Chapter 2

The Odd Clothed Man

Roger felt the warm breeze on his face as he stood at the top of the hill with his bike. Summer had finally arrived, school was out, and his 11th birthday was exactly 7 weeks away. Life was good, except for one thing. He was the shortest, scrawniest kid in his class. That wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that his father was so big and strong, looking like he could bench press 500 pounds without breaking a sweat. Roger on the other hand had a hard time lifting his backpack if he had all his textbooks in it. He shook his long black hair out of his eyes, another disappointment to his father. He felt as though he let his father down in many ways. He didn't mean to, but compared to his twin sister, he was Pluto to her Sun. She was the bright shining center of everything, and he was the dwarf planet left in her shadow.

It didn't help that he kept getting into trouble for things he didn't even do. Strange things just seemed to happen to him. His first day of school he was playing with blocks when Billy Simpkins pushed his creation over, pushed him down and laughed at him as Roger hit his head on the floor and cried out. He sat up and glared at him, but when Billy fell over because his shoes were suddenly tied together, somehow he got blamed for it. It was always that way for him, unexplainable things would occur around him and he got called out for it. His only friend was his cousin Jacob. He would try to explain these things to him, and Jacob would just change the subject. Roger wasn't sure why, but he felt Jacob wanted to say more but couldn't. It didn't matter now though, it was summer and he was free.

"You ready?" His cousin Jacob was standing beside him, waiting for Roger to catch his breath. Jacob was a bit taller then Roger, with reddish auburn hair. It was a more traditional cut, something that his father might have approved of. Roger nodded his head, and the two were off down the hill, racing each other and laughing the whole way. They skidded around a corner and stopped seeing a moving van at the house down the road from his. "You didn't tell me you had new neighbours."

"Didn't know I did." Roger said. The two got off their bikes and walked toward the moving van. The peaked around, looking at the new neighbors while trying not to look like they were. Coming out of the house was a rather tall man, about the same age as his father if he had to guess. He was rather oddly dressed, almost like a stereotypical badly dressed dad. He went to grab a box, and noticed the two boys walking by, to which he smiled and waved. The two boys, knowing their terrible cover was blown, waved back.

"Hello boys, how are you?"

"Eh, ummm..fine." Roger never knew what to say when meeting new people. Especially one who was dressed the way this man was. He had on a Hawaiian shirt, jean shorts, and long socks with sandals. Roger tried to look past it as the man reached out to shake his hand.

"Good, good. New to the neighbourhood, as you can see. Just moved here with my family, bit closer to my new job. Going to be a Professor, my daughter will be there too, being her first year." The man must have gotten a job at the University Roger thought, same place as his mother. He was about to ask if he knew her when he saw a young girl about his age walk out the door. She had blond wavy hair that went down to the middle of her back. She was at least dressed like a normal person, clearly none of her father's odder choices had gone to her. She stopped when she saw them, smiled and waved. He gave a quick wave, and put his hand down fast. If strangers made him uneasy, strange girls made him even more uneasy.

"Hello, how are you? My name is Jeannette, what's your name?"

"Ummmmmmmm…." The entire English language escaped him at that exact moment. He wasn't even sure of his name anymore.

"His name is Roger, my name is Jacob. We're cousins, nice to meet you." Roger gave a quick nod and coughed. Suddenly his throat felt very dry, and he couldn't swallow. Jeannette hid a laugh, and smiled at him.

"It is a bit warm out here, let me get you a drink. Come inside, you can meet my mom."

Jacob gave him a quick elbow and pointed to the boxes. Roger got the hint and grabbed one of the boxes, as did Jacob, and they walked in. The place was nice, but he couldn't help but notice some of the odd furniture inside. Some of the pots and pans almost looked like cauldrons, he noticed they didn't have a television, but figured that might still be on the moving van. They set the boxes on the counter, and Roger noticed the box had slightly opened. Inside were family photos. They must have been on vacation to Salem before, they were dressed a bit like the tourists that came around every October to celebrate the town's history of witchcraft. He thought it was a little odd though, he didn't see any other children besides Jeannette in the picture. Didn't his father say he had a daughter starting at the school he would be a Professor at? He looked to ask Jeannette when he had to do a double take. Did that picture just move? He shook his head, must have been his imagination. That was when an attractive woman about his own mother's age walked into the room. She also had blond wavy hair like Jeannette, and he figured this had to be her mother.

"Oh, hello, you must be our neighbours. My name is Jennifer, nice to meet you." Roger and Jacob both smiled and shook her hand. "You must have met the rest of my family already."

"Well we met your husband and daughter, but we haven't met your other daughter yet."

Jennifer gave Roger a puzzled look. "Other daughter. I don't have any other daughter, I don't have any other children actually."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I just thought your husband said he was going to be teaching at the same school as your daughter, and I assumed it was at the University since he said he would be a Professor."

"I see, no no, he is going to be a Professor at a private school nearby."

Roger was a little disappointed, he was hoping Jeannette might be in his class at school. "Oh cool, where is this school?"

"It's ummm, it's in the mountains, near Adams, few hours from here."

Roger was really confused now, there was no way a school was on Mount Greylock. He was about to ask her when Jacob changed the subject. "Do you mind if Jeannette come with us for a bit, show her around town?" Roger looked sideways at Jacob, as if to say 'What are you doing!?' He didn't know how to talk to a girl, he almost had died just now, let alone try to talk to her for an entire afternoon.

"Mom, would that be okay?" Jeannette asked her mom, and she smiled at Jacob. "I can help you with moving in when I get back later."

"I suppose that will be okay, don't get into any trouble okay?" She laughed as she said it, but Roger still thought it was a bit of an odd thing to say. Was this girl a troublemaker. He wasn't sure if his father would like him hanging out with a rule breaker.

"I know Mom, I swear I will not do anything like that, I'm not a Dorcus." Roger squinted his eyes at that. Must have been a saying from wherever they lived before. He shrugged it off and the three of them left. They waved at her father, and they went back to their bikes. "Oh, I actually don't have a bike. Never learned really."

This family was odd that was for sure. "That's okay," Roger said. "My house is just down here, we can drop off the bikes and just walk into town." They dropped off the bikes and walked down the streets, getting to know one another. The decided to go to a local ice cream stand to get something cold on this hot day. Jeannette asked if they served something that sounded like butter scotch or butter root beer, and Roger was about to ask her what flavor when Jacob cleared his throat and changed the subject. He was starting to get really annoyed with this habit of Jacobs, but he shrugged it off again. When they reached the ice cream place, and they all had their individual cones, they walked to the nearby park to have them and talk.

"So, what do you think of the town so far Jeannette?" Roger asked.

"It's nice, I do like it. Bit different than where I grew up. I'm from New York originally, well just a little outside the city. My dad used to work for the government there, but decided he would like a change of scenery when this new job opened up. Salem is cool though, the history of it, the tragedy."

"Yeah, so many people died needlessly. I mean, they actually believed in witches and magic back then, can you believe it?" Roger laughed, but noticed that Jeannette and Jacob both just gave him a kind of weak smile. "Oh, don't tell me you two believe in magic?"

Jeannette looked like she was about to say something when Jacob spoke first. "No, of course not. Just… I think there is a lot of stuff we don't know in this world. I think we ju- Oh great, this idiot." Roger turned his head and saw what Jacob was talking about. It was Billy Simpkins and his idiot friends, brothers Sean and Patrick Finnegan. Billy had been giving Roger and Jacob problems since his first day of school.

"Hey dorks, what are you doing? Why don't you two get out of this place and let me get to know this chick?" Sean and Patrick both laughed like Billy had said something genius, but Jeannette just glared at the three of them.

"Yeah, I think this 'chick' is all set, thaaaanks." Jeannette got up to leave but Billy pushed her back down.

"I don't think you understand, these two are the losers of this town. If you want to make it around here, you'll want to get to know me. Why are you two still here by the way, I thought I told you to leave."

"Okay, number one: DO NOT EVER EVER TOUCH ME AGAIN! WE HAVE THAT STRAIGHT?" Jeannette had a fury in her eyes that both scared and excited Roger. He had never seen anyone stand up to Billy like this before. "Second: You do not want to mess with me, okay? I can do things to you that you cannot even imagine. Third and final: I am leaving, you and the gang of morons will stand her dumbfounded, and I will have a good day. Goodbye!"

Roger and Jacob both stood there awestruck. They had never seen anything so amazing. Roger couldn't help it, he started to laugh. He had wanted someone to stand up to this man for years, and this girl did it on her first day in town. He loved this girl! Billy's face was turning a dark maroon, his fists were shaking, and had Roger noticed he might have stopped laughing, but he couldn't because his eyes were closed from laughing so hard. He did notice when Billy's fist crashed into the side of his head. He crashed to the ground with an intense pain in his head. He just lay there for a minute trying to figure out where he was, and what had just happened. He got to one knee and reached to feel his face. It was already starting to swell and the pain was pulsating from it. Normally Roger might have cried, Billy would have laughed, and things would have gone normal. Not today though, Jeannette had inspired him. He got up, clinched his fist, and swung at Billy completely missing him. This set Billy and the two idiots into a laughing fit, doubling over and tears coming out of their eyes.

"Roger, come on, let's just go while they are distracted and we can get away. That was amazing that you stood up to them, but let's go, now." Jacob was urging him along, and Jeannette looked horrified and furious.

"Oh, don't think we're done with you yet. Tell you what, I'll give you another shot, right here," Billy was sticking his chin out and pointing to it. "I won't move, you have a free shot, let's see if you can get even close to my body this time."

Roger should have walked away, he couldn't even see out of his right eye the pain and swelling was so great. He looked down at his shoes, took a couple of deep breaths and looked at Billy out of his left eye. He just wished someone would give this guy what he had coming to him, maybe the biggest atomic wedgie or a purple nurple was what this guy really needed. Billy was still laughing and pointing at his chin when he got a funny look on his face. First it was confusion, then pain. He let out a scream and looked behind him. He swung around, trying to hit someone that wasn't there while still yelling out in agony. Sean and Patrick both looked more confused than usual, and backed away. That was when Roger noticed that Billy's underwear was now being pulled up by an invisible force, and he was getting the worst wedgie that he had ever seen. Billy was now grabbing at his chest and swatting at an invisible force that Roger assumed was giving him the purple nurple he had hoped for. He was so confused as to what was happening, but he had to admit, he was happy about it. Enough so that he was starting to forget about the pain in his head.

"Let's get out of here, help me you idiots!" Sean and Patrick ran up to him and put an arm around each of their shoulders and they all ran off. Roger couldn't believe it, and he had no idea what had happened, but it had been awesome!

"What was that! Did that really happen, or was I imagining things?" Roger looked at both Jacob and Jeannette, hoping to get some sort of confirmation that he wasn't crazy.

"Hold on, wait a minute." Jeannette had both of her hands out, and was staring at Roger. "Why did you not tell me?"

"Tell you what?" Roger was rubbing the side of face, the pain was quickly returning to him, and his head was spinning.

"You didn't tell me that you were a wiz-"

"Hey, yeah, we have to get some ice on that face of yours Roger. Let's get you back home quick!" Jacob ran over and put Roger's arm around his shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah okay. What were you asking me Jeannette?" Roger was really starting to feel dizzy now, and the pain was starting to get really bad.

"I just can't believe you didn't tell me," Jeannette was talking fast, excited and stammering. "I mean, what with your whole no magic talk earlier, but that was just a cover. I knew Salem had a big community of us, but I didn't expect to meet someone my first day, let alone live just down the road. I have a million questions. Will you be going to Ilver-" Roger didn't hear anything else Jeannette said, as everything went black and he crashed to the ground.