A Modern Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,59

day.”

Lauren ate her eggs. One witchling at a time was plenty.

…

“Uncle Jamie, are you going to marry Nat?” Ginia smiled shyly, flashing her brand-new braces.

God, thought Jamie, as three identical faces looked at him expectantly. There was no good answer to a question like that, especially when the woman in question was sitting right beside you eating French fries.

He reached across the table and swiped one of Ginia’s fries. “I thought I was supposed to wait until you grew up so I could marry you.”

Ginia giggled. “We like Nat. You could marry her instead; that would be okay with us.” Shay and Mia nodded in agreement.

“Getting married is a big deal. It takes time to decide stuff like that.”

Shay, usually the ringleader of the three, shook her head. “Nuh uh. Didn’t for Mama and Dad—they fell in love in like two minutes. That’s what Dad always says. You met Nat a lot more minutes ago than that.”

Nat swiped one of Jamie’s fries. “That sounds like a good story. How did your parents meet?”

He could love her just for rescuing him from three eight-year-old girls on a mission. Knowing the story well, he watched Nat to see her reaction.

“Well,” started Mia, “Mama writes the code for Enchanter’s Realm. It’s a really cool video game where you can pretend to be a witch. You can play online too. There’s extra-special levels online, for if you’re really a witch.”

Ginia picked up the story. “The game sends Mama an email whenever a new witch joins the extra-special levels, so she or Uncle Jamie can go check them out, make sure they’re lemigitate.”

“I think ‘legitimate’ is the word you want there, sweetheart,” Jamie said.

Ginia nodded. “Yeah, legitimate. That means to make sure they’re a good witch and everything, and that they don’t cheat.”

Shay spoke next. “She went into one of the special witch-only levels to watch the new witch play. He was really good, and he had some really cool spells and everything. Mama was like totally impressed, so she looked at his spell code.”

“Someone with power can blend computer code and magic to create a spell for the online world,” Jamie explained.

Mia nodded. “Mama and Uncle Jamie build lots of spells for those levels—they’re really good at spellcoding. I’m a good coder, but I can’t do spells, cuz I’m not a witch.”

“Good thing. We’d never keep up with the three of you if you could magic your code,” Jamie said. He leaned over and stage-whispered to Nat. “The three of them are all way better coders than Nell or I was at eight, but don’t tell them that. It will make their heads grow big and explode.”

The three heads in question all giggled. “It’s genetic,” Mia said. “Mama told us that.”

“Keep telling your story,” Jamie said.

Ginia picked up the thread. “So, Mama went to read the spell code for the new witch—she can do that, because she’s the boss. She figured out that his spells weren’t really spells after all, they were just really nifty code. That was weird, because why would a witch write lots of really cool code instead of just adding a little magic?”

Shay bounced on her seat, ready to tell the best part. “Mama went into the game and challenged this new witch to a magical duel. She wanted to see his stuff. They dueled for a whole hour, and Mama couldn’t beat him. So, she asked him to meet her at the office.”

“We were looking to hire a new programmer,” Jamie said. “She figured he might fit the bill.”

The triplets exchanged looks, and Ginia was clearly designated to finish the story. “He came to her office, and Mama found out he wasn’t really a witch, but he still earned his way into the witch-only levels of Enchanter’s Realm. No one had ever done that before.”

Nat looked appropriately surprised and impressed. “How did he do it?”

Ginia grinned. “Because he is the supreme-awesome-coder dude. He dueled with Mama, and she has magic, and she still couldn’t beat him. So, they fell in love and lived happily ever after. Dad is teaching us how to be supreme-awesome coders so that one day we can duel with a guy too and know if we should get married.”

Daniel was one tricky dude, thought Jamie. His three girls were kick-ass coders already and getting better fast. Their dad obviously intended his daughters to be single for a very long time.

“So, if your dad isn’t a witch, what does he do?” Nat asked.

“Nope,” Mia said. “He’s