The Letter Solo

In June of 2021, a strangely dressed man rung the doorbell of the Barfield-Cortez household. Usually, Sparky barks and causes a ruckus when someone rings the doorbell, but he stayed put on the couch and tilted his curiously.

Lena answered the door.

"Are you Ms. Barfield?"

"Yes, I am. How can I help you?"

"Is your daughter Della home?"

Della was on the couch next to Sparky, starting her summer reading list. She was out of view of the front door, just where she wanted to be. Answering the front door seemed to be too monumental a task for eleven-year-old Della, and she ignored the doorbell completely if she was home alone.

But a strange man knowing her first name piqued her interest. Was it a teacher from school? The voice didn't sound familiar. She slowly snuck around to the opening of the foyer, still out of sight of the door but in better earshot.

Lena was instantly put on guard. "How do you know my daughter's name?"

"Well, it's a bit of a long story, ma'am. I'm from a special school, and your daughter has been chosen to attend. Since you are--um, . . . well, unfamiliar with the school, they have sent me to explain it all."

"What school is this?" Lena seemed to be thinking it must be some sort of scam.

"Uh . . . , well, it's called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"Okay, we're not interested." Lena went to shut the door in the man's face, but he quickly put up an arm to stop it. He offered, "Perhaps a demonstration?"

Della couldn't resist. She stuck her head in the foyer to get a look at the man. He was wearing a fairly nice vest, an expensive jacket, and shined shoes--but they seemed to be a few decades behind like he had done all of his shopping in the seventies.

The man reached into his inside jacket pocket and removed a slender stick. He pointed it at the coat rack in the corner of the foyer across from where Della was and murmured something. The coat rack started to dance on its own. The "arms" holding up a coat and a hat, which were made of rigid wood, began to move fluidly like arms. The coat rack finished its jig, walked over to an astonished Della, and bowed to her. It then became rigid again, flying back to its original position.

Lena looked confused.

"Ma'am, your daughter possesses magical abilities. She's a witch!"

********

Lena had still looked confused as she led the man through her house and offered him some tea. She wished her sister were here--they had been navigating a lot of parenting together lately, and this seemed like a large moment, but Abigail had taken her own daughter out to lunch.

Della had slowly emerged from her hiding place and had taken a seat at the table across from him. The man had given Della her letter and had given her most of the main points of Hogwarts, assuring her mother that Della would be safe and sound, and well-educated.

"So, you think she can make a coat rack dance? Della, have you ever done that?"

"Well no--"

"Ms. Barfield, Della will be able to do that once she's done at our school. But, of course, that was a bit of an advanced spell, and it may take some time to get there." The man winked at Della. "Can you think of any time, Miss Barfield, any time at all, where you've done something unexplainable? Or even something unexplainable has happened around you?"

Della simply nodded. Her wheels were already spinning--playing back significant moments in her childhood that she thought were mere coincidences. There were a few things actually. But she wasn't ready to share them with a crowd.

The man waited for her to tell more. Lena, knowing her daughter's shyness, stepped in. "Is magic genetic--contagious?"

He chuckled. "No not contagious. It's something you are born with. We do believe it's genetic, but Muggles--oh, sorry, nonmagical folk like yourself, which we call muggles--well, magic turns up in Muggles all the time. Maybe there's a magical ancestor long ago. Or maybe magic finds a way to survive."

Suddenly Della felt bold. "Could my dad have been a witch?"

Lena looked down. It was difficult to read her face.

The man looked from mother to daughter, not sure how to answer the question. "Uh, wizard--witch is the feminine term, and wizard is the masculine term." He smiled awkwardly.

And so was the beginning of Della's journey.