"GERALD! Get yo' head out of the clouds, boy!"

I shot my supervisor a look of disgust before quickly finishing up piecing together the parts of the small machine in front of me, moving onto the next to repeat the same actions, and then to the next... Working the assembly in a manufacturing company was tedious, but seventy-six cents an hour was well worth the monotony. It had allowed me to purchase my home and land, and give my mother proper care. The reason for my aggravation was less to do with my job and moreover how my week had gone.

I was meant to meet with Tom again this evening as it had been a week since he'd left me with my homework. I'd been practicing the spells every morning prior to heading out for the day as well as allotting time do do the same once I had returned home. My teacher had warned me against using magic in the presence of other as this was strictly forbidden in every part of the world. I certainly didn't wish to draw attention to myself or disrupt my new friend's mission. Spending so much time mastering these charms in addition to keeping up with my regular forty hours at the factory was taxing yet enjoyable. So it wasn't really being fatigued and busy that was bothering me either.

It was Delilah. The source of my agitation over the course of my entire life had always been my mother. After the fight, or almost fight, the day I had gone to the lake, the two of us had settled back into our normal routines...our usual placid attitudes. Neither of us acted like the altercation had occurred. She, no doubt, was glad to have gotten away from sharing anything with me and I had just given up yet again. There was no point in trying to get her to be open with me and there was now even less need for me to be annoyed by this adamant refusal of hers because I no longer needed her. I had Tom.

Strange Mr. Riddle was the first person to teach me anything...to be not only friendly, but let me into their life. He was straightforward with me, making me aware of his own need for me without fuss while also helping me understand my own existence. He could lead me to the answers I had searched for for years. Lending him my companionship was mutually rewarding. He received, from what I gathered, a potentially very capable ally in his cause and I...I was finally free...knowledgeable instead of fearful.

Another hour and I had completed my shift, making my way out of heated, noisy, and over-crowded building. On my way down the concrete steps, a familiar voice called to me, "Hey! Gerald?"

I turned to the sound, seeing another man who had worked alongside me for several months. I lifted a brow and waited for him to explain himself, seeing as the two of us had never actually spoken before. Our work atmosphere didn't exactly cater to simple conversation and any sort of distraction as such was discouraged entirely even if it had been a comfortable place in which to get to know one another.

"It is Gerald, isn't it?" he panted once he caught up to me.

"It is," I stated plainly, "What do you want?"

"Me and some of the boys were going to head to that new jazz club later on. Check out what the negros are up to," he smiled.

I squinted at him. Even though he spoke with sincerity and innocence, I couldn't help but to question his moral stance concerning the darker skinned of us Americans. It was normal to refer to these people as negro, black, or colored. These certainly weren't the offensive terms that whites had created for them. Nonetheless, I felt a twinge in my being when he had said it that way. He didn't outwardly appear to be rude or hateful though perhaps no anger showed because he was talking to me, a fellow white person. There was no way to really know.

"I've actually got plans," I politely declined.

"Oh, alright," he shrugged and I turned to leave only to be drawn back by yet another inquiry, "You know, it's not too big of a town and still I've never seen you around before. You're not one of them queers, are ya?"

I cocked my head to the side, noticing that his eyes darted momentarily to my messy white hair, "No," I almost growled, knowing for sure now that the man was small-minded at the very least if not cruel, "I just like my privacy."

The man eased back onto his heels, rubbing his chin and studying me critically. Per my short stature, he easily towered over, his figure fully filled out with muscle as opposed to my more slender yet gently toned form. I had no clue as to why he suddenly decided that today, he was going to get some sort of sense of my person and since I likewise new nearly nothing about him, I couldn't tell what he was pondering. All I knew was that for some reason, I had struck his curiosity.

"Alright, then, Gerald," he emphasized my name, "I can respect a man's wishes to be his own company. Whether it makes him suspicious or not."

Cutting my eyes at him, but keeping my stance comfortable, I turned the conversation, "Pray tell how I am the suspicious one in this scenario?"

The man shrugged, "Just saying that keeping so private can come off like that is all. Especially down here in Dixie... But I'm sure you're quite gentle."

This guy was really starting to irk me. He had begun simply enough yet each time he spoke, he became more unlikable. Even his supposed assurance that I was harmless was clearly meant as an insult. Saying I was gentle. Not a threat. Did I really seem so out of place that the one real impression given of me was to say I was suspicious and homosexual? Thinking on it now, he'd probably never had true interest in me joining his affair this evening other than to pry.

"What's your name, anyway, friend?" I spoke with even more venom than he had dared yet to portray.

"Allan," he gave with a smirk, offering his hand.

I eyed it, considering simply walking away as I owed him no affection. Instead, I took it, simultaneously putting my sights back on his face. The man instantly gripped my hand too tightly for it to be taken as just a firm shake. There was a subtle change in his expression which told me he was indeed, attempting to intimidate me. Even though my own grasp had been weaker, I didn't falter, keeping my own attitude nonchalant as I silently uttered one of the sillier curses within the journal that Tom had given me.

"What in the hell?" Allan abruptly retreated his hand from me, seeing that his fingers had become as if they had no bones within them, causing his grasp onto me to instantly fall.

The moment he turned a glare up onto me, I asked with obviously feigned innocence, "What's the matter?"

As I spoke and before he could look downward again, I had stealthily pointed towards his hexed fingers, returning them to their normal state. Aptly named the Jelly-Fingers Curse, the spell did just what its name told. Allan's gaze darted worriedly between his hand and me as he slowly started to back off in sheer confusion as to what had just happened.

"Yeah, another time, then," he said awkwardly before continuing on his way.

I grinned deviously to myself as he departed. I knew I wasn't supposed to, but it was so concealed, so quick and easily explained away in the man's mind as a simple trick of his eye...so there was no harm done, right? I thought back to the book my teacher had left for me as I began my own trek home to ready for the evening.

Most of the spells had been unbelievably easy to master, considering how little time I had had to work on them. Even though I was well aware he had started me with the most elementary magic, I still felt accomplished that I could fairly easily perform the ten spells he told me to focus on. True, I hadn't focused on those alone as in my curiosity, I had looked into the rest of the detailed handbook where I had found the little trick I had successfully freaked out my coworker with.

"Mom?" I called upon reaching the house. I made my way inside and traipsed around the little den and through the hall to poke my head into the bedrooms. She wasn't there. In the kitchen next, I found a note pinned to the refrigerator.

Gerald,
Since you have plans for the evening, I figured I would take the opportunity to have a vacation day myself. I will see you this night or in the morning if I retire before you get back. Please don't forget to feed yourself and tell your friend I said Hello.
Mom

I sighed and set the note upon the counter. I didn't like the idea of her out at night unchaperoned especially with her paranoia. At the same time, though, I was glad...hopefully that perhaps she was attempting to overcome her own fears. I quickly switched out of my soiled work attire and into a nicer pair of dark slacks, accompanied by a button-down dress shirt of a grey hue. I had never been a big fan of too many colors. I was uncertain why, but it seemed that Tom preferred for my clothing to be, what was the term he had used?...respectable, I said in my head, mocking playfully his accent.

Hurrying my pace through and out of the house to meet him in town at the agreed upon spot, my heart jumped at the sound of his voice as I skipped down the porch stairs, "What do you find so amusing?"

I spun around, laying sights on the wizard, seated in my rocker and staring emotionless at me, "Oh, I-" I hadn't realized I had laughed out loud upon making fun of him in my head, "Nothing, really," I skipped topic, hoping telepathy wasn't amidst his powers, "What made you come here instead?"

Tom slowly stood from and strolled closer to me, "I thought I would save you a trip."

"I appreciate your consideration. My mother has actually-" my brow furrowed, a suspicion entering my mind, "Tom did you know?"

The man tilted his head, seemingly confused, "Know what?"

"That Delilah..." I shook my head, tearing my gaze from Tom and reminding myself not to be like her, "It's just she decided to take a leave tonight. I thought perhaps that's why you made your way here."

He grinned, "I wasn't aware. I didn't mean that I came here so you didn't have to go into town, though. I just have a quicker means of travel and didn't want time to be wasted with you making the journey yourself."

Without waiting for any further question from me, he lifted an arm to his side, bending it at the elbow, his cloak hanging loosely in the air under it. My eyes went from him to the arm, to him and back once more. He was offering it as a man would offer a lady when asking her to dance. It was odd, but Tom was a focused individual and in my appreciation of that, I simply reached forward and took hold of his arm.

The sensation that followed was unexpected and sickening. Almost instantaneously, the world around us fell away, becoming colored fog overtaken by wisps of black. I felt as if my insides were being wrenched from my body yet try as I might to look down at myself, I saw nothing but flashes of what my form once was. Thankfully, the experience was over quickly, though on the other side of it, I nearly stumbled forward and fell to the ground. I opened my mouth, feeling as though I was going to retch, but never did, the nausea slowly subsiding. When I was finally able to see straight again, I scanned the area to see that we were now standing within an empty alley in the downtown district.

Tom grinned as he took in my state, "That is called apparating."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: USA, 1940, the average work week of a minimum wage manufacturer (factory) worker consisted of 38 hours with a pay of 76 cents ($0.76) an hour with an average total of $26 earned per week. That translates in 2018 terms to about $442 every week before taxes are deducted.

As of 2018:
$1 = £0.72
$1 = €0.81

Dixie- a term referencing the southern US, typically used by white people and sometimes seen as racist since it was greatly used to describe these states during the time of slavery and oppression of African-descended people.

Queer- though used prior to this time in reference to a male homosexual, it only began being used as derogatory by 1940; a word in that time similar to today's US slang meaning of the word 'faggot.'

Jelly-Fingers Curse is canon; I didn't make that one up.