Wizard of Jatte by Rowan Erlking (librera reader txt) 📕

One boy sighed and leaned on another’s arm. “There is a dance tonight.”

“Get off!”

That one stood upright, but he still sighed gazing at the girls. Many of the other young men started to chorus him with sighs. Theissen sighed also, but for different reasons.

A dance. That meant he had to humor Milrina all night long. Somehow he had not yet convinced her that he was not sure about being engaged to her. She had budded a year later than Doreen, but when she did, she jumped straight into womanly moodiness and all the emotions that came with it. She sobbed easier, shouted quicker, and flirted a lot more. His childhood friend had become irrational. And if he hadn’t caught all the glares from his aunt and his mother, Theissen would have skipped out on all these social dances and mixers altogether and remained in the carpenter’s shop every opportunity he got.

“So, are we going to play, or what?” Theissen asked, tossing the purple ball into the air, making it change colors through the rainbow every time he touched it just to get their attention.

All of them looked up, but only half of them turned to play. Lonse was one of the first to head off.

“Nah. I have to go back and help out at the shop. My adulthood ceremony is next week and I won’t have an excuse to hang back anymore.”

Another nodded. “I have to go.”

“What about you, Theissen? Your father relies on you a lot these days,” one of them said with a little surprise.

Theissen caught the ball, changing it back to its original color. “Well, our main project is done. We have to wait for the stain to dry before we varnish it.”

The boy stared at him.

“You’re just avoiding going home. Why?”

They surrounded him. Lonse included.

Pulling back, Theissen frowned. “No reason. I told you, I’m practically done.”

Someone slapped him on the back and laughed. “He just doesn’t want to go home with Milrina hanging around.”

“Does she kiss you a lot?”

“Shut up about that!” Theissen tried to pull away but they wrapped their arms around him, rubbing his head.

“Has she showed you any—?”

“Stop it!” A gust of wind blew around him, swirling up grass, insects and dirt, flinging out debris all around him.

All the boys let go, staring upward at him. Theissen’s hair stood up on end, windblown and tangled, though his face was red and fuming. He dropped the ball and stepped out of their circle.

“She’s just a friend!”

They watched him climb over the fence, leaving the field in a temper.

“Wow.”

“He’s mad.”

Lonse got to his feet. “He always gets that way about her.”

The others rose to their own feet, dusting themselves off.

“But are they really just friends?”

One boy shrugged his shoulders. “They’re cousins. Who knows?”

Someone picked up the ball.

“See you at the dance?”

“Yeah. See you then.”

They dispersed out of the field also.

But Theissen wasn’t hiding from Milrina. He also wasn’t ducking out of work. It was also no lie that they were waiting for the stain to dry so they could varnish it. But the reason he avoided going home that day was something else entirely.

And there at the gate he saw it; the magician talking with his father.

Theissen cringed, slowing his steps.

“Son?”

Slowing his trudging pace even more, Theissen continued to the gate. “Yes?”

He didn’t even look at the magician, though he could feel the man’s anger enough.

“This man says you have been tampering in his yard again.”

Lifting his eyes, Theissen tried to look innocent. “He did?”

“Son,” there was warning in his father’s voice. “Did you go into his yard?”

He couldn’t lie. Theissen lowered his eyes again. “I did.”

“Ha!” The magician’s laugh was like a punctuation mark, poking hard a declaration of triumph. “See? I told you!”

“And what did you do, son?” the carpenter asked him.

Averting his eyes, Theissen mumbled.

“What was that?”

Exhaling, Theissen said, “I turned his flowers blue.”

The carpenter went silent.

“Ha!” the magician said again, folding his arms across his chest then looking about for witnesses. So far all there were around were a few chickens and a dog. “You see! I told you!”

“That’s all?” The incredulity in the carpenter’s voice raised Theissen’s hopes that he might not be punished this time.

“Well, I had originally turned them red,” Theissen said.

To that, the magician did not have a ‘ha’ for him.

“I was only turning them back again.”

What he heard was not exactly a ‘ha’, and it wasn’t from the magician. His father sounded like he was choking. Theissen looked up.

The carpenter had slapped his hand to his mouth covering an already bright red face and a laugh too much to contain. Tears were even dribbling out of the corner of his eyes, watering from hilarity. Meeting Theissen’s gaze, his father’s laughs broke freely.

“Oh! Oh! That is…. You are joking, right?”

“This is serious!” the magician shouted.

This time a head poked out of a nearby house to see what the commotion was. Theissen looked the other way.

Wiping his eyes, the carpenter had a harder time wiping off his smile. “Goodness! And here I thought you were here over something important. The boy was merely teasing—”

“Teasing?” The magician’s voice raised in pitch. “Those are my flowers!”

But it was too late for him to be taken seriously now. Theissen had straightened up and was grinning to his father, looking relieved. He shrugged and added, “Should I turn them back to red? You planted blue originally, and I thought it looked tacky.”

“I planted those five years ago!” the magician shouted back at him. He had raised his fist, but most of his thunder was gone as the carpenter burst into laughter again and the dog started to howl also.

Theissen tilted his head, giving a shrug. “Sorry, but that was when I first changed them. I only turned them back when Mom said—”

“Enough!” the magician stomped his foot.

Both the carpenter and his son jerked their eyes on the magician with a jerk.

“I will not be made a mockery of!” Pointing one long bony finger at Theissen as he clenched his teeth into a growl, the magician said, “If I find you anywhere near my house again, I will have your head. Mark my words!”

Theissen pulled back, staring at the man’s hand where he thought he saw a ripple of knotted flow. He looked up at the man’s face. The magician yanked the sleeve of his coat over his wrists again and stomped down the road, the edges of his fancy cloak kicking up clouds of dust. Theissen felt a heavy hand rest on his shoulder.

“Son, I think you had better take his advice on this one,” said the carpenter. “He is not a forgiving man, and he has had his eyes on you since you were born.”

Turning towards his father, Theissen let his shoulders fall. “You don’t think I know that?”

His father gave him a small look of regard that had a flicker of wonder in it.

“Look, I know that man has wanted me dead since I was born. Alania told me. And so did Dalance and Kinnerlin.” Theissen walked from the gate into the yard. “I’ve been told a thousand times by Mom not to bother the man or even walk by his house, especially since the golden ball incident. It’s just—”

He looked on in the space ahead of him, then shook his head and turned around.

“He makes a lot of noise.”

The carpenter blinked, waiting for an explanation.

Raising his hands, Theissen nodded. “I know. I know. No one can hear it but me, but his magic is like a booming noise. Sometimes it is like the sound of a rushing wave. There are times I can’t just walk through the village because his home makes all these noises.

“It is like someone having a game in the same school yard and not inviting you to play. It looks fun. It sounds exciting. And yet when you get close to see what it is all about, everyone stops, huddles around and stares at you to make you go away.” Theissen frowned, digging his toe into the earth. “And when you take the hint, they start up again, laughing even harder like things are so much better with you gone.”

“Son—” the carpenter lowered his eyes to his boy’s face again. “Has that happened to you? I mean, the children. Have they ever done that to you?”

Theissen met his gaze, showing pain for the first time in a long while. However, he smiled. “Not since I was eight. Then Milrina came to town. Besides, I was just giving an example,” he said. Theissen gestured towards where the magician lived. “In town I can’t just walk by his place. There are times I wish I could look into his shop. Sometimes I just crave the chance to see into his home. You know, I really did want to look at that golden ball.”

His father sighed then gestured for him to come closer, reaching out an arm. Theissen let him wrap it around his shoulders. “My boy, I can’t say I blame you. However, next time, you really ought to curb those desires. It could do you more harm than good.”

Theissen nodded. “I know. I was just saying it aloud. That’s all.”

The carpenter smiled and patted him on the head, walking towards the house. “Maybe you should have mentioned you wanted to learn more about magic when you were budding. I could have sent off for something or someone to teach you.”

His son stopped and stared at him. “You really mean that?”

Nodding, the carpenter stopped also. “Of course I do. If you really want to study magic, I would find a way for you to do it.”

But Theissen glanced back into the village where the magician lived. “But he wouldn’t stand for it.”

“He, meaning that spiteful magician, is not your father. I am. He has no say in the matter.”

Looking into his father’s face, Theissen knew he meant it. He knew his father would try and defend him from the magician, and perhaps had already on a number of occasions. Admiration for him grew within the young carpenter’s son’s chest, and Theissen smiled broad.

Tilting his head, he trotted towards the house at a quicker pace. “All the same, Dad, I think I’ll wait on serious magic study until after I leave Lumen Village. That way that magician won’t pick on you if I bungle things up in my lessons.”

The carpenter broke out into a laugh again. The both of them continued until they were deep into the house.

Theissen did go to the dance, and actually took to it in a good mood. The ladies gathered on one wall as usual, and the boys along another. Milrina was there of course, and he had to dance with her as usual, but he smiled as he swung her around the room, even snickering to himself at the turn out of that afternoon.

“Why do you keep giggling like that?” Milrina asked him, inclined to punch in him the shoulder to make him stop.

“Giggling? I’m not giggling.” Theissen chuckled once more though, still thinking about how funny it was to see the magician’s irate face, unable to stand up to his father.

“You are doing it just now.” Milrina did punch his shoulder this time.

He let go of her arm to rub his shoulder. “Look, you. I am allowed to laugh once in a while, but don’t you dare call it giggling. Girls giggle. Men don’t.”

She punched his shoulder again. “Don’t contradict me. You are giggling.”

“Ow! Milrina, if you keep punching me, I’m not going to dance with you.”

She frowned, but pulled closer as if she didn’t want to lose him. “People stare when you giggle like that. They think you are to no good.”

Theissen looked around himself. There were those that stared, but he wondered if it had more to do with the fact that he was with Milrina rather than that he was laughing to himself. “Some people always think I am up to no good. But honestly, there has been nothing to substantiate it.”

She looked up at him. “Nothing? What