Imagination, Faith And Magic (Part Eight)

Part One Here
Part Two Here
Part Three Here
Part Four Here
Part Five Here
Part Six Here
Part Seven Here

She stared at the two again, and then shook her head and said, "Ok, well look, how do I wake up or get back or whatever I need to do?"

"Do you not want to be here?" said Founder.

"Sh-should I...want to be here?" and then slightly exasperated, "I still don't even know where here is!"

"But...Peter told you, right?"

"Who's Peter?"

"Peter Wimsey - Lord Peter? You know!"

"Lord Peter...Lord Peter Wimsey?! The fiction character? What did he say?!" And Andi began to rack her brains for anything in one of those mystery novels that might shed some light on her predicament.

"He was suppose to tell you what Rowling said - what Lewis saw..."

"I..." and she made a desperate gesture of helplessness and frustration, but at that moment, a little light went on in the back of her befuddled mind and she froze.

What Rowling said...what Rowling said...

"But that's what that man said - the man at the library!" she cried.

"Yes, yes, Peter!"

She looked at him for the briefest of moments and then flung her hand out in front of her as if to hold at bay this information. Shaking her head, she started mumbling "no, no, no" over and over again.

"But Andi, you've been given a great privilege - not everyone is invited..."

And Founder Diggory continued speaking, but Andi had her hands over her ears, her eyes squeezed tight and was saying to herself, "I just need to think. I just need a second to think. I must need to wake up. I've just got to wake up now. Ok...now. Wake up, NOW. Ok, right now..."

There was a tug at her shirt. She jumped and looked down into the little boy's face. "Ms. Andi, I have a riddle for you-"

"Diggory! You can't do that-"

"I'm not gonna-"

"I won't let you-"

And suddenly the two boys were yelling at each other, the older brandishing a wooden switch at the younger.

She bolted, zig zagging her way among the trees and the ponds, running for all she was worth. Panic had taken over and she was fleeing instead of fighting, not so much because she was a coward, but because she couldn't identify an enemy. Behind her, the boys were now yelling her name and she could hear their falling footsteps on the soft earth.

"Petrificus Totalus!" the older boy yelled, "Petrif...Petri...Damn trees!"

Andi split two trees, took one mighty step and leapt over one of the small ponds. She had all the confidence in the world that she would clear it, and she really should have, but the heel of her tennis shoe splashed down in the smallest amount of water on the bank of the opposite shore. In a moment, less than a second, her momentum pulled her forward, but like a drain suddenly unclogged, the water in the pool suddenly gave a great slurping sound.

The two boys pulled up, panting, next to the pond.

"Damn it!" exclaimed Founder, doubled over, panting, with his hands on his knees, peering into the depths.

The younger one surveyed the sloshing waters of the pond with his hand on his chin, and then shaking his head, said with a surprising maturity, "What do they teach in schools these days?"

"Ha!" barked a laughing, panting Founder Diggory as he looked up at the little boy.

To be continued...

posted by Headless-in-GR @ 10/29/2006 01:11:00 AM