This is one of those terrible ideas someone thinks up in the shower. I wouldn't normally write it, but it was pretty cute. Plus compared to my writer's block in Unseen Boy, this is like a breath of fresh air. It's kind of sad, kind of cute, and kind of terribly written. I hope you like it. Disclaimer: Don't own anything.
A Walk in the Park
I wince at every bump in the road. My hands feebly grip the seat of the car as we zoom forward. I make sure to push myself back when I see the stop sign in the distance. As predicted the stop is abrupt. Then we take off like a racecar. My driver is apologizing profusely. I do my best to give him a reassuring smile. When the park finally comes into view I can't stop a small sigh of relief from forcing its way past my lips. I tell the mortified boy to put on his right turn signal and pull up to the curve. He does so haphazardly before finally putting the car in park. The apologies flow out of his mouth once again like a broken record. I turn to look at him. His violet eyes are wide in worry and his hair is being ruffled by his nervous fingers. I simply pull him into a hug and tell him how much better he got since we last drove. We exit the car and walk shoulder to shoulder into the park. When his friends come into view I give him a small kiss on the cheek. He smiles warmly before running off.
My legs take me where I want to go almost robotically. Maybe I've become a bit too routine recently. Oh well. It's not like I mind this routine all too much. My feet ache a bit by the time I reach the fountain. I sit on the edge and relieve them of their cages. Now that I'm barefoot and comfortable I swing my bag up onto the ledge next to me. My hands blindly probe and pry into the dark recesses of my Mary Poppins-like bag until they manage to connect with a familiar shape. I grab on like a claw machine gripping its prize and carefully remove my arm from the bag. I place the retrieved object on my lap and just gaze at it for a moment. Its edges are worn and patches of its cover has become threadbare. I gingerly thumb through the prologue until I land on the dog-eared page marked at the top with a small 1.
I'm not sure how many times I've read this book, but I know for sure this won't be my last. I enjoy the cloth-like pages as they flip under my scrutiny. The bright sun stretches over head until it hits the very peak of its ascendance. I revel in the warmth for a bit before immersing myself once again into the twists and turns of my favorite story. That is, until a large bang resounds in the distance. I extract my mind from the plot and fold the corner of my page. I set the novel aside and attentively look for the noise's source.
A laser of neon light shoots through the air before blasting its way into a nearby tree. Seconds later the shooter itself hits the scene. I roll my eyes at the theatrics of this familiar villain. The sun glares off his armor and his hair flares up into the sky. His green eyes seem to be trying to penetrate the air for his invisible target.
"Welp! Show yourself!" His cry is desperate. This fight is as worn as the book by my side. But I stare nonetheless. I need to see him. I need to look at him. I need him to look at me. But I know he won't. He never does. A green blast shoots into Skulker. Then he appears. The allusive Phantom. His youthful face is marred by a glare. He doesn't make a quip. He doesn't make a sound. He just fires another blast. Then another. Concentrated ecto-energy rains down on his enemy.
It hurts me to see Phantom. He only has eyes for ghosts. He sees them and battles them without saying so much as a word. There was a time when he would look at the people too. He would make sure none were hurt. He would leave them with a phrase or two of comfort. He would even sign autographs when he was in the mood. But now the only people he looks at are the ones directly in danger. If a ghost was using them as a hostage he would set them free. If an ecto-blast was making its way in a person's direction he would swoop down and save them. But he would never say a word to them. And he would never look at me. I am that background character that's only purpose is to watch. I hold no significance for him. So he will never give me so much as a passing glance, or a thrown away word.
I've been coming to the park for a long time with the same purpose. This purpose being that the fights that occur here almost daily could possibly involve me. And in that case maybe I could finally look into his eyes. Maybe he could hear me out. Or maybe he would even says something. I would do anything just to hear his voice again. But today the only eye contact I seem to be making is with Skulker. His gaze bores into mine until there's a click. Somewhere in the shell of his armor, passed the goopy ectoplasm of his body, a light goes off. Recognition. He recognizes me. A wicked smile stretches across his false face. He laughs in what I can only imagine to be glee. Now he's flying at me faster than a bullet train. I grip my book against my chest for protection. I close my eyes and prep for impact just as I had throughout my car ride here.
The ghost doesn't hit me in the front as I had expected it to. Instead I find arms wrapped around me from the side. I'm pressed against the chest of something cold and soft. Soft… So it can't be armor. My eyes fly open and look straight into the radioactive green pools of Him. My Phantom. The concern on his face is reminiscent of, but far more amplified than that of my driver. I give him the reassuring smile that I couldn't quite make genuine in the car. He pulls me closer to him. I bring my hand up to his face and feel wet tears dripping down his cheeks.
"Hello again," I whisper. His body is shaking with sobs.
"Hello again," he hoarsely murmurs into my hair. We soar through the clouds invisible for much further than we need to go. Skulker won't be able to find us, but we keep going. We eventually land under our tree on our hill at the edge of town. He looks me over to make sure I'm okay, and I do the same to him. "I've seen you. Everyday I've seen you." The emotion in his voice surprises me. After all this time I wasn't sure if he still cared.
"I've missed you, Danny. I…" He's kissing me. To an outsider this would look wrong. I know it's wrong, but it feels so right. I pull away reluctantly. "Please don't leave me again. I can't bare seeing you like this." He clenches his eyes shut and ruffles his snow white hair with nervous fingers.
"Sam… you know why I can't. It just hurts so much. Losing Jazz suffocated me. Losing Tucker drowned me. Losing you…" I pull him into an embrace. My fingers run through his hair. I shush him quietly.
"Danny." He looks at me desperately. His youthful face is a painful reminder of just what that portal accident took. I can't finish what I wanted to say. We sit in silence for an unprecedented amount of time. After a while he scoops up my book that had long since been forgotten next to us. He takes one look at the title and laughs.
"Tuck Everlasting?" He throws me a wry smile. "How appropriate." I laugh too. It feels nice to smile for a change.
"I don't know why, but I really connect to it on a personal level." He barks out another laugh.
"I wonder why." He then stands up and floats up the tree. He sticks his hand into a hole in the trunk and comes back with another book. He drops it in my lap unceremoniously. Now it's my turn to laugh.
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button?" He puts on his best poker face and parrots what I said.
"I don't know why, but I really connect to it on a personal level." We lie back on the grass and cloud gaze together. He tells me of all his adventures he had without me. And I tell him about our ever-growing family. He tells me about how he snuck into our son's wedding. I tell him about how our grandson is learning how to drive. When the exhausted sun begins sinking below the horizon, I remember that I meant to meet Aaron, our grandson, by the fountain. The poor boy still needs an instructor to drive home so I can't just skip out on him. Danny flies me to the meeting point and we wait together for Aaron's arrival.
"Sam," Danny says suddenly. I turn towards him. "I think you're right. I can't just check out of humanity. I can't just pretend I don't love you or you don't exist. I feel so stupid for wasting all these years we could have been together just to avoid the pain of losing you. All this time apart made the pain more apparent. It made it more real. And I can't do it anymore." He kisses me once again in the dying light of the day. "I'm going to stay by your side until the end. That's a promise." He strokes the tears off my withered face before fading from sight.
Aaron sprints to the fountain in a panic. He is apologizing once again. His anxious expression tells me how terribly he feels for losing track of time. I simply hook arms with him and walk him back to the car. I wonder if he notices my other arm jutted out to the side, hooked with the arm of an ageless boy. Leading him home.
For anyone whom is reading my other story (Unseen Boy), I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I tried for a third time to write another chapter last night and it came out as crap. I'll do it eventually. But for now I hope this wasn't too terrible to read. Have a nice rest of your day!