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

Saturday, February 17, 2001

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Chelsea," Joanna said as we all gathered in Javier's office. The emergency meeting had to be called, no thanks to Pamela Craig. She must have overheard the conversation between Chelsea, Claire, and me while we were in the classroom and told Sansa, who then told Joanna. "I'm going to launch an investigation into this. No one is going to hide what sins they have done when I get my hands on this case."

I frowned as I stared at Pamela. She seemed to look like Mary, or what Mary had once looked like when I first met her in the eighth grade. (Mary had brown hair and brown eyes, but both hair and eyes changed to blond hair and blue eyes when she came to stay with our family.) Pamela, however, was taller than Mary and had darker skin. She may have brown hair and brown eyes, but she also looked a whole lot more like Mary than Mary looked like Jem. Which is really going to complicate a crapton of things for the rest of us.

Joanna then said to Chelsea, "Whatever gave you the idea that there are some people on TV telling autistic children to kill normal people?"

Chelsea and I stared at each other, knowing that we had referred to the stories about Lucas Harrison and JoLee Griffin while we were in class. Of course something like that had to happen to make those kids want to kill every adult they hated, but there also had to be a motive for that. After all, people with disabilities don't go around killing people; it's usually the other way around. If that's the case, then we would have discovered that Lucas's parents and JoLee's stepbrother had killed them on the night of the crimes. And they probably would have gotten away with it, as the law would probably refuse to punish them for killing Lucas and JoLee.

I then said, "I'm not sure about that part, but let's be honest here: people with autism live in their own world, and that world always excludes parents, siblings, and other relatives. This frustrates most people to the point where they would decide that that autistic person shouldn't be allowed to exist. I mean, it's a small wonder why my cousin Adeline wasn't murdered by some angry person when she was younger, although she was abused from the time she was 10 years old until just last year."

Chelsea said, "And because these people are usually isolated from the normal world, they can easily be manipulated by well-meaning strangers looking to destroy other people who they believed made things difficult for them. I'm quite sure that the TV show "Fantastic Scales" is to blame for these killings that are happening right now."

At that, Jimmy snorted, saying, "You're seriously blaming a TV show that preschoolers like to watch for the deaths of over 60 people? That's insane, Chels!"

"Well, why wouldn't it be insane?" said Emilia. "Little kids are watching the show because it's meant for little kids, but kids over the age of 12 are watching this show because their parents are too damned dumb to know that the show is for children. Because those kids are watching a preschooler's show, they're much easier to manipulate than kids who watch more age-appropriate shows. Plus, what preschooler is going to go around killing people?"

"You're right, Emilia," said Chelsea. "Children don't often see the messages hidden in cartoons because they're too busy looking at the colorful characters and scenes, but older children are more susceptible to subliminal messages because they can see the hidden messages that the younger children cannot."

"So, does this mean we should write a nasty letter to the television station threatening legal action if they don't pull "Fantastic Scales" off the air?" said Jimmy.

"I'll handle the nasty letters, but the rest of you have other things that you could be doing," said Chelsea. She stared at Pamela, saying, "And why are you here?"

"I can't help but hear a rumor that someone is spreading that I'm not who I say that I am," said Pamela. "I want to know who is spreading that rumor and why they are spreading those rumors. My life isn't important to them, so why are they trying to ruin mine?"

"Kelsey Davis is spreading the rumors," Claire said before anyone else could blink. "I mean, she's always doing that. She and her League of Mean won't rest until the Disabled People's Rights Movement rises up and destroys this society and everything that it stands for."

"I see," said Pamela. "And what does this movement have to do with you guys?"

"A lot," said Mary. "Kelsey hates us because we refuse to buy into her insane philosophy; we believe that people have a right to live their lives in a way that contributes to society. Yet society has drilled it into our heads that living "separate but equal" lives is a lie and it doesn't work, but neither does diversity and inclusion. There's a reason why people are separated in society, and that's because some people believe that they can live better lives if they don't have to interact with certain types of people. But that's not why we're here..."

I'm frowning, as I already know that Pamela must be magic. Chelsea is also magic, but her magic is mainly used in writing, not just her using her powers. Pamela must be some sort of human lie detector, mainly because while we did convince her that Kelsey Davies was bad news, I'm pretty sure that she'll find out the truth about herself sooner or later...

*-*-*-*-*-*

So, I'm going back to Day 1 of this craziness, when Mary mentioned what would happen if a disabled person chose to refuse to accept the gift of magic. "The person who rejects the gift often goes mad and causes chaos, death, and destruction," Mary had said shortly after we had learned about the New Year's Day Massacre. Back then, we were discussing Lucas Harrison and the reason he went on his infamous rampage and killed all those people at the New Years Eve party. "Most people who don't receive the gift of magic usually die within six months." I'm sure that Lucas Harrison is about to die, simply because he never received the gift of magic when he was supposed to. The same thing goes for JoLee Griffin, who (to be honest) really should have been taken away from her family and made to live in a home where she didn't have to deal with her stepbrother. I mean, those two (along with Raymond Olsen) are doomed to die early in life because of their lack of magic; yet, their crimes would have sent a normal person to jail.

But I also have to think about people like Jamarico Garrett, Luna Hopkins, and Jeimy Griffin, who must grow up without a family. Jamarico has to help his mother raise his disabled older brother and a younger brother and a sister. Jeimy is an orphan who will have to spend the rest of her life living with relatives, and Luna is technically an orphan living with her grandparents. Let's not mention Jenna and Charlotte Olsen, who have to deal with a dead mother and a younger brother who's in jail for killing her. There are also the parents of the victims who must spend many tear-filled nights staring into a blank space where their dead son/daughter once occupied. Plus, how many members of the community had to suffer because Jakobe, Renee, Sandra, Bobbie, and Kala were brutally murdered for no reason?

Something truly had to give here.

But at the same time, though, we still have the story about Mary being switched at birth to consider. I was switched with Mary and grew up with Jem while Mary grew up with Thomas and Carla Holloway. Thomas's cousin Maria had given birth to a daughter; that daughter was believed to be Pamela Craig. If that's true, then the mystery regarding what had happened on February 7, 1987 just got a little bit bigger...