Chapter 8

Whoa! I’m magic!

Back home, he found that he kept pondering whether it was the right plant, and if so, could he do magic now? That was the big question. He had no idea, but he knew he had to find out. It was almost two weeks after getting home before he escaped his parent’s supervision. They had taken it in turns for one or the other to have a day off from work to make sure he wasn’t left alone in case of a relapse or whatever. Not that Jason felt sick or anything. By the second week home, he was doing push-ups and star jumps in his bedroom, trying to regain some of his fitness even though his folks banned him from going to the gym. Not that he had ever been a gym junky, but after the hospitalization, he had felt very weak.

Finally, they decided he would live without one of them being present twenty-four hours a day and resumed their normal work routine. Yes! Finally, he was free to see if he could do anything. Even better, his dad had left the truck at home, at least this week, being dropped off and picked up from his work site by mum! Okay! He deliberately waited two days before doing anything, studying Google maps and deciding on just where he would go. Once in the truck, he kept the map open on his phone and headed out.

It wasn’t that far until he reached the area that he had decided on as the place to try things out. Satisfied the place matched the map, Jason got out of the truck and looked around the immediate vicinity. The track off Willow Glen Drive wasn’t used to access the water tank at the top of the bluff anymore but still saw regular use by trail bikers. The spot he remembered was still accessible and apparently untouched. It offered a view back down to Willow Glen Drive and a fairly good view all around so he could tell if anyone was coming. It also offered some concealment amongst the stand of rather stunted trees on the otherwise rather barren hillside. Getting out here so early in the morning meant there were no trail bike riders out using the trails as yet, which would have attracted attention if only from the noise. Not that there it was likely that there would be many on a weekday, but there could be some, especially late in the day after school was out. The current peace and quiet suited him just fine, and he hoped he wouldn’t be interrupted. He’d find out, he guessed.

He grabbed his laptop and found a bit of rocky outcrop to perch it on in an area that he hoped would be covered by the shade of one of the scraggly trees. It was still early enough in the morning that the sun was still behind the mountains, but it would be up in an hour or so. Right. Let’s get this experiment underway, he thought to himself. Then he laughed at himself as he hadn’t really needed to come all the way out here to do his experiments, and he was going to feel pretty stupid if nothing happened! On the other hand, while he hadn’t been feeling sick for some days, he had been feeling very strange mentally ever since the episode on Santorini, and he hoped that meant this was going to work. It wasn’t like he thought he was going to pass out at any tick of the clock, but there were these shooting stars in his vision regularly and occasional dizzy spells, which he had been careful to hide from his folks.