Friendly Friendless

The ground beneath my feet faintly rumbled, before I could make a sarcastic comment,

 

 

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Chapter (7): Friendly Friendless

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"Are you insane?" my feet jumped back a step, almost tripping over an empty can of soda.

 

Ya Rabbi (Oh, God…) I knew coming here was a bad, bad idea.

 

"What?" his craggy eyes blinked at me, glancing at the jar he held in my face.

 

"I-I can't touch this." I said defensively holding up a palm, "You just told me these things might break out of it any second." My eyes observed the red tadpoles actively bouncing inside the thin glass, internally shivering at the thought of getting bitten by one of them.

 

"Don't worry, son. I'll be right here if that ever happened." He said in an assuring tone, "Yalla climb that ladder again. We still have over a hundred jars to assemble."

 

"I will but..."I said, worriedly glancing at the Siberian Husky, who sat on one discolored sofa, further from the awfully reeking shelves, "why do I have to climb all the way up?" I briefly motioned the last shelf just beneath the roof, "Can't I just put it next to this pot?"

 

"Jad, I've mentioned this before," Dr. Farfoor sighed, "the temperature has to be as low as possible, or my rare researches will go to waste."

 

No, it was probably because you were an obsessive compulsive disordered person…or something like it.

 

"Husky," I dryly whined, turning to him with a frown, "A little help here? Maybe you can give the old man one of those epic growls of yours?"

 

His baby-blue eyes closed, resuming the quiet afternoon snooze.

 

That stupid, selfish dog, I mumbled.

 

It was bad enough being greeted by the sight of Dr .Farfoor in only his underwear and an agonizing stench beyond the entrance. Now I know the source of the blame…I winced as I remembered.

 

"Mom!" Nara complained from her car seat in the back, clipping her cute little nose with her fingers, "Jad did it again!"

 

"Huh?" I turned around to raise my eyebrows at her, "Did what?"

 

"Sweetie, it's cold outside, your brother might be having a bad stomach." Ma explained, her eyes focused on the foggy road.

 

"But I didn't --"

 

"Now, Jad," Ma calmly continued, "Just try to hold it in, we're a few minutes away from home."

 

--- --- ---

 

Day Two: Still out of the ordinary; barging in uninvited into Dr. Farfoor's house claiming I wanted to 'thank' him for treating the dog's wounds the other day. It wasn't easy putting behind the pinch of regret for not showing genuine gratitude, because he somehow knew what I was here for, promising to answer all the questions I had if I helped him tidy the chemical chaos in the living room.

 

On the outside, the two-floor structure appeared like any other one in the neighborhood, except for the murky-green ivy crawling on the external walls, the couple of Ramadan Lamps (1) almost hanging in the air on each side of the entrance, and the swamp-like water filled spot, partially visible from the backyard, which never seemed to turn into ice during winters.

 

Unlike Madam Shams' orchard, independently flourishing with herbal green and spring colors, the old man's frontyard had a few flowerless rose bushes scattered along the pathway, two basins of odd-looking vegetables in between, and a wrinkled citrus tree in the right corner beyond the hedges.

 

The misery of color and design existed in the interior section, a small kitchen, two bedrooms, and a bathroom were all cramped in the corridor to the left, and the stairs leading to the second floor reeked of an even deadlier stench, so I didn't even think about going up there.

 

The gloomy, fireplaceless living room was the heart of the house; moldy, fractured walls that I believed to had been white once, holding two big windows and outlined, grayscale photographs of many people huddled together sharing smiles in clichéd long, dark robes, like the one Dr. Farfoor would usually wear. Perhaps old time colleagues from school?

 

One, wide collection of untidy shelves covered the wall in rows, a medium, round dining table on its left, and further to the right, two correspondent, yellowish, aged sofas, and a contemporary white, cubed coffee table in the center. The dark, wooden flooring creaked recurrently with opaque disks of glass spotted about, displaying what seemed like a pool underneath.

 

My feet descended the ladder onto the floor, and the Husky's paws budged a step towards me, carefully holding a glass cylinder in his mouth, "Thanks, man." I received it with a smirk, ruffling his fur with the other hand, "There are only ten more tubes left?"

 

"Yes. And once we're done with these tonics," Dr. Farfoor explained, motioning an empty aquarium on the round table.

 

A pastel face edged with curls of gold flashed through the glass in the floor, and a fishtail.  I gasped, my jaded eyelids slightly jumping and the trim cylinder slithering in my shaky grip.

 

"we'll need to -- What is it, child?" he asked adjusting the spectacles beneath his concerned eyes.

 

"Y-you didn't -- Did you just see that!?" I stammered, firmly pointing at the round glass casing, "A person-- a face stared at me through this hole. Husky, did you see it too?"

 

The white-grey dog barked once, his blue-eyes seriously gazing into mine. Was that a yes?

 

"Ah," Dr. Farfoor said with a relieved smile, "That must have been Miriam. I'll deal with her as soon as Rami and his sister are here."

 

"Uh…"

 

The doorbell rang.

 

"Finally." Dr. Farfoor enthusiastically rushed to the door.

 

Dude...My shoulders drooped and I turned to look at the quiet Husky with somber eyes. If he could talk, what would he had said back then?

 

Dr. Farfoor returned, dragging a heavy, sloshing tank with a slack lid towards the table, "What's" I groaned, helping him push it from the handle on the opposite side, "in this thing?"

 

"Patience, son, and be careful with the precious delivery." he told me, counting to three before hauling up the tank to the table. The doorbell rang again, and Dr. Farfoor headed to the entrance, warning me not to touch anything, which was perfectly fine with me.

 

I've seen and smelled too much for the last three hours of this afternoon to think about it anyway, I took a deep breath and exhaled into my freezing, pooled palms, pulling out a chair opposite to the tank, and, with a loud sigh, plunged into the cushion, my back slightly slouching for a more comfortable position, and my arms dangling on the sides.

 

"I've never worked so sincerely in my life." I weakly grinned at the Husky standing beside the chair, his witty, blue eyes restlessly glancing downwards. "Hey, what's wrong?" I asked, sitting up to scan the floorboards with my suspicious shade of brown, beneath the crossed eyebrows.

 

My head jerked and a tingle whisked in my skin, as my eyes raced to the splash that came from the tank on the table…What the hell was in there, I thought, cautiously departing and backing away from the chair, swallowing the chunk in my throat. That poor delivery guy...

 

"Wah! Look at all the shelves!" An astounded but mellow female voice came from the hallway, "It's a miracle!" I turned to the sight of a young girl, around my age, with a lavender shoulder bag and long waves of auburn hair flowing down her scarf-wrapped neck and long black robe;

 

"Oh, you have a guest." Her voice dropped to a more conscious tone, "Marhaba (Hello)." a lightly freckled redhead with almost smiling, pursed lips and timid, plain black eyes behind optical glasses.

 

"Something's in there! I saw it move!" I fretfully told her, not knowing where to point exactly, as if both the sloshing tank and the creature below the ground had me trapped.

 

So much for working on better first impressions with the ladies…

 

"Jad," Dr. Farfoor appeared from behind, his hand genially squeezing her right shoulder, "This meek young lady is Aseel, my number one Shawada (2) pupil."

 

"Your number one…?" a male version of Aseel appeared in a dark green high-neck sweater, and blue jeans, approaching slowly and disapprovingly, "We both got exactly the same grade on our last midterm exam, Farfoor."

 

Aseel paid no attention to her brother's complaints; she was busy observing the Husky's uninterested, baby-blue shade.

 

"And this conceited, gloomy brat is Rami." Dr. Farfoor motioned the boy with a sigh.

 

"Hi." I coolly nodded to the twins, switching to a steadier, more unafraid pose. "So, uh, what's in this tank, doctor?"

 

"Well…" the old man adjusted the spectacles beneath the wise wrinkled eyes, gathering up words, "It's--"

 

"He's not a new student of yours?" Rami asked, his glasses scanning me warily.

 

"Jad is the son of a dear friend of mine. He's the one behind this miracle." Dr. Farfoor said motioning the tidy shelves, a proud smile buried in his snow-white beard.

 

Rami's hands uncrossed and fell on his sides, his amazed eyes rising to the clean, assorted library, "It really is a miracle." He admitted, "I thought you'd eventually get sick of this mess and take a shortcut-- uh, a spell like --"

 

"Shh!" Dr. Farfoor seized the boy from behind, cuffing a palm over his mouth.

 

"Shortcut?" I dangerously narrowed my eyes at the old man, "You mean you could have simply waved a wand instead of making me do all the work?"

 

"N-no wands, son. We don't have those." he told me.

 

That's not the point, I thought, you sly ancient mummy.

 

"Well," I sighed submissively. After all, my feet willingly walked to his door; I had reaped what I sowed, "if we're gonna properly clean this place, how about doing something about the smell?"

 

There should have been an award alone for entering Dr. Farfoor's house, much less bear this fungus-like stench in the air.

 

"Oh, that…" Aseel said in a cheerless tone, sharing a look with her brother, both of them hopelessly shaking their heads at me.

 

"The twins are right." Dr. Farfoor confidently confessed, "This aroma had been in the walls of this room for years."

 

It was not an aroma. You couldn't call it that, I internally disagreed, constantly casting glances at the twitchy tank set on the dining table.

 

"Don't be scared," Aseel warmly said, "It's a nontoxic dragon eel. We use it for academic purposes."

 

Academic? Was studying magic official here?

 

She put down the lavender shoulder bag and paced closer, her uncommon, coy smile lingering in my eyes. I slightly smiled back, shaking off my dumb where-the-hell-did-that-noise-come-from face. She seemed like the friendly, friendless type; the kind of person you'd sit next to and just randomly talk about the little, fascinating details in the world.

 

The Husky's paws roved around Aseel's black robe. She cupped her knees in response, slightly bending to examine the uncanny shade of his eyes that obviously enjoyed the attention.

 

He liked her, I thought slightly impressed, not recalling to have seen the Husky friendly react to anyone other than Nara and me.

 

 "Such a well-behaved creature." she said, passionately stroking a fuzzy side above his jaws, "I've always wanted a Husky like this one, with clever, beautiful blue eyes."

 

"What's his name?" she raised her head up.

 

"He doesn't remember that--" I carelessly repeated what the Husky told me yesterday back in the cavern, earning an unsure stare from the twins. I internally cursed; this wasn't making me look any brighter. "I mean…I just call him Husky." I said, doubtfully shrugging at the dog that didn't really seem to mind the random choice of name.

 

The pastel face behind the glass frame in the floor made my eyelids jump again.

 

"Miriam!" Aseel gasped turning to Rami.

 

"Doctor!" her brother announced, "she's restless!"

 

"Then we shall reach for her, children." Dr. Farfoor's solid voice called from a further corner. My eyes protested to believe the current view of the old man, standing before an open glass frame in the floorboards, his grip around a descending line of a fishing pole, and his eyes focused downwards.

 

The ground faintly rumbled, before I could make a sarcastic comment, and the Husky barked in a cautioning tenor.

 

"Rami, run to the swamp." The doctor ordered, and the boy nodded rushing outside.

 

The growing rumble set every piece of furniture into vibration. What in the world was going on…? I thought, my hands clenching the back of the dining chair, as my heart started to sprint at the dancing wooden, floorboards beneath my feet.

Author's Note

Chapter 7, eh? Nothing long to say except that I know very well describing details that are of no use in the future is a waste of time, so I left the parts that counts, and the place where the magic is taking place. Introducing more characters, uh...a bit more effort to keep them all in harmony, but hopefully I can make it. Comments and constructive advice is welcome. : ) Enjoy.

(1) Ramadan: is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is the holiday month of fasting and prayer. At the sunset of each day in Ramadan, a wide variety of foods and drinks are served, and beautiful lamps and colored decorations are hung on the outside walls.

To see a sample of Ramdan lights go to: http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&q=ramadan+lights#/d287pb5

(2) Shawada: an Arabic term for wizardry/witchcraft.

Reviews

[Deviant Works]

Ahh, a very magical chapter. I am liking Dr. Farfoor. I hope you don't turn him into a animal slayer like you did the orchard loving Madam. He seems energetic and full of ageless spunk. I wonder what Jad's place is in all this. Is he perhaps one of them? He did hear Husky talk once. So many questions that will have me coming back for answers. LOVE this chapter.

[Erin]

You seem to have a problem with comma usage: It's more along the lines of not knowing where to place the commas. You don't overuse them. You rather...have a style, maybe, of straying from the usage of commas? I don't know, but for an example....
""we'll need to -- What is it, child?" he asked adjusting the spectacles beneath his concerned eyes."
After the word “asked,” you have to place a comma; but this is just one of the places where comma usage is to a minimum. It’s a slight problem, so it shouldn’t be of the biggest concern, but it’s just a thought.
You have a very nice style that you stick to. I like the consistency. The plot is becoming one that is leading your readers somewhere. Good job so far.
PBP

[Havatara]

I was kind of confused at the beginning, because you just jumped to Dr. Farfoor's house, you didn't show, say, Jad going up and knocking on the door. I also noticed that, when Jad is thinking to himself, you sometimes had him "talk" in past tense when it should be present tense. There are just some little things to work on, but so far it's great.

[tshigg]

Another great chapter looking forward to more.

[Coyote Poetry]

A amazing chapter. I had to read a second time. The chapter had many important details. I like the flow and the characters in the story. A strong chapter.
Coyote

[Jonathan De Elvira]

Can't wait for the next chapters, lol, I was -disliking the beginning part until you explained, thanks for that...I've heard about Ramadan, it's where the muslim at my place would go fasting during the day, I've tried it once but poorly my low weight and lack of iron in my body put me to sleep for the rest of the day...still this is a good chapter, keep it up..

[Elle M.]

Good job your a awesome writer! :)

[Blossom]

very cool chapter. I can't wait to read the development of Jad and Husky. I'm really looking forward to this.