"Unwanted Magic" 2

The dad stared at the big dog and shook his head with confusion and concern.

“I thought I heard that dog speak,” the dad, Jack, whispered to his wife, Jane.

“I think I did too,” she whispered back.

Joey gave the big dog an unhappy look. “You weren’t supposed to talk.”

“Yes, yes, I know, but some things cannot be foreseen, or undone, like being kept in a box with the aroma of smelly shoes for days!” Flint accused loudly, giving the dad a fanged smile.

“Wait a minute,” the dad mumbled, seeming to remembering something, “I thought that was a dream.”

“It was not,” Flint stated.

“Then you really stranded me on an iceberg and left me there?”

“What did you expect; you’d turned me into a tiny, tiny turtle. How could I stay on that slippery iceberg with tiny, little, clawed feet that couldn’t grip the ice? And you should know that ever since that adventure; I choose my own form of being, thank you!”

“But I was floating on that iceberg for days,” the dad accused bewildered by the scope of that being true.

“You were bundled up in a proper parka and had a knapsack of food and a thermos of water, while I was doing my best to paddle back to the surface under a pack of ice and dodging sea life that had a taste for turtle!”

A dark look crossed the dad’s face. “It was a knapsack filled with beef jerky; I can’t even look at regular beef since then; I get nauseous.”

“He does,” the mom chimed in, earning a side glance form Flint.

“Nice to meet you,” Flint said to the mom, “Tell me do his sneakers still stink?”

The dad regained his composure and shot Flint an annoyed look. “What are you doing here?”

“I am here to give Joey an adventure.”

“Oh no, you’re not. You need to leave.”

Flint chuckle-woofed and shook his big dog head. “You know the rules; I can’t leave or change my form until the adventure is done.”

“I don’t want an adventure.” Joey told the dog in a timid whisper, not comfortable with his dad not liking the magic dog or with the magic dog not liking his dad.

“There you see, he doesn’t want an adventure; now go away and take my memory of you with you,” The dad demanded staring daggers at Flint.

Flint sigh-whined and sat down. “You know I can’t go until there’s been an adventure.”

“Go any way!” The dad commanded.

Flint turned to the boy, “Joey, there must be an adventure you’d like to go on.”

“Not really,” Joey said, eyeing the red face of his dad; it looked like he might explode.

“He isn’t going on an adventure alone with you,” the dad insisted further, “and if there’s to be an adventure then I’ll go on it too.”

“Ahhhh, I see,” Flint’s eyes glowed blue at the suggestion and he turned his furry head to Joey and asked shrewdly, “Would you like an adventure if your dad went along on it with you?”

Joey thought that might be nice to have his dad along and nodded, “Yes, I think so.”

“Very well,” Flint nodded and turned his glowing, blue eyes on the dad, in an instant the dad was his son’s size.

Joey’s mom screamed.

“Oh my goodness Jack, you’re…you’re little.” She swayed feeling lightheaded; afraid of what she was seeing.

“What have you done to me?” The dad asked Flint.

“I can only take small children on adventures you know that; you had to be made small, to fit.”

“But I’m not a child; I’m still me, only tiny.”

“Yes…and how does that feel…to be tiny?”

“Very funny; I had to make you a tiny, tortoise otherwise my parents would have seen you and taken you out of the house.”

Flint’s blue dog eyes cleared of the annoyance and he nodded. “Fine, let’s bury that adventure under the Arctic and see what adventure Joey wants to go on, with you.”

“I don’t like this,” the mom spoke out, looking at her husband, “You’re tiny and Joey’s scared and," she turned and accused the dog, "you’re a bully!”

“I suppose you want to come along as well and keep an eye on me?” Flint asked her.

The mom shook her head. “No, yes, maybe…I don’t know; I just know I don’t like any of this.”

“Jane, it’ll be alright; I’ll protect Joey and you can take care of things here,” the dad reasoned, already thinking an adventure with his son might be fun; if they could keep that magic dog in line.

“Take care of things here?” She repeated, giving her husband a frustrated look that should have warned him she didn’t like his suggestion.

“Well yes…like getting the mail, paying the bills; you know anything that comes along while we’re on adventure.”

“So you get an adventure with our son and I get to protect the fort? Is that it?” She questioned him; her eyes telling him she didn’t like the arrangement at all.

“No, no, of course not but, if we all leave…who will?”

The mom turned away from her miniature husband and walk over to her son; she bent down to his size and touched his shoulder. “Joey, if you don’t want an adventure, you don’t have to go on one, no matter what that meddling dog is telling you. He can just stay a dog and you can keep him as a pet.”

“What!!??? No, I will not stay a dog…I mean I will, if he doesn’t pick an adventure but…I don’t want to! And besides,” Flint whined, “Your husband, stinky sneakers, will stay tiny as well if there’s no adventure.”

“What? No!” The dad looked up, way up at his wife, and shook his head, “Honey please; I don’t want to stay this small forever!”

The mom sighed and gave her husband a sympathetic look. She didn’t want that either but she didn’t like the trickster of a dog making the rules, and she didn’t feel comfortable having her family out of her sight.

“Very well, then, only under the condition I don’t turn small and I get to go on this adventure too, will I agree to it.”

“But I’ve never taken a big person on an adventure; I have to think about this,” Flint told her.

“Take your time, but that’s my condition.” The mom said and picked up her coffee cup, “I’ll wait for your decision.”

Flint eyed the formidable mom as he did some magical calculations of weight dispersal and probable cost to magical power and decided he might be able to accommodate her height and lack of childhood imagination, but he wasn’t totally sure how the shift in balance would affect the whole of the adventure.

While Flint was doing his calculations the dad tried again to reason with his wife.

“Jane, if you stay here nothing will look amiss while we’re gone, and you’ll protect our home so we can return to it safely.”

Jane knew her husband had a point but she didn’t want to be left out of the adventure with her son and she wanted to stay together as a family. She frowned as she considered her husband’s concern and a possible solution.

“I think Joey can add a home protection rule when he makes his wish for an adventure; can’t he?” She addressed the last part to magic, talking dog.

Flint had to cease his calculations to think on her question and when he did; he realized her logic was correct. “Yes, Joey can add any rules to his adventure, before it begins.”

The dad turned indignant eyes on the dog. “Why didn’t you tell me that was a possibility when I picked the Arctic?” The dad demanded.

“You didn’t ask.” The dog answered smartly giving the dad a smirk of a wolf grin.

“I want mom to come with us,” Joey spoke up. He'd made his decsion, seeing how his dad and Flint didn’t get along. He thought they needed a mom to keep them in line.