Hearts of Gold
4. Destiny Calls
With school done for the day, Arnold was eager to get home. Not that home was where he really wanted to be at the moment, but it brought him that much closer to meeting Helga at the park. The bus dropped him off, he hurried to the Sunset Arms, and walked inside with a spring in his step and purpose in his heart.
"Well hello, Seymour! How was school today?" Arnold's grandma asked, still wearing her white lab coat and black gloves, a lightning-shaped black stripe in her wild grey hair. She was sitting at the table with her weird new potted plant strapped into a high chair, and it sure looked like she was trying to feed it...bacon...?
"Um... It was fine I guess. Where is everybody?" Arnold asked as he looked around briefly.
"Well, Boris and Elsa decided to take Igor to the store to buy a few things, and Dracula is in the garage." She turned her attention back to the plant in the high chair for a moment. "Now enough fussing, you little rascal! Open wide for the good doctor!"
Arnold stared at this bizarre scene for a moment before shaking his head. "Never mind. I know what I'm going to be for Halloween this year. Think you could help me with my costume? I want to learn some new tricks and stuff."
"Why certainly! By the way, how's Audrey doing lately, hmmm?" His grandma asked with a smirk and a knowing twinkle in her eyes. Arnold had to think for a moment to figure out who she meant, since he didn't know any Audrey at his school.
"Oh, you mean Helga!" Once he solved that riddle, he laughed it off nervously. Did his grandma know about his situation with Helga, he wondered? Despite her...quirks, she had often shown herself to be much wiser and more aware of her surroundings than she appeared to be. "I uh, I actually have to leave to go meet her at the park."
"Well, give little Audrey my regards! And I'll be expecting you in the dojo later. We'll get you ready for Halloween after your training."
Arnold winced and rubbed his shoulder. He was still a little sore from shuriken practice. Since seventh grade would mean moving to a new school next year, his grandma insisted on further martial arts training to keep him safe from any new bullies he might encounter. He already knew some karate after being mugged in fourth grade, but in addition to mastering that, Arnold's grandma recommended incorporating elements of other martial arts. So he now had to learn a few techniques from Kung Fu, Jujutsu, and something she referred to as "the path of the Shinobi" which incorporated strange hand signals, stealth tactics, and apparently the ability to fly, turn invisible, and even transform into a tiger.
So far he was not successful with those particular skills.
"Sure thing. Just keep in mind I can't bring any swords or throwing stars to school with me. Anyway, see you later, Grandma."
"Farewell, Seymour!" His grandma turned back to the plant and sighed. "Your big brother is growing up so fast... Oh don't look at me like that! Focus on cleaning your plate, you big baby!"
Arnold rolled his eyes as he heard his wacky grandma talking to the plant again and went out to the garage to grab his bike.
"Hey there, Short Man! Got somewhere to be?" His grandpa asked as he sat on a folding chair, watching a small TV with his feet propped up on an old wooden crate. He was not Dracula.
"Yeah, sorry Grandpa. I'm kind of...expected somewhere soon. What are you up to?"
"I'm just inspecting the Packard, making sure everything's in tip top shape," Phil said with pride, looking back at the monster movie he'd been watching on his little TV screen. He howled with laughter as a chubby kid shot the Creature from the Black Lagoon in the chest with a shotgun.
Arnold looked around the garage and chuckled. "Um, Grandpa... The Packard isn't here. My parents are out shopping with Vincent."
Phil spun around and gasped. "Why, those scoundrels! It was here just a second ago!" He crossed his arms and shook his head. "Dagnabbit, when I get my hands on that son of mine..." He stood up and scratched his head as he took a quick look around the garage. "Well, I don't suppose you could help me clean up here a bit before you run off?"
Arnold stifled a sigh. He wished he could just escape to the park right away, but he couldn't say no. Which his grandpa knew would happen. "Sure. But can we at least hurry a little? I really need to get to the park soon, or Audrey- I mean, Helga might actually bite my head off."
"Well, she always did have a big mouth. I just didn't think it was that big!" Arnold's grandpa could not help but laugh at his own joke. Arnold did not laugh, for Arnold did not find that joke very funny.
"Grandpa..."
"Aw, you're no fun. I guess we'd better get started." With that they got to work. Since he had a little time alone with him, Arnold figured now was as good a time as any to ask Grandpa a question that's been on his mind.
"Hey, Grandpa," he asked as he started moving boxes around. "How do you, um..."
"How do you what, Short Man?" asked Grandpa, who was deliberately taking his sweet time with much less laborious tasks, his eyes looking back at the TV every few seconds or so.
"How do you know when you love someone? I mean...not like someone in your family, you know? I mean like...like..."
This was enough to get Grandpa's full attention. "Like a young lady, eh? I knew destiny would come calling eventually." He chuckled a bit as Arnold nodded slowly, averting eye contact by acting like he was looking for something. "Well, I suppose there's all kinds of things I could tell ya. Can she cook a pot roast? Can she sing and dance like there's no tomorrow? Can she trapeze like-"
"Come on, Grandpa. I'm being serious."
His grandpa shrugged. "Well, the really important questions are the kind you should be asking yourself, not me! For instance, how do you feel when you think about her, how do you feel when you see her, and so on. All that mushy stuff. I guess the one thing I'd say is, ask yourself this: how do you think you'd feel if you lost her?"
Arnold's eyes widened at the thought of it. "Lost her...?"
"That's right, Arnold. How would you feel if she wasn't in your life anymore?"
"I...I'm not sure..."
"What, you never gave it a thought?" Grandpa asked with a knowing smirk.
Arnold swallowed hard. He knew that what his grandpa just said was accurate, that he never even considered the possibility of not having Helga around, but did that mean he loved her? As they kept working, Arnold realized he'd never really imagined losing anybody. He never thought there could be a time without Gerald, or Phoebe, or Eugene, or even Sid, Stinky, and Harold. He was already missing his old teacher, Mr. Simmons, and didn't care very much for Mr. Frank. Did he love all of them, he wondered? The answer seemed obvious at the time. Of course he loved them. These people were such an important part of his life.
But his thoughts returned to Helga, and when he thought about how he'd feel if she was gone, whether that meant she never existed or had to move away or something too horrible for his young mind to think about for very long, he noticed an ache in his chest. A brief reminder of the kind of profound heartbreak and loss that he used to feel before...well, before San Lorenzo.
Arnold shook his head and decided to focus on the reality of the present, and started to work faster and harder. Tools were put away. Dust and dirt was swept up. Screws and nuts and bolts and nails were all sorted into their proper containers. An old magazine was quickly thrown in the trash before Arnold could see it. Before long, the garage was looking much better. It wasn't perfect, but for the most part it was basically clean.
"Thanks for the help, Short Man! Now, you better get a move on before your little friend with the one eyebrow bites your head off!" Once again, Arnold's grandpa laughed. Once again, Arnold was not amused.
Arnold rolled his eyes and grabbed his bike. "See you later, Grandpa. And thanks for the advice." He quickly made his way out to the street and started to race toward the park. While dark thoughts lingered at first, they quickly dissipated as Arnold remembered what was about to happen that day.
Once he put all that hypothetical heartbreak behind him, all he could think about was the very real future in front of him. He imagined how different things were going to be with him and Helga. Or at least, he hoped things would be different. He imagined hanging out with her more often, maybe even going out on dates. They had gone on a sort of double date once, along with Gerald and Phoebe, but Helga was putting up another front. Plus they mixed up restaurants, couldn't pay, and wound up washing dishes. Still, he was excited by the thought of going on a real date, just the two of them. It didn't have to be a restaurant or anything fancy, it could be anything. They could go to the movies, or Slausen's, or even just a walk by the park, or down at the pier. His mind wandered through all the possibilities.
He then realized that, in a way, they had already planned on a date. Sort of. Was going to a party together a date, he wondered? Would they even wind up dancing together? He wasn't sure if she would be up for the idea, but he grinned at the thought of it.
On top of that, he always wanted to get to know her better, sensing for some time that there was more to her than she ever let anyone see, and he felt like he was about to have that opportunity. However he also knew there must be a reason why she never let anyone see past the almost stereotypical bully facade she presented to everyone, and that inspired a bit of worry under all his hope.
How long would it take her to let him in? To let him understand why she's so full of misery? The feeling began to grow that something must be wrong, that she must be hurting inside. But why, he wondered?
Whatever it was that built the fortress around her heart, Arnold hoped that she would open up to him. More than that, he hoped that he could truly help her. As he picked up the pace and sped toward City Park, he was determined to do just that.
Helga jumped off her bike, bolted into Big Bob's Failure Emporium, and rushed to her room to grab Arnold's gift. She decided to put it in a box from an old piece of junk laptop she found and hoped she had stuffed some crumpled old newspapers inside with it to keep the expensive picture safe. Satisfied with that, she wrapped it in blue wrapping paper and stuck a pink bow on it. She hoped he understood how that would hint at her true feelings, that in her heart they belonged together.
Her heart skipped a beat and she had to pull out her locket, staring into the eyes of her beloved as she had done so many times before.
"Oh, my dear Arnold, my precious love god, how I adore you. How I worship you and long to be by your side forever. Alas, I have nearly ruined what could be my one and only chance at such a future, nearly ruined a love that I know deep in my heart would shine brighter than the brightest sun! But I shall fear not, my beloved, for the sun has not yet vanished below the horizon of total despair! Soon I shall conquer this wretched other half, this fiend that lurks inside me and threatens to destroy us both, and you will finally understand how deeply the flame of you burns within my heart and warms my very soul!"
She let out a blissful sigh and then put her locket away beneath her shirt. She dumped out the contents of her backpack on her bed and carefully tucked Arnold's gift into it, relieved that she could zip it up just enough to keep it safe from falling out.
With that taken care of, she strapped the backpack on and began to carefully sneak through the Emporium. Luckily Bob the Barbarian was in his office. Olga was in her room, chatting away on her phone. No doubt it was probably some new boy toy of hers, maybe even the guy she just met at Budnick's. Confident that she'd make her way out with no distractions, she bolted toward the front of the store.
"Oh, hey Helga! Where are you running off to? Why, I didn't even know you got home, honey." Miriam drifted out of the company break room that they'd been using as their kitchen slash dining area. "How was school today?" She asked with a familiar sort of woozy mumble that meant she'd just had one of her stupid smoothies not long ago.
Helga rolled her eyes. She did not want to deal with this, but she turned to face her shambling mother. "Fine. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to-"
"I just can't believe it, Helga. You're growing up so fast! You know I remember when I was your age, just starting fourth grade, and-"
"Sixth grade, Miriam. I am in the sixth grade now. Maybe put the smoothies down for a day and you'll start to remember I exist," Helga snapped.
Miriam gulped at that. "Oh. Sixth grade..." Her voice trailed off as she tried to figure out where the years went. She felt bad that she was missing so much of Helga's young life.
She felt even worse that some more distant, more painful memories would never go away.
But she hoped that with Helga and Olga starting to get along, maybe she could finally bond with her youngest daughter too. "Well... I was just thinking, since you went out with Olga the other day, maybe we can have a girl's day out ourselves! Just you and me, anywhere you want. Wouldn't that be nice, honey?"
"Oh yeah, real nice. Who's gonna drive us? You?" Helga remembered the last time she went for a ride alone with her mother, how Miriam fell asleep at the wheel and she couldn't wake her enough to focus. She remembered how scared she was when her mother passed out at the wheel and she had to put the car in neutral, turn on the flashers, and steer the car safely to the side of the road until they slowed down enough for her to put it in park, hoping the entire time that they didn't drift into an intersection or a sharp turn.
Miriam, of course, barely remembered that at all, and could only recall that it even happened because of how Helga and Bob both gave her so much grief about it.
"I can drive, Helga. I just have to be more careful is all."
"You're right. You do have to be more careful. But you won't, will you?" Helga sighed as her mother closed her eyes and lowered her head, her shoulders slumping forward a bit. "I'm going out. I'll try to be back for dinner. And for pity's sake, do us both a favor for once and just leave me alone."
Helga walked out the door and grabbed her bike. She was not going to cry. She'd force herself not to. Today was going to be a good day. Today was going to be the fateful day when she finally won her beloved. She took off fast, leaving her troubles behind her without looking back.
Miriam went back to the break room and started adding ingredients to her blender.
"Okay, who's throwing first?" Sid asked as they stood in a pretty clear spot in the park with only a few trees and bushes around that could get in their way, mostly near the walking path.
"I am, dummy!" Harold insisted, snatching the football from his paranoid pal in the Beatle boots. "Now start running so I can throw it!"
Sid started running back, trying to keep his eyes on the ball while also making sure his favorite boots weren't busted or tarnished. Granted, these weren't his only pair. After his first pair were stolen by that mugger, he made sure to have a few extra pairs just in case. Still, he did lose one pair in San Lorenzo, and shuddered at the thought of losing another.
The ball landed a few feet in front of him and he slowed to a stop and sighed as he checked his boots for any sign of damage. Once he was sure that they were okay, he walked over and picked up the ball. "Darn it, I almost had it."
Harold called out from the other side of their field. "Hey Stinky! Throw it back this way!"
Sid looked over at Stinky, who had wandered a bit farther away and was busy staring off into the distance. He spotted Lila and her dad out for a walk, reckoned maybe they were celebrating something on account of they looked all excited and happy for some reason. That Lila sure was something, he thought. She was mighty smart, for one thing, and everyone loved her jokes and stories, and to Stinky she was certainly the prettiest girl in class. Of course, he knew all the guys probably thought the same thing. Surely she would never notice a plain, boring young feller such as himself. Lila was special, and if there was one thing Stinky knew, he was nothing special.
"Hey, stupid! Are you gonna throw the ball or what!?"
Harold's voice shook Stinky out of his somber mood and he turned around to look for the ball. But he didn't have to look hard. Sid, standing right next to him now, was holding the football out to him.
"You uh...okay there, Stink? Buddy? You kinda zoned out there for a minute."
"I'm fine, I suppose. Reckon I just got lost in my head." Stinky took the football from Sid and stared at it for a moment. He may not be special, but he wondered if maybe, just maybe, he could win that dumb contest by throwing that there football so far that neither Sid nor Harold could possibly beat him. Then at least he'd have something to feel good about.
He looked out at Harold, narrowed his eyes, ran back a few more feet, and he threw that football with all his might.
Helga walked up to the bench and put her bike behind it before taking her seat, pulling Arnold's gift out of her bag and setting it down on the bench next to her. She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, and looked around the park from where she sat. She noticed the guard rails along the walking path were gone, though she was never really sure why they were there in the first place.
She turned to look down the path on one side of her, then on the other side. No Arnold, so far. She gulped and glanced down at the box beside her, and her heart started beating more quickly. She nervously tapped her fingers on her knee and then rushed to pull out her phone.
"Come on, Phoebe, let Geraldo miss you for a few minutes and pick up the dang phone. Criminy..."
"Kon'nichiwa, Helga-chan! Ogenki desu ka?" Phoebe asked in a cheery tone. Helga overheard Tall Hair Boy say in the background, "You gotta teach me that some day!"
Helga rolled her eyes. "Listen, I'm at the park waiting for Arnold and I'm- ...He can't hear me, can he?"
"No, Helga. Is something wrong?"
"I just... I'm freaking out a little. My heart says I should just sit and wait and go through with it. But my head says I'm crazy for thinking this will work, and my body wants to just get up and run as far as possible!"
"It's okay, Helga. This is a big step for you and it's understandable that you would be nervous."
"Nervous isn't the word for it, Pheebs! I'm losing my mind over here!" Helga stood up and started pacing along the path in front of the bench. "What if he doesn't like it? What if he's mad at me? Heck, I don't even know for sure if he'll show up!"
"Are you sure, Helga? I mean..."
"Just what do you mean, Phoebe?" Helga snarled.
"I mean, even though you took his lunch, it seemed as though he stopped being mad at you fairly quickly once he sat down. Almost as if he knew you were going to take it."
Helga thought back to what happened earlier that day, and her heart skipped a beat. Phoebe was right. Again. "I forgot about that. Yeah, um... That whole thing was his idea, actually..."
"See? Arnold's not mad at you, Helga. He missed you today and he wanted you to sit with us, so he went out to talk to you."
"Oh yes, he came to talk to me. Only because you sent him instead of coming yourself!"
"I didn't send him. I got up to go find you and he asked he where you were. He insisted that he go in my place. Helga, it sounds like you're trying to make up excuses not to see him. Don't you want to give Arnold the gift you got him?"
Helga paused and sat back down on the bench, looking at the ground. "Of course I do...but..."
"But...?"
"What if he doesn't..."
"Helga, he's going to love it, I'm sure. It's absolutely beautiful, and very thoughtful. Arnold will definitely apprecia-"
"What if he doesn't like me? As in like me, like me?" Helga said more quietly now, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "Am I being crazy right now? I know he kissed me, and he's been so nice to me, but... I'm scared, alright? It's scary..."
Phoebe waited before responding, trying to figure out just what to say. "Are you being crazy... Yes and no. I say no because things of this nature are indeed scary and often times difficult. There is some risk involved with opening up like this, and it's completely understandable. And yet, I also say yes, you are being a little crazy because... It's Arnold. You know him. Do you think he's capable of hating you?"
Helga slouched where she sat and gave a gentle sigh of relief. "I know it's easy for most people...but... I guess you're right. Arnold isn't like everyone else."
"No, he isn't," Phoebe replied in a soft, soothing tone. "Give him a chance. Give yourself a chance."
"Thanks, Pheebs. You know he did kind of invite me to Rhonda's party." A smile started to form as she recalled the look he gave her when she said yes.
"That's great, Helga! You see? You're worried over nothing, I truly believe that. Arnold will totally understand."
Helga closed her eyes and grinned as a fantasy played out in her mind, one of Arnold sweeping her off her feet and spinning her all around and kissing her and confessing how deeply and madly in love he is, all the while Phoebe continued to console and advise her.
She didn't see the football flying through the air in her direction.
She didn't hear Harold charging toward her, his head turned back to watch the ball as it began its descent. Didn't hear him yelling, "I got it! I got it!"
"Phoebe, you're the best, you know- ...Ugh, who the heck is-"
Harold, completely unaware of what was in front of him, suddenly crashed onto the bench next to Helga, his full weight landing on the box containing the expensive gold frame which housed the beautiful photo of Arnold with his parents.
Helga dropped her phone onto the ground beside her and let out an ear-shattering scream.