March 26, 2015 – The Twelfth Step

Q: What did the traffic light say to the car?
A: DON’T LOOK! I’M CHANGING!

Well according to the calendar date, we’re already into spring now! Yea! But wait, that also means I’ll soon be doing outside chores again like cutting the grass, raking and watering the flowers! Boo! J Anyway, here’s the next installment for my ongoing story, as well as the links to the previous chapters. Enjoy!

Andy’s Woodsy Adventure – Chapter 10

Chris was staring at me waiting for a response. He then looked over at Andy #2, and then drew his attention back to me again.

“Can you keep a secret?” I said nervously, feeling like I had no other choice.

“Yes…” Chris said smiling.

“Seriously, I really need to know I can completely trust you won’t tell anyone else at all what I ‘m about to say…”

“Geez…it’s that serious huh? Yeah, you can trust me. The fact is I don’t really have any friends I could tell anyway. So what this big secret with your twin brother here?”

“I have magic powers and can create a duplicate of me whenever I want…”

It sounded totally ridiculous after I said it and I could see Chris wasn’t buying it either by the expression I was now seeing on his face. He then started to laugh.

“Really, I’m being serious! I’m not lying!” I said rather irritated.

“Look, I’m not stupid!” Chris said sounding like he was starting to get irritated as well.

“I am being serious and I can prove it!”

“Oh yeah, how?!”

“Gemini!”

POP…

“What the…where…did…he go?” Chris stammered, looking around and feeling confused.

“I told you I had magic powers…”

“Come on, seriously…HEY YOU CAN COME OUT NOW!” Chris shouted loudly, looking off into some nearby bushes thinking the other me was hiding there.

“He’s not hiding. He’s part of me…”

“Gemini!”

POP…

“Hey Chris, what’s hanging bro?” said Andy #2 as he rapidly appeared out of thin air directly in front of Chris.

“What the! How are you doing that?!”

“I told you it’s magic. I still haven’t figured it all out myself.”

I ended up having to demonstrate it a few more times before Chris finally believed me. I decided after he did though that it was best to have me #2 go away for now.

“Gemini!”

POP…

“That’s awesome!!! To think of all the cool things you can do with a duplicate of you!”

“I know right! Now do you understand why I need you to keep this a secret?!”

Chris has so many questions for me. He wanted to know everything and was asking me one thing after another. I figured it was going to take a little while to tell him so we sat down on the grassy hill nearby where I started from the beginning. I told him about the large rock I used to play at in the woods by myself and about the secret hatch I unearthed the day I went missing. I told him about the cave I found underneath it and almost getting stuck in there forever because of the puzzle on the floor. I told him how solving that puzzle with my birthdate led me to finding the crystal and how time passed so quickly in the real world while I was down in that cave for just those few hours. And then I explained to him how I first discovered the power of the crystal when I was in the police station trying to show everyone the symbols on it. Finally I told him about the powers I had learned of so far, including almost passing out at my pool and how it appeared that I didn’t need to have the crystal on me to use the abilities it gave me.

“So I’m curious on one thing…” Chris said while laughing. “Why didn’t you jump into the pool dummy when you said Cancer! It sounds like you had gills on the side of your neck that probably would have helped you breathe under water silly! And most likely your normal air passage ways were closed off to make all that work correctly.”

“Yeah, I kind of thought about that after the fact, but at the time it was a little hard because I was gasping for breath and my parents were about to discover my secret.” I said laughing with him.

It really felt good having someone to talk to, someone who finally believed me.

“So what do you think happens if you pause time and your touching someone?” Chris said.

“I don’t know? I never tried that. Let’s see…” I said as I swiftly grabbed Chris’s arm.

“Libra!”

WHOOSH…

I looked over at Chris, expecting him to be frozen now, except he wasn’t.

“I don’t feel any different…” Chris said, looking around and touching parts of his body.

I was truly amazed to see it actually had worked, but Chris still didn’t think anything was different.

“Look up…” I said as I stared at the bird hanging in mid air almost directly above us.

“Holy crap!” Chris pointed at the bird and then noticed a plane even higher in the sky that was motionless as well, almost like a mobile above a baby’s crib. “So do you have to be touching me as well to go back to real time?”

“Libra!” I said standing near him but not touching him at all.

WHOOSH…

The plane continued on its way while the bird flew off in the direction it was heading and thankfully I noticed Chris was moving around with me once again.

“You are so dam lucky you know? To have all these powers… But hasn’t it been killing you not knowing why it picked you, where it came from, and why the hatch or cave no longer seems to be there in the woods?” Chris said inquisitively.

“Well duh! Yeah, but how am I supposed to figure all that out?”

“Maybe all those answers will come to you when you say one of those zodiac names?”

“Huh, I never thought of that. I guess I was sort of scared after that Cancer incident.”

Immediately I started gasping for breath again and felt those gills appear on my neck.

“Say Cancer again you idiot!” Chris said with a huge smile.

“CA-AN-CER!” I choked the word out of me like before and then took a big gulp of air.

“Wow, I guess I can see why you’d be freaked out not to try some of the others. But hey look, you’ve got me now to help you through this right? We’re a team now. You’re Batman, I’m Robin ok?”

“Yeah…except no stupid costumes ok?” I said laughing.

“So are you up for trying a new one just to see what happens?”

“I guess so…” I said nervously, but felt a little better that Chris was there.

“How about Capricorn? That’s my sign…” he said.

I looked briefly at my watch and knew I needed to be getting home because my parents would probably freak if I weren’t there when they walked in the front door. But I figured I had enough time to try at least one new symbol.

“Capricorn!” I said as I thought about my mother coming in the front door and calling for me.

Suddenly I saw a vortex of spinning light appear out of nowhere along with a weird “VAVOOM” noise. I hoped Chris could see it, as it looked so beautiful and appeared to have the whole set of rainbow colors circling it. In what was probably no more than a blink of an eye, it completely enveloped me and for a moment or so, I found myself being thrust down a long tunnel lit in a spectacular display of millions of colors, all moving in the direction I was. Then without warning, the end of the tunnel rapidly zoomed towards me. VAVOOM… Immediately I was thrust out of it and toppled to the floor of the hallway right inside my front door. And there in the kitchen directly in front of me just a few steps away stood my mother with her back to me…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

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