Forced Magic (12 page)

I woke up to the sound of someone knocking on my door. I
jumped up and, stumbling over Fetch's tail, made my way to the door. I looked
in the spyhole and saw it was Michelle. I felt like I had just shut my eyes,
but it was already night and Michelle was at my door. I opened it and she
quickly stepped in giving me a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“You look like you just got up,” she said with a smile.

She threw herself on the bed. Fetch had woken up and was
enjoying being scratched under his chin. I yawned and stretched. I caught a
glimpse of myself in the mirror. My bandanna had fallen off and my bald head
seemed to glow in the light of the hotel lamp. I put my hands on my head as my
face got red. Michelle had thrown the bandana at me. I caught it, let out a little
"thank you" and began to put it on my head.

“You know. I think you look better without it,” she said.

“Really?" I couldn’t think anyone would be serious
about me looking ok without hair. My head was shaped a little weird. One of my
nicknames growing up was peanut head. The idea that I looked good bald was one
I wasn’t sure I wanted to believe.

“Trust me.”

She got up and walked over taking the bandana out of my
hands.  She stuffed it into her pocket. I looked at myself in the mirror. I
figured she knew what she was talking about, besides, I had to get used to the
idea that I might never have hair again. I forced myself to look away from the
mirror and the shiny head that seemed to stare back at me. Michelle had pulled
out her laptop.

“I wanted to show you guys something.  There has been  a lot
of talk about your fight." She motioned me to come over and sit next to
her. Fetch sat on one side and I sat on the other. The video was playing, to my
embarrassment, but then the headline appeared over it.

“Trying to find the film maker of this new popular video.
People want the creator's new special effects system.”

I looked at Michelle.  “Everyone thinks it’s a fake?”

“Yup. We are still working on getting it taken off
completely, but it seems like people are not taking it too seriously.”

It was the best news I could think of, one thing I could
check off my list to not worry about. Fetch blew purple smoke in mine and
Michelle's faces, showing that he was pleased too. The smoke made Michelle
cough a little. I breathed it in with no problems. In fact, I realized that
Fetch's smoke never bothered me. I had always been sensitive to smoke. If I was
around people smoking long enough, my eyes would begin to water and I would
definitely cough. I wondered if it was just Fetch's smoke now or all smoke no
longer bothered me. Just one more change in me. I was beginning to feel like a
superhero. This was my origin story and Fetch was my sidekick. No, wait, not my
sidekick, my partner. This thought made me smile.

Seeing the smoke curl up from Fetch's snout got me a little
worried. I jumped up and looked around the room. I spotted the smoke detector
on the wall over the television. I jumped up on the dresser and removed the
battery before it could go off. Michelle smiled.

“Good thinking, Jack.”

Fetch nodded his head reluctantly. I was getting the
impression that he was not happy with the attention that Michelle was giving
me. After sitting around for a few minutes in silence, Michelle spoke up.

“Hey let's go down to the restaurant in front of the hotel.
I saw it had a patio so Fetch can easily sit out there and we can enjoy it
together."

“Sounds great,” I said.

It didn’t matter to me if we stayed in the room or went out.
In fact, I was enjoying being able to sit in the room quietly. It was a new
experience for me to have a friend like Michelle, who I felt comfortable enough
with to sit in a room without saying anything, but Fetch's tail was twitching
at the idea of getting out of the room. He was only about the size of a German
shepherd and the room was really big, but with all of us in there it seemed a
little cramped. I wondered if Fetch would get any bigger. If he did, we
wouldn’t be able to stay in hotels for long. I looked at myself in the mirror,
mostly at my bald head. I guess I looked ok. I mean, I still had no eyebrows,
but, without the sunglasses and the black bandanna, I didn’t look as
intimidating. I didn’t want to deal with people wondering if I was going to rob
them every time they looked at me.

We walked around the outside of the hotel and around to the
patio of the restaurant.  Choosing a table in the corner, I sat down with Fetch
as Michelle went inside to let them know we were there. 

“It’s nice to have a friend like her," I said to Fetch.

His scales flashed silver in agreement.

Michelle came back with some menus, and a waiter in tow
behind her. At the sight of me, the waiter's face fell. I guess he was
expecting another girl out here instead of me. Boy, I thought if Fetch showed
himself to this guy he would really be disappointed. I looked at Michelle and
began chuckling. She began to laugh too. She must have gotten some idea as to
why I was laughing. Soon we were both laughing uncontrollably as the server
stood there with a puzzled look on his face. We got ourselves under control and
looked at the menu. In the silence that followed, Fetch let out a loud growl
just for fun.

“My," said the server, "someone here is hungry.” 

Of course the sound of the growl could have been confused as
being some other sound than a stomach. His face was red, giving away his
thought process. This got us laughing again and soon the server himself had
joined us. I could hear the gruff laughter of Fetch and his all too familiar
"huh" sound that seemed to come with his laughter.

We calmed down and decided to order. We got our drinks
first. The server got the strangest look on his face when I ordered three sodas
at one time. I was obviously ordering for myself and Fetch. This sent Michelle
into a fit of giggles. She ordered an ice tea and asked for five straws, which
got Fetch and I laughing again.  The server left to get us our drinks as we
continued to giggle and chuckle. I was afraid he wouldn’t come back, but soon
he appeared with our drinks. He made sure there were five straws in Michelle’s
ice tea.

Ordering appetizers became a bit of an ordeal. Michelle left
the ordering up to me as I was not just ordering for me, but for Fetch as well.
I read down the list of appetizers to see what Fetch might like, reading the
description of the ones that Fetch might not know. He would let me know what he
wanted in true Fetch form by smacking me in the back of the head with his tail.
It had to be the strangest sight; me reading the menu out loud and my head
bobbing forward before I ordered something. I was enjoying hearing Michelle
laugh and giggle too much to be really upset at Fetch. After ordering three
orders of boneless wings (hot, mild, and barbeque), two orders of cheese
sticks, and a super nacho with extra chicken, I turned to Michelle, and, as
straight faced as I could, asked, "What  are you going to get?”

This started her giggling again. The server gave us the
'heard that one before' look, which quickly turned into a look of surprise when
Michelle ordered a small cheese crisp. After another  surprising order of two
double bacon cheeseburgers with fries and a side of coleslaw, a large chicken
finger basket, and a chicken Caesar salad, the server turned and slowly walked
away.

“We’re never going to get our food," said Michelle.
"Did you see the way he was looking at us?"

"Nah, we'll get it. He’s already got a great story to
tell the rest of the servers. You wait and see, he'll be sending out other
servers to look at us. It's kind of the way it is with servers. I used to work
in the restaurant in this hotel a few years ago. They had a contest over who
had the most interesting table. I have a feeling, on a slow night like tonight,
we are definitely in the running."

"That’s right. I remember you saying something about
growing up around here."

“Yeah, I went to elementary school not too far from here. I
wasn’t very well liked."

I flashed on the memory of my nightmare. In real life, Ms.
Rose stopped the others before they peed on me, not the best memory of my
childhood. Michelle reached out and grabbed my hand.

“What’s it like, Jack? What’s it like when you use your
magic?"

I was relieved by the change of subject. It was still too
early to talk much about my past. My life had already changed so much in just a
day. I wasn’t ready to really chase the past.

“It feels like an itch that you just can’t get to,” I said,
trying to get a clear image of what it was like. "When it is released, it
really takes a lot out of me. It is almost like it's torn out of me, but it has
to go somewhere. The feeling as it builds up is just too much, too
uncomfortable to stay, so I just force it out of me."

I realized how the explanation sounded, but it was very hard
to explain what it was like. Johnathen had called it a natural magic, whatever
that meant. All I knew is that it wasn’t the most pleasant feeling. I could
tell that Michelle was expecting more of an answer.

"Sorry," I said, "it’s all new to me. I wish
I could explain it better, but that is the best I can do."

She shook her head. I could tell that she understood, but I
also saw her disappointment at the lack of explanation.

“You want to hear a secret?”

I looked up to see a mischievous look on her face. There was
a gleam in her eyes and the way she asked the question had Fetch and I, both,
leaning in closer to her. Fetch bumped the table causing one of the sodas to
fall. Michelle twisted her hand and said a word under her breath. The glass
stopped in midair and all of the soda filled up the glass again. It hung there
in the air for a second and then Michelle grabbed it and set it back on the
table. Fetch went visible for a second before getting control over himself.
Michelle put the glass back on the table. She had a proud smile on her face.

“Not necessarily the way I wanted to tell you, but, as you
can see, Johnathen has been teaching me magic.”

“But, I thought that people from the  non-magic world
couldn’t do any real magic."

“Most of the time that is right, but, Johnathen figures I
have elf blood in me from a long ago ancestor, that gives me a chance to do
magic. It was a one in a million shot that I would be able to do it, but, as
you can see, I can.”

I wondered why Johnathen didn’t tell me about Michelle
learning magic. In fact, the way he talked, it was like an impossibility. This
made things more confusing than ever.

“So, you were actually part of the magic world, but you just
didn’t know it?"

“Yeah, funny huh? There are a lot of people out there that
are part elf or dwarf or even fairy.”

At the mention of the word fairy, Michelle's face went dark
for a second. She snapped out of it, smiled, and went on talking.

“Most can’t do magic. That is why they are kept from the
magic world. Johnathen fought to get me into the community. It wasn’t until
later that I discovered that I had magical ability. I’ll never be as great at
it as Johnathen or you, but I can do pretty well in my own right. It was my
magic that helped develop the box I use to get Wi-Fi on my computer. I have to
keep my magic abilities a secret. The council would never allow it. They barely
tolerate me as it is."

I had so many questions to ask, but, before I could, our
appetizers came. I looked up as a pretty girl was serving the food. I knew her.
I used to work with her at the hotel.

”Jenny!” I said. “Wow. You're still here? How are you?”

Jenny looked at me blankly. For a second I had forgotten
that anyone who knew me before, now had no memory of whom I was. She smiled and
gave a nervous little laugh. Obviously our server had told her about us crazy
people on the patio.

“I’m sorry, do I know you?”

“No, I guess not," I said.

Jenny gave another nervous laugh. She was so nice to me when
I worked there, always smiling and giving out hugs. She even tried to set me up
with a friend of hers, once. She was going to be one of the people that I was
going to miss not knowing me. I had to get used to this.

Jenny made a hasty retreat from the table. I looked down at
the food. All of a sudden, I didn’t seem so hungry anymore. I looked up at
Michelle. She had tears in her eyes. I realized she was the only person in the
world who could possibly know what I was going through. She began to speak.

“I was just a little girl when it happened. I was out at the
mall. It was the first time my parents let me go on my own. I met my best
friend, Lisa, at the mall. My parents' tattoo shop was across the street. We
were going to get some makeup. There was a loud explosion outside and from the
doors of the mall you could see smoke. It actually blew out a couple of
windows. I remember my friend screaming my name as I ran out the door. I knew,
somehow, I knew that my family was in trouble. I ran out into the parking lot
and saw that the whole row of buildings across the street was destroyed. I ran
to the rubble that used to be my parents' shop screaming for my mom and dad,
for my brother. I don’t even know how I got across the street. I ran up to the
shop, still screaming and saw their bodies." She choked on the word
'bodies'.

“Please, Michelle," I said. "You don’t have to
tell me if you don’t want to."

“But, I do want to tell you, Jack,” she said. “I want you
and Fetch to know. When I found their bodies, and tried to get to them, there
was a terrible sound, like glass breaking, and a blinding flash of light. I
felt a strange pain behind my eyes and I passed out. When I woke up, Johnathen
was holding me. The store and the other buildings were repaired and I had a broken
arm. My head hurt and I had trouble focusing. You should have seen Johnathen
then, Jack. Long hair, full robe, he even had a staff. He looked like a wizard
out of a book. I guess you could say I changed him. He wanted to be a part of
the regular world. He didn’t want there to be any separation between the two.
He feels that if both non-magic and magic users were aware of each other, then
tragedies, like what happened to my family, would become a thing of the past. I
saw my friend, Lisa, a few weeks later. She didn’t know who I was. That was one
of the hardest things I went through. I know what you are going through, Jack,
I really do.”