"Wait a minute," Paul protested from Don's palm. "I want to know more about this so-called magic wand before we all go charging over to confront Mr. Laird."
Don looked uncomfortable. "Can we not make a big deal out of this?"
"This is a big deal!" Paul shouted. "I'm six inches tall!"
Don sighed and walked to the sofa. He took a seat, his father still in his hands. Brett and Bryan took a seat on each side of their older brother.
"Well, I was about Brett's age when it happened," Don began. "Some buddies were playing ball in the backyard with me. I batted the ball through one of the windows in Laird's garage."
His father and brothers listened. "Then what happened?" Bryan asked.
"Mr. Laird wasn't home, so I went into the garage to get the baseball. But, while I was looking for it, I found something else. I found Mr. Laird's wand."
"And then Mr. Laird came home suddenly and caught you!" Brett exclaimed. "And he shrunk you for busting his window and breaking into his garage."
"Shut up, you little dumbass," Don said, smacking the back of Brett's head. "That's not what happened at all."
"Well, get to the point," Bryan protested. "What happened?"
"I took the wand," Don said. "I shouldn't have, but something made me want to take it."
"That still doesn't explain what has happened to me," Paul said.
"Well, later, in my room, I studied the wand. I had found some instructions with it," Don explained. "So, I decided to use it."
"What did you wish for?" Bryan asked.
"I wished that I was bigger," Don said softly.
Paul began to recall that Don had been a sort of late bloomer. When he had been Brett's age, Don had worried that he was never going to grow. He had been one of the smallest kids in his class until he finally began to grow as a sophomore in high school.
"And it worked?" Brett asked.
"No, not exactly," Don answered, thinking back to events he had almost managed to forget. "In the meantime, Mr. Laird had discovered the wand was missing. So, he worked another spell to cause the wishes of whoever had taken the wand to backfire. When I wished to grow bigger, I began to shrink."
"Wow!" Bryan and Brett said in unison.
"Well, at first I thought that the wand didn't work. I mean, who the hell believes in magic wands. But, pretty soon, I realized that I was growing smaller. I thought maybe I had made the wish wrong, so I tried again. But each time I wished to make myself bigger, I kept getting smaller."
Paul was astonished as he listened to Don's story. Well, at least his son could sympathize with what he was currently enduring.
"Well, I freaked out. By the time I realized something was really wrong, I was already only two feet tall. I knew I needed help, so I headed back to Mr. Laird's house. Luckily, he was home when I pounded at his door. I was only a foot tall by then, with not a stitch of clothes."
"What did Mr. Laird do?" Bryan asked.
"Well, he laughed when he saw what had happened to me. Then, when I apologized and begged him to help me, that's what he did. He used the wand and grew me back to my normal size. Then, he just gave me a lecture about not taking things that don't belong to me, and that was that."
"But what about dad?" Bryan asked.
"I don't know," Don said. "You get along well with Mr. Laird, don't you?"
"Of course," Paul said. "I've never had any complaint about him as a neighbor."
"And Mr. Laird is obviously a very fair man," Don said. "I don't think he would have used the wand to do this to dad. There has to be something else going on."
"Dad, you didn't steal Mr. Laird's wand did you?" Brett wanted to know.
"Shut up!" Bryan said. "You're so stupid, Brett."
"Well, this has been very informative," Paul said, "but we still need to find out what had happened to me. Looks like our neighbor may be the guy with the answers."
.