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

Wednesday, January 10, 2001

I guess that there’s just no hope for humanity.

As I'm saying this, I think back to what had happened yesterday, when I was told the ugly truth about why I had been adopted by my parents. I also felt sorry for Uncle Zach and Emily Williams, both of whom were taken advantage of by someone who was only pretending to help them.

Isn't that sad?

Anyway, I remembered when Chesley came to my place and told me his life story: his mother had been one of the patients at Barlean while Dr. Carlsen was working there. His father was also a patient being treated for a variety of mental illnesses. Franklin Chester's family found out that he was there and they had him removed from the place, preferring that he be at home with them and living (what they considered) a decent life. (As of this writing, I discovered that Franklin had committed suicide in 1996; he was 27 years old.)

As for Leslie Hawkins, however, she never fully recovered from the psychotic episode that happened when the Chester family had confronted her; she ended up giving up her only child Dexter for adoption with specific instructions to keep the Chester family away from Dexter. (Last I checked, Leslie is still alive, yet her whereabouts are currently unknown.)

Chesley said to me, "I've heard a fair deal about you, Jedidiah Hamilton. You have managed to defy all rules written for your life, yet you happen to have a Touch of Magic. You have brought so many different people together, yet your own family has apparently fallen apart."

"And what does that mean?" I said.

"There are so many people out there who need someone like you," said Chesley. "People who have no one else to turn to. People who have no families. People trying to avoid their families."

I nodded, knowing that that was what had been going on with me. Milton Holt and Zoey Hamilton needed someone like me. Claire Evans, Mariah Bruce, Mary Holloway, Jacob Caesar, and Kaprice McCoy had no families. Adrian and Dorian Johanssen and Nicholas Hinton were actively trying to avoid their families. Yet Chelsea was secure with the May family, which was why she pulled out every trick hidden up her sleeve to keep the Roberts family away from her. 

And as for me, I'm not sure of what my role is in this scenario. Myself and Jimmy are both from the Hamilton family, but only I have the Hamilton bloodline. Jimmy was punished for that by being forced away from his family and being a slave to several wicked people for 5 years. Even though Jimmy had eventually escaped from them and redeemed himself, he and I both knew that there was no way that he was ever going to escape from his past.

Not as long as the reminders of what he had gone through are still there.

Anyway, Chesley told me that the reason he kept running away from his foster families was because he was trying to stay away from the Chester family, who he believed would destroy him for being his father's son. He had to always look over his shoulder and watch everything he said, lest he be found by the police and sent to live with a family he believed despised him (because of his mother).

I said to him, "So, what was David Gilliam to you, if but a friend?"

"Oh, he was, but that Anthony Roberts left something to be desired," said Chesley. "Plus, I had almost convinced David to take me in, which would happen only if he left Anthony. Anthony soon discovered who David was talking to, and he had me sent to the juvenile hall at the edge of the city. David then worked hard to secure my future and to keep the Chester family off my back for good."

"And how did he do that?" I said.

"Well, he hired a private detective to look into Franklin's files; the detective discovered that the Chester family had hired a nurse to assist them with the care of a disabled sibling. Not that nurse had been helping with the sibling, she had also abused Franklin. Franklin faked a mental illness so he could get away from his family. The nurse was later arrested for child abuse."

"So that's how your father met your mother?" I asked.

"Bingo," said Chesley. "But for some reason I don’t understand, Franklin's parents Daran and Taylor refused to stop looking for me, not even when David had exposed them as child abuse enablers and forced the family to send their disabled child into long-term care. Plus, David was also planning to adopt me and raise me along with Mary and Claire when Anthony’s next intervention happened."

"So if that's true, then why didn't we hear that particular story during the trial?" I cried out.

"Because most of the council wanted to get rid of David because he killed his disabled brother," said Chesley. "And in this magical community, the killing of a disabled sibling is far more severe than the act of homosexuality."

"Does this mean that people with disabilities are regarded as holy in the magical community?" I asked.

Chesley laugh as he glared at me. "No, silly. That's just what they want you to think. Disabled people are people, no matter what anyone else thinks. Yet a Black person is five times more likely to succeed in this country than a disabled person. It's sad, but it's true."

"So why doesn't anyone care about disabled people?" I asked.

"Because historically, disabled people have been isolated, abused, and murdered by normal society," said Chesley. "They had no rights, and most of them were displayed in the circuses and courtly palaces as "freaks". It wasn't until the late 1700s when someone decided that enough was enough; they were tired of seeing disabled people being mistreated for no reason. They built a community for people with disabilities just outside New York, New York and called it Elymnore."

"That's interesting," I said.

"Not only that, but it seemed that overnight, hidden cities appeared almost everywhere in the United States," said Chesley. "At first, the cities took in escaped slaves and people who were institutionalized, but the population of those cities rapidly grew, especially towards the end of the U.S. Civil War. Oakmoor was one of those cities; it had been built during the 1910s. But during the 1930s, Oakmoor (like all of the other magical cities in the world) suddenly cut off contact with the rest of the world..."

"Why would they do that?" I said. I had set the diary aside and used another empty notebook to write down everything that Chesley was saying in regards to the magical cities. I'm pretty sure that the history of the magical world was nothing like what I've heard during U.S. history. But there's nothing I would want to learn more than what the history of the magical cities has to do with my family and that of Chesley's.

But I'm afraid that that story would have to wait until later, because I have to fast forward to today, where my parents finally told me the ugly truth about what had happened on the day I was born. Dad says that according to him, mom had to have an emergency c-section, which was when Mary/Abigail and Jem/Courtney were born. At the same time, Emily gave birth to me; she was 16 years old. Uncle Zach must have found out about it, as he accused the Williams family of poisoning his marriage to Winona Lloyd, kidnapped him from his family, and gave him to Emily. Uncle Zach saw me for a few hours, then handed me over to dad, claiming that he was giving me up for adoption. "It's not that Zach didn't want to raise you, as he had really wanted to despite everything he went through," dad said when I asked, "it was just that he had wanted to save his crumbling marriage. Winona didn't want the marriage to crumble as well, but it just wasn't meant to be."

All I could say was it was no wonder why Winona wanted me. She didn’t want me, but she wanted that security that she had gained through a marriage to Zachary Hamilton. Aat the same time, she blamed the Hamilton family for not protecting Uncle Zach from his abuser. (Plus, the fact that she had failed to get Freddie some much-needed help didn't help her, either.)

Well, this sucks.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do now. On one hand, I'm still a Hamilton. But on the other hand, my educational future is officially up in the air.