the scenic calendar of Atlantic Canada off the wall in the kitchen and flipped through the pages for inspiration. They went to Green Gables on Prince Edward Island, the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick, and a remote lighthouse in Newfoundland. They never stayed for longer than a moment, but with each new foray, the reality of what was happening sank in a little deeper.
The only hiccup occurred when Eden wanted to try creating a doorway to a place she’d never seen before, not even in pictures. Cedar suggested Stanley Park in Vancouver, where she had spent many glorious afternoons during university. She tried to describe it to Eden, but when Eden swung open the bathroom door, nothing happened. Cedar grabbed a pencil and paper and made a quick sketch of her favorite beach in the park. She drew the huge driftwood logs spread across the sand, the sailboats and freighters dotting the distant horizon, and even a few tiny sea stars clinging to the rocks. She couldn’t help but smile as she drew—it had been a long time since she had created something other than a client’s new logo. She showed the sketch to Eden, who examined it closely. But when she tried to take them there, it still didn’t work.
“Huh. Well, it’s just a sketch, and not a very good one. Maybe it doesn’t work if you haven’t been there?” Cedar said, squinting at the door. “But you haven’t been to Egypt or Newfoundland either…”
Eden wasn’t listening. She was looking at her fingers and pulling on each one as if she could activate the magic that way. Then she said in a voice so low Cedar could hardly hear her, “Was my dad magic too?”
Cedar felt as if the room had grown several times larger. She felt very, very small. She sat on the floor and pulled Eden onto her lap. “I don’t know, Eden. I don’t know why you can do this. Your father used to talk about magic sometimes, but I thought it was only talk. Now, I just don’t know. Maybe. We’ll find out what’s going on, okay? You and me, together. We’ll figure it out.” Cedar wrapped her arms tightly around her daughter and buried her hands in the wavy brown hair that reminded her so much of the man she had loved.
I wish you were here, she thought. I wish you could see her, and know her, and help me take care of her.
As if Eden could read her thoughts, she suddenly lifted her head from Cedar’s shoulder and said, “I know! We can find him! We can go anywhere! We can start right now!”
Cedar’s eyes widened in alarm. “No, Eden! You can’t go opening these portals or whatever they are all over the place to look for him, especially when I’m not with you. You could get lost or hurt or trapped somewhere. Remember when we were at the mall and you couldn’t find me? Do you remember how scared you were? This would be a thousand times worse. I wouldn’t know where you were, where to go looking for you.”
Eden started to pout. Cedar put her hands on either side of Eden’s face and looked directly into the mutinous golden eyes. “I know you are very excited right now, but you have to listen to me. This is very important. If people find out what you can do, I can’t even imagine what will happen to you. They might take you away; they might do experiments on you, like Hannah said—not because you don’t have a dad, but because you can do this. I don’t know what would happen, but it would be bad. You can’t tell anyone what you can do until we figure out what’s going on. Not even Gran, not your friends, no one.” Cedar’s mind was reeling with all the things that could go wrong. She didn’t want to scare her daughter, but she didn’t know how else to protect her. She couldn’t be with Eden all the time. In fact, she was hardly with Eden at all. “We’ll figure this out, I promise. But don’t go anywhere unless I’m with you.”
Several hours later, Cedar sat on the sofa nursing a Manhattan and staring at the screen of her laptop in frustration. The Internet was, for once, failing her. She had tried a number of searches, but subtle search terms such as “children with special abilities” led her to teachers’ resources or websites about autism. More direct