If you’d like to start reading from the beginning, check out A Grave Mistake: Part 1

Magic should not be held tight. If you want it to grow, if you want it multiply, you need to use it. Many don’t realize that magic has personality and is quite insecure. You need to nurture and coddle it, praise and encourage it. Then you’ll find it getting stronger. 

CHAPTER 4 – HAROLD WATSON
Day 2, 1 pm

Harold woke up after a sound sleep convinced that his trip to his grandson birthday party yesterday had been a dream. Even at 76 years of age, he was proud to say, he still had a vivid imagination.

He took his afternoon coffee into the living room and sat down in front of the window. Rather than doing his crossword puzzle, which was his normal afternoon routine, he found himself staring out the window at the hill in the distance. In the summers, when Brad was a kid, they used to hike to the top. They both loved cresting the hill and looking down over the valley at the rolling waves of pine trees. It was beautiful, but it actually wasn’t ranked high on the list of hiking trails in the area. There were better trails with more spectacular views, so their hill was often quiet. On a clear, sunny day like this, it made him wish he was there again, even in the chilly air.

Unfortunately, even if it had been summer, his old hips felt rusted and he knew he could never hike to the top in the shape his body was in now. But what if he didn’t need to?

Memories of yesterday flooded his brain and he couldn’t help but wonder, what if it hadn’t been a dream. What if he actually had been able to transport himself to his son’s house? He tried to remember how it happened and felt a bit silly for even entertaining the idea. But he was bored. And lonely.

Yesterday, it seemed he had imagined himself there in the details, so he stared at the mountain and tried to remember the sound of the wind through the trees. He thought of the occasional bird, the smell of fresh pine, dirt, and sweat from hiking. He could see a dusting of snow on the trees starting about halfway up the hill and imagined the sound of snow crunching under his feet.

The icy air tingled the skin on his cheeks and ears. He could feel the breeze cutting through the weave of his sweater and immediately wished he was wearing a coat.

That’s when he realized he was no longer in his living room. He looked around and found himself past the treeline at the top of the hill looking out over the city on one side and a blanket of pine trees dusted with snow dipping into hills and valleys on the other.

“Ha-haha!” he whooped. He’d done it! He’d actually teleported. That meant Cole had actually seen him. But this time, he was solid. He was actually here. Last time, everything had been transparent and he’d been able to immediately pull back into his house, but this time he was all here.

He rubbed his hands along his arms trying to warm them up. He’d just decided to go back to get his jacket when he saw something bright orange hovering over the tops of trees.

He squinted to get a better look, but couldn’t quite make out what it was. Then it dipped below the treeline and disappeared. A few seconds later it rose above the trees, a bit closer this time and bobbed above them. It kept doing this. It would leap out of the trees into the sky, twist in the wind for a bit, then dive back down out of sight. Each time it happened, it came a bit closer to Harold.

“Wait for me! You’re going too fast!” a voice called out.

The orange thing turned, then hovered still too far for Harold to see. Cursing is aging eyes, Harold squinted, trying to figure out what it was. It wasn’t a kite. It was too bulky. And it didn’t move like a balloon.

He stood there for awhile, held by curiosity when he remembered he had the ability to get a closer look. Harold imagined himself in the trees where the object had just disappeared. It went quicker this time now that he was getting the hang of it. His imagination burred with reality and he found the trees coming closer and closer into focus until he was standing under a particularly tall pine tree. He looked down and saw that his body was transparent, but was quickly becoming more solid.

“Whoa! How’d you do that mister?” a boy in an orange jacket said as he dropped down from the sky and hovered in front of him. Then another boy ran up from behind the floating boy.

“You have a super power too? Cool! Maybe I’ll get one then! I want to turn invisible.” He grinned at Harold. Meanwhile the boy in the orange jacket continued to hover in the air.

“Mister, why are you out here in your slippers?” he asked.

Harold just stared back in shock.

Chapter 5 coming soon 🙂