League Of Extraordinary Robots (7) “So many things have changed. I am now becoming too old,” said Wisker. Jeronomo laughed and ushered his friend to his home. “You can stay here with me for a while, since you no longer have a home here,” he told him. Wisker looked about at the land that he had once loved and left behind. “So much has changed,” he thought to himself. He reminisced about the times when he was a young boy and always went to the small magic shop on the corner to the wizard Dougloff. “Mr. Dougloff,” he would say, being especially polite as all the children in the wizard world were taught to be. “I have this much to spend today. You are the best at teaching all the young wizards how to develop their talents. What do you have to sell me for this much money?” Jeronomo saw that Wisker was looking at Dougloff’s magic shop and gave a slight smile. He had known Wisker for a very long time and knew exactly what was going through his mind. “Go and check it out,” he told him. “I have some things to do, but I’ll be around when you come out.” Wisker didn’t need this suggestion twice. He ran to the shop and burst through the doors, feeling very much like a small boy again. “It’s like nothing has changed, as if it has frozen in time,” said Wisker He wandered through the sop, and came across an old article about a gifted wizard named Wisker, who won the Wizardry award every year. Wisker ran his hands over the paper and then wiped the tears from his eyes. “This is my past,” he thought to himself. “I am still that wizard and I will help the people of the town of Mayfair and I will set them free.” Suddenly out from a magic aisle out pop Dougloff. “He’s now old and a little frail, but he still has a lot left in him,” thought Wisker, as he ran to give his old teacher a big hug. “Wisker, is that you, is it really you?” asked Dougloff. “Yes indeed said Wisker. “It is really me and you are really you. A bit older but still very much the same wonderful Dougloff.” Suddenly Wisker found himself turned into a big green toad. “Hey what’s this for?” he mumbled, trying hard to make himself understood. “That’s for making a mockery of the wizard world by using your powers to entertain a spoiled little prince amswered Dougloff sternly. He pointed his magic wand at Dougloff and flipped him up in the air, then set him to busily making summersaults around the table. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’ll never do it again, honest I won’t!” cried Wisker, knowing that what his old friend said was the truth. “Please Dougloff, I’ve had a strenuous time lately and I’m so lame and sore. Please don’t make me do this.” Dougloff made Wisker do a few more summersaults and then some cartwheels and then turned him back to his normal self. “See to it that you don’t ever do anything like that again,” he told Wisker sternly. “No sir, I won’t,” said Wisker. “Honest I won’t.” The two wizards talked for awhile, feeling as if they could go on forever. They were catching up on lost times when suddenly Wisker realized that Jeronomo was waiting for him. He said goodbye to Dougloff and started to run out the door when suddenly he remembered his broken wand. “Please sir, do you think you could fix it? I know I can buy a new one, but I’m particularly fond of this one, it has always served me wisely and well.” “Oh you mean the same wand that you threw to the ground?” asked Dougloff. Wisker’s cheeks turned red with embarrassment and shame. “Yes sir, that one,” he answered. “After I get it fixed then I’ll ask Jeronomo to put some more magic gold dust in it and seal it properly.” Dougloff quickly summoned one of his elves. “Please take this broken wand to the mystical river and clean it.” “Yes sir,” said the elf as he carefully took the wand from the hands of its protector, Dougloff and quickly disappeared. It was evident that the elf had been well taught in showing proper respect for a wand. Wisker felt even more embarrassed when he remembered how disrespectfully he himself had treated his wand recently. “I’d like to buy a jar of your best wand polish,” said Wisker. “I think that’s a good idea,” said Dougloff. “When that wand gets back to himself I have a feeling you’re going to have a lot of apologizing to do. I don’t think he’s going to be very happy.” “I think you’re right,” said Wisker. “You’d better make that the super large size jar, the one with all the extra ingredients guaranteed to pamper and please the most finicky of wands.” He remembered some other things he’d done in the way of being disrespectful to his wand and he cringed inside when he realized that soon his wand would be back to his normal self and was sure to be very displeased. “I don’t know if Dougloff knows about the other things or not,” he thought to himself. “He probably does, being Dougloff, but just in case I’m not going to bring them up.” “Isn’t that the wand that gave you a good paddling when you were a boy?" asked Dougloff, trying to hide the twinkle in his blue eyes. “Yes, that’s the one,” said Wisker, resisting the urge to rub his backside at the memory. “What was it you did anyway?” asked Dougloff. He already knew the story, having heard it from the wand himself when he’d been in for his regular checkup, but he wanted to hear what Wisker had to say about it. “Well I was playing with some regular human boys and they didn’t know I was a wizard and I didn’t tell them I didn’t want to be different.” “And that was what made your wand so angry?” questioned Dougloff, as he wrapped up the jar of Super Special Wand Polish, large size. “Well, not quite,” admitted Wisker. “The other boys were going fishing and I wanted to go too, so I tricked my wand into putting a sleeping spell on himself and used him as a fishing pole.” Wisker stared down at the floor and tried to hide his tendency to smile at the memory, then he glanced up at Dougloff and both wizards went off into peals of laughter. “Well, boys will be boys, even when they’re wizards,” said Dougloff and I’m sure we’ve all done things that we shouldn’t have, even when it came to the proper use of our wands.’ “All including yourself, sir?” asked Wisker, trying to sound innocent in the asking of the question. “Most assuredly yes,” answered Dougloff. “Although I was much better behaved than the rest of the boys here in the kingdom you understand.” “Oh I would never doubt that in the least sir,” answered Wisker, trying to sound respectful and not laugh at the same time. Dougloff grinned. He reached under the counter and pulled out a small jar. “Here is a jar of gold dust for you,” he told Wisker. “The very best in the world. All you’ll have to do now is get Jeronomo to add the special magic ingredients and to seal it and your wand will be as good as new. You’ll have to deal with his righteous indignation yourself.” “Hopefully the Super Special Wand Polish will help,” said Wisker. “And how much do I owe you for the gold dust?” he asked, pulling his money bag back out of his deep pocket. “The gold dust is a gift,” answered Dougloff. “I haven’t given you a gift in a long time, boy, so I guess it’s about time.” Wisker grinned at the familiar statement from his boyhood. “Thank you, Mr. Dougloff,” he answered. The shop elf, who had taken Wisker’s wand to be cleaned in the Mystical River, came in carrying it on a beautiful purple cushion. “Here is the wand, gentlemen,” he said, not quite sure which of the two wizards to hand it to. Dougloff reached down and picked the wand up. He tapped him four times with his own magic wand and said, “Bibbldee, bobbledee, wrinkles be gone, be just as good as the day you were born.” The wand shook and suddenly all the bends and crinkles that he had acquired through the years disappeared and he was just as straight as straight could be, just like the day that Wisker had first gotten him. Wisker reached out and carefully took the wand from Dougloff. “From now on I’ll treat you the way a magic wand is supposed to be treated,” he told him. He slipped the wand into the special wand pocket of his long robe and slipped the bottle of wand polish and the gold dust into the deep pocket next to it. “Well, I’d better get going,” said Wisker. “I hope I haven’t kept Jeronomo waiting.” “I’m sure you haven’t,” said Dougloff. “He’s a wizard, remember? He’ll know just when to get back. Oh, wait a minute; I have something else for you. He started to hand Wisker a bag of Special Wheshill Wizard Candy. He looked at the bag quizzically for a second or two and then reached into the candy container and took out a big handful of candy and dropped it into the bag with the rest. “I didn’t think there was quite enough candy in there,” he told Wisker. “I seem to remember you have quite a fondness for that stuff.” “Oh yes,” answered Wisker. “And I haven’t had any for years. Thank you Mr.Dougloff.” “You’re welcome son,” answered Dougloff, smiling. “And you know Wisker, you’re a grown man now, it is all right if you call me Dougloff.” “Yes, Mr. Dougloff,” said Wisker without thinking, then they both laughed. “I hope that if I forget and say Mr. sometimes it doesn’t mean we’re not friends,” said Wisker. “Of course not,” said Dougloff, smiling. “We’ll always be the best of friends.” “Don’t forget to share that candy now,” he told him, just as he had when Wisker had been a small boy, “No sir, I won’t,” said Wisker. Suddenly he had a thought. He turned back and with a big smile he handed both the elf and Dougloff some of the candy. “Thank you Wisker, they both said. Then Wisker hurried out of the store, just in time to meet Jeronomo as he was arriving there. “Here,” said Wisher, handing Jeronomo some of the Special Wheshill Wizard Candy. “A special treat compliments of Dougloff.” “Ummm,” said Jeronomo. “I haven’t had any of this stuff in years. Thank you, Wisker.” Wisker drew out his wand and the gold dust. “I have a special favor to ask of you,” he told Jeronomo. Would you add the special magic ingredients to the gold dust so that my wand will work properly? Again? Jeronomo was quiet for a long time. “Wands are not for spoiled princes to play with or touch,” he said finally. “The power that a wand has makes it very dangerous in the wrong hands.” “Yes sir,” said Wisker, feeling very much like a small boy, just as he had with Dougloff. “I’ve learned my lesson. I’ll never do anything like that again.” “In that case I’ll be happy to fix it for you,” said Jeronomo. “Come, let us go to my house. You may stay with me of course while you are here.” The two wizards walked to Jeronomo’s house or I should say castle, for such it was. Wisker took in a deep breath. “This isn’t like the house you had the last time I was here,” he told Jeronomo. “You haven’t been here for a very long time,” Jeronomo told him. Wisker looked all around. Jeronomo’s home was a brick castle that sat on acres of land. Golden rings hovered over the home. What are those rings for?” asked Wisker. “Those are magical rings that transport me in and out of the wizardry world to many realms,” Jeronomo told Wisker. “In fact I was in the woods the day that you were being chased by the king’s men.” “I didn’t see you,” said Wisker. “I was wearing a disguise,” said Jeronomo. “I was a mystical creature with a helo. “Oh, you are the one many people say they saw in the woods,” exclaimed Wisker. “Everyone thought it was a myth, but it was you all the time. “Yes, it was I,” smiled Jeronomo. “Suddenly Wisker was filled with emotion and turned to Jeronomo and asked, “Have you seen my friend William?”
Copyright © 2010 Yolanda Jackson |