Blue Whispers

Honcho stumbles as he’s outside a house. Magic gathers about him. Wards, bindings. Ways. Means. All of which relaxes as he stares at me. “Jay.”

He pauses. Honcho sees a lot, even when he says he doesn’t and a Jay is pretty easy to see.

“I don’t even have an uhm,” I mumble.

He looks about, the magic doing the same. “Meaning?”

“I made a – I’m not sure if they are a friend, inside the house? Named Kwame?”

“And you don’t know if they’re your friend?”

“He does bindings with senses and and and he sensed that a Jay isn’t normal, Honcho!”

Honcho winces. “First, fix any windows you broke.”

I do bindings and fix some cracks in the sidewalks too.

“Follow.” He walks inside the house, the door opening because doors do that for the wandering magician. Kwame is in the living room, and human unless he’s hiding like a Jay. “Kwame?” Honcho asks.

Kwame is fifteen and makes a face. “My mom really loved Captain Planet. And the name Kwame. So, yes. And that’s... ah... Jay?”

“And Jay is?” Honcho asks.

“I don’t know. He left the house, and I’ve never seen anyone move that fast. I don’t – I’m not – I have a condition. Your voice is blue. Sounds are colours, to me.”

“Synesthesia. I know of it. And Jay?”

“I don’t have words for it. His voice is colours I’ve never seen before.”

Honcho’s gaze flicks to me. “Hide,” he says, but between us through bindings. “Move, then say hi.”

I totally do that, and Kwame looks confusled. “I saw Jay’s voice, but I’m not sure where he is?”

“Ah.” Honcho gestures for me to go outside and I do and I’m pacing maybe a lot when he comes outside.

“Kwame is human,” Honcho says softly. His expression is quiet, distant. “I was walking to a store. Let’s go back there.”

I make a kind hole in the world and bind spots together and we’re walking on a sidewalk a moment later.

Honcho stops. “Jay. Hide,” he commands, and his voice is nothing a Jay can say no to.

I vanish like a Jay, and I feel Honcho looking for me. With eyes, and magic, and just being Honcho.

I sneeze, and I’m on the sidewalk and Honcho looks at me with a strange weirdy face over his face.

“Did your nose itch?” he asks.

“I think maybe but –.”

“Jay. How many times have you showed what you really look like to anyone so far?”

“Maybe over twelve cuz you had me do it three times in this month and I’ve shown you and Charlie and some few other people what a Jay is when I’m not hiding?”

“As in showing you, and not just jaysome? Showing the Jay who is from far Outside the universe?”

I blink a few times since Honcho sounds funny. “Yup!”

“Be careful about it. I sensed you, Jay. Barely, but I did. Kwame – because of the synesthesia, perhaps – sensed you weren’t human as well. The more you show your real self, the harder it will be to hide again. Or at least not hide as well.”

“Oh.”

“Yes.”

“I won’t be as jaysome at hiding,” I say, and my voice sounds funny too.

“I think not. But you are as jaysome as ever at eating,” Honcho says, and instead of getting the paper we get chocolate, which is way better and! no one notices that a Jay is hiding so it’s extra jaysome!