Wizardness

Elane pushed her daughter into school. Allyson was a freshman in high school, she’d been paralyzed by her drunkard father. Makalya walked next to Elane, she wasn’t too happy about walking into school, her first day of high school, with her mother. Elane was tired. It had been a struggle, but she needed to know that Allyson would be taken care of. This was an older building and some of the older buildings just weren’t ADA compliant yet.
Elane gave each of her daughters quick glances. She couldn’t help but beam with pride. They had both been chosen to attend the prestigious art school. Their bags were filled with art supplies.
Elane jumped in surprise, a young man with shaved head ran by. He’d slapped her ass.
“Did he just slap your butt, mom?” Makalya asked, mortified.
“Yes, he did.” Elane replied.
“Steven!” a voice called from behind him. The butt slapper turned heaving a huge sigh, knowing he’d been caught. “You will apologize immediately to this woman and her daughters or I will see you in my office.”
Elane turned to see the school principle walking behind them. She glanced at Makalya, who was busy trying to hide her face.
The teenage boy walked back to the trio who were being joined by Principle Walker. He mumbled something that Elane couldn’t catch.
“Steven, you need to speak up.” Principle Walker tersely stated.
“I’m sorry ma’am. I will not slap you or any other person’s butt in the future. If I do, I will be punished by cleaning all the whiteboards and writing a report on intersectionality.” Steven said louder this time.
Elane, “I accept your apology.” Steven turned and ran off before she’d even finished her sentence.
Elane looked at Principle Walker, “What was with his punishment, how would he know that?”
Principle Walker sighed, “He got that last year. He seems not to have learned that “boys will be boys” is not tolerated here.” Principle Walker moved towards Allyson, she knelt to get to Allyson’s level, “You must be Allyson. I know we have an older building, but I will happily walk you through all the ADA features the school has.”
Principle Walker turned to Makalya, “It’s a pleasure to meet you Makalya. If you’d like you can run ahead to your home room while we get your sister situated. I know you’re in very different classes.”
Makalya glanced at her mother. Elane nodded. That was all the encouragement Makalya needed. She took off at a brisk walk.
After a 20 minute meeting with Principle Walker Elane headed out of the school. It’d started raining. She didn’t have an umbrella. It was pouring rain. Elane was drenched by the time she reached her car. Her drive from the school to the house was about 20 minutes. She started to feel strange by the time she got home. Something felt really off.
As she got out of her car, she noticed something sticking to her seat. She pulled it off the seat, it looked like some sort of sheet. She noticed that there were dosing labels.
She rushed to her computer and did some quick Google Sleuthing. It looked like a sheet of LCD. That kid, Steven, had put a small sheet of LCD on her back. Something like 5 doses.
“Fuck.” Elane breathed. “What the fuck am I going to do.”
She was really starting to feel out of sorts. She decided she was going to sleep it off. So, she went to her bedroom, got in some PJs and turned on the TV. She only caught a quick glance at whatever was playing before she shut her eyes. She realized a moment later, it was an Oompa Loompa.
Elane laid on the bed. The sheets were vibrating beneath her, trying to carry her somewhere. She opened her eyes and found herself in a poorly lit space. She heard lights flick on, boom, boom, boom. Under each light was an Oompa Loompa.
Elane screamed, “Why the fuck are you in my house?”
The Oompa Loompa closest to her started to dance, wagging its finger at her. “What will you get if you stay with your man?”
The back one replied, “Another black eye from the back of his hand?”
The middle one joined in, “What will you get if you stay on the boat?”
Elance looked down, she was on a boat, or more accurately, her bed was floating on a river. The sheets spilling over the foot of the bed seemed to bee pulling her upstream.
The first Oompa Loompa interrupted her inspection. “You’ll get this ticket.” He held his hand up, it looked to be a lottery ticket.
The boat suddenly swept Elane down stream. She tried to pull on the sheets and comforter, but she couldn’t wrest them out of the water.
The left wall suddenly lit. Massive shadows were cast on the wall. It looked like there were four people walking. She glanced down to find the source of the shadows. They were four little people made out of grass, marching in place on the edge of her bed. The light was coming from her side. She rubbed at her stomach and the light shone through her fingers.
She swatted at the grass people, but they jumped to avoid her hand. It wasn’t as much of a jump as that they were suddenly above where her hand was and then back on the bed. As if they just weren’t where she was.
She noted that as she turned to swing, the light didn’t follow her body. It was shining through her. Through the bed onto the grasspeople.
One of the grass people suddenly was in a wheel chair.
Elane stopped struggling and stared at the figures. She got closer to see the details. She could see her own long legs. Despite being shorter than her husband, her legs were longer than his. Makalya took after Elane with very long legs. She’d be a good runner if she decided to join track.
Allyson’s legs were already shriveling in the wheel chair. They were looking older, no longer just freshman in high school. They looked a few years older.
Elane felt the boat rock. She looked up and saw a Y in the river ahead of her. The Left path was dark. There was a light on the right side.
Elane tried to pull the bed towards the right side, but instead of veering right, she felt herself split in two. Half of her mind went in each direction. She was seeing the bed from above while going in both directions.
Elane shook her head. She held her head and shut her eyes. She tried to pull herself together, but the images were still split. Still moving. There wasn’t much she could do. So, she watched both at once. On the left, her husband got fatter. Elane was suddenly in a cast. Then it was black.
On the right, Elane suddenly pushed away the Husband. She pushed Allyson forward. Her daughters had graduation caps. Then university T-Shirts. Then more graduation caps. Allyson was walking.
Both girls were suddenly walking with other people, Allyson with a feminine form while Makalya walked with a more masculine form. Both soon held children.
Elane still only saw black to the left. It was cold on the left. Smelled of earth. A worm crawled across Elane’s vision as the two girls were celebrating something on the right side.
Elane vomited. The grass people scattered. She was back in her bed. Vomit covered her PJs.
She ran to the toilet. She vomited again and again.
She showered. She was in a daze. She could feel the water walking down her skin. She saw little beds flowing down the drain with the water.
The warm water hugged her.
She dried herself off and grabbed her soiled PJs from the floor. She started to ball them up, but felt something solid in the pocket. It looked like the ticket the Oompa Loompa had showed her.
It was a lottery ticket, one of those scratch mega millions ticket. It’d been scratched. It was a winner.