My breath began to fog up the window as I continued to stare out of it, watching my mother walk into town. I wiped the condensation off the smooth glass and my reflection came into focus. The hair I had inherited from my mother had grown past my ears now, but what drew me in was my green eyes. Neither of my parents had them, yet somehow I was born with them. Something was different about them now, though. There was a spark in them. I could see it, and I could feel it.

Whatever my mother had done outside was something I had never seen. No, it was something I had never experienced before. It was like magic, making water move with a simple motion, or even her mind. None of my inherent knowledge from my previous life could explain it. A sense of relief washed over me as I finally stopped looking out the window and layed on my back, staring up at the ceiling. Finally, something new for me to discover. All I had to do was wait for Mother to come home.

The next few hours seemed to be like an eternity. My mind could do nothing but focus on the small stream of water I had seen. Soon, though, Mother walked into the house, returning from her trip, and I instantly hounded her for any information I could get. I still wasn’t able to form sentences, but it was now easy to focus on and say one word. So I kept yelling, “Magic! Magic!,” at her.

The confusion on her face was not a surprise. She probably wasn’t thinking I was capable of any complex thought, so me saying random words, especially ones I had never heard before, likely made her think I was simply speaking nonsense. But as I continued to bother her over and over, she finally grew frustrated enough to entertain me.

“Little Bird, please! Quiet down! Mommy’s trying to focus!” She yelled. Almost cutting her finger along with the vegetables.

I felt bad that I was annoying her, but this was too important to give up on now.

“Maybe he has to poop? He hasn’t gone since you left,” my father said, getting up and crouching down in front of me with a big smile, “What do you say little guy? You wanna go make a poopy? You can get a bath with Father afterwards.”

I lightly slapped his nose and yelled, “Magic!” once again.

“Oh!” My mother exclaimed, finally understanding what I was after, “Did you see Mommy do this before I left?”

She went and grabbed a cup filled with water, and placed her hand just above it. Slowly, the water was pulled out of the cup and floated above it in the shape of a ball. I walked over to it, trying to reach and grab the floating ball of water, but Mother kept it just out of my reach. It was amazing. I couldn’t understand how she was doing this, but I did know that I wanted to learn. I had to know how to do this. I had to understand it.

“How? How?” I repeated over and over to her.

“Oh baby, do you really like it that much? Maybe I can show you one day, but you're much too young now,” She said, moving the water back into the cup and picking me up in her arms, “I bet you’ll be really good at magic too.”

I grabbed onto her arm and did my best to form the words I so desperately wanted to speak, “Teach! Now!”

My mother sighed then looked over at the stew she was preparing, “All right. Fine, you win. You know I can’t say no to that face. Besides, we have to wait for the food to cook anyway.”

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I took a second to relish in my victory, then focused back onto magic. Mother set me down and sat directly in front of me, grabbing my hands and closing her eyes. “Ok Little Bird, close your eyes and say something when you start to feel it.”

I closed my eyes and waited a few minutes, feeling nothing. Another few minutes, and nothing. The wait was excruciating, but I had to keep going. This was important to me, more than anything else was. I focused on her hands, what they felt like, how warm they were, how much they were moving. Everything seemed unchanging. Then, I felt a small tingle on my fingers. That tingle traveled down my arms and into my body, moving down my legs and up into my head.

“Feel,” I spoke aloud to my mother.

“Oh! Good. Now try moving that feeling,” Mother responded, not containing the doubt in her voice.

She probably thought I was just getting tired, or that I was making the feeling up, but I knew that it was very real. This wasn’t something that could be made up. It was unlike anything else in the world. I focused on her words, “Try moving the feeling.”

How was I supposed to move a feeling? Confused, I gave it a try anyway. I focused on the tingling in my right arm, using whatever method possible to push it farther into my body. I felt a sort of resistance, something that was fighting back against my own will. Whatever it was, it felt alive. The tingling felt like it had its own thoughts, or at the very least, its own will. With that revelation, I realized trying to influence the whole of my right arm was a bit too much for me right now. I began trying to influence my finger instead.

The slow progress began to wear me down. Whatever I was doing was exhausting. The tingling feeling in my finger shook every time I tried to move it, but I was yet to be successful in actually pushing the feeling away. That was when Father yelled to us that the stew was ready. My concentration was broken the second my mother let go of my hands, and the tingling feeling quickly subsided. I stared down at my hands, trying to bring back whatever the feeling was, but it never returned.

“Ok Sean, that’s enough now. Let’s go eat. Okay?” She said while picking me up.

“What?” I asked her as she placed me at the dinner table.

“Food. Eat. Yummy baby!” She gestured like she was eating with a fork.

With all my might, I did my best to utter a full sentence, “What was that?” I asked her, my brain exhausted from just three words.

“Um, I’ll teach you later, okay honey? You're much too young to underst-”

“Oh just humor the boy Cori. I’ve never seen Sean so excited in his life. Look at his eyes, they're practically shining!” My father said.

I gave a silent, mental thank you to my father.

“Oh fine, but you better eat all your stew today mister!” She said, pointing at me, “All I did was use my Soul to touch yours, which was supposed to activate it. That thing you felt Little Bird, that was your Soul. That’s what I used to move the water,” she took a bite of her stew.

I still didn’t understand. How was I supposed to use my… Soul to move water? “How,” I asked her again.

“You move your Soul and have it influence an element, specifically the one your Soul is compatible with. Some people can influence the earth, others can influence air, your mommy can influence water. Oh honey, he doesn’t understand. What’s the point of confusing him now when we can teach him when he grows up?”

“Come on now. I wanted to hear it too. I love your magic Cori. I would love to be able to do some of the things you do,” My father said, clearly trying to butter Mother up.

“Yes well, unfortunately someone here can’t use magic. I just hope Sean takes after me more than you.”

“Well I think he’ll take after me!”

As my parents discussed how I would be in the future, I was still dwelling on my Mother’s words. There were still so many questions I had. How was I supposed to get that tingling feeling, or activate my Soul, without her help? How was I supposed to use my Soul to influence an element? What was the element that I could influence? So many questions, and because of my age, none of them would get answered right now.

Luckily though, I had plenty of time to figure things out myself, given that going outside wasn’t really an option. Now I had something that I could occupy my mind forever. For the first time in my new life, I didn’t feel bored, but excited.