Mountain Wizard Name Generator

The story

The invitation left before the onions were cut. Cal had expected a dignified unfolding, perhaps a little bow from the paper figure before it began its delivery. Instead it shook itself free of her brother's fingers, stepped into a bowl of flour, and departed leaving tiny white footprints across the preparation table. Jor applauded. Cal asked which address he had written. He held up the old family postcard from which he had copied it. The picture showed their giant aunt in front of a house she had left sixteen years earlier. For a moment the siblings stood together admiring the exact shape of the mistake.

Aunt Bera was already invited to supper. She had received an ordinary letter, replied to it, and agreed to arrive at the siblings' current rooms by the valley road that afternoon. The walking paper carried extra instructions for a surprise entrance: she was to wait outside while they brought out a decorated chair and a silly hat. Jor thought a new spell would delight her. Cal thought she had better complete a useful small delivery experiment before letting him describe it as new. In the ensuing discussion neither had checked that the address beneath the extra instructions belonged to the place where the supper would actually happen.

Cal used a short spoken name under her school's marginal convention. In the notebook she wrote Cal, Inquirer into the Walking Fold, a longer byname describing the actual study rather than a claim that all paper messages obeyed her. The folded messenger followed its written destination through familiar streets. Earlier trials showed it stopping at a doorway matching its inked number. Nobody yet knew how the fold recognized a door number, or why replacing the numeral after departure did not change the already begun route. She could stop this trial by physically taking the paper. She had no tested distant recall. Jor asked whether they might begin testing one now. She said they could begin by putting their shoes on.

The sheltered valley was crowded with travelers waiting for places farther along the road. Protection from the exposed heights had brought more people than the inns could comfortably house. A queue crossed the first lane, and a family had arranged its baskets against the wide gate through which Cal normally walked. The paper slipped between two baskets. Jor began asking people to clear a path for urgent magical business. Cal heard herself doing the same thing, then stopped. Their private surprise was not more urgent than the room assignments the queue was waiting to receive. They went around by the permitted side lane, following the little flour marks until the dust made them impossible to distinguish.

A boy selling folded sunshades had seen their green walker. He pointed toward the cooper's yard and asked whether it was delivering a bill. Jor said it was delivering a chair. Cal said it was delivering instructions concerning a chair. The boy looked disappointed by the distinction and more interested when she admitted that they had given it the wrong house. He had watched it turn at the number post without looking toward the sound of their aunt's name, which Jor had been shouting. This matched the earlier written-route behavior. It did not tell Cal what happened inside the fold. Her unanswered question was becoming steadily less convenient to carry beside her unanswered supper arrangements.

They found the invitation outside the old house's garden gate. The building now held stored market partitions rather than a household. Its doorway number had been removed when the rooms were converted. The paper stood before the empty patch, taking one determined step forward and one backward. Cal reached for it. A carrier moved a long partition through the gate and asked them to stand clear. Jor stepped back with her, and the invitation slipped beneath the partition's lower edge into the open garden. They could enter with the carrier's permission after the load was settled. They could not demand that he drop his work because a piece of stationery had become impatient.

Waiting beside the gate, Jor said Cal could have told him the spell needed a current address. She said he could have read the date on the postcard. He said she always made every experiment sound as though he had been lucky to be allowed nearby. She said he always announced a result before she knew what it was. Both complaints had been waiting for a suitable afternoon. They were still useful complaints even though neither helped with the paper. Jor looked through the gate at the childhood garden and admitted that he had wanted Aunt Bera to see something wonderful he had helped make. He had copied the old card because it showed a day when she had looked particularly pleased with him.

Cal was preparing an unexpectedly kind answer when Bera's voice came from behind them. Their aunt had reached the agreed present address, found a note saying the siblings were following a green invitation, and asked the sunshade seller which way they had gone. He had supplied ordinary directions with considerable enthusiasm. She carried the food she had promised to contribute and wore no surprise hat. Cal explained the extra instructions. Bera asked whether anybody had begun supper. The silence answered. She looked toward the carrier, who was now beckoning them into the open garden, and said they might retrieve the invitation before it acquired another generation of family history.

Cal picked up the paper, which immediately stopped walking when its active fold was closed. No dramatic destination had been reached. They had recovered a misplaced extra message, lost the preparation afternoon, and failed to produce the surprise entrance. Bera read the instructions and said the chair sounded uncomfortable. Jor confessed that the decorated back was mostly cardboard. She said she had expected as much from the sketch. Cal began apologizing for the whole disaster. Bera interrupted to ask whether they could please walk home before the food she carried became an archaeological object. She had not come to judge a delivery experiment. She had come to have supper with two people who had invited her.

They prepared the meal together. Jor cut onions. Cal found plates. Bera sat in an ordinary suitable courtyard place and told them where she wanted the bowl rather than accepting the position of a delighted audience. Supper was later and plainer than planned. Jor missed the applause he had imagined, and Bera wished they had asked her directly for help. These facts did not prevent them from enjoying the food. Afterward Cal added the route, missing doorway number, and physical recovery to her marginal record. How the walking fold recognized numbers remained unanswered. On the postcard Jor wrote CURRENT ADDRESS ON OTHER SIDE in large letters. Bera said she hoped that instruction would be read by somebody who needed it.