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Orson Scott Card's trip to Jakarta, Indonesia

Stories from students at Jakarta International School


In a town not so far away, in a time close to the present, there was a land where certain people had the ability to use magic!

Although people could use this magic there was a price to use it. This price was time. The rules for it were as follows: if the spell was a small one you only lost maybe a couple of months or maybe a year but if the spell was large then a five year old boy could be in the body of someone almost 73 years old! Although certain spells were temporary when they wore off the effect on the caster is removed. Things were a little harder with the permanent spells, just like the spell the effect on the caster is permanent, although if the caster is to remove the spell the effect will go with it.

There once was a lad who had the ability to use this "time" magic, a young boy about the age of 12 he was. He liked using temporary spells, small ones, ending up looking like a 16 or 17 year old. Some of the incantations he cast the most were that either there would be a cloudy day or that there would be a cloudless day, lasting only about one hour or two.

One day the boy, his name was Thaddeus, had the idea to cure the world of all its problems, there are too many to name here. With this idea he ran back to his house to talk to his mother, who also had time magic. After he told her the idea he asked if it was a good one. His mother's response was that it was a good idea but when he cast the spell the aging effect would be so great that his body would be so old and frail that he would not live for more than three days. Her suggestion was that he searches for someone very old to cast the spell.

Thaddeus thought this was a great idea, get someone older to do it because they will die soon anyway. Searching around the small city he lived in he asked many elderly men and women, all of them not able to use the magic. Remember only certain families could use it. Ready to give up on his search Thaddeus decided to try one more house. Lucky for him in the house was an old lady rearranging her furniture, while sitting in one of the couches! Greatly excited Thaddeus told the woman of his plan. Thinking it over the woman, Clare, thought it would be a good thing to do. Excited Thaddeus wanted to do the spell as soon a possible, which to Clare meant right now. Thaddeus thought that over and agreed with it.

(This part is very disgusting) Clare started the spell; the transformation from this old woman to the ooooooooooolllllllllllllllld, ooooooooooolllllllllllllllld woman was very interesting. Thus ended all world disorders, for the people living at the moment the spell was cast! That is the reason the world is not in perfect order, but is not as bad as it should be.

http://www.hatrack.com/research/student-papers/jakarta/time-magic.shtml


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