FRIDAY THE 13TH THE SERIES FANFIC "LITTLE KING"
Chapter 1: The Letter Time Never Forgot
Curious Goods stood proudly on a bright sunny morning. It had been a few days since anyone called in about an object, and weeks since anyone answered their mailer. Sun dust floated and danced around Micki's window in her bedroom. She rolled over in bed and sighed heavily to herself. Suddenly there was a small tap at her door. She sat up quietly, and whispered;
"It's open."
Jack opened the door and smiled at her. Micki smiled back. Jack then gestured toward the stairs and then pointed at Ryan who was still sound asleep. Micki grinned widely and sprung from the bed. She got dressed rather quickly and met Jack at the bottom of the stairs.
"I was beginning to think we'd never get the chance to do this." Micki said with a smile and pulled her hair out of her jacket. Jack only put one finger to his lips.
"If we don't be quiet we might not get the chance, now let's hurry." Jack said in a soft voice. "Come on...Come on." He whispered and waved his hand. He allowed Micki to step down the steps to the front door first and even opened the door for her. The bell hit the wood of the door ever so quietly as they snuck out. Micki laughed as she got in the car. Jack drove as Micki rode in the passenger side of the Mercedes. Jack looked at her, and Micki smiled.
"Did you get the list?" He asked promptly.
Micki reached into her purse and took out a piece of notebook paper.
"Right here..." She said and held the paper up.
"Good." Jack uttered. Micki scanned the paper and sighed to herself.
"What's the matter?" Jack replied glancing back forth between her and the road.
"It's just... I don't know what he'll think about all this?"
"He'll be surprised I'm sure." Jack answered.
"No Jack...I mean I don't think Ryan's had a real birthday party before."
"Well if he hasn't, let's make this one the best yet." Jack grinned. Micki smiled back. While at the market Micki looked through dozens and dozens of cards. Jack walked up behind her pushing a shopping cart.
"Find him a card yet Micki?"
"These are all very nice, but..."
"None can tell him how you really feel?"
"Exactly."
Jack gave out a laugh.
"You know there was a better way back in my time Micki, it's called a pencil and paper... you can write him whatever you want."
Micki looked through the cards again and looked at Jack.
"Jack..."
"Yes Micki?"
"Ryan told me once... that one year on his birthday his father wrote to him..."
"Yes?"
Micki turns toward Jack.
"It was the day he started college, Freshman year..." Micki begins. As Micki remembers the story, she reflects to the night Ryan told it to her. Ryan sits at the kitchen table sketching a hand holding another hand. Micki stands over him looking down at his drawing.
"You know this was the first sketch I made in art class...it was the first one when I first started college back in the Fall of 85'...my Freshman year." Ryan proclaimed.
"You remember your first sketch in college?" Micki asks.
"Sure... just like everyone else can remember small details of their first time in college...about how lost as a goose they were... trying to figure out where everything was... how you had to run building to building just to find your advisor and get a straight answer."
As she sits down next to him she clasps her hands together and places them under her chin.
"I'm lucky I guess...most of my professors were in the same set of offices." Micki replies.
"Yeah, well...that's not why I remember this sketch."
"Was it hard for you to draw?"
Ryan looks down and looks at his pencil.
"I...No...I could sketch anything you sat in front of me...literally anything."
Micki stares at him listening intently.
"But this..."
Ryan sighs.
"What's the matter?"
"Nothing...just... old wounds I guess."
"Meaning?"
"Well...not only was this the first sketch I did on the first day... that first day was my birthday."
"Ooo how exciting." Micki replies with a large grin.
"It wasn't that exciting...but..."
Ryan sighs again and looks down at the drawing. As he looks down the kitchen table morphs into a desk. Ryan begins to narrate that day.
"Class let out, and I went back to my dorm... and they had these mailboxes on the walls out front, one for each student that lived in the dorm.
19-year old Ryan stops and stares at the mailboxes.
"There was a letter in my box, I thought one of my brothers at Sigma Pi, were pulling a prank on me or something."
"Hey Dallion!"
Ryan looks up from staring deeply at the letter. A handsome young man, with dark brown hair, wearing a cream-colored faded bomber jacket, with the letters "ILLINI" on the back walks up to him.
"Danny?!"
Ryan smiles at him.
"I didn't expect to see Danny there, I thought he was just gonna get his GED and start a rock band or something."
"How you been man, haven't seen you since May!"
"Great, Danny, and yourself?"
"Awesome, check it out."
Danny pulls out several slips of paper from his pocket.
"All of em' belong to the girls over at Zeta." Danny whispers as he leans in really close to Ryan.
"What no way!?" Ryan says with almost a laugh. "How did you get those?"
"You can get anything you want when you're wearing this awesome jacket." Danny explains and gestures toward his jacket. "Women think I'm a big football star or something."
"That's great, look...listen I got to head to my room so..."
"Oh no problem, I'll see you around?"
"Sure."
Danny presumed to walk away. Ryan smiled and does the same, but then is startled by the sound of Danny's voice.
"Hey, Dallion!" Danny screams. Ryan stops and turns. "Happy Birthday!"
Ryan smiles shyly.
"Thanks man."
"You've got so big, I think I might start crying!" Danny stifles out.
"Get out here!" Ryan yells back. Danny laughs as he leaves. Ryan shakes his head, and his smile disappears as he looks back at the letter in his hands. Ryan stops by his dorm and pulls his back-pack strap up on his shoulder as he reaches into his pocket to take out a key.
"I didn't have a roommate at first, which was good, because I really didn't want one at the time."
Ryan bumps the door with his shoulder as he enters the room. He then throws his backpack down on the floor near the door and slips off his sneakers.
"I couldn't believe that the letter was from my old man..."
Ryan walks over to a desk in the room and opens a drawer. He pulls out a box cutter knife and opens the letter.
"I hadn't heard from him since I graduated high school... I told him I would be going to college, but he didn't like the idea of why I was going...and I couldn't explain it to him."
Ryan sits on the bed and lies back as he reads the letter. His father's voice can be heard in Ryan's head as his eyes scan over the words.
"Ryan, I wanted you to know that I'll be getting married again this time next month. I wanted to personally invite you, but because of that senseless disagreement you and I had back in May, I couldn't. I know you didn't like her very much, but I wanted you to know that she loves you. She wanted me to write to you to tell you Happy Birthday...I have to say as a father I've let you down again in saying it..."
Ryan's eyes shift back and forth over the sentences.
"I also have to say, Ryan, that I couldn't write this letter knowing where it would be sent off too. I haven't come to terms with the simple honest to God fact that you are in college now. Though you never fully grasped that yourself. Do not think of this birthday, as the birthday that makes you a man. You will never be able to call yourself a man until you can make a name for yourself. Going this route will not give you a name. You're far too creative for your own damn good. You're more like a woman than your mother was. You let others steer the reigns in your life. Never once do you take charge or step up to the plate of your own actions. An artist isn't a job, and it's barely a career. You're wasting your life getting mixed up in painting up bowls of fruit. As you got older and we talked about the divorce with your mother, I took pride in telling you that it was I that gave up everything, paid child support on time every month for 18 years. I worked hard to get where I am, and here at 19 you have nothing to show for it."
Ryan sighed heavily and looked at the ceiling he then looked back at the letter.
"I want to say Happy Birthday, I want to tell you to have a good year, but how can I wish such a life on someone that has so many wasted years ahead of him? I want you to think hard about this letter and listen to me. Not that you ever have, but for once in your life pay attention. For God's sake, please own up to who you are. My heart is old Ryan. Old and confused by constantly being told 'I love you' by the same person that destroys it. This isn't a birthday for games, it's time to be a man."
With the words signed Ray instead of father, or dad at the bottom of the page. Ryan holds the paper down from his face, and there are tears in his eyes. He swallows hard and slowly crumbles the paper in his fist. He then sits up and tosses the letter towards the trash bin on the far side of the room. It misses. Ryan sniffles and leans back on the bed, his head sinks into his pillow. Before he begins to cry, Ryan walks over to his backpack and quickly unzips it and pulls out a folder. Upon opening it, a sketch with a hand holding another hand is revealed with the words 'I'm sorry Dad' written at the top. Ryan breathes heavily and wipes his face. He quickly crumbles up the sketch and tosses it in the trash bin along with the letter. He leans back with his head on the wall and slowly slides down it. He sits near the trash bin and brings his head to his knees.
Snapped back into reality, Ryan looks up at Micki. Micki stares at him with tears in her eyes.
"You remember...every word of the letter?" Micki asks almost crying.
"When your old man says something like that... it's not something you forget... and I thought of it every birthday after... how every birthday I become less and less of man, and less and less of his son."
Micki stares hard at him. As Micki finishes telling the story to Jack as they stand in the market a tear escapes her eye. She then looks back at the cards.
"That's why I want this birthday to be perfect... Ryan deserves to understand someone was glad he was born into this world."
Jack sighs and touches her shoulder.
"Micki, I love him too, but we can't replace how he feels about his father's love...or lack thereof...there's no way."
Micki turns toward him. Jack stares at her as she cries silently.
"Jack..." Micki stifles through her tears. "I know that I could never love him enough to make his hurt stop hurting, and that hurts me in every part of my body...but I'm going to try."
Jack smiles at her.
"And so will I."
Micki smiles through her tears. Jack gently taps her face and looks through the cards.
"Maybe there's one of those funny cards in here?"
Micki sniffles and stifles a laugh.
Back at Curious Goods, Ryan is just waking up. He stretches and slowly rises up from his bed. It's quiet. Very quiet. Ryan looks around the kitchen and wipes the sleep from his eye. He then opens the doors to Micki's room.
"Micki?" He calls out. Ryan leisurely walks down the stairs and looks at the shop. "Jack?!" He shouts. No answer. Ryan looks confused and walks further down the stairs and picks up a note from the desk.
"Ryan went out to buy milk, Micki and Jack." Ryan reads out loud. Ryan still confused then enters the kitchen and opens the refrigerator. A full carton sits on the top shelf.