Inconvenience

Chapter 17: The Magician - Part 1

Content warning: Brief scene of implied molestation towards the end.

As Harrison filed off the bus, scanning the bustling, noisy station for his parents, he felt a spark of hope flicker in his stomach, hope that maybe, now that summer had come and gone and his parents had time to think about things, that they would finally stop being afraid of him, they'd stop jumping every time he spoke and whispering about him when they thought he couldn't hear.

It was as Max shoved passed him, heading towards a beat-up station wagon against which a heavy eyed woman was smoking, that he spotted them parked only a few cars away. He waved goodbye to Nerris, Neil and Space-Kid as they all walked in the opposite direction towards their own rides home and gave a last smile and wave to David and Gwen as they said their individual goodbyes to everyone.

"Hey Mom, hey Dad!" Harrison said, opening his arms as he walked up to his parents.

"Hey there, bud!" His dad said, leaning in and wrapping his arms around him. It was warm, welcoming and sorely missed. They hadn't embraced like this since well before he went off to camp. The spark of hope in him spread into a blazing fire of excitement! Things were really going to go back to normal.

"How was camp?" His dad asked as they pulled apart and he went to face his mother. Her icy look make the flames in his stomach shrivel; it was as if she wasn't even looking at him, more like through him, expecting to see something else.

"G-great!" He answered, dropping his arms to his sides and looking at his father with a smile, hoping his mother was just moody from the long drive. "I made a lot of friends." As he said that he looked over his shoulder to see Nerris get into the back seat of her car, showing her dad the costume she made herself during the last week of camp.

"That's great!" His father replied, clapping a hand onto his shoulder. "Isn't that right, sweetie?" He asked, turning to his wife. As if just waking up, Harrison's mother's eyes widened and she blinked, her mouth gaping as she looked at her son properly for the first time.

"Yes!" She answered quickly, shaking her head as if she had just snapped out of a trance. "Of course, it's fantastic." Her mouth spread into a smile and she leaned down too, wrapping her arms around her child.

Relieved, Harrison returned the embrace, almost tearing up at the scent of his mother's perfume. He hadn't been so close to her in quite some time and this just made him remember all the nights he went to bed wishing one of his parents would come in and tuck him in instead of uttering a quick and impersonal "good night" from behind his door.

The drive home was uneventful aside from a few pit stops and bathroom breaks every couple of hours. They stopped in a motel for the night, he and his father sharing the single bed while his mother took the couch. He had offered to take it but she reassured him that it was better for her back to sleep elevated. His father didn't have much to say about it.

He hadn't slept so close to either of his parents in over a year so it was nice, comforting even, after months of sleeping on a cot in a tent. His father didn't take long to fall asleep, Harrison his little spoon. Harrison followed soon after, dreaming sweet dreams of his normal life, his normal parents and his normal friends, all no longer whispering and muttering behind his back.

That illusion was shattered the day he went back to school. It was almost immediate; the looks, the whispers, the sniggers. He'd even had the good sense to not wear anything magician related at all, wearing only blue jeans and red flannel.

"Still doing magic?" One of his classmates, Mason, asked him with a snort.

"Sometimes..." Harrison answered, paying closer attention to his book than to the looks of his peers.