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

Tuesday, January 16, 2001

"Oh my God!" Everyone cried out as I told them the ugly truth about what had happened to Jimmy during his five years of captivity. We were sitting in the abandoned preschool down the lane, where I had called an emergency meeting. Jimmy also confirmed everything I had said, plus added a few things that no one knew about.

Until now, it seemed.

"So that's why Hadley is so powerful even though she's a baby," said Chelsea. "She was created using magic, and it's definitely in her blood. Yet I don't know why Freddie would use magic to create a baby."

"Maybe it's because she couldn't have children," said Claire. "I've seen women desperate enough to have children that they would steal a child from another family and claim that baby as their own."

"Just like what happened when we were born," Mary said as she looked at me. "I bet the nurse who helped the Holloways deliver their baby decided to switch her with me, which in turn had you switched in my place."

"It can't be any other way," I said. "Yet, I'm still a bit perplexed about the whole "Phoebe Jane" business. "If there really was a Phoebe Jane Holloway, where would she be now?"

"Attending the same school as we are," said Mariah. "And I think I may know who you're talking about."

"What does that mean?" said Kaprice.

"Kaprice, you and I have journalism class with Miss Thomas, right?" said Mariah.

"Yeah," said Kaprice, "though I fail to see the significance behind this question."

"You do remember that we're supposed to cover all the sporting events with Pamela Craig," said Mariah.

"And who is she?" said Jimmy. "Someone who we should know about?"

"Well, she used to live next door to the Warner family until last year, when Pamela's father Philip got that new job working at Jasen May's law firm and the family moved to Hollowpond," said Mariah. "Pamela admittingly doesn't look like her parents, but she's not saying anything yet."

"You could always ask her if she thinks she's adopted," I said. "Because that worked so well for me."

"Who knows?" said Kaprice. "Anyway, now that we know the truth about Jimmy and his past, not to mention where Hadley really came from, we can now proceed with the plan to put Nicholas Farley and his helpers in jail for the rest of their lives."

"We should," said Dorian. "But before we do that, we still have to get past Kelsey Davis's group."

"And from the looks of it, they're not going to make anything easy for us," said Adrian. "Not where Lucy is concerned."

"That's why we have Chesley," said Claire. "Plus, we also have Terrence Powell and Stacie Whitney, who look like they need something to do with their lives instead of wasting it at Barlean. What do we do about that?"

"We can have half of us deal with Kelsey while the other half drop off gift baskets to the families affected by the tragedy," said Jimmy. Everyone stared at him as he continued, "This is why our society was formed. We're not just here to help provide a safe place for mismatched people, but we're here to serve our community as well. I believe that the more people know about what autism is, the less likely they'll want to harm that autistic person. Remember, this is why we're currently dealing with these issues."

"You're right, Jimmy," Emilia said as she and Chelsea walked into the meeting room. "And for the record, we still have work to do. School hasn't opened back up yet, and I highly doubt that school will reopen by the end of the month the way things are going right now."

Safe to say, though, Emilia is right. The protests that happened because of the killings and the snowstorm that followed were enough to make most people stay indoors, but schools and other businesses weren't able to be opened during this time. I frowned, remembering that I was supposed to have a birthday within the coming weeks, yet who I would celebrate that birthday with was still up for debate.

Claire said to me, "Jed, are you all right?"

"Well, I began to say.

"It's not about Chief Bingham telling your parents that they might have to give you up, isn't it?" said Claire. "Because if it is..."

"Well, I'd like to know where the Williams family got the notion to start butting into my life when for the last 14 years, they didn't even know or care that I existed," I said. "Now, Jimmy, Mary, and I have to deal with them; I'm just praying that the Williams family isn't anything like the Roberts family."

"I can only hope so," said Claire. "Of course, during the weekend, I had received a letter from a Marcel Hoffman, who claims to know who my father is..."

"And why are we talking about your father at a time like this?" said Emilia.

"Because it all boils down to family," said Claire. "Think about that for a second: our families are magic and we are their heirs. Wwhile most of us are born magic, there is a small-but-growing number of us who have gained magic from other means, such as Emilia being trapped in the bathroom while the trolls attacked Lochland Middle School..."

"I really don't want to talk about that," Emilia mumbled.

"Plus, we've seen what one person's selfish decisions tore their family apart, such as how my family fell apart, no thanks to my uncle David's decision to shack up with Anthony Roberts, which also ruined Chelsea's life," said Claire.

"Yeah," said Chelsea.

"Plus, Jed's family was inadvertently caught in the crossfire when Jed's cousin Jimmy returned after years of being away and Jed's true family was exposed," said Claire. "I don't know about you, but it's time for us to get the team together and prepare to take back our lives from the people that ruined it."

"And how will we do that?" said Emilia. "That's going to mean a ton of work."

"Well, we have plenty of people in the club," said Kaprice. "There's no need to have all of us out there, not if we can have a handful of us out there."

"Such as, Jimmy and I can go handle Micheal, Luke, and Danny while Mary, Mariah, and Kaprice can handle Pamela," I said.

"Well, what about the gift baskets?" said Dorian. "Who's doing those?"

"We'll handle the gift baskets while we focus on our other project," Emilia said as she glared at him and Adrian. To the others, she said, "Be on your guard, as Kelsey and her band of troublemakers can get to us at any time..."

"But before she does that, we're going to remind her that she can't tell us what to do," said Chelsea. "And if she thinks she can do that, then shame on her!"

Well, here's what is going on:

There's a protest against the treatment of autistic people on the heels of two tragedies, Jimmy reveals the ugly truth behind his kidnapping, and I could be forced to move to Washington, DC to live with two people who allowed some sick creep to abuse their child.

Luckily (or not, depending on how you're feeling about the whole thing), "Away in England" has finally returned to TV last Sunday, and the reception of the show has been quite...lukewarm, so to speak. I'm not sure if it's the real-life events that are taking place, but the fact that the show finally reopened after nearly four weeks has put a lot of people off. Not only that, many people have decided to quit watching the show, citing the main character having autism as the main reason.

Well, I must admit that while I'm slightly put off by that, I don't want to quit watching the show because of Lydia possibly having autism. In fact, it's the fact that Lydia might have autism is the reason I'm watching the show. Because you're seeing everything from Lydia's point of view, who's to say that Hogwash School of Magic & Mastery isn't real?

And because you're seeing everything from my point of view, who are you to say that everything I'm seeing is not real?