Page 35 of Returning to Everton

“Be specific!” she shouts at me. She completely butchers the words, but it’s adorable and I know what she means.

“Yes!” I shout back and she giggles again. “Though you don’t have to be quite so loud about it,” I rub at my ear pretending they’re ringing from her scream.

“Nate? What does specific mean?” she asks. I sigh and rub my hand down my face. I forgot little kids don’t know big words like that. Now, how the heck do I explain that to a five-year-old?

“It means you have to think of exactly what you want your magic to do. Do you understand that? Like if you want the ball to be red you have to think red, not pink,” I try to explain, though I feel like I’m doing a horrible job.

“Oh okay. That makes sense. So I just have to think about what I want my playhouse to look like?” she questions me.

“Yup but specific means you have to think of the little things. Like do you want a doorbell? The small stuff makes a big difference when you use magic,” I tell her. That’s something I learned the hard way. Since she’s already behind thanks to her dickhead of a dad, I want to give her all the advice I can to make learning magic easier for her.

“So let’s talk it out. What do you want your playhouse to have? What do you want it to be able to do?” I ask.

“I don’t know. I just want to have somewhere I can play. I want something cool that no one else has so kids will want to come over and play with me. No one knows me here and I'm scared I won't make new friends,” she confides in me.

“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem, Violet. You’re a fun and sweet girl. Besides, you already have Logan as a friend. I’m sure he’ll help you make more friends. Or at least make sure no one tries to pick on you,” I assure her.

“Yeah, Logan’s great. I’m gonna play with him at the playground later! Do you wanna come?” she asks me with puppy dog eyes, and I just can’t say no to that.

“I would love to come watch you play at the park Violet,” I tell her. I don’t think there’s much I wouldn’t do if this little girl asked me to.

“Great! Now about my playhouse,” she tries to get us back on track and I smile at her.

“That’s right. Let’s see... I know what we can do. We can make your house so that it will always be exactly what you need it to be. For example, if it’s just you in here you don’t need it to be very big right? But if your mom comes in here, she’s taller than you so she’ll have to duck so she doesn’t hit her head. Well, your magic playhouse will know who’s in it and will get bigger when your mom comes in so she doesn’t hit her head,” I give her an example of how it would work.

“Oh, that’s a great idea, Nate! I’m sure my Mommy would like to not hit her head,” she giggles.

“Yes, but that’s only one way the house can change to be what you need it to be at the time,” I explain. “What if you want to play a game in your playhouse but you don’t have it? The game will magically appear. You want to have a tea party with your dolls but have no table and chairs or other tea party stuff? Well, you do now,” I give more examples of how this would work.

“Really?! You can do that Nate?” she asks excitedly. I love it when she’s so enthusiastic.

“With magic, I sure can. So what do you want your house to look like?”

“Hmmmm... I really like our new house. Can you make it look like a smaller version of that?” she asks me hopefully.

I don’t bother answering. I just get to work. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. I make sure I have a clear picture of what I want and chant a short spell, then flick my hands open in the direction I want the playhouse to appear. An orange plume of magic shoots out of my hands and coalesces together right where I want the playhouse to go. A minute later the magic dissipates and we can see the miniature version of their house.

Violet squeals and rushes over to it. She walks around the outside first, examining it to see if it really is a match to the big house. What she finds makes her smile. There’s the wrap around porch that I knew Rowen would love on the big house, and the new swing hanging up is even on the play porch.

Once she’s satisfied that it really does match the big house, she opens the door and goes in. I wait a minute before I go in, to see if she’ll notice the house getting bigger when I enter. I walk through the door that she left wide open, and look around. Well, it seems my spell worked. This place is ready to be played in for sure. There are toys and games and stuffed animals. Then there’s beanbag chairs and a cute little table and chair set.

I start walking around, checking out the whole house. I’m amazed at the stuff this house has! It even has a bathroom. Violet looks up at me with the biggest smile on her face. Then she runs over and throws her little arms around me.

“Thank you! I love my new playhouse! It’s perfect!” she exclaims still holding on to me, squeezing the life out of me like Rowen used to do. “Look, I just have to think about something I want to play with and it shows up!” she exclaims.

She closes her eyes and thinks about something, then all a sudden there’s a small trampoline in the middle of the room. Wow, I think my spell worked a little too well because nothing is disappearing as she doesn’t use it.

“Hey Violet, I wanna see if you can get rid of some of this stuff. Can you think about not wanting the stuffed animals anymore?” I ask her.

She nods at me then closes her eyes. The stuffed animals disappear. Well, I guess it still works then. Actually, that’s even better because it will help teach her to put her toys away, otherwise this place is going to get crowded real quick.

“Great. Now we know stuff doesn’t go away just because you’re not actively playing with it. You have to take the time to think about not wanting them anymore. It’s kinda like cleaning your room. Except in here you just think about how you don’t want the toy anymore and it’ll go away. You don’t want it to get too full of toys otherwise there won’t be any room for you to play,” I tell her.

“Okay, I can do that! Do you think that’ll work with my real toys or just the toys the house conjures?” she asks. That’s a pretty smart question.

“Let’s not risk it, sweetie. I would hate for you to think you don’t want your favorite toy anymore and then it’s just gone and you can never get it back. You have to be careful when you use magic,” I warn her.

She frowns at that but nods her head. “Okay.”

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