Tuesday Night Storytime 3, Part 6
The continuation of Mr. Snaggle’s Oddities. In this part, Peter feels the walls closing in on his as he runs out of people to trust. He must come to grip and learn more about his new abilities.
Audio version narrated by David Carroll:
As always, I hope you enjoy the story.
Peter did his best to seem excited about the prospect of spending the rest of his Summer with Mr. Snaggle. Inside there was something else going on entirely, he felt sick to his stomach from all the worry. He finished all his duties—trying very hard to avoid and ignore his friends—and made his way back home. It seemed a safe bet that his parents were going to side with Mr. Snaggle on this, but he had to try to talk them out of it.
Whatever the man claimed, Peter was sure that Mr. Snaggle had no intention at all of letting him come home at the end of the Summer. How was he supposed to convince his parents of that though? He seemed to have them completely under some kind of spell.
Peter stopped suddenly. Mr. Snaggle said he mixed together concoctions. He’d laughed when Peter called them potions, but wasn’t that exactly what he was making? The thought of Mr. Snaggle in his kitchen drinking tea with his parents came back to him then. That must be how he was controlling his parents!
If that were true, then what if there were a potion that would reverse the affects as well? He had to get home and check that old book. It just had to have something inside it to help him. And maybe he could find out about what was given to his parents as well. Peter ran all the way home, smiling for the first time all day.
When he got there, nothing was as he’d expected. Peter found two large suitcases in the entry way. They weren’t his, but it seemed a safe bet they were for him. His parents, smiling very wide, came to greet him. It was a bit unnerving.
“Mr. Snaggle told us the great news! I bet you’re pretty excited?” Peter’s mother said. “It was so hard for me not to say something this morning.” She seemed so genuinely happy for him, could all that just be the potion? Or did some part of her want him to leave?
“Um, I was actually kind of hoping I could choose not to go. I haven’t gotten to see Jackson much lately, you know?” He knew the words were wrong as they came out.
“Well he won’t be back till the end of Summer anyway. He’s away at camp, remember?” She turned to his father, “How quickly they forget!” They both laughed at the joke. Peter only frowned.
“Mom, I don’t trust Mr. Snaggle. I really don’t want to go. Please, don’t make me. You can just say I had something else I had to do. Maybe I could go see Grandma?”
“You know, Pete,” his dad interrupted, “you said the same thing about Summer camp the first time you went. Don’t you remember how much fun you had despite all those complaints? I’m sure this is no different, it’s always a little frightening to try something new. But that’s certainly no reason not to try it.”
Peter sighed, he knew when it was a lost cause. “Alright, why have you already packed for me? He said he wasn’t leaving for a few days?”
“Those aren’t for you, you know those aren’t your bags.” His mother laughed and grabbed his father’s hand. “We’ve decided to go on a little vacation of our own while you are gone. We haven’t traveled alone together since our honeymoon.” She smiled and put an arm around his father.
“You’re what!? Where are you going? What if I need something?” Peter’s heart raced.
“Mr. Snaggle has our cell phone numbers and the numbers for our hotel rooms every single night. You have nothing to worry about. We’re going to Europe. It will be so romantic.” She smiled. Peter hated how everything seemed decided already.
He wanted to be happy for her, he really did. But they were going to Europe!? He’d thought they meant to another city, not another country! Peter was growing more and more convinced that he would never see his parents again.
He knew he didn’t have much time. Remembering the curiosity about potions, he excused himself and ran to the kitchen for a drink. There were three pitchers in the fridge, but one he recognized, so he just dumped out the other two just to be safe. One definitely looked like some kind of tea.
When he went back into the entryway, he found his parents had already gone back to whatever they were doing. He made sure nobody was around and looked into their bags. Sure enough he found a big bundle of tea bags. Smiling at figuring it all out, Peter took out the tea bags and took them upstairs with him. Now he just had to keep them from drinking any more of the stuff, then maybe they wouldn’t leave. He wondered how long the affects would last.
In his room, Peter took the old book out of his dresser and sat down on the floor to look it over. Just as he’d hoped, it was all about recipes and it even had personal notes written in the margins.
As the book progressed, Peter began to understand Mr. Snaggle more and more. He could tell which notes came first, and his research seemed to begin innocently enough. It seemed the need to try his potions on more intelligent subjects was where he strayed from harmless tactics. Or maybe he wanted to all along, slowly working up the nerve.
As he read, his thoughts turned to how he might use this knowledge to his advantage. Maybe he really could make things that would reverse the affects of what Mr. Snaggle had been doing. Peter knew one thing at least, he didn’t have very much time to figure it out.
Tags: Fantasy, Mr. Snaggle's Oddities, podcast, Tuesday Night Stories, Writings
