Finn Fancy Necromancy by Randy Henderson Page A

moments of my life for twenty-five years. And though Mattie was a girl, and her world, personality, and experiences all very different from mine, I still recognized something of myself in her.
    She didn’t even have the benefit of having my mother and father as parents—at least, not as they used to be. She’d had only Mort. From her stories, I could tell Morty gave her whatever she needed, except for time and attention. And the occasional visit with Aunt Sammy couldn’t make up for that.
    The door to my bedroom had a license plate with my name on it. Mattie opened it and preceded me inside. “Should be just like you left it,” she said.
    Well, not exactly as I left it, I hoped. I could do without Felicity’s bleeding and unconscious body on the floor. But other than that, the room was indeed as I’d left it. Posters and music magazine cutouts covered the walls, and familiar faces greeted me—The Smiths, The Cure, Talking Heads, Prince; Buckaroo Banzai, The Terminator, Indiana Jones, and The Goonies.
    A bed, a bookshelf, and a small desk were the only furniture. My worn and creased paperbacks lined the shelves like old friends waiting for my return. My Commodore 64 called to me from the desk, and lined up beside it stood my notebooks full of dungeon maps, character stats, and game ideas.
    In fact, the room was so much the same that I felt a second of panic. Was I still in the Other Realm? Was everything I’d experienced tonight just illusion, the cruel joke of some bored Fey lord or lady manipulating my memories like their own personal playground?
    I focused on the differences: the plain blue blanket Mattie swept over the bed in place of my threadbare Star Wars comforter; the complete lack of ants in my ant farm; Mattie herself. I’d never seen her before. I’d relived every memory of my life enough to be certain of that, and the Fey only played with the stuff of real memories.
    I flipped the power switch on the Commodore and turned on the monitor. After a few seconds, the blue screen cast the room in a comforting, familiar glow.
    **** COMMODORE 64 BASIC X2 ****
    64K RAM SYSTEM 38911 BASIC BYTES FREE
    READY.
    Ah, what a beautiful sight. My fingers itched to begin typing on those plastic brown keys.
    â€œI’m so glad you’re back,” Mattie said. “Uncle Pete’s always telling stories about how much fun you were.”
    â€œYeah, well, I’m not sure how long I’ll be here,” I said. The last thing I wanted to do was lie to Mattie and set her up for disappointment three days later.
    â€œYou’re not leaving leaving, are you?” Mattie asked. “You just got here. And we haven’t even had a chance to talk or anything, not really. Ooo, and I was hoping to see what Papa G’s present was for!”
    I’d forgotten about the ring. I touched its outline in the little coin pocket of my jeans. One more mystery to solve.
    â€œI’m not sure what I’m doing yet,” I said. “But I won’t be going anywhere for at least a couple days, I promise.”
    â€œYou’d better—oh, sorry, hang on.” She pulled a black rectangle the size of a thick playing card out of her pocket and touched it. Light bathed her face.
    â€œWhat’s that?” I asked.
    â€œJust my phone. Didn’t your changeling know about cell phones?”
    â€œUh, yeah, I just hadn’t seen one myself yet.”
    â€œOh, well,” she turned so I could see the phone. It had a small video screen on it.
    â€œSo it’s a, uh, video phone?”
    â€œWell, I use it mostly for texting, but sometimes I play games or watch videos, so yeah, I guess. Oh, I’ve so got to show you this ‘She Wants Revenge’ video. The music’s so eighties, like that one group … Bauhaus? And the girl in the video could totally be a feyblood. You’ll love it!”
    â€œThat tiny thing, it does all of that?” I