Brendan immediately came to a stop. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he was not dreaming.
He moved to a distance of about five feet from the tree the deer had vanished into. He stretched his hand towards it, jerking his gaze suspiciously in every direction hoping that the Finch would not jump out from nowhere and curse him with some kind of spell. He put his forefinger on the tree and just as he thought it would, it sunk in. He was beginning to feel terrified for the first time in his life. He kept submerging his hand until it sunk whole. His arm followed but it did not appear through the back of the tree as if the inside of the tree was bigger than it was on the outside.
He pulled his hand out in panic and ran back in the direction he had come from.
As soon as he got out of the forest, he began heading home but returned after having run a few hundred yards to put a small brown stone on the same spot he had used as an entrance and then he headed home, running as fast as his two legs could carry him.
When Brendan got inside the house he went straight for his room to ponder over what he had just experienced. He began pacing up and down, deep in thought.
'If what Samantha and Simon say is true..,' he said to himself, '…then this tree must lead to the Finch's realm, world or whatever. If all this is true then this Finch could be the answer to all my questions.' He kept murmuring possibilities in his head. 'So, magic does exist? Or maybe it's just plain witchcraft?'
He suddenly turned to the cupboard beside his bed, the one he had hidden the container with the purple liquid. He rushed towards the cupboard and took out the potion Howard had told him to destroy. He began shaking it in a nonviolent way in half admiration and in half curiosity. 'What are you?' he whispered to it as if expecting to get an answer. He laid his head against his pillow with the potion still in his hand and in a few minutes, sleep got the best of him.
*
The next day, Friday, the day that Brendan and Simon wanted to pull the prank on Thomas, arrived. When Brendan woke up, he realized that he was not in the blankets. The potion was on the floor but the contents were still sealed inside. He picked it up and threw it back in the cupboard. He closed it and ran downstairs.
He was not in the mood for cooking breakfast so he just grabbed an apple from the freezer and began chewing on it as fast as he could. As he chewed on the apple he took a sideways glance at the clock and realized he was ten minutes late for class. He left the apple on the table half eaten and he raced out.
When he was at least four hundred yards from his home he spotted something grey and shiny, long and fat stretched across the road. He walked towards it and by coincidence, it was a snake! It was approximately eight feet long and two inches in width. He sneaked up from behind it.
It did not even move a muscle. It was obviously warming up to the heat of the sun.
He took advantage of this unexpected opportunity and grabbed the snake by the neck and he stuffed it in his backpack. The snake hardly made a struggle to get free from his grip. It fit perfectly in his backpack despite its abnormal size. He zipped up the bag and realizing again that he was late, rushed for school.
When he arrived at the school gate, he found that Samantha was not there, probably because of what he had said to her, he thought to himself.
'Come in,' this was Mr. Benson's welcoming voice when Brendan knocked on the classroom door.
He walked over to Mr. Benson's desk. 'I'm sorry I'm late, sir,' he apologized.
Mr. Benson made a heavy sigh. 'Why are you late, Brendan?' he asked him, a stern look beginning to develop on his face.
'I don't have a reason. I guess I must have overslept.' He had never been good with telling lies.
'Again!' Thomas shouted from his desk. He was wearing his bandana even despite warnings from Miss Putin.
'Is he talking to you, Thomas?' Mr. Benson asked him, his gaze intimidating.
Thomas became quiet and shook his head. His face still daring.
'Good, so let me speak to him. Brendan..,' he had turned his attention back to him, 'If you keep this up, you could create a bad record for yourself.'
'He already has one,' Thomas whispered to Angus loud enough for the whole class to hear and it went berserk with laughter.
'It won't happen again,' Brendan told him as soon as the laughter died down.
'I hope you'll keep your promise,' Mr. Benson said. He sighed again, this time it sounded like disappointment. 'Take a seat,' he said returning to the books on his desk.
Walking towards his desk, Brendan stared at Samantha and he noticed that she did not show any interest in him whatsoever. Her expression was calmer than what he had been expecting.
Twenty minutes passed and Brendan began to suspect that Simon had drawn back on their plan. On the twenty-third minute there was a knock on the door but it was just the principal who had come to check on the class.
He was starting to feel desperate and betrayed. He opened his desk and poked his backpack with his finger and the snake began to wriggle violently. He closed the desk in disappointment. Had his sensitivity towards Samantha cost him his friendship? He sighed in regret and just as he did, there was a knock on the door.