A Secret in Salem - 2. Chapter 2

Sean pulled up to the house that MapQuest led him to when he entered the address Toby had given him. He was half expecting it to be next to a cemetery or to have crazy gargoyles standing watch from the rooftop. He admitted to himself that he was only following a stereotype and that he shouldn’t even think that way, but he couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed.

'It would have been kind of cool is all', He thought as he started up the walkway to the house. It had normal blue siding and a normal yard, no sepulchers or grave markers to scare off any unwanted guests. He rang the bell and laughed to himself as he imagined a funeral dirge ringing through the house, but once again only the perfectly normal two tone bell was what greeted his lofty expectations.

“Coming!” Toby’s voice floated from behind the door. The door swung open and Toby stood there with a look of amusement on his face.

“What’s with the look?” Sean asked. He stepped past To
by and into the white hallway.

“I just know exactly what you’re thinking. You were expecting maybe spider webs everywhere? Everything all black?” He leant back against the closed front door and crossed his arms over his chest. Sean refused to say that he was thinking just that. After a moment of silence, Toby heaved a sigh and pushed himself from the door. Walking past Sean toward the kitchen he only said,

“It’s fine. I get that a lot when people see my house for the first time. It just gets old really fast that people assume that because I wear black all the time that I live in a freaking castle or something.”

“I didn’t mean it in a bad way. I kind of thought it might be cool.” Sean scratched his head and looked down. He had been caught making assumptions and he didn’t like it. Toby turned around abruptly with a huge grin on his face and laughed. Sean stepped back quickly in surprise, and his shoulders tensed.

“Are you kidding? It would be AWESOME! I would kill for that, but you know… parents,” Toby shrugged and went to the refrigerator. Sean let himself relax and followed him into the kitchen.

'Why am I so nervous? You would think I had never been to a friend’s house before!' He waited as Toby rustled around in the fridge for a moment.

“I hope you like coke, because that is all we have at the moment besides tap water.” Toby said handing Sean a cold can.

“Coke is great, thanks.” He popped the tab and took a sip. He watched Toby lean against the counter and sip at his coke silently, all the while never taking his eyes off of Sean. He seemed to be thinking about something very intently. Sean felt the uncomfortable feeling returning and cleared his throat awkwardly.

“So uh, should we get started or something?” He asked.

“Sure, why not? Follow me.” Toby smiled and led Sean upstairs to his room. Sean followed him inside the last door of the hallway and stood right inside the room while Toby grabbed a hair tie from his nightstand and tied his hair back into a messy knot at the base of his neck.

“Well, come in and sit down. Nothing is going to bite you… hard. Watch out for Valentino though, he gets out sometimes.” Toby motioned to the dresser that Sean was standing next to. Sean turned to see a large aquarium that was filled not with water and fish, but with branches and sand. He looked closely into the corner and saw a ball of mottled grey and black spots.

“Holy shit! You have a snake! That is so cool.” He dropped his backpack and got as close to the glass as he was comfortable without actually touching it. “How big is he? He looks huge! What kind is it? He gets out? What do you feed him?”

An idea flashed into Toby’s mind instantly. This could work in his favor. He grinned to himself and went to open the tank. He gently lifted Valentino from his home and sat on his bed.

“Do you want to hold him? He really won’t bite. I was only kidding. He’s really chill and nice. Doesn’t even strike at me when I have to clean his tank.” Toby held out the snake to Sean who took it carefully in his hands. Sean’s eyes bulged when the ball began to unroll itself and Valentino started winding his way around his arm.

“Oh man, I have never held a snake before. He is so big!”

“He’s about 3 feet long. He won’t get much bigger if I keep feeding him the same size rats.” Toby rested back on his elbows. He noticed that Sean handled the snake incredibly well. Gentle, but when Valentino was going somewhere Sean wasn’t comfortable with, he just moved him back. Normally people froze up and he would have to un-wrap the snake from around them.

“He’s so pretty. Oh my God, his belly is so smooth. I didn’t know that, I thought they were all scaly all over.” Sean looked over at Toby relaxing on the bed and remembered why he was there. “Sorry… sorry. I got excited.” He laughed nervously. “Should we actually do some work now?” He handed the snake back to Toby. As their hands met underneath the snake’s body, a static shock passed between them. They looked into each other’s eyes for a split second but neither of them mentioned it.

“Here you go buddy.” Toby cooed to the snake as he set him back in the tank and replaced the lid. “Alright, let’s do this.” He said and laughed. He rolled up his desk chair and motioned for Sean to sit and then flopped himself back down on the bed. Sean pulled out his notebook and turned to the next blank page.

“So where do we start?” Sean asked his pen ready.

“Basically we want to explain what happened, why it happened, and how it affected the culture then, and how it affects culture now. So I was thinking of giving a basic history of the trials and of the beliefs back then. That’s what and why. I pretty much have that committed to memory by now. So we are left with the culture then and now.”

“Well, obviously it made everyone paranoid and accusatory back then. That one is easy. When you say the culture now, do you mean are we still burning witches? I think it’s pretty obvious that we aren’t. I don’t know where you’re going with that.” Sean scribbled a few notes and glanced up at Toby.

Toby sat up straight and put his hands together on his lap.

“When you think of a witch, what comes immediately to mind?”

“Magic spells, broomsticks, cauldrons and melting in water.” Sean laughed.

“Exactly. The perception of witches as evil is still apparent today, only it’s hidden within superstition and legend. People don’t believe in it anymore so there’s no reason to burn anyone, but they are still afraid of it. They still see the three witches from Macbeth stirring the cauldron and casting spells. They still see the green skinned wicked witch with warts that wants to take Dorothy’s shoes and kill her dog. Whether or not people believe it exists, they still view it as bad. Just like back in the old days when they burned people.”

Sean had stopped writing and was watching Toby explain himself. Toby was so intent on making sure he knew that had gotten his point across, and Sean saw him gesture with his hands, his shoulders, and his whole body. Toby was really passionate about this. Sean figured that it was the reason why he wanted to do the report so badly.

“Ok, so our basic argument is that back in the day, in Salem, people were afraid and condemned innocent people to death because of their belief that witches were evil. Today, we may not be burning anyone but we still believe that a witch is a bad person, an evil person, and that society has only changed in the sense that we are no longer persecuting innocent people, we persecute a belief.” Sean summarized. Toby’s shoulders relaxed and he let himself lean back on the bed again.

“Exactly.”

“So how are we going to put that in an essay format?” Sean enquired, trying to sort out in his head which parts he would be more comfortable writing.

“We don’t.” Toby sat up and leaned forward with a gleam in his eye. “We don’t have to write a paper exactly. The assignment is to show the time period and its effect on the culture right? I was thinking we could take a few excerpts out of the play, The Crucible, and act them out. It’s the perfect example of the culture because Abigail accuses this woman of witchcraft, but only because she is sleeping with the woman’s husband. That by itself doesn’t show anything but a slutty girl who is trying to break up a marriage. What does show the effect on the culture is the fact that the rest of the town believes her because they are afraid that if she is a witch and lives, that she will curse them. She played on their fears for her own gain and it almost worked.”

“So how do you propose to show an example of the modern culture?” Sean raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t keen on acting anything out, but he saw the potential in it. It was definitely different and it would keep the teacher’s attention if they did it.

Toby stood up and gestured at his other dresser, the one Sean hadn’t noticed yet. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at Sean. Sean stood up and saw that a dark cloth covered the whole dresser, and it was a long dresser. On top of it were candles, statues, incense burners, gemstones, pentagrams and even a miniature broom. His eyes grew wide when he saw the two sheathed blades resting next to a silver goblet.

“I AM the example for modern culture. When people find out I cast spells and do magic, they won’t hesitate to get away from me. Not because they think I am crazy and they don’t believe in magic, but because they do believe. Even if they don’t realize it, in the back of their mind, they hear, ‘Witches are bad.’ And they’ll keep their distance. All I have to do is stand up and say, ‘I am a witch’ and then describe their own reaction back to them.” Toby saw the shock in Sean’s face and went back to sit on his bed. He couldn’t take Sean’s silence so he filled that time by snatching his half empty coke and taking a few irritated sips.

“Well… I don’t really know what to say. In theory that all works out. The only problem is what are you going to do if their reaction isn’t what you expect?” Sean took a deep breath and sat back down in the chair. He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and looked at Toby’s face and body language. It was incredibly obvious that this was a very sore topic for him. “I consider myself a pretty average person, and in my mind yeah, it’s a little strange to hear you say you’re a witch, but I don’t think that makes you a bad person. I think you underestimate how much society has changed.”

Toby’s eyebrows furrowed. Sean was probably right, but it still didn’t make him feel any more welcome by mainstream society. Sean was staring at him, waiting for him to say something. He sighed and rolled his eyes.

“OK fine. What do you propose?” He leaned in closer to listen, his face still set in that angry mask. Sean smiled, catching him off guard. “Well?” Toby asked with a wary look.

“I still say you are the modern example. Only I think you are going in the wrong direction. As a ‘modern witch,’ you aren’t being persecuted or physically threatened. Sure, people think it’s different and definitely strange, but there aren’t many people left that would write you off completely. Then you throw in that the military is recognizing paganism as a religion, that there are ‘New Age’ shops in almost every town where you can find herbal remedies and they are getting more and more mainstream, and you can even find spell books in Borders now.” Sean looked at Toby and giggled at the dumbfounded expression on his face. Toby’s jaw was even hanging open slightly. Sean reached over and closed it for him.

“What? I do have the internet, and I wasn’t going to come over completely unprepared.”

Toby felt his face heat up slightly. He was amazed that Sean had known all that, and the fact that he tried to spin the negative into a positive was actually really nice. He caught himself thinking that there were a lot of nice things about Sean. Absently he touched the spot where Sean’s hand had felt so smooth on his jaw, but suddenly snapped back to reality before Sean noticed that touch. He hoped.

“Alright, fine. We do it your way. I guess I could even bring in a few of those Borders books.” He laughed halfheartedly but his face said that he was still cranky.

“Seriously Toby, you are way too hard on yourself. You think that by association with you, people will think that I’m gay just because you are, and you assume everyone is going to ostracize you when they find out your beliefs. I mean honestly, just chill out.” Sean said with a smile and a laugh. He found that he wanted to make Toby feel more comfortable about himself.
It can’t be easy feeling like people can’t understand you. 'Poor guy, but really people aren’t that bad. He just has to find that out for himself.' Sean thought and looked straight into Toby’s eyes and saw the worry and slight fear in them. He smiled, hoping that some of that worry would go away.

Sean had a great smile. It was infectious.

“Just chill out, huh?” Toby asked sarcastically. “So maybe we should go smoke some pot now?” He laughed and sipped at his coke. For a moment though, he had felt something different. A shift in the way he saw Sean. He wasn’t just a cute guy, but a kind of nice one too. With his joke diffusing the serious atmosphere, the lighthearted conversation resumed.

“I wish. If we had any, I wouldn’t say no. I don’t smoke a lot though. My parents are kind of strict about that.” Sean put his notebook back into his backpack and started to get up to leave. Toby went to walk him out but they bumped together, spilling the little bit of coke that was left in the can onto Sean’s white shirt.

“Oh DAMNIT! I am so sorry, I am such a klutz.” Toby ran to his bathroom for toilet paper to try and dry Sean off.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. It’s not that bad.” Sean said and laughed as Toby dabbed the toilet paper on the wet spot.

“Man, it so figures. Here, let me give you a shirt to borrow and I’ll wash this one and bring it to you tomorrow.” Toby went through his drawers and picked the shirt that he figured would offend Sean the least. Sean was taller by about five inches and had broader shoulders and a broader chest and… well a broader everything really. Toby tried not to think about that and just picked a plain black T-shirt that was the biggest one he owned and handed it to Sean.

“Toby, it’s OK. You really don’t have to.” Sean protested, but Toby was so embarrassed and so focused on making it up to him that he reluctantly took the shirt he was offered. He let his bag rest at his feet and stripped off the white shirt and sat it on the chair. When he pulled the black tee over his head he couldn’t help but notice Toby’s eyes widen just a little.

'Oh my Gods! Sean is freaking RIPPED!' Toby thought as he watched him change into the dry shirt. He only saw it for a moment, but the glimpse he got of Sean’s six pack abs and his chest was enough to quicken his pulse. Sean was reaching to pick up the wet shirt and Toby’s cheeks flushed as he had realized he was staring. Shit… I hope he didn’t notice.

The tee was a bit tight, but it fit, and Sean decided, beggars can’t be choosers. He picked up his backpack and slung it over one shoulder and went to hand the wet shirt to Toby.

“Thanks, Toby. I promise I’ll wash yours too before I give it back.” He held out the tee to Toby and saw that he was blushing. He smiled to himself as Toby took the wet shirt.

“That’s alright. I don’t really wear that shirt anyway,” he said as he led Sean back to the front door. “Sorry it’s so tight on you. I mean… not that your fat… it does look really good… I mean… Oh damn it. I’m going to shut up now.” Toby held open the door with the hand that the shirt was in and slapped his hand over his mouth so that he couldn’t dig himself any deeper.

Sean stepped outside and laughed. “Well, thanks for letting me borrow it. See you tomorrow.” He walked to his car and dropped his backpack in the passenger seat. When he sat down behind the wheel, he saw Toby, with his one hand still over his mouth, waving from the door with the hand holding the white shirt. It almost looked as if he were trying to surrender to embarrassment. He laughed again and waved in return.

'Well, at least he knows when to shut himself up to avoid further embarrassment. Although that’s an… interesting way to do it. It’s almost… adorable.' Sean thought and then realized that he had never really thought of another guy as adorable before. Sure he could definitely appreciate guy with a good body, but they weren’t adorable, they were ripped. It was a new feeling, which was a big deal. For a long time he had only felt stuck with the same old things. New was good.

Toby closed the door and rested his forehead against it.

'I cannot believe I just did that… I am such a klutz and I really should just never speak again.' He let himself smirk a little. 'It was totally worth it though.'