"You heard me the first time. I don't stutter. I told you to clean the garage," his mother said.
Putting up his hands in protest, Sean said, "No human has entered that garage in ten years and returned. There are wild beasts that eat people dwelling in there."
"Stop exaggerating. Only one person got lost in there," his mother said.
Wide-eyed, Lily asked, "Who?"
"Your oldest brother," his mother said.
"I only have one brother," Lily said.
"That wasn't always the case," his mother said flippantly.
Seeing that Lily was getting scared, Sean said, "She's kidding."
"Are you sure?" Lily asked.
"Yes," Sean said, "I would remember if I had an older brother."
"Okay," Lily said giving her mother one of those looks.
"Get to work, young man," his mother said.
Lily looked over at Sean and said, "Be careful in there."
"I will," Sean answered striking a heroic pose. He added, "No mountain is too high, no valley is too low, no jungle too thick, no desert too dry, and no ocean too deep to keep this intrepid explorer from venturing into unexplored territory."
Lily clasped her hands together and looked up at him adoringly. In a pretty good imitation of a southern accent, she said, "My hero."
Sean laughed and headed out to the garage. He opened the door and then stepped back in shock. He had thought he was kidding when he described the state of the garage. It was obvious that the garage door had been left open a couple of inches last fall. The whole front half of the garage was buried in leaves.
Sticking out of the leaves were the tops of pieces of equipment that looked like they had been part of the Frankenstein laboratory. Considering that the company his father worked for was in the business of refurbishing used laboratory equipment, there was a very good chance of that being the case. Sean had no idea what any of the equipment did or why his father had them.
Tumbled amongst the equipment were boxes; the contents of which were a complete mystery. He could almost make out a workbench at the distant end of the basement. He figured it would be months before he could work his way far enough into the garage to see if there were any tools on the workbench.
Sizing up the job, he decided that he'd reach retirement age before finishing. Shaking his head, he said, "This is probably a better way of keeping me out of trouble than sending me to the store ten times a day."
He went back to the house and found his mother dusting the living room. He said, "I need some garbage bags."
"The money is on the counter," she answered.
Sean grabbed the money and headed to the store. He walked along the path moving little stones as he went. Other kids might kick stones along the way, but he moved them with magic. Little twigs and leaves were cleared to the side as well. He wondered if maybe he should be moving the rocks onto the path. He figured that as many times a day that he went to the store that the path would be completely covered with stones by the end of the summer.
He reached the path behind Max's house and noticed that it was starting to get over grown. He wondered if Max ever came in the woods any more. Just after passing Max's place, he heard a strangled cry from behind him. Puzzled, he turned and looked down the path. He didn't see anyone or anything. Shrugging his shoulders, he continued on his way without giving the matter any thought.
He passed behind Suzie's house hoping that she'd be around, but there was no sign of her. He trudged along the path wondering if he'd be done with the garage in time to visit her that afternoon.
At the store, he picked out the biggest trash bags they carried. There were only ten bags in the package. He looked at the money in his hands and realized that he had enough for two packages and a soft drink. He went to the counter and put the items down. Sam looked at them and said, "I'm getting concerned about you."
"Why?"
"You bought three things in one trip rather than making three trips," Sam said.
"I must be getting lazy in my old age," Sean said.
Sam picked up the package of trash bags and asked, "What are you using these for?"
"I'm cleaning out the garage," Sean answered.
Sam asked, "Are you going to be putting heavy things in these?"
"Yes," Sean said.
"You might need to double bag them," Sam said.
"These are the super heavy duty no break trash bags that are designed with a super secret internal webbing that will prevent tears," Sean said reading the label.
"They'll hold leaves, but twigs will go right through them. Sharp stuff will cut them. If you take my advice, you'll double bag," Sam said.
"Okay," Sean said.
Sam added, "Don't pick them up by the convenient built-in ties. The ties come off and then you'll never get them closed."
"Okay," Sean said looking at the packages of trash bags. He asked, "Do you have anything better?"
"They're the best we carry," Sam said looking apologetic.
Sean looked at the packages and said, "It is a sick world we live in."
"Why do you say that?" Sam asked.
Sean answered, "I'm spending money on something with the express intention of throwing it away. I'm buying trash."
"I never thought about it like that," Sam said, "You even throw away the box it comes in."
"That's right," Sean said shaking his head.
"Do you want a plastic bag for that?" Sam asked.
"Sure," Sean said taking note of the irony of the question.
The trip back home was made at a good pace. He reached the house and went directly to the garage. Opening the plastic bag, he pulled out a package of trash bags. After wrestling with the package to get it open, he managed to extract one of the trash bags tearing it in the process. He opened the trash bag and studied it. He didn't see any secret webbing. He said, "The box it came in is probably tougher than it is."
He looked around to see if anyone was watching. He opened the bag and started commanding the leaves to fly into the bag. It took a couple of seconds, but he figured out that he could keep the leaves flying into the bag at a very good rate. It took him a minute to fill the first bag. Stepping back, he said, "That's easy enough."
He closed the bag and carried it over to the side of the garage. He went and got another bag. He was on the sixth bag of leaves when one of the leaves didn't move when he commanded it. He bent down to look at it closer and realized that it wasn't a leaf. The thing was jumping up and down in a very excited manner. It took Sean a second to realize that it was a little person about six inches high. He asked, "Who and what are you?"
"I am Tim-Tim. I'm a Brownie," the little man answered giving him a bow.
"Pleased to meet you, I am Sean."
"I thank you," the little man said.
"For what?" Sean asked.
"For letting me live again," the Brownie answered. He jumped up and clicked his heels together.
"You're quite welcome," Sean said wondering what he had done. He looked around hoping that no one was watching him talk to a six inch tall person.
"I must be going," the Brownie said.
"Bye," Sean said watching the little fellow run off into the woods. He shook his head and said, "First it was Dwarves in the woods and now it is Brownies in the garage. I wonder what is next. Knowing my luck, it will be dragons in the basement."
Sean went back to work and before he knew it, he had ten trash bags filled with leaves. He was halfway convinced that he had seen other Brownies running out of the garage, but he never had a good look at any of them. It always seemed to happen when he was moving a lot of leaves at a time. The Brownies were so small that it was hard to spot them amongst the confusion of moving leaves.
There was now enough space to move a few feet into the garage and to see what was under and around the test equipment. He went over to the plastic bag and got out his soft drink. He stood at the door of the garage sipping on his beverage and trying to figure out what to do with all of that equipment. Most of it looked pretty heavy and he wasn't sure that he'd be able to move it.
His mother came out of the house and, as she was walking towards him, asked, "Why aren't you working?"
"Just trying to figure out what to do with this junk of Dad's," Sean answered.
She reached the garage and, surprised by the progress he had made, said, "Oh. You've been busy."
"Yes," Sean said.
"Mrs. Emery called."
Sean said, "Oh. What did she want?"
"She canceled your afternoon visit with Suzie," his mother answered.
"She hates me," Sean said shaking his head. He wondered how Suzie reacted to her mother's actions.
"No she doesn't. She's invited you over for dinner at five instead," his mother said.
"Oh," he said and after a long pause added, "Dinner."
His mother noticed the worried expression on his face. She asked, "What?"
After a very long pause he said, "That doesn't sound good."
"I accepted the invitation for you," his mother said puzzled by his reply.
Sean said, "Call her back and tell her that I'll be there only if she promises that there will be no visits to the vet."
"Huh?"
"She'll understand," Sean said holding his legs together tightly and covering his crotch with his hands.
"She's a pretty good cook," his mother said.
"I remember," Sean said, "Her cooking is not what I'm afraid of."
"You're an odd kid," his mother said.
Sean grinned and said, "I'm a chip off the old block."
His mother said, "I'll talk to her. You get back to work. Who knows, you might be done with the garage by the end of the week."
"Right," Sean said looking at the mass of equipment waiting to be moved. He would never finish it.
Bending down, he tried to pick up one of the pieces of test equipment. He had no idea what it was, what it did, or how much it weighed, but it was definitely heavier than he wanted to move. He looked at the piece of equipment and said, "I might be able to move it if I disassemble it and then put it back together again."
He stood up and stared at the piece of equipment. His magic wouldn't move anything of that weight. The parts were light enough, but the whole was too much. He considered the matter and gave up. He pushed the equipment across the floor until it reached the wall of the garage. Stepping back, he said, "There has to be a better way."
Sean pushed equipment against the wall for most of the morning. It was close to noon when his mother came out and announced, "Lunch is ready."
"What? No trips to the store?" Sean asked.
His mother shook her head and answered, "No. I'm going to go shopping after lunch."
"Huh?" Sean said staring at his mother.
"I'm going grocery shopping after lunch," she said.
"You hate grocery shopping," Sean said.
"Only when I have to drag kids along with me," she said. The time spent arguing about items that the kids wanted, but didn't need, had doubled the amount of time at the store. Sean was a sneaky brat and would just add items to the shopping cart. Lily was more argumentative.
"Oh," Sean said.
"Let's get in the house. You can work on the garage tomorrow morning," his mother said.
Sean closed the garage door and followed his mother into the house. Lunch was basic soup and sandwiches. The lunch time conversation was practically non-existent. Lily wanted to return to watching cartoons as quickly as possible. His mother was working out a grocery list while eating. Sean was thinking that there had to be a way to move that equipment with his magic. He felt that he was missing something important about his magic gift.
After lunch was over, his mother said, "Lily, why don't you watch some cartoons? Sean will join you in a little while."
"Sure, Mom," Lily said getting up from the table and running to the living room.
Once Lily was gone, his mother said, "Sean, they've took Max to the hospital this morning."
"What?" Sean asked surprised to hear that.
"It appears that he's suffering from a nervous breakdown," his mother said watching Sean for his reaction.
"You're kidding?" Sean said finding the news extremely surprising. He didn't think Max was the kind of kid who would lose it like that. Shaking his head, he asked, "What happened?"
"His mother said that he wouldn't go in the woods anymore because the midgets were out to get him. After they managed to get him to go out into the woods this morning, he came charging back claiming that a midget appeared out of thin air right behind you," his mother said.
"A midget appeared out of thin air?" Sean asked. He had to admit that he was feeling a little guilty about making Max believe that there were still Dwarves in the woods. Thinking about it, he realized that there might still be Dwarves in the woods. Just because he hadn't seen them didn't mean that they weren't there.
His mother said, "That's right. He locked himself in his room and refused to come out saying that the midgets were out to get him. He kept babbling that you were the head of some midget gang bent on killing him."
"They say that I'm odd, but even I have to admit that is more than a little strange," Sean said. He decided that he wasn't going to mention the Brownie that was in the garage. He figured that he could easily end up in the hospital with Max.
"I'd say it is a close tie," his mother commented absently. She was worried that the Baxter's might blame Sean for Max's mental condition.
"You might be right," Sean said grinning at his mother. He loved her little comments about him. Frowning, he asked, "So why did they take him to the hospital?"
"Hello Sean, pay attention. He's having hallucinations," his mother answered knocking on his head.
Sean rubbed his head and thought about the noise that he had heard that morning behind him when walking to the store. He wondered if that was when Max had seen the Dwarf. Not wanting to think about it, he said, "Hmm, next time I want to skip school I won't try to fake a fever, I'll just point to the wall and say that I saw a midget walk out of it."
"It won't work," his mother said.
"Why not?"
"Your behavior would have to represent a change from its normal pattern. Seeing midgets appearing through the wall isn't outside your normal range of behavior. It wasn't that long ago that you were claiming there were Dwarves in the woods," his mother said.
"I said that I dreamed there were Dwarves in the woods," Sean said deciding that he wasn't going to admit that there actually were Dwarves in the woods.
"Not much difference," his mother said.
Sean asked, "So what is going to happen to Max?"
"The doctors will run all kinds of tests on him to determine if he has a brain tumor. If he checks out okay physically, they'll put him on some drugs that will control his hallucinations. I'm not sure what is going to happen after they release him," his mother said.
Thinking about how everyone else would react to Max's situation, he said, "The kids at school are really going to make his life rough. I know; I'm speaking from experience."
"He's going to need a friend," his mother said.
"Maybe I should go visit him," Sean said.
"I don't think that would be a very good idea. You forget that you are at the center of all of his delusions," his mother said.
"Are you saying that my visiting him might be like pouring gasoline on a fire?" Sean asked.
"That would be an understatement," his mother said.
"You're probably right," Sean said thoughtfully. He did think it was a bit weird that Max was claiming the dwarf appeared out of thin air right behind him. He hadn't noticed anything like that happening and he figured that was something one should notice.
"I talked to Mrs. Emery and she promised that there wouldn't be any trips to the vet," his mother said amused.
"That's good," Sean said.
"That must have been a very interesting conversation that you had with her," his mother said with a sparkle in her eye. She had laughed tears when she had heard the story from Mrs. Emery.
Sean said, "Mrs. Emery has a serious attitude problem towards cats. If I was a cat, I'd definitely steer clear of her house."
His mother laughed and said, "She only has a problem with tom cats that threaten to rub up against her daughter and sleep where ever he wants."
"Oh, I guess I can see where she might have a problem with a tom cat like that. Of course, she couldn't think that I would do things like that," Sean said.
"Why?"
Sean smiled and, pointing to his cheeks, said, "I have dimples when I smile."
"You might consider showering, shaving, and dressing up for your dinner visit tonight," his mother said.
Sean scratched his chin thinking that he had shaved a couple of days ago. He asked, "Why?"
"I've seen how you look at Suzie," his mother said. It had been obvious for two years that Sean was more than a little fond of Suzie.
The comment shook up Sean more than he wanted to admit. He held up his hands in protest and said, "It is not like that. She and I have been friends ever since we could crawl. She doesn't see me that way and I'm not going to do anything to spoil a good friendship."
His mother shook her head and said, "I really feel sorry for that girl."
"What girl?" Sean asked.
"The one you are going to marry some day," his mother answered wondering if he was really that dense. If not, he was a pretty good actor.
Sean asked, "Why?"
His mother said, "There's nothing worse than being married to an idiot."
Sean looked at his mother wondering what she was trying to say to him. Giving up, he said, "I'm going to have to ask Dad for his opinion on the matter."
"What matter is that?" she asked hoping he wasn't going to say what she thought he was going to say. She added, "Think carefully before you answer. You might end up cleaning the attic if you give me the wrong answer."
"About feeling sorry for my future wife," Sean answered with a smile although the other answer had been just on the tip of his tongue.
"Good save," his mother said, 'I'm sure that I'll have a reason to have you clean the attic before the summer is over."
"I wouldn't be surprised," Sean said.
She grabbed the shopping list and said, "I guess I'll be off to the store. It is going to be a little strange going there again."
"Probably cheaper, too," Sean said knowing that the convenience store was very expensive.
"Even the convenience store was cheaper than raising a baby," she said glancing down at the list.
"Where'd a baby enter the conversation?" Sean asked thinking that his normally sharp wits had to be running a little dull that day.
"It didn't and that's the whole point," his mother said looking at him over the top of her list.
"I don't get it," he said.
His mother stood from the table and said, "It is all about who gets what that is important."
"Huh?"
"Watch after your sister," his mother said as she headed towards the back door. She paused and said, "Wash the dishes while you're at it."
Sean sat there staring at the closed door wondering what his mother was talking about. He turned to face the living room and shouted, "Hey Lily. Do you want to learn how to wash dishes?"
"No," Lily shouted back.
"Why not?" Sean asked in a shout.
Lily answered, "I know all about Tom Lawyer and how he tricked all of his friends into painting the fence."
Sean shook his head at hearing his sister refer to Tom Sawyer in the same manner that his mother had used when reading the story to him when he was a boy. She claimed that Tom Sawyer was a shyster lawyer in training because of that fence trick. Entering the living room, he said, "It is Tom Sawyer."
"No. It is Tom Lawyer. Only a lawyer would fake his own death and attend the funeral to hear what people said about him so that he could sue them for de-flaming his character," Lily replied with the kind of confidence that came from knowing that there was no arguing that point.
Sean gave up knowing he'd never be able to convince her of anything different until she actually read the story on her own. He asked, "Who woke Sleeping Beauty with a kiss?"
"Prince Charming," she answered.
"That's right. According to Mom, what did he look like?" Sean asked.
"He was old, fat, and ugly. He had twisted teeth, a broken nose, and one leg longer than the other. He had four fingers on one hand and six on the other. He ate onions and beans for every meal. His breath could kill a horse at a dozen paces and he passed gas every time he took a step. Poor Sleeping Beauty was doomed to a life of everlasting misery because he made her pregnant when he kissed her while she was sleeping and she had to marry him," Lily answered.
Sean asked, "What does everyone else say he looked like?"
"He was young, rich, and handsome," Lily answered.
Sean said, "Read Tom Sawyer before you discuss it with other people."
"Of course I will," Lily replied with a snort. She added, "I know that Mom tends to tell twisted tales. I'm not stupid."
"Okay," Sean said.
"You've got to admit that her versions are much more entertaining," Lily said with a grin.
"True."
After carrying the dishes to the sink, Sean stood there washing them while thinking about the conversation he had with his mother. He was worried about Max. He might not have liked the guy after he had turned into a jock, but having everyone think that he was having a nervous breakdown because he reported what he was seeing wasn't right.
Max had seen the Dwarves. Sean knew there were Dwarves in the woods. He knew that there was magic because he had been given it by the Dwarves. He had claimed it was a dream while Max had said it was reality. Max was in the hospital because he was telling the truth. He shook his head wondering how he could make it right.
He thought about the Brownie in the garage. He was pretty sure that he hadn't imagined it or his conversation with the little fellow. He wondered if it had anything to do with his use of magic. He was using it a lot lately and that might be attracting magic creatures.