Initialization"Hey, there's somebody in the driveway! It's a truck! Mom! Mom, the com-puter's here!"The first sound Nita heard that morning was her little sister's shrieking. Nita winced and scrunched herself up into a ball under the covers. Then she muttered six syllables, a very simple spell, and soundproofed her room against her sister's noise. Blessed silence fell. Unfortunately the spell also killed the buzzing of the locusts and the singing of the birds outside the open window. And Nita liked birds. She opened her eyes, blinking at the bright summer sun coming in the window, and sighed.Nita said one more syllable. The mute-spell came undone, letting in the noise of doors opening and shutting, and Dairine shrieking instructions and suggestions at the immediate planet. Outside the window a catbird was sit-ting in the elm tree, screaming, "Thief! Thief!" in an enthusiastic but sub-standard imitation of a blue jay.So much for sleeping late, Nita thought. She got up and went over to the dresser by the window, pulled a drawer open and rummaged in it for a T-shirt and shorts. "Morning, Birdbrain," she said as she pulled out a "Live Aid" T-shirt. The catbird hopped down to a branch of the elm right outside Nita's window. "Bob-white! Bob-white!" it sang at the top of its lungs."What's a quail doing in a tree?" Nita said. She pulled the T-shirt on. Listen to those locusts! Hot one today, huh?" 'Highs in the nineties," the bird sang. "Cheer up! Cheer up!" 'Robins are for spring," Nita said. "I'm more in the mood for penguins at the moment. . . ." "What's up?" .wA jr. ,-M yv…,ivj<-.;/336 SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL WIZARD"Enough with the imitations! I need you to take a message for me. Wfz. ards' business. I'll leave you something nice. Half of one of Mom's muffins? Huh?"The catbird poured out several delighted bars of song that started as a phoebe's call and ended as the five-note theme from E. T.
