Again, I'd like to thank supernae for sticking to the story and keeping that review button in check! So as promised, here's... Doctor!
Chapter 7: Like Giraffes to a Flame
The next day, Claire decided to pay yet another visit to her good buddy, Doctor Trent, with colored grasses in hand. As usual, she swung the door open and made a bee-line straight the Doctor, this time not noticing that the nurse was not there at the time.
"Hey, what's up, doc?" Claire greeted doing a familiar impression while nibbling on some store-bought chocolate.
"I'm alright, thanks, but I don't think rabbits ever ate chocolate." Doctor Trent greeted back.
"Oh, then I assume you've never seen a Cadburry Bunny before?"
"A what?"
"Never mind… anyway, I brought you some grass as usual! This time, it shouldn't be too much of a problem because I got myself a mighty steer! And I decided to give mining a try and made some nice gold off of it!" Claire reported.
The jovial farmer handed in a sample of grass to the Doctor, who accepted it right on the spot.
"Thanks once again, Claire. So… your recent endeavor in mining must explain the Turbojolt you purchased yesterday. Elli me about it, and it made me curious."
"Yep! I think I'm starting to love mining so much, you can call me the "Miner '49er!"" Claire proclaimed.
"Isn't that the name of one of those Scooby Doo ghosts?"
"Oh, really? I didn't know that. I just that it was a really cute rhyme, and I happened to like the 49ers back when I lived in the city…" Claire explained.
"Really?" the Doctor asked.
The short-haired farmer nodded vigorously.
"Okay then. Unfortunately, I don't know how to smoothly segue that last bit into this topic, so I'll just have to be more direct." The Doctor started, "All this nostalgic talk about your father has really made me curious: how I'm like him and how it comforts you, but you've really never told me about him aside from how he is and what you've done together. For example, what does he do for a living now?"
"Actually, he's dead." Claire pointed out rather bluntly.
"Dead?" The Doctor repeated curiously.
"That's right, dead." Claire confirmed.
"Oh… well, I'm sorry for making this very awkward, Claire. It's just… you've always spoken of himself so vividly, I thought I'd be able to meet the man at any moment and possibly fear that he may see me as one of those dirty predators after his precious daughter and--"
"It's okay, it's okay! I don't mind talking about him at all! It' not exactly I spelled it out very clearly to you." Claire confessed, " Besides, I've been over it for awhile, and it's not like it was either of our faults for killing him! You don't need to be so paranoid about it, Doctor Death!"
Of course, the usage of the aforementioned nickname caused Doctor Trent to twitch.
"Sorry… Impulse."
"Impulse forgiven."
An uncomfortable silence passed briefly before the discussion could continue.
"So then, since your father is no longer with us in the land of the living, what did he do back when he was still around?" Doctor Trent asked.
"Um… actually…" Claire uttered as she started to think really hard. "Not much, really. He was a very nice guy, if you could tell by all those stories I told about him, but he wasn't doing to well in the work force. For the most part, it was Mom who ended up earning most of the payroll with what limited connections she had left, while Dad was hopping from job to job, either entering a company whom by some sheer run of bad luck was already on the verge of laying off its workers, or some other reason that ended up forcing him out. But he never gave up hope. Dad kept on trying to secure that one job that could help us out despite his poor background, and he always kept us smiling when he could. Maybe that's what Mom really loved about him, too…"
"Wow… he really does sound like a great man." Doctor Trent said in amazement.
"Yep, even towards the end, all he could think of is moving on and trying to improve himself. He even tried to make himself taller once."
"Make himself… taller? Is that a metaphor or something?" Doctor Trent asked.
"Actually, what he would do is grabbed a stool and a rope, and then tie the rope into a noose that he would hang high on the wall. He'd then stand up on the stool with the noose around his neck and--"
The full detail that Claire went into deeply disturbed the poor Doctor beyond composure.
"Dear Goddess…. Claire, I don't think your father was trying to make himself taller. That sort of process--"
But the poor doctor was interrupted by an uncontrollable fit of laughter.
"N-no! I'm sorry! I was just kidding! Don't worry; he never really did that sort of thing! He actually ended up dying of a disease… " Claire confessed while making it very clear that she was aware of the procedure she explained from before.
"Um… good. I was afraid at first that there might be more relevance to my Japanese nickname." The Doctor answered nervously.
"You're right. It's really just a saying Dad said when things look down. "Claire, always make yourself taller so you can wade over the troubles, instead of drowning in them." He would use to tell me. He always sounded really cool saying that, so I sometimes had these dreams of him being the Jolly Green giant, and carrying me around on his shoulder to show me the world while beating up Godzilla and King Kong." Claire explained.
"That actually would've been more convenient for your family. If your Dad had been the Jolly Green Giant, he'd likely have tenure as Company Mascot and you'd have a more secure income." The Doctor quipped.
"True…" Claire giggled, "but then I'd think Mom would have a harder time being all-lovey-dovey with Dad thanks to the size difference, and his funeral would've probably costed a whole lot more thanks to the land mass required to bury him."
"I thought giants were supposed to be immortal or something." The Doctor pondered.
"I'm not sure… weren't a lot of them killed off in mythology?" Claire asked.
"Well, if it's in mythology, then that means the stories isn't true, and the giants couldn't possibly have been killed off.
"Then wouldn't that mean giants don't exist to begin with?"
"No way! They're an official baseball team, geez!"
Again, the odd couple burst into a fit of laughter together.
"It's really strange. This was supposed to be a talk about your father's life, and all we seem to end up doing is bring ourselves into laughter…" the Doctor stated.
"I don't think he'll mind at all, really. In fact, I think he'd prefer it that way. He also used to tell me that he didn't want a depressing funeral when he died, and to celebrate his happy life, instead. The funeral ended up more fun that way, but it got really weird because of it." Claire answered.
Doctor Trent cocked an eyebrow.
"Weird? Like how?" he asked.
"Um… these guys in funny outfits showed up that I assumed were his friends. They were bawling and stuff during all of the speeches, but they really got down to partying after all the formal stuff. One of them was this really crazy guy wearing a long white wig and a giant plastic sword that called himself "Inuyasha the dog boy" or something like that." Claire explained while making really confused expressions.
"…Okay, you're right. Weird…" Doctor Trent agreed.
"But you know what? Maybe that's how they try to made themselves taller for Dad's death by being all goofy-looking and lightening the mood. That does sound like what he wanted out of the funeral, anyway." Claire recalled with a smile.
Doctor Trent gave a nod back and a brief smile of his own, before miraculously going back into his serious face.
"So… do you also happen to see me in this interesting light, being like your father somehow?" Doctor Trent asked.
"Um… I'm not sure quite like that. You're very kind and dedicated like Dad, but you're usually more on the serious side while Dad was more on the cheerful side around me. But maybe he was more serious like you at work when I wasn't looking." Claire theorized. "But I think I may have inherited more from Dad them Mom. The guys at the funeral said I seem to have a lot of his pep." Claire replied.
"So… in some twisted logic, the two of us might actually have a lot in common because from you're perception, we're both like your dad?" Doctor Trent proposed.
"Works for me." Claire said with a shrug.
"Yes, isn't that nice? Having a friend that you actually might have a lot in common with?" a mysterious voice called out eerily behind the pair.
Doctor Trent nearly leapt out of his seat from shock while Claire simply turned around with a grin.
"Hiya, Elli!" Claire greeted cheerfully.
"Good Evening, Miss Kafka!" Elli greeted back with equal cheer.
The ninja-like nurse then turned towards the Doctor with an even wider grin that started making him rather nervous.
"See, Doctor? It doesn't hurt to rest and take a load off every once in awhile, does it? This most certainly goes to show that there is a whole lot more to you than your work. Didn't that little talk with Claire feel just fine?" she asked with an excessive tone of sweetness in her voice.
"Y-yes, Elli. I suppose it did me wonders…" Doctor Trent replied shakily.
The sweet nurse then turned her attention towards Claire once again and breathed a sigh of relief.
"I'm really thankful that you could come over and give Doctor Trent your time, really. It's just, sometimes I'm worried he takes his work too seriously that he may wind himself up into a tizzy. It's especially hard as his nurse to get him to relax… I feel like my presence as his trusted partner only encourages to work even harder." Elli explained.
"Glad to be of help, Nurse Elli!" Claire replied with a solute.
Elli then uncovered a plate she had in her grasp.
"I just got back from baby-sitting little Stu after making a fresh batch of cookies with him. I had a feeling you might appreciated the treat."
"Oooh! Cookies!" Claire exclaimed right as she dug into them.
"Did you carefully measure out the ingredients so as not to use excessive sugar?" Doctor Trent asked.
"Don't worry, they're just fine!" his nurse assured them.
With a little more coaxing, the good doctor decided to try one for himself, and, more or less, approved of the taste.
In the end, Claire's routine meeting with Doctor concluded with sweet, delicious cookies.
Coming Up Next: Claire is offered a promise of ultimate power by the most unlikely of sources... will she succumb to temptation to achieve omnipotence? Find out next Chapter!
Oh, and I thank StarrNight for the inspiration behind this coming chapter! Thanks for the idea, even if it isn't quite how you'd expect it to be used.
