Burnswell

Ryan Henniker woke at the sound of a car horn and the screeching of tires. He quickly sat up as he stared out from the alley, watching as a man jumped out of his car, shaking his fist at another car speeding off into the early morning light. Ryan peered around at where he was sleeping. It looked as if it had never been cleaned, and smelled none the better. Garbage overflowed out of a nearby dumpster.

The morning dew left his clothes partly wet, but he knew they would be dry before long. He had slept here before on rare occasions, but he didn’t like sleeping in this alley. He always picked this alley though because people always appeared to ignore it. They always walked by and never looked in. He felt safe there.

His residence was at an orphanage, but some of the kids there didn’t seemed to like him much. Weird things seemed to happen when he was around, and the other kids always seemed to blame him. On occasions such as this, when unexplained things seemed to happen, he would just leave for a day or two to get away from everyone. The caretakers would always worry when he was gone, since he was only ten years old, but he always returned unharmed.

He was no fool, he knew the dangers of being out on the streets at night. But he would rather take that chance than face the kids back home. Besides, he never meant to fall asleep in the alley anyways.

He got up and stretched, pulling on his right shoulder. He must have slept on it wrong during the night on the hard ground. He rubbed his eyes, wiping the sleep away, and set out from the alley. The sun was just breaking the horizon, and he was hoping he could get back home before anyone woke up.

As he made it to the door, he could see through the window that the light was off. He let out a sigh of relief, glad that the caretakers hadn’t woken up yet. He pulled out his spare key and slid it into the lock, and slowly unlocked it. He opened the door and stepped in, closing the door behind him. He tip-toed to the stairs, but just as he started going up the lights popped on.
“Ryan, where in the world have you been?” Ryan turned and looked right into the eyes of Susan. She was short and stocky, and had a look that made the other kids wither away in fear. It had no effect on him.

“I’m sorry ma’am, I just needed to…”

Susan cut him off, “You had me worried sick. You can’t just leave here whenever you want unsupervised, much less stay out for the night. You’re going to get yourself killed.”

“Yes ma’am.” Ryan knew better than to try to explain himself when Susan was this worried and angry. She would just cut him off again.

“I just don’t know what I’m going to do with you. If you leave here again without being accompanied by an adult, then I’m just going to have you transferred.”

“Yes ma’am, I understand.” Ryan turned and headed upstairs. He didn’t want to be transferred. He liked it here despite how some of the kids acted. Not all were bad. In fact, some were extremely nice. His best friend, Paul, was the same age as him.

He hoped though that none of the other kids were awake, even Paul. He didn’t like the others watching him get scolded. And to his luck, they were all asleep as he snuck into his room. The beds were all lined up against two walls. All the guys in this room, and all the girls in another. He quickly got changed into his pajamas and slipped in bed. He wasn’t tired, but when the others woke, he wanted them to see him in bed. He knew they would question it, and some may poke fun at him, but he didn’t mind. If they thought he was odd and a little mysterious, that would be just fine with him.

It only took about an hour before Susan came and started waking everyone up. There were a total of ten kids, six boys and four girls. It was always cramped at meals, but they managed what they could. They had two chefs that worked in the kitchens, who always made the best food, whether it was morning or night. This morning, they cooked up eggs and bacon.

It was loud around the table as everyone ate and talked. Amber was complaining that the boys were getting extra food, while John and Nathan were poking fun at Amy. It was business as usual. Susan was just barely able to keep a hold on things. Ryan appreciated all that Susan did. No one else did, but they didn’t seem to understand what it must be like for her to promote most of her life to caring for children without a home.

As he was watched John and Amber begin to fight over some bacon that John had stolen, he felt a tap on this shoulder. He turned at look at the grinning face of Nathan. He had a big forehead, with eyes that were too close together, and dark greasy hair. It was his least favorite person.

“Going out on the town again were you Ryan.” It wasn’t a question, but he nodded anyways. “Looking for a family that might actually care about you? Good luck with that, you’ll be looking for the rest of your life.” He smirked, proud of his own little joke.

Ryan didn’t feel like responding, it would only goad him more, so he kept quiet. He just stared into Nathans eyes, waiting.

“What’s the matter Ryan, too stupid to make a comeback?” he laughed, “I always knew you were stupid. Almost as dumb as Patrick over there.” He pointed towards Patrick with his thumb over his shoulder. Patrick was mentally handicap, and had trouble with almost every task. He had a special trainer with him most of the time.

“Don’t make fun of him.” He didn’t like it when others made fun of Patrick. It wasn’t his fault how he was made.

Nathan’s smile only widened, “Oh, what’re you going to do about it. Gonna teach me a lesson?”

“Just leave him out of it.” His anger was rising and beginning to lose control.

“What do you care? He can’t even understand us anyways. He’s just that dumb.”

“I said, stop it.”

Nathan brought his hand to his chest and let it go limp. He spoke in a slow, thick voice “Durr, my name is Pa-twick. I’m too Duu’pid to under-dand words.”

Ryan’s anger boiled over, “STOP IT.” As he screamed, the lights in the whole place shut off, and everyone got real quiet. Even in the dark, he knew they were all staring at him. But he didn’t care, he was furious at Patrick.

Then he heard Susan’s voice, “Don’t worry everyone, it’s going to be okay. It’s just the faulty wiring again.”

Nathan’s friend, John, spoke up, “We all know it was you Ryan. This isn’t the first time it’s happened. You’re a freak.”

“Don’t be silly John, people can’t magically do things.” Susan always said this, but even Ryan was beginning to doubt it. He did seem to be the center of odd things that happened.

After the lights came back on, Ryan found himself talking to his friend, Paul. Paul had asked him why he wasn’t in bed when they all went to sleep, but there when they awoke.

“I just needed some time to think. After that incident yesterday I needed to get away.”

Paul chuckled, “Get away. What you did yesterday was awesome. You fell out of that tree out back and right before you hit the ground, you stopped in mid-air, then softly landed. Don’t get me wrong, scared me half to death when I saw it. But it was still awesome.”

Ryan smiled, “Yeah it was pretty cool wasn’t it. I’m just glad only you and John saw it. No one believes John. Thanks for not confirming the story he’s been telling.”

“No worries man. Personally, I think you have a gift. I have no clue what it is, but I think it’s pretty cool. You’re my best friend, always will be, and your secret will be safe with me.”

He smiled at his friends words, “Thanks Paul, you have no idea how much I appreciate that.”

“No problem. But really, do you have magic? I mean, weird things have been going on with you for around five years now. It happens more often as you get older.”

“I ask myself that same question every day. I don’t know. Maybe there is more to me…” He became lost in thought, thinking of the things that have happened around him over the past years.

Paul sat for a moment before he pulled him back to reality, “So you ready for tomorrow? It’s the most important day of the year.”

He peered at Paul with a sly smile, “I didn’t know my birthday meant so much to you.”

“Pssh, I think you’re confused. I obviously mean my birthday. When I turn eleven, the whole world is going to treat me like a king.” They both laugh at their little inside joke. Since they had the same birthday, each year they would pretend it was their own birthday and not the others.

Susan walked up to them as they were laughing, “You boys about ready to go? We’re going to Fun Zone today. It’s a surprise for both of your birthdays.” At the sound of that, everyone in the room erupted with a cheer.

Nathan walked by and muttered with a smile, “Even you bring good things to us sometimes. You and your insignificant pet.”

Paul laughed, “Whoa there Nathan, five word syllables. Don’t hurt yourself.” Ryan laughed to. Nathan just smiled as he walked on by. Even he was in a good mood today since they were going to Fun Zone.



After everyone got home, it was late. Ryan was both happy and exhausted. It was a good day, which he needed. Nothing went wrong, and Nathan only made a couple of snide remarks. He didn’t care though, he spent time with his friend and pretty much ignored everything else. He went to sleep that night with a smile on his face.

Almost as soon as he fell asleep, Susan was already waking everyone up. Morning had arrived. He was finally eleven. He got dressed and headed down to breakfast with everyone else. A whole year older, and yet nothing had changed. Paul was laughing with Amy, and John was sticking the skinny end of a fork up his nose, pretending it was a giant booger. Everyone was loud, and was screwing around. He smiled in spite of himself. It’s just another day like any other. Except they were having waffles for breakfast. His favorite breakfast food.

Just as he started digging in, there was a loud bang on the door. A few jumped, but the rest didn’t even notice. Nathan did though, and he looked at him and smirked, “What did you do this time Ryan, make some people disappear?”

“If I could do that, why do you think you’re still here?”

Nathans eyes narrowed as he mouthed out a few bad words that he couldn’t hear.

Susan peaked her head around the corner, “Ryan, can you come here a moment? We need to have a word.”

He didn’t know what to think, so he got up and headed out of the giant dining room towards the front door. He met Paul’s eyes and shrugged, as if to say he had no clue what was going on. He returned the gesture.

As he rounded the corner, he saw a scraggly man wearing deep blue robes. His arms were skinnier than Ryan’s, and his face was ashy and pale. But he wore a smile that was inviting. He bowed to Ryan, taking off his top hat. “Hello my good boy, you must be Ryan. My name is William Wilks. Most just call me Wilks.”

Ryan wasn’t sure what to make of this strange man. He never met anyone who wore robes before. “Nice to meet you Wilks.”

“Yes indeed it is. I am here today to give you this letter. Normally we don’t deliver it personally, but this is a special case.” His smile never left his face. It was so natural on him, you just couldn’t help but like the guy.

Susan spoke out as she quickly walked back towards the dining room, “John, put that fork down right now”

Ryan took the letter, but his gaze didn’t leave Wilks. “Why am I special? Is it because I live in an orphanage?”

“Precisely.” Wilks smile widened, then he realized how that sounded, “I only mean because we only want you to have the letter. Others may take it from you, and we can’t have that.”

He thought of Nathan, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. So what’s it say?”

Wilks only smiled, he had a sparkle in his eyes. Ryan looked down at the envelope.



It didn’t have a return address, but it was obvious who it was to. His name and address took up the entire letter front. He felt the embossed letters on the front, then flipped it over and opened the letter.



Mr. Ryan Henniker,
We are proud to extend an invitation to Burnswell, a school of witchcraft and wizardry.
The term begins on August 1st, and lasts until May 31st. We await your reply.

Sincerely,
Tony Thatcher

Ryan reread the letter a few times until he started laughing. He looked up at Wilks, who just stood and smiled.

“It’s no joke my boy. You have a gift. I am sure that you have noticed it recently. Has anything odd happened to you at all?”

He thought about what happened only yesterday and the day before. He wanted to believe this man, but it was too good to be true.

“It only seems too good to be true because you have not grown up around it. And no, I cannot read your mind. Let’s just say I have extraordinary people skills.”

He wasn’t so sure Wilks couldn’t read his mind, he seemed to be doing a good job of it. But this school just seemed to be too amazing. He trusted Wilks, but was still unsure. He did know one thing though, if this was his chance to get out of this place, he was going to take it. Then he thought of Paul.

“What about my friend Paul? Can he come too?”

“I’m afraid this invitation is just for you. But I would imagine your paths would cross again sooner than you expect.”

He thought it over, and made up his mind. He wanted to go to Burnswell. He wanted to learn all about magic.