"Hey, Watch it!" T.K. exclaimed as an old, stinky gym sock landed on his head. He had volunteered, or rather been blackmailed into helping Davis clean up the hazard zone he referred to as his bedroom. To T.K.'s horror, Davis had "accidentally" stumbled upon T.K.'s copy of The Babysitter's Club, entitled "No, Mr. Maxwell, Not Until I'm Married", in T.K.'s bedroom last time he'd come over. He'd used the book to bribe T.K. into "helping" him clean his war zone of a room, but so far T.K. was doing most of the work.
"Stop your whining, T.K.," Davis said as he swung the book back and forth, "we wouldn't want anyone to see this, now would we?" T.K. grunted and started to scrub up some bubbling slime that seemed to have a life of it's own. He looked over at Davis who had curled up in his bean bag chair and was captivated by the adventures of the Babysitters Club.
Several gruelling hours later...
"There," said T.K. with a grin on his face, "I'm...I mean we're finally done!"
"Not so fast," said Davis with a smirk. He pointed to the bed. "My mom said the whole room needed to be spotless, that includes under the bed."
T.K. frowned. "Do you really think she'll check, come on Davis, I'm sick of this! I've seen and smelled things today that would make most kids faint, or at the very least run for their lives! I'm out of here!"
"Nuh-uh, don't think so..." Davis said in a conniving voice, "not unless you want me to bring this book over to Kari's house so that she can see your name, in your hand writing, under 'This book belongs to:'. But, if that's what you want..."
"No! Anything but that!" T.K. shouted in terror. Davis pointed to the bed again and went back to reading. T.K. got to work.
About an hour later...
"Hey!" T.K. exclaimed, "Something feels kinda weird...well a lot of things feel strange under here, but this one feels sorta...familiar?" T.K. pulled the unidentified object out from under the bed.
"Hey! I've been wondering where that got to!" Davis said with delight.
"...what...what is it?" T.K. said examining the small, yellowish item.
"What? Are you blind?" Davis yelled, "It's a California roll, my favourite kind of sushi! Yum...crab eggs, avocado, crab, and the rest, all rolled up in seaweed and rice. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!" Davis eyed the putrid roll, "I wish I had a piece right now...hey T.K., how bad does it smell?"
"Are you serious?" T.K. exclaimed Never the less, he took a whiff "Ew, disgusting...how long has this been here?"
Davis thought about it for a moment, "I dunno, a few months, maybe longer...pass it over!"
"Okay, if that's what you want..." T.K. reluctantly passed over the festering sushi.
Davis inspected it for himself, "It doesn't look that bad...maybe sushi's like wine, you know, it gets better with age." Davis took one last look, he was really dying for a California roll, what's the worst that could happen? He popped it in, and swallowed.
T.K. looked on nervously, "Well...how is it? Davis? Are you okay?"
Davis stood still for a moment, seeing if the sushi had any, rather unpleasant side effects. After ten seconds, he decided he was fine, and went back to reading T.K.'s book. T.K. shrugged and got back under the bed.
Shortly...
"Okay Davis, I'm finally done cleaning your hell hole of a room! It actually looks like someone could survive in here now." T.K. turned around to face Davis, "What, no snide remark?...Davis?" T.K. inched closer, and pulled the book down from Davis' face. His eyes were closed. "How about that?" T.K. remarked, "Looks like the lazy bum fell asleep! What luck!" T.K. carefully stole the book from Davis' grasp, which was quite stiff, not as loose as T.K. had expected. T.K. didn't really care though, he was just happy to have his book out of his blackmailers hands. "Have a good sleep, you underhanded sleaze bag of a bastard!" He happily left Davis' house.
The next morning...
RING...RING...RING...
"Hold on, I'm coming! Don't hang up!" T.K. shouted as he ran towards the phone. "Hello? T.K. speaking!"
"Um...hi T.K., this is Davis' mother, um...T.K.?"
T.K. went over and started to pour some cereal into a bowl, "Yeah, what?"
"Um...was...was..my son still..." there was a pause and some strange sniffling noises on the other end, "was my son...still...um...still alive when you were over yesterday?"
T.K. stopped pouring the milk in the bowl, "um...yeah..."
"Oh...well, he's not anymore..." The person on the other end started to wail.
"Ha Ha Ha, yeah right." T.K. laughed, "I know this is you Davis! Do you really think I'm dumb enough to fall for the same 'Oh no, Davis is dead!' trick, twice?"
There was a pause on the other end, and the sobbing was louder this time, almost like more than one person was crying.
That's when T.K. started to worry, "Hello? Is this really...omigod!" T.K. dropped his bowl of Cheerios, " Davis is actually dead!? How? When? Please, you gotta tell me!" T.K.'s eyes started to fill with tears.
It took Davis' mother awhile to calm herself down long enough to speak, "I called him for breakfast...Davis likes to...eat early...he says it gives him more time to eat..." her voice wavered, "but, he never came to...he never came to the table... I... I went to go wake him...but he wasn't in bed...he was in his beanbag chair...I," there was a long pause, "I went to shake him, his body was," She broke into to tears, "his body was ice cold, so...cold. There's this strange yellow liquid...dripping from his mouth," She cried louder still, "the smell is horrible, like...rotten fish!" Davis' mother couldn't go on, all T.K. heard was a loud wail and the click of the phone.
T.K. stood there with the bowl of Cheerios smashed at his feet and his hand clinging to the phone. He had pieced together what had happened. "I killed him," T.K. thought, "I handed Davis the sushi that killed him..." He stood there in disbelief until Matt returned home hours later (Matt was visiting with T.K. and his Mom while his Dad was out of town).
"T.K.?" Matt said waving his hand in front of T.K.'s face, "Hello? Are you in there?"
"I...I killed Davis." T.K. said, still in shock.
Matt broke into laughter, "Omigawd! I can't believe how gullible you are, man! Davis pulled the same stunt on you last week! Bro, how dumb can you be?" He hit T.K. playfully.
"No Matt, this time it's true!" T.K. said in his defence, "He ate rotten sushi, I gave it to him, I killed him!"
Matt continued to laugh, "Rotten Sushi? Is that the story he's feeding you? Will you ever learn?" Matt grabbed his younger brothers arm, "Come on."
"Where are we going?" T.K. asked.
"Where else? To the world greatest liars house of course!" Matt said dragging T.K. along.
Matt and T.K. arrive at Davis' building...
"Okay," Matt said, "here we are! Do you see any ambulances? News vans? Concerned citizens?" As Matt finished his last sentence he did notice an ambulance parked around the back, "Probably nothing..." he thought.
That's when T.K., to his horror, spotted something. "Look!" He yelled, "A body bag is being loaded into that ambulance!"
Matt started to get concerned. He and T.K. rushed over. T.K. stopped running when he spotted Davis' bawling family huddled around the ambulance. T.K. fell to his knees. Matt was dumbfounded, he shrugged,"Oh...sorry T.K., I guess Davis actually is dead."He patted T.K. on the back and started home.
3 days later...
T.K. started home after Davis' funeral. As one of Davis' close friends, and because Ken was unable to speak, since hearing of Davis' departure, he was chosen to read the eulogy. He felt so guilty! He kept on thinking to himself, "I didn't deserve to read Davis' eulogy! If I'd have been any sort of friend, I'd have stopped him from eating that sushi! He'd be alive right now! It's all my fault! If only I hadn't had been so angry at him! My anger blinded my better judgement! Lord knows, Davis had to share my good judgement with me! If only I could go back and stop him, or at least let him know how sorry I am!" T.K. looked up at the evening sky, his eyes filled with tears, "I'm sorry," he whispered at first, he was filled with remorse, then he shouted into the wind, "I'm Sorry!" T.K. wiped his eyes and ran home.
That night...
T.K. got into bed, knowing that he would be unable to sleep for the third night in a row since Davis' early demise. He turned out the light and stared at the ceiling. "Dammit," T.K. muttered to himself, "why is this happening to me? What could I possibly have done to deserve having to live the rest of my life, with the weight of Davis' murder keeping me down. I'd give anything to close my eyes and make it all go back to the way it was. I just wish that I could be with Kari right now, but she's been acting weird towards me ever since the accident. I could really use her support right now...I really wish things were as they were!" For the sake of trying, T.K. closed his eyes, "Ok," he whispered, "I'm going to count to three and everything will be as it was! 1...2...3!" T.K.'s eyes popped open. To T.K.'s shock, all of his stuff was spinning around the room. He sat up and rubbed his eyes in disbelief. "What the...?" T.K. couldn't understand what was going on. Suddenly, T.K. heard a haunting voice. It was repeatedly saying his name.
"T.K...T.K...T.K...," It was getting louder.
"Okay," T.K. said trying to calm himself down, "I must have fallen asleep. All I gotta do is close my eyes and bring myself back to reality." T.K. pulled his Ranma ½ blanket over his head and closed his eyes tight. The noises stopped. Slowly, T.K. opened his eyes, he peeked out from under the colourful comforter.
"OOGA-BOOGA!" A huge scary face loomed over T.K.'s bed. T.K. tried to get up and run, but tripped and fell flat on his face, he scurried over to the corner like a spooked mouse. As quickly as it had appeared, the frightening face vanished.
Suddenly, he felt a strange feeling of isolation. He couldn't sense the presence of his "visitor" anymore. Never the less, T.K. tried to call out. His mouth was dry and his voice cracked at first. "Hel...Hello?" T.K. called into the empty room, "Is anyone there?" T.K. realized how dumb he must look, and how ludicrous the whole incident was. "This is so dumb!" T.K. thought, "All of this guilt and especially my lack of sleep is driving me mad!" T.K. stood up and brushed himself off. "Aw, crap..." T.K. looked down, his jammies were wet. Could his own hallucinations make him scared enough to saturate his P.J. bottoms? T.K. couldn't believe it, "I've never be scared enough to wet myself...something weird is going on here..." He changed into some dry Jimmie Jammies, and got back into bed. " I gotta get some sleep..." he thought, "I can't drive myself bonkers over Davis' death! It wasn't my fault, it wasn't..." But no matter how many times he repeated it to himself, he couldn't shake the overwhelming guilty feeling. Eventually though, T.K. did drift into a sleep filled with nightmares of the incident.
T.K.'s Nightmare...
T.K. finds himself standing in a grassy knoll surrounded by wild flowers. Suddenly, a soccer ball is appears in front of him. "Pass it back, T.K.!" a far off cheerful voice called. "Where are you?" T.K. calls across the wide open meadow. "Over here, T.K.!" The voice seems to surround T.K.. "Wait!" T.K. thinks, "I know that voice..could it be?" He calls out, "DAVIS! DAVIS! Is that you? Where are you? I can't see you!" The sun gets brighter and T.K. covers his eyes and squints to see over the horizon. "Wait..what's that?" T.K. sees a figure off in the distance. "Davis?" He begins to run. As he gets closer he can see that it is Davis in his soccer uniform. He's smiling at T.K. and says jokingly, "Hurry up T.K., I can't wait forever!" T.K. is smiling from ear to ear, as he starts to get closer to where Davis is standing, "I can't believe this, Davis, I thought you were...this is gonna sound dumb..but, I thought you were dead!" Davis started to laugh slowly the laugh seems to turn into choking. "T.K.!" Davis calls out, "T.K....I can't breathe...help me T.K.!" Davis collapses to the ground, suddenly the ground opens up around him. "It's...It's so cold T.K....why didn't you help me?...Why didn't you save me?" The ground closes up and engulfs Davis' quickly rotting body. A tomb stone drops from the sky and plants itself on Davis' grave. It reads, 'Here lies DAVIS, Cause of Death: Rancid Sushi from the hand of Trusted Friend T.K.' T.K. starts to dig his fingers into the freshly laid soil. "I'm coming Davis, I won't let you die, not again, not again!"
T.K. wakes up with a thud as he falls off the bed. The morning sun light streams in through the slotted blinds . He is enveloped in a cold sweat and it takes him a few seconds to calm down. "Of all the weeks for Patamon to take a vacation to the Digiworld..." That's when T.K. realizes something, "Omigawd! Veemon! He's in the Digiworld too! He doesn't know, no one told him." T.K. stands up, "I can't concern myself with that now...there's something unsettling about what happened last night, maybe I should go see a doctor..."
That afternoon at the 'Anything Goes Mental Clinic'...
"T.K. Takashi, Dr. Chichiri will see you now." The nurse leads T.K. into the doctors office.
"Thank you." T.K. says as she leads him in.
"The doctor will be right in." She says as she shuts the door.
"Never thought I'd have to see a shrink..." T.K. thought, "If you told me last week that I'd have gone nuts in 7 days, I would of said you were crazy!"
The door opened abruptly, snapping T.K. out of his thoughts. A man entered. He was tall, muscular, yet quite slender. His hair style was quite unique, buzz cut, except for some sharp long bangs sticking up in the front, and a ponytail down the back. Across his left eye was a scar, and his left eye remained closed, leading T.K. to believe he'd lost it in an incident, but he decided not to inquire about it. His attire was not like most doctors, for instance he wore prayer beads around his neck. Needless to say, this was one strange looking shrink!
"Are you Dr. Chichiri?" T.K. inquired.
"Yes, That's me. Please, call me Chichiri!" the doctor replied.
T.K. went over and sat in a big luxurious chair. Dr. Chichiri sat across from him.
"What brings you to me Takeru? I need to know what happened in order to treat you, you know?"
T.K. told Dr. Chichiri the whole story of how Davis died, last nights apparition, and about his nightmare.
"Um-hum..." Dr. Chichiri said after T.K. had finished, "I see...losing a friend can be very upsetting and unsettling, Takeru. It is hard to move on, especially when you feel you are the one who snatched his life away, you know?"
T.K. hung his head, "Yeah..."
"Feeling your friends presence is very natural, you think that if you pretend he's still with you, it will be like he's not gone, you know?
T.K. looked up, "I don't know Doc, I don't think I made it happen..."
"Only a short time has passed since your friends departure, you have not yet let yourself heal. Until you truly think that Davis has forgiven you, you will forever be haunted by him...theoretically speaking of course, you know?"
"Yeah...I guess you're right."
"I will prescribe something to help you sleep better and also something for the depression. Things will seem better after you're pumped full of drugs, you know?"
"No, I don't need drugs!" T.K. said standing up, "I'll be fine without them!"
"Calm yourself Takeru, at least take the sleeping sedates, you cannot function much longer without rest, you know?"
"Fine."
"Please, don't hesitate to come see me again...In fact, if these dreams do not cease within a week, I insist you come see my immediately. No need to suffer in silence Takeru, you know?"
T.K. got up and thanked the good doctor Chichiri, for his excellent guidance. He took the prescription from the pharmacy on his way out. "Strange man," T.K. thought, "but his advice was good. Until I get over this...I can't live a normal life. It's time to start down the road to recovery!" T.K. smiled, and said aloud, "First stop..,THE KAMIYA RESIDENCE!"
T.K. begins to walk towards the bus terminal, on his way he picks up some flowers for Kari. "Can't arrive empty handed!" He thinks to himself. T.K. gets to the station, and wait for his bus. As he is waiting, an old crippled lady came and sat on the bench next to him. She grinned at T.K.
"Hello sonny, those flowers for your girlfriend?"
T.K. nodded, "Yup, I'm on my way to see her right now!"
"Ah, to be young and in love, I can still remember my first love, Ronald...I believe his last name was Mc Donald. What a head of hair that young man had. He could turn the world on with his smile...yes...I wonder what ever became of that boy..."
T.K. stared blankly at the woman, "She must be senile." He thought. So he just smiled and nodded at the lady.
"You're a very nice young lad to listen to me," the lady said with a smile, "not many young'uns show me the kindness and respect you are. Your girlfriend is a very lucky lady."
Suddenly, the old lady lurched backwards into the bench quite violently. T.K. tried to grab her before she hit the back of the bench.
"Are you okay miss?" T.K. said with a concerned look on his face.
She was silent.
"Are you alright?" T.K. repeated.
"Jus...Just fine sonny boy," the lady finally replied, "you're such a soo-per little boy, let me give you something."
"Oh, that won't be necessary..." T.K. protested.
"No, no..." the old woman persisted, "I insist.' With that the old lady grabbed her cane and wacked T.K. over the head.
*CRACK*
"OOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!" T.K. wailed, "Whatcha do that for???"
He turned to face the lady, but she was gone. T.K. got off the floor, just in time to see his bus zoom off in to the distance.
"Oh, shit!" T.K. exclaimed, "The next bus won't be along until...when will the next bus be along?"
That's when T.K. saw a business man approaching. On his way, he tripped. T.K. thought it was rather odd because it looked almost as though someone or something had plowed into him. Nevertheless, T.K. ran over to help him up.
"Are you okay, sir?"
"*cough*cough*Get off me T...I mean...um...yes..." The man stood up and brushed himself off. Then he asked, "Did I hear you ask when the next bus would be along?"
T.K. nodded. He was a little shocked, the man was quite a ways away when he had asked that...T.K. laughed to himself, "Maybe this guy is the real Superman!"
"Well," the man said, "I gotta tell ya, that was the last bus going that way today. Tough luck, kid."
"Are you sure?" T.K. asked, he looked at his watch, "It's only 3:00 in the afternoon! How are people suppose to get home from work?"
"That's their problem...gotta go!" The business man dashed off. In mid-dash, he was thrown forward. After righting himself, he looked around, and walked off scratching his head.
"Weird guy...that's the second weirdo I've met today!" T.K. thought, rubbing his head where the bump was growing. "Well, no point in sticking around here, might as well go home." He looked down at the flowers in his hand, "Guess these are for Mom!" He said. He heard a far off laugh.
Later, at T.K.'s house...
"T.K.," T.K.'s mother said with delight, "this is so sweet of you! But...shouldn't you give these to..." Suddenly, T.K.'s mom was thrown backwards into a kitchen chair.
"Mom!" T.K. yelled, "Are you okay?"
"Of course I'm okay you worthless brat...I mean, thanks for the flowers son, I'm so glad you gave them to me, instead of that Kari girl."
"Um...you're welcome, mom...how'd you know they were originally for Kari?"
" Don't you think a mother, that's me, know's what her kid is up to? Anyway, I'd like you to stay away from Kari, you need to focus on your schoolwork!"
T.K. stared at his mother blankly, "But ma, it the summer, I'm on a break..remember?"
"Um...that's no reason to put your studies on hold. Go to your room right now and read over all your textbooks from the past year of school! And that's a freakin' order T.A!"
"What'd you call me?"
"Um...T.K. of course, don't you think I know my own sons name! Now march!"
T.K. stormed into his room and slammed the door. He heard a pot crash to the floor in the other room. He ran out of his room.
"Are you okay, Mom?"
"Yes...it's the weirdest thing...wasn't I just talking to you?"
"...yeah, you told me to go to my room and study."
"I did? Why would I say a thing like that? It's your summer break! I've been working too hard, I think I'll go take a nap! Would you order dinner, T.K.?"
"Sure mom, you just go lie down. I can take care of everything!" T.K. said putting on a smile. But his mind was racing, "What's going on here? Three strange incidents in under an hour? Something is definitely up! Maybe it's somehow linked to the Digiworld! I should alert the others!" T.K. reached for the phone, then he pulled his hand away, "Wait a sec, calm down, T.K. I'm overreacting! Their gonna think I'm nuts! Putting an alert out just because people have been acting strangely towards me..." T.K. laughed, "It's ridiculous!"
T.K. ordered some North American food and turned on the T.V. The evening news was on, really boring stuff, like the local bakery running out of flour. While awaiting the delivery of his greasy paper bag, chock-full of artery clogging goodies, his thoughts turned to Kari.
"I haven't had a chance to talk to Kari since the funeral," he thought, "I gotta see her, I don't want her to suffer alone...although, it's strange that she hasn't tried to contact me. What if she blames me for the whole thing? She'd never talk to me again! I couldn't live with myself knowing that I was causing Kari so much suffering! I gotta call her!" T.K. started to get up to go to the phone, when suddenly he heard a voice yell, "Stop!"
T.K. spun around, it was the newscaster on T.V. T.K. was kinda scared at this point, he couldn't help wondering, "Can...can he see me?"
The newscaster continued, "Stop calling girls whose names begin with the letter K! Studies show that this builds up an excessive amount of radiation, which we all know leads to cancer!" Then the news man added under his breath, "Thank you, ER! Guess I actually learned something more than blood and guts are really cool!" Abruptly the picture was cut and the technical difficulties screen went up. It was a picture of a duck repeatedly hitting itself over the head with a remote control. "Too violent," T.K. thought, as he turned off the T.V. That's when the door bell rang. "Kari?" T.K. wondered as he headed over to the door.
He opened it quickly, "Kari?" T.K. said with excitement.
"That'll be 1750 yen!" The grotesquely overweight, bald delivery man said.
"Yeah, yeah..." T.K. mumbled as he went to go fetch the money. Needless to say, it wasn't quite who he was hoping for. "I'll call Kari right after dinner..." He thought.
Suddenly, there was a crashing sound at the door. "Wha.....?" T.K. said as he spun around. The delivery guy was still standing at the door, he had a goofy smile on his face.
"So, where's da money kid? Or ares jou just gonna stares ats me all day?!" The delivery man inquired.
"That's funny..." T.K. thought, "I don't remember the delivery guy sounding like Archie Bunker from All in the Family..." He shrugged and went back to searching his mom's purse for the money.
"PAH-TU-IE!"
T.K. turned around, "What was that?"
"Whats was whats?" The delivery guy asked innocently. That's when T.K. noticed a small line of dribble coming from his mouth.
"Did...Did you just spit in my food?" T.K. asked in shock.
The delivery man fell backwards into the door frame.
T.K. repeated himself, this time more angry than shocked, "I'm asking did you or did you not just spit into the bag of food?"
The delivery man got back on his feet and stared blankly at T.K. "Well, are you going to get the money to pay or not?"
"Huh?" T.K. said, "What happened to your accent?"
" Accent?" The delivery man looked puzzled, "you could tell I have a hint of a British accent just by my saying, 'That'll be 1750 yen?'"
"British?" Now T.K. was puzzled, "It was a New Yorker accent and you said a whole lot more than that! Not to mention that you spit in my food!"
"Listen, kid," The delivery man said, "I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about! I have a lot more food to deliver tonight! Do you want yours or not?"
"What's going on here?" T.K. thought.
"That food has been spat in, so I refuse to buy it!" T.K. said.
The delivery man grabbed a burger out of the bag. "Fine! More for me!" With that he took a bite and left.
T.K. stood there staring at the open door. "That's the...1...2...3...4...5th strange thing to happen today! And there are all very similar..."
"T.K.!" His mom yelled from her room, " Was that the delivery man at the door? I'm starving and your brother will be home any minute for supper!"
"EK!" T.K. thought, "I just sent our dinner away!"
"Um... I changed my mind mom!" T.K. yelled back, "I...I really want to make something for dinner tonight!"
There was silence from the other room, "Uh...T.K.? Honey? Sweetie? You...Can you cook?"
T.K. stared at the intimidating kitchen, "Yeah!" He yelled. Then he said under his breath, "How hard can it be?"
Can T.K. cook? Will he discover what all theses strange happening's mean? Tune in next time for the next section of inexplicably hilarious antics!