Chapter Six “ It’s Raining, It’s Pouring
It was raining outside, an unusual occurrence for summer in southern California, but Mina appreciated it as she sat at the kitchen table, going through the notes she’d made on various dates, interviews, and non-magic media since her arrival in the Los Angeles. The raindrops pounding against the window created a steady rhythm, mixing with the soft voices drifting out from the radio to her left as she concentrated on the observations and data spread out in front of her. If the rhythm of the rain and pulse of the music coming from the radio hadn’t been creating such a lulling effect, Mina probably wouldn’t have been quite so shocked when a deep male voice behind her greeted her with an ominous, “Hello.” As it was, she nearly jumped out of skin, causing the dark-haired man behind her to become consumed by a fit of laughter.
“Holy God!” Mina exclaimed, glaring at her oldest brother, Charlie, as he slid into the chair across from her.
“Avery’s right,” Charlie observed through his laughter. “That is fucking hilarious.”
“I swear to God, I’m going to have to put some sort of blocking spell on this place so you two can’t keep scaring me out of my wits.” Mina placed a hand over her heart as if to demonstrate just how scared out of her wits she’d been.
“Aw, come on, Mina, you’ve been away from wizards for too long if a little thing like random appearances of strange men in your home while you’re alone and vulnerable scare you,” Charlie scolded her with a teasing grin.
“Yeah, that’s definitely only started scaring me recently.” Mina rolled her eyes at her brother, but allowed a small amount of laughter, as she could tell he was only joking. Charlie had always been the more tolerable of her two brothers. “What are you doing here, anyway? Shouldn’t you be in London?”
“Eh, I had some time off, so I thought I’d stop in and check on my little sister, see how the research is going.” Charlie shrugged nonchalantly. He worked as a doctor at a magical hospital in London, and he was usually so busy that Mina rarely saw him. Despite his chosen method of entering the apartment, she was actually quite glad to see him. “And if your five million pages of notes here are any indication, I’d say it’s going pretty well.”
“It’s not too bad,” Mina replied with a shrug. Her brother laughed, his eyes smiling at her.
“Glad and relieved to here it,” he stated with a grin. “Avery tells me you’re dating some poor chump so you can write about it in your thesis.”
“He’s not a chump, he’s actually a pretty nice guy,” Mina responded, immediately on the defense. “And please don’t tell me you’re going to start with the whole ‘dating non-magics is trouble and your entire graduate education is a total waste of time’ speech.”
“Hey, I’m not gonna knock it.” Charlie raised his hands up as a sign of surrender. He reached into the bowl of pistachios Mina had sitting next to her on the table and tossed one into his mouth before continuing. “A colleague of mine at the hospital has been seeing this non-magic girl for a couple of months now. Most rewarding relationship he’s ever had.”
“Good to know.” Mina couldn’t help laughing at her brother’s means of support. A thought suddenly dawned on her. “Ooh, can I interview him? Does the girl know he’s a wizard?”
“I don’t know.” Charlie frowned as though this were the first time the question had occurred to him. “You know, that’s a really good question. I bet she doesn’t. This changes the whole situation for me.”
“Yeah,” Mina sighed. “People are so scared to let their significant others know about their true selves, you know? It’s sad that this rift exists between our communities.”
“Indeed.” Charlie picked up a few more pistachios thoughtfully. He quickly deserted any questions Mina had brought into his mind about the propriety of social norms as he slid one into his mouth. “So when are you seeing this guy again?”
“In a couple of hours. We’re going to some fair or something down by the beach.”
“Outside?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s raining.”
“I’m aware.” Mina pulled the bowl of pistachios out of Charlie’s reach. He would eat them all before the end of the conversation if she let him. He responded by pulling out his wand, but she had retrieved hers and muttered a few words to send his flying out of his hands before he had a chance to do anything.
“Bitch!” he gasped playfully.
“I paid for these,” she replied, solemnly pointing to the bowl of pistachios that she was now holding protectively.
“How do you get men to like you?” Charlie inquired as he stood up to retrieve his wand from where it had fallen on the floor.
“Feminine wiles,” Mina replied with an innocent grin.
***
“Yeah, next Thursday at 3 is perfect,” Justin confirmed into the phone. “Yeah. Yeah. Great. Than you so much, Mr. Delaney. I really appreciate this. Absolutely. ‘Bye.”
“Who was that?” Izzie inquired curiously, intrigued by the way her cousin was grinning like a maniac as soon as he hung up the phone. He was practically dancing with excitement and it was more than enough to make her look up from her magazine and stare at him until he responded to her inquiries.
“I just got a job interview to be a personal assistant to John Delaney,” Justin informed her, his voice filled with excitement.
“Who?” Izzie’s confused response was not what Justin had been hoping for. Personally, he felt that jumping around and screaming would have been more appropriate, so he punched her in the arm.
“What do you mean ‘who’? John Delaney is like, the most fucking awesome independent film director around right now!” he exclaimed, appalled.
“Oh!” Izzie’s face lit up as Justin explained and she stopped rubbing her arm where he’d punched her. “That’s awesome! How’d you pull that off?”
“I ran into my friend Brian from film school while I was out at the bar the other night and we were talking about how I’m kind of down and out right now, so he told me about this position he’d heard about, made some calls for me, and got me an interview. Is that amazing or what?”
“That’s really amazing,” Izzie replied, giving her cousin what was probably the only sincere response she’d given him in years. He rarely deserved it, but for once he did. She was even moved to stand up and wrap her arms around him in a hug.
Justin couldn’t remember the last time he had felt this happy about something. His last relationship had stopped being happy and exciting long before it ended, and the events that followed the end of the relationship were even worse. He’d felt like a worthless bum for a long time, and for once he finally felt like he might be able to get things together enough that he wouldn’t feel like a loser every time he went to play Caverns of Doom.
“Well, I better get going,” Justin admitted as he released Izzie from the congratulatory embrace.
“Oh, yeah?” she inquired, raising an eyebrow. “Where to?”
“I’m taking Mina out again,” Justin replied, trying to sound unaffected, but he was really looking forward to this almost as much as he was looking forward to his forthcoming interview.
“Well, you better kiss the damn girl at the end of this one is all I’ve got to say,” Izzie stated, returning to her chair and her magazine. “Because if you don’t, then you’re a god damn pussy and I can’t tolerate that sort of thing in my family.”
“Thank you for the encouraging words,” Justin responded sarcastically. “I really appreciate all the support you’ve given me.”
“Hey now, support is for the weak.”
***
By the time Charlie had disappeared back to London, Ivy had arrived home from work, and the doorbell of the McKinnon residence rang, the rain had slowed down considerably. The hard but steadying pounding against the window panes had changed to a light pitter patter and the lightning which had previously lit up the sky was becoming less and less frequent. Mina was grateful. She enjoyed the rain when she was sitting at home protected by four walls and a ceiling, but she wasn’t much for going out in it. She gave herself the once over in the mirror, decided she looked decent and trotted towards the front door.
“Hi!” she greeted Justin brightly, opening the door and letting him into the shelter of the apartment. He smiled back at her and gave her a quick hug as a greeting.
“Hey. Sorry I’m late, people are driving like maniacs today. It’s like they’ve never seen rain in June.” He shook his head with disdain.
“They probably haven’t,” Ivy’s voice drifted over from the kitchen, where she was cooking pasta to enjoy by herself that evening.
“True,” Justin agreed with a laugh.
“This is my cousin Ivy,” Mina interjected, realizing the two had never actually met one another. “Ivy, this is Justin.”
“Hi, Ivy,” Justin greeted the redhead, smiling warmly.
“Hi.” Ivy smiled back, giving Mina an approving look before returning her attention to her pasta. “You two better get going before the rain starts picking up again.”
“That’s true,” Justin concurred, turning his attention back to Mina. “Shall we?”
“Absolutely.”
“You look really nice, by the way,” Justin commented as he held the door open for the woman in front of him, allowing her to walk through before he did the same. For all of his faults, it could never be said that he lacked manners.
“Thanks,” she replied. She was surprised to find that the compliment seemed genuine, as she hadn’t exactly dressed up for the occasion. A trip to the fair hadn’t seemed like something that required much more than the pair of jeans and maroon peasant top she was wearing. “You too.”
“So, I was thinking that since it’s still kind of drizzly out, maybe we should skip the fair and go to the aquarium,” Justin suggested as they headed towards his car. “You’re kind of new to L.A, right? Have you been there yet?”
“Nope.” Mina shook her head as they approached the black Chevy Cavalier that Justin had owned since he was 21. “That sounds like fun.”
***
“Okay, this damn place only has one soda machine and that is ridiculous,” Justin informed Mina as he handed her the bottle of Coke she’d requested and took a seat next to her. She was sitting in front of an exhibit of jellyfish, just watching them glide through the water. It was almost hypnotic, and she barely looked up when Justin returned.
“Thanks,” she remembered to say briefly.
“No problem.”
Justin sat in silence next to his date and watched her watching the jellyfish. The way she was staring made him smile. It was like she was mesmerized by the way the spineless animals just seemed to drift through the water, as opposed to other fish who were clearly making a conscious effort. She looked the way he imagined he had always looked when his parents brought him here as a child and he would refuse to leave the jellyfish for hours.
“They’re pretty beautiful, aren’t they?” he finally broke the silence as he opened his own bottle of Coke. Mina was brought out of her trance and glanced over at the man sitting next to her.
“Yeah. They’re amazing.” She nodded, taking a sip of the soda he’d brought her. “I wonder what it must be like to be an animal like that. No cares, no human drama. It must be strange, but so peaceful.”
Yeah.” Justin mimicked her nod of the head in agreement. “I always used to love coming here as a kid. Watching the jellyfish was my favorite thing ever. I was kind of obsessed.”
“A decent thing to be obsessed with, I suppose,” Mina replied with a laugh.
“I guess.” Justin joined in her laughter before taking a sip of his own soda. “Then it was jellyfish, now it’s Caverns of Doom and taking pictures.”
“Caverns of Doom?” She raised an eyebrow in amusement, placing a lot of emphasis on the last word of the title. Justin chuckled.
“Yeah, it’s a video game. Pretty stupid. I don’t know why I thought it would be a good idea to bring it up.” He directed his attention back to the jellyfish, his cheeks turning a lovely shade of crimson.
“I’ve never played a video game,” Mina commented lightly.
“What?” Justine exclaimed before he remembered she’d only been in a car a few times as well. “Oh, that’s right. Crazy hippie parents. Wow, what a childhood you must have had.”
“It’s not as interesting as you might think, trust me.”
“Try me.”
“Okay,” she began with a labored sigh, trying to decide how she could relay some of the details of her childhood to him without including things like broomstick races and getting trouble for experimenting with new spells. “Well, I have two older brothers who liked to torment me mercilessly. I spent August through May being obsessed with school and learning, and the summers wandering in the woods around our house trying to find something new and exciting and very rarely finding it.”
“Sounds fucking awesome to me,” Justin admitted enthusiastically. Mina was more than a little surprised at the response. Most people found such a description of her childhood profoundly boring and depressing. “You lived near woods?”
“Yeah. Our house was surrounded by them. Well, still is. My parents still live there.” She smiled, thinking fondly on her parents house, hidden up in the foothills of northern California where people who wouldn’t understand their magical habits couldn’t find it.
“I always wished I lived somewhere like that. Especially when I got to be a teenager. I got really into photography and the city offers a lot of great material, but nature is so much more aesthetically pleasing sometimes.” He couldn’t believe he’d actually just used the phrase ‘aesthetically pleasing’ on a date. His last girlfriend would have looked at him like he was crazy, but Mina seemed really interested in what he had to say.
“I’d like to see some of your pictures,” she told him. “You should show them to me sometime.”
“Sure,” Justin complied, trying not to sound too thrilled about the concept. It implied that she wanted to see him again, which was a difficult thing not to sound too happy about.
They both fell silent again, sipping their respective bottles of Coke and watching the mesmerizing movements of the jellyfish. Justin was the one to break the silence again.
“Do you want to get out of here?” he asked finally when he realized they’d been in the aquarium for about two hours. “We could go grab some dinner or something.”
“Sounds good,” Mina agreed with a smile, casting her eyes towards one of the large windows facing the ocean. She groaned when she saw that the rain, which had stopped briefly, had started up again and was falling harder than ever. “Oh, it’s raining. I don’t want to go out in the rain.”
“What? Afraid you’re going to melt or something?” Justin teased. Mina’s focus shot back towards him the moment the words came out of his mouth. There was a strange look in her eyes that he couldn’t quite place, something between anger and fear.
“What’d you say?” she asked him quickly.
“Uh, nothing. Just a little Wizard of Oz reference there,” he replied uncomfortably.
“God,” Mina huffed, standing up and heading towards the door without even waiting for him. “I hate that book.”
“Sorry,” Justin apologized immediately, getting up and following her. It wasn’t difficult for him to catch up within a few long strides. “I didn’t mean to offend you or anything.” It seemed like a strange thing to be offended by; there were plenty of books he didn’t particularly like, but he didn’t generally get upset when others mentioned them.
“It’s fine,” Mina accepted his apology with a wave of her hand, stopping to face him as she continued. “It’s just that books like that perpetuate this black and white view of evil, you know? Like you’re wholly good or wholly evil and there’s no in between, which is ridiculous. Kids should not be taught that! And there’s a good witch and everything, but no one ever remembers that. All they remember about witches is that they’re green and cruel.”
“What, are you afraid all the real witches in the world are going to be hurt by that?” Justin joked.
“No,” she replied almost too quickly. She hoped he didn’t notice the way her skin had paled at the question, particularly as she realized she’d about to say “we” in reference to witches instead of “they.” She was not being careful enough. She chuckled in what she hoped seemed like a lightly amused manner. “Of course not.”
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