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If you had told me this morning when I woke up that I would
be spending my evening in the backyard
summoning spirits, I would have laughed in your face and questioned your
parentage. But here I am, in the middle
of a circle with my brother and best friend, about to re-enact the scene from
every horror movie when everything goes wrong.
Except, this wasn't a movie. It
was real life, and a whole lot weirder.
“You know, you don’t have to be here”. My brother was addressing Sancho.
“Are you kidding?
This is the most interesting thing that’s happened all week” he
said. “Also, moral support, I guess” he
continued , noticing my disapproving look.
“Can we just get started?” I asked. “Its already dark, so if you're waiting for the right time, this is it.”
“Ok” Buster responded.
“Here we go”
Sancho and I moved to the rear of the circle, while Buster,
wielding his ceremonial butter knife moved to the northern most corner with his
zippo lighter, ready to light the candle.
As solemnly as he could, he intoned:
Guardians of the North, I call upon you
to watch over the rites of us three guys.
Powers of endurance and strength, guided by Earth,
we ask that you keep watch over us
tonight within this circle, and keep us from screwing up.
Let all who enter the circle under your guidance
do so in perfect love and perfect trust.
Sancho and I
exchanged a look. I shrugged whispered, “maybe
he’s improvising”
As we turned our
attention back to my brother, he continued to move across the circle, making
similar invocations at the other three points, while lighting the corresponding
candles. As he lit the last one, we
began to notice a distinct change in our environment. Specifically, it was brighter. It wasn't the candles either; the edges of the circle had begun to emit a
faint blue aura, a soft and somehow comforting light that seemed to hold back
the darkness that came with the night.
“Soooo, this is
normal, right?” I asked my brother.
“Honestly, this has
never happened before” he replied,
clearly a bit taken aback himself.
“Well, what did you
expect to happen?”
“I don’t know, I’m
just going through the motions here.”
“That’s real
comforting. Why did we call you here
again?”
“Look, “ Sancho interrupted,
“this actually makes sense”
“Oh, yeah?” said my
brother. “And you’re the expert here,
right?”
“Well, no. But clearly you aren't’ either.” Turning to me, he said “Alright, lets assume
that drinking that magically contaminated soda somehow allowed you to manifest
some sort copy of yourself. That same
magical energy must still be around here somewhere, maybe leaking from your
armpits in magical sweat for all we know. That magical energy is probably lending
itself to Busters ritual in a way that he never could. “
Even Buster had no
response to that.
“We’re through the
looking glass here people”
“Jesus” I said exasperated.
“How long have you been waiting to make that reference”
“All. Freaking.
Day.” He said with a grin.
“Whatever” Looking
at my brother, I said “ Where's the mirror?
“Over there” he
pointed.
Following his
pointed finger, I saw the mirror leaning against the sole tree in the backyard,
maybe ten feet from the edge of the circle.
“So, do I just walk
out of the circle and get it, or what?”
“No, see, we’re in
the circle to protect us. We summon the apparition
outside the circle.”
“But don’t we have
to trap it or something? If we summon it
outside the circle, couldn't it just escape?”
“Well…I mean…maybe..”
Laughing to himself,
clearly amused, Sancho said “This is why I hang out with you guys.”
Ignoring him, I walked
over to the altar/barbecue pit and proceeded to take it apart.
“What are you doing
now?” asked Sancho
“Here” I said,
handing him one of the legs. “Use this to reach over and knock of the blanket
on the mirror so we can get started”
Turning to my
brother, I said “Ok, so how are you going to summon Scooter?”
“Well, its going to
take all my skills and knowledge that I've acquired over many years of research
and study. What you’re going to witness
will go down in history as my finest moment.
I’ll be at the peak of my powers.
Songs will be written about my one day, mothers will name their children
after me and presidents will name aircraft carries in my honor!”
“Yeah,” said Sancho,
“..he’s already here.”
Looking over at the
mirror, we saw that my reflection was indeed back.
“Dammit.”said my
brother.
“Hey, guys” said
Scooter. “What’s up?”
