Corollary

Aftermath + 1

I reached under my shirt for the amulet hanging off my waist-beads. The beads were one of the few things I had inherited from my mom, like being a skinny flat-chested chick. Talk about falling on the minor side of the genetic lottery, my aunty-mum and my nan put the deep in bosoms. Me, I got picture albums, waist-beads, a gangly body, skin which tanned at the merest hint of sunlight and hair that defied tidy plaits. Nan used to look at me and shake her head. It wasn’t the kind of look that made me want to ask why.

Clutching the amulet, I stood over the twisty space, hovered my other hand over it and whispered ‘reveal’. It was still easier than it ought to have been considering that I was still hesitant about this whole magical business. I hadn’t even practiced connecting the word with my conscious intent. If you had told me as a child that magic didn’t need any fancy words, I wouldn’t have believed you. Then again, I also didn’t know what an amulet was neither. It still felt strange even with the amulet doing most of the heavy work. How could magic be this easy? Armari said that it wasn’t. He said that it was that me and the boy were gifted.

The twisty space wobbled for a moment and then collapsed on itself. Then I was staring down at something which looked like someone had hurriedly wrapped a box in some mauve coloured fabric and then tied a bowknot round it. Seriously? A bow?

“You alright?”

The lads had all but tumbled down and out the bus after seeing me eye them. I don’t know who they thought I was but at least it meant that they had stop bullying the poor boy in front of me.

The boy looked up and all I saw was white gold glinting in the light. Even his eyelashes seemed to bling at me. Then he smiled and something moved deep inside of me.

My knees hit the ground.

A freaking bow.

Lucas!

It was the way it was tied. It had to be him except, that was impossible. 

The boy was dead.

Why the hell was this here?

I was already pulling apart the cloth before I realised what I was doing. I tossed the stupid bow though. Seriously, the whole thing had been a few minutes away from being ugly. So, whatever it was…it had to be something real. Those were the rules, weren’t it? Ugly box, real gift! It was the kind of old-school shtick that Lucas had loved. The boy had been a bit of an old man. The kind of real magician that would have been the perfect match for the garden, even Armari had thought so.

Armari… he should have said something… unless he hadn’t known. But how was that even possible? What the hell was I supposed to do now?

I could just get up and walk away without it. I mean who wants a gift from your dead ex.

I stared at the box till my eyes were begging me to do something, either pick or leave.

I came all the way here, was I just going to walk away without even seeing what this was all about?

If there was a wiser version of me lounging on my shoulder, she was staying bloody silent. Opening this meant stepping back into this world that had been fascinating till the rose-coloured specs had fallen off.  

I picked it up. The box came away with dirt and dying bits of the green, clinging to it. A cold breeze came out of nowhere, swirling round me. This had to be the garden’s way of telling me it was well past time I returned to the house. Well, ditto and yay me!