I ll trade you a roast chicken from the store later on. It won t be as good as my mama s, Carmela said. But you re welcome to some of this one. We can t have you starving. Hey, come on over later. We can shop. Nita had to grin at that, and at the wicked twist Carmela put on the last word. I ll be over, she said. Clunk! went the door of Kit s refrigerator, a block and a half away. Or three feet away, depending on how you looked at it. Nita smiled slightly, put the chicken back in the fridge, and closed the door. She d left a verbal tag hanging out of the wizardry she d worked, like a single strand of yarn hanging off the hem of a sweater. Nita said the word, and the spell unraveled itself to nothing. She went back to the bread box, got those two heel pieces of bread, which no longer looked so repulsive now that the chicken was here, and started constructing her sandwich, smiling in slight bemusement. Welcome to our planet, Mr. Alien, Carmela had said. Nita absolutely approved of the sentiment. What was unusual was that Carmela had used the Speech to express it. Nita shook her head. Things were getting increasingly strange over at Kit s house lately, and it wasn t just the electronics his family, even his dog, seemed to be experiencing the effects of his wizardry more and more plainly all the time, and no one was sure why. Though Carmela s always been good with languages, Nita thought. I guess I should have expected her to pick up the Speech eventually, once she started to be exposed to it. After all, lots of people who aren t wizards use it on other planets, anyway. And at least the lettuce didn t answer her back…Of course, the fact that it hadn t suggested that it should have been in the compost heap several days ago. Nita got up, opened the fridge again, and fished the lettuce out in a gingerly manner. Carmela was right: It was leaking. Nita put the poor soggy thing in the sink to drain it would have to be unwrapped before it went into the compost rinsed and dried her hands, and went back to her sandwich.