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

Wednesday, February 7, 2001

Today is my fourteenth birthday, and as such, not a single day goes by when I do something even remotely considered "normal".

Case in point:

As soon as I woke up, I knew that something was wrong. Mary had already gone out for the day, but Jem was still at home. Her friends from the school were there, and they had taken over the living room.

Which meant that I had to sneak out the back door just to get to the kitchen to grab some food without any of them seeing me.

But that's not all.

When I finally got ready for the day, I escaped to the shed in the backyard, where it was just Chelsea and Claire. Claire said, "Mariah had an emergency trial to go to; it turns out that someone her sister knew had reported on the abuse months ago and they're just finally following up on that report, which I think is just the stupidest thing I've heard all year. So it's just the three of us today."

"Well, that's a bummer," I said as I grabbed my things. "And to think that I'm supposed to have a birthday today as well. What is happening to the world?"

"I don't know about you, but we better be careful if we know what's good for us," said Chelsea. "After all, Mary, Mariah, and Claire had gotten Craig put away for good when someone overheard them talking about him, so who's to say that I won't be dealing with any more repercussions of being Anthony's daughter?"

I nodded, knowing that nothing good was going to come from me being Uncle Zach and Emily's son. I already had to deal with resentment from Jem, so who's to say that that same resentment won't come from somewhere else?

Claire nodded as we all hopped into the golf cart and drove off. There was no way I wanted to make my presence known to Jem at all, not when she had started to resent me since last year. Plus, you do remember when she had Emilia destroy my room in retaliation for me reclaiming my individual identity from her?

Speaking of which, here's what happened when Emilia showed up:

Jed: And why are you here, Emilia?

Emilia: Because your sister...I meant to say "cousin"...told me that I still owed her from that room incident last year.

Claire: I know. Since when does the toughest girl we all know take orders from Jem Hamilton?

Chelsea: Since Jem had demonstrated that she's so messed up in the head that it's not even funny anymore. Plus, I wonder why she even bothers putting up with Jed when he's nothing like the other boys that she knows.

Jed: Beats me. Anyway, Emilia, why are you here?

Emilia: Jem knows what you're up to today, Jed. She knows about your plans to go to the playhouse.

Jed: And...

Emilia: Let's just say that she went through the roof when she realized that she didn't get invited...

Chelsea: Because this is an exclusive event and Jem is NOT allowed to come with us at all.

Claire: Plus, you have to have some type of special power to join this party, and she has none.

Jed: Not unless she has the power to know where I'm at and what I'm doing; in that case, she's really good at that.

Claire: I hate to say this, but Jem is not supposed to know about the magical world or Jed's powers or anything like that.

Jed: Why not?

Claire: Because she's normal and you're not, Jed. That's that. Now we need to change our plans because there's no way we're going to the playhouse without Jem hiring someone to harass Jed...

So there we have it. I can't even have a normal day for my birthday, and it's only 10:00 A.M. What a way for me to begin my 14th year.

At least I had that moment; the rest of the day was to be decided.

Anyway, we ended up spending the rest of the day at the mall, where there was some sort of protest going on in support of Lucas Harrison and JoLee Griffin. As usual, Kelsey Davis was leading the protests, with Libby Harper and Lucy Johanssen whipping up the crowd with signs, chants, and slogans. I frowned, knowing that neither of those girls are the least bit for real. After all, they should have known that Lucas HAD murdered all those people at the New Year's Day party and JoLee had killed almost her entire family shortly after. No one seemed to care that a teenage girl had killed her entire family, but they all seemed to care that a young White man had killed a Black man.

That's just how it is.

Of course, Chelsea disguised her voice to sound like an angry White woman and called the police, asking them to send their angriest Black cops to the mall. (To be honest, I think that's kind of racist. But whatever gets the job done.) Within 25 minutes, nearly 159 people were arrested and taken to jail, with Libby and Kelsey among them. Both girls gave me the stink eye as the cops firmly escorted them out of the mall.

As for Lucy, however, she said, "I know who you are and I know where you live, Jed. Don't you dare think that you're going to get away with this, not as far as my brothers are concerned."

"Yeah, and who are you to tell me this?" I clapped back. "You better be careful, lest Joanna finds out that you've been oppressing your brothers. Yeah, I know about how much you've mistreated them; don't deny it! You better PRAY I don't tell them what you've been up to..."

Well, that's that.

After getting back home from the trip to the mall, with my arms laden with goodies from various stores from the mall, I go back to the shed, where I saw Mary, Kaprice, and the twins in the shed; they had secretly arranged a party for me during my absence. But there was a more serious tone to this day, as evidenced by a small box that Toby and Joanna had handed to me yesterday.

Inside the box was a notebook, a novel, a wallet, a pocketwatch, a class ring, a statuette, a hand mirror, a snowglobe, a comic book, and a pocketknife. All of those items had once belonged to Uncle Zach when he was my age; it was his way of handing down his legacy to a son he would never meet.

At this, Joanna (who also came to the shed) said, "I know this wasn't the easiest thing for me to do, but you deserve to know the truth about who your father was and why he had to do what he did. This notebook was a letter to you just in case something happened to him, because he had to pretend that he was dead last year. That not only prompted an investigation into Barlean, but so many other people there had to be processed and examined for signs of abuse."

"Did any of them go back to their families?" said Mary.

"Only one patient was returned to his sister," said Joanna. "The rest went to the Golden Oak Clinic in Oakmoor. Which only goes to show you how the notion of staying with your family despite your disability can be unrealistic, not to mention toxic and possibly dangerous."

Well, now I completely understand what Joanna was talking about. My story wasn't really about me being a Hamilton; it was about me having to take Uncle Zach's place. I already knew that the rest of the Hamilton family had no idea about why I was born, and by the time the truth behind my birth would inevitably be revealed, it would be too late to stop the train wreck that was quickly becoming my life...