Magic Street Page 0,135
grimaced and swung on the skid and pulled himself up so he was standing on the skid and holding on to the door of the chopper.
"Stay away from the door!" Ura Lee cried. For she knew - somehow - that if that door opened and Mack went inside, he would be lost. "Don't go in!" she shouted.
Mack seemed to hear her. He looked toward the rapidly spinning circle and hesitated.
At that moment, a Mercedes coasted along the bridge underneath the chopper. It stopped and Word Williams got out.
"Mack!" he shouted. "Jump! I'll catch you!"
That was about the stupidest thing Ura Lee ever heard. Mack was half a head taller than Word.
Word wasn't catching anything tonight.
The door of the chopper swung open. Mack lost his balance, veered, and then, in catching his balance, swung back toward the open door. He was going to fall into the mouth of the beast.
Word jumped straight up into the air and caught the skid of the chopper and hung on. It was an incredible jump - it would have set the record in any Olympics - but more important to Ura Lee was the fact that he overbalanced the chopper, causing it to lurch and swing Mack back out of the door, which promptly slammed shut behind him.
The chopper tipped on its side.
And suddenly Ura Lee knew what she had to do.
of the chopper, and fired.
The bullet ricocheted off.
"Open the door, Mack!" cried Ura Lee.
"Don't do it!" shouted Word.
"Mack, this is your mother! This is Mom! Open the door!"
Mack hung on to the handle beside the door, completely baffled by what was happening. Where had this helicopter come from? Where were the pillars? Where was Titania?
Only gradually did he realize where he was - in the air above the bridge over Olympic. And the chopper must be...
The manifestation of Oberon in this world. The dragonslug might not be able to cross over between worlds, but like the debris that Mack had left in Fairyland, Oberon himself caused things to happen in this world, and there was a figure here that represented him. A news chopper.
Mack had almost crawled into Oberon's mouth of his own free will.
"Open the door!" he heard someone cry.
"Don't do it!" He knew both voices. The man was Word Williams. The same voice whose sermon he had listened to just last night. Or had he? Hadn't he fallen asleep?
"Mack, this is your mother! This is Mom! Open the door!"
It was Miz Smitcher. But she called herself his mother. And she wanted him to...
To open the door.
She understood. She wanted him to make the sacrifice. She knew it was what he had been born for. He was dragon food all along.
She had called herself Mom.
"I will, Mom," said Mack. He reached out and flung open the door.
Suddenly a shot rang out. Another.
The door slammed shut.
Even with the ice and snow, the dragon somehow managed to stay in the air. But it was staggering, reeling.
One lurch brought the dragon's mouth close to Mack's head. It probably would have bitten down and swallowed the boy in two bites, but something made the dragon lurch yet again, and Mack was pulled back out of its mouth.
Titania looked down and saw a tyrannosaur, with its enormous jaws clamped down on the dragon's other leg. The weight was more than the dragon could bear. It was sinking toward the ground.
Yet Mack seemed oblivious. He reached up toward the dragon's mouth, caught hold of it, gripped its lip, and drew it downward toward him.
What is he doing? thought Titania. Volunteering to be eaten?
The dragon's mouth was now wide open, and on the same level as the pillars that still spun madly around Titania.
A shot rang out. And another.
A bloody eruption in the dragon's eye told Titania that her husband had been hit. But by what?
The dragon was spitting out blood.
Titania knew this was her chance. Whatever had hit the dragon, it had its mind on something other than the magic she might be able to bring to bear.
She said the words, sang the notes, did the quick little jig.
The wings of the dragon dropped off and the sluglike body plummeted.
Sprawled on the ground with both the tyrannosaur and Mack Street being crushed or smothered under it, the dragon stirred. But not quickly enough for Titania.
She waved her hand, and the slug was suddenly transformed. No longer a terrifying dragonslug, it was just a man.
Her man.
And Mack Street was gone. In his place was a single plastic grocery bag, rolling