t was a great Saturday afternoon. Me and my son Jon were at a football game. My favorite team, the Rangers, is playing and they are about to win. I look over to Jon who has been on his phone since we got here.
I don’t know where I went wrong on raising this kid. Ever since his mom passed it has been hard on him to actually do stuff. He’s usually in his room unless he is at school. I often get phone calls of him being involved in a fight, but he’s the one getting beat up.
The Rangers score a touchdown and the whole crowd goes wild. Everyone is jumping and cheering for their victory. Except Jon. When I looked over, he never looked up from his phone. I took out his earbud and told him the good news, but he simply gave me a thumbs up, and plugged them back into his ears.
I was furious at him right now. He should at lest bother to see what’s happening instead of staring at that damn phone.
“Come on, let’s go!” I told him as I was making my way through the exhilarated crowd. He followed after me and we left the stadium. “Maybe we can go bond on shopping?” I thought to myself. Luckily for me, there are tons of stores right next to the stadium.
We could have been walking for no more than 30 minutes. It was constant “hey wanna go in here” and be responded with a “no”. I really got tired of it, so I pulled out my wallet and handed him $20. “Go buy yourself something nice” I told him, and he kept on walking. He’s 15 so he should be able know how to buy clothes.
I really didn’t like any of these stores, but I remembered a Rangers jersey at the stadium gift shop. Maybe I should go buy that? As I was heading back, I noticed a young boy no older than 2 pointing at an ice cream shop. He begged his mom as best as he could, but all that came out was “ith cweem momma!” It surprisingly made me chuckle, remembering how Jon used to be like that many years ago.
“May I help you?” The woman surprised me as I was listening to her son talk.
“Oh sorry about that, it’s just I haven’t heard anyone talk like that in my house in a while.”
“Oh you have kids?”
“Kid” I corrected her, “My wife died many years ago.”
“Parental death can be tough on the children when they barely understand it.”
“Yea”
“Oh sorry where are my manners? My name is Jessica and this is my son Sam. Say hi Sam!” She told her son who is now hiding behind her leg. “I guess he’s a little shy.”
“The name’s Mark, nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too. Let me get him some ice cream and we can talk some more”
“Alright”
I sat outside at the tables waiting for them to come back. When they did, her son had a bowl of chocolate ice cream with rainbow sprinkles and whipped cream.
“Good luck with that sugar rush.” I told her.
“Sam usually has more sugar crashes than rushes. Give it about 5 minuets and he’ll be out.” She handed me a plastic spoon, “When he’s finished we can have some.”
She wasn’t joking. After 3 scoops of ice cream, Sam started to sway left and right with a tired look on his face. Jessica picked him up and held him in her lap while we continued Sam’s ice cream.
I was probably sitting there for maybe an hour, and it was a nice breath of fresh air.
“So let me get this straight, your ex husband believed he was a wizard and casted an invisibility spell on himself, then stripped naked and ran outside.” I asked her
“That’s him. He had a new phase after each show he watched. Practically childish if you asked me. I basically had to take care of both him and Sam.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, why did you divorce?”
“Well it’s because he got sent to jail multiple times for his act and I didn’t want that to affect my family.”
“If I were him, I’d understand that it was an ok choice.”
Suddenly, I got a phone call from my son. I told Jessica and she let me take the call real quick.
“Hey dad where are you parked I want to go home!”
“I’m still busy looking around. Just walk down towards the stadium and you’ll find-“
He hung up before I can finish my sentence. Maybe he knew where to find me and is heading this way.
I sat back down with Jessica and continued our talk.
“How old is he?” I was confused by her question at first, but it took me a second to realize what she said.
“Oh he’s 15 and going through his little rebel phase.”
“Do you two bond a lot?”
“Today we were supposed to watch a football game, but all he did was stay on his phone.”
“Oh I’d hate for Sam to be like that.”
“Yea, hopefully when he's older he’ll be interested in a lot of things.”
”Can I tell you a secret? And will you promise not to run or scream?”
”I'm a little afraid but I trust you.”
Jessica sighed and snapped her fingers. I waited for something to happen but nothing did.
“What was tha-“
She shushed me and pointed at the ice cream. Instead of it being half eaten chocolate, it was now vanilla.
“How did you? Wasn't that? But it was just? How?!”
She laughed at me panicking. ”My husband believed he was a wizard not being he watched tv, but because he attempted to follow my spell books. I'm a which Mark, and I can help you with your son.
”But magic isn't real, and neither are witches.”
”You saw me change the ice cream. With one snap, I can make both your son treat you better.”
”And how can you do this I may ask?”
”Well I'll just make him follow your orders and he’ll start to like things you like.”
“That’s kind of like mind control, and it wouldn’t be the same.”
“I guess you’re right. Any suggestions to what I can do?”
“I’ve always wanted one thing from him. Can you make him young enough to fully depend on me. Like maybe 2 or 3 years old.”
Jessica snapped her fingers and smiled at me.
“Not now, he’s probably on the side of the street!”
“It doesn’t work like that. The bigger the object, the longer the time it takes to change. I don’t practice on people often so the spell would work at night time. Once he changes, only me and you would remember the old him. Everyone else would see him as a toddler.”
”If this works, I’ll thank you more than anyone has thanked you before.”
“Let me give you my number so I can get those thanks.”
I offered her my phone and she added herself as a contact. I texted her so she’ll get my number added. I thanked her for the ice cream and I looked around for Jon. After not finding him, he called and told me he was in the car. I walked back and he was waiting on me inside.
I waited the rest of the day till night came, and that’s when I heard...