The Magic Passer

The Magic Passer

By Aubrey Jaynes-Stockham

“Why does this keep happening to us?” Leah inquired of Johnathan. “We’re good people, we do what we’re supposed to, and yet this keeps happening.” her tone was that of frustration.

“I know, I know Leah” John replied, with an exhausted sigh. “But this is life. Sometimes it just kicks you down.”

“You mean kicks you while you’re down.”

Johnathan let out a bitter laugh.

“True enough. Hey, how much time you got left anyways?”

Leah leaned around the corner and looked at the clock on the nurse’s station wall and sighed.

“I’d better go. Dinner will be here soon anyways. I love you John.”

“I love you too Leah. I hope you can get out soon.”

“Me too” Leah acknowledged, and then both hung up the phone.

Leah sighed sadly and slowly walked back to the dayroom where her colouring book was.

She had been here in the psych ward for two days now, and it didn’t seem like anyone wanted to give her a specific date of release. She sat heavily and pulled her colouring book towards her reluctantly. She was tired of colouring, but there was nothing else to do.

Mindless work as it was, it gave her time to reflect upon what had happened. It was all a blur, a dark shadow of a memory. All Leah could remember was everything went dark around her, she had a major panic attack, and gone a little crazy. Next thing she knew, she was lying in a bed in the ED, Johnathan holding her hand, and having no idea how she had gotten there.

Worst part was, she had just gotten out of another hospital stay and then an RTC stay three month prior and was doing wonderfully well. Leah was still trying to figure out what had happened to break her mind again. She sighed yet again. Had she known there would be more medical bills, she would have waited for the bankruptcy a little longer. And now they were out on their own again with rent to pay and more medical bills to pay again, as her husband went to the ED the week prior for something similar.

Leah heard the scraping of a chair and looked up to see a man sitting down across from her. Having never seen him before, she assumed he was new. He was still wearing the hospital scrubs and looking at her unblinkingly.

“Hello” Leah said, with her best attempt at a smile. He was kind of creeping her out.

“Do you belive in magic?” The man said without preamble.

Leah blinked, quite taken aback.

“Um, I can’t say that I do”

The man set down a little black notebook and leaned forward and put his hands on the table.

“I do” he said quietly.

“Erm...good for you” Leah said, quite sure that the reasoning behind this man’s admission was delusions.

“You think I’m crazy, don’t you? Delusional?”

“I mean, we are in a mental hospital” Leah pointed out. “we’re all a little crazy in here, aren’t we?”

the man laughed quietly.

“I’m probably the most sane person in here, to tell you the truth. I faked delusions to come in here.”

“Why would you do that?”

“I was looking for someone. I was looking...for you.”

Leah immediately felt her blood go cold while her insides squirmed with discomfort. She did her best to keep her composure as she spoke her next words.

“Why...why exactly are you looking for me?” she queried, trying hard to keep her voice from shaking.

“I’ll get to that in a minute. First, I must explain the workings of magic. Magic comes to those who deserve it, but do not seek it. It comes to those who have been dealt a bad hand in life but have been doing all the good they can possibly do despite it. Sound familiar?”

“What, were you listening to my phone conversation or something?”

“Not in the slightest. When I came in you were in here. Now to get back to magic. There’s guardians of the magic. People, families, born into it, starting from many generations ago. My family, we’re one of them. And us guardians, we are tasked with seeking out those who deserve the magic. Like you and your husband.”

“How’d you know I’m married?” Leah asked, feeling uncomfortable again. Had he been following her?

The man looked at her with a “seriously?” expression on his face and pointed to the ring on her finger. She felt her face go red.

“Oh yeah.”

“Anyways, back to the magic. Neither of us have much time left here and I need to explain everything first. Now, as I was saying, I am tasked with seeking out people like you.”

“how do you know what I might have gone through, anyways?”

“Ah, that’s the fun part” the man said, tapping the side of his nose. "I have to keep an eye out for those who glow. Then I learn their story, and pass on the magic in whatever form it sees fit to be passed in. You, my dear, were glowing brighter than anyone I’ve ever seen. Shining like a beacon through the car windows three nights ago. I followed, used my own powers to make myself invisible, and was in the ED room with you and your husband the entire night. I've been waiting three days now for you to be released when I realised that it might not happen soon and there’s a time limit on these things, once I find a glowing person. Time is running out. I had to get to you.”

Leah eyed him suspiciously. Either this man was a level of delusional she had never seen before...or he was telling the truth. And right now, she couldn’t tell which.

“So I’m left with one last task before I pass on the magic.”

“what’s that?”

“To hear your story.”

Leah looked at him, then took a deep, calming breath.

“I’ve struggled with mental illness to some degree the entirety of my life. It got really bad when I went to England, and has just continually worsened since then. I have...very, very scary thoughts almost constantly now. My mind is dark and my heart races. I dissociate on a regular basis. When the scary thoughts get to be too much, too strong, and I can’t get out of the dissociation, I come here. This is my fourth time in a hospital due to this. It always helps me. But it never helps the pocketbook. We recently declared bankruptcy and thought we were free of my heavy medical debt…and then this happened again. And I’ve all but lost my job due to it. I’ll probably have to resign if my anxiety stays the way it is. It’s bad. It's really bad. And the stress about money doesn’t help any, ya know? Well anyways, that’s a synopsis of my story, That enough for you?”

“Quite.” the man said, his eyes a little misty. “Here. This is yours now. Don’t open it till you get home, okay?” he said, pushing the little black book into her hands.

“Okay.” Leah agreed. The man stood, gave her one last look of sympathy, and left. She never saw him again after that.

It was a couple more days of loneliness before the doctors finally released Leah to go home. Johnathan came to get her with much excitement and immediately questioned where she got the black book once they were in the car and she had pulled it out of her pocket.

“Long story short, some guy said he passes on magic to those who need it the most and apparently the universe told him I was the next person in line. He gave me this and told me not to open it till we get home.”

“Interesting” Johnathan said, looking over at the black book with a little frown. “Why not open it now? See what secret message it holds”

Leah laughed, and did as Johnathan had suggested.

As she slowly opened the book, a light shone from within it so brightly that she had to shield her eyes with the hand not holding onto it. lt lasted a mere few seconds, and then, to both her and her husband's astonishment, a pile of money lay on top of the open pages.

Johnathan literally pulled over the car and stopped, staring.

“What...what magic is this?” Leah whispered. “It’s real….the magic is real….”

“Yeah...it is…” Johnathan agreed quietly.

After a few more minutes of staring in shock at the pile of money, they finally snapped out of it and eagerly counted the bills.

“Twenty-thousand. Twenty-thousand dolllars. What we need to pay off all the rest of our debt and then some.” Leah said quietly. “I don’t believe this. Am I dreaming?”

“Not in the slightest, honey” Johnathan assured her. “Not in the slightest.”

And then they looked at eachother, their eyes brimming with tears and their hearts full to burst with joy, and embraced.

All was well.