Chapter 3

  Three: The Man and the Cottage

Aiden found himself sitting on a green and white checkered couch in a cozy little living room.  One wall was clad in portraits of many unusual people from different time periods.  Some wore long beards, some wore Victorian dresses, and some wore Hawaiian shirts and sunglasses.  A different wall was covered in about three dozen clocks, each of them telling a completely different time.  The windows were dressed in red and white curtains that resembled a picnic blanket.  The coffee table in from of him held a tray of chocolate chip cookies stacked in a perfect pyramid and they smelled as if they were freshly baked. 

Just then, an old man with a balding head and a long, white goatee entered the room.  He wore navy blue slacks with dress shoes and a white button up.  Aiden thought that he looked sharp for an old guy.

The man smiled at Aiden and raised one hand as if to wave at him and made his way over to the brown reclining chair directly across from him.  He sat down without saying anything.

Aiden was thoroughly confused. He had never seen this place before.

Was he dead?  Did people really go to cottages with cookies and weird decorations when they died?

“Um, hello.”  Aiden cleared his throat.  The man gave no reaction and just kept on smiling.  “Sorry… I have no idea how I got here.  Is this… your house?  I could leave if I’m-“

“No, no, my boy.  You may stay for a bit.  Help yourself to a cookie,” said the old man, still smiling.

 Aiden hesitated for a moment and then bit into the cookie.  It was the softest and most delicious cookie he’d ever had.  It tasted so real.  Aiden paused.

“Am I… dead?”

The old man laughed.  “No, far from it.  This is only a dream” 

He moved over to the window and pulled the curtain aside.  He stared outside with a hollow gaze.  Then he turned back to Aiden.  “So,” he said. “At long last, you’ve awakened.”

“But, sir… didn’t you just say this is a dream?”

“It is, my boy”

At this point, Aiden was utterly bewildered, completely confused, and downright lost.  He screwed up his face and tried to think clearly, but found it to be impossible.

“Okay, I don’t get it…”

“Oh, you’ll figure it out soon enough.  It’s something worth being excited about, though,” he said with a warm grin.

There was a short pause.  Aiden felt like he had seen this man before, but he couldn’t figure out where.  Maybe it was the very welcoming environment and that smile that made him believe that they had met at an earlier date.  Still thoroughly perplexed, Aiden decided that it was a good time to ask questions.

“So, where exactly am I?”

“Tough to say.  I haven’t left this house in ages.”

“Who are you?  Do I know you?”

“That is not important right now and quite frankly, I’d rather not tell you just yet.  You have enough on your mind as it is.”

Aiden opened his mouth to speak but the old man held up his hand.  He looked over at his wall of many clocks.  “Ah, it seems that I have already kept you too long.  I promise to fill you in next time.  Take care, Mr. Brande.”

“Wait! What do you mean by-“

But his words were soundless and suddenly it seemed like his body was being sucked through the floor.  The room was stretching far above him and the last thing he saw was that warm smile.

*                      *                      *

The room was bright and quiet except for a periodic beeping noise.  Both his eyes and his body felt extremely heavy, as if he were being pushed into his bed.  To his right stood Dylan and Kirk, who were gazing absent-mindedly around the room.  It was Kirk who noticed him first.

“Hey! He’s up!” he shouted, nearly scaring Dylan half to death.

Speaking proved to be quite difficult for Aiden. “Where…?”

“Your Mom is on her way.  What happened, dude?” said Kirk.

It was then that Aiden glanced down at his hands and noticed that there were no burn marks, no bandages, nothing.  Alarmed, he ripped off his sheets and inspected his legs, feet, and arms.  No burns. No bandages.  Not a scratch.

Did he imagine the whole thing?

“Whoa, whoa, easy!  Let me go grab the doctor,” said Dylan who quickly left the room and shut the door behind him.

“Okay, what’s going on, man?” Kirk asked.

He couldn’t have imagined it.  It had to be real.  He remembered the flames.  He remembered the sprinklers.  He felt it all.  He had to tell Kirk.  He was his best friend after all, and he would definitely want Kirk to do the same if he were in his position.

“I… don’t really know how to explain it.  I got really mad and started punching a locker and then… well, a fire started.”

Kirk looked thoroughly confused.  “Yeah, but how?  Someone must have had something flammable in their locker like a lighter or something.  Do you remember whose it was?”

“No, Kirk, that’s not it.”

He paused.  “It sounds crazy but… I think that I made the fire.”

Kirk’s eyes began to widen with skepticism.

“I tried to rip the lock off and it melted in my hand.  Dripped right on to the floor so it’s probably still stuck there.  My hands and arms were on fire.”

Kirk raised an eyebrow. “Uh, I don’t think so, Chief.  Look, I won’t tell anyone if you torched the place on purpose but-“

“No, I’m serious!” he shouted.

Kirk stepped back a bit, alarmed.  “Okay, okay.  You’re serious.”

They sat in silence for a minute.  It really did sound crazy.  Aiden didn’t really know what to think of it.  He decided to relate to the only thing he knew.  The only thing he wanted it to be.

“It was like… it was like magic.  Only, I didn’t try to make it happen.  It just sort of… did.”

The utter sincerity in Aiden’s voice alerted Kirk that he wasn’t just playing some sort of joke.  Kirk drew in a deep breath and released a long, heavy sigh.

“You know, part of me wants to believe you because for one, it would be awesome.  And two, I’d rather not think of my best friend as a lunatic, but I really doubt that that’s what actually happened.”

Aiden began to get angry.  “I’m not kidding!  I know what happened…  I was there!  I’m not some psycho!” he shouted, balling his fists in an attempt to suppress his rage.

“Alright! Just calm down for a sec and-“

But Kirk suddenly found himself unable to speak.  He turned a ghostly shade of white and looked as if he were going to fall over and faint.  With eyes lit up like a beacon, he raised his arm and pointed at Aiden’s fist, which now held a slow and steady flame.  Aiden was panting and sweating heavily as he stared at the flaming mass dancing around on his palm.  The fire extinguished itself and Aiden slumped back down in his hospital bed, exhausted.

“See?  Same thing… happened,” he heaved.  He turned to look at Kirk who was wearing an expression of absolute horror that slowly began to turn into a wide-mouthed grin

“No. Freaking. Way,” he beamed.  “How in the world did you just do that?”

“I don’t really know, to be honest.  So far, I’ve only been able to do it when I get really mad, so I guess that has a big part to do with it.”

Aiden hesitated for a moment.  Kirk looked entirely overjoyed.

  “Please do me a favor and don’t tell anyone about this.  I don’t really want people knowing because they’ll either think we’re both crazy or they’ll bug me about it,” said Aiden, frowning.

“Yeah, yeah, I gotcha, yup.”  Kirk was speaking quite quickly now.  “But you really need to figure out how to do it on command.  You know how cool that is?  This is the kind of stuff that we’ve always wanted to happen.  The magic in those fantasy books and video games isn’t fantasy anymore, it’s real!  This is just crazy!  You have to teach me, Aiden.”

Just as he figured, Kirk was not going to have a level head about any of this.  He was always like that, though.  When he got excited about something, there was no standing in his way.

“Okay, hang on just a sec.  I know this is awesome and all but I still seriously don’t know how to do it.  It was more of luck or a miracle or whatever than anything… Plus, it makes me really tired.”  He paused for a moment.  “I think I hear Dylan and the doctor.  I’m going to take a nap now so promise me that you will not say a thing about it to either of them while I’m sleeping.”

Kirk nodded and turned to the door as Aiden shuffled into a comfortable position in his hospital bed.  The doctor and Dylan were close now.

“-strange because his tests all came back normal… I just don’t understand what-“

Kirk met them in the arch of the doorway.  “Keep your voices low, please.  He said he was tired and really needed a nap,” he said.

“Yes, as I was just telling your friend, he should feel fine after some more rest and his mother can take the three of you home.  I will be down the hall for now, so be sure to come and get me when they arrive,” said the doctor.

Aiden closed his eyes and found sleep almost immediately.

His vision blurred heavily and he suddenly found himself sitting upright on a green and white checkered couch.  The scent of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies filtered through his nostrils as he looked directly in front of him to find the same old man sitting on a chair on the other side of the coffee table.  He nodded to Aiden and grinned.

That smile.

It was so comforting.  So relaxing.  He felt like he was being carried away by clouds and being sucked through the floor all at the same time.  Blackness consumed his mind and he found restful sleep.

            After a very frustrating car ride home, Lauren still had no idea what had actually happened.  Aiden did not dare tell her the truth, as he figured she would end up sending him to special classes or enrolling him in a mental institution.  He told her that he was lucky to escape the random fire and must have passed out from shock.  Hopefully the doctor’s story was similar.

  How could he possibly tell her that he created fire with his bare hands?  Or that the overhead sprinklers felt like a fire hose?  She would never believe him.  Aiden could hardly believe it himself.  Yes, it was best that nobody but Kirk knew. 

Kirk probably only believed it because he wanted to believe it.  He loved magic and all things fantasy just as much as Aiden did, and now that his best friend was living proof that all of it turned out to be real, he was probably exploding with excitement.  Aiden was sure that Kirk would be asking him to reproduce the magic several times a day and would definitely ask him again if he could teach him how to do it.  Maybe telling Kirk wasn’t such a good idea after all.

 Lauren and Aiden filed their way through the side door into the kitchen and took their shoes off.  There was an awkward moment of silence as Aiden made his way down the hall to his room.  He reached the doorway and found a folding table next to his bed with water, an ice pack, a can of Ginger Ale, and some pretzels sitting neatly on top.  This was Lauren’s typical “feel better” setup.  She was behind him in the doorway.

“You should probably get some more rest if you don’t know what’s going on.  Get food down and stay hydrated… we don’t want you passing out again.  Hopefully you’ll feel well enough to go to school in the morning because you really can’t afford to miss a day of school this early in the year, Aiden.  It will be too hard to catch up and-“

“Okay, Mom,” he interrupted.  “Thanks for the stuff… I’ll sit down for a while and just go to bed early or something like that.”

There was an awkward moment of silence once again.

“Yeah.  Just holler if you need something,” she said as she headed down toward the living room.

Aiden closed his door, slumped down on his bed and rubbed his eyes and head hard.  He had so much on his mind, so much to think about.  Why did this happen to him, of all people?  What did it mean?  Why was he having strange dreams all of a sudden?

That was just it; it was all so… sudden. 

Out of the blue, he can just perform magic.  Real magic, not the kind that involves trick cards, hats, and rabbits.  This was magic that had the power to help and to harm, to create and destroy.  Sure, he could light a candle without a match or turn the stove on without touching the dial, but he could also engulf a room in flames if he weren’t careful. 

Honestly, Aiden had absolutely no idea what he was even capable of.  For one, he did not even truly know how to produce a flame without getting angry or completely draining himself.  As of right now, this newly found skill was more dangerous than anything.  He had to learn to control it if he ever wanted to find a practical use for it.

He sat up and slid over to the edge of his bed.  Aiden gave himself a lot of credit for being able to assess this situation so calmly and logically.  It seemed like any other fifteen year old would be ranting and raving to his friends about how awesome he is now that he can do real magic.  Any other kid would be showing off his power and wouldn’t even consider possible consequences.  Maybe that’s why Aiden was able to do it…because he could actually handle it.

Determined, he stood up and paced back and forth across his room, desperately trying to think of where to begin.  How could he practice controlling his power if he didn’t even know how to produce it on command?  Aiden had never been one to give up, especially without trying a few times first, so he balled his fists and stared at them, wishing for something to happen.  He clenched his fists so hard that his knuckles turned white.

But nothing happened.

He opened his palms and cracked his fingers as if he were getting ready to play a piano medley in front of a live audience.  Standing up straight and tall, he held his hands right out on front of him and focused intently on his palms.  Sweat began to fill his pores on his forehead from intense concentration, yet still, nothing appeared.  No flame.  Not even a spark.

Clapping his hands together, he started jogging in place and rolling his neck around in a stretch like athletes do when they warm up for a game.  It’s okay, he told himself. I can do this.

He stretched his arms out and made motions like a puppet master controlling an old marionette would.  He stared at his hands, focusing with everything he had, but nothing appeared.  He didn’t even feel any warmer, just discouraged.  The only thing he could think of at this point was to make himself angry on purpose and see if it came out again. However, he wasn’t sure about this for fear that he may lose control like he did in the locker room and end up burning down his parents’ house.

Maybe I’m just too tired, he thought.  Perhaps it worked exactly like it did in his video games and he was just simply out of Mana or Magic Points or something.  He wouldn’t be able to cast until they recharged over some time.  He didn’t feel any different though, which made him even more curious and still more dispirited.

Out of ideas, he decided to simply set it aside for now and get his mind off of it.  It was beginning to stress him out, as if he didn’t have enough on his plate as it was.  Any fifteen year old will tell you that high school isn’t exactly a walk in the park.  It’s sort of like a career except that you don’t get paid.  You have deadlines to meet with assignments, you have to arrive and depart on time or there will be some sort of consequence, and on top of that, you are constantly being assessed by not only your superiors, but peers as well.  There is just so much to think about, especially with the whole idea of creating and maintaining a healthy self-image that those guidance counselors always talk about.  Aiden had always been very ambivalent about his self-image.  One week he would be happy with himself and the next he felt like he was the world’s biggest nobody.  Coming off of an excellent summer vacation, he was feeling positive and confident. 

But now what?  He wasn’t even sure how he felt about his new ability. 

Was it something to be proud of?   Or did it just make him a freak?

Aiden turned his head to look at his clock… 10:13.  He had not gone to bed this early in years, yet he wanted nothing more than to crawl under his covers and clear his mind. 

At six thirty the next morning, Aiden’s alarm was a whirling tornado through his eardrums.  He tried to get up, but nearly fell back down on to his bed.  He was beyond tired.  The prospect of feigning illness and staying home from school suddenly seemed very appealing. He remained in a sitting position at the edge of his bed, struggling to decide what to do but, as tired as he was, he figured that he would probably be better off going to school.  If he were to stay home, he would do nothing but torture his brain and make several attempts at magic again which would only further wear him out.  On top of that, he was certain that Kirk would end up calling him at some point to ask him a million different questions as to why he didn’t show up today, so with great effort, he propelled himself to his closet and began getting ready for the day.

             “Wow, you look terrible,” said Kirk.

Aiden gave a deep sigh and faced the window. “Yeah, tired,” he said as Kirk sat down next to him.  He was thankful that the bus was quiet.  There was no way that Kirk could badger him about yesterday without being overheard.

Even Aiden couldn’t deny that he was seriously worn out.  He was so tired that his morning seemed to go by in flashes more than anything.

“-And a test tomorrow on Great Expectations, with special focus on everything we talked about today! Hope you all took excellent notes!” called Mrs. Prang as the bell rang.

Perfect, he thought, considering that he just spent thirty nine of the forty minute period sleeping on his desk.  His day was not about to improve, however, as he had Chemistry to look forward to in six minutes.

He entered the lab room and took his seat next to Kirk.

At this point, Aiden was simply waiting for Kirk to begin bombarding him with questions when the bell finally rang.  He wasn’t sure if he should be relieved by this or not because he was in no mood to do Chemistry work, or deal with Hazzlok, for that matter.  Aiden scanned the room and saw that he had not arrived yet.  He turned his view to the storage closet, half expecting him to come bursting out of it like he did on the first day of class.

The door remained shut.  He was fashionably late and the class broke into chatter.

“So – er – any luck with…?” asked Kirk.

Aiden gave a short laugh. “Figured you’d ask me sooner or later.”  He paused for a moment. “To answer your question, no.  I spent the greater part of my night trying to do it again but couldn’t figure it out.”

Kirk knew he’d hit a sore spot already and thought it best not to ask him any more questions about yesterday.

“So, it’s five after… where do you think Hazzlok is?” Kirk asked.

“Don’t know, and honestly, I don’t care.  Not really in the mood for him today,” Aiden grumbled.

Various gossips continued throughout the classroom over the next few minutes.  Nobody seemed to care that their teacher was missing.  For some, especially Aiden, even sitting in silence for forty minutes was better than doing Chemistry work.

Just then, the storage closet door flung open and Mr. Hazzlok emerged.  His long, black hair was teased on one side and his ridiculous suit jacket was looking quite disheveled.  He glanced down at his watch and hurried over to the front of the room.

“So sorry everyone.  The bell doesn’t come through in the closet there and I was rather intent on finding our materials for today.  As you can see, I am empty handed so consider today a free period,” said Hazzlok.

There were a few small cheers from the class and the side conversations resumed.  Aiden looked up to see Hazzlok shuffling through papers on his table very quickly.

He turned to Kirk. “Is it just me, or does Hazzlok seem a little frazzled today?”

“What do you mean?” asked Kirk.

“Well, he looks like he just completed a decathlon, he’s rummaging through his papers furiously, he spent at least five minutes in that closet, and he hasn’t found a way to embarrass me yet.”

Kirk chuckled.  “That’s true.  Now that you mention it, he does seem pretty unorganized.”  He dropped his voice to a whisper.  “But anyway, back to what we were talking about before… I want to help.  Can I?”

Aiden shifted in his seat.  “I appreciate it, man, but I really don’t know if you can.  I wouldn’t even-“

“Come on, magic is not something we can just ignore.  Let’s spend some time on it after school this week.”

As frustrated as he was with magic in the last twenty four hours, Aiden could not decline Kirk’s request.  After all, he was right; he couldn’t just ignore it, and he desperately wanted to harness this new power.  Not to mention the fact that Kirk stayed with him at the hospital for hours like a good friend would.  The least he could do was humor him. 

“Alright,” he said, grinning.  “We’ll start tonight.”

Out of the corner of his, Aiden saw that Hazzlok was periodically lifting his head and staring in his direction.  He suddenly seemed much less interested in the papers on his desk.

“Look, he’s staring at me.  I give it thirty seconds until he breaks the silence and completely embarrasses me.”

“Maybe he thinks you’re cute…”

“Oh, funny…”  Aiden twisted in his chair to stretch when something caught his eye.

It was Myriah.

Aiden didn’t even realize that she was in the same class.  Why didn’t he see her yesterday?

She really was gorgeous.  She simply glowed with beauty.

Oddly enough, Aiden could have sworn that she really was faintly glowing.  Their eyes met and she quickly turned away, trying to look busy.

There was something mysterious about Myriah.  Maybe that’s why she was so attractive.  Aiden knew virtually nothing about her considering that they had never had a conversation, yet he sort of liked her already.

But he didn’t even know she existed until yesterday.  He couldn’t possibly like her already.  That would be a little creepy.  Maybe “crush” was a better word.

Yeah, a crush.

A pair of fingers snapped in front of his face.

“Yo, Earth to Aiden,” called Kirk.

“Hmm?”

“I said, where are we going to practice tonight?”

“Oh, right.  Well, wherever it is, it has to be a place where nobody else can see us.  If I go all Human Torch again, I don’t want someone to freak out and call the fire department.”

“Good point,” said Kirk.  “What about Ridgeway field?”

“Whatway what?”

“Ridgeway field… don’t tell me you’ve never been there.  If you go down Ridgeway Road, you’ll see a stream running under the lone guardrail.  Follow the stream through the woods and it leads you to a big open field.  It’s perfect.”

“Works for me.  Can’t set off any smoke alarms outside, either.  Okay, just get off at my bus stop later.  This way we can get a few hours in before dark.”

Aiden looked up to see Hazzlok staring at him again.  Although this time it was much more obvious.  He had stopped everything he was doing.

“Hang on, I’m gonna use the bathroom before he can call me out for something stupid,” said Aiden.

Aiden got up to leave and that’s when he finally saw it all.  More than half of the people in the room were watching him walk out.  What was with everyone today?  Why were they all staring?

And then it hit him.  Of course they would all know already.

He stormed out of a locker room yesterday covered head-to-toe in flames and didn’t have a single burn mark to show for it.  It simply wasn’t normal.

Then again, as of this time yesterday, he was no longer a “normal” boy.