“Boy! You took ten years off my life. Is that what your father trained you? To disobey adults and ignore safety for your own selfish needs?” Magic bellowed, letting rip. I heard the fear in Magic’s voice, so I didn’t contradict him. Plus, he was perfectly within his rights to be angry. Everyone froze. Jesper stared up at Magic in shock. “Answer me, you little asshole. That how you were taught?”
“Don’t you dare put my dad down!” Jesper flared up.
Magic bent low. “Kid, I’ll do what I want, especially if your dad was so—”
“Min farwas a hero!” Jesper yelled. “Dad told us about safety.”
“So, you’re just a selfish little shit who doesn’t give a fuck who got hurt!” Magic roared.
Jesper tried to hide behind me, but I backed away. Magic wouldn’t harm Jesper, and I’d seen what Magic had. Jesper had been inches from burning Lars, who was glaring at Jesper in unbridled fury. Laila was fussing over him.
“You can’t talk to me like that!” Jesper flared up as Oskar finally got his feet in motion and raced over.
“Jesper screwed up, but you have no right…” Oskar began.
“Oskar. Jesper nearly burned Lars with that. Check Lars’s arm!” Laila shouted in tears.
Everyone hurried over to Lars, apart from Magic, Jesper, and me. Magic turned to Jesper, who looked stricken. “There’re rules in place for just this type of shit, and you blew them out of the water because you couldn’t wait. You ain’t touching anything until you show me you’re responsible. Damn boy, I brought that especially for you.”
With that, Magic stomped away, taking the flamethrower. He threw it in the back of the truck and headed over to check on Lars.
“MosterJody?”Jesper said forlornly.
“Magic is right. Youknowbetter, Jesper. I’m very disappointed. You’ve been acting out a lot lately, and this is the final straw. I’d ask you to sit in the minivan, but I can’t trust you. Instead, go sit by the car in the shade where we can see you. Run along now, I’ll think of your punishment later.”
“Noflammekaster?”
“Definitely not.”
Once I was certain Jesper was safe, I rushed over to Lars. His sweater was slightly singed, but Lars was unhurt. How freaking lucky. Vulcan must have been watching over us.
“Kids, if you wish to go home, you can. I wouldn’t blame you. This isn’t what I had planned, but if you want to stay…” Magic allowed the words to trail out and waited.
“I’ll stay,” Lars stated. His eyes raked Magic’s face, and I guessed Lars had noticed how shaken Magic was.
“That’s great. Here, let me show you this. It’s something I adapted myself, and you can all shoot it,” Magic said as they crowded round.
???
After that incident, the kids had fun, except Jesper, who could only watch. I’d decided Magic was a full-on whack job. He’d brought all sorts for them to play with. They launched hand grenades, something that had me on edge, although they only exploded paint. They shot targets and used a crossbow and bolts.
Magic had brought handheld catapults with little bags of dye as bombs. When we broke for lunch, Jesper was completely morose. I felt guilty that he was missing out on the fun, but he had to learn a lesson. He’d scared the shit out of me. Some would probably call my actions irresponsible, allowing Jesper around weapons like this. The problem was Jesper would act anyway. If I didn’t watch over him and monitor the usage, Jesper would be more attracted to it.
Just like Eve and the apple. Tell Jesper no, and he’d want it more. He might then sneak away, discovering these matters without company. Then he’d also probably harm himself or someone else. If I let Jesper handle them with supervision, then they’d lose the shiny mystical appeal they held. Anyway, I didn’t care what people thought. Aster and Kanon had learned when Jesper was little that he had an innate curiosity. If they’d said no, Jesper headed out and got into trouble.
Jesper wasn’t naughty; he was curious and highly intelligent. Back home, he’d been two years ahead of the rest of his peers. Jesper’s American teachers were assessing him because, naturally, according to them, Denmark had a subpar education,which was a load of bull. I’d already had to visit the school twice because Jesper had informed his teachers they’d been wrong in front of the entire class. (He’d been correct; the teachers had been in error).
“Jesper’s behaved,” Magic said to me, leaning over.
“He’s sulking. Jesper doesn’t mean to disobey, but he can’t help himself. He has to know and often needs the answers immediately.”
Magic nodded slowly. “Would you be okay if I took him this afternoon and showed Jesper a few things? No flamethrower, he’s going to have to earn that.”
“Sure, it was your punishment after all.”
“Jody, I don’t think he’s a bad kid,” Magic added.
“No, but Jesper needs firm boundaries and guidelines. Aster and Kanon learned to let him lead the way but ensured he understood the rules. Today, Jesper knew differently but ignored everything because his brain was too busy.”
