There's No Such Thing As Magic

Ben

I know that I can’t hide from my enemies forever, but I hope that I can hide long enough to protect my family. I’ve been hunted by the same people for years, and my father was before me. We don’t know why, and we don’t know who they are, but I have scars enough to prove that they are very real, very powerful, and very ruthless. Its been ten years since I last saw the men in black that I was taught to fear, and I pray every night that I never see them again. I have a son who is 10 years old and a daughter who is only 2, and I want them to have happy normal lives. I don’t want them to be burdened with the same troubles that I struggled with for my entire life. I want them to grow up without fearing every shadow in every ally. My life was full of fear since before I knew what fear was. I went through very dark times, but now my life is brighter. I don’t think Natan knows what fear is. He runs into everything headfirst. No regrets, only joy. I hope he never stops doing that. I fear that one day someone will take that joy away from him and replace it with pain. I fear that he’s going to have to grow up and face life before he is ready. When life came knocking at my door the first time, I did not know what it was. I was young and ignorant then, just like Natan and Gracie are now. I don’t want them to ever grow up because growing up is scary. 

“Dad I don’t feel good; do I have to go to school today?” His little voice fills my heart with joy. I tell Natan that unless he has a fever he has to go to school. I am a teacher after all. Today I have a teacher meeting in the morning before school starts, but I let Natan stay in my classroom during the meeting.

“If you feel like you are going to throw up come and get me ok Nati?” I say as I leave the room. His little reply of “fine!” is so sweet even when he is trying to be mad at me. 

During the meeting, Jake, the principal talks for a little bit, and then the teachers have a turn to talk, but the conversation soon turns to gossip.

I head back to check on Natan. Jake catches up with me as I’m walking down the hallway, and he invites me, and my family to dinner at his house. He tells me that Timothy, his husband, wants to talk to me about something. I keep asking what it is about, but all he says is that it is not his to tell and that I’ll only believe When Tim shows me. I’m confused, but I have been friends with Jake and Timothy for long enough that I’m not that surprised, so I tell Jake that we were free on Sunday.

Jake is beside me when I open the door and see my greatest fear manifest before my eyes. There are the men in black, and there is Natan with a knife to his neck. I try my best to keep the fear out of my voice, but I’m terrified. I step forward and one of the men grabs me by the shoulders and holds my arms back so that I cannot move. Another of the men grabs Jake and holds him still next to me. I plead with them not to hurt Natan. I tell them that I will do anything, they can do anything, just don’t hurt my boy. I tell them to hurt me instead. I tell them that Natan is just an innocent little kid. I tell them that they can kill me, just let my son go, but the man holding Natan laughs and presses the knife harder against his throat. I cannot keep the tears from falling, but I keep pleading with them even though I already know that it’s useless. 

He falls limply to the ground where he lands like a sack of potatoes thrown aside. The man holding me back lets me go, and I run to his side and pull him into my lap. My tears fall and hit his face and head as I plead with him to hold on and keep on breathing. I try to hold the cut together, but blood just keeps flowing. I look at his innocent face and see eyes full of pain and fear, confusion, and betrayal. It takes me a moment to notice that there’s no one near us. None of the bad men. Not even Jake. I look up confused and see a shield surrounding me and Natan, but it was not like anything that I had seen before. It looked like there was a blue, translucent, bubble between me and the rest of the world.  I could barely make out Jake's voice from outside asking if Natan was ok. The tears fell like a stream as I had to say no. No, my son is not ok, and its my fault. If I had let him stay home today, or if I had not left him alone in my room, or if I had come back a little bit faster, he would still be ok.

“Abba, I’m scared,” he said, and I realized that the blood had stopped, and miraculously Natan was still conscious and breathing. I’m scared too I whispered, and then I did the one thing that I could think of to show him that it would be ok. I started to sing. I sang the lullabies that I had sang to him when he was younger, and that I still sing to Gracie.

I lost track of time as I held him in my arms. I don't know if it was minutes or hours later that Jack put his hand on my back and told me that it would be ok. He told me that Timothy was here and that he could help Natan. I was not sure how he could help, but I needed Natan to be ok, so I was ready to accept any help there was.

When I looked up, we were not alone anymore. The men in black were gone, but there were strangers standing all around me. Some of them had their hands up standing in a circle, and some were kneeling next to Natan, but no one said a word. Timothy was the first one to speak. He told me that he and his friends could save Natan, but it would come at a price. There was a place where Natan could go and he would be safe, and he would get to learn about his powers.

"What powers," I asked, very confused about what was going on. "Natan does not have any powers," I said trying to convince myself more than Timothy.

Timothy explained that this is what he had wanted to talk to me about on Sunday. There was a thing called magic and it was real. He showed me by making a ball of blue light fill the air in front of us. It came out of nowhere. One moment the room was dark, and the next moment it was full of light. I, but I could not figure out where the light was coming from. He moved his hand in the air above me, and the ball of energy moved with it. I’m sure my eyes gave away my confusion. I teach science to 5th graders. I am used to things making sense. There are things that people can do, and there are things that only exist in our imaginations. This ball of light was one of the things that should only be in my mind. It should not be real. His eyes were full of mystery, and his voice revealed only that there was so much more than what he was saying, but all he said was, “What you know about the world does not compare with your questions, so is it really that surprising that magic is real?"

"That is what was above me," I said as I tried to grasp what he was saying. "Was that you?" 

 "No.” he said, “that was Natan. He has amazing reflexes."

Timothy

“It’s ok. I can help him. I can save Natan. Please trust me. I have gone through all of this before.” I try to comfort Natan’s father Ben, but for some things there simply are not words that can take away the fear. When a parent fears for the life of the child, there is nothing you can say that will make it ok. 

Ben is still crying as he holds Natan close. I can see the fear and pain in his eyes. I showed him what magic is, but it is hard for people to suddenly start believing in something that they always thought was impossible. 

I tell Ben that there is a school for kids like Natan. He can learn to use his powers as a gift, and not have them be a curse. I tell him, "It is called MT Academy, and I can take him there."

“Will he be safe? Will he be happy?” askes Ben. 

“Yes. These men will never find him there.”

I have not been back to my school for years, and I don’t know what will be waiting for me there. When I went to MT it was a small school for kids who did not know about magic. You learned the basics before going to a real school. We weren’t allowed to go home until we had graduated, but I used to write letters to them every day. In the end I loved MT. I made the best friends of my life, and I finally felt like I fit in somewhere. For the first time, I wasn't the weird kid. I wasn’t alone anymore. 

When I get to MT, I realize how much it has changed. There is a new gate to get in, and the whole school is surrounded by more of a wall than a fence. I go to the Head Master, and I tell him Natan's story. The Head Master sighs and pulls out a stack of paperwork.

“Fill this out before you leave” he Grumbles, “or don’t, I’ll just make stuff up.”

He takes Natan before I can say anything. I don't recognize my school in this place.

The paperwork is very simple. All it asks for is his name, age, medical history. It does not ask for his address or his parents’ names, which I think is weird, but there is nothing I can do about it now.  

I ask the headmaster what I can tell his parent's for how to contact Natan, and he laughs.

I worry that this is not the place it used to be. I hope that Natan is safe and happy, but I can't get rid of the fear that something is wrong.

Natan

Everyone has a memory of the first time they did magic. They did something, everyone cheered, then they got to come here. To MT Academy. 

I’m the one who’s weird because I don’t know what they’re talking about. I’m an outcast because I don’t have a magic moment. Before I came to MT I was a normal kid. I had a mother and father who loved me, a little sister, and a pet dog, but that was before everything happened. Before my life took a turn for the worst. Before the day my life turned to hell. Everyone has some story about the first time they did magic. It's always the first question you are asked when you get here. What was your magic moment? I'm supposed to be writing about mine now. I'm in English class at MT Academy. The MT stands for Magic Talent, but they want that to be a secret or something. We can't let "others" know about us. I don't want to tell the whole world about MT Academy, but I also don't want to be so alone. No one understands how I feel. They get to go home to their families. I just want to see my mom and dad again. I want to know why they would let me be taken here. The older kids used to make fun of me. They say that I was sent away because I'm dangerous, that my parents don't want me, but I know that I was loved. I know that I never would have hurt my parents. I couldn’t have. I loved my parents more than anything else in the world. I just want answers to my questions. I want to know why I'm here. I have so many unanswered questions.  I don't even know how I got here. I just woke up one day in a strange bed in a strange room with strange voices all around me. I tried asking what had happened, but I never got any responses. In this place, people don't hear me. They see me. They tease me and make fun of me for not knowing about magic. Most of them are jealous of my power because apparently, I have more than I should. They don't hear what I'm trying to say. They don't understand what it feels like to be alone, even when you are surrounded by people. I've heard boarding school described as summer camp all year long, and I guess for them it is. For them, school is just one big party, but I wasn't invited.

I used to love going to school and seeing my friends. My dad was a teacher, so even when there wasn’t school, I would be at school. Now school is a prison that I can't escape. School is like a never-ending nightmare and I just can't seem to wake up no matter how hard I try. No matter how loud I scream no one hears me.

For the first month of school, I was completely alone. I ate lunch alone in the bathroom or library, or I did not eat at all. I've had people tell me that they thought I was mute or something because they never heard me talk. When I first arrived, I was terrified. I did not know anyone. I did not know what people were talking about. When I did talk, they would laugh, and I never knew why. I still used to try and talk to everyone, but at some point, I realized that they just did not care.

“NATHANIEL!!!!!!!” shouts my teacher. “Get out of la la land and do your work before I send you back to detention.” I hate the name Nathaniel. My given name is Natan, but my friends call me Nate. My teachers and everyone else insist on calling me Nathaniel because they say it’s the proper thing. I don’t know why they care so much. They don’t call any of the kids like me by their given name. The kids who already feel alone and left out. The kids who don’t know why they are here. The kids who didn’t know about magic. I think it’s just another way that they try to take our power away and make us feel inferior. By not using our names they make us feel like we are not good enough, and that we never will be because they must be superior if they have proper names. My father used to call me Nati, but I have not heard that in years. Five years to be exact because that is how long I’ve been here. Tomorrow I turn fifteen which makes me one of the older kids, but I still feel the same sense of longing for my home that I did on my first day here. I long for my family, friends, and everything else that I know I missed out on. I want to go home. Even just for one day. Just to see my family, to ask my questions, and finally to get some answers.

I am scared to go home though. I have changed so much in five years that I don't know if my family would still recognize me. I have been here for one-third of my life, and at least half of my memories are from here. I know that if I were to go home everything would be different then when I left, but I don't even know what would have changed. I know that my sister will be completely different. She was only two years old when I left, so now I don't know her, and she doesn't know me. I still hope that I can go home soon because five years is a lot, but it's not forever, and fifteen is old, but I'm not an adult yet. I've been here for so long, but my time in this awful place is almost over. I have three more years before graduation, and once I graduate, I'm never coming back. I know it might be ridiculous to hold on to the hope of going home. I have had people ask me if I still believe in Santa and the tooth fairy, but it's not so far out there. I know kids who went home. Hope is a powerful thing. Hope is my motivation to keep moving forward, and not just give up. Hope is the reason why I can't go to detention. If I want a chance at going home it means getting the authority to like me, to trust me, which means I need to pay attention in class, but it’s hard. All of the other kids have vast background knowledge of magic and how to use it. When I got here, I would have told you "there's no such thing as magic."