Magic Tales

By John L Arnott

After a long lost family member dies, a young boy discovers an ancient secret that has been hidden away from the world for hundreds of years. Ride with this skateboarding teenager and he uncovers magical powers that will leave you breathless in this tale of adventure and friendship.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491858080

John L Arnott

When eighth grader, Ryan Tales threw the Papyrus of Adi into the San Francisco Bay, he thought the evil book was gone forever and that it would never be found. He could not have been more wrong. Fly with Ryan as he battles against evil forces that threaten to take over the world in this heart-pounding thriller.

Book preview

1

A s the summer’s sizzling sun begins to set over San Francisco’s famous financial district, a shaggy haired Ryan stands at the top of the stairwell, breathing heavily, skateboard planted firmly under his scuffed blue Vans.

At the bottom of the stairwell, an impatient Javon pleaded to Ryan, Can we make this the last one? leaning up against a cement wall, sweat cascading down his temples.

Yeah. I’m getting hungry. Dean chimed in from the bottom of the stairwell, taking his eye from the viewfinder of the video camera.

Ryan chuckles out loud. When are you NOT hungry, Deano?

Javon backs that statement up with a chuckle of his own, getting under the skin of today’s videographer.

Hey. Screw you guys. Dean strikes back. My ma said I look like I been losing weight, looking down and pounding his globular mid section.

They all look at each other seriously for a brief moment before they all burst out laughing.

Deano….you are something else, Ryan smiled while shaking his head. Fine. This will be the last one.

Last year in 7th grade, Ryan really started getting into skateboarding, hanging out at the Embarcadero and trading skate secrets with all the skaters that hung out down there. He realized quickly that he had a knack for grinding has now become one of the best grinders on the Wharf at the whopping age of 13.

The list of tricks on his resume has been steadily growing, throwing down tricks like a 180 Ollie over a garbage can, 50-50’s, Nose Grinds, Tail Grinds, and even some Crooked Grinds. The latest trick Ryan has been working on is a Tail Slide Double Kick Flip. This is a trick where Ryan slides down a railing on the tail of the skateboard and then kick flips it over twice before landing.

He has been working on that one all summer long, and about an hour ago he almost landed one. But after three hours of falling down and picking himself up, Ryan is starting to feel the effects. His body is tired and is screaming at him not to try any more tricks today, but Ryan’s mind doesn’t agree.

He looks down to contemplate his last attempt. His scuffed up forearm slowly rises to wipe the sweat and disappointment from this afternoon’s falls. His brown displaced hair now finds its way back over Ryan’s blue eyes as he takes a deep breath and warns, You ready Panda? a nickname that Dean earned in Little League.

Hang on, Dean sputters as his eye finds the viewfinder once again. Yup. Go.

Ryan takes a short stride on top of his Zero deck and crouches down for his approach to the rail. In almost the blink of an eye, he pops his board on top of the rail, and is sliding down on its tail. Ryan’s body, twisted but perfectly balanced, rides down the metal railing with the grace of a ballerina, his arms spread out, gliding smoothly as a bird.

Ryan has tried this trick hundreds of times, but has never landed it. He knows that if he kicks it off too early, he might clip the tail of his board or even over rotate and land crooked. If he kicks it off too late, he may not have time to rotate it at all, and he would come up short. The muscle memory in Ryan’s body was exquisite, quickly learning new movements with ease and retaining those movements for future use. Whatever the scenario, Ryan knows that ultimately success comes down to timing and execution.

The look of determination always present during a trick took hold of Ryan’s face as his feet shifted for the kick flip off the railing. As he popped the board up and his Vans disengaged from the board, Ryan was gliding so quickly, he was practically a blur, soaring through the air as his board spun under his feet like a mower blade. As his feet touched earth again, the board was not under them. It was heading towards Market Street. Ryan took a few gigantic stumble steps then fell forward into a roll, only to pop up onto his feet, like he had hundreds of times before.

His board, however, was picking up speed and crashed like a torpedo into a gray Honda Accord, which caused the alarm to trigger. A few onlookers poked their heads up as the boys neared the troubled car, but kept on walking because they didn’t want to get involved.

C’mon. Let’s go, yelled out an anxious Javon as he jumped on his bike.

Alright, said a reluctant Ryan grabbing his board while looking to see if anybody was going to say anything to them. They all boarded their respective vehicles and headed for home.

All three live in the same neighborhood and go to the same school, Francisco Middle School. Javon and Ryan have been friends as long as they could remember. They met Dean a couple of years ago in one of their P.E. classes. They found Dean to be unfiltered and funny. He could do really funny impressions of people, especially some of the teachers like Mr. Brand and Mrs. Fragglebury. They struck a friendship right away. Now they were almost inseparable.

As the boys were crossing Howard Street near the Moscone Center, they were spotted by Connor Madden, the red-headed school bully and two of his other bully assistants Max and Shannon. All three were on bikes and all three were looking for trouble.

Hey look over there, said the pimpled-faced Connor, pointing at the trio of friends. Let’s go have some fun.

While Ryan, Javon and Dean started to cross the street, Connor came riding out of nowhere and smashed into Dean knocking him flying off his Longboard, spilling him into traffic where a silver Prius comes screeching to a halt.

Connor rode up and is stood right over Dean and said, Hey, watch where you’re going fat boy. There’s not much space for the rest of us.

Dean, who is bigger than Connor by fifty pounds, rolls up on to his feet and starts towards him with a look of sheer rage. He stops about a foot short as Connor gets off his bike and postures like he is ready to fight.

The speakers in Dean’s head were blaring curse words so loud it would make a priest blush, but when Dean went to switch on the speakers in his mouth, there was a short, and nothing came out at all.

Yes? Said Connor stepping closer to Dean. "Is there something I can help you with?

Right then a much shorter Javon steps in front of Connor and yells back, Yeah, there’s something we can help you with, his short afro bobbing up and down in Connor’s face. Maybe some Clearasil or some Oxy pads for that pimple patch you got up in there.

Connor reacts by shoving Javon backwards, acting like he was going start a fracus. He never saw Javon fight before, and he wasn’t sure how tough he was, so he didn’t push him that hard. Any harder, and they would be brawling. It was Dean he hated anyway.

Back up punk. Don’t make me mad, a gritted teeth Connor added with a warning tone.

That stopped Javon and Dean right in their tracks. Not that they were thinking of taking on Connor and his two henchmen right then. But reality sunk in when they realized that they were in the middle of the street, and that cars were honking at them. They just needed to get home.

We’ll see, said an adrenalin rushed Javon, staring dead into the eyes of Connor.

Connor took exception of that stare and picks up Dean’s Longboard that was lying at his feet, looks at Javon and says, Yeah? See this, and hurls the skateboard like a boomerang down the street.

A very upset Dean scampers over to his skateboard and grabs it right before a blue Suburban ran it over. He turns around with fire in his eyes and shoots a flaming gaze back at Connor.

C’mon, Deano. Forget about it. Let’s get outta here, Ryan said.

The two groups eyed each other from across the street for a moment, and then sped off towards home, but not before Connor flipped them all the bird though.

You alright, big guy? asked Javon riding next to Dean.

Yeah. I’m fine, replied Dean, who was visibly shaking and grinding his teeth. But one of these days I’m going to get those guys back for all the stuff they’ve done to me.

The conviction with which Dean said those words had Ryan and Javon staring at each other not knowing what to think. They didn’t know what to say back to him. They didn’t want to say anything to encourage him. If that was the case, there would be no difference between Connor or Dean. They say you can’t cure evil with evil. It just doesn’t work like that. Besides, Dean would probably get beat up by those thugs. Instead they chose silence until they all had to split up.

Hey, I’ll call you guys tomorrow morning, Ryan cheerfully announced as he ollied up another curb, heading away from Dean and Javon.

Sounds good, Javon says.

Later, they all reply simultaneously.

2

T he smell of fried fish met Ryan’s nose as he rode up to the gate of his house on Washington St. In this neighborhood, all the houses were crowded right next to each other like passengers on a Muni bus at commute time. Although this was a good neighborhood, all the houses had gates. After all, this is the City.

As Ryan pulled the key from the door, he heard his mom, Rita from the kitchen greeting him. Hey Ry, dinner will be ready in about 10 minutes.

OK, Ryan answered as he turned towards his room.

Little did Ryan know that his dad was right behind him in his wheelchair as he turned around.

Aaaah, Ryan shrieked as his dad came into view. Geez, you almost scared me to death.

His dad, Randy smiled so widely if you didn’t know better you’d swear he had fifty teeth. I guess I still got it, he declared, puffing hot air on his knuckles then polishing them on his blue Polo shirt.

So what were you guys doing today? Randy asked.

Practicing to be a stunt man mostly, Ryan retorted as he put his skateboard in the front closet.

Randy looked at Ryan’s arms and his pants. Both looked as though they had met Manny Pacquiao this afternoon. His left arm had three or four scuff marks on it and his jeans looked more asphalt washed that stone washed. His face even had a couple of small scratches on it.

You are going to really get hurt sometime, Randy said in a very soft, caring manner. Like now, Randy says and flicks one of the scrapes on his arm.

Owww. Hey! Child abuse, child abuse, Ryan said laughing aloud as his dad starts chasing him down the hall in his wheelchair.

As Ryan gets to his room, his dad warns him. Oh by the way, Randy pauses for a moment to make sure Ryan sees him wink, your brother went missing this morning, and I haven’t seen him since. We may have to call the police soon if we don’t find him.

When Randy said that, Ryan smiled and knew right away what that meant. His little brother, Robby at this very moment was in the house hiding somewhere ready to jump out and scare him, so he played along like he usually did.

What? Robby is gone? called out Ryan in a very convincing, loud voice. Let ME look around.

Ryan started to walk slowly about the house looking in all of Robby’s regular places; the closets, behind the doors, in the bathtub and under the beds. He thought to himself that Robby is getting kind of good at this, and started to look a little harder.

In the background, Ryan hears the phone ring.

As he walks into Robby’s room, Ryan noticed his old Nintendo DS sitting on top of Robby’s hamper.

Alright, who has been messin’ with my DS? Ryan said while holding the video game machine in the air.

Like a volcano spewing out cotton lava, the hamper burst open and shirts, socks and underwear went flying all over the room.

It could be this guy, says Robby pointing to the underwear on his head.

I don’t think so, Ryan smiles as he pulled his seven year old brother out of the hamper and onto the bed. Then Ryan starts to play fight with his brother, letting Robby jump all over him, just like the thousand other times he had let him before.

Dinner time, Rita shouted out as Robby tumbles off of Ryan.

As the boys burst into the kitchen, there was a feeling of gloom in the air.

Rita? A concerned Randy asks, Everything OK?

She takes off her red aprin that says World’s Best Cook and sits down. She looks into Randy’s eyes and says in a solemn tone, That was some lawyer that called.

She paused for a moment to gather her composure despite the whirlwind of thoughts that were escalating in her mind.

He said your brother died.

Randy’s hazel eyes just stared back at Rita with a blank look on his face, almost as if he was looking through her at the wall in back of her. His hands unconsciously moved their way to his two paralyzed legs where he squeezed with mindless anger. As Randy tried to conceal his emotions, Rita recognized the tumult on his face right away.

Randy? she calmly asked.

Randy just kept staring.

Dad? Ryan asked, full of concern now.

Randy blinked a few times, slowly realizing that the family was trying to talk to him. He finally snapped out of it.

Can you pass the salad? Randy asked as if nothing happened.

Woah, woah, woah Dad. Ryan boldly said. Is this the brother that you said you would never talk about?

Rita jumped in first.

Yes, it is. He’s only got one brother.

You have a brother, Dad? questions Robby, his voice getting higher with each syllable.

Had, reminds Ryan.

Boys? Rita used her settling tone.

Honey, Rita says to Randy, I know it’s tough talking about your brother, but the lawyer said that we are his only living relatives. He says that he left a small inheritance and that they would appreciate it if we could come down there and get some of his stuff out.

Randy took about one mega second to decide.

In that one mega second, his mind’s eye brought him back to a childhood incident where he and his brother Jacob were on a bike ride together. Unfortunately for him, he only remembers certain things that happened that day. There was a clap of thunder. He sees an old stone bridge. An ambulance. A man with a beard that works at PG and E. He has no idea what these visions mean, but the one vision that haunts him more than any other, was the one where after the accident, he can see his brother riding away from him, not helping him, and never hearing or seeing from him ever again.

Bits and pieces of that day would visit Randy’s mind less often as he got older, but the ill feelings that were left that day by the bridge will never dwindle.

I have no intention of going down there to do anything for my so-called brother. If you want to go down there to help that lawyer out, so be it. You can count me out.

Silence screamed its emptiness the rest of the evening.

3

I t was a cool, overcast and windy Sunday afternoon in the City by the Bay. Rita had contacted the probate lawyer a few days earlier and discovered that Randy’s brother Jacob actually lived in San Francisco near Golden Gate Park. That took Randy a little by surprise when he found out. Randy had assumed that after the accident, Jacob had fled the city and never ret urned.

Hey guys, we are leaving in about ten minutes, Rita announced as she walked into the kitchen. She looked over and saw Ryan practically whispering into the phone. She assumed it was Ryan’s girlfriend the way that he was whispering into the receiver, so she cupped her hands and directed her next announcement at Ryan. Anybody on the phone at that time will not be boarding Rita Airlines.

Alright mom, just give me a couple of more minutes, Ryan pleaded, holding the phone against the white Hard Rock Café shirt that Rita’s parents got him when they were in France.

Rita turned her head and peered at him sideways before agreeing, Just a couple.

When Rita left, Ryan put the phone back to his ear. Are you still there?

Yes I am, said the sweet voice of Alicia, Ryan’s sweetheart, on the other end of the phone.

Alicia and Ryan have been seeing each other for almost four months, ever since they met this summer at a mutual friend’s birthday party. Alicia fell for Ryan immediately. She loved his ’tude, as she would say. Not to mention how cute she thought he was. Since then, they have been practically inseparable, hanging out with each other as much as possible. And when they weren’t together, they were usually on the phone.

My mom wants me to get off soon so we can go do that thing for my uncle.

That is so bizarre, huh? Alicia posed. That you had an uncle living in the City that you didn’t even know about?

Ryan thought about it for a second before answering back. And the fact that my dad never really talked about him before is kind of weird.

Yeah. Really weird, she agreed.

Something really bad must have happened with him, because my dad isn’t usually like that.

Just then Rita yelled, Time to go guys.

Is that your mom?

Yeah, Ryan lamented. I guess I gotta go.

Well have a good time, she said sincerely. Call me when you get home, OK?

The minute I get home, he promised.

How about the second you get home?

Ryan thought about