Two months felt like it was taking two million forevers, but time did what it does best and, day by day, it passed. The wait was made easier when the packages started coming in. Since Soos' family was spread out over two continents, they mailed their gifts. The presents were strange as they didn't know him well but Soos found he didn't mind.
They sent odds and ends. Socks, a couple pairs of sneakers, bouncing balls, money taped into cards shaped like twelves.
His favorite gift had to be the one from Aunt Carolina. She'd sent a small box with a several packages of Spanish and Japanese candies, a journal with a satisfyingly squishy cover, and a knotted bracelet nestled in glittery wrapping paper. When he'd opened the accompanying card, a picture had fallen out. The note on the back informed him that it was of Aunt Carolina herself, her husband, and her two children. They were at a beach and all wearing the same lime-green visors. The card read "Happy Birthday, Soos. Hope you have a wonderful year! God bless, Auntie Carolina. P.S. I made the bracelet myself!" Something about the way it all came together made Soos smile.
He'd tucked the picture into the front of the journal, which he was keeping on top of all the stuff on his desk. During the day, Soos would occasionally stop to look at the bright green raptor on the cover rearing up on its hind legs and roaring. He would press his hand against the cover and watch the plastic sink, then pull it away and watch the cover rise again. It would go up and down and up again like it was breathing. He was glad that Aunt Carolina had remembered that he loved dinosaurs.
He didn't mind his family not being around when they seemed so thoughtful.
"So, what're you gonna do when school gets out?" Raoul started the moment he'd reached Soos' spot on the bus. He dumped his backpack on the seat, his rear end soon following suit.
"I don't know yet," Soos said, frowning. Raoul was starting to get pushy about summer plans. When Soos wasn't thinking about his birthday, he didn't mind that summer was far off.
"That's okay, but we need to start making plans soon. And one or both of us needs to think about a job if we're gonna get to go to the waterpark…" Raoul was the plan man and Soos let him figure it out. He knew that in the coming weeks, his friend would have summer checklists prepared for both of them.
"Wait a minute, dude, I've got something for you. It's, like, a surprise, so keep those eyes closed!" Raoul's eyes snapped shut. Soos rifled through his backpack and pulled out a fistful of unopened trading card packs. He rushed to pick off the backpack-bottom dust and thrust the pile into his friend's outstretched hands. "Open your eyes, dude!"
"Whoa! These are for me- you can't be serious?!" Raoul stared at him like he was the second coming of Christ.
"Yep," Soos nodded, "My cousins Jorge and Mickey in Ohio sent them to me. They didn't know I don't play the game so they sent me, like, a ton. I knew you liked the game, so I thought you'd want 'em."
"This is wild, bro! I mean, you kept some for yourself, right?"
Soos nodded again. He was impressed with the shiny foil packaging and had decided to let himself open a pack or two. He'd taped a couple of cards on his wall, because he liked the way they looked. His Abuelita said that the things you put on your walls protected you. The living room, hallways, and her bedroom were protected by the dream team- Soos and Jesus. Soos' room was protected by dragons, dinosaurs, and fairies.
He liked the way they looked on his walls, but he thought he liked the face Raoul made when he got some cards a little better.
For the rest of the ride, he listened to his friend debate on how he was going to restructure his decks based on his new haul. He nodded in the right places, staring out the bus window. There was a man following along the bus route, jumping from tree to tree and balancing along the telephone wires like an expert trapeze artist.
He looked a lot like the man in the pictures that his Abuelita hid.
"You drawing Mr. Pines?" Amira asked him in art class, hovering behind him and poking his shoulder.
"Yeah."
"Why?" Amira did not ask to sit with him, she just sat down.
"Well, Mr. Beleprise says we gotta draw people from town and-"
"Okay, cool. Real reason."
"I dunno, I think he's really cool…" Soos rubbed his chin, deep in thought. He loved to visit the Mystery Shack and listen to Mr. Pines talk about the wonders of the universe. He felt like a character in a video game when he went on tours, learning about mystical items that could aid him on his quest. "He knows everything… Like a wise sage guy from Mystic Fantasy!"
"I don't know…" Amira's nose wrinkled, "He looks a little more like a Disney villain to me."
"You shouldn't talk about grown-ups like that! Somebody's gonna…"
"You misunderstand me, young one. He's weird-looking and mean, but I think he's kinda cool, too. And," Amira allowed for a dramatic pause, leaning toward him and cupping her mouth with one hand, "I think he's on to something. This town is weird. Majorly."
"Go away, Amira," Raoul said with gritted teeth, settling in on Soos' other side, "And stop spreading lies."
"I'm not spreading lies, I haven't even said anything good yet." She turned back to Soos, "So, have you heard of the Windowman?"
"The who?" he asked, ignoring Raoul's loud groaning.
"Not this again!"
"Y'know how sometimes you see someone following along with you when you're looking out the car window? Well, it's not your imagination! There's a real guy walking on the wires."
"Really? I think I saw him on the bus ride this morning!" Soos' eyes widened, realization striking him.
"You did not. We were sitting together and you didn't say anything. Don't encourage-"
"He looked like my dad. Do you think he is my dad?"
"I don't think so…" she frowned, picking at a pin in her hijab. "I saw a big alligator and Courtney says she saw a giant Barbie and Eric… Well, it doesn't matter. I've conducted serious studies and made a complete survey of the class and everyone sees something different."
"Oh."
"I'm gonna add your answer to my survey, thank you for your service, vigilant citizen," she said in a mock professional voice, getting up from her seat, "And Raoul, according to my survey, you're our only nonbeliever. Open your eyes, man."
"I cannot believe her," Raoul huffed, aggressively digging his nails into his eraser.
"I think she's-"
"Come on, Amira's always lying about that junk, Soos. Making up weird stuff and when you ask her about it again she doesn't even remember!"
"Dude, I saw-"
"I'm not going to talk about that fake stuff. If you want to lie all the time too, you can go be best friends with Amira!"
"It's not-"
"Just no."
School was winding to an end and Soos was praying for the summer. Anything was better than this awkwardness. Bus rides had become especially tense since the art class fiasco. Soos stared out the window while Raoul sulked at his side. He wished he hadn't given him all of the extra cards already, so he could give him more and he and Raoul could be friends again. He'd tried to pull a couple off the wall but the backs had torn off in strips. He didn't think a few ripped up reject cards would make him smile like before.
Soos watched his dad run across the wires.
If Amira was right, It wasn't his dad but it also wasn't Soos' imagination.
Something strange was going on in Gravity Falls.
Raoul was thoroughly miserable not talking to Soos. sure, he still followed him around and sat next to him in every class, but it was different. He had to stop himself from laughing when his best friend made good jokes and spent lunchtime staring at his food. Chicken patties were only so interesting, but more importantly he had big plans for the summer and no one to talk to about them.
He had to make things better with Soos. But how was he supposed to do that without admitting he was wrong? He was not wrong.
The breaking point for Raoul's indomitable will came during math class. It was quiz day and he always, always forgot his pencil on quiz day. If he was Amira, he would be certain it was some kind of conspiracy.
"Can I have a pencil?" he whispered to Soos, breaking his vow of semi-silence.
"Uh, sure." Soos handed him a pencil with dinosaurs on it, which Raoul knew was one of his best.
"Look," he sighed, taking the dinosaur-plastered olive branch. "I'm sorry about this whole thing. We should talk again."
"Okay."
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Soos reassured him, flashing a smile and raising two thumbs up.
He couldn't believe it had been that simple. He grinned and looked down at his math test, no longer fearing for his social situation.
Looking over the page, he realized that In all the chaos, he'd forgotten to study.
Shoot.
Summer started and continued and they hadn't done anything on Raoul's list. Soos had barely even seen his friend. They'd had a couple of epic squirt gun wars, but hadn't done much else. Raoul had summer camp most days, but Abuelita couldn't afford to send Soos.
Mostly, Soos didn't mind. He liked the adventures he had with Abuela, trips to the grocery and the hairdresser, tea at her friends' houses. Photo albums he'd never be able to puzzle out and cats that were starting to like him. He played video games in his room during the evening and poked his head out the window to look at the stars when it got dark. He swore he saw eyes watching him from the woods, glowing slightly and winking at him. They were like a second set of stars, the woods like the sky tipped on its side.
He made up constellations in the second sky, squares, rhombuses, the occasional triangle. He had trouble coming up with stories for them. The only thing that struck him was that a god had dumped his geometry homework in Gravity Falls.
He had trouble praying so he talked out the window before bed, to the stars, to the eyes.
"You think Dad's gonna come to my birthday party? It's coming up real soon and he's gotta be on the road right now. He hasn't come before but this year's different. I haven't been twelve before."
He settled down in his bed, the wind from the window he didn't close rustling his curtains and ruffling his hair.
"He's gonna come."
Alba said she would take Soos anywhere he liked before his birthday party, knowing what he would pick before she'd even asked. Of course, the Mystery Shack had a new attraction opening that day.
She stood with the tour group, showing the utmost self restraint. No eyerolls, no tip-tapping foot. She listened, sneaking peeks at Soos' awe-struck face. He was loving every minute and she could enjoy that even if she couldn't appreciate the wax figures of celebrities she didn't recognize or the animal carcasses unceremoniously sewn, taped, glued together.
She was on edge, worried that Soos would be miserable when his stupid father let him down once again. She could suffer through anything as long as it made Soos happy, Stan Pines included.
She smiled at the two kids who gave Soos a couple of candy bars. She rifled through her purse, finding nothing but two sticks of winter mint gum to give them in return. They said it was no problem and rushed off.
Alba was glad for any good the day brought and each bright thing brought a tense smile to her lips. She watched Soos carefully, ready for the earth to crack open underneath them, the sun to go dark, explosions to go off all around them.
When postcard that came in the mail later that day it did not surprise her. Not one bit.
Soos stared into the shoebox full of postcards and focused on not crying.
Sorry Champ. His dad hadn't even written his name. The letter was addressed to Jesús. Everyone, even forgetful Aunt Carmen who could never remember how old he was, knew that he liked to be called Soos. But, his own dad didn't know. His dad didn't know his shoe size (8), his favorite color (fuchsia tiger stripes at the moment), or how many points he could rack up in Nort on a good day (2,618). His dad didn't even know what he looked like.
Soos dumped himself in his bed, pulling the covers around himself. He knew he wouldn't be able to fall asleep with the sun streaming in through his window.
He waited, twisting restlessly in bed. He thought of getting up, of going back to the party or at least pushing a tape into his VCR and watching videos until his brain became as fuzzy as the parts where nothing was recorded and the tv sputtered and buzzed, trying to offer up more sounds and images, but having nothing to give.
Why didn't his dad want to see him? Eight years was a long time and it was only getting longer. On the last Fun Fact Friday of the school year, Principal Yi had announced that every seven years, the cells in the body are completely replaced.
"That means," she'd continued in her usual drone, "That each and every one of us is an entirely new person every seven years! This has been Fun Fact Friday."
How many new people were they going to go through before his dad wanted to see him? What if he didn't want to see him anymore because he was one of the new people? What if these new people were really aliens slowly replacing all of humanity, one cell at a time?
Soos guessed that it didn't matter. Just like he didn't matter.
Soos tried not to look up at the telephone wires when he was sitting next to Abuelita in the truck. He stared down at the tree trunks, kept his eyes on the road ahead, or rummaged around in the glove box.
"Do you like your new job?" Abuelita asked one day as they made their way to the supermarket.
"Yeah! It's awesome," Soos chirped. Thinking about his job brought him out of his darkest moods. He was having such a good time, even if he was just repairing the golf cart and sweeping the Shack's floors. He smiled to himself, turning to look out the window again. Despite what he'd promised himself, he found his eyes drawn to the skyline.
Mr. Pines was balancing on the telephone wire, his bulky form cutting into the bright blue sky. He was whistling and swinging his cane around. Soos blinked and the image remained. It didn't make any sense, because he knew for certain that Mr. Pines was afraid of heights. Looked like Amira's Windowman was back.
He found himself laughing as the fake Mr. Pines scrambled from tree to tree.
"What's so funny?"
