He didn’t want to go to school.
He was being given a hard time by one of the boys in his class. The boy kept calling him a retard. It was true that he was struggling. It was apparent that he was a slow learner. His parents were getting worried about how he was being tormented and were considering either moving him to another school or leaving the district altogether. Complaints they had made to the school had made no difference. For two days running the boy had come home from school crying. Each time he managed to dry his eyes and smile when he got home because he knew his parents where becoming concerned about him and he didn’t want to make matters worse.
The day before, coming home from school with tears in his eyes, the strange old man in the corner house was leaning on his gate and wanted to chat. He didn’t really want to at the time, but he had always liked him and he’d often made him laugh. He hadn’t planned to talk about his problems at school, but for some reason that he couldn’t understand he blurted out the whole story. The elderly neighbour was very interested in what he was told. He didn’t like the thought of the boy moving away and had even asked for the nasty boy’s name and a thorough description of him. He told the boy that sometimes you have to be patient and in time worries simply went away.
As it happened, that day he did go into school and he did get bullied and he did cry on the way home. He looked out for the old man, if only to give him a wave, but he wasn’t in his front garden. It just so happens that the old man had also been at the school, across the road in the shade of a tree. He was waiting for the school bell when the crush of children would come bursting out though the front entrance. He was there, ready to point his gnarled finger. When he did, it had happened so quickly that none of the other kids noticed that one of their number just wasn’t there anymore. Moreover, nobody would have noticed the small insect scurrying away from the trampling feet and making for the bushes.
It probably goes without saying that absolutely no one would believe that there were still wizards around that were capable of turning a schoolboy into a cockroach.
