The Magician and The Witch

Chapter Fourteen: Pure Wonderment

Nineteen years old

April, the Flat, London

Life was peaceful and harmonious once again. Charlie was lying on the sofa, with Kate resting against him, her head just beneath his chin.

"I suppose we had better tell the others," she said, holding her hand up to show off the engagement ring on her finger, "and your parents. You can tell them though. I don't want to be the bitch that coaxed their son into marriage at only nineteen,"

He smiled and kissed the top of her head. He loved how she was never reserved and always spoke her mind, yet was never unnecessarily cruel. She did have a filter between her brain and her mouth but she only used it when around strangers, which meant you could tell the exact moment Kate considered someone a friend.

"I'll tell the folks," he assured her, "but the others kind of already know - and by that, I mean they do know. Well, technically speaking they don't know you said yes -"

"Charlie, you're rambling,"

"Sorry, love," he said, "they know because I asked them,"

"Asked them?" she questioned, sitting up and turning to face him.

"For your hand," he replied, "I know you don't have a family but, well, I think you, at the very least, have a responsible, if slightly boring, dad, a cool mum, and a strange uncle who always makes you feel uncomfortable by over-describing his various sexual exploits?" 

Kate closed her eyes and laughed, scrunching up her nose slightly in the process (something which was entirely involuntary but, in Charlie's opinion, completely endearing).

"Jacko's not the weird uncle. He's just the creepy neighbour we can't get rid of," she laughed before kissing him.

"I'll tell him you said that," Charlie warned, smiling against her kiss.

*          *          *

"You're going to be marrying a member of the Magic Circle, you know, Kate," Jacko said, raising a black notebook emblazoned with a circular logo into the air. It was evening, and Jacko was being a handful, as usual. 

When you had more than two people in the flat, it became obvious just how small it really was. They were practically sitting on top of each other - literally in the case of Jacko and Robin (though Robin didn't look too pleased about it).

Charlie sighed irritably, "J, that was in my bottom desk drawer,"

"I know," he said, and then added defensively, "I was looking for a pen!"

"There were pens on the desk,"

"Yeah, I know. That's where I found one. And then I started snooping,"

"Are you really a member of the Magic Circle, Charlie?" Liv asked excitedly, cutting through the pause that always occurred just before someone got angry with Jacko.

"Yes," Charlie and Kate said simultaneously, catching sight of each other and smiling. At least the answer to his parents' inevitable question about whether he and Kate knew each other well enough would be true.

"You mentioned that you did some card tricks but I didn't realise you were a magician," Robin said, "well, go on then, show us trick,"

Charlie sighed and pulled his battered deck of cards out of his pocket.

"Oh my god, he has cards in his pocket all the time. It's like Clark Kent with the Superman suit," Jacko said excitedly, now more interested in the trick than in mockery.

He performed a crowd favourite - one he had always made sure to do in the streets of Chelmsford. It involved a signed card being destroyed beyond repair only to miraculously be mended once again

 And there was that childish smile of Kate's - a look of pure wonderment; the look he loved to create.