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 Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 4:44 pm
The child paused and considered Michael's words before smiling. "I want to be a doctor," he said. "I want to help people like Momma. She says that's the best kind of job. But she says it's lots of work! That I gotta get good grades. But my teacher, he says I'm behind. I got paddled for drawing instead of listening. I don't like math." He made a face, sticking out his tongue. "Papa wasn't happy." He went back to his coloring page.
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 4:50 pm
"So did I!" Michael said, honestly impressed with the child. He grinned and rolled slightly to the side, nudging the boy. "It didn't work out, I never completed my studies, but I like my job a lot now. If you want to know a secret, I didn't like math either. Luckily, math has very little to do with doctoring." Maybe angels were real. Maybe that was where this boy was bound. He could see him appearing to car crash victims and lost explorers.
Nobody quite knew "Papa wasn't happy" like Michael, though.
"It's alright. Whatever you do, I know you'll be very good at it."
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 4:58 pm
"What do you do instead?" Alex asked, curiously. "Maybe if I don't get to be a doctor, I can work with you. We'll always be friends, won't we?" He took out a green crayon and started to color the grass underneath the cat. "I'm coloring this for you. Will you put it on your wall?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 5:00 pm
"I go around and I help people like us," Michael said, "We help all sorts of people who are different, but I work with people like us specifically." He patted Alexander's hand.
"Of course we will," he said, "and I absolutely will. I think I know exactly where it'll go, too." On the wall downstairs, by the lamp. It would be bittersweet to see, but it wasn't as if Michael made especially many friends.
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 5:08 pm
"Are we very different from other people?" Alex asked. He carefully tore out the picture and signed his name in green. He offered it to Michael. "The lady who lives here now, I make her cry whenever she sees me. Am I so bad?" He frowned in thought. "The kids run. They won't play with me."
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 5:17 pm
"Of course we are," Michael said. "My friends can't set anyone on fake fire or change the way they look to scare others." Well, not really anyway. Not like him.
"Thank you," Michael said, accepting the picture, and then continued: "You're not bad. people like us frighten people like them. It just comes with the nature of our existence. This is a very good coloring job, Alexander. Very nice."
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 5:23 pm
"Why can't they? Is it because we're wizards?" Alex guessed, and looked back to his new coloring page. "Momma told me magic is found in unlikely places. But papa says she doesn't mean witches. I don't know what she meant," He admitted, scratching his head.
"I'm gonna color this one for that nice lady."
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 5:31 pm
"Well, your momma is right," Michael said, carefully avoiding the past tense. "Most people don't know that." That was all he was going to say on the subject, though.
"Her name is Maia, spelled M-A-I-A. I'm sure she'll like it. She had a big orange cat named Peaches, you know."
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 6:05 pm
Michael was running out of stories. He'd already told two based on past cases that he had simply heard about second-hand, with princes and dragons and swords edited in. He could remember some from his childhood, but that was long before Alexander's. So when he finished the one he had just been working on, he smiled a bit sadly. The boy wanted to be tired, but he wouldn't be.
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 6:13 pm
Alex had settled on the couch with a blanket draped over him. No matter what position he tried, he couldn't get to sleep. The lamp nearest him began to quiver. "Can you tell me one more?" he asked. "I'm sure I'll sleep then."
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 6:17 pm
Michael ignored the lamp. His brow furrowed.
"Alexander, can I tell you something about people like us?" he asked softly. He laid a room-temperature hand atop Alexander's. "People like us, we don't sleep."
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 6:22 pm
"We don't? But I always slept before!" Alexander stared up at Michael. He closed his eyes tightly and tried to sleep. It was five minutes before the child gave up and opened his eyes. "Why not? Maybe I'm just hungry."
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 6:32 pm
"We don't get hungry either, or thirsty, or hurt. Not on the outside, anyway. We're all awake on the inside." Sort of. Food and water would pass right through him. That would have been unpleasant.
"I think we need to talk about something neither of us wants to talk about," Michael said. "Is that alright?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 6:39 pm
Alexander frowned. He sat up and slowly scooted to the side of the couch furthest from Michael. "I don't want to talk about stuff. I want my Momma," he said, and rubbed at his eyes.
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 6:50 pm
Michael's jaw made an audible crackling sound as he set it, uncontrollable from his unrest.
"That's why we need to talk about it," he said, "You said the doorknob was hot? The hall was on fire. You couldn't get out. The smoke was thick. I saw how well you can create it. Do you remember the blackness, Alexander? After the coughing and the choking, do you remember the blackness?" Unconsciousness. "Your momma died trying to save you."
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