The Other Side

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

It was another bright summer's day on the Other Side. Cindy didn't wait outside Thomas Skinner's house. She went to the park. And he was there, like she knew he would be.

He sat on the bench alone, staring ahead at the other children as they kicked a ball and ran after it. She never did understand why they did that. Surely they knew the ball would move if it was kicked?

Cindy hesitantly walked towards Tom, wondering what she was doing even thinking about taking him to her side. He would hate it there. Wizards and witches didn't have much respect for those that weren't like them. And Tom's parents were Wanderers, a race a large number of wizards had started to dislike of late.

And then there were the Le Fays, who would probably want his head on a spike...

Tom didn't look up as she sat next to him. He stared ahead, but she knew he wasn't watching the children. He was somewhere else.

"Hello, Thomas," Cindy said with her best smile.

He jumped, startled by her sudden presence.

"Uh... Hello," he stammered.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"No- hello."

Cindy laughed and Tom looked away as his face reddened. He was a shy boy. It wasn't a surprise. She didn't think he had many people to talk to. Wanderers had this strange ability to look through wizards as if they were invisible.

That was what Tom was in this world – invisible. She was going to take him away from that to a place where he would be the complete opposite, and not in a good way. Cindy needed to start talking and stop thinking before she decided against obeying the lords.

"So... what're you doing?"

Small talk – that was what she was going with? She hadn't really thought this bit through. How should she tell him? What if he didn't want to come back with her?

"Sitting on the bench?" Tom said.

He was looking at her again, curiosity mixed with apprehension. He had shifted a little away from her too. He was nervous of her. She didn't blame him. She had poked him the last time.

"What do you know about wizards?" Cindy asked, ditching the small talk.

"Wizards?" he mumbled.

"Wizards, witches, werewolves, giants, dragons, trolls, goblins, pixies, fairies, what do you know about them?"

"Huh?"

Had she overdone it a little? Maybe she should have just stuck with wizards for the moment. It wouldn't do to overwhelm him with too much information.

"Do you believe in magic?"

He didn't answer but he stared at her warily and she knew instantly that he did. But he wasn't going to tell her, not yet anyway. He barely knew her, and she hadn't given him much reason to trust.

"You're a wizard, Thomas," she said encouragingly.

"Ok..." came the hesitant reply.

It was going to take more than just words to convince him. She had to show him. And she knew just how. The Wanderers had a saying for this – two birds with one stone.

"You're like me," she said. "Look." She pointed towards the children kicking the ball.

Cindy gave a slight wave of her hand. The ball came to a sudden stop. The boy closest tripped and fell to the ground as he tried to budge it with the side of his foot. The ball stayed where it was as another tried to move it without any luck. Slowly, they all gathered around the ball. But no matter how hard they kicked, it did not move.

"Isn't that much better?" Cindy said, satisfied. "They don't have to run after it anymore."

Tom's eyes shifted from her to the ball and back to her again. "What are you going to do with me?"

"Do with you?" Her eyes narrowed as she wondered what he meant. She wasn't going to do anything with him.

"Are you going to take me away?"

It dawned on her then. He was afraid. But he shouldn't have been. She was a good person. She was going to take him away. But that was different. It was.

"Not if you don't want to come," Cindy said, though she knew that was a lie. He didn't have a choice. If she didn't bring him, someone else would. "You can stay here if you want to. You can go to school with the Wanderers. You can forget you ever met me." She paused before adding, "Or you can come with me and go to a school full of witches and wizards."

She hoped he picked the latter. It would make everything so much easier.

"What's a wanderer?"

"That's what we call-" Cindy paused. She had never had to explain what a Wanderer was before. "It's what we call those living on the Other Side."

"What side?"

That was another thing she had never had to explain.

"It's a long story," she said before quickly adding, "do you want to come?"

"You want me to choose now?" Tom asked incredulously.

"Well..." Cindy shrugged.

She was being unfair. She was asking a lot from him, and he barely knew her. But she did need him to say yes.

"Hey," she put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently, "you'll like the other side. It's a magical place, full of people like us."

She knew those words would have an effect on him. Historically, wizards and Wanderers had never gotten along, and it was obvious much had not changed as Tom sat alone on the bench, friendless.

She knew what to say to convince him. And she hated herself for saying it, for appealing to his loneliness, for lying.

"You'll fit in," she said.

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