By the time he went to sleep that night Nolan had all but forgotten about the weirdness of the day. He was looking ahead to the weirdness of tomorrow at school. They were going to be back on a regular schedule, which meant Nolan would again have no friends. He also skipped a couple of homework assignments because they were just too hard. Nolan’s parents almost never noticed when he skipped his homework. He just managed his own grades, knowing how many points he could afford to give up and still get the grade he wanted. The last thing he needed was higher expectations, so he made sure to avoid straight A’s. All the other kids hated straight A kids, but then again they hated Nolan too.
The one problem Nolan had with skipping his homework was the inevitable confrontation with the teacher. They wouldn’t push too hard, but the feeling of someone pushing against him even a little was amplified by his gift. The slightest disagreement could feel like a crushing blow. The teachers would always send home a note to his parents and Nolan would always trace an old copy of the signature that he had in his closet at home. He never got caught doing this and it had been his regular practice since the 3rd grade. Even though he was confident in his ability to get away with it, he still worried about the process. But it was a lot easier than actually doing the hard homework, he was too tired for all that and he sure wasn’t going to do homework during the weekend either.
His head hit the pillow exhausted and anxious about being confronted by the teacher tomorrow. It had been a big day and he was asleep quickly but after about 4 hours his spirit woke up. He sat up out of his body in bed, walked over to the window and looked back at himself sleeping comfortably on the bed. Then he flew out right through the wall and into the night sky. Nolan was now in two places at once but it felt like a dream to him in a lot of ways. He flew past the Red Lobster and the mall and down to the rough part of town which started just past the businesses on the other side of the freeway. He stuck to the streets as if he knew exactly where he was going. Soon he came out to the old highway, next to the strip club which was still open and pretty busy for a Monday night. Then he looked looked over at the truck driver training school a hundred yards up the road on the same side.
Soon the city became the country and Nolan was flying down the highway past the soybean and cotton fields. At the wood line he saw two pickup trucks with men drinking beer on the tailgates. They were waiting for the dogs to tree a raccoon. Soon he would fly off to the side of the road where the old plantation was and he saw the evil spirits walking around on the ground. It was almost like being a bird of prey and spotting mice scurrying along the ground, there were thousands of them. He swooped down over the plantation and took a hard right towards the mounds. He made another swoop through the mounds and the ghost scattered like roaches he flew by. Then Nolan swung around to the hubcap hamburger place and parked in the air above the crossroads.
He watched as the car pulled up. A young girl he’d never seen before got out of the car with a small spade and a little velvet looking pouch. He could tell there was someone else in the car and Nolan flew down to take a look. The two witches from that day and another girl he didn’t recognize here in the car. Each one had a book on their lap with a pentagram on the cover and they were speaking out loud. The girl who outside of the car dug a small hole in the middle of the road, dropped the pouch in and covered it over with dirt. The witch who had the gift like Nolan’s suddenly shook to attention. Her eyes opened wide as she spoke and they suddenly turned and glared directly at Nolan as his spirit hovered outside the car window.
Terror gripped them both as they looked into each other’s eyes. The young girl who had buried the hex bag at the crossroads got back into the car on Nolan’s side and she didn’t see a thing. The other women didn’t notice him either but the natural portal knew that he was watching. Nolan’s fear made her fear increase and her fear made his fear increase and the two of them were paralyzed with a fear that was bouncing back and forth between them. The perpetual increase would kill them both if it continued but soon the car drove away. When it did, Nolan flew back to his body with a snap. He didn’t fly around and look at anything this time. His spirit flew at a speed faster than light and rammed back into his body with a hard thud. His heart was racing and he tried to sit up quickly in bed. His headboard had a bookshelf in it and his head was inside of the shelf by the time he awoke, so when Nolan sat up he crashed his head into the wood above him. He really hated waking up like this.
Practice Outlaw 