When Two Wizards Build A Shed

When Two Wizards Build A Shed

"Honey?" Chantelle stood holding her morning coffee with both hands, staring at the back of her husband's newspaper. Ryan was sitting at the dining room room table, reading the morning paper.

"Hmm?" Ryan said sounding indifferent to whatever Chantelle was about to say.

"I was thinking, Ryan, that it would be a good team building activity for us to build a shed together. Without using magic." Ryan slowly lowered his paper to look at Chantelle. She was staring intently at him, her green eyes didn't blink.

"Chantelle, you simply can't be serious..." Ryan kept his eyes locked on hers, also not blinking. He knew she was serious now, as they both silently stared, unblinking at eachother. Some time went by before Ryan lost, and blinked.

"Yes! The champ is here, and we are building a shed!" Chantelle put her coffee down, raised her arms in triumph and jumped up and down. Ryan began shaking his head.

"Chantelle, now, we should use at least some magic. We are wizards, we use wands, not hammers and saws!" Chantelle ignored Ryan and danced away, still celebrating her win. Ryan called after her just before she left the room "Winxies!" Chantelle stopped dead in her tracks and looked back, her wavy black hair bouncing back over her shoulder as she turned.

"No." She said tartly, and quickly walked out of the kitchen.

Ryan squinted, as if in pain, shook his head and just muttered "blast".

The next week the couple was outside unboxing their newly purchased pine wood shed. They were wearing matching jean overalls and white teeshirts. This was another one of Chantelle's ideas, of course.

"I swear, Chantelle, we had better not hurt ourselves with these box cutters..." Ryan nervously cut and pulled back the box to reveal its contents.

"That's why only you are doing this part." Chantelle winked at Ryan, and he glanced up just in time to see it.

"Joke's on you, darling, I cast a mirror spell this morning before you woke up. Anything that happens to one of us happens to both." Ryan stared into Chantelle's eyes, grinning. "We're in this together."

"You really think that was wise?" Chantelle picked up one of the hammers and shook it at Ryan. "I've never used one of these before. And I'm going to be swinging this to hit a target the size of a pebble that I am holding with my other hand..."

"Debinding." Ryan said, flicking his wrist.

"Oh. Don't trust me?" Chantelle crossed her arms. Ryan looked up and met her gaze.

"You made a very convincing argument, you know." Chantelle raised an eyebrow. "Come on, Chantelle. Help me separate these parts, then we can get started. Chantelle smiled, excited to finally begin. She did a little skip, and started helping Ryan sort the parts. Once the shed was sorted, they both took a step back and looked over their work.

"Alright. I'll hammer that wall, you hammer that one together. Make it look like this." Ryan held up the instructions, and tapped his finger on the diagram he was referencing.

"Hold on. Where is the door?" Chantelle looked over the piles of wood.

"It's the actual doors, dear. Right there." Ryan pointed at the pair of doors lying on the ground with his hammer.

"I was afraid of that. Is the door going on that side, then?" Ryan's brow furrowed.

"Does that matter? I thought the door worked best on-"

"Mmm" Chantelle shook her head and pursed her pink lips. "It should be here. So you can watch me bake pies while you weed whack." Ryan's mouth dropped.

"You've got to be joking-"

"The door facing the house makes the most sense." Chantelle retorted. Ryan ran his fingers through his white hair. If he weren't a wizard, it would be white because of Chantelle, he was sure of it.

"I think you're right, dear. No. I'm sure of it. I'm definitely wrong." Ryan tossed the instructions to the ground. "Shall we create our walls?" Chantelle jumped up and down in place.

"Yes!" She exclaimed, and they set to work. It wasn't long before Chantelle let out a loud discouraged sigh.

"Ryan. Why is this 2x4 not lining up?" Upon hearing this, Ryan knew he should have been watching her to make sure she was hammering the right planks in place. Ryan glanced over, and saw the 2x4's hanging out past the plywood.

"There's no way." Ryan whispered, and took a deep breath. Chantelle just then sniffled. "Honey," Ryan said gently. Chantelle looked up at Ryan, her eyes filled with tears, her bottom lip trembling. "Wait.." Ryan put his hammer down and put both of his hands up, like he was trying to calm a wild animal, or surrender to someone who had bested him. Chantelle let out her sob, and started blubbering.

"I just wanted us to do something special together, and we always use magic, and I wanted us to be challenged and work together, and-" Ryan raised his voice, but only so she could hear him, he still kept his kindness.

"Honey. Why don't we do something else? A baby would be a better plan than..." Ryan had stopped talking, but not before Chantelle had stopped sobbing, and stared at Ryan like he was a new spell book.

"You want to have a baby?" Time had seemed to stop for Ryan, just then. He weighed all of his options for his answer in a split second, then said, "Instead of making this shed." Chantelle squealed, reached over and grabbed Ryan's hand, and pulled him, running back to the house.

"The shed?" Ryan blurted out. Chantelle didn't even turn around.

"Finayus!" Chantelle shouted, and flicked her hand over her shoulder. Ryan turned at the last moment to see how the shed looked as Chantelle pulled him through the front door.

"Chantelle, it's upside down!" Ryan cried, and gave a little laugh.

"It's ok!" Chantelle answered as the front door slammed shut.