Authors: Bob Bannon
“Hi, Mrs. MacIntyre.” Jonah said.
“So, homework done?” She asked Eric.
“Almost. Just about,” Eric mumbled, not looking up from the video game.
“Jonah..?” She said, continuing the same question.
He was surprised she asked. “Yes, Missus MacIntyre, I’m all done.” He looked up for just that split second and Hell Kat and Danger Man got hit with a flying desk.
“Dude!” Eric called out.
Mrs. Macintyre took his phone right out of his hand. “Okay, time to go.” Eric tried to reach for the phone. She put it behind her back. “Say goodbye to Jonah. It’s time to go.”
Eric zipped his backpack, the books long ago replaced there. He stood up and slung it over his shoulder. Then reached for his phone again, which was returned.
“Later,” Eric said.
“Yeah, later,” Jonah answered.
Eric and his mother walked away. Jonah put the tablet away and decided to make a loop around the mall. Before he left, he made a pit stop at the fountain way over by the department store. A woman who was dressing a mannequin gave him an odd look, but he didn’t think she had exactly seen what happened. He made a hasty exit out the side door instead of walking through the department store.
At the window of Red’s Diner he stopped and looked through the window to check on Jenna. At least she was smiling. He wondered if someone would walk her home tonight.
He ate two sandwiches when he got back to the nest, then cleaned up. The rest of the evening was taken up with looking up things he’d seen in the mall. Several sites sold the items he’d seen, some of the things seemed way over-priced. He searched the internet to see if there were video demonstrations or reviews for those products.
He left the tablet on and plugged in, and rolled over and went to sleep.
The next day, Jonah didn’t snap immediately awake. He was sure this was going to be one of the painful mornings. Sure of it.
He felt it coming. “No. No. No” he said and ducked under the blanket. He hadn’t even opened his eyes, and now he squeezed them tight. Drilling pain, this time the drill felt like it had been set on fire to boot. His breath was ragged. He tried not to cry.
It was one of the short ones, at least. Five minutes, maybe slightly more.
He rubbed his eyes, then blinked them. He got up and drank water from the tap in the bathroom.
When he walked back into the room he immediately noticed the notebook on the floor. The cover was closed. It had been opened to his note and set on the control panel the night before.
He dove at it, sweeping it off the floor. He was on his knees. He knew what the first four pages said. He furiously swept to the fifth.
There he found a short note. He recognized the sharp penmanship. It was the same as the note on the second page that said “not to worry”.
I think it is important you know since you are afraid of us.
Others disagree.
Find Athena Stapleton, Clapton
Clapton? That was the town on the other side of the woods. He knew it from seeing maps of the surrounding area on the internet. It was miles away. Way too far to walk there.
And, he observed, there’s clearly more than one person. Why couldn’t they give him a straight answer? Was someone coming all the way from Clapton at night to help him?
He didn’t know how he was going to get there, but he was going to get there.
He stood up and dropped the notebook on the control panel. It wasn’t much, but it was something to go on.
Jonah felt a small surge of energy. Usually on what he was referring to as ‘pain days’, he would just pack up and head out. It was on ‘good days’ that he would usually do his washing and have something to eat and maybe squeeze in a round of ‘Kat Skratch’ before he took off.
He took the spoon from the backpack and sat on the blanket. He made himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, bit into it and then took a sip of lemonade.
He got up again, sandwich in hand, and went back to the notebook. He turned each page staring at each note. There were four different notes, including his own; two of the notes were in the same hand. None were written on the same page. He had to push the thought out of his head that one might be his father. He’d seen his father’s handwriting before, and none of this matched, but he couldn’t stop himself from wondering.
He finished his sandwich and took another sip of lemonade. As he had learned, the electric blanket served as a sort of space heater and he could feel its warmth if he was in the general area of the nest. He left it plugged in.
He grabbed his other change of clothes and went into the bathroom to wash. Today was a quick one, the water was freezing. He had the idea of wrapping his bottle of water in the electric blanket and seeing if he couldn’t make warm water. He thought he might have to try that at some point, and then congratulated himself on being so scientific. His dad would have liked that.
He rinsed his mouth and brushed his teeth with his finger. His breath got close enough to ‘not completely awful’ that he was satisfied with it.
He took a piece of bread out of the pack and put it on the control panel. It had become his new habit to toss a piece of bread in Grouchy’s direction whenever he left.
Today, being a special breakthrough, he opened the jelly and dribbled some onto the bread. Then he re-sealed the bread and put the lids on the peanut butter and jelly. He put all of his food in the corner near the control panel.
Finally, he unplugged the blanket and stuffed it into the roll-top desk and closed the lid, there was a temperature difference in the air almost immediately.
He put on his coat and zipped it up and then put all of his dirty clothes into the backpack. The tablet got stuffed behind his back.
He looked at the over-sized clock on the wall. If there was a good thing about ‘pain days’ it was that he slept late. It was 1:45 in the afternoon. He thought maybe school would let out around the time he hit the mall, so there was a possibility he might run into Eric again.
He grabbed his pack and went down the stairs. He balled up the bread with the jelly-side in and pitched it toward Gourchy’s nest. There was no response this time. “Must be out for the afternoon,” Jonah thought. And he left.
When he got to the mall, he chose the center entrance. The bitter cold was washed away by the strong stream of warm air just inside the door. He unzipped his coat. Eric’s mother’s store would be to his left from here, so he chose to turn right. He figured Eric wouldn’t just materialize right after school; it would probably take some time to get over here. So he began his ritual window shopping by heading for the old end of the mall through the Promenade.
By the time he had made his way back around, he had admired an aluminum bat in the window of the sporting goods store, wondered who would wear any of the neon-colored outerwear at a women’s clothing store, and took his time looking over the covers of the new graphic novels on display at the comic-book store.
As he approached the Vineyard store, he saw Eric almost in the same spot as yesterday, playing something on his phone. Eric’s coat and backpack were on the floor.
Jonah took out his tablet as he walked up and then dropped himself on the bench next to Eric. “Hey,” he said as a greeting.
“Hey. What’s up?” Eric said back.
“Nothing.” Jonah replied. He tapped his tablet. “You playing?”
“Definitely.” Eric said with a smile.
Eric restarted his game and Jonah turned his on and they synched up on co-op. Jonah took off his coat.
It was an hour and fifteen minutes before either one of them looked up again. In that time, they were completely focused. Danger Man throwing what he could, Hell Kat leaping and bounding and scratching whatever got in the way. Both of the boys offered advice to the other, sometimes demanding action, most of the time talking over one another. There were many restarts.
Eric dropped out unexpectedly, ending the round. The moment ‘Game Over’ flashed across Jonah’s screen he looked up in surprise.
“You hungry?” Eric said.
“Yeah, but I only have like a buck on me,” Jonah said, fully aware it was a dollar and sixty-eight cents in his pocket.
“No problem,” Eric said with a wry smile. “That’s what moms are for.”
Eric stood and slid his phone in his pocket and then picked up his backpack and coat.
Jonah slid the tablet into the back of his jeans and put his coat on. He followed Eric into Vineyard.
The storefront had thin, fake vines snaking up the windows and forming an archway around the entrance, which went on above the door, where they ended at large brass letters that spelled out the store name.
Inside, there were more vines trimming the ceiling, with small leaves accenting the walls here and there. There was a slight smell of perfume in the air. It smelled girly.
There were rows and rows of clothing stands containing dresses and skirts of all sorts and colors. Lining the walls were cubby holes filled with different shirts and sweaters. The back of the store had taller racks filled with dresses.
The floor was made of some sort of gray cobblestone and the walls were painted a light green. Jonah had never been to a vineyard, but wondered if this is what one would look like, minus the racks of clothes.
Mrs. MacIntyre was behind the register pointing things out on a clipboard to one of the employees. Her frizzy hair was up once again, and held with what Jonah guessed, was the same pen as yesterday. She wore a black turtleneck sweater. The employee she was talking to wore a short black dress and long black boots with very high heels. She was listening intently and making notes.
Eric went behind the counter and dropped his backpack and coat unceremoniously against the wall. “Mom, can we have some money, I’m hungry.” He said, in almost a whine.
His mother ended her conversation with her employee by signing whatever was on the clipboard and handing it back to the girl. “Just see if we can order twenty-five of those to start. I don’t think they’ll let us, but see what they say.”
“Okay, I’ll see,” the employee girl said. When she turned to leave she said “Hi, Eric,” and ruffled his hair on her way by.
“Hi” Eric said exasperated, running his fingers back through his hair, pulling it straight down.
“And hello to you too,” Eric’s mom said and walked over and kissed him on the side of the head.
“Whatever,” Eric said and tried to separate from her, looking over at Jonah almost embarrassed.
His mother got the hint, no mothering in front of other teenagers. She went back over to the counter.
“Hello, Jonah,” she said with a warm smile. “How are you?”
“I’m fine, thanks Missus MacIntyre,” Jonah said, returning her smile.
She was clearly impressed with the boy’s manners. “Good,” she said. “And what are you boys up to?”
“We just want to go eat,” Eric said. “Can we have some money?”
She opened her purse that was under the counter and pulled out a twenty dollar bill. She handed it to Eric, but didn’t let go of it.
“What are you eating?” She asked.
“I don’t know,” Eric replied. “Fries or something, maybe a burger?”
“Just fries,” she said. “Taco dinner tonight,” she added as a reminder.
Eric huffed. “Fine,” he agreed.
“Did you do your homework?” She asked, this time looking at both of them.
“Mom.” Eric said, exasperated. “It’s Friday.”
“That’s no excuse. You can always get a head start, right Jonah?” She said.
“Yes, Missus MacIntyre,” Jonah replied. She smiled.
“Dude!” Eric said. “You don’t have to agree with her!” And he snapped the bill out of her clutches.
The last thing Jonah actually heard was the word Friday. He didn’t really pay attention to the last bit. It all of a sudden occurred to him that he really hadn’t kept track of what day it was, he was only keenly aware that days were passing. He hadn’t even bothered to look at the day listed on the welcome screen of the tablet. It just struck him as odd.
“C’mon,” Eric said. “Let’s go.”
Jonah turned to follow Eric out.
“Jonah,” Mrs. MacIntyre called. “Will your parents be okay with you snacking? I wouldn’t want to have them upset.”
“No, Mrs. MacIntyre.” Jonah answered. “I’m sure it’s fine.” Then he added “We eat pretty late.”
“Okay then.” She said.
The boys were practically out the door.
“Hey!” she called.
They both turned.
She was holding up Eric’s coat that she’d picked up off the floor and held it out in front of her.
Eric blew his long hair out of his eyes and trudged back to get his coat. He put it on.
“And eat inside. Not out,” she said.
“Duh!” Eric said. “It’s like twenty degrees out.” And then he walked out the door without looking back. Jonah followed.
They walked through the mall and opened the door to go out to the Promenade. It was extremely cold and the chilling wind seemed to whip around the open space. Jonah zipped his coat.
Eric pointed left. “Zabeggo’s has good regular fries,” he said, then pointed right. “But Dandy’s has cheese fries.” He kept pointing left and right, left and right, waiting for Jonah to decide.
“Cheese fries?” Jonah said.
“Good choice,” Eric said and headed right.
Almost every restaurant in the food court had a small indoor eating area. It was clear that the Promenade was built for people to sit outside, since there was much more space, but someone was smart enough to know that no one would brave mid-winter temperatures for cheese fries, although there were three people huddled around a heat lamp at the coffee place, which didn’t have an indoor option.
Dandy’s was kind of like Red’s Diner, where Jonah went for hot chocolate, except this place tried way too hard to be war-era retro. There were World War Two pictures on the wall among various 1940’s advertising posters and three American flags on three different walls. There were no booths and tables. The only indoor option was the lunch counter, which was, of course, striped in red, white and blue.
There were only two other people at Dandy’s and they appeared to be mall employees on a break. Both of them seemed to be eating fast.