Lumen and the Thistle

by EJ Wozniak

Lumen looked up to the sky and watched the snow come down, heavier than before. Lumen took a deep breath and managed to garner up enough courage to grab Sofia’s hand. They walked hand-in-hand back toward Lumen’s house. He thought the air smelled different than other nights. He took it as a sign that things were changing and smirked.

  Lumen hadn’t felt this happy in as long as he could remember. Somehow Sofia liked Lumen and could look past his “sickness.” Lumen never thought about fate but thought that this was meant to be. He found ‘the one’ he decided.

  He looked up and could see white smoke in the sky. The fire trucks were still on the street, only now there were at least four different trucks, as well as a few police cars and an ambulance.

  Sofia put her hand over her mouth.

  “Oh my goodness, I hope everyone is alright.”

  Lumen let go of Sofia’s hand. He was trying to see at which house the trucks were. Suddenly he had a knot in the pit of his stomach.

  His walk turned into a jog as he made his way up the street. He slowly realized all of the fire trucks were in front of his house. The air smelled acrid and pungent of smoke. The air in front of him was hazy and opaque. For a moment, Lumen couldn’t hear anything except for a high pitched ringing. He could see a police officer taping off the area in front of his house and another was waving a car to turn back around off of Inventa Way.

  “Mom!”

  Lumen sprinted towards his house, leaving Sofia behind. The lights surrounded the street.

  Chapter 9 - The Beginning

  Lumen was stopped by a police officer taping off the area.

  “Hold up there, kiddo! It’s still dangerous over there.”

  “That’s my house!” he exclaimed frantically, pushing the officer aside. He ran under the police tape and toward his house. The front door was taped off too. He made his way to what used to be the back gate and into the backyard. The lawn and garden were charred. The house was mostly intact, just the walls were blackened from the heat, but no burn damage. He went into the house through the back door. He immediately started coughing from all the smoke. Everything seemed okay in there. It was smoky, but nothing was burned.

  “Mom! Wrigley!” Lumen took off toward his mom’s room but ran into a firefighter.

  “Slow down, kid; you shouldn’t be in here. You’re going to inhale too much of this stuff and get sick.” The firefighter was wearing a gas mask. Lumen coughed.

  “My mom, where is she?”

  “Oh, uh, she’s outside, I think. The ambulance might be taking her away now.”

  Lumen ran out the front door and coughed almost all the way to the ambulance. He reached the back of the ambulance and saw his mom sitting there with a blanket over her shoulders.

  “Mom!” Lumen gave her a big hug.

  “Hi, Lu. I’m okay, don’t worry. Just a little burn on my arm. I was trying to put out the fire in the garden.”

  “Where’s Wrigley?” Lumen’s panic immediately returned.

  Lumen glanced around the street frantically when a police officer came by with Wrigley on a leash. Wrigley jumped up on Lumen and licked his face. Lumen was relieved. He didn’t know what he would have done if something had happened to either of them.

  “What happened, Mom?”

  A police officer came over with Sofia.

  “Sorry about that, Sofia; I thought something happened to my mom.”

  “Don’t worry, Lu, I’m just glad everyone is okay. Do we know what happened?” Sofia asked.

  The police officer cut them off again.

  “Ma’am, we’ll need your statement before we go. Are you sure you don’t need to go to the hospital?”

  “Yes, it’s just a little burn. No biggie.”

  The police officer smiled and walked away.

  “So, what happened?”

  Alice took a deep breath and coughed from the lingering smoke on the street.

  “Well, after you two left, I went to the kitchen to do some dishes. Wrigley was acting odd. He was pacing by the back window and kept barking. I went to go let him out when I noticed someone back there.”

  Sofia and Lumen looked at one another and Sofia asked, “Who?”

  “That’s the thing, I don’t know. I opened the door, and Wrigley ran towards the person. It looked like the person threw something down and took off.”

  “Did you see what they looked like?”

  Alice shook her head.

  “No, they were wearing a big grey hoodie that covered their face. The person was short. That was about all I could get. I was going to go after them, but the fire grew so quickly. I had to call 911 and I tried to throw some water on it. My garden is ruined.” Alice’s face went bleak.

  “Well, at least you are okay, Miss Haaken. That’s all that matters.” Sofia gave Alice a hug.

  “You’re such a sweetheart. Thank you.”

  The police officer came over with a pen and notebook.

  “So you said a gray hoodie, correct ma'am?”

  Alice patted down her hair.

  “Yes, officer. Gray hoodie. The man, or woman, was short. That’s really all I saw. They were gone so quickly. Everything happened so fast.”

  The police officer wrote everything down.

  “Not to worry, ma'am. It sounds like we have a neighborhood delinquent. Mr. Rogers across the street also recalled seeing a short person with a gray hoodie in his house the other day. The person startled him so much so that he had a minor heart attack. Are you sure there isn’t anything else you can recall? Anything helps.”

  Alice put her hand on her chin to think.

  “Hmmm, whoever it was had a high pitched voice. When Wrigley ran at them, they kind of shrieked. It may have been a girl, or a young boy. I’m not sure.”

  The officer took note and closed the notebook.

  “Thank you, ma’am. You may want to open the windows tonight to let the house air out. Perhaps stay at a hotel for the night.”

  Lumen coughed.

  “And you, see the medic, sounds like you inhaled too much smoke. You should really listen when the professionals tell you to do something. We know a thing or two.”

  “I’m fine. Sorry about that.” Lumen’s face turned red as he tried not to cough.

  Lumen talked with his mom and Sofia for a few minutes, and they decided they should try and find a place to stay for the night. Lumen offered to walk Sofia home, but she insisted on having her parents come pick her up. She called them, and they walked to the end of Inventa Way where Sofia’s dad picked her up.

  They saw Shari leaving work.

  “Everything okay over there, hun?”

  “Yeah, thanks Shari,” Lumen yelled. Shari waved from her car and drove away.

  Lumen turned to Sofia.

  “Hey, look, sorry about the way the night ended.”

  “Don’t be sorry! I had a great time tonight, Lu. It’s not your fault some lunatic decided to light your house on fire. I think it’s great you care about your mom and dog so much. I don’t really have that at home.”

  Lumen wasn’t sure what she meant by that.

  Sofia pulled Lumen in for a hug and kissed him on the cheek.

  “We should do it again sometime soon, only without the fire next time,” Sofia said with a smile as she stepped away and a car pulled up for her.

  Lumen awkwardly waved goodbye and watched the car pull away. He held his cheek in disbelief. He turned back towards his house and saw his mom watching from a few houses down. She quickly turned away as if she wasn’t looking.

  “I saw that, Mom!”

  * * *

  Lumen and Alice went to Beverly’s house for the night. She was a friend from work and came by on her break to let them into the house.

  “Oh, don’t worry! I’m working a double, so I won’t be here until the morning anyway. Just please keep the dog off the couch. I hate dog hair.”

  Lumen looked at Wrigley looking at him. “You heard the lady, don’t look at me.”

  Alice w
as exhausted from everything that transpired and went straight to bed. She took the guest bedroom, and Lumen and Wrigley took the living room, which had a nice, roomy couch with plush pillows. Lumen didn’t mind sleeping there. Though, he didn’t think he would be able to sleep much after what happened. The fire and Sofia. What a night, he thought.

  He turned on the TV and started surfing the channels. He sunk into the couch and his eyes became heavy. Wrigley laid near Lumen and curled into a ball, trying to get comfortable on the rug. Lumen gave Wrigley a head scratch and rolled over to fall asleep. Suddenly, there was a flash of light and the room was illuminated for a moment. Alec was standing in the room.

  “Dude, let’s go. We need to meet with Allister.”

  Lumen sprung off the couch and whispered intently at Alec.

  “Are you crazy? I can’t leave my mom alone here after everything that happened. What if she was here when you made the jump?”

  “I checked, relax. C’mon we need to go meet with Allister.”

  Lumen sighed and looked back at the bedroom. He was sure she wouldn’t wake up but felt rotten leaving her all alone in this house.

  “Fine. It has to be quick though.”

  Alec, Lumen, and Wrigley all jumped through a window Alec had opened and landed in Allister’s cabin.

  The fire crackled as usual, and Allister stood in front of it, arms crossed with a tobacco pipe in one hand and the other under his chin. Janis sat on the couch with his leg crossed over the other wearing his usual red vest and gloves. He also had a tobacco pipe in hand. Janis took a puff. Lumen never thought he’d see a talking cat smoking from an old wooden pipe a few weeks ago but was barely phased by the scene now. Alec took Wrigley to the other side of the cabin to give him a treat.

  “Hello Lumen, good to see that you are okay. How is your mom?” Allister’s voice was level and his face was stern. The wrinkles on his face seemed more pronounced than usual.

  “Uh, she’s good, just some minor burns. Nothing serious. She’s more upset about her garden than anything.”

  Allister shook his head. He seemed to genuinely care.

  “It really was a nice garden. I’m glad she is okay.”

  It fell quiet in the cabin. Lumen could hear the wood crackling in the fireplace. Janis took a puff from his pipe, and Lumen could hear the tobacco burn within.

  “Well, you’re probably wondering why I had Alec fetch you tonight. I know you want to be close to your mother so I’ll be brief.”

  Lumen looked at Allister and Janis and back at Allister with a confused gaze.

  “We believe the fire was started by someone from our realm. We aren’t sure who. It has been a problem in the past; failed students, or ones who simply don’t believe in our cause, try to scare off our new students. We want you to be aware so you can keep an eye out.”

  Lumen’s face became hot.

  “What do you mean? I have to worry about my mom and dog being burned alive? What will the person try next? Are they going to fill the house with water and try to drown them? Or is a tornado going to touch down on our house? You didn’t warn me that any of this could happen.”

  Allister remained calm and kept his tone serene. He stayed facing the fire.

  “It’s not likely that the perpetrator will strike again. They know we will be watching. I just want you to be aware and keep an eye out for anything suspicious. If you do, report it to us immediately.”

  Lumen felt calm after listening to Allister’s response. He almost felt idiotic for getting angry. For some reason, Lumen felt everything would be fine whenever he was in Allister’s presence.

  “It’s a bloody shame what happened, laddy. Keep y’r trousers on though, don’t worry.” Janis winked at Lumen. Of all things Janis could do, winking was what weirded Lumen out the most.

  Alec groaned from across the cabin.

  “What is it now, Janis? Was that Irish? British?”

  Janis stood up off the couch.

  “Thou better watch what thou say next, laddy!”

  Allister turned from the fire.

  “That’s enough. Alec, I happen to find it very entertaining. Let it be.”

  Alec huffed and puffed for a moment before letting it go. It looked like he had a response ready for Janis but decided not to go against Allister’s command.

  Allister turned to Lumen and smiled. Lumen felt warmth from Allister.

  “Okay my boy, you can take Wrigley back. I don’t want to keep you from your mother. She’s still sleeping, so be quiet when you return.”

  “Will do, thanks.”

  They all stood there for a few moments before Lumen spoke up again.

  “Uh, how to do I open a window to home? The one time I opened a window myself I landed in some weird jungle.”

  “Yeh need to visualize where yeh going before opening a window.”

  Lumen furrowed his eyebrows in confusion but figured he’d give it a shot. Lights appeared around him. Closing his eyes, he tried to picture Beverly’s guest bedroom where his mom was sleeping. He needed to go where she was. He opened his eyes and felt he knew how to put the lights together. He moved them around and a few moments later, the window beamed.

  Lumen looked at Allister.

  “See ya soon, boy,” Allister said with a smile, and Lumen got that warm feeling again. He whistled for Wrigley, and they both stepped through.

  They landed in the guest room. Lumen didn’t realize this would take him to exactly where he visualized. He figured he would land out front of the house or in the living room.

  “Wha, what was that? Who’s there?” Alice groaned.

  Lumen’s eyes widened in the dark.

  “Hey, Mom. Sorry, just checking to make sure you were okay . . . Are you okay?”

  “Yes, I’m fine,” Alice said abruptly and turned away from Lumen.

  Lumen let out a slow exhale of relief and left the room silently.

  It had been a long day. Lumen and Wrigley headed to the couch in the living room. Lumen reminded Wrigley about not sleeping on the couch, and Wrigley somberly hopped off and laid on the ground. They fell asleep as soon as they laid their heads down.

  * * *

  The news got around quick in their small town, so it was no surprise that Bromide High’s principal knew of the incident and called Alice first thing in the morning.

  “Hi, Misses Haaken. I am very sorry to hear about your backyard. I must insist on Lumen taking the rest of the week off. It must have been a very traumatic experience.”

  “It’s Miss Haaken. And thank you, Mr. Virtris. We appreciate the call. Have a nice day.”

  Lumen was standing in Beverly’s kitchen.

  “Well, looks like the school knows of the incident and you get the rest of the week off.”

  Lumen was unsure how he felt about that. On one hand, he would get to miss school for at least two days and help his mom with the house; but, on the other, he wouldn’t be able to see Sofia.

  “Cool, so, what do we do?”

  “Well, breakfast first of course. We can head back to the house after we eat to assess the damage.”

  They cleaned up their blankets and made sure they didn’t leave a mess. Lumen did his best to get Wrigley’s fur off of the couch.

  They headed to the local donut shop, ordered a half dozen donuts with a couple chocolate milks, and headed home.

  They walked into the house and sat at the kitchen table to eat.

  “It doesn’t really smell in here. We won’t have to stay at Beverly’s house anymore, right?”

  Alice sniffed the air a few times before agreeing.

  “Yes, maybe we should open all the windows to air it out a bit more though.”

  They opened all the windows in the house and opted to keep the back windows closed as the air coming in smelled badly of burnt grass.

  They went out back afterwards. Everything was burnt to a crisp.

  “Well, I guess I’ll have to start a new garden. We’ll have to hire someone to put in some
new grass. We’ll need to paint the walls as well. We have a lot of work to do.”

  Lumen was taking a gander at all the damage when he saw an odd looking flower where the garden was near the house.

  “Hey, Mom, looks like one flower made it. Looks pretty weird.”

  Alice came over and picked it up.

  “Interesting, this is a thistle. It’s a very pretty purple flower. I believe it is technically a weed though. They are very pointy and can hurt you if you’re not careful. It’s a misunderstood beauty.” Alice said matter-of-factly.

  “I’ve never seen it here before though. I have never planted one.”

  Alice looked at Lumen with a confused look.

  “Yeah, me neither. Not sure how it got here,” Lumen replied.

  He remembered his conversation with Allister. He needed to bring this to him.

  “Can I have it?”

  “Sure.” Alice handed it to him and went back to assessing the damage and talking to herself about what needed to be done.

  * * *

  Lumen found a few minutes of free time to drop the flower by Allister’s cabin. He managed to open a window to the correct place again. The conversation was brief; Allister told him not to worry and thanked him for bringing the flower to his attention. He would have to do some research on whether it could mean anything. Lumen went back home. Alec canceled the rest of their meetings for the week so that Lumen could help his mom with the fire damage. Alice took the rest of the week off from work as everyone was understanding of the situation.

  The next four days went by without incident. Lumen and Alice worked on the yard in the cold weather. Alec came by once to help throw out the burnt shrub from the backyard and headed back to Bonumalus afterwards. He told Lumen to try and practice with a glass of water if he could because classes would be starting in no time. Alice was able to get a landscaper to come to the house on a Saturday to put in new grass. The landscaper was happy to do it as she had heard what happened at the coffee shop the other day and was happy to help a fellow neighbor. Lumen wasn’t sure why they got the grass as it would probably die in the winter anyway.

  Sofia came by Saturday night. Her dad drove her there and waited out front while she checked to make sure Lumen was okay.