the_eternal_overthinker

“Jamie!  What did you do to your pants? It’s torn! Are you bleeding? Come here.” Joyce caught Jamie sneaking into his room trying to hide his limp and avoid eye contact.

“Nothing mom, don’t fret. I just skid on the snow.” Jamie reluctantly confessed walking towards the kitchen. He wondered if his mom was a part-time sleuth; as he could never get things past her shrewd eyes.

“Let me see.” Joyce rushed forward to inspect his bruised knee. She got the first aid kit to clean and bandage the wound, “Hmmm.” She sighed “It will take a week. You ought to be more careful Jamie, especially with the weather outside.”

“Can I skip school tomorrow, mom? Pleaaaseee.” Jamie pleaded hiding the tears forming in his bright blue eyes.

“No way! Don’t be a naughty kid, Jamie. You know, Santa’s been watching you. And Christmas vacation is just a week away. You can’t miss school now. Next time, be careful. Go change into something comfortable.” Joyce shooed him away before he could protest further.

***

Dumping his school bag on the study table; Jamie slumped into his bed.  The voices began to swarm his mind…

        “Hey midget! Come here and tie my shoe laces, will ya?”

       “What’s for lunch, eh?  Are these sandwiches are going to make you tall? Lemme taste and see.”

       “Showing bravery are we? Come let’s fight. You’ll make a cute snowball to be tossed around.”

Laughter reverberated across the room as Jamie tried to control his sobs. He wished he’d shoot up like other kids in the school or at least had enough strength to fight that lousy Victor back. Gingerly massaging his knee he thought of ways to avoid Victor the next day. If only he had the power to will his body to become sick whenever he wanted. He thought of ways to fight his bully back but he knew for a fact that his ideas only worked in his head and not when Victor was around.

 And before he knew he was dozing off..

***

“Rise from your slumber, ye mortal.” Jamie rubbed his eyes to clear this bleary image of a man standing in his bedroom. “Who are you? How did you get in? Where is mom?”

“Joyce is enjoying her beauty sleep next door.”  The enigma replied.

Jamie was fully awake by now. “Are you Santa? You’ve lost oodles weight…there’s no paunch!”

“Ha! I am his evil twin. Our names are an anagram and I love my six pack abs.”

“What’s an anagram?” Jamie was perplexed and scared, and was hoping that his mother would come to his rescue.

“Didn’t they teach you that in school? When parents are lazy they name their kids in anagrams. Anyways, I am here to grant you a wish.”

“A wish!” Jamie exclaimed with his blue eyes brightening.

“Yeah, I was thirsty and I drank your tears and now I have to abide by the rules and grant you a wish.”

“Wow! Can you make me as tall as Victor?”

“Who is Victor?” The Dumbledore look alike questioned.

“Well…he’s the one who make my life miserable at school. He teases me and calls me a midget, eats my lunch, pushes and hits me around.”

“Ah! So if you are as tall as him he will not trouble you, you think?”

“That’s right!” affirmed Jamie.

“Well Kid, let me tell you that the world doesn’t work this way, he’ll find other ways to bully you. I can’t make you tall, but I can make you flexible.” There was a hypnotic glow in his eyes which Jamie was getting drawn to.

“Flexible?”

“Your body will be so flexible that you can curl yourself into a ball and you can then bounce and run off or better still give Victor a well-deserved punch.”

“Sounds cool! Do it now!” Jamie got super excited.

“But remember kid, you’ll have to distract your opponent before you can do the transformation. Or else, it won’t work.”

“Deal” Jamie brought his hand forward.

The Satan uttered some gibberish into his ears and it was instilled deep into his brain.

“Repeat that and you’ll turn into a ball.”

“Thank you!” Jamie shook Satan’s hand.

“Hey Mom. Meet my new friend.”

Satan turned around surprised as to how his sleep spell got broken and before he could apprehend he was down flat on the ground. “Ouch!” he exclaimed while Jamie uncoiled himself giggling.

“Opps..really sorry there mister!” Jamie apologized on seeing Satan’s stern expression. “I wanted to make sure it worked fine.”

Rubbing his sore head the Satan grumbled to himself, “I need to fix this up now.”

He utter a few more gibberish words and then warned Jamie “Listen kid, you aren’t supposed to misuse your talent and if you harm an innocent person the power will backfire.” And with a snap of the knob he was gone before Jamie could nod in affirmation.

“Maybe he got thirsty again.” Jamie shrugged to himself.

*****