A good question.
Lightning fell from her fingertips and into the trunk of the tree, leaving scorch marks on its thin bark. Her eyes went wide at the sight.
“This isn’t what I want,” she whispered. “Why can’t loving myself be enough? Can’t you trust me to choose on my own? To experience it all...”
“Desi!” Rodney called after her. He ran up behind her and reached out to touch her. His eyes also landed on the magic pouring from her hands. “What...are you...”
“If you get too close, I’m going to hurt you.” She was sobbing then.
Rodney hesitated before grabbing her shoulder gently. “It’ll make an interesting story, then.”
She gasped. “What?”
“If you hurt me. It’s going to make a really great story to tell people later.” He gave her a shoulder a squeeze. “You don’t get to decide if you’re allowed to hurt me. That’s my decision.”
In that moment, I understood everything.
“Guys, we can let her go. She has found her true love,” I said.
Both Jerry and Preston paused their panic and bickering. Sort of.
“Not him!” Preston insisted.
“Yes!” Jerry shot back.
“No!” I screamed at them both. A jolt of electricity shot through all of Desi’s body to the point where it shocked Rodney. He yelped, yet did not leave. What a strange guy...
I took in a slow breath and tried again. “Trust me. Follow my lead. She knows what to do. She’s going to be safe. Let’s be human.”
“I...” Was all Preston could manage.
While Jerry simply said, “Okay.”
Chapter Ten
Jerry
One Year Later...
I’ve got to hand it to Brie. She found the perfect loophole to get us human, but perhaps it was the discovery we had to make from the beginning. Finding true love wasn’t about finding the special one person who existed as your soul mate. It was about loving and leaping even if things felt scary, while also holding onto your self worth enough to make sure you got the love you deserved.
Lessons that I wished were part of some kind of handbook. Perhaps guardians of the past sought the perfect one match. Or at least someone they felt was good enough for their precious cargo. Maybe in an era where magic didn’t freak everyone out, the story would have gone differently.
Shortly after our dramatic outpouring of magic and eventual acceptance of the facts, Brie explained to us the truth of the situation. Our Desdemona loved herself enough to make her own decisions and live with the consequences of them. She loved herself enough to fight for getting what she was worth.
That was enough to free us. Thankfully, she found a hidden space between some buildings for the magic to fully release from her body. Lots of colors and lights and getting a human body of my own wasn’t exactly a pretty process either. Shape shifting from any creature to another looks gross.
Cue Rodney freaking out. Total meltdown. Lights, colors, lightning, he could get over all that. Shape shifting snakes? Not so much. Desi cried. I don’t know which one of them I felt more sorry for. Also, we didn’t exactly have clothes when changed to human.
Rodney bailed pretty quickly after that.
Chaos, all over. Normally, I’d have been the level headed one with a plan. Being human, so suddenly...there was too much to take in.
To shorten a long story, Rodney bailed to grab us something to wear. He and Desi had a long, long, talk about...everything.
And then he bailed again. Magic is a lot to ask someone to believe in.
The three of us got comfortable in Desi’s small apartment. It sucked. We made it work for as long as it took to establish our own lives and identities. Preston was the first one to find a job, move out, and get settled. I tried to live with him for a while to give Desi space, but we almost killed one another, so I found my way back to her.
Rodney did end up coming back eventually. It took a few months, and there were plenty of things to get used to. If you’re wondering about Toby, he and Brie hit it off smashingly well. So well in fact, that a year later, all of us are now attending their wedding.
I sat down on the side dedicated to the bride. Preston on one side of me, and Desi on the other with Rodney.
In a year of being human, I still struggled to find my place and understand all of the challenges that came with living for me. When Brie said we had to let Desi go, to trust, at the time it didn’t make sense. Our whole purpose was to protect her, right? To judge the world.
Life isn’t so black and white, though. Everyone has done something terrible to someone else. Mistakes are made; people grow and learn from them. Doing evil one time does not mean a person is always evil. In one year, I’d experienced my own emotional highs and lows. I understood then what Brie had discovered.
Someday, I’ll have my own understanding of what true love feels like. Until then, I’d enjoy trying to figure it out.
ELECTRIC MAN
Diana Register
“Yeah hey, hot lady, hot lady, you're my sexy girl
Whoa ooh, hot lady, got to make you understand
Yeah, hot lady, hot lady, you're my sexy girl
Whoa, hot lady gonna take you to the Promised Land
Take you to the Promised Land
To the Promised Land
Gonna take you to the Promised Land
'Cause I'm electric, yes I am
I'm electric, I'm your electric man
Whoa, hot lady, hot lady, you're my sexy girl
Yeah, hot lady, gonna drive you like a Cadillac
Whoa, hot lady, hot lady, you're my sexy girl
Yeah, hot lady gonna take you to the Sugar Shack
I'll take you to the Sugar Shack
To the sugar shack
I'm gonna take you to the sugar shack
Cause I'm electric, yes I am
I'm electric, I'm your electric man.”
Rival Sons
AND SO, IT BEGINS
Advice. It’s kinda my thing. I’m really good at it. I really try to understand where somebody is coming from and give logical advice in a way that resonates with them. In fact, one of my daughter’s teenage friends nominated me to give a “Ted Talk” after I sat her and her boyfriend down in the backyard and told them to get off their lazy asses and make something out of their lives. They were so motivated when we were done, they both finished school and got jobs. An actual “Ted Talk.” That’s how good I am.
Yep, I’m amazing. Of course, unless it’s about my own life. Then I suck. I suck so bad that I’m surprised TLC hasn’t given me my own reality show on what not to do in a relationship. They could make a gazillion dollars watching my life go down in flames. I can see it now, millions of women gasping at their TV sets, throwing things screaming “noooo,” “stoooopp,” “put your credit card down!” At one point, I wanted to buy the yellow flags those NFL referee guys use and have my friends throw them at me when I was making a mistake because it was obvious that I couldn’t, figuratively, see them. I even thought about writing a book called, “Do you love me, Jon Carver? And the other stupid things I’ve said while dating.”
I mean, don’t get me wrong. I know when I need to change something. Maybe diet. Exercise more. Learn when to shut my mouth and bite my tongue. Smile bigger. But follow my own advice? Haha, nope. Clearly, I won’t have any of that.