An Old Potion

            “So what’s this stuff Grams? And how did it get here?”

“The witch was gracious enough to assist with relocating it. That is, once we tracked it down. Seems your father never found time enough to organize my personal belongings.”

“It wasn’t a problem, Aspen. I’m curious if it’ll work or not.”

“Okay guys, this still isn’t answering my first question. What the heck is it?”

“It is a potion dear. One I created before my timely departure. I believe it has the power to give true life to imaginary friends. Whether or not it will work on Jellybean is the question.”

“So it’ll turn Jellybean human?” I asked, trying to keep my hopes down. “That’d be really freaking awesome!” I could hear Jellybean’s padded shoes walking toward me. I reached for the sparkling vial. “Let’s see if this works!”

“No.” Dad said so firmly that it made me jump.

            I turned to Jellybean, ready to grab the potion and defy Daddy. He couldn’t always tell me what to do. I really wanted my friend to be human! Then I’d never have to wonder again. “What is that, Issy?”

I opened my mouth to tell him it was something he’d have to chug down, but I was interrupted. “Don’t let him have it in the middle of the house, for crying out loud Narissa! What if it works?” I stayed quiet, waiting for him to explain to me what the problem was. Daddy sighed. “Your mother has a hard enough time blocking out the bit of magic you know, what will she do if she sees a boy suddenly appear? And I don’t think she’d allow you to keep him.”

“But it’s my house,” I whined. Jellybean waited patiently for a response meant for him.

“You don’t want to make things any messier than they are. I’m gone; stay on her good side.”

“Then what do you want me to do?”

“Ask it to turn into a doll.”

I turned away from my friend for a minute. “But he gets really offended whenever I ask him to do that.”

“Listen to me, Narissa.”

            I faced Jellybean, super pumped to hopefully be able to see him as a real person soon. But I tried really hard not to let that excitement show, because I had to ask him to do something he didn’t like. I tried my best to look sympathetic or whatever when asking.  He still looked really upset and slumped his head.

            “What is he doing? He should heed your every command!”

“Relax Dad. He just needs time to get over it.”

            “See?” I went to go look for him a couple hours later. Predictably, I found the doll that I sorta remembered chewing on as a baby sitting up by my bed.

            I picked Jellybean up, carefully resting him against me, but not so that he’d be pushed up on my boobs. That’d be awkward to talk about later!

“Take him to my shed.”

“But you’re the one who yelled at me for going in there!”

“Just do it.”

            “Whatever,” I muttered under my breath. The place still looked as rad as it had when I was a disobedient child, even if it was sorta creepy as hell.  

“Make him return.”

            I sat Jellybean on the middle of the floor. It took a few minutes of me begging to convince him to spring back to life.

            I tried to apologize, but the jerk wouldn’t even let me do that much.

            “C’mon, I’m trying to do something nice for you.”

“Issy, I am not sure I can believe that after what you asked me to do. You know how I feel about reverting back into a doll.”

            I held my palm open toward him. “Don’t you trust me?” He had to think about it before giving me an answer. Finally he took my arm and then my hand.

“Yes.”

            “Then chug this down!”

            “This smells terrible,” he commented.

“It’s gotta be really old. My grandma made it.” Jellybean gave me a look of disbelief. There was a chorus of voices in my head shouting at me to shut up.

            I think I could feel the magic before he could. The bubbling purple that overtook his body seemed to surprise him.

            When it finally began to clear, a new face was staring back at me. I’d had such high hopes. They started to crash once I made out the mullet.