Merlin and his friends filed out of the room and into the hallway where they paused to talk. “That was odd,” Merlin said.
“I know,” Robert replied. “Did you feel the same thing I did?”
Shirley said, “I felt it too. It’s possible that there was a subsonic sound machine in the room. Ms. White could have turned it on as soon as we got near the mirror.”
Arthur nodded, “That’s probably it.”
Merlin wasn’t surprised. Arthur was a direct type of guy. He didn’t like anything he couldn’t put his hands on. The others stayed silent and seemed lost in their own thoughts.
Of course, it was his sister who chimed in, “Felt what? I didn’t feel anything. Was it because I forgot all the words?” She pouted a little, but then started chomping on a piece of candy from her bag and forgot all about the incident.
“Should we warn Angela?” Shirley asked.
Robert was the first to answer, “Nah, leave Sleeping Beauty to her mirror.”
Shirley looked annoyed, “Different fairy tales, Robert.”
Robert held up his hands as if he were giving up to the police.
“Speaking of fairy tale princesses, did you notice what Ms. White was wearing?” Belle asked. “I can’t believe she wore a Snow White costume. I mean, really? How lame!”
Merlin nodded, acting as if he agreed. Who were they to throw stones, glancing at their own costumes, most of which were based on their names? If the substitute teacher was lame for doing so, then so was he and most of the people in the group. Actually, he hadn’t even noticed which princess she had dressed up as. All of them sort of blended together to him.
Not wanting to waste the rest of the night, they started going from room to room once again. Pretty soon, his orange plastic pumpkin bucket was half full of candy. They spent more time in the dance room than any other room, although few of them actually danced.
It was kind of weird, standing in a room with a whole bunch of other students listening to music while waiting to see who would get on the dance floor. Mostly, everyone just stood on the sides of the rooms talking and gossiping. As soon as someone started dancing, everyone would start watching them. A few students ignored the looks and kept on dancing, but more than a few stopped in embarrassment.
He sure wasn’t about to get on the dance floor. Of course, his sister didn’t seem to care and danced away. She even managed to get Peter and his sister to dance. The others stood with him near the wall and ate their candy.
After that, they went to the haunted room. It was anything but scary. In fact, it was a blend of stupidity and hilarity. The scariest thing about it was the fact that one of the teachers thought it would be frightening. He couldn’t imagine anyone getting scared in the haunted room.
If anything was scary, it was the play. While he knew the music teacher had thrown it together at the last moment, more than a few students hadn’t shown up who apparently had parts in the play. To cover this, the music teacher had turned up the music enough so that it would be difficult to notice how few of the students were actually singing. It looked like instead of studying their lines at home, the students who had come had played video games instead. Who knew? He doubted anyone could understand any of the speakers as they spoke between the songs anyway, so it probably didn’t matter.
They left no candy bar behind, he thought wryly as they finished leaving the last room in the school they had yet to visit. Even so, he barely had enough candy to fill his bucket. It turned out, he had done fine in bringing the pumpkin bucket after all.
By the time the fall festival was over, he was feeling more than a little tired. In fact, he hadn’t walked so much since last year in PE. He had never liked that class. It was pretty much a waste of time. He didn’t really learn anything, and the teacher was awful. You would think a school with test results so low would be allowed to worry less about things like art, music, and PE classes and more about reading and writing. Wait, scratch that, he thought. Art was fun.
Shirley was one of the few people he knew who liked to read for enjoyment. Arthur actually liked PE which wouldn’t surprise anyone. Robert was more of a slacker and didn’t seem to like any of the classes except art. He did love watching anime and movies, however. From what he had gathered, Peter loved playing games and the only class he didn’t skip was PE.
Looking down at his sister, he noticed how tired his sister looked and briefly considered picking her up and carrying her but then thought again. Sara had grown a lot in the last few years, and he was too tired anyway. She yawned while he watched, which made him yawn as well.
After waving goodbye to his friends, Merlin and his sister started toward the parking lot where they were supposed to meet their parents. As expected, they were waiting impatiently, even though Merlin and his sister were actually a few minutes early. Sighing, Merlin helped his sister into the minivan before clambering in himself.
What had his parents been thinking when they got a minivan? There were just four of them. There was absolutely no need to have a minivan. And a light blue one at that. It was embarrassing. It didn’t help that the paint was chipping off and there were several big dents strategically placed around the minivan to emphasize the embarrassment.
At least he didn’t have to worry too much about clothes. Arthur had been giving Merlin his hand-me-downs for years. While the clothes might be a couple of years old, they more than made up for the age by their quality. Arthur’s father didn’t skimp when it came to dressing his only son.
Unfortunately, his sister ended up wearing a lot of clothing that was much less flattering. His parents would visit thrift shops every few weeks to see if there was anything they could buy and sell for a profit. That was where they also usually found her clothes.
Thoughts like that kept his mind busy as they drove home. About halfway there his mind started drifting without him even noticing. Thoughts would flit through his head and a few seconds later he had already forgotten what he had been thinking about. His eyes were half-closed in the darkness as he listened to the steady hum of the road under the minivan tires. Had the radio worked and been on, he might actually have fallen asleep.
Soon, they arrived at the house. Like the minivan, it wasn’t much to look at, but at least it was a house. He knew several friends who had lived in a car with their parents for a while. Apparently, the economy had been terrible in their area. More than likely, however, it was just greedy rich people hoarding all the money.
At least they didn’t have to worry much about people breaking into the house and stealing anything. After all, there really wasn’t that much to steal. Oh well, he thought, Arthur was more than willing to let his friends use his things and would even let them have his old things.
Dragging himself to the pullout couch, he folded out his bed. Taking a blanket, he pulled the covers over his head and was asleep almost immediately. Soon, visions of magical battles were racing through his dreams.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
When the alarm clock woke him the next morning, Merlin realized he must have been so sleepy that he fell asleep without even taking off the costume. Oh well, nothing new there, he thought. Yawning, he stretched and then turned off the alarm clock. Sighing, he stood up and started folding the blanket.
After that, he closed the sofa bed and replaced the cushions. He placed the folded blanket on the back of the couch. “Ugh...mornings,” he muttered. They truly were the most evil of all evils in the world, he added as an afterthought.
The shower was empty, as always. That was one reason he took a shower in the mornings. His parents liked to take showers in the evening and often used up all the hot water. If they didn’t, his sister would then finish off the rest of the water. She probably did this so that she could sleep until the last possible moment.
Merlin preferred having a hot shower over a few extra minutes of sleep. It also gave him something to look forward to in the morning. Eating breakfast at school was a hit-or-miss chance. Some days they had good food, and others...well, not so good.
After the shower, he got dressed and turned on the radio, although not loudly. They would be leaving any minute. Until then, he wasn’t about to bother them. He had learned that lesson long ago. Don’t disturb your parents in the morning!
Merlin wasn’t really a music person. In fact, he actually knew very little about music. However, his family didn’t have cable and there wasn’t anything on the local channels at this time in the morning, at least that he liked anyway. Instead, he would always try to guess the song lyrics or make up his own.
Not knowing the lyrics yet again, he added his own to the next verse, “Floating in the air, like I just don’t care,” about the laws of gravity that was. He wished it was that simple. Just ignore the laws of nature and do whatever he wanted to do. Merlin smiled at the thought and decided to repeat it three times just as he had repeated the mirror lines last night three times, imagining he could do just what he was saying.
Merlin almost screamed when he actually started floating off the ground. In fact, he was happy he had gone to the bathroom earlier or he might have had an accident. Oh goodness! He couldn’t believe it. He was really floating in the air as if he didn’t care about gravity.
After a few seconds of hanging several inches off the floor, he slowly drifted to the ground. So cool, he thought. How in the world was he able to do this? Was it because of the mirror last night? He wondered what else he could do.
Hmm, he thought, considering his options. He imagined floating in the air, but nothing happened. Maybe he had to say the phrase again. Composing himself, he said, “Floating in the air, like I just don’t care.” Nothing happened. Weird, he thought. Maybe he had to say it more than once. He said it rapidly twice more. Still, nothing happened.
Odd, he thought. Maybe he should try something else.
“This is very unfair,
let me float in the air.
This is very unfair,
let me float in the air.
This is very unfair,
let me float in the air.”
Suddenly, he was floating in the air once again. He pumped his arms and resisted yelling out in surprise. He didn’t want anyone else, even his parents and his sister, to know what he could do until he found more about it himself. His parents were probably already ready and would be gone in a few minutes. That would leave him some free time before the school bus arrived and his sister woke up. He sat down at the table in the kitchen and began brainstorming ideas.
By the time his sister had woken up and his parents had left, he had come up with a few ideas to try. Going outside to the backyard, he looked around to ensure no one could see him. Of course, there wasn’t much of a chance of that considering there were woods along the back of the house, even if it wasn’t still dark outside.
Taking a few deep breaths, he gathered his concentration and spoke.
“Create a light
to give me sight.
Create a light
to give me sight.”
He almost stopped when he felt a small bit of pressure just as he did the last time. He ignored it, and finished, however, “Create a light to give me sight!”
With the last words, a small candle-sized glowing ball of energy appeared in front of him, illuminating the darkness around him. While it wasn’t as good as a flashlight, it certainly made it easier to see. The light started to fade away after only a few seconds, however.
He decided to try it again and spoke the words once more but this time with a minor change.
“Create a bright light
to help give me sight.
Create a bright light
to help give me sight.
Create a bright light
to help give me sight.”
He concentrated on making the light brighter and lasting longer. This time, the light was stronger. However, it didn’t really last much longer. Hmm, maybe it had to do something with concentration. He had concentrated on making the light bigger, and it had been bigger. Maybe he needed to concentrate to keep the magic working. He tried once again.
“Create a really bright light
to give me sight in the night.
Create a really bright light
to give me sight in the night.
Create a really bright light
to give me sight in the night.”
This time he kept on concentrating on the light, willing it not to go away. He smiled as the light kept shining. Not wanting to draw any more attention than he needed to, he allowed his concentration to slip. As soon as he stopped thinking about the light, it faded away.
What else could he do? A sudden thought occurred to him. “Light, light, light.” A very dim light appeared in the air but quickly faded away. Hmm, obviously, the complexity of the words would make the spell more powerful.
“What else?” He muttered to himself “Hmm, I know...float...boat...throat...ah,” he said with a smile. He took a few minutes to think about the rhyme. Finally, he spoke the words he had come up with.
“When I clear my throat,
please let me float.
When I clear my throat,
please let me float.
When I clear my throat,
Please let me float.”
He waited, but nothing happened. Finally, he cleared his throat. Immediately, he began to float. After a few seconds, he drifted back down to the ground. He tried clearing his throat again. He started to rise off the ground, but then dropped immediately. Obviously, if he wanted to be able to do something like this, he would need to make something long and complicated.
He smiled at the thought that at least now he would have something useful to do in school. After all, most of the math and other stuff they learned wasn’t all that useful. When was he ever going to have to worry about prime numbers and exponents?
Apparently, however, the literature and English classes might have proven useful after all. Just as he had suspected. The reading and writing, which had been fun, were actually the ones that paid off the most. Take that Mr. Geometry teacher, he thought.
Last night, he wished he had the mind and magical abilities of Merlin the Magician. Today he had them. My goodness, he thought. That was amazing. How had the mirror given him the powers? Was Ms. White the one who had given him the magic? Was it a combination of both? Either way, he was very happy with the results.