Sadie Murray and the Enigma Scroll by star_sailor
Chapter Notes: Sadie's family is aghast at the strange events that have taken place throughout the day. Sadie's not about to stand for this anymore. It's settled. She's running away.
The car ride home was unbearable. Sadie wasn't sure what was worse: being forced into such close quarters with her family, or the all encompassing silence that deafened the entire interior of the vehicle.
After the duel fiascoes at the gymnasium, everyone's reactions were very strange and vague. But after the events at the dinner table, their reactions were abrupt and defined. Sadie's father was driving. He had, on several occasions throughout the car ride, attempted to say something comforting to Sadie. Unfortunately, he couldn't so much as stutter without being completely lost for words, and seemed to be in a deep, dreamlike daze as he focused on driving.
Jayne was now fuming at Sadie. Before dinner, she had been upset about losing the competition, and wouldn't speak of it because she simply had no idea what had happened during her flip. Now that she had seen Sadie staring angrily at the turkey, and the turkey's abrupt disappearance immediately afterward, she blamed Sadie for tampering with the balance beam on purpose. She hadn't detailed this information out loud though. She simply said, "I hate you!" quite loudly, directly in front of Sadie's face. The disappearing turkey was quite exciting to Leah, and she begged Sadie to make the car disappear.
Sadie's mother, on the other hand, had descended so far from her usually comfortable position as a perfect, happy mother into a degree of anger that Sadie had never seen before. Her mother was seething with rage, and refused to even look in Sadie's general direction. Sadie's mother had not so much as spoken a word since the turkey vanished. Once the silence at the dinner table had lasted long enough, she simply stood from her seat, and walked to the car.
Sadie was in the middle seat in the back of the car, between her sisters. There she whimpered, forcing herself not to break down and cry, fearing that another strange phenomenon might take place once more. She had no idea what had been causing these strange events. But she had slowly begun to realize that whatever these unexplainable happenings were, they were connected to her and how erratic her emotions were at the time. She attempted to bottle everything inside herself, but she didn't think she was doing a very effective job.
When they had returned home, and Sadie's father parked in the driveway, he turned the car off, and the entire family sat there in complete silence. But after a mere moment, Jayne threw open her door, climbed out, and slammed it shut behind her. She stomped toward the front door of their house. Leah followed her sister's suit, and skipped behind her sister a few moments later. Though still bewildered, somewhat reluctantly, Sadie's father got out as well. Sadie was trying desperately not to cry when her mother turned in her chair and looked Sadie straight in the eyes. Her glare was piercing, and hurt Sadie in the same way a knife would. Her mother left the car, and attempted to gain composure as she entered the house. Sadie wanted to stay in the car for the rest of her life, but decided she could at least change out of her ripped slacks. She left the car and entered the house.
When she entered and shut the front door, she could hear her father and mother arguing in hushed voices in the kitchen, while Jayne's voice could be heard upstairs, no doubt on her phone in her room. Leah had sat down in the living room and was watching a cartoon. Sadie couldn't think straight, but nevertheless proceeded to her room, shutting the door behind her. She took off her slacks, went into the adjacent bathroom which she shared with Leah, and put a large band-aid with medicine on the cut before returning to her room to slip on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.
Sadie couldn't draw her mind away from the events that had unfolded. They kept replaying in her head, as if to taunt her. She decided she could do good in drowning them out by drawing. She tried to think really hard on the jazz band she had seen earlier, trying to gain some inspiration before taking the journal out of her backpack. It seemed like so long ago when she had seen them having so much fun making music. It seemed almost irrelevant now.
But she realized she was dwelling on her problems, and it didn't matter if she had inspiration or not. If she started drawing, she could put her problems aside for a little while and not think, which is what she needed most now. But before she could even open her backpack, her door opened. Sadie's mother was crossing the threshold of the door frame, while her father hung back in the hallway. This couldn't be good.
"Sadie, we're..." her mother stuttered, clearly trying to come to terms with whatever she was about to say. "Your father and I, I mean to say... Well, we've decided that tomorrow, we're going to take you to see a doctor."
What was this about, Sadie wondered. "A doctor?"
"Yes, a doctor. A special doctor. One that can help with your problems."
"I don't have problems!" Sadie said louder than she meant to. Jayne stopped talking in the other room.
"Sadie, we have to be honest with each other; all of us, including you. You have a problem that you really need to deal with, and..."
"I said I don't have a problem!" Sadie said, tears flowing freely again. Her mother shivered with worry now that Sadie was crying again, possibly for fear of another insane phenomena taking place.
"Yes, you do," her mother said, shaking her head with newfound resolve. "We've all seen it: your father, Leah, Jayne, and I. We just haven't addressed it as appropriately as we should have, it seems." She turned away from Sadie only for a moment, and Sadie saw her mother wipe a slight tear from her eye.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Sadie demanded, feeling betrayed by her father, who merely stood and watched from the hallway. Why would he join up and agree with something so absurd? How could he just stand there by the stairs, staring at his feet, letting this happen?
"Sadie, darling," Sadie's mother said. She wasn't emphasizing any of her words, which meant she was very serious, "You are so quiet. You never talk to either me or your father."
"I talk to dad all the time! Whenever he's not at work, which is almost all the time. And all you do is criticize me every chance you get!"
"You don't get along with Jayne. She always complains that you're rude to her."
"She hates me! She picks on me all the time! Her and her friends."
"And you don't pick on poor little Leah?"
"I don't! I try to treat her nice, but she ends up acting like a little brat!" Sadie could hardly believe some of the things she was saying. She loved her family. All of this sounded like curse words to her, yet it all held truth. Her hands were in fists, quivering with anger.
"LISTEN TO ME!" her mother nearly screamed. The force of her yell pushed both Sadie and her father, who was still in the hallway, backwards. Sadie bumped into her nightstand, knocking over several markers and pencils, and her father had to grab the railing of the stairs to ensure he didn't collapse down the staircase. "You have been bottling up all of the problems that you cause with your sisters, as well as your poor performance in school, and the..." she stuttered, " the avalanche of your inadequacies... for much too long. And now your bursting at the seams with uncontrollable... well, uncontrollable something! You will be going to stay with some doctors for the next few weeks at a special hospital where they'll fix this problem."
"I said I don't have a problem!" Sadie yelled.
"This decision is final, and I will not be talked out of it by my own child. I expect you to be up by seven tomorrow morning. We will be leaving then. Pack your travel bag with clothes. Goodnight." Her mother quickly retreated, clearly crying under her breath, and sought refuge in her own bedroom. Sadie's father stood frozen in place with a hopeless expression on his face. In Sadie's anger, she strode toward him, took her door, and slammed it shut with all the force she could muster. The bang of the door sounded like a canon.
This is intolerable, she thought. Sending me to a doctor? Sure, maybe everything that happened today was weird, but those were terrible accusations. I can't just stand around idly after what I heard, right? I have to do something... right?
Sadie decided that she wouldn't stay idly, waiting for the morning when she would be taken to some doctor. She ran to her closet, pulled out a couple shirts and pants, stuffed them into her backpack, and slung it around her shoulder. She went straight to her window; she was going to leave. She climbed out of the window and swung herself onto the lattice, hardly giving it a second thought. Slowly, she made her way down to the ground, where she took off running.
She ran for a good four blocks in the warm summer night before slowing down to a walk. The air was pleasant with a breeze that rustled through her hair and the darkened trees. All the houses around her flickered with their porch lights on, people watching TV within their living rooms.
Sadie continued for several more blocks until she came to the local playground in her neighborhood. She didn't know what she was doing, or where she was going, but wherever it was, it was better than waiting in that house to be shipped off to some hospital like a package. The playground had one large play area, with a swing-set several feet away that was disconnected from the main structure. There was only one light, which only half illuminated the entire playground.
This was one of Sadie's most favorite places to be when she wanted to leave the house. She usually would come here in the daytime when Jayne and her friends would pester her, and would watch children play while would drawing them from the swings. But she had never been here by nighttime. She sat down on a swing, holding her bag to her chest. She was still crying, and it made her feel embarrassed, even though nobody was around to watch. But she couldn't stop, no matter how hard she willed to. How could her mother say such cruel things? And how could her father just stand back helplessly?
Sadie sat and cried on the swing for a little while. She wasn't sure how long she had been there, and without a watch, she lost track of time. She could tell it was getting much later though, as many of the houses that she could see were turning out their lights. Her crying had calmed, and she started to pull out some kleenex from her bag.
At that moment she had the strangest sensation that she was being watched. Somehow, in the mere moment she looked down into her bag, a figure had appeared before her. It scared her so much that she yelped, dropped her bag entirely, and fell backwards off the swing. She landed on the ground, flat on her back. As quick as she could, she scrambled up hastily, trying to put distance between her and the figure, which remained in the shadows cast by the light of the playground.
"Oh dear, I'm sorry to have startled you," said the intimidating shadowy person. But the person spoke in a very friendly tone.
"Who are you?" Sadie said, but she need not to have asked, because she knew by the voice. Out of the shadows came the nice, humble woman to match the voice. It was Ms. Yates, the odd lady from down the street, no doubt on one of her strange walks. She was dressed in a different dress than the one she wore this morning, now colored blue, pink, and purple.
"Just me, my dear, Patsy Yates." Though they had never had a one-on-one conversation alone before, Sadie had known who Ms. Yates was for her whole life. Ms. Yates and Sadie's parents had known each other since Sadie's parents had moved into Trail Lake. Her mother had always thought Ms. Yates was very odd, and at one point, had a strong obsession in trying to better understand Ms. Yates' quirky habits and utter, unexplainable uniqueness, to no avail.
"And you're the Murray's daughter, yes? Sadie Murray, I believe?" Ms. Yates said.
Sadie was almost shocked someone actually knew who she was. "Yes, it's me," Sadie replied.
"Which brings me to the question, why is a young girl like yourself sitting around in a dark playground at this hour?"
Sadie didn't want to answer the question truthfully. How could she bring herself to tell one of her neighbors that she had just ran away from home? But she couldn't very well hide the tears that were reforming in her eyes.
"Oh my, bad night then?" asked Ms. Yates, as if she had read Sadie's mind. "Have you left your home for the night?"
Sadie gave her a questioning look. How could Ms. Yates possibly know that she had ran away? Had her parents seen old woman, and sent Ms. Yates to fetch her?
"Well don't look at me like that," Ms. Yates said, chuckling as if she had been told a joke, "It isn't like there are many reasons for an eleven year old girl to be sitting in a park, crying, now are there?"
Sadie couldn't help but to laugh, wiping the tears from her eyes. "True," she replied. If her parents had seen Ms. Yates and told her, no doubt her mother would have asked Ms. Yates to promptly drag Sadie home by the ear.
"Well now, the next question is, do you have anywhere to go?" asked Ms. Yates.
"No, nowhere."
"That will never do. I'll make you a deal. If you help do some cleaning with me around my house, I'll let you stay over."
This was a strange offer. Ms. Yates and Sadie hardly knew each other on a personal basis, and she was willing to offer her room in her house? It was also somewhat intimidating. She didn't believe Ms. Yates would harm her, but who knew what weird things happened behind that front door when no other guests were around?
But seeing as she had nowhere else to go, Sadie said, "Okay, deal." She wiped the last remaining tears from her eyes and smiled.
"Wonderful!" Ms. Yates said excitedly. When did Ms. Yates pick up my backpack and put it on the swing? Sadie thought, as Ms. Yates handed the bag to her. Maybe I just didn't notice. "Now, I must mention, before we go," Ms. Yates continued, "That tonight, some of my family members are dropping by, as they always do, to stay a for several days during the summer."
"Oh no! I'm really sorry, Ms. Yates. I don't want to be in the way. I can just... find somewhere else to stay."
"Nonsense dear, we've already made our deal. Besides, my son has a daughter who turned eleven just last week, as well as a young boy who is only a few years older. It'll be like a big slumber party," Ms. Yates said, apparently relishing the thought of a slumber party. "We just have to clean the house quickly. I took my walk tonight somewhat later than usual, and they will be here promptly at 9:30, so we'll need the house ship shape by then."
They ambled down the roads, bathed in streetlights, until they returned once again to Mayflower Drive, and crossed the garden of Ms. Yates door, into her house, which was unlocked.
The house looked as familiar as it ever did to Sadie. The walls in Ms. Yates house were always painted over in different colors for every visitor that entered. People from the neighborhood thought it was some sort of long running prank that Ms. Yates was playing. The walls, at present, were a delightful daisy yellow. There were, for no readily apparent reason, towels littered about the floor, almost like a carpet. Finally, all the furniture in Ms. Yates' house was covered in a strange plastic that seemed very much like seran wrap.
"Alright, let's see," Ms. Yates said, thinking aloud, "Please go turn on the oven for me, I'll tidy up in here."
"You sure you wouldn't rather me help in here first?" Sadie asked, looking at all the towels. It would probably take quite a while to gather them up.
"No, no, I always have something for my family to eat when they get here. Oven first, I'll take care of this."
Sadie did as she was told, entered the kitchen, and turned the oven on with a beep. From the living room, she heard a loud fwooping sound, followed quickly the sound water makes when it goes down the drain. Completely bewildered, she returned to the living room to find that all the towels were now in a neat pile on the couch and most of the seran wrap in a pile on the floor, Ms. Yates removing the last of plastic from a grandfather clock. "If you don't mind putting this in the trash bin now."
Sadie returned to the kitchen and dumped the seran wrap in the trash bin. When she returned to the living room, Ms. Yates was re-arranging books that were on the shelf. Then, Sadie heard a loud, clunking, metal sound outside. "That would be them," Ms. Yates said.
Sadie looked out the front windows to see Ms. Yates' family arrive. But before she could register had what happened, a white Ford Fiesta came to a sudden halt in front of the house, screeching its tires. She had not even seen the car enter her field of vision. It was as if it appeared almost out of thin air. She figured she was very tired. I must be hallucinating, she thought, and decided not to mention it.
Sadie could see Ms. Yates' family approaching the house, and in moments the door burst open, and a boy came through the door. He had short, light brown hair and light freckles across his nose. He had to be around 15 years old. "Hey Grand... ma," he said, stuttering halfway through his sentence as he saw Sadie standing in the living room. He looked between his grandmother and his family, who were just now entered through the door, and was staring almost worriedly at Sadie, as if she were a wild animal that was libel to attack.
"Hello everyone, come in, come in," Ms. Yates said, ushering everyone into the room, as they all staring in the same manner. "I'd like to introduce you all to Ms. Sadie Murray. She lives just down the street with one of my neighbors. She has had a bad night, so I offered to let her stay over for a couple days."
There were four people in total, a mother and father, and their son and daughter. The father had light brown hair like the boy. He had a charming face, though he looked confused at the moment, and was quite tall. He was dressed in a white button up shirt with a tie that wasn't tied correctly, some slacks with the belt on backwards, as well as some dress shoes and two different colored pairs of socks, neither black. The woman, his wife, who also had light brown hair and beautiful green eyes, was somewhat plump, and looked absolutely delighted at the site of Sadie. The young girl was about Sadie's age, and had the same family oriented light brown hair, though significantly less freckles than her brother. She was about the same height, and seemed as if she wanted to ask a question, but couldn't find the words. She stood somewhat behind her mother with the same look as her father.
"You..." the father said, searching for words, "I - well - um - well, hello there, Sadie." The man somewhat awkwardly stepped toward Sadie and shook her hand.
"Sadie," Ms. Yates introduced, "this is my son, Daniel. This is his wife Lindsay, and their son and daughter, Tristan and Kelsey."
"Nice to meet you, Sadie," Lindsay Yates said, also shaking Sadie's hand, though much more confidently than her husband. Tristan nodded and Kelsey waved somewhat bashfully.
"Mother, could I speak with you real quick?" Daniel Yates said, eying Sadie warily, "In the kitchen?"
"Why of course," Ms. Yates said as they departed into the next room. Sadie felt awkward, for a silence gripped the room. The brother and sister exchanged looks of curiosity and confusion while their mother seemed to take Sadie in. "Well lets not make a mockery of all this furniture. Sit down all," Mrs. Yates said jovially. "Oh, Tristan, if you don't mind, could you begin unloading the the autoveekle?" Sadie thought she meant autovehicle, but wasn't sure why someone as old as Mrs. Yates could not pronounce the word. Tristan nodded and left the room while Lindsay Yates sat down merrily on the couch, motioning for her daughter to sit down as well.
"So you live nearby then, Sadie?" Mrs. Yates asked, as she continued to inspect Sadie.
"Yes, just down the street. Well, sort of." Do I technically still live in my house now that I ran away? she thought. Another silence gripped the room uncomfortably, though Sadie could hear Mr. Yates talking in a low mumble to his mother in the next room. She tried to listen.
"...Mnd I dom think mts mright to imite a Muggle omer mow."
Ms. Yates spoke much louder than her son did, "It won't be any trouble, I assure you Daniel. You mustn't worry yourself."
Now Mr. Yates spoke so quietly he was completely inaudible. But Ms. Yates replied as loudly as ever, "I promise, son, not more than a few days. Please, she has nowhere to go right now."
Mr. Yates mumbled something further before they returned to the room. "I'm sorry I didn't have anything ready. The house looks dreadful," Ms. Yates said, following Mr. Yates into the room. Sadie glanced around, and thought the house looked exponentially clean, especially considering several minutes ago it had been littered with towels and plastic. "But," continued Ms. Yates, "I'll fix the bedrooms right up for you, and there are some cookies that will be done very soon," she said to a happy reply from everyone in the room except Mr. Yates, who seemed to be thinking difficultly about something.
"Did I hear grandma say cookies?" said Tristan, who returned lugging several bags, one of which was a terribly large trunk. He stumbled along as he went before his father went to help him.
"Yes," replied his mother, "But only a few tonight. It's late, we need to get to bed soon."
"Why mom? It's summer! We could use some time to relax before school starts."
"Speak for yourself," said Kelsey, "You've been going for five years already. This is my first year in school. The end of summer can't come soon enough!"
Sadie thought this was a weird comment. Kelsey must have been her age, yet she had never been to school? And her brother had been there only five years? Logically speaking, Tristan should be in high school, no doubt with a crush on Jayne. The comment phased no one else, as Tristan continued, "Yeah, you're excited now. It wears off in three weeks once the homework really gets piled on."
"Oh, don't listen to this silly boy," their father said, ruffling Tristan's already untidy hair, "The professors aren't that tough there. School should be simple."
"Like Kelsey said, 'speak for yourself.' You didn't have to deal with Professor Wynter in your days at school. Let me tell you, he's no walk in the park."
"Was that the teacher that gave you the A?" asked his mother.
"Yes, and I barely scraped by with one too. If I did any worse, I would have gotten a B." Sadie thought that Tristan was either a workaholic, or just very strange, though she couldn't decide which. Sadie almost always made B's in her classes and was content with such, because it was a good average and better than a C.
"Oh, I met him," said his mother, "Out on the avenue in Old York, in one of the shops. Definitely not the most friendly person I've met."
Mr. Yates resumed his part of the discussion, "But I'll have you know that Professor Wynter isn't the only bad professor in the world. Every school has one, and you just have to learn to deal with them."
"Whatever you say, Dad," replied Tristan, "But I swear that you'll be complaining right after school starts, Kelsey."
"I won't!" the young girl said defensively and with vigor. "I'll love it more than you can imagine! It'll be great, and I'll be able to meet a lot of new people. You're just nervous because you have to take your aunts this year." Sadie raised her eyebrows in curiosity, but didn't question the strange terminology; she was too busy trying to deduce exactly what sort of school they were talking about.
"As he should be," their grandmother said. She had left the room while they were in conversation and had fetched the tea, giving everyone, including Sadie, a cup. "Aunts are no pushover."
"I'll do fine. Wynter's class is the only one I'll have to worry about. That and maybe Professor Millan's class. But I should be all set for the others. I'm glad I tried studying with the all of those Noctowls I met last year."
"All of those what?" Sadie asked. She could hardly believe she said the question aloud, but she just couldn't contain her curiosity. The whole room seemed to suddenly be allergic to something, and everyone coughed several times.
Tristan and his father quickly shuffled up the stairs, taking their luggage with them. Ms. Yates replied first, "Just a silly group of friends Tristan knows. They named themselves that, for who knows what reason." She gave a big smile.
Sadie nodded. Now she felt like she could be part of the conversation, having one question answered successfully, and decided to ask another. "And what school were you talking about?"
Again, Kelsey seemed as if she were about to answer, but refrained from saying anything. Her mother spoke instead, "Oh, why it is the Salem... School... of Boys and Girls! Yes, that's it. I don't suppose you've ever heard of it though."
"No, I haven't. Is it small?"
"Not really small," Kelsey replied, "But not - um - very well known."
"Yes, that's right," her mother continued, "It's a boarding school for children in Massachusetts."
"Wow, I've never known anyone who goes to a boarding school," Sadie said, "It must be interesting."
"It is interesting," said Tristan, who returned to the room, speaking much more confidently than before, "But it's more because of the subjects than the fact that it's a boarding school." For some reason his father, who was right behind him, shushed him after he said this.
"They teach special skills for the children," their mother assured. "It's a private education, and it's very useful."
"That's amazing," Sadie said, trying to imagine what it would be like to live at a school far away from home and her stupid family.
"Yes, yes. And you go to a Mug - I mean, regular school?" their mother asked, suddenly coughing again.
A mug? How strange to ask about a cup instead of a school. "Yeah, just a public school. Nothing really special."
"That's perfect!" yelled Tristan louder than he probably intended to. "Would it be alright if I asked you some questions about your school?"
"Now Tristan..." his father warned, implying something that Sadie wasn't picking up on. But Tristan had already grabbed a piece of paper and pencil from a table and sat in front of Sadie, "It's homework dad! This is a huge opportunity, and I could get a great aunt in my Mug - I mean, my class."
Now Tristan said mug! They must have some odd fascination with cups, Sadie thought. "Oh... alright," Tristan's father said, almost disapprovingly, "But be careful will you?"
"What did you want to ask?" Sadie queried.
"I wanted to ask you some questions about what your school and life is like. It's for my Mug..." he stopped mid-sentence again when his dad coughed, "My social studies class, I mean. We're supposed to find out stuff about people who don't go to a special school like mine. Would it be alright if I asked you some qusetions about it?"
This was almost thrilling to Sadie. She never normally received this much attention from anyone. "Sure, I'll tell you some." Ms. Yates sat down in a chair, and sipped her tea, while Mrs. Lindsay Yates leaned closer to Sadie. Sadie even heard Kelsey mumble "This will be cool," under her breath. Sadie surely didn't know what was so interesting about herself, but she wasn't about to complain.
Tristan launched into a long series of questions, and scribbled down as much of Sadie's answers as he could. But he apparently had so many questions that he would often stop Sadie short to ask new questions, his mother pushing him whenever he interrupted Sadie. But Sadie was happy to tell. She told all about the kids in her school, and the classes she took, as well as how things were living with her family. Sometimes, Tristan would ask weird questions, like, "What is a microwave, honestly?" or "I've heard of these things called 'compact discs.' Can you tell me more about them?" and of course, "Have you ever heard of something called a dish washer? Maybe I'm saying that wrong..." which made Sadie burst out in laughter.
The whole family listened to Sadie's answers with great enthusiasm, and for some reason, made ooh and ahh noises to very simple answers. But before long, Sadie had begun to yawn every other minute. "Wow, look at the time," Mrs. Yates finally said, looking at the grandfather clock. "You children need to get to bed."
"But mom! We were just getting started!" Tristan whined, even though it had been well over an hour.
"Well, like your grandmother said, Sadie's going to be staying here for a few days. I'm sure she wouldn't mind you asking her some questions once in awhile in that time. But now it's time to sleep."
"Unfortunately," Ms. Yates said to Kelsey, "seeing as your father and mother will be in their usual room, and if I remember correctly, it's Tristan's turn to get the spare bedroom, you may have to find room to share here with Sadie. Unless Tristan is willing to share of course."
"I don't want to share a room with a boy, Grandma!" Kelsey replied, "Besides, I think I'd rather be in here with Sadie." This made Sadie blush; someone actually wanted to be with her, over their own brother no less. "If that's alright, of course?" Kelsey asked her.
"More than alright!" Sadie exclaimed.
"Wonderful!" Ms. Yates said with equal enthusiasm, "Daniel, dear, there's a large folding mattress in the closet in my bedroom. If you could lay that out on the floor here for them, that would be perfect."
While everyone got prepared for bed, Ms. Yates showed Sadie around the house, particularly where everything was upstairs. By the time they had returned, Mr. Yates had already cleared all the furniture and laid out the mattress. Sadie thought he had done this quite fast, but figured she was just tired and was losing track of time.
Then, the lights in the house went out and everyone retreated to their beds. The house was silent except for the slow tick of the grandfather clock. Sadie and Kelsey whispered to each other so they wouldn't wake the others while they shared the folding bed. They talked for what seemed like hours. Kelsey told more about herself since she had already heard so much about Sadie. Sadie learned that Kelsey was a little like herself, for Kelsey didn't have many friends either since she had not yet begun attending her strange boarding school.
As time passed by, they both were laughing giddily because of how tired they were. They decided it was reluctantly time to go to bed. Saying goodnight to each other, they closed their eyes and became silent. Sadie thought, just before she slipped off into sleep, about how happy she was. She had almost forgotten the events that took place that day. She didn't need to worry about turkeys, nor balance beams, nor angry mothers. No evil doctors or crying sisters. She had met people who actually cared about what she did and had to say. It felt like heaven.
The next morning, everyone except for Sadie and Kelsey awoke early. In fact, the girls probably would have slept much later, had a small black kitten not dived directly atop the mattress, landing on both of them, and waking them both with startled screams. "It's my cat, Gatsby," Kelsey later explained. "He always goes crazy in the mornings."
Kelsey's family and Sadie then had a wonderful breakfast. As Sadie thought about things, she realized there was nothing particularly astounding about the food at the breakfast. It was the fact that they all sat around the dining room table to eat it. Everyone talked, told jokes, and laughed together. Sadie's family rarely ate together. The only reason they had the previous day was in celebration of Jayne's competition that day. Eating together with the Yates was a refreshing change.
Throughout the day, Kelsey and Sadie relaxed, and Sadie had never been happier doing so. They had to dodge Tristan, who was constantly spitting out all sorts of odd questions at Sadie. When Sadie admitted that she enjoyed drawing, Kelsey asked Sadie to draw her, to which she gladly obliged. It was convenient for Tristan as well, since he could ask Sadie as many questions as he needed to while she drew. She drew it as well as she could, and when she finished, showed the drawing to Kelsey. "Wow, Sadie! It looks just like me! And it's weird how it stays still." Sadie didn't understand Kelsey's statement, but she had learned that the Yates were just a bit strange. They simply had an interesting way of talking, and she took no notice.
The Yates also had a lot of weird words which they threw in randomly during conversation. Sadie overheard Lindsay Yates mention that a "knarl" was wrecking her neighbors garden. On another occasion, when Daniel Yates was helping his mother prepare food for lunch, he asked if she had any "jerryberry" handy. Finally, the oddest word was when Sadie learned Kelsey had never played soccer. She asked if they had a soccer ball anywhere, and Kelsey redirected the question to Tristan.
"The only ball I have is an empty quod, and I..." after saying this, he became very frightened for a moment, and then explained, "The ball is empty - you wouldn't be able to use it. Don't ask me." He hurried away immediately afterward. Kelsey said she didn't know what he was talking was about, so what a quod was remained lost with Tristan.
They ended up spending the rest of the evening indoors, as Kelsey asked Sadie to draw anything she could find that was interesting, whether it was just a lamp, or her parents in the kitchen. Sadie never had received this much attention at once, especially focused on her drawing, and she was invigorated. What was more, nobody in the family ever touched the TV that sat in the living room throughout the entire night. In Sadie's family, her sisters always crowded around the TV and watched endless shows as they came on. Sometimes they didn't even watch the show; they would just sit there as if in a trance. Whenever the Yates had nothing to do, they would either read, clean, or talk; talking was the most frequently chosen option. And though Sadie and Kelsey sat around the house as Sadie drew, the time flew by. In no time, it was already as late as the night before, and they went to bed.
The next day was as joyful as the last. Mr. Yates, who had seemed somewhat uncomfortable with Sadie when they first arrived, was now speaking with her all the time about ordinary things. "I just really don't understand anything about these lightbulbs. They're a complete mystery to me." It took all the effort Sadie could muster not to laugh at the odd combintions of clothes Mr. Yates wore. Today, he was dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and overalls, which were on backwards, though he took no notice.
After lunch, Sadie took Kelsey to the playground, and then around the neighborhood, where they began to explore. They would peer into backyards, and Kelsey would sometimes ask what something like the water mattress in some person's swimming pool was for, or why all the houses had ears. "They're not ears!" Sadie explained, "They're satellite dishes, and they pick up channels on TV. Though your family doesn't watch much TV, so it makes sense you wouldn't know."
After yet another long day, the family had dinner, and another wonderfully long talk with each other, and went to bed. As Sadie and Kelsey laid on their mattress in the living room, playing with Gatsby, Sadie said, "This has been great. The last two days have been the best of my life."
"I know!" Kelsey whispered, "I never do anything really interesting. It's worse in the summer, cause Tristan is around and bugging me all the time. But this year has been so different. I've barely been able to keep myself from going crazy knowing that I finally get to go to school."
"It sounds like it's going to be a really great place. And you get to go somewhere away from your family, to a place with lots of people your age where you can have fun. That's exciting! Not that you need to leave your family. They're so much fun."
"Thanks. My family's alright. I guess spend so much time around them I don't notice anymore."
"They're a huge difference from my family. My family... well, they almost act as if they don't care about me."
"What do you mean?" Kelsey asked, sitting up.
"Well, they just treat me bad. I mean, not real bad. My dad is great, but he's always working, and I don't get to see him as often as I'd like. My mom's just real mean though. I mean, they take care of me and stuff... But my sisters both pick on me all the time, and my mother is always arguing about something. And when they aren't doing that, they just ignore me. Sometimes I feel like I'm invisible, and that they don't care about me at all."
"They care," Kelsey said confidently. "You can't tell, and they don't show it, but they care. My dad said this to me once, 'Those who love you, who really truly love you, will do anything for you if they know they have to.' I bet you anything that if something really bad happened, they'd do something about it."
Sadie thought about what Kelsey had just said. The whole time they spent outside today, not once did she see anyone looking for her. She ran away from home - why weren't they out searching for her? "But I ran away. Isn't that bad enough?"
"Maybe not. Maybe they need a bigger kick than that to get going. You never said why you ran away, by the way. Why did you?"
Sadie didn't know what to say. How would she tell her new friend that two days before, she had somehow managed to make a turkey float in the air, and then disappear out of sight? How would she explain that after her cousin tried to play a prank on her, that somehow, she was responsible for making her cousin's hair grow out of control? How could Sadie even start to tell how she ruined her sister's gymnastics performance by making the balancing beam disappear?
"Some weird things happened that night... That's all."
"Well, tell me about them. I can handle weird things, Sadie, and I'm curious."
"No, it's really stupid. You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
To this, Kelsey sat straight up and pulled Sadie into a sitting position too. Kelsey looked at Sadie with a kind smile, and Sadie could tell that Kelsey was being honest, without being demanding. "Honestly, I want to know. What happened?"
"Well... Okay..." Sadie decided that if anyone would understand, it would be Kelsey. She told the whole story, from beginning to end. As she expected though, from the moment she mentioned her cousin's hair growing, Kelsey's eyes popped out, and she kept saying "No way!" under her breath at every impossible thing that happened.
"And so I was standing there, mad at my aunt, crying in front of everybody, and the turkey lifted off the table all by itself. And it just... floated there for a minute, and then completely disappeared. Then my mom said later that she was going to send me some place where some doctors would 'fix my problem.' And I ran away. See, I know it's stupid. You don't believe me."
Kelsey sat there staring in disbelief. Sadie knew this would happen from the beginning. She probably freaked Kelsey out now; Kelsey probably wanted to run away from her and tell everyone in the house how crazy Sadie was.
"Sadie..." Kelsey said slowly. "I - well - I haven't exactly been honest with you."
"I know, it's weird... I..." Sadie mumbled, trying to hide her embarrassment. But Kelsey stopped her short.
"No, listen," Kelsey interrupted. "Watch."
The moonlight was streaming into the room as Kelsey stood up and walked across the room to her traveling bag. She dug in it for a moment, and returned with a strange looking cylinder piece of wood.
"What's..." Sadie started to ask, but Kelsey shushed her. Kelsey turned on the lamp. Looking around, Kelsey took a plastic cup that someone had been drinking out of earlier, and placed it in the middle of the glass coffee table which had been moved to make room for the bed they slept on. Sadie tried to ask another question, but was shushed quickly.
Kelsey pointed the stick at the cup and seemed to be concentrating very hard. Then, she waved her stick like a conductor's baton, first down, then in a small circle, and back down again, while she said "Wingardium Leviosa."
They stared at the at the cup. Nothing happened. Sadie tried once more to ask a question, but got shushed a third time, "Hold on," Kelsey said, "I'm just not good at it. Give me a second." She concentrated again, moved her stick in the same manner, and said again, "Wingardium Leviosa."
Sadie's mouth hit the floor with shock. Slowly, subtly, the cup began shaking, as if they were in an earthquake. Then it moved slightly on the spot. Finally, with a bit of effort, as Kelsey raised her stick, the cup began to rise into the air. It floated there until Kelsey lost her concentration on the cup, and it fell back to the table on its side.