New York City Boy

Chapter 3
Entrapment

A little while later, Darren and Jack were walking the streets of Greenwich Village, snow fluttering all around them and billows of transient fog escaping their mouths with every breath. Jack had insisted the two of them leave the apartment, but he didn’t give Darren any hint as to their destination - he simply conjured up a new set of winter clothes for the child before taking him by the hand and leading him outside. The two of them had been walking for a few minutes when Darren began to grow impatient.

“Where are we going?” he questioned, still entirely suspicious of Jack’s intentions.

“I’ve got some Christmas shopping to do.” Jack answered. “I’m sure you still have presents to buy, right?”

“Um, I actually finished my shopping early.” Darren claimed.

Jack turned and looked down at his small companion, his eyes cold and disbelieving. Darren squirmed and cast his eyes towards the ground, unable to meet Jack’s gaze.

“...I mean, I haven’t bought any gifts yet.” Darren muttered. He glanced up, hoping his answer had satisfied Jack, only to see that his roommate was still staring down at him, his expression unchanged. Darren immediately turned away and cursed under his breath, chiding himself for not being a better liar.

“I don’t give Christmas presents.” he flatly admitted. Jack chuckled and looked ahead.

“So, you just let your friends and family buy you stuff without giving them anything in return?” Jack asked. “I stopped doing that when I was ten, Darren.”

“Yeah? What’d you buy your mom, a supply of eye of newt?” Darren snapped, regretting the words the moment they left his mouth. Would you shut [I]up[/I] already?, he admonished himself. Darren entirely expected to be immediately struck with some sort of horrible curse for his comment, but, to his relief, Jack simply laughed and shook his head.

“Hahaha, eye of newt. That’s a good one.” Jack conceded. “I’ll have to tell Mom the next time I see her. Say, this looks promising.”

Jack stopped in front of a small, stylish boutique, the kind scattered through Greenwich Village. Darren inwardly groaned, instantly reminded of all the times his mother dragged him along on all her tedious shopping trips. He kept his mouth shut as Jack pulled him into the store, though, figuring that his roommate could do a lot worse to him if he felt like it.

Darren and Jack stepped into the store and shook off the cold, Jack examining the racks of clothing with a curious eye while Darren stared at the ground, letting his mind wander from the boring, stuffy store.

“Good afternoon!” a voice greeted. Darren looked up and saw a sharply dressed young woman approach them with a welcoming smile on her face. “Looking for anything in particular today?”

“Well, we’re looking for a Christmas gift for our mom.” Jack answered, returning the smile. “The little guy here wanted to get her something special.”

“Oh my goodness, isn’t that sweet?” The woman gushed. She leaned down to look Darren in the face, but he kept his eyes planted squarely on the ground, refusing to meet her gaze. Unfazed, the woman gently lifted Darren’s chin, to which he responded by indignantly slapping her hand away.

“Back off, lady.” He spat. Taken aback, the woman stood bolt upright and took her hand to her chest, a shocked expression on her face.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Jack apologized. “He’s really shy about talking to strangers. I hope he didn’t hurt you.”

The woman composed herself and managed a gracious smile. “No, that’s quite all right. If you need any help, just let me know.”

With that, she turned and left, shooting Darren a suspicious glare as she did so. Jack waited until she was out of earshot before kneeling down in front of Darren and looking him square in the eye.

“That wasn’t very nice.” Jack chided. “If you’re not going to play along, I could just make you think you’re actually my little brother. It might even be easier on me considering the foul mood you’re in.”

Darren glowered at him, disbelieving. “You’re bluffing. If you could do that, you would have done it already.”

Jack grinned. “You think so?”

“I know so.” Darren countered.

Darren smirked as Jack paused for a moment, his eyes shifting as though he had been caught in a lie. Eventually, Jack just shrugged and brought his hand in front of Darren’s face.

“You asked for it.” he simply declared.

Before Darren could react, Jack flicked his forehead with his index finger, striking it as though it were a paper football. Even though his body remained still, Darren felt as though he were blown backwards by the weak strike, so much so that he could swear he felt the wind whistling by him as he flew. The feeling died down after a few seconds, leaving Darren standing exactly where he had been a moment ago and apparently unchanged. He blinked, waiting for something to happen. A moment passed and Darren opened his mouth to rebuke Jack for his lame attempt at scaring him.

“Jaaaaaack, why do I have to come shopping with you?” Darren whined. “I wanna go outside and play in the snow!”

What the hell?, Darren thought. That’s not what I wanted to say! Darren tried to speak again, but found that he had no control over his own voice, or, for that matter, any part of his body. He could still feel the weight of the clothing on his body and the lingering cold that chilled his skin, but beyond that, he had completely lost dominion of himself. Darren had become a spectator in his own mind, forced to look on helplessly as a childish impostor took control of his form. Darren boiled with anger when he saw Jack look down on him with a shit-eating grin on his face, no doubt incredibly pleased with himself.

“Hang in there, buddy.” Jack playfully ruffled Darren’s hair. “Soon as we find mom a nice gift, we can go to the park and play, all right?”

“’Kay.” The child agreed, while Darren inwardly cursed a blue streak. With that, Jack smiled, took Darren by the hand, and began to look among the racks of clothing for just the right piece. Meanwhile, Darren shouted somewhere in the recesses of his brain, apparently believing that he could regain control of his body by simply commanding it to respond.

“Wow, mom would love this.” Jack breathed, coming upon a majestic white dress hung high on the wall. When Jack released the child’s hand to take a closer look at the garment, Darren practically screamed at himself to move, to run away from his captor and find someone who could help. After a couple of seconds, the child began to walk, filling Darren with hope and excitement even though he wasn’t the one controlling the legs.

However, that hope was immediately dashed when he saw that he wasn’t heading for the door, but instead towards a standing rack of coats in the middle of the display floor. Darren groaned despondently as the child, giggling impishly, pushed past the heavy clothing and squatted in the middle of the rack, hidden from sight by the garments that surrounded him. Great, Darren thought. I’m being held captive by some renegade sorcerer and all my body wants to do is play hide and seek.

A few minutes of hiding went by before Darren heard Jack’s sing-song voice come wafting in. “Daaaaaaaarrrrrrren!” he called, causing the child to giggle again as Darren rolled his eyes or at least made the mental motion of doing so. “Where could that little rascal have gotten off to?”

After that, silence, as Jack stealthily stalked in search of Darren and the child stifled his laughter to try and remain hidden.

“Gotcha!” Jack suddenly burst his face through the rack of clothing, causing the child to recoil and scream, half out of surprise and half out of sheer youthful joy. “C’mere, you.”

Jack reached in, grabbed the child around the waist and whisked him into the air, laughing uncontrollably as he was slung over Jack’s shoulder. Jack headed over to the front counter and set the boy down in front of a stunning jewelry display.

“I choose that dress for mom.” Jack gestured to the saleswoman from earlier who was wrapping up the garment. “Would you like to pick something out for her, too?”

The child grinned and nodded enthusiastically.

“How ?bout a nice piece of jewelry?” Jack suggested.

The boy examined the case and frowned.

“These look really ?spensive.” He declared.

Jack laughed and produced a small brown leather wallet, which Darren immediately recognized as his own. Oh Christ, Darren murmured. When did he grab that?

“Don’t worry, we’ve got plenty of money.” Jack assured. “I made sure to take your wallet before we left.”

The boy cocked his head. “I don’t have a wallet, that’s for grown-ups.”

Jack grinned. “That’s right, it is for grown-ups. I guess I was just being silly. Now, pick out the one you like the best and we’ll buy it for mom, okay?”

“Okay!” the child exclaimed. Yeah, real generous of you, Darren muttered. Not only is he a witch, he’s a common thief, too.

The boy’s small hands pressed against the glass as he intently studied the display, his wide, bright eyes intently examining each piece of jewelry. Suddenly, he smiled broadly, turned to Jack and pointed at a pair of gold earrings set with rubies.

“I like those.” He announced. “Red’s my favorite color.”

“Red’s my favorite too, champ.” Jack smiled, pointing the earrings out to the saleswoman. The boy beamed with pride as she gently took them from the case and placed them in a small velvet box next to the packaged dress. Meanwhile, Jack opened the wallet and examined it for a moment before pulling out Darren’s platinum card.

“Thanks, Darren.” Jack held up the card so the boy could see.

“For what?” he asked.

Jack handed the card to the saleswoman. “For being such a good little helper, of course.”

The boy smiled as Darren called Jack every dirty name he could think of.

“He sure seems a lot sweeter now.” The saleswoman complimented as she rang up the purchase.

“Haha, yeah.” Jack agreed. “He just needed to get over his shyness, I guess.”

They finished up the transaction as the boy wandered over to the front door and stared outside, mesmerized by the falling snow. Jeez, it’s not that exciting, kid, Darren deprecated. It’s cold and wet and just makes things difficult whenever it falls. If you weren’t such a na?ve little numbskull, you’d realize that.

“Ready to go, kiddo?” Jack came up behind the child, his purchases in hand. “Once we drop these off, we can go play in the snow.”

“Yay!” the boy exclaimed, beaming.

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After dropping off the presents, Jack and Darren headed for the park, the child skipping and catching snowflakes with his tongue as he gripped Jack’s hand tightly. Meanwhile, Darren was still fuming, wondering how the hell he was going to pay the credit card bill with the cost of that dress and the gaudy piece of jewelry on it even though that was probably the least of his problems right now.

Darren was considering actually getting a job when he returned to normal when he felt a tap on the back of his head. Suddenly, Darren felt himself being rushed forward, the sensation nearly identical to that of being forced out of his mind in the first place. Oh God, Darren thought, what’s happening now? Am I going to be stuck with the mind of a preschooler next?

The feeling faded away and Darren, still stepping in time with his roommate, looked up at Jack, who stared straight ahead, expressionless. Wait a minute, Darren thought. Did I just do that? Darren tried out various parts of his body, his relief and gratitude growing with every wiggle of his fingers and every blink of his eyelids.

“Enjoy the ride?” Jack asked, looking down on Darren with a maddening smirk on his face. Darren whirled to face his roommate, making about as threatening an expression as an eight-year-old can muster.

“You son of a bitch.” Darren snarled, momentarily unconcerned with the possible consequences of his outburst. “You [I]know[/I] I don’t have any money. How am I supposed to pay for that? And anyway, what kind of lesson does me buying your Christmas gifts teach?”

Jack smiled and held his hand in front of Darren’s face, causing the boy to instinctively flinch. However, Jack simply rubbed his thumb against his forefingers, making the universal sign for money. As he rubbed, paper emanated and grew from the friction until Jack was holding a spread of hundred dollar bills between his fingers. Impressed despite himself, Darren stared at Jack, astonished, as he chuckled and pocketed the money.

“I was just messing with you, Darren. I’ll give you the money for those gifts.” Jack promised. “That is, if you learn your lesson and earn the right to be changed back.”

“Okay, I get it.” Darren persuaded. “I should stop being a selfish prick and learn to take a little responsibility for my own life. Can you just cut to chase and turn me back now?”

“Not that easy.” Jack countered. “The way you’re acting now, I’m positive you’ll just resume living the same way you did before I met you.”

Darren rolled his eyes as Jack changed the subject. “In any case, that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about. I wanted to know if you’d like to play with me in the snow as yourself or as my little brother.”

“I don’t want to play in the fucking snow.” Darren seethed.

Jack shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

With one fluid motion, he brought his hand in front of Darren’s face and flicked his forehead like before.

“No wait - ” Darren cried, but before he get out his protest, he was once again struck with the familiar sensation of being hurled back into the dark, unused catacombs of his mind. Darren was overcome with despair not only due to the loss of his body for the second time, but because the chances of him returning to adulthood had seemed to just grow even slimmer. His mind raced, desperately trying to think of a way out of this situation as he and Jack reached the park.

“So, kiddo.” Jack spoke, now addressing the child. “Whatcha wanna do first?”

The boy blinked before his face broke out in a cheek-splitting grin.

“Build a snowman!” he enthusiastically shouted. Laughing gleefully, the child tromped into the park, Jack following close behind him with an admiring smile on his face.

 

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