"What else should you say?" Casey prodded.

"I dunno," Mitch responded. "OH, yes I do. Tower, I'm sorry I was such a brat to you." There was a glow around the now little boy Mitch and he suddenly found himself seated on a very soft and fluffy chair. "Sweet!" he grinned.

"Very impressive, very nice, very special, now get off me," Kim growled. Casey stood up and then Kim got off the floor as well. "Please tell me that you aren't going to turn into Mr. Rogers as you grow up," Kim grumbled as she looked up at the balcony. "Could we have stairs back again now?"

"Please," Casey prompted.

"Oh god, you are turning into Mr. Rogers," Kim groaned. "Great, just great, I get to rescue my brother with Mr. Rogers in a dress." As soon as she said it, the floor disappeared underneath her feet and she fell into a pool of water. "CASEY!!!" Kim screamed as she sputtered and splashed around.

"It wasn't me, I swear," Casey vowed. Hearing giggles, he looked up and saw Mitch rolling around in the big chair laughing.

"Thank you, tower, that was better than some of the stuff you did to me," Mitch finally said when he could talk again. "I really am sorry I didn't get along with you better, but we can have fun until I have to go back."

Casey waved his staff and the floor was back and Kim was dry and standing where she had been. "Apparently the tower thinks you should be nicer to me," he pointed out to her.

"Yeah, I got that. Thanks," Kim said sarcastically.

"Dad... You just did a spell that affected the physical structure of the tower," Mitch whispered in awe.

"I just closed the hole in the floor," Casey told him.

"Exactly," Mitch agreed, as if there were some point Casey wasn't getting, and there was and he wasn't. "Dad, only the current Time Wizard can do that."

"Well you said I was a time wizard when you brought me here," Casey pointed out.

"Yes I said you were A time wizard, but not THE time wizard," Mitch returned, stressing his words to make the point clearer.

"Does that mean you have to go back now?" Kim asked Mitch.

"I should, yes, but the tower isn't pushing me yet," Mitch marveled aloud. "It doesn't actually physically push you to the door, but I should be feeling a pressure inside to go find a door, and so should Dad if it is time for me to go. I'm even back to my original age. I should be feeling a need to go home, but I don't."

"Try doing a spell to change something in the tower," Casey asked Mitch. Mitch waved his staff at a nearby column but nothing happened.

"This isn't supposed to be possible," Mitch mumbled. "The only way that two time wizards can be in this world at the same time is if one of them is the apprentice of the other one. I should want to go home, but all I want to do is stay here with you two."

"Maybe that's because you are feeling more like this is home than where you came from," Kim offered. "You said that you weren't happy with your life before. You and Mr. It's-a-Robe here didn't get along there, but you do here."

"Whoa, check you out getting all parental and wise," Casey teased her. Before she could clobber him, Casey smiled and said, "I like this side of you."

"Yeah, well..." Kim stammered. "Don't get used to it."

"No, Mom is going to have to go into serious bitch mode if you have a chance to succeed," Mitch told them both.

"Language, son," Kim scolded.

"Yes, Mitch," Casey agreed. "No calling your mother a bitch even if it is true." Mitch fell over giggling as Casey looked at Kim's face and then said, "Oops, gotta run now." Casey took off out of the room with Kim close on his heels.