Jean and I were watching a movie one night, and she got up to grab a soda from the fridge.  I felt this tingling feeling in my head, like the little feeling that tells you a headache is coming on, and with a crackling like electricity arcing through the air, the kid just appeared several feet above the couch and fell hard across my legs.

     Even without the bizarre entrance I would have been able to tell he was a mage.  The clothes were a dead giveaway, first off.  Something about manipulating reality leaves a residue on a mage's clothing that glows like a blacklight poster under a UV lamp to the supernatural races.  That's why a lot of mages have a specific 'spellcasting outfit', since they tend to like their privacy and the glow attracts vampires and werewolves like moths to a flame.

     I hate to stereoptype, but the fact that he was black was a factor as well.  I don't know if it's some sort of genetic thing or just some random occurence in the universe, but mages of African descent outnumber white mages ten to one.  (Joseph's got an interesting theory about how the white mages protest the rule of the black majority by fostering racism and discrimination in the mortal governments.  An interesting theory, and probably true, I'll admit.)

     But I digress.

     He definitely didn't look too impressive, just a tall, lanky kid about sixteen or seventeen years old.  Baggy jeans, a pair of sneakers patched with duct tape, and a wrinkled camouflage jacket from a surplus store over a sleevless white workout shirt.  His hair hung down just past his ears in dreadlocks, and looked like it had never been washed.  He looked like a punk kid, to tell the truth; I was about to throw him out the window when he blurted out mine and Jean's names and begged me to let him explain.

     To hear him tell it, he's from an alternate dimension and got tossed into this one during an accident in casting a spell.  His first reaction was to try and track down the version of himself from this dimaension, but it turns out the Joseph in this world died three years ago.  He was close friends with the versions of myself and Jean in his world, so his next impulse was to try and find us.

     His story sounded just too much like the premise for a bad science fiction series, but just as insurance before I threw him out I scanned his memories for the truth.

     The long and the short of the story there is that I've lost almost all interest in the Sci-Fi Channel now.  I doubt I'd start watching again even if they brought back Farscape.

     A little manipulation of the records and Joseph had himself alive in the eyes of the law again.  Jean and I never asked how he did it; it was probably done with magic and most definitely illegal somehow, so we figured the less we knew the better off we were.  A few more changes and he had emancipation from his parents, and managed to procure a photo ID and social security card as well.  He lives in the second bedroom of my apartment, though only technically.  The room itself is just a ruse.  Joseph rigged up some sort of portal that linked his closet to what he calls an "extradimensional hideaway"; Jean and I call it his Library, since the few times we've been inside this hideaway it looked like an infinite collection of books and other media.  I asked him once why he even bothers to leave, and he told me that no amount of knowledge and entertainment could substitute for 'human' companionship.

     Nice to know the kid has a good sense of priorities, thought I wish he was better at paying his share of the rent...