Knack (Benjamin Brown Book 1)

by Tom Twitchel

  “My mom raised me to have good manners,” I said as I closed the door behind us.

  “Really? Like the front door blockade you were practicing up here earlier? What’s so different now?”

  “Yeah, well, I guess that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”

  She walked ahead of me into the bare living room, pulled a barstool away from the counter and sat down, her feet dangling several inches off the floor. Brushing her hair out of her eyes with her hand, she looked at me with a sober expression.

  “I’m all ears,” she said.

  I sat down on the other barstool, relieved to be off my feet.

  “Can I trust you, Maddy? I mean, I do think I trust you, but I just met you and what I want to share with you is pretty important to me.”

  “I can keep a secret, if that’s what you mean.”

  “Mostly, but not just that. Some people keep secrets, but they let you know they have a secret they’re not telling, and that makes people curious about what that person knows. The thing I want to tell you is the kind of secret that I don’t want anyone to know even exists. Do you know what I mean?”

  She wrinkled her nose and flipped her bangs back with a shake of her head. “Like not even letting anyone know that you know something that might be important?”

  “Yeah, like that.”

  “Well, I can tell that whatever you’ve got bottled up is pretty important to you so I wouldn’t want to betray a trust. But I have some questions to ask before you decide whether you really want to tell me whatever it is.”

  “Okay. What?” I asked.

  “First, does this whatever it is involve anyone being hurt or getting into trouble?”

  That was tough to answer because technically both were true. “Umm, not exactly.”

  Frowning slightly, she said, “Is it about you or someone else?”

  I struggled with how to respond to that. I decided to just press forward. “It’s about me, but it involves other people. The only person who might get in trouble is me. But I haven’t done anything bad, at least not anything that would hurt someone else.”

  “Okaaayy. Well, why me? It sounds pretty big. Are you sure you want to share it with someone you just met?” She made little quotation marks in the air above her head with her fingers when she said, “just met.”

  There was no easy way to answer that except to jump in. “I can tell you’re a good person. I don’t have any friends here yet and my… I’m alone all day. I’m a pretty good judge of character.… I guess what I’m trying to say is that I…need…I need a friend.” She smiled, reached out her hand and placed it over one of mine.

  “Hey, I knew you and I were going to be friends when I first saw you.”

  I held my hand steady. I was afraid that if I moved it she would take hers away. like a butterfly that might fly away at the slightest movement.

  “Yeah?”

  She smiled. “Absolutely.”

  So I decided to go “whole hog” like my mom used to say and told her my secret: that I lived alone. She was surprised but not shocked. “Seriously Benny, you have to make this place look like an adult is living in it.” When I gave her the short tour, she didn’t hold back on her opinion about my decorating in “Mom’s” room either: “Dang! You have got to get rid of the drapes, lamps and…that rug! Sheesh!” Surprisingly, to me, she had even more criticism on how I hadn’t decorated the bathroom. Apparently, a woman’s touch not only extended there but also involved more unnecessary expense in accessorizing than I had imagined. Not to mention cleaning supplies, which I had completely overlooked. But she didn’t ask the big question: “Why did you run away?” She seemed willing to wait for me to bring it up in my own time.

  I was enjoying the company too much to get my feelings hurt about the decorating advice; besides, it was all useful input. Reluctant to let all of the metaphorical cats out of the bag at once, I held back on telling her about my special talents and left out specific references to my injuries or how I got them. I told her that I had run away and that my father was the reason. I didn’t mention Billy at all, and the fact that I left him behind. That was the one thing I was too ashamed of to share with anybody. She hadn’t pressed for more information except to say, “At some point, when you are willing to tell me all of it, that’ll be soon enough for me.”

  Maddy’s appearance in my life was like being thrown a lifeline, like a miracle actually. She promised to keep my secret and more importantly, to stay far away from any discussion that might reveal it to an adult.

  When I got ready for bed early that evening, deciding to keep going with my newfound grown up discipline, I reflected on what I had acquired during the day:

  a half-full refrigerator

  and a friend.

  CHAPTER NINE

  During the next two weeks, with Maddy’s help, I added some details to the apartment. A free couch (thank you Craigslist and the nice guys who dropped it off), a small flat screen TV for twenty-five dollars, two recliners (thank you Breno for carrying them upstairs) for almost nothing and different stuff for my pretend Mom’s room that was much more feminine. We also went shopping for school supplies together, which was less fun than I had expected. Maddy was enjoying being my surrogate adult influence, but I was not happy about how much I was spending.

  “What’s your deal? You know you’re going to need this stuff,” she said after my fourth or fifth complaint about how much it was all costing.

  “I have to pay for this stuff. I don’t have unlimited cash. All the spending is making me really uptight,” I said. A small whine might have crept into my voice. I hoped she hadn’t noticed.

  “Stop whining. But that reminds me, I’ve been meaning to ask, where does your money come from? I mean you don’t have a job do you?”

  And there was the question I had been hoping to avoid because it would lead to how I made money and how I did what I did. I avoided giving her an answer while we finished up shopping. Later, at the apartment, she brought it up again.

  We were sitting on my overstuffed soft couch and facing me, she pulled her feet up under herself and gave me the patented Maddy one-eyed-stare. “Well? Where does it come from?”

  I couldn’t lie to her and I couldn’t pretend that I didn’t know what she was referring to. She was my only friend and I had promised myself that other than to protect myself I would get off the lying train, especially with her.

  “I do magic in the park.”

  “You do…what? You do not!” she said with an equal mixture of disbelief and, I think, hopeful curiosity.

  Shrugging, I said, “Yeah, I do.”

  Then the predictable, “Show me!” Followed by a narrowing of her green eyes and a slight smile.

  Our new friendship had provided enough time together that I knew she would keep asking and that I would eventually give in. So, instead of arguing and begging her to leave it alone, I got a deck of cards out of my room and showed her some card tricks. She was mildly impressed.

  “That’s pretty good, Benny. Like, really pretty good. But how does that earn you more than a couple of bucks? I know some card tricks and I’m sure I couldn’t make any money from it.”

  I shrugged again. “I do some other stuff that’s a little more…flashy.”

  Giggling, she said, “Uh huh. Show me boooyyy. Show me.”

  Showing her some tricks was fun and bothered me less than not showing her anything. I allowed myself to get into it. It was fun showing off to a friend.

  “Okay, but one rule: Don’t ask me how I do it,” I said with as serious a look as I could manage.

  “Okay, okay. Show me.” She bounced a little on the couch.

  I shuffled the deck and had her pick a card, look at it then put it back. I reshuffled and placed the deck in between us on the couch.

  “Okay, what was your card?”

  “Aren’t you supposed to guess my card?” She raised an eyebrow questioningly.

  Affecting an air of cheesiness, I said, “
Please, madam, a magical performer creates his own illusions. What was your card?”

  “Three of diamonds,” she said, giggling and bouncing in excitement.

  Focusing on the top card of the deck, I caused it to slide off the deck and turn over. The three of diamonds with Maddy’s name written across it slid on its own power over to her side of the couch.

  “OMG! Cool! That’s amazing!” She started to reach for it and I raised my hand.

  “The trick isn’t over. Don’t touch the card.”

  Placing her hands in her lap, she grinned at me in anticipation.

  “Keep an eye on your card,” I said as I passed my hand over it.

  When my hand moved away, Maddy’s name had vanished and the card had reverted to its original suit and number. A seven of hearts.

  Maddy yelped and stared at the card and then clapped her hands.

  “Do another one!”

  Moving the cards to the table, I cleared my throat. “One more.”

  “Okay, but make it a good one!”

  “Roll up the sleeve of your sweatshirt,” I directed.

  Looking at me with curiosity, she did as I asked.

  “What is your favorite color?”

  “Green.”

  “What is your favorite animal?”

  “Umm…a cat.”

  “Look at your arm.”

  She looked me in the eye and then moved her head to look at her bare arm.

  Then she jumped about a foot off the couch.

  I had made a green image of my aunt’s cat appear on her arm. She screamed, then looked at me, screamed again and then rubbed at the picture on her arm.

  Worried that her screams were going to attract attention, I said in a panicky voice, “Hey, it’s okay. It’s okay. Look; it’s gone!” She looked at me, her eyes wide with shock. I pointed at her arm.

  Looking down, she rubbed at her arm again. The cat had disappeared. When she looked up at me again, I wasn’t sure what to expect.

  “That was SO COOL!”

  Feeling a little relieved, I said, “Yeah? I was afraid you were freaking out.”

  “Benny, that was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen! How…” She stopped, giggled and then started laughing hysterically.

  Now, I was concerned again. “Hey, are you all right?”

  She was laughing so hard that tears leaked from the corners of her eyes.

  Getting herself under control, she said between giggles, “That was so amazing! And I thought you were just messing with me, that you really couldn’t do magic. You should be on TV!”

  That’s when I shifted my emotions into second gear and got really scared. “Yeah. I don’t want to be on TV.”

  Picking up on my change in attitude, she got serious pretty quick.

  “Because of why you ran away? The reason you’re living here the way you do?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Hey, I get it. I was just so…so…blown away. Benny! You’re so good!”

  “Thanks.” My heart started beating a little slower.

  “Can I help you? You know, like, be your assistant?”

  I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. “How?”

  She leaned toward me, obviously still excited by what I’d shown her. I could smell the shampoo in her hair.

  “I could be like your manager. You know, “Hey everyone step up and see the unBElievable mind BENding BENjamin!” Like that! What do you think?”

  “Well, I don’t know. Would your parents get weird about it?”

  “They’re out of town, remember? Besides, why would they have to know?”

  “I guess.” I was wracking my brain trying to come up with a good reason why she couldn’t help. I had nothing.

  She got a melodramatic, intentionally mysterious look on her face and smiled at me. “But, you know, if I’m your assistant…”

  “What?” I asked even though I knew what was coming.

  “You’ll eventually have to share your magical secrets with me at some point.”

  The truth is I wanted to tell her, even though I knew it was probably not a good idea. She was my only friend. The only person I interacted with on more than a short conversational basis. And, I guess I have to tell the truth here; I wanted to impress her.

  So, I made a decision to let another feline out of the pouch.

  “Okay, before I tell you, I want to try something but it might scare you and I don’t want you to scream again. Can you promise me you won’t scream?”

  Leaning back, she cocked her head to one side, “Are you trying to scare me?”

  “No. I just don’t want you to be startled and make any more noise. You know I can’t afford to get the neighbors upset.”

  She brushed her hair out of her face, always a sign that she was serious about whatever she was doing or discussing. “Is it painful? This experiment?”

  “No, and it’s not really an experiment. I’ve done it before, with other people but it doesn’t work for everyone. If it works for you then the explanation of how I do my…stuff will make sense to you.”

  Pulling a colored band out of a pocket in her sweatshirt, she pulled back her hair and tied it in a ponytail. She straightened her shoulders, drew her legs up on the couch and sat cross-legged. Placing her hands in her lap, she smiled and nodded at me.

  “Okay. I’m ready.”

  Can you hear me Maddy? I hope you can.

  Her eyes opened wide with surprise, her lips parted and her eyebrows shot up. But she didn’t scream or make a sound.

  Benny?

  Yes. It’s me.

  Oh. My. Gosh! This is amazing! And weird!

  The tricks aren’t tricks. I create them with my mind.

  That’s amazing! But this talking in our heads with nobody else here is pretty creepy.

  Are you scared? Do you think I’m a freak?

  She leaned toward me and gave me a hug.

  “You’re not a freak. You’re my best friend.”

  My mind was swimming. I wasn’t thinking about the fact that one of my strange abilities could be experienced with someone I trusted. I wasn’t thinking about her arms wrapped around me, as good as that made me feel. I wasn’t missing my mom or feeling guilty about Billy at that moment.

  I was thinking about what she had said.

  Best friend.

  CHAPTER TEN

  It was several weeks later, after school had started and I had saved Baffle from certain annihilation, when Maddy, Baffle and I became a thing. The three amigos or, at least, the three stooges. Maddy fancied herself Mo with Baffle and I being relegated to the roles of Larry and Curly.

  On the first long weekend of the school year I had invited Baffle over (under the pretext that my mom was working, of course) and had decided to take him into my confidence regarding my other special abilities since he already knew about one. He had been ecstatic.

  “I’m not gonna lie. I’m more than a little jelly, but holy crap dude! You’re a freaking magician!” he crowed.

  Keeping my living situation a secret seemed like a good idea though. I’d already let Maddy in on it and I thought that was far enough. It felt good to be able to be completely transparent with one person but the thought of having the story get back to any adults who might believe sending me back home would be a kindness was too scary to risk. Baffle’s parents, practicing psychiatrists who couldn’t diagnose their own obsessive-compulsive disorders, were just those kind of well-meaning adults. The special gifts I had discovered could be blabbed without much fear of discovery. Accidental (or intentional) sharing of my abilities by either of my friends would be met with skepticism. My lack of confirmation of said abilities would immediately brand them as pranksters at best and liars at worst. Stories about living alone would beg investigation and wouldn’t end well.

  Reveling in my revealed secret, Baffle spazzed out and theorized about shadowy government agencies on the lookout for youths with supernatural talents and a desire to whisk me away to some secret facility
where bizarre experiments would be conducted on me. As unquestionably intelligent as he was, he was a daydreamer, a fantasist, a social outcast and a nerd. As dumb as his ramblings were, they still made me feel queasy. I decided to change the subject.

  “You want to come with me today and watch me do my thing?” I asked.

  “Uh, yeah! Where do you go?” he asked, excitedly.

  I shrugged. “Usually one of the parks. But we can set up out front on the sidewalk if you don’t want to go through taking a bus to the park.”

  “No. Let’s do a park. Do you like, make a lot of money?”

  Laughing, I shook my head. “It depends. Some days I do, if the weather is nice and there are a lot of families or couples. If it’s overcast or there are more large groups of people, not so much.”

  “Well, come on dude, let’s go. The weather’s good. Which park?” he asked, rubbing his hands together.

  “There’s a park I haven’t visited much that might work. Let’s try there.”

  We were nearly ready to leave when we heard a knock at my door.

  Slumping his shoulders and closing his eyes, Baffle sighed. “Ah geez. Is that your mom?”

  “Uh, no. She has a key.” I laughed.

  “Oh, yeah. Good.”

  Looking through the peephole, I saw one giant green eye peering back at me.

  Opening the door, I smiled. “Hey, Maddy.” Grinning with her hair hiding half her face and a mustard colored hoodie hiding most of her head, she skipped in and wrapped me in a bear hug.

  Baffle’s voice rang out behind me. “Hey, now. Who’s this? I didn’t know you had a girlfriend.”

  Self-consciously pushing away from each other, Maddy and I turned to look back at him. I was blushing pretty hard.

  “She’s not my…”

  “I’m not his…”

  “…girlfriend.”

  “…boyfriend.”

  Baffle started laughing while Maddy gave him the visual once over. Hair mussed, slightly sweaty and his shirt sporting two or three stains of unknown origin, his pale-featured, heavily-freckled face was split in an ear-to-ear grin, enjoying our obvious discomfort.