You Know You're Weird When You Agree To Help A Ghost!

Chapter Seven

Updated and Edited 06/05/2012

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Chapter Seven

The rest of the month passed by as though it was a movie set on fast forward. School was considerably less dull, something I've linked to my new found invisible friend, Caleb. My classes, which I considered an inescapable torture, turned out to be insightful. Caleb didn't hesitate to give me additional knowledge on topics and gave his own opinion freely, even if I was the only one to hear it. He helped me greatly on my assignments and even helped out in my choice of reading material.

History was still the same intellectual turf war between Mr. Tanner and I, which Caleb found very amusing and the students of the school treated me in the same way, except now that I was known to talk to myself and laugh out loud, even when nothing was funny – well, to them anyway. At lunch, I generally frequented the gym, as it was always empty. I just wanted to be away from all the 'freak' comments. They didn't bother me, which Caleb found surprising. I had to remind him that this was how it always was. I just wanted quiet, so that Caleb and I could talk freely, without having to pretend as though he didn't exist – which again, to everyone else, he didn't.

Over the month, Phylamina and I had spent most of our free time in the attic/library trying to find something, anything that could possibly help Caleb. If there was something we needed, surely it would be in the Staria's extensive book collection. The library was made up of books, tomes, runes, old crumpled pieces of parchment that had the odd spell written on them, as well as, charts and maps, of both the world and of the heavens.

Caleb helped whenever he could, but his work was hindered by the fact that he knew so little about Magic, and so most of the time, the nights work ended up with me teaching him about different types and uses of Magic. On several occasions, we had gotten so entwined into these lessons, that I even forgot that Phyllie was in the room and would be caught off guard when she I saw her looking at me curiously as I was having one of my many one man conversations.

One night, Caleb and I were working in the attic, whilst Phyllie was out in the large garden, picking some fresh lavender - it was the full moon and herbs picked at this time only added to their potency - when it occurred to me that whatever it was we were searching for, the solution to help Caleb out of his current predicament, wouldn't be found in the library. I had always assumed that the Staria family stocked pretty much all known reference to any type of Magic, but we hadn't come across anything of use.

“Well, I looked through all the Grimoires we have and the closest spell I have found that would help is one that would make you grow a beard.” I said, whilst pacing around the circular room with a large black book in my hand. It was the oldest Grimoire we had, so it had all the most powerful spells in it, as well as some really weird ones too.

“How would that help?” Caleb looked up from the book he was reading, from one the comfy armchairs by the bay windows.

“People would be able to see the beard, just not you. So you would be a floating mass of facial hair, which would inevitably scare people out of their skins.”

“Well at least I would get noticed more than I did for the last century,” Caleb replied dryly.

“I've even looked through crazy Uncle Albert's diary and found nothing.” I sat down on the remaining chair, facing Caleb, whilst putting the Grimoire down on a nearby table.

“Crazy Uncle Albert?” He looked at me with the oddest expression, almost as if he was questioning my sanity instead.

“Yeah, he was a bit loopy. He went round the twist near the end. Lovely man though”