E.C. EDWARDS - The Mighty Antimagic Spell

But, that funnel seemed the least weird thing in this professor’s case. Although his appearance was neat, his beard was so long that it could be used to collect dust and debris from the floor or even a spider web from the shelves, so thick and long it was.

In fact, Smart even used it unintentionally for this purpose, when he took out various stuff from the jars on the shelves, collecting with his beard the dust or junk of spider web with spiders running scared through his beard. Probably this gave the professor a nervous twitch, to rub his beard almost all the time, to clean it.

Another strange aspect was his glasses. Better said ... binoculars instead of glasses. Because he had two magnifying glasses instead of lenses, which made his eyes look huge, like those of a fly on tiny head, still not helping him see much.

And the strangest thing was what he told the children, when he finished setting up a lot of ingredients on everyone's tables, including a pile of thicker sticks, as long as the forearm of the students there.

“Professor Squisshy, can you tell me ...?”

“Exactly! Lionel Squisshy is my name. Thank you, I almost forgot,” the professor yelled like a child who remembered his lesson when listened by his professor at school, with a thankful gaze to the little brunette girl who was in the immediate vicinity.

Alexander rolled his eyes, a sign that there was nothing worse than forgetting his name. Maybe he’s right…

“This man doesn't even know who he is or what his name is. How can he remember to teach the subject at the creation Workshop?”

But again, Smart's ears heard what the students whispered. In fact, the ear, or rather the funnel.

“You’re wrong, dear student. To let you know ... I'm not even a man, I'm a gnome.”

Silence in the classroom.

“And I haven't gone out for more than one hundred and thirty-eight years. I was younger then,” smiled Mr. Gnome.

He looked at the children and continued:

“And all this time I created many of these inventions that you see. Including these brooms that you use at the magic flight lesson ... or you play with them at ...”

“Nobody’s flown with such brooms for thirty years. It's an out-dated idea,” little Penny Glasgow said.

The professor stopped talking, astonished hearing these words.

“That's why young students didn't take them anymore. I really wondered ... How fast time passes and how many changes.”

He looked into a room and talked to someone:

“See ... I told you we need to talk to the students. Not just to conduct the Workshop without any interest in what happens out there.”

Then he looked at the children.

“This is what happens when you only talk to the person living next to you down here, and you don’t mind what the people out there have to say.”

“But who are you talking to, Mr. Smart?” asked Penny Glasgow.

“How come with whom? With Lionel Squisshy.”

The gnome rushed to what looked like his desk. He cleared his throat and said to the children:

“Hello, I'm Professor Lionel Squisshy and I teach you within the Creation Workshop, how to create your own magic wand.”

Waiting for cheers of joy, or who knows what sounds of trumpet as if he said something out of the ordinary, Lionel Squisshy showed a disappointed gnome face when he saw the children’s lack of enthusiasm.

Only Johnny and Elizabeth showed some joy, but it disappeared like a flame in the water, when they saw the others’ disappointment.

“But why? Many of us have wands, and others can buy as many wands as they want,” the bold Alexander started to speak.

“Because a wizard must know how to make his own weapon. Like any knight who ...”

“But the knights did not make their weapons. They had blacksmiths for this.”

Mr. Smart looked at the young Alexander like a man at his leg after stepping on a thorn. He knew this young man would make his class burdensome.

“That’s what we do within the creation Workshop. Today we make a wand ... And in the coming workshops we create other things. And finally we improve what we created. So open your books on page twenty-one. We skip the chapters where we are told what the magic wand is used for and we start to create it today. Make it a habit to come up with the chapter read at my class. Here we have no time to read, we need time for tinkering...”

The professor began to walk among the students.

“Take a wooden rod, because there can be no wand without it ...”

All the children obeyed.

“And boil it in the small containers you have in front of you, thirty minutes, forty-five minutes or ... an hour. Depending on what kind of wand you want to create. For hand-to-hand combat ... or maybe one worthier of a wise wizard.”

The children listened to the strange professor, some of them happy and excited, because finally they created an object with their hands. Even if it was just a wand that you can take almost anywhere, from any store or magic wand shop ... it was still one of the most important things any wizard should have. It was the wizard's weapon, as vital as a sword for a warrior: the famous magic wand.