The car entered the courtyard of Uncle's house before Jack continued the talk with a look of surprise.
Aunt Elizabeth and her eldest daughter Charlotte were waiting for us at the gate.
Aunt expressed her happiness by hugging me and Jane.
"My dear Mickey, your growth amazes me..! Why didn't mommy and daddy come?" She said with a tone of complaint.
"Dad says he is busy. So mom couldn't come either. See you next Christmas when everyone gathers there."
"What's wrong with them spending a few days here?" Aunt was upset.
Charlotte, Jack's older sister, showed her love by giving me a nice pat on the back. "The hero is like a hippie."
She's like that, a better breed than Jack! She has the look of a cat and the nature of a leopard. She is pursuing higher studies in physics at the university.
After entertaining me well, she picked Jane up.
"Hey, cutie, you've grown up to be a beautiful Cinderella! Do you have any boyfriends?"
"A twelve-year-old girl?" Aunt burst out laughing.
"Does this beauty have anyone?" Jane retorted.
Everyone got a laugh.
The aunt held her beside her. "My Jain is intelligent. Honey, did all the daffodils you took last time grow and bloom?"
"She's been behind it for the past few months and it's always been talked about," I said.
Charlotte turned to face her. "She needs flowers. Isn't that why she cares for them with such interest?"
"Right, I'm going to start a flower shop. But no amorous monkey is going to get a flower from my hand." Jane's reply made everyone laugh.
Beyond a plain full of trees behind the house, the Torin River flows in the distance of a call, I heard the sound of a watercraft passing through the river. Charlotte grabbed Jane's hand and rushed in. Aunty took my bag and led me in cordially.
After the warm greeting and expressions of affection of Aunty and Charlotte, we sat down for tea. Aunty laid out the specially prepared cherry cake and red nut biscuits on the table for us. Aunty is a good cook. Their hobby is discovering and trying new recipes. She also writes in the cooking columns of many magazines.
"Do you like this biscuit ?" asked the aunt.
"A lot. It tastes good." I said enjoying it.
"But can you give it a good name? It will be published in my recipes column in next week's Sweet Mama magazine."
" Elathi Suhari. how is it? Is it a good name ?" said Jack, jumping up.
"What do you mean?" Aunt turned face towards him. She knows what fun is going to happen there now.
" Elathi Suhari is the name of the father of Satan? Elathi is great."
"Shut up." Aunt got angry. "Jane, do you feel something?"
" Scarlet Cookie." She said without thinking too much.
" Very beautiful. That's enough." told the aunt.
"Then make it as Scarlet Pimpernel, the French revolutionary hero created by Dickens," commented Jack. "If so, we can bring this revolutionary scarlet cookie to the market? The country will benefit from it."
Aunt did not speak. She stated to Jack.
"Tell the rest," said Charlotte. She was about to laugh.
Immediately came Jack's reply. "Those who buy will create a revolution and leave this country "
"If that is the case, will you leave the country immediately? How many did you put in the stomach in a short time?" Aunt did not give up.
Uncle was laughing silently without taking sides.
After a moment of seriousness, Aunt also joined in the fun.
After tea, with a few biscuits in hand, Jack dragged me to his upper room.
"The Satan's attack began." As we were going upstairs I heard aunt saying and everyone laughing.
As soon as got to the room, Jack started looking for something. After a while, he pulled out a candle stand and showed it to me.
"This silver candle stand I got from that abandoned house. I'm a little scared to keep it here."
"Is it because you got it from an ownerless house?"
"Not only that, most of the children in this countryside would have the stuff in that house."
" Is this silver? "
"Yes."
He handed it to me like a rare item.
It was fairly large and had not lost its silvery luster. As I watched it curiously, I saw Jack searching for something in every corner of the room.
"What..?"
"Looking to see if the Satan disguised as bats are lurking somewhere." Then he turned his face towards me. "Be careful, don't go near the window with it. If the Satan hanging around somewhere outside sees this, he will come here." Jack looked around and whispered. "Then he will follow us like a spy and will not allow us to perform the witchcraft. He will keep interrupting it always."
I enjoyed listening to it all like a dialogue in a play. His expressions and looks were even more refined. It was good to see him trying so hard in front of me to make his magic mission a hot topic.
It seemed to me like an ancient candlestick. I had only seen such candlesticks in old paintings. I gazed with great reverence at that glorious symbol that adorns the dinner table in the palaces of bishops and the castles of nobles.
"It may have belonged to some ancient lord or bishop," I said looking it back and forth.
"Yes, it is an antique. Mr. Harp, who lived in the dilapidated house we saw earlier, was a vassal of the Earl of Pattingshire in Wales. One night, seeing Richard VIII's cavalry approaching, he screamed and ran out of the house. He did not enter the house after that. With that, his family was forced to leave the place. Do you know what actually happened there? "
" Has he gone mad?" I alternately looked at that candle stand and his face.
"Some people say he lost his balance after watching horror movies. Others said that the Lord was angry with that man who was not a believer in God. But that's not the point."
He stared at me for a few seconds with an expression of surprise and horror.
I laughed at that act. But, pretending to forget everything to motivate me, he ignored it.
"The gang of Satan came before him as a cavalry troop," he said in a low, incantatory voice that instilled fear. "The troop of Satan on horseback surrounded him with swords and spears, roaring like a storm in the middle of the night. Many Satan in the form of terror, like Anglo-Saxon soldiers, roared bloodthirsty around him...! He screamed in fear and ran out of the house. Or it can be said that Satan drove him out of that house."
" Why should the Satan attack him ?"
"The Satan's silver candle stand in ancient Pattingshire Castle, hidden in a coffin, was smuggled from there by Mr. Harp. He hid it in an ark inscribed with images of Cherub angels and scriptures.
"Why did he hide it? To worship Satan?" My laughter filled the room. "When it says ark with cherubs inscribed on it, was it David's ark?"
" Let me tell you."
" Anyway, I understand that you read the Old Testament well. Good thing, there will be God's grace."
" If you're up for it, I can continue, or can we pass the time by reading Rip Van Winkle?"
"Isn't this story of yours the same? The magic that creates romanticism?"
"Let me tell you, my friend, prejudice is never good. I am someone who believes that one should have at least a general sense that not everything in this universe is limited to our logic. Do you believe after seeing God? Have any men seen God on this earth? No one has seen it, and no one is going to see it. Yet do not the vast majority of men believe? It is an irrational argument to say that everything is logical. Because beyond reason, beyond our senses, there are many things in this universe. God, spirit, and Satan belong to it."
" Okay, tell me. " It seemed better to listen to his stories than to waste time arguing. He continued the narrative with varied intonations.
"The Satan have searched all over the world for that special candle stand which Mr. Harp had secretly smuggled. Finally, one Christmas night when his wife took out the royal candle stand to decorate the dinner table, Satan saw it. When Mr. Harp and his family were returning after mass, many horsemen, the gang of Satan, rushed toward him like a storm..! Only he could see that horrible sight. So others thought he was mad."
"So if Satan sees this here?" I asked pleasantly, amused by the story.
"They may come showing their dreadful fangs or in the form of armed warriors. But I've got something here that will scare them. So they will never come to this house."
I looked at him suspiciously.
"There, look." he pointed out. A cat is crouching on top of the cupboard.
"Satan is afraid of cats. That's why princesses, beauties, and widows keep cats."
The cat cried when he heard Jack say cat.
"With this candle stand of Satan, we can seduce and call Satan to the circle of spell and thus bind him by the sorcery. I have learned how to do it. After we become the masters of Satan, we can do much magic with his service, the explosions of supernatural miracles..!" He grinned like a conqueror.
"Will this mission like the story of Cinderella be possible, my friend? Very strange things..!"
"It is true that many of the mysteries of the universe seem strange to hear."
"The subject matter is interesting and can be read like a fairy tale. But should we go after this and finish these good days of ours?"
"This is not just a fad. It is a mission to find the secret of the universe."
" Jack..., don't just waste our good days. Isn't it enough to think about what we can do?"
"We cannot subdue a lion, we cannot face a warrior, we cannot easily conquer Mount Everest and reach its summit, but this is something different from all that, an immaterial thing that is accomplished through mantras. Remember that the laws of material things do not apply to it. That is, weapons, physical strength, and intelligence, none of these are used to hunt down Satan. This is something that can only be achieved through the immaterial power of mantra. It requires knowledge, not power and tricks. We have achieved that. So it is not something that is beyond our reach. We are going to really enjoy our vacation with this mission. Our holiday journey this time is through the paradise of unseen sights."
He laughed out loud seeing my suspicious look. It scared me, like a creepy, mysterious laugh of a powerful witch in a horror movie.
"The other day I saw a bat flying in the garden behind our house. Even then I had no doubts. I immediately hid the candle stand next to the Bible on the shelf. He can no longer see it. I have decided a few things."
"What?"
"Have you heard of the wizard who made the Statue of Liberty disappear? Those who walk on water, those who dance on fire, these are all enslaved by Satan. If we enslave Satan, we will do whatever we want. We can go from continent to continent in an instant, everything we want is right in front of us, and hidden treasures can be found. We can become millionaires in the blink of an eye, and acquire all the knowledge we desire in an instant. And so many more!"
"Beautiful dreams, more beautiful than heaven..!"
"All these things are possible if Satan can be bound by witchcraft. " Jack whispered. "If we can enslave him, we are saved. And live without fear of anyone. Any knowledge will be in our brains. We can easily subdue any strong man and practitioner in the world. We can understand the minds and hearts of others. And so the devil will give us many miracles."
I heard him silently. Logic would not allow me to believe any of that.
"We must bind and enslave a Satan. That's what these holidays are for. I woke up from my memory hearing Jack say." That will solve all our problems. We can travel the world like Marco Polo, circle the earth like a storm, have fun swimming with dolphins in the ocean, go to the Arctic and Antarctic and plant the flag on the polar points, spend the night on the island of mermaids in the Pacific Ocean, and fill the brain with all the knowledge of the world in a moment." Jack paused and looked at me. Sensing that the subject was amusing me, he continued the narrative in eloquent tones. "Not only this, we can do many amazing things! Go faster than a rocket to other planets, go to the Moon, Mars, and beautiful Saturn, go to Neptune and Pluto in the dark far reaches of the solar system without light, find the sanctuary of flying saucers, and dive into black holes inhabited by Satans, fly through galaxies, go to the world of divine secrets and see the enchanting light of heaven and the terrifying fire of hell...!"
He stopped in one breath and looked at me. His face was radiant with various expressions of humor. "How is it..? Isn't the devil's service fun?"
"A good work of imagination that gets readers if you write it down..!"
"This is not just an imaginative creation like the colored stories of the Arabian Nights and fairy tales, dear friend, these are the ultimate realities that can be achieved by the supernatural power of Satan..! Many magicians on this earth receive such service from Satan."
Realizing that there was no point in arguing with him, I left him on his way and was ready to listen to the story. If nothing else, it seemed like a good pastime, like listening to a beautiful fairy tale.
"Well, how are you going to bind Satan? Tell me about it."
Many interesting Satan stories then came to my mind. The land of people without death. Man-eaters in the undersea forest, the continent where gold apples grow, and so on. But like those stories, I just hoped it wasn't just a fantasy. Because I needed the help of Satan with supernatural powers. It is nothing to roam the world, seek otherworldly secrets, and take the treasure. If Satan can give me the knowledge I want in a moment, I will not have to fear the complex problems of my life..? But where is that Satan? Now it's only in Jack's imagination that it will come out, with amazing sights of the supernatural..?"
"There are certain rituals to be taken to bind Satan by witchcraft." Jack began enthusiastically. "After that, Satan is ours. I will tell you everything in detail, you are also a partner in this mission with me, so you also want to know everything."
"Am I also a witch on this mission?"
"Yes, a co-witch."
"I don't know anything about that?"
"I will tell you everything I have learned."
"I have also wished to perform magic as a witch while watching witch movies."
"Then I will fulfill your wish."
"If so, let's dress up and play. But don't get beaten up for this."
He looked displeased at my smile for a few moments before continuing.
"Before the spell, we have some work to perform here. We will start implementing it tomorrow. Once those tasks are done, the witchcraft will be done at the end of this week. By that action, we will become Satan's masters." He paused and asked. "If Satan becomes our servant, what is the first thing you will ask Satan?"
"What will be required? Say something new yourself."
"You can ask for Princess Holango's two-hundred-million-dollar jeweled crown, set in ruby, guarded by twelve thousand black dragons in a secret chamber under Mount Shanghu in China, or to show you Santa Claus's unseen ice house, where he lives alone in the arctic tundra with his reindeers. To this day, no man has ever seen a real Santa, other than that jolly figure who struts around in a costume at Christmas. Aren't these views a novelty? If not… "
"It's not that," I said as he continued. "My need is small. It is enough to give me knowledge in mathematics and remove my fear and aversion toward it. Can Satan do that?"
"It's just a trivial matter. That's what we're going to do first. Enlightenment! In other words, it is not a church ceremony that makes a believer by sprinkling water on the head. It is a true baptism of knowledge that baptizes us with knowledge. The devil does that baptism with the blue blood of a sea dragon that lives only by eating fire. With that, our minds will become a universal encyclopedia filled with all the knowledge of the universe. And we don't have to depend on anyone for knowledge. The sages and teachers will stand before us scratching their heads to clear their doubts. Being an ocean of knowledge, we can challenge anyone and let us fearlessly step in front of anyone. The world will humbly stand before us in order to get a little of our great wisdom, material and immaterial..! Look at the grandeur of that great achievement..! the greatness..! You'll see that gruff math teacher of yours sweating in bewilderment at the difficult formula you're giving him to solve."
When he said that, even if it was a fictional story, I imagined the scene. I was amused by the sight of Mr. Hardy looking alternately through his spectacles at me and at the formula I had written on the board.
"If that happens, I will say that I am the luckiest person in the world..! But maybe this will happen in heaven? The last time we went looking for talking owls, we saw dogs and people coming toward us. Saved by God's grace."
"That owner, the whistleblower, is dirtier than Satan."
"Isn't the same thing going to happen if you trespass into a private area that has a no-trespass sign?"
"Also, this is not a matter of mere guesswork. We are going to do this after proper investigation and study. Indeed, within the next week, you will see us become masters of Satan."
When he said it with determination, my unshakable logic took a few swings. I then remembered reading somewhere that a weak mind is like charcoal in the wind. I felt like his Satan was seducing me too. It can be said that some delusions blossomed inside at that time.
'Will Satan be bound by his spell, and will such miracles be performed as he said?' I asked myself, looking at that daydream. He understood my expression.
"Doubtless, this is a dream come true."
"Are you so sure..?" I asked jokingly.
"Yes Mickey, of course, we will bind and enslave Satan. I am so confident. Because I have studied it in detail, mantras, rituals, and so on. Do you want to hear what we are going to do if we bind Satan?"
At the next moment, Charlotte and Jane came into the room.
I couldn't hide that candle stand. Jane took it from me.
"A silver candle stand..? Is this an artifact..? It is very beautiful. right ?" she handed to Charlotte.
Charlotte bought it and looked at it. Doubt flashed in her eyes.
"Haven't seen something like this here before? Where did it come from? Looks like an antique? Stolen from somewhere, or?" She said it with a funny expression and looked at Jack.
Jack angrily took the candle stand from Charlotte's hand. "This is a rarity that graced the dinner table of a British queen. But I was lucky that the street vendor who sold it to me didn't know its greatness and true value. I will soon be donating to the National Museum this exquisite candle stand of the British Queen, worth many thousands of dollars. You will then see the name of the donor in the glass cage along with it."
"It may have belonged to the British Queen's potter. It may have been purchased from a yard sale or street vendors who would sell the old household items. You go to the museum with this. Then we'll see the rest." Everyone laughed at Charlotte's reply, except Jack.
I asked him in a hushed voice after they left.
"Then you bought it with a price?"
"Of course not. I told her to leave. Or we won't be able to sleep tonight. Even God cannot argue with her."
Seeing the doubt on my face, he said seriously.
"We cannot hunt Satan with what we have bought. It is not possible to buy an item the Satan by paying a price. There is one way to be sure if it is of Satan."
"What is the way?"
"If you want, you can expel the cat and call Satan. Just stand by the window with that candle stand. But don't be afraid."
"I have no fear. I'm just happy to meet the imaginary Satan in person. Call immediately. I want to know if Satan is a monstrous figure with horns as depicted by artists?"
He looked away for a moment, not knowing what to say.
A pale smile appeared on his face and then disappeared. "Would you not be afraid if thousands of Satans came together like a storm? Satan is the lord of darkness. He will fill our eyes with dreadful black darkness and blind us."
"Then how can you enslave Satan, if he is so terrible?"
"In order to do it, there are spells and rituals. It will weaken the power of Satan. So he will come with us an obedient."
I didn't understand what he said. Seeing that candle stand of his, I was sure that no Satan was going to come there, so I changed the subject so as not to trouble him.
"Would you give this candle stand to the museum?"
"Yeah, If they buy. But first, hunt Satan. After that, the rest will be decided."
It was dark outside. The whistle of a boat going down the river sounded in the distance. Along with that, the cries of the night were heard from the forest near the house. I looked at the darkness from the window. That forest stands tall like a great fort. From it, the chirping of birds sounded like the laughter of Satan in the wind. I felt like I was standing in a desolate land of fairytales. Fear ran through my veins. I backed away from the window. Jack opened a book and was looking for something. I approached him.
"This is Melvillcrash, The Book of Enchantment," he said in a low voice.
I heard Aunt's call from below.