Wattys shortlist 2021. One morning the sun rises a few hours early, striking levitating skyscrapers in Soliara ahead of schedule. People in the streets stop to look up at the sky and then down at their watches. Most of them, puzzled but disbelieving...
Mr. and Mrs. Fog had been informed on by a stock boy at a store to which the couple delivered more produce than they could send back off the shelves at a price that greatly undercut the real farm sellers — yet failed to increase the wages of their staff, apparently.
The boy went around saying, "How do those people who live in a bachelor apartment on 24th Street get all that produce? Where'd they get it from, their back garden? They didn't grow that. Those assholes are magicians."
A recording played for them to provoke a confession, but following the public defender's advice, they never spoke a word in answer to that question.
Since it was only hearsay, in the end, the couple's stay in San Quentin had a maximum of six months. A special measures bylaw allowed anyone suspected of magic to be locked up without trial for a short period. Good behavior got Mama and Dad back to their baby daughters in four and a half.
With assets seized, evicted from their apartment, and a criminal history, they had no choice but to get back to it. Most of their belongings, except what Ma and Auntie Sophia had been able to carry out, had been repoed (all but personal effects and the flat screen). Job applications received swift letters of denial. Unless they wanted to live forever in Donny Fog's mother's house, living off her and Sophia's earnings, together with Sophia's four babies, then Mr. and Mrs. Fog needed to get back in business.
A little more discerning this time, Talia and Don paired with grocery stores that would share the wealth a bit — buy their staff's silence. Yet just as they saved enough to open a store of their own on shady 24th Street with a two-bedroom atop it, everything crashed down again. Another raid. Everything they had built, everything they owned, repossessed. Assets frozen. Mom and Dad went back to the clinker, and Malyssa and Dianthea went back to live with Grandmama and Auntie Sophia.
Each time they got out, the Fogs got a little smarter. Instead of renting their own apartment, in three years they saved enough for a downpayment for a two-bedroom — in Ma's name. The next time the cops turned up with handcuffs, Ma kept the unit, took care of the kids, and had a bank account filled with illegal earnings from the magical business that could not be touched by the government.
Unfortunately, the special magician control unit got smarter too. Over the years, they had put together a strong case, gathered hard evidence — and this time, the magic spells they had caught on infrared camera in the Fog's new kitchen would be enough to put them away for a long time.
"And your little girls, too," said Calazans, over a table in the interrogation room.
Mr. and Mrs. Fog were separated, but Calazans was sure to deliver his composed speech to each of them verbatim. "Did you know we can start a criminal record for children who use magic as young as age six? California law sets the minimum age for juvenile crime at twelve for all but violent crime — and violation of the prohibition against magic. And so, the plea deal we're going to make it a going to go a bit different than usual. See, ordinarily, a guilty party seeks immunity or a lesser sentence for themselves by informing on another, bigger deal, lawbreaker. A bigger fish.
"In this case, however, you are going to enter a guilty plea and inform on yourselves, giving us a full admission of crimes committed, seek a larger penalty, in order to gain immunity for someone else. A smaller fish. Or fishes. The small fishes are your children, Malyssa Rosa Alafoggiannis and Dianthea Nieva Alafoggianis. The big fish is you."
The parents, in separate interrogation rooms, each got the same offer.
"To make this more fun," Calazans weaved his hands together and leaned in, "I thought I would employ a little tactic called game theory. It's a model for predicting outcomes of interactions between players in a game — in this case, the setup of the game will force an outcome that will be propitious to me, the game master. You ready?
"The plea deal will be offered to both yourself and your partner. Should you comply, telling us all about the details of your criminal behaviors, you will go away for a long, long time — fifty years. In exchange, your daughters will receive immunity from any magic that they have cast, presumably under duress from you, to date. Your spouse has been offered the same. Now, if Mr. Fog takes the deal, and Mrs. Fog does not, the evidence he gives us will be enough to put Mrs. away for even longer. A life sentence. If Mrs. Fog takes the deal and he doesn't, the case will go to trial and Mr. Fog will spend the rest of his life in prison. But your daughters will have immunity.
"Here's the clincher. If neither of you take the deal, you will all go to trial together, diapers and all. Can you predict the outcome?"
Each in their separate interrogation rooms, Talia and Don gave the same answer. "We will both take the deal."
And so Mr. and Mrs. Fog entered a plea of guilty to secure a fifty-year sentence and a pardon for their daughters' use of magic — up to the day of the Fog parents' final arrest.
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