- CHAPTER TWO -
The Odd Incident
Aiken felt that someone was shaking him and telling him something. When he was finally able to wake up and open his eyes, he realizad his cousin Cordelia was the one who shaked him. 'Come on, Aiken, wake up! Mum says you have to prepare breakfast! Come on, hurry up, it's Bertie's birthday and you know how mum reacts if someone ruins her little boy's day!' 'Alright, I'm awake now'. The girl walked out of the cupboard under the stairs, which was Aiken's bedroom, and went to the kitchen. Aiken started getting dressed while he hummed a tune. He was smiling happily. All plans aunt Marguerite had for Cordelia turned into rubbish as soon as the little girl started showing affection for Aiken. No one who considered Aiken Potter as a human being could be friends with the Dursleys, so aunt Marguerite had to forget her dream of her daughter being just like her and uncle Dudley had to get used to Cordelia looking at him angrily whenever he torced Aiken to do some housework. Bertie didn't pay much attention to his sister, but in exchange he made Aiken's life miserable. Someone knocking on the cupboard door really loudly took him away from his thoughts. 'Go and make breakfast right now!,' yelled aunt Marguerite. 'And would you just for once not burn anything in the kitchen?' By the time Aiken had begun frying the eggs and bacon, Bertie had already unwrapped the huge pile of presents he had gotten for his birthday and aunt Marguerite sniffed while saying: 'My little boy! I can't relieve you're turning eleven!' Cordelia looked at Aiken with a 'throw-up' FACE, and they both laughed making a lot of noise. Uncle Dudley and aunt Marguerite looked at them in a rather unfriendly way, but their looks were back to Bertie when he screamed: 'I wanted a Game Cube Ultra II, not a PlayStation 8!' A catastrophe would have occured if aunt Marguerite didn't hurry to say: 'Don't worry, pumpkin, we can change it when w ego out today, is it alright?' Bertie agreed with his mouth full of fried eggs. Every year the Dursleys and Bertie's best friend went somewhere to celebrate Bertie's birthday while Aiken had to stay at Mrs. Figg's house. Mrs. Figg was an elderly neighbour whose house was filled with a cabbage odour. That year the Dursleys would go to the zoo. While they were having breakfast in perfect silence -except for the noise uncle Dudley made every time he passed the newspaper pages- the phone rang in the living room. Aunt Marguerite ran to answer it and spent a few minutes speaking. As soon as she went back to the kitchen she looked at Aiken and announced: 'Mrs. Figg is at the hospital, she fell and broke her hip. She won't be able to watch him, we'll have to take him with us'. Three out of tour Dursleys were devastated with the news. But Cordelia continued sipping her tea as if nothing had happened, and when her parents weren't looking she winked at her cousin. Bertie was screaming and crying very angrily. Although it was pure comedy, it was enough to desperate his mother and get his way. But the scene was interrupted by the doorbell. It was Gavin Brosling, Bertie's best friend. Bertie stopped crying immediately and went to open the door with his parents. Gavin was a thin, tall and brown-haired boy. His hair was a bit too long and it looked as if it never met a comb in its life. His mother was identical to him but two heads shorter and with wide open eyes. Alter one-hundred and twenty recommendations Mrs. Brosling left her child at the Dursleys' and went home. So the Dursleys, Aiken and Gavin could finally begin Bertie's birthday celebration. Just before getting on the car uncle Dudley took Aiken aside: 'I warn you, kid, just one out-of-normal thing and you'll be locked into your cupboard until college!' The truth was uncle Dudley had enough reasons to fear that something odd would happen around his nephew. There was one time at school when Bertie had thrown a duster to the History teacher's bum. When he turned around really pissed, he blamed Aiken for the incident. Aiken was so furious after receiving that unfair punishment that he thought: 'I wish Professor Fenton's toupée flew out right through the window'. A few seconds later, a mysterious squall of wind invaded the classroom taking the professor's blond toupée. No one could prove that it was Aiken's fault, but in spite of that uncle Dudley didn't seem to have any doubts. Apparently Mr. Dursley was aware of something that Aiken wasn't. At the zoo everythting was going well. Bertie and Gavin were getting bored and wanted to match Aiken to use him as a punching ball, while Aiken tried to walk as faro f them as he could. Cordelia followed him like a little puppy, but that didn't bother Aiken at all, after all, he needed someone to talk to. Uncle Dudley and aunt Marguerite were annoyed to see their daughter so close to their nephew, and they seemed to be afraid of something, because they were walking very near them. All six of them had lunch at the zoo restaurant and then they went to see the reptiles. Bertie and Gavin stood for a while in front of a huge snake who was asleep on a piece of wood, tapping on the glass trying to get it to do something. But the snake didn't even look at them, so they got bored and went to see a coral snake which was moving a lo tinto the cage. Mr. and Mrs. Dursley were looking with disgust at a very large tarantula while Cordelia explained something to them. The girl know a lot about spiders. Aiken went to see the same snake his cousin was looking at before, and he almost passed out when the serpent winked at him. 'Hello,' the snake said in a very soft voice. 'Are those people related to you?' 'Well, yes,' answered a very shocked Aiken. 'I'm sorry if they bothered you'. 'Oh, don't worry, happens every day. That's why I pretend to be asleep all the time'. 'That's a good idea, maybe I should try that. But I'm sure that's why the Dursleys want, me to be asleep for all the rest of time'. 'Don't let them get their way, my friend'. 'Never,' Aiken smiled. 'Hey, where are you from?' 'I have no idea, I'm here since I can remember. But it doesn't happen so often that children can actually talk to me. In fact, there was only one time when a boy with a pretty annoying family just like yours talked to me for a while'. 'Really?' 'Yes, and I bet you don't know what happened next: The boy was so furious when his cousin pushed him to the floor to stand in front of this window that he made the glass disappear. That scared the heck out of that fat stupid kid'. 'You're kidding! Bertie would die if I threw a snake to him...' 'He wouldn't die, but he wouldn't be able to talk for quite a while'. In that moment Bertie appeared: 'Hey, dad, look, the snake is awake!,' he exclaimed pushing Aiken to get to see the serpent. Aiken fell to the floor, and suddenly Bertie screamed with horror and the snake jumped right towards him. 'Thanks a bunch, my friend, I hope this time I won't get caught as the last time someone helped me to escape'. The boy was stunned. Bertie was still screaming. Cordelia was delighted watching the scene. Gavin was so scared that he couldn't say a Word. Aunt Marguerite was hugging her son and asking him a hundred times if he was alright. 'It tried to kill me,' was saying Bertie while they were on their way home. 'What a dork, it didn't even touch you,' laughed his sister. 'You're the dork, haven't you realized that Aiken threw that snake on me? He was talking to it! He told it to attack me!' 'Talking to serpents, please, don't speak nonsense,' said uncle Dudley trying to make the incident less important. 'The problem is the security in that zoo, how incompetent are people these days...' But afterwards, when Gavin Brosling was back at his home, Mr. Dursley said what he really thought about the snake episode: 'Go to the cupboard! No dinner for you today!,' he yelled at Aiken. 'Why? I didn't do anything!' 'Oh, that's rubbish and you know it! You won't fool me! The freak who was your father did the same thing to me when he was your age!' Aiken said nothing. He knew that everything he could said would be used against him. He went to the cupboard under the stairs and kept his mouth shut while uncle Dudley locked the door. Late at night a noise of steps going down the stairs woke him up. He guessed those steps were either Cordelia's or aunt Marguerite's, because Bertie and uncle Dudley's steps would have been much louder. The steps stopped in front of the cupboard door. A hand unlocked the door, and a little siluet entered the room. 'Aiken... Are you awake?,' asked Cordelia in a whisper. 'What are you doing here?' 'I left parto f my dinner for you, I thought you might be hungry'. 'Well, I am. Thanks Cordelia'. While Aiken was eating, the girl seemed to be wondering whether to ask something or not. 'Come on, ask me,' Aiken told her. 'Ask you what?' 'I know you want to ask if I had something to do with the snake incident'. 'I'm curious, to tell you the truth'. 'Well, then I'll tell you sincerely that I have no clue. But I was actually talking to the snake, or at least that's what I thought I was doing. Isn't it weird?' 'Not weirder than other things that happen to you'. 'I thought I was talking to the serpent... And then your brother came and pushed me, and I got really pissed off. That was when the glass disappeared'. 'Just like that?' 'Yes. Uncle Dudley told me that my father did the same thing to him many years ago, and the snake told me that a while ago other child made that same glass disappear. Couldn't that boy be my father?' 'He might be. How often does the snake see kids who can talk to it?' 'Not very often, that's what the snake told me'. 'Wow'.
The Odd Incident
Aiken felt that someone was shaking him and telling him something. When he was finally able to wake up and open his eyes, he realizad his cousin Cordelia was the one who shaked him. 'Come on, Aiken, wake up! Mum says you have to prepare breakfast! Come on, hurry up, it's Bertie's birthday and you know how mum reacts if someone ruins her little boy's day!' 'Alright, I'm awake now'. The girl walked out of the cupboard under the stairs, which was Aiken's bedroom, and went to the kitchen. Aiken started getting dressed while he hummed a tune. He was smiling happily. All plans aunt Marguerite had for Cordelia turned into rubbish as soon as the little girl started showing affection for Aiken. No one who considered Aiken Potter as a human being could be friends with the Dursleys, so aunt Marguerite had to forget her dream of her daughter being just like her and uncle Dudley had to get used to Cordelia looking at him angrily whenever he torced Aiken to do some housework. Bertie didn't pay much attention to his sister, but in exchange he made Aiken's life miserable. Someone knocking on the cupboard door really loudly took him away from his thoughts. 'Go and make breakfast right now!,' yelled aunt Marguerite. 'And would you just for once not burn anything in the kitchen?' By the time Aiken had begun frying the eggs and bacon, Bertie had already unwrapped the huge pile of presents he had gotten for his birthday and aunt Marguerite sniffed while saying: 'My little boy! I can't relieve you're turning eleven!' Cordelia looked at Aiken with a 'throw-up' FACE, and they both laughed making a lot of noise. Uncle Dudley and aunt Marguerite looked at them in a rather unfriendly way, but their looks were back to Bertie when he screamed: 'I wanted a Game Cube Ultra II, not a PlayStation 8!' A catastrophe would have occured if aunt Marguerite didn't hurry to say: 'Don't worry, pumpkin, we can change it when w ego out today, is it alright?' Bertie agreed with his mouth full of fried eggs. Every year the Dursleys and Bertie's best friend went somewhere to celebrate Bertie's birthday while Aiken had to stay at Mrs. Figg's house. Mrs. Figg was an elderly neighbour whose house was filled with a cabbage odour. That year the Dursleys would go to the zoo. While they were having breakfast in perfect silence -except for the noise uncle Dudley made every time he passed the newspaper pages- the phone rang in the living room. Aunt Marguerite ran to answer it and spent a few minutes speaking. As soon as she went back to the kitchen she looked at Aiken and announced: 'Mrs. Figg is at the hospital, she fell and broke her hip. She won't be able to watch him, we'll have to take him with us'. Three out of tour Dursleys were devastated with the news. But Cordelia continued sipping her tea as if nothing had happened, and when her parents weren't looking she winked at her cousin. Bertie was screaming and crying very angrily. Although it was pure comedy, it was enough to desperate his mother and get his way. But the scene was interrupted by the doorbell. It was Gavin Brosling, Bertie's best friend. Bertie stopped crying immediately and went to open the door with his parents. Gavin was a thin, tall and brown-haired boy. His hair was a bit too long and it looked as if it never met a comb in its life. His mother was identical to him but two heads shorter and with wide open eyes. Alter one-hundred and twenty recommendations Mrs. Brosling left her child at the Dursleys' and went home. So the Dursleys, Aiken and Gavin could finally begin Bertie's birthday celebration. Just before getting on the car uncle Dudley took Aiken aside: 'I warn you, kid, just one out-of-normal thing and you'll be locked into your cupboard until college!' The truth was uncle Dudley had enough reasons to fear that something odd would happen around his nephew. There was one time at school when Bertie had thrown a duster to the History teacher's bum. When he turned around really pissed, he blamed Aiken for the incident. Aiken was so furious after receiving that unfair punishment that he thought: 'I wish Professor Fenton's toupée flew out right through the window'. A few seconds later, a mysterious squall of wind invaded the classroom taking the professor's blond toupée. No one could prove that it was Aiken's fault, but in spite of that uncle Dudley didn't seem to have any doubts. Apparently Mr. Dursley was aware of something that Aiken wasn't. At the zoo everythting was going well. Bertie and Gavin were getting bored and wanted to match Aiken to use him as a punching ball, while Aiken tried to walk as faro f them as he could. Cordelia followed him like a little puppy, but that didn't bother Aiken at all, after all, he needed someone to talk to. Uncle Dudley and aunt Marguerite were annoyed to see their daughter so close to their nephew, and they seemed to be afraid of something, because they were walking very near them. All six of them had lunch at the zoo restaurant and then they went to see the reptiles. Bertie and Gavin stood for a while in front of a huge snake who was asleep on a piece of wood, tapping on the glass trying to get it to do something. But the snake didn't even look at them, so they got bored and went to see a coral snake which was moving a lo tinto the cage. Mr. and Mrs. Dursley were looking with disgust at a very large tarantula while Cordelia explained something to them. The girl know a lot about spiders. Aiken went to see the same snake his cousin was looking at before, and he almost passed out when the serpent winked at him. 'Hello,' the snake said in a very soft voice. 'Are those people related to you?' 'Well, yes,' answered a very shocked Aiken. 'I'm sorry if they bothered you'. 'Oh, don't worry, happens every day. That's why I pretend to be asleep all the time'. 'That's a good idea, maybe I should try that. But I'm sure that's why the Dursleys want, me to be asleep for all the rest of time'. 'Don't let them get their way, my friend'. 'Never,' Aiken smiled. 'Hey, where are you from?' 'I have no idea, I'm here since I can remember. But it doesn't happen so often that children can actually talk to me. In fact, there was only one time when a boy with a pretty annoying family just like yours talked to me for a while'. 'Really?' 'Yes, and I bet you don't know what happened next: The boy was so furious when his cousin pushed him to the floor to stand in front of this window that he made the glass disappear. That scared the heck out of that fat stupid kid'. 'You're kidding! Bertie would die if I threw a snake to him...' 'He wouldn't die, but he wouldn't be able to talk for quite a while'. In that moment Bertie appeared: 'Hey, dad, look, the snake is awake!,' he exclaimed pushing Aiken to get to see the serpent. Aiken fell to the floor, and suddenly Bertie screamed with horror and the snake jumped right towards him. 'Thanks a bunch, my friend, I hope this time I won't get caught as the last time someone helped me to escape'. The boy was stunned. Bertie was still screaming. Cordelia was delighted watching the scene. Gavin was so scared that he couldn't say a Word. Aunt Marguerite was hugging her son and asking him a hundred times if he was alright. 'It tried to kill me,' was saying Bertie while they were on their way home. 'What a dork, it didn't even touch you,' laughed his sister. 'You're the dork, haven't you realized that Aiken threw that snake on me? He was talking to it! He told it to attack me!' 'Talking to serpents, please, don't speak nonsense,' said uncle Dudley trying to make the incident less important. 'The problem is the security in that zoo, how incompetent are people these days...' But afterwards, when Gavin Brosling was back at his home, Mr. Dursley said what he really thought about the snake episode: 'Go to the cupboard! No dinner for you today!,' he yelled at Aiken. 'Why? I didn't do anything!' 'Oh, that's rubbish and you know it! You won't fool me! The freak who was your father did the same thing to me when he was your age!' Aiken said nothing. He knew that everything he could said would be used against him. He went to the cupboard under the stairs and kept his mouth shut while uncle Dudley locked the door. Late at night a noise of steps going down the stairs woke him up. He guessed those steps were either Cordelia's or aunt Marguerite's, because Bertie and uncle Dudley's steps would have been much louder. The steps stopped in front of the cupboard door. A hand unlocked the door, and a little siluet entered the room. 'Aiken... Are you awake?,' asked Cordelia in a whisper. 'What are you doing here?' 'I left parto f my dinner for you, I thought you might be hungry'. 'Well, I am. Thanks Cordelia'. While Aiken was eating, the girl seemed to be wondering whether to ask something or not. 'Come on, ask me,' Aiken told her. 'Ask you what?' 'I know you want to ask if I had something to do with the snake incident'. 'I'm curious, to tell you the truth'. 'Well, then I'll tell you sincerely that I have no clue. But I was actually talking to the snake, or at least that's what I thought I was doing. Isn't it weird?' 'Not weirder than other things that happen to you'. 'I thought I was talking to the serpent... And then your brother came and pushed me, and I got really pissed off. That was when the glass disappeared'. 'Just like that?' 'Yes. Uncle Dudley told me that my father did the same thing to him many years ago, and the snake told me that a while ago other child made that same glass disappear. Couldn't that boy be my father?' 'He might be. How often does the snake see kids who can talk to it?' 'Not very often, that's what the snake told me'. 'Wow'.