I haven’t posted in a while because I’ve been in a place with no mobile coverage. I didn’t know that was possible. A few days ago, the professor drove me in his Lexus to an area that didn’t even look like it was part of this country – just trees. I didn’t see any buildings for long periods of time.
On the drive I commented about his car and how being a professor must pay a lot of money. He said that his money came from ridding people of ghosts. When we first met, he said that he knew a spell to dismiss ghosts but I didn’t really think about it.
We talked about it for several hours as we drove. According to the Professor, ghosts are completely real. I have no reason to doubt him at this point. His theory is that ghosts aren’t really people or souls the way we think. He believes that people can imprint their psyche on a place or a thing. Then if enough magic energy converges, it forms an entity that we think of as a ghost.
The way he explained it is that a ghost is like a recording. A ghost is not a person any more than an image on my phone is the actor I’m seeing. He believes that you could do a spell to create ghosts but he never tried it. I asked him if ghosts could be dangerous and he said most of them are harmless. The way he said it made me think he had met one of the not harmless ones and never wanted to again.
So, yeah, ghosts exist.
The place he took me looked like something from an old book about the Depression. I thought it was a barn until a guy came out of it. There was a rusted plow in the front yard, one that would be pulled by a horse. I can’t believe someone lived there, and that’s coming from someone who lives in a car.
Most old people look like a stiff breeze would kill them. But sometimes you see ones that look like they’re made out of fucking cast iron and broken nails. I don’t know how old he was, could have been anywhere from 50 to 100, but if you told me he was in WW2 and was hit by an artillery shell and survived, I’d believe it.
It was like the universe created an opposite man from the professor. Forget about driving a Lexus, this guy didn’t have running water. The three of us talked for a while and then the professor left. He didn’t abandon me there, that’s what I decided.
Staying with Mr. Petticord was a bizarre experience. It was like living in another century. I never chopped wood before. I never slaughtered a chicken either. I did a lot of things I never did before.
He was very dismissive of the training I got from Royale which I didn’t like. It didn’t bother me when he crapped on me for being a bad magician but I didn’t like him talking shit about Royale. He said what Royale taught me was “city” magic which he had no respect for.
I did freak him out when I showed him my fetch spell, but otherwise he wasn’t impressed with anything I could do. He was unpleasant and mean but he knew a lot about magic. He said that the Asian girl was making me sick because I had no defenses. Sometimes you see boxers who aren’t very good and they’re wide open, they get hit so much the guy punching them gets tired of hitting them, I was like that I guess.
He really laid into Royale for not teaching me how to protect myself as the first thing. At one point I wanted to smash his old face in, but he didn’t care. I think he goes months without ever seeing another person so taking feelings into account isn’t something he worries about.
I asked him about the serial killer in the book the professor wrote and he confirmed that he was a blood magician. I asked how he stopped the killer, and he looked at me like that was a stupid question and said that he killed him. I was shocked. He was condescending of my reaction.
Royale and Obaluaiye both told me that killing someone with magic is the ultimate sin – not to mention that murder is not okay for non-magic normal people as well. Mr. Petticord had a different idea. If someone is doing something bad, you stop them. And if that means you have to kill them, fine.
He asked me how I expected to stop anyone from doing evil if I wasn’t willing to kill. I had no answer.
After he was satisfied with my magical defenses, he told me to fuck off. I don’t know what I thought was going to happen. He and the professor and I were going to form a magic super trio and go around fighting crime? The professor didn’t seem interested in stopping anyone from doing bad shit, and this guy wasn’t going anywhere.
Even though he was an asshole, I would have liked to stay longer and learn more, but he wasn’t interested in teaching more. Life goes on I guess.
