Don't Mess With Voodoo
by: muaaimoi
Within two day's Sheldon is driving himself up a wall. He's almost willing to concede that there is some truth to certain bible stories, regardless of them making no scientific sense. If Sheldon had been Eve, humanity would not have lasted long in paradise either. He probably wouldn't have even needed the tempting of the snake.
Sheldon needs to know. He goes through his days with passages from the Books of Shadow's he's read wandering teasingly through his mind. The scientist in him keeps drawing up experiments. How to test if there is magic, way's to quantify his proficiency in it.
He's so busy in his head he's barely speaking. His parents are too busy thanking the Lord for the peace this affords them to be too bothered by it. George is hoping up and down the boy's just managed to talk himself out. Mary's just grateful for the answered prayer and doesn't think twice about it.
Finally, he can't take it anymore. He doesn't have anything mystically powerful, not in anyway that matters, the cross he wears is useless as he lacks faith. But Sheldon has long made his peace with having to make do with what he's got. It's just a little test. Sheldon knows it's ambiguous, and that ambiguity is an enemy to science. But it seems to be magic's friend so Sheldon figure's what the heck.
He slips out of his room and quietly into Missy's room. He can hear her in the kitchen and what he wants won't take but a second. A year and four months beforehand, the day before their first and rather traumatic trip to Disney world, Missy had piled a bunch of her Disney books rather carelessly on the radiator. One of them had fallen behind it, and knowing how forgetful Missy was, it was probably still there.
Sheldon strikes gold. Or rather Goofy, which is quite frankly, a few hundred times worse. Sheldon drops the book like it has scalded him and flees back to his room.
Ducking under the covers is usually rather useless, but today it serves the dual purpose of blocking him from sight and making him feel better. There is nothing Sheldon hates more than his inability to forget trauma. Just seeing Goofy's visage in his home is going to give him nightmares for a whole week. That is, unless magic really does work. Then the spell he plans to perform will make him dream of superheroes instead.
It's a very straightforward experiment. Sheldon suffers from nightmares after seeing Goofy. The
spell he plans to perform promises to alter that, and let him dream of something he chooses.
Ergo, if the Spell works Sheldon will have wonderful dreams about the super friends. If it doesn't he will have horrible Goofy induced nightmares.
Really, the things Sheldon does for science.
Never the less Sheldon pulls a marker out of his pocket and his wallet. His Super Friends card is placed deliberately into his pillow case and the runes for guided dreaming go just behind his rolled up sleeve's. Its suppose to be on his hands, but from what he understands of Spell casting , a lot of it is difficult for no reason.
And he needs to hide the Rune's from his mother.
" Shelly, dinners ready!" His mother calls from downstairs.
" Coming" he calls back, rolling his sleeve's back down and stuffing his things back into his pocket.
He's jittery all through dinner, but he's quiet, so he's ignored in favor of his rather vocal siblings.
Mary realizes that Sheldon isn't hounding her for the second shower of the day and resolves to thank the Lord even more profusely in prayer. Clearly all the praying she's been doing to make her special little boy just a little more normal is paying off. And Lord has Jesus been kind!
Now all Mary needs is for George to stop drinking and she won't ask for anything other than her family's health.
Her husband slamming the door open is all she needs to know she ought to start praying harder.
"George!" She shouts, "What have I told you about drinking in this house!". And yet another fight begins.
Sheldon, who had been counting down the minutes to bed time anxiously, jumps onto his bed. When his parents fight, no one will come to tuck him in.
He hums loudly to himself in an effort to drown out the voices and hopes they don't start braking things. Raised voices do upset him, but having points emphasized by shattering glass truly terrifies him. He knows both his parents have an exceedingly high potential for violence.
His mother is better about channeling it into other things, like church and prayer. But when that's not enough she always goes hunting. His dad's more liable to disappear for a while and come back achy and bruised, having no doubt picked a fight some where.
Missy and George Jr. are good at ignoring things like that but Sheldon isn't. He can remember being held while his mother was on the phone, talking about how Alisa from down the street needed to leave the drunk who beat her. He can also remember the day he shot her. His mother doesn't know of course. No one does. Sheldon doesn't talk about how clearly he remembers things. How he can never manage to forget anything at all. No matter how hard he tries.
He hears the door slam again and his mother begins doing the dishes far too enthusiastically. He can tell by the banging of pot's and pans.
He supposes it's better than exercising that potential on themselves, or worse, on their progeny. He knows some of the kids in his class get smacked around at home. He's grateful he's not one of them, but it feels like a near thing, some days.
Suddenly Sheldon really hopes magic does work. That he will be good at it, and that he can make his parents stop fighting.
His eyes water and he feels stupid for torturing himself with Goofy when its his parents fighting is more likely to give him nightmares.
He twists and turns all night. And he can barely fall asleep.
But when he does, he has good dreams.
So, hope you guys like it.
