Elixir of Fear

After the doctor was gone, it took a little while before everyone came back to their senses. The great mob of people that surrounded Harrison and his grandparents–and CubeSquared–just stood around looking confused at first. And then some people started

looking embarrassed and making excuses to leave. The crowd started to thin out.

Harrison heard his parents calling him. They couldn't remember why they were there, so Harrison told them that they had all come up for a big Halloween party at Gramma and Grampa's house. He told them he wanted to stay a little longer, and they said that was fine, but that they'd head home now.

After everyone else had left, and whatever remained of the fires had been extinguished, Harrison and Gramma and Grampa and CubeSquared all went into the house. They sat around the kitchen table drinking pumpkin-spice hot cocoa, and eating Gramma Rose's Halloween cookies.

"When he found the phone, it was terrifying," said CubeSquared, whose real name was Marie. "It genuinely felt like he could have just oozed through the phone lines and been there in the room with me. I was scared!"

"But then I figured you'd be the one who'd be in danger–and you didn't even know he'd found out! So I ran down to the greyhound station, and I caught the first bus I could get to New Zebedee, and, well... here I am!"

"And it's a good thing you did!" Exclaimed Gramma Rose. "Your bravery, and your concern and your friendship for Harrison, may well have been just the last push that our spell needed in order to succeed!"

"Grampa," asked Harrison, who was still very shaken up from the whole experience. "If we hadn't succeeded, if the doctor had won... would he really have had control over the whole world? Over everyone?"

"Well," said Gramma Rose, "that's what the spell books say would have happened, if he had completed his spell."

"But you, my boy," said Grampa Lewis, "you threw a wrench in those plans!"

"How?"

"For whatever reason, you didn't go along with the fear. Somehow, you were 'immune' to it."

Harrison frowned.

"Why was it that I wasn't affected like everyone else?" He asked.

"I don't know," said Grampa. "But I've been thinking about it, and I think it might have something to do with the fact that you've already spent so much of your life being afraid of all kinds of things: Bugs, germs... sharks, tornadoes..."

Harrison could feel his cheeks turning red.

"...and also because you've been confronted with your fears so many times. Unlike a lot of people, you can function quite well while you're afraid, because you're used to it."

"I suspect," said Gramma Rose, "that quite a few of those other kids at your school have fears too. But they've hardly ever had to confront them. So when something comes along that scares them, they don't know what to do. It's not a muscle they've ever exercised."

"Another thing, Harrison," his Grampa continued, "is that you've got a lot of self doubt."

"I know," said Harrison, embarrassed. "I need to be more confident. Everyone's always telling me that."

"Well, not necessarily," said his Grampa. "Not if it means being confident without thinking. You tend to second-guess yourself a lot. But that means you also second-guess others too–including our Dr. Fustibus. Most other kids would have missed the inconsistencies, the problems with what the doctor was telling you. But not you!"

Harrison tried very hard not to smile when he heard that.

"Now," said Gramma Rose, "the fact that you didn't respond the way Dr. Futzit expected you to tells me that his spell might not have worked anyway. After all, I have to imagine that there would be others, like you, who he couldn't control."

“So, Marie," she now turned to the person Harrison had always thought of as CubeSquared, and who he had not known, until tonight, was a girl. "Where is it you live?"

"Oh I'm up in Milford," she said. "It's not far."

"No it's not," said Gramma Rose. "Maybe we can all come up and visit you sometime!"

"That would be nice," she nodded.

"My goodness!" Gramma exclaimed. "Your poor parents! What must they be thinking?"

"Well, I told them I was going over to a friend's house..." said Marie.

Gramma Rose insisted that she call them right away and let them know where she was, and that as it was well after midnight, she might as well spend the night, but to not go into certain rooms, which they would tell her about.

"Yeah," said Harrison, "believe me, you don't want that kind of trouble!"

Gramma Rose and Marie called Marie's parents, who were a little upset at first, but in the end said it was just fine that she spent the night, now that they knew who her friend was.

They all sat up talking for a while longer. Grampa uncovered the fact that Marie was actually quite good at chess, and so extracted from her a promise that she would also come back to New Zebedee on occasion so that they could have a game.

"Now," said Gramma Rose, as she began to clear the plates away from the table, "you remember how we said that all magic comes at a cost?"

Harrison nodded, and Marie looked confused.

"Well," she continued, "that cost, for me tonight, was a whole lot of energy. So if nobody minds, I'm going to head off to bed."

Harrison suddenly felt a little sad.

"I'm going to miss you guys!" He blurted out.

"Why Harrison, why do you have to?" Asked Gramma Rose. "We're right here. Right up the street. You can come over any time."

"That's right," said Grampa Lewis. "We don't have to be engaged in a battle with eternal evil in order to spend time together! Come on over for a game of chess, or chocolate-chip cookies, or just to shoot the breeze!"

"How often do you have chocolate chip cookies, Grampa Lewis?"

"They're always here, Harrison. Always have been."