Kevin sighed, wondering just how he was gong to explain to his quadmates that he’d turned down the offer for cockroach genocide. It probably would be better done tomorrow morning.

Kat saw him to the door and then kissed him, quickly but fiercely. “You’re something special, Kevin. I wish I could know more, wish I knew exactly what it is that you’ll be doing, but I don’t. Be good.”

“No goodbye?”

Kat shook her head. “No, not now. Maybe later. Maybe tomorrow.”

Kevin regarded her for a moment longer and then turned to go down the hallway to the stairs. He thought she might have said something further, but he never heard it clearly.

What she said, was “But probably never.”

He never saw her again.

Kevin had walked about three blocks before he realized that someone was following. At first, he shrugged it off, blaming his already inflamed imagination. The Ouija board and then the bizarre conversation with Kat had presented him with a reality he wasn’t prepared to accept. Physics as he knew it, and by this, his senior year, he knew physics pretty damn well, made no allowances for magic, black, white or mushy pea green. It did allow for Einstein’s ‘spooky action at a distance’ but that was merely a matter of mathematical formulism, or least, that’s the way most mathematical physicists seem to accept quantum mechanics as he knew it.

ESP had been shown to be a crock, for the most part.

Magic was ridiculous.

So what in hell had he witnessed?

Well, he decided, as he stopped at the crosswalk to wait for cars to clear along about the fourth block, it appears that I’ve just this moment witnessed a dark shadow that looks amazingly like the same dark shadow I’ve been seeing off and on for the last three blocks. Time for a scientific test.

He simply waited. For two cycles of the light, he waited. And then he turned around, put two fingers to his lips and whistled sharply. Prrrreeet!

As he had thought, Marcus almost sheepishly emerged from the shadow of a doorway and ambled over to stand beside him. “If you’re going to keep me company, you could at least keep up. Conversation is a lot easier.” Kevin mildly remarked.

“I wasn’t certain I’d be welcome.” Marcus didn’t look the least bit uneasy.

Kevin looked him over carefully and then merely asked, “Why?”

“Well, look. You obviously don’t believe or much like the idea of supernatural events.”

“So?”

“I’m a supernatural event.” Marcus grinned at him.

“No, you’re a loony. Which is okay. I know a lot of loonies.” The light changed for a third time and Kevin stepped off the curb, still regarding Marcus – who immediately grabbed an arm and jerked him back.

The truck missed Kevin by less than a foot. “And you’re going to be a dead skeptic if you don’t watch out.”

Kevin took a deep breath and resisted the urge to tremble. That had been close. “Jeez!” he finally managed. “Thanks, man. Maybe I do need a keeper.”