To make amends - Daniel Davis

I… have been selfish, I have to admit. I never knew how much my father had to suffer after my mother died. How could I be so narrow-minded?

My father should have the freedom to live his life. Besides, I should never have called her a witch. She’s brilliant to know these things without any djinn contact like mine. I have seen those djinns. I have lived with them, and they are just like us. Miss Amrita is a genius to have found this book on her own. I should go back to school and return it to her. The car stopped in front of the school and the driver opened my door. I went out of the car and into the building.

Sean was standing beside his locker. He looked at me with a secret look, like we were accomplices of a really grand crime. I rolled my eyes and told him: “We’re returning it.”

“What? We can’t do that!” He spoke out loud and then lowered his tone cautiously: “She’ll press charges.”

Hush

“She won’t.” I replied back confidently.

He looked at me, knowing that I was hiding something from him. “What is it? What happened to you overnight?”

Overnight! It was 4 whole years for me. Gosh! Thank God I’m back.

“Nothing. Just trust me once more.”

He looked at me for one hard minute before replying: “Okay. But if something happens, don’t try to save me. I was with you THE WHOLE TIME, okay?”

I chuckled. He was the most loyal friend anyone could have.

-

“I spent 4 years in another world last night.” I told him in the chemistry lab while we doing the titration experiment. The pipette almost left his hand at this: “Danny! Don’t joke around. This is dangerous.” He pointed at the pipette.

After a while of me being awfully quiet, he noticed it: “My God! You’re serious.”

“Yes, I am. Why would I joke about this?” I told him.

His hands were now on his head. “You need help. Right now!”

“Wait. You need to believe me. This book…” I took Bedevil out of my backpack: “This is real. All of it, the djinns, the magic, even the myths.” He looked at me like I had gone mad.

-

Recess - Cafeteria

“So you’re telling me that you spent 4 years with demons?”

I nodded.

“And that too, with Ifrits, the worst kind of demons.”

I nodded again.

“And also, that it has only been a night here on Earth?”

I nodded and said: “Yes, and I’m not mad. I understand all of it now. I pointed at the book.”

“So that is why you have been insisting that we give it back?”

I nodded once more.

“How messed up can you be, Dan? If you have the ability to read this now, shouldn’t you keep it?” He proposed. He was partly right, who knows when I’ll be sent back there. It’s all too tentative but still: “There’s another reason to do this, Sean.”

He looked at me questioningly.

“I need to make amends with her.”

-

We didn’t have History today, so when the classes ended, we knocked on the Staffroom.

“Who is it?” Mr. Kaplan asked.

“Sensei! It is I, Daniel, your humble student. May I enter?” Mr. Daniel Kaplan liked Japanese culture a lot and so, he made all his students call him Sensei or Master.

“Enter you may, my namesake.” He called out.

And we entered to see only Mr. Kaplan and Ms. Amrita, both of whom were busy with their work on the laptops. Master looked at us and said: “What is it that you desire, my favorite students?”

Ms. Amrita twitched at the word favorite but quickly regained her composure.

“We wanted to have a moment with Ms. Amrita, Sensei.”

All of three of us looked at her who looked back at me with a look that said: ‘What do you want now, you ticking time-bomb?’

-

I handed the book over to her. Her expressions softened as we gave it to her and she seemed to have been relieved of her worries when she suddenly said: “So, you two were the ones who broke into my house yesterday?”

I was already regretting giving it back to her.

Sean looked at me as if saying: 'Told you.'