GROWING UP Chapter 2
"Mr. Vlad, sir. Wake up Mr. Vlad, sir." The man slowly woke up as he felt someone pushing on his arm and wiggling around. The grey haired man found himself curled up on a small child's bed holding on to the small boy from yesterday. He quickly snatched his hand away and sat up. "Good morning sir." Danny said as he wiggled out of his bed. His small potato feet slid across the wooden floor as he made his was to his dresser. He searched the dresser only to find that he didn't have any clean clothes to wear.
"Daniel, how did you sleep?" Vlad asked as he regained his composure and tried to remember all of what he did the other day. He straightened his shirt and looked himself over in the crayon framed mirror on the wall. His breath smelled horrible, his hair was disheveled, and his clothes were wrinkled.
"I slept well." Danny answered. He shuffled through the clothes in his room looking for something that could be worn again.
"What's wrong boy?" Vlad watched as the boy picked through a pile of clothes in the corner of the room, only to eventually find a small white hamper.
"Nothing to wear." Danny frowned. He just shoved everything back in the basket and decided to wear his PJs for the day. It was summer after all, so he didn't have to change.
"Well, that won't do." Masters said. He piled all the loose clothes up in the hamper and took it out into the hall. "Do you know where the laundry room is, Daniel?" The small boy led the man down the hall and into a small room where the two machines that were used to wash clothes were hidden. The man loaded some of the clothes into the washer and started it.
"Well, what should we do while we wait for your clothes to wash? I know, would you mind joining me today? I'd like to take you out for a while." Vlad crouched down and smiled at the young boy. "We can buy you a quick pair of clothes and have some fun."
"That sounds nice. Would mama be okay with it?" Danny tilted his head to the side and looked at the dark blue eyes that stared at him.
"I'm sure she won't mind. I'll leave a note on the table along with my cell phone number. Use the restroom and wash up while I do that."
The two boys were out the door within ten minutes. A note was stuck to the door of the lab with details of where the two would be and a number where they could be contacted at.
Masters walked over to the dark purple car he had rented for his stay in Amity. He placed Danny in the front seat and sat in his respective seat. He buckled the boy in and did his own seat belt before they were off to start the day.
"Mr. Vlad, why am I not in a car seat?" Danny asked. While his parents almost never drove around with him in the car, he knew that kids were supposed to be in a booster seat in the back of the car. "Isn't that breaking a rule?"
"Well, kind of. However, I don't have a car seat and I doubt I could get one from your parents with how busy they are. So for today, you get to sit up in the front like a big boy. Just don't tell your parents, okay?"
"Isn't that lying?" The small boy was fiddling with the seat belt. It felt so strange gently pressed on his legs.
"Not really. Who says parents have to know everything?" Vlad chuckled as he sped through a yellow light. "You didn't hear that from me though." He said sternly.
Danny simply sat in his big boy seat and stared up at the man who had taken him away from his usual boring life. He wasn't sure if he should be spending so much time with this odd ball, but if his mom was okay with him, he didn't see much harm in it. Besides, getting a little bit of attention was nice.
The two boys had stopped at a small dollar store to buy Danny a shirt and shorts after having gone back to Vlad's hotel room for him to change and get his wallet. The two ran around town doing whatever they thought was fun. They'd gone bowling, walked around the down town area and gotten ice cream, and even played at the park for a while. The day wore on as the sun slowly started it's decent.
"Daniel, we've got one more thing to do before we go home." Vlad plucked the boy out of the swing and held him at arms length. "We need to buy your mom something nice for her birthday tomorrow."
"Mama's birthday is tomorrow?" Danny gawked. "I haven't made her anything." He wined as he made a slight pouty face.
"That's okay, we'll get her something really nice, from the both of us. You can even draw something on the card for her." The little boy's face lit up with joy and excitement at the mention of getting his mother something nice. Drawing on the card was just a huge bonus for him.
"Okay!"
"I need your help with this since it's really important. Do you think you can help me pick out something your mom really wants?" Danny furiously nodded his head and smiled.
The two men made their way to the mall and went through lots of stores. Many of which, Danny hated due to the horrible smells. He was able to pick some things out for his mom though; some pretty blue flowers, a nice smelling perfume, and a lovely teal nail polish.
Vlad had grabbed a few things he thought would fit the other gifts as well. After they had gone to a few shops and were loaded down with a few bags worth of fancy gifts, they retreated to a near by restaurant. Masters had decided to treat Danny to a large meal of spaghetti and garlic bread. They ate their meal in peace as they continued to get to know each other.
"Are you married Mr. Vlad?" Danny asked as he tried to poke at a rather large meat ball on his plate.
"No, I never really fancied a girl enough to get married." Vlad leaned across the table and cleaned the boy's face for the hundredth time that meal. "What are you learning in school?"
"We just finished learning the alpha-um- abc's. We're learning how to count to a hundred! It's a whole lot of numbers though, so it's hard."
"Really! Wow you sound like you're really working hard. Mind showing me what you can do?"
"Sure!" Danny quickly recited the first twenty numbers he knew and then dropped off since he wasn't sure of what came next." Vlad applauded the boy's valiant effort. The rest of the meal consisted of messy food, constant cleaning, and practicing Danny's counting. By the time the two boys had gotten home, the little boy was already up to fifty.
It was already seven at night by the time the two men arrived home. The large wood door to the house creaked open as Vlad slowly let himself in. He entered the dark house with the small boy, who was already trying to fall asleep on him.
"Hey Danny, your clothes were in my way so I just finished them for you since I had my own to do. Next time finish your clothes before you go out." A small girl walked down the stairs, but halted mid-step when her eyes fell upon the tall, strong man with short grey hair. "Danny! You know you aren't supposed to talk to strangers." The small girl stormed down the stairs and grabbed her little brother away from the strange man.
"Ah, you must be Jasmine." Vlad smiled at her. He held out his hand to offer a friendly hand shake, but got rejected. While the girl was small in stature, she was very demanding and protective. "I'm your parent's friend from college. I arrived yesterday while you were out." Vlad tried again. The girl wasn't buying a word he said.
"Get out of the house before I call my daddy up here and make him throw you out of here. We don't let strangers in here, even if you say you know my parents." Jazz was the picture of intelligence for her age. She absorbed everything she was taught and had become over protective of her little brother, who she thought was way to giving. He rarely questioned people or their motives.
"Jazz, this man does know mommy and daddy though. He helped them last night in the lab doing all kinds of ghost hunting stuff. He's really nice too. He bought me clothes today!" Danny modeled his new outfit for his sister. "See!"
Vlad simply snorted as the little kindergarten boy tried to spin around and ended up on the floor. "I must thank you for taking care of the clothes for us though. I meant to get the two of us back here earlier, but time just escapes me some days."
After the little girl glared at the two smiling faces trying to win her favor, she finally gave up and let the man into the house with a warning. "Try anything funny and I'll scream."
"You have my word as a gentleman that I will not try anything funny." He grabbed Danny's hand and started to walk up the stairs with the boy in tow. "Are the clothes in the laundry room, or did you put them away?"
"I put them away." Jazz answered, following the two cautiously. Vlad went through the boy's drawers and picked out some PJs for the boy to wear that night. He lead the tired boy to the bathroom and placed the clothes on the counter as he ran the water.
"Do you want any help washing up, Daniel?" Vlad asked as Danny wiggled out of his shirt, now stained with tomato sauce. The boy nodded as his eyelids began to droop closed. "Jazz, if you don't mind, could you give us some privacy? I'll leave the door open so there's no worries of me doing anything bad, okay?"
The little girl puffed out her cheeks, but complied. She left the room, but made sure she could hear them from down the hall. The door stayed wide open.
Vlad rolled up his medium length grey sleeves and found the kid's soap. He lathered the boy's hair and washed it carefully, making sure not to get any suds in his face. He went over the tiny kid's chest, back, and arms with body soap and rinsed him off. By the end of the soak, Danny was practically asleep and Vlad was just making sure the boy didn't drown in the tub. He bundled the boy up in a soft towel and dried him off as the dirt from the day was washed down the drain.
"Thanks Vlad." Danny said tiredly as he was placed, fully dressed, into his bed and tucked in. The boy burrowed down into the sheets even more until his head barely peaked out from under the soft fortress.
Vlad let out a laugh at how much the child resembled a badger. Yes, he was a badger. Masters ruffled the boy's hair. "Do you want to hear a story before bed, or are you okay?"
"Was the ghost boy real?" Danny asked curiously as he tried so hard to keep from falling asleep. The older man sat down on the edge of the bed and started to tell Danny about the story from yesterday. Jazz, had by the time, found a place to sit next to the door and leaned in to listen to the story.
"The ghost boy is as real as I am. He was a blessing, an angel from above. He must have saved my life when that portal backfired. I'm sure I would have been horribly hurt or worse had he not flown in at that moment. I owe my whole life from that point forward to him." He stopped talking when he realized the small boy had fallen victim to sleep. The man smiled down at the boy and left the room, keeping the door cracked open so the light from the hallway could shine in just a bit.
The tall man made his way down the stairs to the main room. Jazz was hot on his heels. "What lab accident? What happened? Is the ghost boy really real?" She asked, forgetting all caution she had towards the man. Masters started to pick up the room and clean it as he told the interested little girl about his time in college. By the time the room was dusted, the floor swept, and everything was in it's place, the girl was fast asleep on the couch dreaming of what this strange phantom must have been like. Vlad placed a blanket over the girl and slid a pillow under her head. It was already nine and the man still felt the need to clean up the kitchen and the upstairs hallway.
As the older man walked into the dining room, he saw a familiar yellow note staring at him. The one he'd written earlier clung to the lab door, untouched since it was posted. It was obvious Maddie and Jack hadn't left the lab all day. Vlad quickly cleaned the kitchen and hallways so they were livable, making sure not to wake the kids.
Vlad cooked up a quick dinner for Maddie and Jack. He grabbed the plates full of food and made his way down to the lab, knowing the two hadn't been taking good care of themselves lately. He found them passed out in a corner of the lab where they were reworking their calculations. Masters slumped his shoulders and rolled his eyes. Did no one use a bed in this house unless prompted to? He simply covered the food with plastic wrap with a note; "Eat this when you wake up and have a good day. Also, Happy Birthday Maddie. –Vlad M."
He found a blanket upstairs and placed it on the two. He didn't want to risk waking them since they needed their sleep and would certainly had continued working if woken. He made his way back to his hotel late at night and wrapped all the gifts he and Danny had bought that day. It was one in the morning before he could finally call it a day and go to bed after a hot shower.