The Boy Who Couldn't Fly Straight (The Broom Closet Stories)

by Jeff Jacobson

  “That the law of gravity exists, that if you put something on a table, it’ll stay there unless someone else removes it, that bones and body tissue keep their shape unless there’s a tear or a break…having to accept witchcraft meant having to let my mind be blown, and that, my friend, is one of the hardest things to go through in this life.

  “It’s why the witches try to educate their kids when they’re young, before they’ve formed strong views of the world. It’s why they let echoes just be echoes, instead of trying to pop them as adults. Adult brains become rigid, hard-set in their belief systems. Cracking them open can have serious mental, and even physical, results.

  “So your mind has been blown, Charlie. True, you’re much younger than I was when it happened, and you’re a lot smarter than me. But still, your mind has been blown wide open. You gotta go easy on yourself, kid. This is not just a simple thing to accept, like scientists discovering a new island in the Pacific Ocean. This is having to swallow a whole new way of seeing how the world really works. And no matter how understanding Beverly and the other witches try to be, they’ll never get what it’s like for us outsiders to accept it all.

  “Now, Beverly would kill me if she knew how much I was talking and lecturing at you. She would say I should stop and ask you if you have any questions. So, do you have any questions?” Randall asked, a shy, but friendly smile on his face.

  Charlie looked out the window, feeling calmer now than when he had first learned about his uncle leaving Beverly. Even if he didn’t like the fact that Randall hadn’t contacted Beverly during all that time, he could understand, all too well, what it felt like to go crazy.

  “Um, how did you two get back together?”

  “I called her one day, out of the blue. I didn’t have a plan. I just missed her too much. She answered the phone, and hearing her voice was incredible. It was her, the Beverly that I knew, not the scary one from the beach. She started crying, I started crying, and the rest, as they say, is history.”

  “Was it easy to come back home and understand it all?”

  “No. It wasn’t. We had to make a deal with each other. She wouldn’t show me anything or tell me anything unless I asked, and I wouldn’t flee in the middle of the night without at least telling her that I wanted to. It was hard for the both of us in the beginning, but we figured it was what we needed to make things work out.

  “We took it very slowly. Over time, we became a couple again. Stronger than we had been before. When her mother died, we moved into the family home in West Seattle. I even became friends with some of the other witches. But I didn’t ask many questions. And believe me, the witches weren’t that fond of showing me things. It worked out for the better.

  “Look, Charlie, I think we’ve had enough talking for tonight. Or at least I think I’ve talked at you enough. Let me text Beverly to tell her that we got to chatting, and then let’s go inside before Costco closes.”

  He fished in his jeans pocket for his phone. “Got gabby, will be later than expected,” he said as he typed, then hit send. “There! Now let’s go get us some hot dogs!”

  The two of them stretched their legs in the parking lot. Randall looked up at the darkening sky.

  “All that warm, dry weather we’ve been having? It looks like it could be on its way out any day now. This,” he spread his arms and looked up at the sky, “means that the season of wet will soon be upon us. And,” he said, looking out at the dark gray clouds piled low on the horizon, one on top of the other, “my guess is that a storm is coming.”

  Chapter 31

  The bell rang, and the students began putting their books and papers away.

  “Hao le,” Chen Laoshi said. “Mingtian de gongke jiushi di ershi dao di ershiwuye, dongbudong?”

  “Dong,” said the students. Charlie knew enough Chinese now to understand that the homework was to do pages twenty through twenty-five.

  As he walked out into the hallway he was surprised to see Diego standing to the side of the door, with a big smile on his face.

  “Hey,” Charlie said, embarrassed.

  “I’m your stalker for the day!” Diego said, looking down at him and laughing. “The office told me you had Chinese this morning.”

  “Oh.” Charlie didn’t know what else to say. Diego seemed so big and bright standing there, with students walking around him, some of them greeting him.

  Diego’s smile faded. “You busy with something? Or just creeped out that I found you?”

  “No, no,” Charlie said, trying to find words. He was happy to see Diego. But nervous too. Why was he nervous? It didn’t make any sense. “I still feel like everything’s so new, is all,” he said, fingers playing with the bracelet that Beverly had given him.

  “That’s a cool bracelet! Where’d you get it?”

  “My aunt gave it to me.”

  “I want one. Can she get me one too?” he asked, encircling his hand around Charlie’s wrist and pulling it closer to inspect the silver band.

  Diego’s skin felt warm. Warm, and safe. Charlie shivered, then pulled his hand away.

  “She, uh, she said she picked it up somewhere, kind of, um, far away. Maybe on a trip in Europe?” he said, feeling stupid, sure that Diego could see through his lie.

  Diego looked like he was about to say something about the bracelet, then shrugged and smiled.

  “What’s your next class?”

  “Biology.”

  They started walking down the hallway.

  “I have a meeting with the school advisor for the GSA in ten minutes, so I have time to walk you to class. Do you know what the GSA is?” Diego asked, his voice rising slightly in pitch.

  “Oh yeah, sure,” he said, having no idea what it was.

  “Well, I’m the president of it. Two years running.”

  “Oh wow, that’s great,” he said, hoping Diego wouldn’t ask him a question about it and reveal his ignorance.

  As they walked, several students and a few of the teachers said hi to Diego. Clearly he was popular. So why did he want to have anything to do with Charlie?

  “We still on for the party tonight?”

  “Yeah, yeah. Thanks for letting my aunt call you.”

  “Sure. What are you going to wear tonight?” asked Diego.

  Charlie felt himself shrink. None of his friends back home ever asked him what he was going to wear when they went to do something. He hadn’t thought about it. Should he have? He felt so utterly stupid about everything. He didn’t know what the GSA was, no one said hi to him, and he didn’t even know what to wear to a party. And this popular guy was walking him to Biology class.

  “I hadn’t thought about it,” he said, shrugging his shoulders and trying to make his voice sound nonchalant.

  Diego looked over at him, then stopped walking.

  “Look Charlie, if you don’t want to go, that’s okay.”

  “No, no, it’s not that. It’s just…”

  “What? Is something going on?”

  Charlie looked down the hall at all the students in their uniforms, laughing, walking in groups, heading to class. Everyone seemed to know where to go. And what was expected of them. Charlie thought about what Randall had said in the car last night. “It felt like I couldn’t hold on to anything real, like I was losing my mind.” He doubted any of these kids had had talks the night before about witchcraft with their uncles while sitting in the parking lot at Costco. Or about having to accept things that seemed straight out of a fairy tale.

  “Diego, it’s all just so new, you know? Being here, trying to, to fit in…”

  “Hey, I didn’t mean to embarrass you about what you were going to wear. I mean, it’s no big deal, it’s just a stupid party,” he said, waving his hands in front of him as if to push something aside.

  Charlie looked down at the floor. It wasn’t about the clothes, or any of that, really. But it was kind of Diego to try to reassure him. Once again, he felt the desire to tell this boy everything that had been happening to him.
He knew he couldn’t, knew he wouldn’t, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want to.

  “It’s okay,” said Charlie. He smiled. “I do want to go to the party. It’ll be cool to meet some new people. And,” he said, surprising himself, “hanging out with you.”

  Diego’s brown face grew darker as he blushed. “Really? Dude, that’s awesome,” he said, his smile growing so bright that Charlie wanted to shield his eyes.

  “I’m sure it’s not easy being new and all. But stick with me. I’ll show you the ropes around here and introduce you to some cool people.”

  They walked the rest of the way in silence, if heading down hallways between classes with lockers slamming, kids laughing and teachers talking with each other could be considered silent. It was uncomfortable, because Charlie didn’t know what to say, and it felt like something had been decided between them, even if he didn’t know what it was. But it wasn’t awful. He was used to awkwardness between him and the rest of the world. Besides, it felt surprisingly good to tell Diego that he wanted to spend time with him. And even better that the boy seemed to appreciate it.

  ––—

  As embarrassed as he felt asking Beverly to help him choose clothes for the party, the idea of showing up looking like an idiot seemed even worse.

  Beverly looked surprised when Charlie walked into the kitchen and said, “Um, this is kind of stupid but, could you maybe help me pick out something to wear tonight?”

  “For the party?” Her voice was loud and excited. But she took a breath, and he could tell she did her best to tone it down. “Sure. Yeah. I’ll be up in just a minute, okay? I’m sure we can find something from what we bought the other day.”

  Charlie could tell, as she turned her back on him and pretended to look at the pile of mail on the kitchen counter, that she was trying to hide her smile.

  He walked upstairs, feeling a little stupid, but also happy. He really liked his aunt and uncle, and knew they were doing their best to make sure he felt welcome in their home.

  Together he and his aunt pulled out some pants, a few shirts, and a sweater that they both liked.

  “I don’t know if I’m supposed to wear jeans, or nice pants, or what. Everybody at school just wears a uniform.”

  “This is what I do when I’m not sure. I try to figure out what kind of party it is, and then just dress a little nicer than what I think I’d be expected to wear. Not a lot, just a little. The way I look at it, I’d rather be a bit more over-dressed than under-dressed.”

  “But don’t you just, I don’t know, do something when you want to find out? Like something, uh…”

  “Witchy?” she asked, then laughed. “Charlie, if you think witchcraft helps people avoid embarrassing situations, you’re wrong. Even witches make social blunders.

  “But I’m pretty sure that if you wear that shirt with these pants, and a sweater in case it gets cold, you should be fine. Or just bring along that leather jacket we bought. You’d look nice, without standing out too much.”

  “Really?” he asked, relieved. “I feel like I stand out all the time. It would be nice to…”

  “I think you’ll blend in just fine.”

  ––

  After taking a shower, Charlie changed into his clothes and checked himself out in the full-length mirror. He decided he looked all right, or at least what he was wearing looked all right. His hair seemed to stick out everywhere. He wondered if he could learn a spell to get rid of his stupid curls. He sat down on the edge of his bed. The clock on the nightstand read ten after seven. Diego was over twenty minutes late. Maybe he had decided not to come? ‘That would be a relief,’ he thought. But if so, then why did he feel more than a little disappointed?

  He walked over to the window and looked out past the front yard to the street beyond it. He’d been checking the last several nights to see if those two cats were still around, looking up at him in that weird, cat way. But there was no sign of them.

  It seemed like it was getting darker earlier and earlier, even in just the short amount of time that he’d been in Seattle. Autumn came faster here than it did back home.

  ‘You are home,’ a voice said inside his head. The voice sounded remarkably like his own.

  He heard the sound of a car, and watched as a shiny, silver BMW pulled up in front of the house. Diego got out and looked at the front door. Charlie stepped away from the window so he wouldn’t be caught waiting for the boy to show up, even though that’s exactly what he’d been doing.

  The doorbell rang, and he heard Randall greet Diego.

  Charlie took a deep breath, then opened his bedroom door and walked downstairs.

  –—

  “Sorry I’m late. I begged my mom to let me take her car tonight instead of my beater Honda. At first she wouldn’t let me, but finally agreed, on one condition, that I only drive 5 miles an hour,” Diego laughed as his hands slid over the steering wheel. “Your aunt and uncle seem really cool. Way more laid back than my mom. I mean, she’s good to me and all, but she can get a little uptight.”

  “Yeah, they’re nice,” Charlie said, looking out the window as they drove down block after block of residential streets.

  “What a cool house you live in! Ours, it’s more modern. My mom’s kinda into the chrome-and-glass look, you know?”

  “Uh-huh.” Charlie nodded, having no idea what chrome-and-glass houses looked like. He tried to picture it, but could only imagine something like a big Christmas Tree ornament.

  “Really cool leather jacket,” Diego said, reaching over and touching the sleeve. “Where’d you get it?”

  Charlie told him a little bit about the shopping trip with his aunt.

  “Why did you move to Seattle?” he asked. “I keep meaning to ask you.”

  Charlie told him the story that he and Randall and Beverly had worked out together. “The school district where we live isn’t that great, and my mom wants me to get a good education. My aunt and uncle knew about Puget Academy, so they said I could come live with them. We decided kind of last-minute.”

  “Right on,” said Diego, nodding. He seemed to believe the story.

  “I’d better start looking for parking. They live on this block, but it looks like a lot of cars are here already.”

  Charlie tried to swallow, but his throat was too dry. He didn’t know so many people would be coming to the party. What if he said something stupid and looked like a fool in front of his new friend? What if everybody made him talk about California? What if they made him the center of attention all night, and he couldn’t get away?

  He began to feel nauseous. Maybe they could just keep driving. Maybe he should ask Diego to take him back to Washington Street.

  “Well, we’re here,” Diego said as he pulled on the parking brake and got out of the car.

  –––-

  The house was made of dark brown brick, with a sloped roof and a large grass lawn in front. The houses in this neighborhood didn’t seem as nice as where he lived on Washington, but it was still nicer than what he was used to in California.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Tanner are the hosts tonight. Do you know Kayla and Brandon Tanner at school? He’s a sophomore and his sister is a senior. They’ve been doing this since Kayla was a freshman at PA,” Diego said, acting like a tour guide as they walked up the cement walkway to the front door. Charlie could hear music coming from inside.

  “I think the parents get more excited about this party than anyone else does,” whispered Diego on the doorstep as he he rang the doorbell.

  “Diego Ramirez, welcome, welcome,” said a barrel-chested man in a button-down shirt with sweat stains on the front. He had a pin on the front of his shirt that read “Proud PA Papa. “You just keep getting taller and taller, don’t you? Come in, come in. Who’s your friend?”

  “Hi Mr. Tanner, I’d like to you to meet Charlie Creevey. He’s a new sophomore, a transfer from California.”

  “Charlie! Ted Tanner. Come in, welcome, welcome,” Mr. Tanner shouted. He wonde
red if the man was hard of hearing. He took Charlie’s hand in his own and gave it a bone-cracking squeeze. Charlie smiled back at the man, whose face was red. “California! Well, well!”

  The boys stepped into the house. The air was much stuffier than outside. Kids their age were walking up and down the stairs, or crowding around a table filled with food.

  “I’ve just been dancing in the living room. Pardon my mess,” Mr. Tanner said, referring to his shirt. “Gingy, Diego Ramirez is here with a new student!”

  A woman with frizzy blonde hair came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel as she walked toward them.

  “Look at you, Diego. I swear you take handsome pills every morning.” She put her arms around him. He hugged her back, laughing as he did.

  She looked at Charlie, and her smile remained, but her face looked surprised. “I don’t think I know you,” she said. “I’m Ginger Tanner.”

  “Hi Mrs. Tanner,” Charlie said, relieved when she shook his hand instead of hugging him. “I, uh, I’m a new student, just started last week. My aunt and uncle live here in West Seattle and I’m living with them for the school year.”

  “How nice, how nice. Let me take your coats.” She walked them toward the entry closet. “We usually hold this party the first week of school, but Ted had some thing in Spokane, so we couldn’t do it until now. Glad we didn’t miss you,” she said to Charlie.

  Coats were hung, more introductions were made, and the boys were ushered over to the food table. They began filling their plates, while PA friends of Diego’s came over to greet him and to meet Charlie.

  Charlie felt himself relaxing. The noise and activities reminded him of the fall festival back at school in California, where kids ran amok in the decorated school auditorium and parents staffed booths and craft tables. The Tanners’ party was on a much smaller scale, but was crowded enough that Charlie could watch the activities without being the center of attention.

  “I’d like you to meet somebody,” Diego said as he carried his plate over to a room off the kitchen. There were three kids on folding chairs, talking to each other. Diego headed for a small love seat right near them.