Over the next few weeks, Miriam and Naphtali Corbin were very busy following up on the leads that Dr. Fletcher had provided them. Miriam, especially, was busy on the phone calling other parents of magical children and on the computer emailing others. On weekends she would even go and visit a few of them while Naphtali stayed at home with the kids.

  One Saturday morning late in July, Naphtali woke Simon and Serena up at 6am after having sent them early to bed the night before. After breakfast the family got in Miriam’s station wagon and hit the road. Even though Naphtali was to drive the first shift, the two of them had decided that her station wagon would be more comfortable for the trip than his sedan.

  “Where are we going?” asked Serena, when the family had clearly left the populated part of town and nothing but woods could be seen on either side of the road.

  “Atlanta,” replied Miriam.

  “Are we going to visit Feivel and Chava?” asked Serena.

  “No,” said Miriam. “They are out of town.”

  “Then why are we going to Atlanta?” asked Serena.

  “There is a school that it looks like Simon will be going to next year,” answered Miriam. “We have heard only good things about this school, and we need to meet someone to make the necessary arrangements.”

  “And Simon will need to get some school supplies,” added Naphtali.

  “So we are going to that school?” asked Serena.

  “No,” answered Naphtali. “Not today. We will be meeting with someone who will help us with the arrangements.”

  * * *

  Five rest areas and gas stations later, the car pulled in to the garage adjacent Lenox Square, a large shopping mall in Atlanta, Georgia.

  “Do you have the card, Miriam?” Naphtali asked his wife as she parked the car.

  “I do,” she said.

  “Can you make sure?” he asked.

  “I made sure when we left home,” she answered, “but if it will make you feel better, I’ll check again.”

  “I don’t understand why we have to bring this card,” mused Naphtali aloud as his wife checked her purse. “Doesn’t he remember our faces?”

  “I don’t fully understand either,” she said, “but he said it will help him find us so that the meeting can start much faster. Anyway - here it is. Do you want to see?”

  “No, that’s okay,” said Naphtali.

  “Now kids,” said Miriam as the family headed from the car to the mall’s entrance, “we have half-an-hour till we meet with the person we came here to see. Would you like to get something to eat?”

  “Yes!” answered both of the kids, enthusiastically.

  But to the family’s surprise, the moment they entered the mall, they saw Dr. Fletcher walk right up to them. Unlike when he had come to visit them in Oak Ridge, he had no briefcase, and his tie this time was dark blue with golden stars on it - but otherwise, he was dressed just the same.

  “I see you’ve made it,” said Dr. Fletcher. “Shall we begin?”

  “But aren’t we going to eat first?” Serena asked her mother.

  “If you want to eat,” said Dr. Fletcher, “you’ll have a lot more places to chose from once we start.”

  “Okay,” she said.

  “Now,” continued Dr. Fletcher, producing a small silver box from inside his blazer, “you will need to take one of these, Mr. Corbin.” He opened the box, took out something that looked like a golden jellybean, and handed it to Naphtali, who after taking it stared at it with a puzzled look on his face.

  “Oh,” said Miriam, “I had one of these, Naphtali, while looking into the school. You eat it.”

  “Okay,” said her husband, and reluctantly put the strange bean in his mouth.

  “And Mrs. Corbin,” continued Dr. Fletcher, handing another such bean to Miriam, “I know you’ve already had one, but it’s probably best that you take another one now, just to reset the time for you.”

  “I could just save it for later,” she said, taking the bean.

  “No, that won’t work,” said Dr. Fletcher. “Once taken, it works its set amount of time after the time you take it. But if not taken, it turns back into a normal bean much sooner than that. This one will expire some time this evening.”

  “Okay then,” she said, “I’ll take it now,” and put the bean into her mouth.

  “Do we get one?” asked Serena.

  “Oh, these beans don’t taste all that good,” said Dr. Fletcher as he put the silver box back inside his blazer, “and it’s best to wait and see if you even need one.”

  He pressed the button to summon the elevator - and when it arrived, the whole family got on along with Dr. Fletcher.

  “So, Serena,” he said.

  “What?” she responded.

  “Do you see the button labeled ‘MGK’?” he asked.

  “Yes,” answered Serena. “Should I press it?”

  “Please do,” he answered.

  Serena pressed the button.

  “Why didn’t I get to press it?” asked Simon as the elevator’s doors closed.

  “Because you’re getting your first magical school supplies today and Serena isn’t,” answered Dr. Fletcher as the elevator began its descent.

  Down the elevator went - down to the Market Level. But it didn’t stop there. It continued onward - going underground. At first the view outside the elevator-door window was nothing but solid earth - but then it quickly turned into what seemed to be nothing but blue sky, until finally the top of a building rose up several yards away. And by the time the elevator stopped, a rail could be seen much closer, as could a floor on which people were walking.

  As the party stepped out of the elevator, they could see that they were in what appeared to be the third floor of an open-air mall. However, unlike other malls, there didn’t seem to be any stairs or escalators connecting the different levels - nor any elevator at all besides the one that they had just come out of that only went as far down as the top level. Instead, people seemed to be making those journeys between levels on what looked like small clouds.

  “We’re outside!” exclaimed Serena.

  “I don’t know,” said Simon. “I see the sky, but I also see what looks like pieces of a ceiling.”

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  “We’re underground,” explained Dr. Fletcher, “but this underground hollow is enchanted to look and feel like we are outside in the open air on a pleasant day. Welcome to the Magical Levels beneath Lenox Square.”

  Serena ran ahead slightly and quickly found her way to the window of a storefront right next-door to the elevator. In it, she saw two black kittens playing with each other, and then taking a break from their frolicking to look through the window back at her and at Simon who quickly joined her.

  “Kittens!” exclaimed Serena.

  “This one likes me,” said Simon, pointing to the one who was pawing the glass where he was.

  “And this one likes me,” said Serena, pointing to the other one, who was sitting, glancing at her direction.

  They continued like this for a few moments until their mother came up to them. “Let’s go,” she said. “We can visit the cats later. We have other things to take care of first.”

  “So what are we going to do?’ asked Simon.

  “Well,” answered Miriam, “I am going to see a scribe so I can register you for school. Daddy is going to spend some time with Serena - and you are going to go with Dr. Fletcher to begin shopping for your school supplies.” She held out to him a blue card the size and shape of a credit card and pointed to a white square near the corner.

  “Can you place your pointer finger on this square?” she asked.

  “Why?” responded Simon.

  “I am told that you need to do this to register the card to you,” she explained.

  Reluctantly, Simon placed his finger where his mother had instructed. Immediately, the face of the card changed. Simon’s face could be seen on the left side of the card - and his name appeared over the top of the remaining portion of the card’s face.

  “Now take the card,” she said. “Dr. Fletcher has shown me how to load it with money so that you can start your shopping.”

  “And now that it’s registered to you,” said Dr. Fletcher, “nobody else can use it.”

  “Now,” said Miriam, “if you need something that this card doesn’t cover, have them put it aside for you and I will come by later so we can buy it. And above all - use this money only on your listed school supplies and -” she paused a moment, “What else?” she asked Dr. Fletcher.

  “Just some necessary magical luggage,” he explained.

  “What magical luggage?” asked Simon.

  “Just a suitcase and a shopping cart,” said Dr. Fletcher.

  He led Simon to a place very nearby along the railing where the walkway extended into a small balcony about eight feet wide.

  “Ready to go?” he asked.

  “What do I do?” asked Simon.

  “Well,” answered Dr. Fletcher, “that thing there that looks like a balcony?” It’s an entrance to the cloud lift. We just step on it, and it it turns into our lift cloud.”

  “Okay,” said Simon, and together the two of them stepped onto the balcony. Immediately, the hard floor beneath them turned soft and soothing on the feet and gained the cloud-like appearance of all the other clouds people were riding between the different levels. It was a cloud with a peculiar shape. It had an opaque, vaguely disc-like portion that the two passengers were standing on as well as a semi-translucent, semi-transparent wall in front of it that went up to just below Simon’s eye level. He could see that Dr. Fletcher had his hand stuck inside the wall near its top.

  “What are you doing?” asked Simon.

  “Steering,” answered Dr. Fletcher. “We’re going to the Four Winds to get you a shopping cart.”

  “What?” asked Simon, confused by the idea of going into the winds to get anything at all.

  “Yes,” answered Dr. Fletcher. “Without a shopping cart you’ll have a hard time carrying around everything you need.”

  While Simon was still puzzling over Dr. Fletcher’s response, the cloud deposited the two of them just across the way from where they had started and one story downward.

  “But why do we have to go into the winds to get it?” asked Simon.

  “No,” said Dr. Fletcher. “We’re going to the Four Winds.” He pointed to a sign that hung on a rod extended from a nearby storefront with the words “The Four Winds” written on it in elegant blackletter.

  Moments later, the two of them walked through the doorway underneath that sign into a store that smelled of leather and seemed slightly larger than what one would expect to fit in the space allotted to it. It was a well lit store with light brown office-style carpeting and bright wooden shelving. The top one-third of all the walls were covered with maps and pictures of far away lands. Below that were shelves that seemed to contain a different kind of item for each section. First, on the left, was a section full of all kinds of assorted small items - from telescopes to chess sets - even some compasses. Next was a section full of suitcases of all kinds. Beside that was an open display case full of what looked like walking sticks. Simon was a bit surprised that this was where Dr. Fletcher stopped, though not enough to outdo his surprise over the store’s interior size.

  “This store is bigger than what should fit here,” he commented.

  “Simple space augmentation charm,” responded Dr. Fletcher. “They’re actually pretty common in the magical world. Your cart will have one too.”

  “Kid from the mundie world?” asked a young woman walking toward them.

  “Yep,” answered Dr. Fletcher. “Simon here just found out less than a month ago that magic is real - and I’m helping him get his supplies to start school at Misty Peaks come fall.”

  “Misty Peaks,” said the young woman with a smile. “Those were some of the best years of my life.”

  “And with any luck, they’ll be that for Simon too,” said Dr. Fletcher. “At any rate, he’ll be needing a basic cart to start his shopping. If there’s anything else here he needs, he’ll be back for that later.” As he was speaking, he picked up one of the walking sticks and brought it to the cashier’s counter next to the store’s doorway opposite the shelf with the assorted small items.

  “Oh yes,” responded the woman, heading to her place behind the register. “That will be twenty kortens,” she continued after ringing up the walking stick.

  “My mom gave me this,” said Simon, brandishing the card his mother had given him.

  “Well,” said the woman, “tap it on the orbis.”

  “The what?” asked Simon.

  “Oh,” she said, “I forgot this is all new to you. This thing.” She touched a smooth, circular, mahogany disc on the counter about six inches in diameter and half an inch in height.

  Simon gently tapped the end of the card on the object as she instructed. “Ka-ching,” he immediately heard a bell ring as he saw the text “20 Kr” emerge from his card, grow to a height of ten inches and hover over the counter for three seconds before shrinking down again and being absorbed by the machine he had taken to be a cash register.

  “So,” said Simon, as he and Dr. Fletcher exited the store and took a turn to the right, “you say this is a shopping cart - but it looks like a cane to me.”

  “That’s because, very often, magical shopping carts are designed to collapse into canes,” explained Dr. Fletcher. “It’s a good way to help keep things on the down-low. To open it up, just unscrew the handle from the stick.”

  “You mean the handle comes off?” asked Simon.

  “Not exactly,” answered Dr. Fletcher. “What happens is that the act of unscrewing the handle is how you signal to the cart that you want it to open up.”

  “Signal?” asked Simon.

  “Yes,” replied Dr. Fletcher. “A lot of enchantments are designed so that a specific physical motion activates them. Your cane that turns into a shopping cart is made with a few enchantments of that kind. You’re going to need it real soon, so give it a twist.”

  Simon began turning the handle on his cane counterclockwise. After a full three-hundred-sixty degree turn, it suddenly stopped - and the cane split into what looked like two separate canes about eighteen inches apart connected by what looked like a thin wall. Then, out from the front of each of these two canes, another wall came out extending forward another eighteen inches with a fourth wall connecting the far ends of these walls that shot forward as these walls extended. Then, wheels suddenly appeared at the corners of this new object.

  Simon was in awe of the cart that moments ago had been a walking stick. He could tell that while the changes he had observed had taken place, a number of other changes had occurred too that he had been too distracted to notice at the time. For example, out of the back ends of the handles of the two canes that formed the rear corners of the cart extended a single handle-bar for the cart. Cautiously, Simon moved his hands and placed them on that handle-bar.

  “Amazing!” he exclaimed.

  “Yes,” agreed Dr. Fletcher. “It can blow you away the first time you see something like this happen. But now, you’ll want to know how to collapse it back. You see that red lever at the bottom?”

  Simon looked, and at the very bottom of the back of the cart, he saw a small red tab extending backward.

  “Yes,” he answered.

  “Okay,” said Dr. Fletcher, “now bring it to the top.”

  Slowly and cautiously, Simon lifted the tab until it reached the top of the cart’s back wall. As soon as it got there, it pulled back and disappeared. Over the next few seconds, Simon watched again in amazement as the changes that he had witnessed moments before all happened in reverse - as the shopping cart turned back into a walking stick, which subsequently hovered in place just long enough for Simon to grab it.

  “Ready to go get your school supplies?” asked Dr. Fletcher.

  Simon nodded - and the two of them walked on toward their next destination, which was a store that sat to their right at the concave corner just ahead of them. Perhaps appropriately for its location, it was called “Potion’s Corner”. Like the previous store, this one was significantly larger than what one would expect for its small space - and for that matter even more so than the Four Winds. The walls were painted red, and very few of the shelves were over five feet in height.

  “Should I open up my cart?” asked Simon, who noticed that many of the people shopping had theirs open.

  “Yes,” answered Dr. Fletcher.

  Simon turned the handle on his walking stick - and within moments it was once again a shopping cart. He then pulled out a copy that his mother had made him of the school supply shopping list.

  “So,” he said after looking at it for a moment, “it looks like here we need to get a Basic Scholastic Cast-Iron Cauldron - and something called Kredrin’s Basic Wand-Construction Kit?”

  “That sounds about right,” affirmed Dr. Fletcher.

  “Wand construction kit?” asked Simon. “So that means we have to build our own wands?”

  “Of course,” answered Dr. Fletcher. “The very first thing you learn about using wands is how to put one together.”