Luckily I didn't have to, because when I turned around I saw her standing right next to me. “Whoa, how...never mind.” I was tired of asking her unanswerable questions.
“So do you believe me now?” she asked.
“I'm not sure what I believe. But you seem to be the only one who can help me, so I'll just have to work with that. Why did you bring me here? And don't say you didn't because I know it was you. And where are my parents?”
“Well your parents haven't been born yet. And they won't be for another couple hundred years I'm afraid. And I brought you back here so you can start your training, and finally be back with your family again.”
“My family? My family's in the year 2010 thank you very much. And what do you mean by be back?”
“Well you see Nathan you were born here. I brought you into the future to protect you from some witch hunters. So now you're finally back to where you belong.”
“Witch hunters?” I asked. This was all too crazy for me to even comprehend.
“Yes. They will stop at nothing to destroy all witches. They're very cruel. I've seen too many of my friends hung to ever want to be anywhere near them. They really don't even give you a trial anymore.”
“Does this all mean I'm older than my parents?” It was just a question that had been bugging me. I just had to ask.
“Well your adoptive parents yes. But of course not older than your real parents.”
“Well what do you mean by my training? Am I going to learn how to curse people?”
“Oh of course not. Yes we use curses to do our magic, but that doesn't necessary mean we curse people. There is a huge difference. When every witch becomes sixteen years of age, they must be trained so they can learn to use their powers appropriately and not hurt anyone. We choose sixteen because that is when their powers come in fully.” That explained why I floated for the first time.
“So if I'm not trained can I lose my powers?”
“Well of course not,” she replied. “Every witch or wizard always has their powers, no matter what. They can't lose them. We just train them so they can use them appropriately. It would be bad if they had to learn on their own.”
“Well then can I get them taken away?” I was really hoping for a way out of this.
“No. None of us have the power to take away each other's magic. Not even the most powerful witch in the world can do that.”
“So you mean I'm stuck like this?”
“Stuck like this? You should feel honored. There are only a handful of us around anymore. You see being a witch is a recessive gene. You receive it from one of your parents, and it's very rare that a boy gets it. It's much more common in girls. That's why not a lot of witch hunters don't expect boys. They always go after the girls.”
“If it's very rare that a boy gets powers, then how do you know I have them?”
“Do you think I just abandoned you and never even bothered to see how you've been growing up? I planned it all out. I chose your mother and led her to where you were. I have a special curse that I know that could show me into the future so I could see how you were doing. I saw how you grew up, and how everyone was afraid of you. And I saw the last thing that happened with your parents before you came here. How you floated and scared them to death. I know that your adoptive parents didn't know that you were a witch, and that's how I wanted it to be. I did write them a letter, but they never picked it up.”
“Oh,” I said depressingly. Just thinking about how much I scared them made me sad. They did do a lot for me, and that's how I returned the favor.
“By the way Nathan,” she said with a smile. “After you ran they took a few minutes to calm down and then went to go find you. They still loved you you know.”
That made me really happy. But then I was also depressed because I wondered if I would ever get to see them again. I was a witch myself, so I wondered if I could figure out how to time travel. “So do I have to stay in this century forever?”
“Well time travel can get kind of confusing. Even though none of us have the power to control one another, we still got together and made up some rules that we all agreed to follow and to teach our
children.”
“Rules? There are rules to being a witch?”
“Yes,” she replied. “We'll get more into them as we start your training. But there are a lot of rules on time travel. You must have the head witches approval in order to use it. I'll admit I did break that rule when I first brought you there, but she forgave me because she understood my situation. But I did get her permission to bring you back.”
“You didn't answer my question,” I said. I hated it when people did that. When I ask something don't go off on something I don't really care about.
“Well I'm really not sure. You'll have to talk to her about that.”
“What? Don't you realize I had a life there? I can just leave them forever. Or even a couple years would be too long.”
“Well Nathan that's the beauty of time travel. You can stay here as long as you want and you can still come back at the exact same time you left. You just might have aged a little. There are people out there that are only supposed to be twenty but they look fifty. Just look around and you'll see.”
“Whatever,” I mumbled. I really didn't feel like fighting anymore. Things really weren't looking too good.
“Well I suppose we should start by getting you into some appropriate clothes. We wouldn't want you walking around in those.”
A couple hours later I was sitting at her table in her house. The house wasn't much. It was really tiny with only two bedrooms, a sitting room, and a kitchen. But I guess it really didn't matter since she lived alone anyway. Her table was really old, and it was starting to fall apart. The legs looked like they would give way at any minute.
“This isn't a permanent home,” I remembered her telling me. “I'm a witch on the run so I jump from house to house. There's no use in getting something fancy, because I only keep a house for six months at the most.” That had to be hard. But then I started to get scared because what if that ended up being my new life?
“Okay Nathan,” she said as she sat across from me on the table. “In a couple days we will go to the annual meeting.”
“What’s that?” I asked her.
“It's a meeting all us witches have every now and again. But don't worry, not all witches are so down to business. Most of us have children, so you could make some friends,” she said with a wink. I knew exactly why she winked. She knew I didn't have any friends before. It didn't really matter to me. I knew no one would like me, witch or not.
“Now before we go I want you to at least start your training. Trust me it will look much better. And it will help you make some friends.”
“Okay,” I said.
“Now try to bring that glass this way. Now remember that you have to think about what you want to do. But this is such basic magic you don't need a curse.”
I tried it and thought really hard about bringing the glass this way. I concentrated and then there was a big bang as the glass shattered into a million pieces.
“Okay maybe we should just start with the rules,” she said as she went over to clean it up. I just sighed. I wasn't a very good human, and now I was sure I also wouldn't be a very good witch.
“Rule number one and also the very most important rule is that you should always do everything in secret,” she said. “And especially in front of mortals.”
“Why do you have to do everything in secret?” I asked.
“Oh there are a hundred reasons why. Magic scares mortals, as you figured out growing up. But the most important reason is all the witch hunters.”
“Well why are they so bad?”
She gave me a really serious look. “Never associate with a witch hunter. They want nothing more than to get rid of all witches, and they will stop at nothing to do it. If you're caught by one they will hang you. And I've seen it happen way to many times to not believe it.”
“But I'm a guy, so why would they suspect me?”
“They won't care. If they see anything you'll be destroyed, along with me.”
“Well then don't I just have to be secretive around witch hunters?”
“Well it's not like witch hunters have a sign on them that says I hunt witches. They can get kind of tricky to spot. And you shouldn't trust anyone around town. Everyone is either a witch hunter or will tell a witch hunter what they saw.”
“You mean you've been in this town awhile and the witch hunters have never suspected anything?”
“Oh no of course they have. Why do you think I brought you to the future? They came to get me when you were just a baby, so I put you in that box so they couldn't get you. All the witch hunters have been looking on me for years, which is why I told you I was a witch on the run. They've even caught me a couple times.”
“Really? Well how did you escape?”
She sighed. “You,” she pointed.
“Me? I don't understand. I wasn't even around.”
“It's a long story,” she said. “I guess it all started seventeen years ago when I married your father. Shortly after marrying me he told me his dream of becoming the head witch hunter of the entire town, and destroying all the witches so the town would be safe. I did know he was a witch hunter when I married him, but he was only a member back then. A little while after you were born he told me he finally became the head witch hunter, just like he always wanted.”
“Wait, he was the head witch hunter of this town but he was married to one? That's crazy.”
“I know,” she sighed. “Then one night he found out. He was so mad he left and told me I would be hung.”
“Did he ever come through?”
“No. The night they came to get me he came back and insisted on helping me. He didn't act like he wanted anything to do with me, he just wanted you. But after I brought you to the future and I refused to tell him where you were he got so mad he told me he would hang me himself. But when he tried I told him I knew where you were and if he ever wanted to see you again he would have to get through me. That's gotten me out of all his captures. Well most of them anyway. He’s still a pretty good guy so sometimes he just took pity on me.”
Wow. So I did have a dad who really cared about me. I guess I had more people in the world that loved me then I thought. “So will I ever get to see him?” I asked.
She sighed. “I don't know right now. Only time will tell that.” It was silent for a moment as I sat there thinking about what she just said.
“Well let's move on,” she said as if nothing had just happened. “The second rule and also a very important one is that witches should never kill anyone. In fact, they shouldn't even hurt anyone unless it's absolutely necessary. An example of absolutely necessary would be self defense. But even then you don't kill, only hurt them until they get the point. And also only hurt when absolutely necessary, never hurt for revenge.”
“So witches can't kill anyone? Then why would everyone think there so bad?”
“Well of course they can, and some have. But they shouldn't. All witches should follow the rules.”
“What do you mean by some have, and should?”
“Nathan let me explain something to you. There are two kinds of witches in this world, the good ones and the bad ones.”
“Wouldn't one be a wicken and the other be a witch?” I asked. I remembered watching this in a movie once.
“Sort of. We just call ourselves good witches and bad witches. We don't bother with the wicken crap. But if it helps you to remember it better, sure, we're wickens. It's the bad ones that make people want to destroy us. They hate humans, and humans don't know the difference between the good ones and the bad ones. It always causes a lot of problems.
“And that brings us to our third rule. Never associate with a bad witch. Now you're probably wondering how you can tell the difference between a good and a bad witch. Well you can never be sure. That's why it's very important to trust no one. There are witches out there that claim to be good but are actually bad. You come across them all the time and they're always getting kicked out at the meetings. You shouldn't trust the people in meetings, because you never know. But you always must respect a witch, good or bad.”
I just stared down at the table while making little circles with my fingers. I was really tired. I even got to sleep in this morning. But with all the crap that had happened today, I had every right to be tired.
“Are you tired?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I replied. It had definitely been one crazy day.
“Okay, I'll show you where you're going to sleep.” I got up and followed her up the seven tiny steps she had. I found it funny that I was so tired but I still counted her stairs. They were really old, and I was afraid they were going to collapse on me. But luckily they didn't. She led me into a small and really cold room. It was like the size of my closest in my real room. “Here you are. There are sheets already on the bed. I just washed them last week, so they're nice and clean for you.”
I just stared at it for awhile. I was having a hard time grasping that that's what I was going to be sleeping on tonight. I had never been one to be greedy, but this was really pushing it. “Is there a problem?” she asked me. Instead of answering her I just kept staring. “I'm sorry it's so small but like I said with me hiding from the hunters I really don't have an option for a nicer house. I'm moving all the time, so there would be no point.”
“It's okay,” I said trying to sound happy. I decided I needed to perk up before I started to sound greedy. I knew I had been raised better than that.
“Well okay. Goodnight.” Then she set her small oil lamp down and left.
It took me a little bit to figure out how it turned off. But then I found myself in complete blackness. I wasn't afraid of the dark, but with all the stuff I found out was actually real today, I wasn't so sure. But I just got in bed and told myself to tough it out. I really missed electricity. The bed was harder than it looked, and it looked pretty hard to start with. But I was so tired that it really didn't matter. I grabbed the blanket and was asleep in only about ten minutes.
