“What?” Liam croaked back. Okay, this is just weird. How does he know my name already? I never said it to him. And, he knew when I wanted to know his.  “How do you know my name?”

“It was in the front cover of your notebook. I figured that must be your name.”

Liam flushed red, coughing into his hand. “Ah, yeah, I forgot that was in there.”

“I like your drawings. I hope you don’t mind that I was looking through it,” Arthur continued. 

“No, that’s okay. I did kind of invade your home so it's not really a big deal,” Liam said as he passed through the brush. “The house should be just up ahead.” 

As they exited the thicket, the haggard old house creeped into view. It looked serene in the moonlight, like time had not yet forgotten it. 

Is it just me, or does this place look nicer than it normally does, Liam wondered to himself. “Hold on, something definitely seems off here, Arthur.”

“Does it? I don’t think so. I think it seems exactly right. Now, about that flower?” Arthur smiled, gesturing once again for Liam to lead the way. 

“Right. It’s in the house,” he acknowledged before continuing towards the front door. He couldn’t help but stare at his surroundings as he got closer. What is going on? The car isn’t rusted or sunk in. It and the house both have their windows back… and the roof is somehow okay? I feel like we came back in time. Everything seems so… normal looking? But it's not normal because this place should be run down, and it’s not!

Liam turned the knob to the now working door as they entered the house. He froze when he was welcomed by a cozy living room and kitchen. Gone were the holes in the floor and broken glass. Instead, the walls were a deep blue-green and the floors were a well kept, hardwood. Little shelves were scattered about, filled with mostly empty pots and jars. The once fallen stone fireplace was now standing tall, lain with logs atop a beautiful andiron. The kitchen cabinets, which were rotten before, now held up a grand granite countertop with matching cabinets hanging from the ceiling. 

“Wow, I…This…It doesn’t normally look like this,” Liam stammered.

“Oh? I think it probably does. I just don’t think you have seen it like this.” Arthur walked past him to inspect the kitchen, peeking inside cabinets and drawers. 

“What do you mean? You don’t understand. It’s normally falling apart! There’s never any windows or paint or, or this!” Liam opens his arms wide at the kitchen. “It looks like a real house right now. What if somebody lives here. What if we get caught?”

“ Relax,” Arthur soothed as he held up a jar to peer at its contents. “I don’t think anyone has lived here in a long time.” 

“Well, I used to think that too, but what is all this? How can it just poof back to being a regular house?” Liam was exasperated now. He really didn’t understand. He came here almost every day. He knew this house like the back of his hand, or so he thought. 

“It has always been this way, probably. At least since you have known it. No one has lived here in a very long time. All of these containers are empty, and what is left is so old that if you opened these jars, it would probably crumble.”

“But, that doesn’t answer my question. How come I can only see this now?” Liam pleaded.

“Probably the same reason you were able to see my house,” Arthur riposted.

“I told you, I just followed a fox there. I didn’t mean to find your house.”

“I understand that, but my house is not something normal people can just ‘find,’ even when being led by a fox. They can’t even see the tree most of the time. So, you did indeed ‘find’ my house today, and also this one,” Arthur chided, walking up to look Liam closely in the eyes. “You do have the yellow eyes. They are near gold when you get close like this, granted my sight isn’t the best. They could very well be golden. I guess that would explain it.” Arthur turned down the hallway, checking in the rooms for the flower they came for.

“Wait a second. You can see that they are golden too? I’m not crazy?! No one else has ever seen them the way that I do! Wait up!” Liam huffed as he caught up to Arthur. “I have so many more questions for you. What do my gold eyes explain?”

This time, Arthur found the right room. Under the window was the same patch of moss from before, but it was filled with many flowers, basking in the moonlight. “Perfect. This is exactly what I needed,” Arthur said more to himself than to Liam. He opened his cloak to pull out a small glass jar with a little cork top. He knelt down and gently plucked a small portion of moss, careful not to disturb the single white flower it held. He placed it gingerly in the jar before returning the cork to the top. “That should be plenty.”

“There are so many now, it’s beautiful,” Liam exclaimed before kneeling next to him.

“Isn’t it? I haven’t seen these flowers in many many years. I was starting to think that I would never find them. Thank you, Liam.” Arthur tucked the small jar into his cloak and returned with Liam’s drawing pad. “I believe this belongs to you.”

“It does, thank you,” Liam whispered as he brushed his fingers tenderly over the worn pages. “I don’t know what I’d do without this.”

“Not a problem. And to answer your questions from earlier. Put simply, it's magic. The more complicated answer, I’m not positive but the Golden Eyes are a trait of a well known family of alchemists. They were the best in their craft for hundreds of years. Sometimes too good for other people's liking. About three hundred years ago, another prominent family committed a great atrocity to the Golden Eye family and wiped them out. Or at least they claimed they did. No one really believes that though. The Golden Eye family was one of the greatest alchemist families of all time. There’s no way they could all get taken out like that. Most believe the few who remained went into hiding.” Arthur tilted his head towards Liam as he continued, “I suspect that you are a descendant of that family. That would explain the golden eyes you have, and the way you were able to see what you saw today. Probably why you were so drawn to this house in the first place. You’re probably just a late bloomer. Most people find their affinity for magic whenever they hit puberty.”

“Then how come you can see all this too? Are you an alchemist or whatever?” Liam pried. 

“I probably fall into the ‘or whatever’ part, but I have met the Golden Eye family before. Albeit, that was many years ago, but I picked up a thing or two from them.”

Liam collapsed backwards onto the floor and let out a long sigh. “This is a lot. I don’t even feel like any of this is real. Like you’re not real. Or this house. Any of it.”

“Oh, it’s real,” Arthur chuckled softly. “But I understand where you’re coming from. I felt similarly the first time I witnessed magic. It was kind of mind blowing. I got thrown into this crazy world that I had no clue existed. It’s much calmer than it used to be though. You don’t see it much anymore. Most folks have gone into hiding and keeping to themselves. Not a bad thing in my opinion. It was a little too busy for my taste back then.”

“Do you…Do you think you could teach me some stuff? Like alchemist things,” Liam asked meekly. 

“Me? I’m not so sure about that.”

“Please? This is a lot. What if I accidentally catch something on fire or blow up my house?!” Liam cried.

Arthur laughed then his face grew solemn as he stared into Liam's glowing eyes. “I don’t know if that’s the best idea.”

“Okay, what if you just let me come visit you? I won’t touch anything in your house without permission. I just want to watch and maybe talk just a little bit?”

Arthur exhaled the air he had been holding before agreeing, “okay. You can visit sometimes. But no touching anything. I have many things that shouldn’t be disturbed, lest they cause a problem.”

“Yay! Thank you so so much!!” Liam boomed as he rolled around on the floor, giddy. 

“That’s enough. That doesn't mean we can start tonight,” Arthur schooled. “Tonight you need to go home. I need to prepare my house for guests.”

Liam stopped mid-wallow to look back at Arthurs stern face. “Aw okay. I understand,” he replied, forlorn. 

“Don’t be so sad. It’s just a day. You can wait until tomorrow,” Arthur chided as he stood. “Now, it’s time to go. You should go home, as must I. We can meet again tomorrow. Come on.” 

Before Liam knew, Arthur was already out the bedroom door and he was left to scramble after him. “Alright, I get it. I can wait until tomorrow.” But by the time Liam got to the hall, Arthur was nowhere in sight. “How did he just disappear like that?” he questioned as he walked into the living room. There’s no way he’s that fast. Can I learn to do that? 

Liam took one last look around the room before heading out the front door. The yard was still the same as it was when he arrived, years shaved off its age. Weird. Tomorrow, he was definitely coming back during the daytime to take another look. 

Liam didn’t quite remember how he got home, but he managed to sneak past his mother sleeping on the couch without disturbing her. That was great because his mind was a mess. Nothing he had seen today seemed to be real. When he woke up, would it all have just been a dream? 

Liam checked his eyes with his phone before going to bed. Yep, they are still very golden. He looked even closer. I guess they really are gold. There’s even little shiny bits in there, like gold ink, swirling around. Liam plopped onto his bed and looked up at the glow in the dark stars painted on the ceiling. Tomorrow, we will go check. If everything is still there, then I’ll believe it’s all real. That Arthur is real too.