The Magic at the End of the World (Do You Remember, Book 5)

Thursday, January 4, 2001

It's Day 3 of the Lochland Lockdown; several people have now come forward with some much-needed answers to the questions that inevitably came up following the New Year's Day Massacre. Those people knew some of the victims, and a few of them knew the Harrison family and their son Lucas. Yet the answers didn't satisfy the general public; most of them decided that Lucas and his parents were horrible people who hated Black people and women. But the newspaper's decision to highlight the death of Jakobe Garrett and completely ignore the other 52 victims has gotten the entire city of Charleston up in arms for various reasons.

But that’s not all; in fact, this nightmare is only beginning.

Do you remember when I told you about how Kelsey Davis led a protest against Raymond Olsen being arrested for murder? Now she and her band of followers are currently standing in the city square, protesting the arrest of Lucas Harrison and his parents being labeled as evil. They're claiming that he shouldn’t be arrested because he has autism and he’s incapable of even harming a fly. His parents had done nothing wrong, and someone else had committed the crime and was trying to pin that crime on Lucas so he would be arrested and the criminal could get away with the crime.

Try telling that to the family of Jakobe Garrett, who must now bury him. Try telling that to the other 52 families of those who died. In fact, how many people must needlessly suffer because somebody thought it was a good idea to close all the mental hospitals and force the community to accept these disabled people without question?

I honestly don’t know what’s going on inside that girl’s head, but all I know is that autism is a very serious problem that could lead to the deaths of hundreds of people if it’s not checked. I already saw how Craig killing his entire family had affected Chelsea, even if she claimed to have no form of kinship towards them. I saw that when the Olson family had to endure an unspeakable tragedy when Raymond pushed Sandra off a balcony and she fell to her death. I saw how it's currently affecting how my family lives their lives, as well as my entire neighborhood.

This is the saddest day I'm living in right now; I don't know how much worse it could get.

Luckily, Hadley, Cass, and Mal are little babies, and babies are funny. They like to follow Kieran as he goes about his day, which not only annoys him, but mom and dad are laughing. I bet it's funny, seeing as these little babies are the only people in the world that could care less about how bad things are in the world, just as long as they are fed, changed, and have something interesting to do while they're awake.

Suddenly, I heard a knock at my door. I tensed, knowing that Sansa was coming to check up on Mary, Claire, Mariah, and me. We had been parked at my house for the last few hours while Jimmy helped everyone else get home safely. (I'm not sure if Chelsea and Trevor are even going to bother with coming back, especially with the way things are now. )

But it wasn't Sansa at the front door. It was Police Chief Bingham, and he was probably doing one of those mandatory police checkups to make sure that everyone in the house was OK.

Dad said, "What can I do you for, Chief?"

"Just making sure everyone here is OK," said Chief Bingham. "And to deliver this package here."

The chief pulled out a huge package and set it on a nearby table. Mom glared at him as he said, "I think it's best that you two prepare young Jedidiah to face the truth about his past. He might not be ready for it, but you owe it to the innocent people living in Barlean who were abused by those who should have been taking care of them to do that."

"And if we tell Jed the truth about why he's really here, we might as well break up our family," said Mom. "We already saw it happen to the Holloway and Roberts families with Mary and Chelsea's stories; we don't need to bring that here."

"But you must, if only to protect your family from the inevitable backlash that you will face once the truth comes out," said Chief Bingham. "Dr. Carlsen is among the victims of his massacre, and all her dirty deeds will soon be aired out for the world to see. What are you going to do once people start calling for you to give Jed back to his mother?"

Mariah had heard enough; she took Mal and left the room. Claire, Cass, Mary, and Hadley followed, with them going to Mary's room. I turned to Chief Bingham and said, “Don’t I get a say in this, sir?"

"You should," said Chief Bingham, "except that you're a 13-year-old boy and there are laws that are in place that can dictate where a person of your standing can and cannot go."

I frowned while thinking about Kaprice, who was initially rejected by his birth family and had to spend the rest of his childhood living with an adoptive family. He would never get to know his family, nor would he learn about his culture and heritage firsthand. (The funny thing was, though, I'm quite sure that Kaprice's father had to be magic, as there was no way that Kaprice's mother could be magic, not with how she had treated him.)

Speaking of which, I then said to Chief Bingham, "What's going to happen to me?"

"I honestly don't know, Jed," said Chief Bingham. "I already know that it's better for you to remain where you are, but the Williams family is putting in a request to see you…”

"No!" I snapped, remembering how bad things went with Chelsea and the Roberts family when a similar thing happened. "I don't want to see them at all!"

"Why not?" said Chief Bingham.

"I don't know if you know this, but they didn't do anything when someone was abusing their daughter, and even then, they never even bothered trying to find me or get to know me," I said. "So why should I bother with them at all?"

At this point, Mary came back into the living room and said to Chief Bingham, "I don't think this is a good idea right now, sir. Jed doesn't need this type of drama, not when there's so many other people out there who are protesting the DA's decision to have a young man arrested for a crime that he most certainly committed..."

"I see," said Chief Bingham as he stared at us. "But my hands are currently tied at the moment, as I have other things that I need to deal with."

To mom and dad, he said, "I hate to have to do this, but I had no other choice. We'll get to the bottom of this case soon."

With that, he turned around and left the house.

While Mom and dad looked over the contents of the box, I told Claire and Mariah about the possibility of having to leave home to stay with two people who allowed their daughter to be abused by a family friend. Claire said, "That's just as bad as when we girls had to deal with Craig. Now that, I can forgive as Craig was Anthony’s brother, but what the Williams family had allowed to happen to Emily most certainly takes the cake!"

"I don't trust them," said Mariah. "I personally wouldn't get near them with a 15-inch knife if I were you, Jed. It was already bad enough when you told us that your uncle Zach was your dad and your parents adopted you, but this new thing just isn't right. Something has to give."

I frowned, knowing that Mariah was right. I already saw what she went through with the Warner family; as far as I'm concerned, they're still in jail with no hope of making parole. The Holloway family is still living in their old house, but Mary told me that that could change, especially once the truth about what happened to me when I was born comes out.

At things, Claire said, "The truth will have to come out. But the only problem is, though, are we ready to face it head on?"

I frowned, knowing that when the time came for me to face the reality of my life, I would have to either accept it or reject it. And both choices would dictate how my life was going to go...