Fiction: Legal Theft -- Childish Magic

"She has Merlin Sickness," Sally's mother said with a level of seriousness that her father never really understood.  Sally nodded serenely.

"Sounds serious." He raised an eyebrow, "Is it serious?"

"Oh, very serious."  Mother turned to Sally. "May I tell your father the nature of your disease?"

"He already knows," she grinned, "But I suppose he could forget soon."  Sally skipped around to the back of the couch, and disappeared behind it.

Her father watched where she had disappeared for a second, and then turned to his wife. "Kate. Our daughter is insane, isn't she?"

"Most likely. Do you want to hear about Merlin Sickness or not?"

He sank down onto the couch and put his arm around her shoulder. "Sure. I might as well figure out what my eight year old has contracted."

"Well, according to some versions of Arthurian Legend, Merlin was born an old man, and aged backwards through time. So hellos were bittersweet partings, and goodbyes were joyful connections.  She asked me about it, so we googled some stuff about it. The title Merlin Sickness came from TV Tropes. And Sally has determined that's what she's got."  Kate smiled at her husband as he blinked at her, trying to understand that.  He turned and looked over the back of the couch to where Sally was laying, staring up at the ceiling through a picture frame rectangle made from her thumbs and pointer fingers. 

"How long do we think this will last?"

"Mm, who knows?" Kate turned to look over the back of the couch as well, "She does really seem to like these legends, but she does always go back to Harry Potter in the end-- So I say a day or two until she's a witch again."

"Right."  Kate and Billy turned back to look at the room as a whole. They sat in silence for a moment before Billy laughed, "Arthurian Legend? Who gave her that?"

"You're the one who told her she could read anything on the bottom three shelves."

"Yes, but you're the one who insisted on teaching her to read in the first place. I was perfectly willing to just sell her off into indentured servitude to pay off some debts, but you were all like 'Billy! I want my only child to be ed-jum-mi-cated.'"

"I have never pronounced it like that in my entire life." She hit her husband gently on the stomach.  Billy laughed and leaned in to kiss his wife.  When he pulled back, Sally was standing in front of the couch, and unsharpened pencil pointed at his face.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Sally cried.

"Merlin Sickness over?" Billy asked.

"Daddy! That's the full body bind! You can't talk until I do the counter spell."

Billy turned to his wife, "You taught her to read."

"Merlin sickness over, baby?" Kate repeated.

"Yup. Harry asked Dumbledore to help me out. He's a nice guy like that."

"Harry? Or Dumbledore?"

Sally though that over for a moment, tapping on her chin with her pencil/wand before grinning, "Both!"

"Gotcha. Well, let's go practice those clean up Daddy's study spells before we un-paralyze him, huh?"

Kate and Sally skipped off to the back of the house, and Billy stretched out along the couch.  Well, as long as he was paralyzed, he might as well take a nap.  Besides, who knew what his daughter would be when he woke up.

<3