Magia

Magia

He was like a prince.

Not the refined, fairy-tale kind, but the sort who carried a charm all on his own. I'd read countless stories about people like him. Free, unfettered and unusually happy to be—well, anywhere.

Playing with his friend group, the Little Dreamers, gardening or going shopping with his family. Whatever it was, he was always smiling for some reason. It was the same even back then when I first met him.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

At the time I didn't know how to respond—so I didn't. At first I thought maybe it was those people coming back to make fun of me and Grandpa, but they never knocked. No, they just busted right in instead.

I didn't know who it was but I did prefer people to knock when they came in, it made me less anxious. Still, my legs didn't move.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

A second knock. I couldn't ignore it again, and with my Grandpa politely asking me to get the door, I ventured forwards.

Fwish!

I whooshed the door open. At least that's what I'd planned to do but instead the door crept open very slowly.

"Uhm... H-hi. W-w-welc-come t-t-to C-clevio's Book-k-store."

Ah, I'm stuttering again. Why can't I just talk like everyone else? Why can't I be normal like them?

I flushed red with embarrassment and slammed the door shut. Ahh I'm such a mess. I was supposed to open the door for them not shut it in their faces. What am I going to do if they leave? What should I tell Grandpa?

I stood behind the door clueless about what to do next. Then the door creaked open.

"Eeek!"

I ran towards a faraway aisle, but close enough to where I could see the visitors. Then, periodically, I peeked my head out to steal a few looks at them. Earlier, I was too nervous to really get a good look at them but now...

A group of three, maybe a father, mother and a son from their similar facial features. The dad looked... scary. The mother seemed quite nice and gentle, with a lovely smile. I guess the boy must've got his smile from his mother.

They at least seem like good people, after all, they didn't laugh when I stuttered—I think.

But what’s up with that boy? What's he doing?

The boy ran through the aisles of the bookstore, smiling as though every step were an adventure. Why is he so happy? I feel like I’ve seen someone act just like that… wait.

I realised quickly who I’d seen act like that, so carefree and unrestricted. It was my older sister—that was who he reminded me of. Just who is that boy? From that smile he must also love books right? Reno—Is that his name?

‘Ain't cha a bit dumb to be reading books if ya' can't follow simple instructions?’

Huh, what did Grandpa just say? These people aren’t the same ones that come around to bully us, Grandpa must be misunderstanding something. W-what should I do?

Suddenly, my body moved on its own and I was in front of the mother of the boy. I have to protect Grandpa and explain that it must be a misunderstanding. Grandpa isn’t good with words, he can’t express himself very well. So I have to… I have to speak up for him, I thought.

I tried to and—I think I got through to them. I found tears running down my face as I tried to explain but it wasn’t because of them. No—it was the memories of all the times I’d been bullied and harassed, all the times Grandpa had been ostracised because he was different.

I was crying, but they weren’t to blame.

Even still I found myself in the lady’s embrace. And I cried—a lot. She comforted me and that day I realised that maybe not everyone in Butter Town hates us, maybe there’s people that are less close-minded. People who are willing to accept us for who we are.

I decided to show them around. The boy seemed especially happy to have a guide, always smiling. Yes, Reno was just that happy type of person, the type I admired and wanted to be like one day.

When I was reaching for their book he helped me reach it and I stumbled backwards, embarrassed. It wasn’t my finest moment but for some reason, deep down I didn’t mind it. I was red, and my head was spinning but I wasn’t anxious or upset.

When he saved me from falling, I felt safe and comfortable. The only time I remember feeling that way was when my older sister took care of me in the past. I missed her.

I showed them to the counter and they said their goodbyes, and my Grandpa apologised. Actually I knew he would—he just wasn’t good with words but his heart was usually in the right place. Suddenly, it was time for them to leave and my heart ached slightly as I showed them the door.

‘Please come and visit again soon!’ I said flushed red as they left. I hope he heard me. Although I said that, I didn’t expect the next time I’d see him to be so soon, just a few hours later. He seemed a bit anxious about something but I wasn’t sure what and I didn’t want to pry.

He caught me moving the books and so offered to help me, which I sort of expected. I refused at first but then ultimately conceded. After all, I didn’t really want to move those heavy books, but I’d gotten used to it. I was doing it because I wanted to help Grandpa out, that’s what Mum and Dad told me to do after all.

And so I guided him on where to move the books but he could only move a few before getting tired. It was quite strange now that I think about it, he must’ve been very exhausted when he came in. Even still, he was always keeping that smile up on his face.

Why would he offer to help me if he was already exhausted from playing outside? Well—who knows what boys are thinking.

After we were done moving the books he stayed and we chatted for a while about different things. I told him about my favourite book that I was reading at the time about a female master craftsman. Actually, being an inventor or a craftsman was something I’d aspired to be for a while. I made a few gadgets and gizmos but was too scared to show anyone them in case they made fun of me.

Even Reno, I wasn’t quite ready to tell him about it yet either, only my Grandpa had seen a few. He encouraged me and told me to keep making them and I appreciated that, he was a very accomplished scholar and I could tell he was being genuine.

But then I knew my Grandpa would encourage me regardless of if it was good or not. He was just that type of person.

Then the door to the shop burst open and a few unfamiliar faces came in. Not a good sign. My heart clenched, was it her doing again? Then I saw Rosette, the only familiar face out of everyone who had suddenly waltzed in.

For some reason she started to accuse Reno of all people, how ridiculous! Reno would never do something like steal, he wasn’t that type of person!

He was kind, nice, respectful and overwhelmingly gentle to a fault. I couldn’t believe it—and so—I got angry. I don’t know what came over me. I couldn’t stay there after I’d shouted like that so I stormed off and soon I could hear my Grandpa’s voice booming for them to leave the store.

Ahh, it was all my fault again. Why couldn’t I ever explain myself normally?

The rest of the day I sat reading my craftsman book to take my mind of things. Should I apologise? I didn’t really know the context of the situation, what if Reno was guilty? What if he did it by accident? What if it was really me who was misunderstanding everything?

I tossed and turned but eventually decided it was best to try and forget about it and read all my problems away. Then, the next morning I got a knock on the door. It was my classmate Rosette and she’d came to apologise. I did so too and she explained the whole situation to me calmly.

I realised I had jumped to conclusions, Reno had done it but because he was influenced by his friends. But also it wasn’t just Reno, in fact he’d done the least amount of damage. I apologised again, realising I’d misunderstood.

Then she told me about the competition they were going to have with Reno’s group. Apparently they call themselves the ‘Little Dreamers’. It was a cute name. Then she asked me to help her decide on which games to play and so for the whole morning we worked on it together.

I didn’t hate Rosette, we’d been classmates for a few months now, rather it was some of the others in our class. The ones who were occasionally around Rosette that were… troublesome.

She told me that the competition would be around noon, but I hesitated about showing up. What if no one liked me because I shouted earlier? What would I do?

I ended up going in the end but about an hour after she told me it was starting. I thought I’d have missed everything by then but I went anyways and—luckily—Reno was late too. But at the event I saw the one person I never wanted to see.

The devil herself.

After the first two games everyone had played except me for the last rock paper scissors game. It would be me and against Reno to decide everything. I felt nervous or at least quite anxious but I steeled myself. You can do this Magia, believe in yourself.

Paper? Of course, I should’ve known he’d pick paper because he loves books so much. In the last instance I switched to rock. He was probably thinking that I’d stick with paper. It was my win, sorry Reno.

Soon, it was time to leave and Rosette beckoned me over. But I couldn’t go with her. Not when that demon was still with her.

I decided to stay with Reno and his group the Little Dreamers but the chubby boy, Bill, said I didn’t belong. It made me sad but then their leader, Jamie, spoke up for me and then Reno comforted me and all of a sudden I knew that I’d made the right choice.

He suggested we go sightseeing and look for different plans and animals. The other members all complained almost immediately and slouched except maybe Finn, but to me, it sounded fun.

As someone who wasn’t very sporty or active, I couldn’t participate in those games the same way everyone else did. But this? This was something even I could do.

It was the most fun I’d ever had playing outside. I’d patrolled with the pre-scouts every now and then but they weren’t my friends. Excluding Rosette, they were just people in the same class as me, I didn’t feel close with them one single bit.

No, it was Reno and the Little Dreamers who were the first people I could consider my friends.

Slowly, I could feel myself being accepted by them and even the mysterious Finn was nice to me, showing me some of the cool flowers he’d found. Reno also taught me a lot and I realised he must’ve read a lot of books—maybe even more than me.

He knew so much that there was no way he hadn’t read a bunch of academic books. But where had he gotten all that knowledge? Did he have a library at home?

In the end we decided to call the collection of all the notes we’d made ‘The Plant Diaries’. The name was very fitting, given that’s all we did for the next year and a half or so.

After a week or so Reno invited me to join the Little Dreamers. At this point I’d been going out with them and exploring different places in Butter Town together so really I was already a member. Needless to say, I accepted.

Every day we’d meet up and explore the town looking for various unique plants and animals. By the end of the year we’d finished about three or four of these ‘Plant Diaries’ notebooks but I was pretty sure we’d probably made some repeat records.

For some reason Reno would always take a selection of the plants home and would have a huge smile on his face whenever we saw anything remotely unique or different. I couldn’t help but wonder if he had some strange addiction to plants. Was he a plant in his past life or something?

Still—it was a fun pastime, and much less destructive than the chaos tag they used to play. Of course there was a week where we couldn’t go looking for any new plants or insects or anything because they had to do their community service.

I decided to help them out with it and we made a few good friends with the merchants and stall owners. Reno was especially close with a female plant stall lady, he’d always go and help her setup her stall early in the morning. And so, our routine was to go and meet with her in the mornings.

He’d also buy plenty of gardening resources and things from her. I questioned why he kept buying so much stuff and then he told me he was gardening outside his house in the hills bordering Butter Town. He must really love plants to be gardening and looking for them all the time, I thought.

When we first met the stall lady said something strange like ‘So you did bring her to meet me.’ And Reno flushed red. It wasn’t sure what they were talking about but Reno didn’t seem like he wanted to dwell on it so I let it be. It was amusing and quite rare to see Reno so flustered. It was a side to him I wanted to see more often, actually.

Within the year and a half I’d also been practicing my crafting and had gotten to the stage where I could reliably make toys. They weren’t useful or practical but at least they moved, I would reassure myself. There’d been times when Reno knocked on my door to play out and I had to quickly hide my crafts so he didn’t notice.

I don’t know why I’m still so shy about it, we’re so close now that I know he’d be impressed and wouldn’t look down on me…

Recently, when I was out for a quick errand for my Grandpa I ran into Silvia. She told me that Reno’s seventh birthday was coming up so he was going to be joining pre-scouts soon. Actually me and Reno are the same age, it’s Rosette and her group who were older than us by about two years.

Usually, you don’t start pre-scouts until you’re seven, however because my Grandpa couldn’t always take care of me the school allowed him to send me there for care taking. I was exempt from a lot of the responsibilities and tasks given to them because of how young I was.

Silvia continued to mention she was doing a surprise birthday party for Reno and if I could let the other Little Dreamers like Jamie and Bill know. I nodded, realising I’d been tasked with something very important.

This was a chance to repay Reno for all the good deeds and nice things he’d done for me over the years, so I had to make sure I did my job, and that I did it well. I made sure to tell Bill and the others but it was still about two weeks away.

Reno’s seventh birthday was the week after his first week of joining pre-scouts. I kept that date in mind while deciding to make something for him. I wasn’t quite sure what would be best to make for him however he seems to like plant related things.

Would a toy be enough? I think Reno was the type to accept all the gifts he received with a smile but still, I wanted it to be something special for him, something he could look at and remember me by. That was the type of present that Reno deserved.

I thought and thought, but I couldn’t decide—all I knew was that it’d have to be something plant, animal or gardening related. And of course, it had to be something I crafted too. Soon enough I decided to just start.

If you couldn’t figure out what to make, sometimes it was best to just get going and see where it took you. That was a quote from my favourite book, the Apprentice to Master Craftsman by Lilith. If I remember correctly it was based on true story and the author of the book was the master craftsman in the story.

I really want to meet this Lilith person one day….

That thought reminded me how grateful I was for the people I’d met in my life. The Little Dreamers, Rosette, Silvia, the stall lady. But most of all, I was grateful for the day I met him.

“Everyone, today we have a new member joining our pre-scouts class today. Introduce yourself,” the pre-scouts teacher announced.

Yes… he was like a prince to me.

The new boy let loose a big, toothy grin. "Hey, I'm Reno. Nice to meet you all!"

And that angelic prince had just wandered into my hell.