Take a Break.
Arnold wakes up one morning to see that he is now an adult but can't remember anything after the fourth grade. He is now in his thirties, he has kids, a job and most shocking of all, he is married to his old tormentor Helga G. Pataki, and his parents are BACK.
Note: This is not my first language, and I am still practicing my English. Please notify me if you find a very serious error. Anyway, it will be edited for a better reading.
DISCLAIMER: I do not have the rights to the story (FlowerPrincess11) or the characters (Craig Bartlett).
CHAPTER ONE:
Weird awakening
Arnold, with his eyes closed, listened to the soft sound and comfort of a Jazz. He remembered that tune. Dino Spumoni sang that song for his school dance and smiled when he thought how well it all turned out, despite the little faith that Helga and the rest of his classmates had at first.
Arnold listened to the alarm on the clock radio, interrupting the song that was playing.
The preteen thought, a few minutes, to get up, but he felt so comfortable that he believed his grandfather wouldn't mind if he slept a little longer. That day, it would be a good Saturday to relax from the problems his friends were getting him into.
He was falling back into sleep when a pair of arms (which he had not noticed) wrapped him tightly for his back. He opened his frightened eyes and immediately realized that he did not know where he was. It was a room he had never been in before.
The person owns these arms tightly narrows him to the point of almost breathless.
Arnold was completely paralyzed by fear. He listened to the gentle sigh of the person who was settling his head on his back. What was going on? Because he was in an unknown room? And how did he get to that place?
"Arnold, my love. If you loved me as much as you usually say, you would turn off the alarm and let us sleep a little more" said the voice he recognized from a woman. He heard her emit a soft sigh and assumed that she had fallen asleep.
Did that person know him? He took a deep breath to calm down and even he accepted the request to turn off the alarm that had awakened them.
"Thank you, my love". Said the voice he recognized from a woman. He heard her emit a soft sigh and assumed that she had fallen asleep.
Arnold thought that the best he could do was find a way out of that situation, although that would not be so easy because the woman's arms were firmly pressed around his body.
The boy tried one, two, three times to escape, but before trying a fourth time, he heard the voice of the woman that was on his back.
"Do you need to go to the bathroom?"
Arnold could have sworn she had fallen asleep, but listening to her speak, he took advantage of quickly nodding to use her question as an excuse to escape.
"Heck. You would have said it before. "The woman yawned, released him from his grip and then rolled to the opposite side." Now, be a good boy and let me sleep ... "
the preadolescent under the bed with care.
He realized, at that moment, that he was occupying only one corner of the mattress and that the woman who had been hugging him ... Now he was on his stomach hugging a pillow, she was covered to the shoulders with blankets and could only see her long, shiny blond hair.
Arnold shook his head, thinking he was in a truly strange situation and tried to think about what he had done yesterday. But he did not remember anything other than that he was in detention thanks to the bad joke that Harold, Sid, and Stinky had made on principal Wartz.
Everything was very strange for the boy and with every second that passed, he had more questions and no answer.
Calm down Arnold, you will not achieve anything if you do not take things easy. He said to himself, again, not wanting to admit that he was beginning to feel nervous and tried to move towards the door, but tripped before reaching the exit.
Arnold looked quickly towards the bed and sighed calmly when the woman did not show signs of being awake.
Why am I wearing clothes that are too big for me? He wondered when he noticed the long blue striped pants and the white tank top, both of which were too long for him.
The boy has no choice but to adjust the cord of the waist of his pants to prevent them from falling and bending the legs to avoid stumbling; with the shirt, he could not do much. Once he was ready on tiptoe to the door, he was about to turn the doorknob when his curiosity got to him, and he returned to the woman who was sleeping soundly in the bed.
As soon as he saw her, he realized how much that woman looked like Cecile - rather the fake Cecile -because as she did not know her real name she had no choice but to keep thinking about her by the name of his pen pal. She was very pretty and seemed as sweet as he remembered her, although it was impossible that she was the same person because Cecile was a girl of her same age while this woman was an adult, maybe they were family? Arnold asked himself not very convinced.
After a few long minutes of staring at the woman, Arnold, he decided that he had already lost a lot of time there and that once and for all he had to find out what was happening because even though he thought about it, he did not understand how he had arrived. Until that place and with the need for answers, Arnold, left the room closing gently behind him, but never expect to find that he was in one of the corridors of the boarding house.
What was happening?
Because of course, the place seemed like the pension, however, at the same time it was not.
The floor was no longer made of old wood, now it was a bright parquet that sparkled impeccably, the walls were also completely new, the ceiling was painted white which made it look taller, all the doors seemed to have been renovated recently and now just that ... the room he had been sleeping in was the one that belonged to Mr. Hyun, but it was very different from the last time he was there.
His mind tried to find some answer, but unfortunately he could not come up with anything logical because it was impossible that they had made all these changes overnight, and he had no choice but to think that he was in some kind of strange dream, although he was not he was totally convinced because he was never conscious of dreaming when he was.
Arnold still feeling very confused walked up the stairs (which also seemed like new) that led to his room, but before he could step on the first step the small noise of what he recognized as a baby came to his ears.
The sound came from the room of Mr. Kokoshka. The boy thought that it was most likely that it was the baby Oscar who should be visiting the pension again and tried to continue on his way, but when he did not listen to any adult and knew Oscar Kokoshka ... he decided that he would quickly check the room to make sure the baby was not alone.
Arnold walked towards the door that was ajar and with a soft push entered.
Phillip R. Shortman (Phil for friends) is the oldest son of Arnold and Helga, is nine years old and goes to the fourth grade in P.S. 118. He is an honest, reliable, fun and above all a born leader. In general, he is a very well-behaved boy who does not hesitate to defend his friends and explore new adventures in his neighborhood.
Three months ago he became an older brother of twins. He loves his little sisters from the moment his parents first introduced them to the hospital and that is why he begged his mom and dad to have a communicator in his room for when his sisters needed him.
He heard the small noise of one of his little sisters and I hope to hear the voice of some of his parents, but by not doing so, he thought it was a good time to show that he was the best of the brothers.
Phil got up excited about the idea. The boy quickly changed his clothes and adjusted the hat he had inherited from his father and which he always wore proudly over his head.
He opened the door of his room and down the stairs to the second floor of the former guest house, however, when he was halfway there he saw an unknown shadow enter the room of the babies.
The boy steeled himself, climbed quickly and searched among his things the toy gun that his grandmother had given him preparing to defend his sisters from all evil.
Arnold again could not believe what his eyes saw, what was once the room of Mr. Kokoshka's now was a beautiful baby room beautifully decorated with toys, white curtains, light colored furniture and in the middle of a whole pair of cribs twins with two beautiful girls with golden hair who smiled at him with their toothless mouth.
He approached slowly until he faced those who looked like two porcelain dolls, although that was not what caught his attention it was the unusual color of his eyes ...
Phillip entered slowly, with his gun in hand, into the baby's room watching the stranger look attentively at his sisters.
The dwarf was in the back light and only managed to see his silhouette, which became strangely familiar to him and even though he might know him, but seeing him extend his hand towards one of the babies he was not allowed to doubt.
"Raise your hands right now if you don't want me to blow your head off, buddy."
Arnold was startled to hear the voice of the one he recognized as a child and although he was still not sure what was going on, he raised his arms to let him understand that he had no bad intentions.
"Listen to this is a misunderstanding, I just..."
"Silence" whisper not wanting to scare his sisters." I am the one asking the questions here." The boy pointed to his broad head thinking that somehow that way became strangely familiar to him.
The preteen stood still when he heard the sound of the gun and swallowed scared because it couldn't be real? Right?
"And if you try to do something strange, do not doubt that you can not get out of this place well," he said in a threatening tone.
Helga woke up in fear when she realized she had fallen asleep, but immediately felt relieved to realize that her husband was not by her side, and although she loved that his face was the first thing she saw when she woke up, she also missed sleep a couple of hours in a row.
The young woman relaxed on the pillows listening to the soft little noise that her little babies were making and waited patiently until the murmur of the door told her that they were no longer alone but with her dad who was going to try to convince them to start talking again. That thought made Helga smile because Arnold was so funny.
The mother feeling tired and lethargic by sleep was about to fall asleep again before her daughters needed to feed, when she heard Phillip's voice through the communicator and immediately realized that something was not right because her son sounded scared and a second voice not recognized as that of her husband spoke, however, that gentle voice like honey filled her with nostalgia and somehow relaxed her telling her that everything was fine.
Arnold swallowed spit trying to decide how he had gotten into that situation, but he understood that the boy behind him only wanted to defend the girls who were in his cribs from a stranger and although he was also worried he decided to take a chance and try to reason with the boy.
"Can we talk? I promise you I will not do anything strange "he said calmly, trying somehow to instill confidence.
Phillip hesitated to let the intruder speak, but his father always taught him the importance of giving people a chance, and the boy did not seem to be someone strong enough to kidnap his sisters.
"Okay, but if you try something ..."
"Something strange will you shoot? "He finished the sentence of the child "I understand and I promise you that I will not do anything. I just want to talk, can I?"
"It's okay. I'll listen to you, but do not think I'm gullible enough to swallow any lie you can think of inventing. "
"Thanks and promise you that I am an honest person, " he said while thinking about how to convince him of something that he did not understand.
"Look, I understand that you're scared ..." Arnold began to say.
"Scared, I'm not scared," he interrupted.
"It's okay, you're not scared, but I am, I do not understand what's happening or how I get to this place."
"How can you not know?" He asked incredulously and said accusingly:"I saw you as you entered this room, nobody forced you"
"Yes, it's true, I enter this room by my own feet, but I do not know how I get to this place and with that I mean this house ..."
Phillip narrowed his eyes thinking that at any moment one of his parents would approach the room and until one of them arrived it would be good to keep him entertained.
Arnold knew that his story sounded absurd to the boy, but still he kept trying.
" Imagine going to your room tired after school with the only desire to sleep late and out of nowhere to wake up in a place you do not know, but it is very similar to your home."
" Do you realize how strange it sounds what you're saying?"
"I know, but I do not know what else to tell you. I promise you that's the truth I do not even know how all this is possible because somehow your house looks a lot like my grandparents' pension."
"The pension of your grandparents?" Phillip repeated, unable to help himself.
"Yes, my grandparents. Everyone knows them and also the pension they own."
"This house used to be a boarding house when my father was a boy and there is no other place in these places. You have not mistaken the house?"
Arnold thought that perhaps if this was not a dream maybe he had just made a mistake at home, but was that possible? Although he could not forget that he had had a very bad week being in detention with principal Wartz, the constant threats of Harold, Sid and Stinky, and of course he could not forget Helga. Maybe ... maybe the mixture of all those things had made him go wrong and enter a house that was not his and although it sounded strange was the only possible answer that occurred to him.
"You know? Maybe you're right and yesterday I was so tired and somehow I went into this house ... "he said, not sure of his words." I'm really sorry for the confusion and now if you lower your weapon I'll call my grandfather to come for me."
"Okay, but I'll make the call."
"Well, I think it's fair, If you look in the phone book you will find the Sunset Arms number."
" Su-Sunset A-Arms?"
"Yes, my grandfather is Phillip Shortman, and I am Arnold Shortman," he replied, turning the boy who looked at him in surprise face to face.
"D-Dad?"
To be continued...
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