Magic

"Magic"

by
Eric M. Meiring

3/16/98
















It was just one of those gloomy, plain, so-so days when it appeared to him. Not one of those bright, cheerful days that you read about in fairy tales; just a boring, overcast day in early February.

Charlie had originally planned on meeting up with his college buddies to play some football that afternoon, but a few had canceled on him for one lame reason or another, so they didn't have enough to play a decent game.

He was incredibly bored that day, sitting in his room and avoiding his older brother's annoying presence. He was staring out the window, watching the dark clouds loom overhead when it happened.

It just seemed to pop into existence on the desk next to him as he leaned back in his chair, rocking back and forth on its two back legs. With a small poof as it appeared, and a "howdy there, partner!" the thing was staring up at him with a stupid grin on its face.

Looking down at it in surprise, Charlie instantly lost it and fell backwards, unsuccessfully flailing about for balance. He impacted the ground soon after his chair, and quickly sprang up and stared at the new visitor.

"Whoa! What the heck are you???" he asked graciously.

"Why, howdy there neighbor! Well now, let's just say that it's a lucky day for y'all here!" replied the being in an unconvincing south Texas accent.

"Man, I musta had way too many beers last night," Charlie mumbled to himself, rubbing his eyes in utter disbelief. Again, he repeated "what the heck ARE you??" to the creature.

He then added "and what's with that goofy accent you have, anyhow?"

Sure, you don't normally question a hallucination's dialect, but hey - it was his mind going wacko anyhow, so it couldn't hurt to ask about the cheesy accent.

The visitor blinked a few times, taken aback by the question. It swiftly recovered and replied, however, with an inquiry of its own.

"Huh? Wait…..what state is this here? Ain't this Texas?"

"Nope, you're in good old Ohio now." What state?? he thought….what kind of a question was that?

"Oop…sorry! They must have misinformed me. Never mind the accent, then….I'll just drop it. Just part of the act. Didn't realize I wouldn't need one, since I'm in Ohio."

"No kidding," remarked the kid. "Ya know, that's what I keep telling my friend from California….we don't have an accent here, they all do out there!!!"

"Uh-huh," added the creature insightfully.

"Wait! Back to my question!" Charlie demanded, still shaking the fuzziness of pure boredom from before out of his head, trying to make sense of all this. The thing had just appeared there as if out of thin air! Like some David Copperfield magic trick or something. But this wasn't some tiger or scantily clad assistant…..this was a two foot tall humanoid shaped figure!! It was kind of ugly, with green scaly skin and sharp, pointy teeth. The thing was wearing a sort of hooded robe, with various pouches dangling from a belt. God…he thought to himself. A lizard-man from Texas. I've gotta lay off the booze. He then quickly snapped back from his thoughts.

"So just what are you? And how did you get here like that?"

"Well," replied the lizard-thing, "it's a long story. But I suppose I should fill you in."

"You see, I am of a race called The Kulath…just as you are a human, I am a kulath. We reside in another sort of reality compared to yours. I won't bore you with the details, but let's just say we live on another plane of existence, and visit your world every now and then for various reasons of research, studies, and whatnot. Our race has passed down from generation to generation various….ah…skills, which you humans refer to as magic in your stories."

Noting that the lizard-man was not going away, and taking into account the fact that he was dead sober, Charlie slowly started to realize the significance of this event. Heck, he even started to believe that this was actually happening!

The kulath continued:

"And so, we use this magic in our everyday lives, for the most part. Cooking, cleaning….whatever. You name it, magic makes it easier. Like laundry, for instance! No more sitting around waiting for it to be done……poof! Done in no time! Saves on detergent bills, too! And no shopping hassles! No fuss! No muss!! Dishes done in time for the big ball game!!!

But I digress.

Anyhow, we are all fairly proficient in that aspect, and now and again we need to visit your world."

Just as Charlie opened his mouth to ask, the kulath answered his unspoken question.

"As for me, I am called Gulag, and was sent here by our ruler, pronounced Ptlath the Strong in your tongue. A very lofty, noble name, I might add. He has directed me to research your race for a bit, as a part of a science-organized thing suggested by the intellectuals among us."

"Research?" Charlie blurted. "You don't mean that you're going to start prodding me and taking me apart, like those alien abduction things in the X-Files, are you?"

"No, no, no," reassured Gulag. "Just some harmless research….you won't be hurt in any way at all!!" He then mumbled "besides, those aliens are all idiots anyway…like a bunch of high school humans dissecting everything in sight."

"What's that you said?"

"Never mind. What I mean is, I'm merely here to present you with a gift from our people."

"A gift?? Like what?" wondered Charlie out loud. This was getting way to weird for him. This….thing…was actually beginning to seem real to him! What appeared at first to be a figment of his imagination was turning out to be more and more real to him! Weird, but still real. That alone seemed to shock the him the most. The mystery of the gift was eclipsed by the wonder he had for this strange new being.

The kulath responded.
"Well, you see, since our people have possessed these special "magic" powers for as long as our race has existed, we are all used to it. From birth, we come into the world with some inkling of this power (harmlessly little, thank the gods), and grow with and develop it as we mature. However, occasionally for a few of us it doesn't quite happen this way."

Thoroughly intrigued, Charlie asked, "so what happens?"

"Well, in some rare instances, a kulath gets his abilities all at once later on in life. The problem is, the power doesn't grow with them…..it just happens to them at one instant, with near or all the full-power brought upon them in an instant! The kulath, ignorant in the ways of magic, usually ends up causing far too much damage for the likes of Ptlath the Strong with his newfound power and no knowledge of control."

"Ahh…I'm starting to see your point."

"Yes," continued Gulag, "it is very dangerous. Both for the kulath, and for his neighbors. Just think: Ignorant kulath with new powers goes to do his laundry for once after being hounded by the wife. So he thinks, 'boy, I could just use the magic and watch the ball game!', and the next thing you know…poof!…suds everywhere!! The family pet has suddenly disappeared in a wicked detergent cloud, and now all he can watch on TV is suds! Just like a bad Brady Bunch episode. Ick! Imagine the horror!"

Charlie shuddered…..Brady Bunch! Yeesh! That's enough to scare anyone!

"Ok then, so what's your idea?"

"Well, what we plan to do is to test this on you. I will give you, through a special device presented from Ptlath, the power of magic all at once! Under careful supervision, of course. And we will monitor your activity and maybe see how we can learn from you and benefit our race."

Apprehension grew in Charlie.
"Wait a minute….you're going to test stuff on me for your race's benefit? That's not at all humane!"

"Well," retorted the kulath, "we're not human. So humane is out the window, pal. But hey - you will be under careful supervision, unlike most kulath who get this and don't tell anybody. We know you have it, so you'll be just dandy."

"Hmm….I'm not sure if this is safe…."

"Wait! Did I mention? With this, you can generate free beer! (Well, some anyway…) And you can do all sorts of cool things to get women!"

Charlie debated this for a very long time, and offered his remarks. "Sold!!!" he yelled a good half-second later. After all, beer and women?? How could he pass this up??

So much for the boring day! Now here was something fun to do!


***********


A while later, the green visitor left after presenting Charlie with his powers. Not much ceremony was held, as the human had expected for such an event, but he received the powers nevertheless. Or so he thought….it appeared that the powers hadn't quite come yet. The kulath seemed undaunted when he mentioned this to him right as he was about to leave, and simply replied with,

"Oh! Well, it may take an hour or two for you to get it…..kulath-human time delay, you know. I'd explain the physics, but your head would just explode from the sheer complications of the matter."

He then left in another poof! Just like that, he was gone. So Charlie just shrugged to himself, and figured he'd just wait it out…there was no other option. Maybe this would prove whether or not it was a hallucination….once he got the magic, it had to be real!

Shaking dreadful thoughts of bad Brady Bunch episodes out of his mind, Charlie went back to staring out the window and wondered what to do next.


***********



With a great poofa! (the poofa's were much bigger than the standard poof, as Gulag had a knack for doing things with flair), the green lizard-man popped back onto his front doorstep.

Well, at least that's over with, he thought to himself. Almost blew that one! Stupid magic invoker gadget! That'll teach me to buy something on sale. Hope it works like it's supposed to.

After debating whether or not to go to the local magic peddler again and get another one, Gulag just figured he'd wait it out. It should work no problem. Probably just an older model anyhow. It'll work just fine.

Another thought occurred to him. Hmm…wonder if the boy will be ok? Should be. A little magic never hurt anyone. Besides, what could a human boy possibly do that would go wrong?

And with that, Gulag entered his humble abode, and proceeded to eat his much-deserved dinner.

----------------------------

It did take another few hours of boredom until the magic set in. Until then, Charlie merely sat around concentrating on various things in the room, attempting to make them levitate to no avail. His efforts included an attempt to make his stereo remote fly with significant force at his intruding brother at one point, but to no avail.

And then all of a sudden, just when he began to lose faith, it hit him like a ton of bricks.

That fuzzy part of his brain - the part that normally is most prominent in the early morning and after long nights carousing around town with the aide of a few brews - suddenly became crystal clear to him. It was as if suddenly a bolt of lightening struck him dead in the center of his head, and everything became obvious to him.

Charlie suddenly understood how things worked, lived, existed. He knew how gravity interacted with objects, and understood the flexibility of their relationship. He comprehended the makeup of subatomic particles, and how each and every one could be molded and shaped into another. He attained the knowledge about the very fabric of existence of inanimate objects, and could manipulate them at his will!

Unfortunately, he could not turn his brother into a toad.

But nevertheless, he knew magic! And that made all the difference in the world. The newness of the feeling propagated through his body like a shock wave, and he shuddered as the power filled him.

With renewed energy, Charlie began to make things happen that he only read about in fairy tales and dreamed of as a kid. He made his alarm clock float in the air! He made books fly off the shelves and land on his bed! He caused his lights to turn off and on effortlessly without touching a switch! He made the door open and close again with his mind!!

He tried to finish his algebra homework, but it just didn't work that way.

Hmm…gotta work on that one later he thought.

It was amazing! And most importantly of all, he believed. He finally actually believed to be real what he previously thought to be a figment of his imagination; the kulath. And now he understood the he had indeed been given a gift. Magic was something very, very special. But soon he also began to understand some of the danger involved with just inheriting it in one moment, as opposed to learning it. He lost control.

A light bulb accidentally exploded, and his alarm clock crashed violently back onto his dresser as his mind wandered to the kulath. One of his books glanced off his head as it was flying about, sending him tumbling off his chair once more for the day with an ungraceful crash! The door slammed shut, causing his only sibling in the next room to yell in protest, amidst all the ruckus he was causing with his magic mishaps.

Man, how he wished he could turn him into a toad.

But Charlie suddenly realized that these powers were incredible, and he would have to refine them somehow before he became too carried away with them and caused too much trouble.

He also wondered when he would see that green lizard-thing again. Close supervision my butt! he mused to himself. That Gulag was nowhere in sight, and had nothing to offer in the way of advice! Just as well, though…I'll just figure things out on my own. Beats getting caught talking to a little green man…I'd never be able to explain that one to Mom.

And so Charlie spent a good portion of the rest of the day trying to figure out what he could do next with his gift, and even attempted a bit of control. He still wasn't very good at it, but he just figured he'd pick it up along the way anyhow. More important things had to be done, including testing the limits of his abilities, and thinking of ways to use them to his advantage.

But most importantly, Charlie began to think of ways to bring beer into existence.


***********


Watching the pool of magic water, Gulag shook his head.

"Ugh…looks like I'll have to keep an eye on that kid after all," he said to no one in particular.

After watching the human's brief, although near-disastrous, first encounter with magic, the kulath had second thoughts about leaving the kid alone so he could watch the hockey game in peace. Sure, he told Charlie that he would be supervised, but Gulag just meant that he'd watch him occasionally, keeping him out of too much trouble.

The kulath never suspected that this human would cause him heartache so soon! He thought that humans were supposed to be a sophisticated lot…after all, they had developed all kinds of technology and gadgets and whatnot. Who would think that they'd be anything but cautious, rational, and reasonable?

Well, Gulag still figured that the boy would be ok on his own. Just in case, though, the kulath planned on keeping a bit of a closer eye on him than planned. He still suspected that the human would behave much better than a kulath-child, but you never knew.

Too bad, though…he would miss the second game of the finals on the TV.

Ah well…he sighed…maybe I'll catch game three in a few days.


----------------------------------------------


After several failed attempts at creating the nectar of the gods out of thin air, Charlie decided to give up. He had tried his best to make a keg of beer just appear, but to no avail. All he had to show for it was several odd shaped containers of some chunky greenish-brown liquid he didn't dare to try himself, and a pint of non-alcoholic brew. Non-alcoholic? What was the point of that??

Anyway, at least he did get something to appear, even if it was undrinkable.

Sighing, Charlie poured the mystery-liquid down the drain in the bathroom, hoping it wouldn't clog the pipes too badly. The color reminded him of that salmon-loaf his mother sometimes made for dinner.

Despite the failure in the beer genre, Charlie did still have quite a bit to be happy about. He figured out how to turn the lights on and off in his room without destroying the light bulb itself. It did take the sacrifice of a few brave bulbs to do so, but the feat was accomplished. And he figured out that the whole levitation deal wasn't too awfully hard if he just concentrated on it.

So things were going pretty well, all things considered. Which made it all the more odd when a familiar poof was heard; Gulag paying him another visit.

"Where the heck have you been all this time? I thought I was supposed to be supervised by you on this stuff!" exclaimed Charlie. "I don't get it….you were worried about the effects of my getting this magic all at once, yet you were never here to help out!"

"Now, now," began the kulath. "Just take it easy. I've been watching you this whole time, and you were never in any real danger! I would've stepped in and helped out if I was concerned." He surprised even himself with how easily that lie slid off of his forked tongue without a hitch. Well, he was concerned a bit, and did sort of keep an eye on him….just not that closely.

With that said, the kulath began to help him along a bit, and made sure he was under some semblance of control, lest he anything valuable. Despite Charlie's constant pleadings, the Gulag decided not to teach him anything about creating alcohol in any shape or form. His morals were at times questionable, but they held their ground at this point.

And so through the course of the month, the kulath paid periodic visits, and after some time Charlie was able to control objects with excellent precision, making them fly about the room in a path he so desired. He could levitate, move, or change the direction of objects in motion with his magic quite easily by late that afternoon. With this, he was quite happy.

However, he failed to understand why the kulath was teaching him. At first, the creature seemed to just want him to get the magic power as some sort of experiment, to observe how he did when he got the powers all at once and provide some supervision. But now, the green man was actually teaching him things.

Which was fine by Charlie. He seemed to stress controlling of objects motion, however, and nothing much else after that. Levitation was fun and all, but he still couldn't figure out how to make things disappear and reappear, or how to do important things like getting his algebra homework done. Nevertheless, the boy learned faithfully, getting what he could out of the kulath, and was an adept student.

Here and again Charlie would use his magic to ease household chores and such, but he did so discreetly for fear of his parents finding out. Explaining that to them would be a chore indeed, and that was a headache he just didn't need. He did, however, take advantage of his abilities in a scuffle or two with the school bully, much to his delight. It was hard for his opponent to throw a punch when his hands were bound by unseen wisps of air woven together. Just for good measure, the magic-wielding victor took the other's lunch money after the last bout.

Eventually, the kulath stopped showing up to help teach the boy. On the last visit, Charlie was told that the experiment was coming to a close, and his powers would be gone soon.

Charlie was not too thrilled to hear this.

"What do you mean you're taking them back?? I thought the magic was mine for good!"

Gulag found himself calming the boy down. "Well, I told you from the start that this was merely an experiment. Now it's almost over. I figured you'd understand."

Desperately, Charlie reached for a way to keep the powers. "Please!! Let the magic stay with me! I'll do whatever you ask! I'll help you out somehow!! Please?"

With that, the crafty kulath began to think.

And he developed a plan.


**********


Gulag went to visit those who brought this all down on him in the first place. He knocked on the doors (kulath-sized doors, not those ridiculously gargantuan human-sized doors. He still couldn't understand how creatures with that huge of a brain could be so ignorant sometimes.

Soon, the door was answered and he was greeted by his old buddies. With toothy grins, the three of them there began speaking to him and asking of his endeavors.

"So, how's the magic-peddling visit, Mr. Wizard?" they jeered at him.

"Not too awful, you oafs," Gulag retorted back. "And thanks again for that stupid bet you made me carry through with. I still can't believe you made that up just to be a pain in the butt!"

This drew laughs from all the others. A number of weeks back, prior to his visit with Charlie, they had been playing a form of kulath-style poker, and Gulag was in trouble late in the game. Holding what he thought was a great hand, and with no chops left to bet with, the Gulag asked for a way to stay in the hand without money. So the others had agreed that he could stay in that hand, but if he lost, they had a "task" for him.

Confident at the time, Gulag had quickly agreed. And promptly lost. And so, they had decided to make his life difficult and make him interact with the pesky human, on the pretense of some scientific experiment. They had laughed for months about that one, and Gulag fumed for quite a while before coming to his senses and calming down about the whole thing.

Strangely, at this very moment of their re-living and joking about his task, Gulag seemed quite calm about the whole thing. Not thinking twice about it, the others let him in on their gambling, and soon enough they were all making bets on almost everything imaginable. Fair bets, of course, as kulath could monitor each other's magic usage to ensure fair sporting events were wagered on.

Gulag found himself deep in thought as he walked home later that night. (He was far too intoxicated to poofa! back home, and it was against local law to drink and poof.) As he reached his beloved home, a toothy grin grew across his features as he reflected on what he had done that night.


----------------------------------------------


A few weeks later, Charlie sat at the NCAA basketball tournament game with his best friend from school. He silently thought things over, with the stub of his magically-generated ticket tucked away in his back pocket, and a freshly created glass of root-beer he made appear in his hand. (Sure, it was only root-beer, but at least it tasted good). His friend was amazed at the game at hand, with a small unheard of school competing dead even late in the game with one of the biggest basketball powerhouses in the country.

"I can't believe this!!" exclaimed his friend. "They may just pull this off!! What a huge upset!"

Oddly, Charlie didn't appear as enthusiastic about things as his companion. He was, however, a rather content individual. His friend just assumed that Charlie wasn't all that into basketball and was still a bit gloomy over losing his "magic" powers he supposedly had. Charlie had kept his encounters with the kulath a secret to everyone except his best friend, who actually sort of believed him. He was an imaginative sort, which explained the lack of doubt. Even still, Charlie did not tell him everything.

His friend shifted the topic of conversation as the final seconds ticked down, the game coming to a dramatic finish. The powerhouse school scored to go up by 2 points. The crowd cheered wildly. On the edge of his seat and with his eyes on the game, he asked Charlie "So, what did you end up doing with the last of your powers, anyhow? Pull any great pranks?"

With the game clock running down to zero, the point guard of the losing team threw up a final desperation shot from across the court in hopes of it going in. The ball soared across the gym.

"Nah…" began the reply.

The ball floated high in the air, and began its descent. It looked like it would fall short.

"Just moved a few things around in the air. That's all."

Incredibly, the ball swished through the hoop. The crowd went absolutely berserk. The smaller school had won the game, their players jumping up and down with excitement on the court.

Charlie's friend looked over at him with wide eyes, and spoke quietly "No….did you do that? Your powers are gone, right?"

Charlie's face was expressionless as he simply said "Of course they're gone. C'mon. Let's beat the traffic and take off now."

With that, they left.


***********


Meanwhile, a short, green, lizard looking creature sat happily with a beverage or two with him in his humble abode, eating his much-deserved dinner. He was laughing out loud to himself over and over again as his gambling buddies sat with open-mouthed stares of disbelief in front of the TV, witnessing the end of the game. Frozen in shock, they realized that they would have to give up massive sums of money to their "magic-peddling" friend.

Laughing out loud, the devious kulath simply thought to himself: Mr. Wizard indeed………