And So It Begins

            "YAAAAAWN…" Arthur moaned, stretching and rolling out of bed. He stumbled across the large, yet single person, dorm room to the window and pushed it open. Arthur leaned his head out the window. Nothing like a deep breath to jump-start the body… thought Arthur.

 He looked up at the sky. It was going to be one of those days. It wasn’t sunny enough out to be cheerful, but it wasn’t gloomy enough to rain. Either end would have been satisfactory, but it was neither, so Arthur was just going to have to accept that. The trees were beginning to turn all the wonderful shades of red and yellow, it being the middle of October and all. Maybe today I’ll sit under a tree and be decorated in autumn’s death… He didn’t know where he came up with stuff like that, but he thought it sounded good.

           

            Arthur looked down at the flower box hooked onto the windowsill. The plants didn’t look unhealthy, but he could sense their unhappiness with being confined to a box when there was a whole world to explore. You and me both little ones… Arthur took another deep breath, but this time he let it out as a heavy sigh. Across the room, Arthur’s black and white barn cat’s ears perked up at the sound of exasperation. Arthur turned to look at the cat. “Doh… Sorry Bucky, I didn’t mean to wake you!” Grabbing a couple of catnip leaves from one of the box plants, Arthur crossed the room and sat down on the bed. He set the leaves down and began scratching Bucky’s now turned over belly. “We really are perfect for each other, aren’t we…?” Arthur muttered to no one in particular.

            There wasn’t anything too extraordinary about Arthur’s past. Yes, his parents passed away when he was about thirteen, but there was no dark origin story to his present. Sad, but nothing cloak-and-dagger. Arthur’s father was a linguistics professor at the nearby college and his mother was a columnist and cartoonist for the paper. When Arthur was about nine, a publisher signed his mother on to write and draw for children’s books, and his father got promoted to division head. The family did quite well for the next four years.

            While Arthur’s mother was on tour for her new book, Keep the Cape but Please Put Pants On, her plane crashed before even getting out of the airport when another plane was also given clearance for takeoff and both collided. In the span of half an hour his mother went from being a living breathing person with a family to a statistic on some safety technician’s pie chart. That winter his father decided to go on sabbatical in Switzerland to do research on language development in more secluded countries. Arthur knew it was just to get away from the memories. Arthur had been staying with his neighbors when he got the call. His father had gone missing while skiing. It wasn’t uncommon to hit areas of light snow and fall in. Most people aren’t found, and Arthur’s father was one of them. Maybe this was how his dad got the promotion in the first place. Arthur became a ward of the state, but he asked to be put in a boarding school. He didn’t want to be in a home of unwanted and orphaned children. He wanted his own identity. He didn’t know if he could afford it, but supposedly there was a lot of money in children’s books. “At least until you graduate college, maybe longer if you’re careful,” is what the lawyer had told him. This wasn’t some kind of wizard bullshit. His parents became numbers and memories and a dollar amount in a bank account with his name on it.

            That’s how Arthur ended up at Magnus Boarding School, Home of the Magnus Minotaurs. Arthur didn’t quite understand why a half-breed creature trapped in a maze would give a damn about soccer and football, but they had never lost, so he supposed they knew enough about the rules. That was three years ago. Arthur had never left the school since then, including holidays and breaks. Where would he go anyway? His grandparents were in a home, and his aunt and uncle traveled all the time. They were the ones who brought him Bucky. They showed up unannounced on Visiting Day with animal carrier in hand.

“You ever consider owning a pet Arty?” His uncle asked Arthur’s fifteen-year-old self.

“I suppose… I mean, I know a few girls have rabbits, but that just seems silly,” he had replied.

“Well how about something a little more playful? A…kitten perhaps?” His uncle had said, popping open the carrier. Peering inside, Arthur discovered the dozing feline. It looked perfectly normal, not too skinny, not too fat, and it was purring softly. “…We met a lovely couple with a farm in Italy whose cat had just had kittens. Naturally we thought of you and they thought it had been long enough to separate them,” he went on, trying to gauge Arthur’s interest. The kitten woke up a bit and stared up at this young stranger. Arthur stared back. The kitten looked intelligent enough. Why not? It would be nice to have company. He didn’t like sharing a room because his last roommate pushed his potted plants off the windowsill from their fourth floor dorm after an argument about a stolen action figure.

“I’d love it!” Arthur said, hoping he sounded enthusiastic. He didn’t want his aunt and uncle asking the standard, “Are you alright?”

 “Hmm...? Oh, hey Manny… Yeah, just lost in thought. How’d you get in?”

“Left the door unlocked again, mate,” Manny said. Manny was from Birmingham, England because his father got a new job and had to relocate.

“Oh. Want to go grab breakfast?” Arthur responded, rising from the bed and walking to the dresser.

“ Yeah, alright.” Manny walked over play with Bucky while Arthur got ready in the bathroom.

 “Feisty, aren’t you?” Manny asked, removing his finger from the cat’s mouth.

“ Only around you,” Arthur said, giving Manny a wry look. “C’mon, let’s go.”

            Groggily sitting over a plate of eggs and toast, Arthur watched his friend devour two omelettes and four strips of bacon. He didn’t know where he stored it, but he knew Manny would be hungry again in two hours regardless.

“So… Think you’ll do… you know… today?” Manny said, looking up from his food for the first time in fifteen minutes.

“Magic?” Arthur said, looking at Manny wryly for the second time that day. It was a good look to give Manny, though Arthur was a bit sarcastic by nature anyway.

“Don’t make fun of me…  What you can do is weird, and you know it,” Manny retorted, getting defensive.

“Well yeah… Of course it’s weird, but it’s not like I can just not be able to because ‘it’s weird’…” Arthur replied.
“I guess what really bothers me is that you have a goddamn superpower and don’t do more with it than keep really healthy plants!” getting a bit loud.

“Will you keep it down?” hissed Arthur, leaning across the table. “I don’t need that getting around any more than you need Sarah Towtly to know you’ve liked her for two years!”

 “It’s a secret that you don’t want getting out because it might get back to the wrong people!”

“So you use a crush as an example? Seriously?"

"I dunno... It was the best example I could think of..."

Manny scowled. "For Pete’s sake, create a secret identity or something! Do something cool with it for once!” still getting louder.
“Will you shut the hell up?! People are starting to stare!” Arthur whispered angrily.

“All I’m saying is think about it! You can create plant life from absolutely nothing and what’s the most adventurous thing you’ve done since you could control it?” Manny replied, finally getting quieter, though not by much.

“Grow marigolds in the snow…” Arthur said, blushing.

“Exactly. What about that journal of yours? You have, what, at least fifty different types of ferns alone written down?” Manny said, his voice showing true concern. “Just have fun for once.”

“So what, I should put on some green tights and prance around stopping robberies in town? I’m sure that would go well. ‘Human Flower Found Shot Dead in Alley, Scientists Baffled’ splashed across the front page in every newspaper in the universe…”

“First of all, I doubt they’ll deliver The Times to Mars. But what about opening up a store or something? You’d have the best stock around,” Manny leaned back in his chair, relaxed. Arthur had at calmed down a bit.

“I have a hard enough time managing school work, and I'm sure that someone will wonder why there's never a delivery truck around the store. Or how a seventeen year old boy was able to start his own shop.”

“True... Alright, well at least think about it. What’s the worst that could happen?” Manny asked, shrugging.

“What’s the worst that could happen indeed…” Arthur murmured.