Lou meets Donnie

  I duck into an alley behind the hardware store over on Parnell. I take off my overcoat and look at the burns on it. Sonofbitch! I really like this coat. I move my fingers and concentrate on the speaking the right incantation. The burn holes begin to patch themselves. The patched parts look a little too new and it still smells of smoke, but it's the best I can do. I throw my coat back on and pull up the collar, not so much against the cold but because now my gut is on fire with paranoia. I quickly hot foot it to State Street. I can catch a bus to Donnie's there.
  I'm in luck, the bus is pulling up as I get to the stop. I drop two dimes in the box as I get on. The driver looks ancient, as if he came with the bus when it was built. There is only a few people on the bus as I get on. My paranoia kicks into high gear as I scan each one of them. A pair of blue collar guys sit up front with their metal lunch boxes. Are the packing something in those? An old lady sits across from them clutching her purse with bony fingers. Why is she holding that so tight? Midway on the bus a guy in a cheap suit is reading the Sun-Times. He peers over the top of the paper to glance at me. Why is he looking at me? Does he know something? Damn it Lou! Get a grip on yourself! Non of these people know anything. They are just taking the bus to where ever their sad lives take them. I take a seat at the back of the bus. Relief washes over me as the bus pulls away. Donnie should have some answers for me. I still remember when I first met Donnie. I was a 14 year old snot nose punk.
  My mother had just died the year before. My dad told me it was an accident and that she was drunk when she fell down the stairs. He's a fucking liar. I knew what happened. He was a drunk and would routinely beat both my mom and me. Things were worse when he had been drinking. He would get pissed if his meals were cold or late. Or if the house was not cleaned. The abuse stepped up a notch when he found out that I was doing horrible in school. I just couldn't concentrate. I suffered from painful migraines. I just couldn't grasp simple spells. I did horrible on test because of the pain. My mom took me to several doctors and know one had an answer for her. My dad on the other had just thought I was fucked in the head and a good beating would straighten me out. Surprise dad, it didn't work. My mom would try to protect me during his violent rages and she'd take the brunt of his ire. Fuck me I still hate that bastard after all these years.
  I was in school one day and we were practicing the fairie fire spell, when one of my migraines came on and caused me to lose control of the spell. I still don't know what I uttered during the incantation, but the fire engulfed me, causing my brain to overload with pain. I just simply passed out. I woke up in the hospital, all bandaged up with my mom at my side, crying and whispering that I'll be ok, despite how I look now. I asked her what she meant. She replied, "Ah, me stoney broke louie. Yer 'ill be dead on. De doctors said dat yisser buff did not burn, but de magic from de fire 'as burned aff al' yisser 'air. Yer don't 'av any 'air on yisser body. I'll miss dohs bonny boyd locks av yers, but yer are me fella so oi 'ill love yer naw matter waaat. Yisser buff is sensitive roi nigh due ter fire so yer 'ill nade ter kip 'ere for a few days." With that she left and I never saw her again. A nurse came in the next day and told me that my mom had gotten drunk and fallen down the stairs. They said her neck snapped upon impact and death was instant. Yet I knew what happened. My dad happened. He never once came to see me and I ended up walking home a week later from the hospital.
  My dad called me a freak and a loser after that. He blamed me for my mom's death. He said that if I had just been a better student and gotten the fucking spell right I wouldn't have ended up in the hospital. He said my mom came home and got drunk that night and just fell. I always knew he was lying through his fucking teeth. My mom never drank. I couldn't be around him.
  I dropped out of school and started doing odd jobs to make some quick cash. Some of the jobs weren't really legal in a sense. It was during this time that my migraines were getting worse. Sometimes the pain was just unbearable and I'd just curl up in a ball somewhere until the pain lessened. I was about 14 when I met Donnie. He was just a small time fence then, but he changed my world. I used to run errands for the local auto shop on 63rd and Western. Usually I was just getting the guys lunch, but sometimes I was picking up packages that I'd rather not know about. One day I showed up with some Caddie hub caps that I "found". Benny, the owner was there. He was pretty young at the time, maybe 21 or 22. The girls in the neighborhood were always fawning over him. So anyways he gives me $5 apiece for them, but there was this well dressed suit there talking to Benny. All white suit, it looked tailor made. He had slicked back hair that was red as fire. He had a clean shaven face with wire rim glasses. Benny introduced him to me as his friend Donnie. He brought his car in for a tune up. And what a car! It was a cherry red 48' Buick Roadmaster. This car was gorgeous! Bennie looks to Donnie and says, "This is the kid Lou, I was telling you about Donnie. He's a hard worker and never asks questions." He stuck his hand out to shake mine, but before I could raise my hand, one of my migraines kicked in something fierce. Donnie noticed and asked if I was ok. All I could mutter was, "The pain, the voices won't stop!" Next thing I notice was the voices died down to a very low whisper and the pain was going away. I look up and Donnie is smiling at me and asks, "Is that better?" I ask him what he did. Donnie responded, "I put a small magic dampening field. I sensed that we are kindred spirits Lou. I want you to come work for me. I can teach you how to quiet the voices and control the pain in your head." He hands me his card. "Come down to my office tomorrow. I'll show you. Now go home. I can't keep the field up long." With his card in my dirty hand I raced home.
  The next day I showed up at his office. It was a store front over on 35th and Ashland. As soon as I walked through the door, a migraine hit me like a brick wall, it was the worst one I have ever had. I fell to my knees hold my head. Donnie rushed over and put this garish pendant that was on a leather string around my neck. The pain almost immediately stopped. "That is an old charm that helped me as kid, Lou. It dampens magic all around you for about a one foot radius, but unfortunately it also prevents you from preforming magic." I thanked him. I had so many questions. He looked at me and said, "Now Lou, you will wear that until I can teach to control things. Then after that, you shouldn't need it. Now come with me." I looked around and his shop just filled with all kinds of really weird odds and ends. I've never even seen shit crazy like what was here. Stuffed animals, cases of some of the ugliest jewelry I've ever seen. And books, shit, there were books stacked every where. Donnie took me to his back office. Which was just a rolldesk with two chairs inside a room the size of a closet. I sat down in one of the chairs. He took the other. The he explained it all to me. "Lou, when I met you yesterday and you mumbled about the pain and the voices, I realized what was wrong. I suffered from something similar as a a child. Although I sense that it was not as bad as it is for you. You see Lou, you are what they call a receptor." Confused, I asked him, "A what?" He chuckled. "A receptor Lou. You see, everyone that can use magic, can sense it to some degree. This can be a little tickle at the back of their brain. Or a maybe, just a sense of something is there. With training some people can pinpoint the magic and identify it, but this takes years of training. You on the other hand can sense it more than other people. You see Lou, all magic is cast with gestures and incantations. So what is happening for you is that not only can you sense all the magic around you but you are hearing the phantoms of the incantations that cast the spell. I too am a receptor, but I can only sense enchantments.  You seem to sense all magic around you. I can teach you how to filter out these phantom incantations and to ease the pain it causes. Before we start let's get some breakfast. Are you hungry?" The deep growl from stomach gave him his answer. He gives a low chuckle. "I take that as a yes. I know this great place called Dugle's Pub. The food is greasy, but it's the best grease you'll get in Chicago."
  With Donnie's help, I was able to learn how to drown out the voices, that's what I called them. I learned to identify spells cast just by the phantom incantations. Yet I was never able to learn to use magic like Donnie. Every time I tried to cast anything but the simplest spells, I couldn't keep up my concentration to drown out the magic around me. He always told me it would come to me in time. It never did. Donnie also taught me all about being a magic fence and how to pickpocket along with a score of other things that a simple thief should know. Donnie was more of a father to me than my own was. He has disagreed with my career choice, I should have gone into the fencing business like him, but have that damn conscience. So I became a Finder. I find people or things that are missing.
  The bus driver's voice snaps me back to reality. "Jackson is next!" I ring the bell to get off. The bus pulls up to my stop and get off the bus. Donnie's office is a half block down on Jackson. I light up a smoke as I walk. What the fuck is going on with Jimi? Who is the Philospher? Who were the goons shooting at me? Too many unanswered questions. If anyone knows anything, Donnie would. Or at least I hope so. I get to his office, so drop my smoke and snub it out with my toe. Donnie hates smoking. The curtains are drawn on the windows. Which means the office is closed. Donnie has really moved up in the world. He no longer fences two bit magic items. Now he deals with antiquities. Not all of them are legal. Which has made Donnie a pretty wealthy man. But if I need info, I go to Donnie, even if he's not really a "hands on" guy any more, he still hears things. I use my key to open the door and hear the little bell above the door go "dingle". Then everything goes black.