Chapter Ten: The Baby in the Photograph
(The next morning)
Bounce…..bounce…bounce.
A bouncing ball…..I'm in this dark room. Or tunnel, maybe.
I hear the laughter of a small child and soon I see the heavily silhouetted figure of said child.
I see the ball being picked up by them and follow up to their heads like in the movies.
'Daddy…?'
*The Once-ler's POV*
My eyes slowly open, and turn to my clock in time to watch it change from 4:49 to 4:50 AM. I rub my temples and lay on my back, staring up at the ceiling for a bit.
How many times does this make it now? For the girl, I mean? I dunno, I lost count after...after...oh gosh, I've lost count of THAT as well. But that's not too important, I've been having those dreams nearly every night for nearly forty years (by my best estimate). They're all the same too: I'm in a dark room or tunnel of some kind, I see a white bouncing ball, hear the laughter of a child and I follow the ball to them.
The thing my dreams won't show me? What the girl or boy actually looks like. The only reasons I know it was a girl this time was because she always a plaid jumper and Mary Jane shoes. And I really do not need that...I already have some suspicions of what, no, who they look like.
Yes. Yes, what I told Mustache the other day was a lie: I DO have a child out there somewhere.
I get up and go over to my desk where I keep the red album. I used to keep it under my bed or pillow but since the Wall came down and O'Hare now essentially out of the picture, I've felt a bit better over not holding it in my hands almost twelve hours a day. I debate turning on my lantern but decide I don't want The Lorax or any of the animals turning up; the sun is about to rise anyway so my eyes are going to be straining themselves for long.
The letters are a bit worn from being read so many times but the photos are still in good condition due to me keeping them in plastic. But the one that's most precious to me is kept folded in my hat. On the back is MARCH, some smudge I can't decipher, and the year 1975. I know this baby was born around the end of that month because I 'received' this in the beginning of April. The front of it still brings me the same joy as it did when I first got it...
The photo is the first I have seen of my child -whoever they are- out in this big, wide world for the very first time. The baby is kept safe and warm in what I believe is the most full baby bunting that has ever been made ever (only the baby's sleeping face sticks out of it). He or she also has a smaller than average pacifier in their mouths. This is one of the few photos I have where they're being peaceful. Though this is in black-and-white, I can already tell the small tuft of hair on their forehead is dark in color (1).
*whimper* My eyes are getting misty, the only reason I allow two tears to roll down my cheeks. Looking through this album has kept me going through the times out here that were the hardest, which were usually the times when I would get my hopes up and then have them dashed when kids would come and never return to hear the rest of the story. Or the long stretches of the times in-between where no one would come at all.
The rest of the story, I almost laugh. The underlining part no one ever knew existed before...and still don't know about.
I know what you're thinking: Lying to The Lorax the other day was NOT a smart move. I know now that with him, the animals, and some new people in my life, one way or another, it WILL be found out eventually. Okay, I tell someone. But who?
If I had kept my promise and things worked out, the first being (be they human, animal, or nature spirit) that would ever know ever would be Melvin. He may be a snark but he does love kids and I know he would be over the moon if he knew one of us brothers had a baby he could possibly give rides to. The first human being who would know would be a cousin I've been close to for a long time. But Melvin is not here and must not have been for awhile, and since I haven't heard from my cousin for nearly forty years, the first I should tell has to be Mustache. Out of everyone then and now, I think he deserves it the most.
That settles it: Tomorrow, after breakfast, I'm gonna track him down and tell him. I go back to my bed and start trying to get back to sleep before I can actively talk myself out of this.
CRASH!
I bolt upright. What was that?! I jump outta bed and run over to the window and this time I turn on the lights. But even though the sun is making the horizon noticeably brighter, there is still not enough light to see further than my old factory.
Was that a car? It really sounded like one! Oh my gosh, what if someone is in trouble? I throw on some clothes and grab my coat. In minutes, I'm outside with my lantern calling out and looking around to where I believe the sound came from.
*About Twenty Minutes Later*
I get back inside my Lerkim, my thoughts racing. I haven't found anything, no car wrecks or anything like that. That's the type of sound I heard. I wonder if I just imagined it in my daze but at the same time, I wonder what would happen if I DIDN'T report it and something really DID happen.
I call the police.
*Mid-morning*
As you can probably guess, I did not go back to sleep. I spent the whole sunrise out on my porch waiting to see if I could find anything out. I didn't, the only thing that possibly looks different are the tall trees that have set up a few miles away from my factory. I decide to go inside and make something to eat. The police said they are gonna send someone out to talk to me.
That was about an hour ago - I chalk it to them having a difficult time finding the way here. Even though there's only one route here (which was for my delivery trucks), it's still pretty hard to find the quickest way to get here.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! I practically jump. Sheesh, that must be the cops. I open the door and do in fact find two cops waiting for me.
The two introduce themselves as Officers Peters and James (2). What apparently happened was one of the tall trees beyond my factory somehow fell down near a bunch of college kids out for a camping party. Huh, so that's what looked so different...
For awhile, they ask me questions about the noise I heard and how I went looking for it. I think I tell it truthfully but I can't help starting to think that Officer James (the younger of the two) eyes me with suspicion. Well, I guess if you're the one who chopped down an entire forest of Truffula trees, you would be at the top of the suspect list too! Things really get tense when I noticed that Mustache was looking through the window (which I'd left open) but I manage to get in front of it in time. Thankfully, they do not seem to notice.
"Well, that's all the questions we have for now." says Officer Peters, who hands me a card with their numbers on it.
"Keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. We don't want these 'pranks', or whatever they are, to be spreading to this area of town." says Officer James, who shakes my hand goodbye. He's not too bad.
But...'pranks'? I wonder what they mean by that?
I watch them drive down the road (they asked for directions back to town) and the instant they disappear, I run behind my house to where Mustache is. When I do, he actually bumps into my leg and falls backward but is up in a flash.
I ask him "What happened?!" and at the same time he asks "What were the cops doin' at your place?!". Then he tugs at my leg and urges me to follow him. I do, and ask the few animals who came with him to watch the house until we get back.
On our way over, we calm ourselves down enough to explain what happened. It was easy for me to tell my side but his started much earlier...
Every so often, he and a group of animals would wake up before the sun rose and being unable to fall back asleep, they usually find a spot to watch it. They were wandering in the opposite direction when two things happened at once: Mustache got this very sudden and very splitting headache and there was this horrific buzzing noise that woke EVERYONE up.
When they heard the tree crash, Mustache ran to it and found a group of kids all around, moaning.
But the part that stuck out to him the most was the smell. "Like apples, only not really. It's hard to explain..." It takes me a minute to realize he's talking about beer. I explain that some college kids went out for a camping party (and evidently got hammered during it).
It takes longer than I expect to reach the tree's spot - I thought The Lorax would lead me in a straight line there like my view out my window but instead he takes me around my factory and up the hillside in what I guess is similar to half an oval. I'm lucky I've managed to stay in relatively good health all these years but I'm not as young as I used to be, so I have to CRAWL up the rest of the hill to see the sight. Soon we peek over the edge.
"Hey, doncha think you should take your hat off?" Mustache whispers. There's no one around but we both feel to do that for some reason. I take my hat off to lessen our chances of being caught (a bit reluctantly, might I add. I am not super pleased about going bald!).
The sight is, um, amazing and shocking at the same time: The tree needed more than one person to make a circle around it, so it was pretty wide and quite tall from what I can remember. Alas, now all that's left is giant flat stump.
I turn to Mustache. "Did you see anything else when you got here?"
He shakes his head. "Only some startled and groggy kids. I'm just glad no one was hurt..." I agree, and we both slink back to start our trek back to my house. As we get halfway down the hill, something occurs to me.
"Mustache, one of the cops mentioned that the other areas of town are having trouble with these...'pranks', I guess you call them-" he turns around to me "-so you do know about this." I finish.
He doesn't meet my gaze at first. "They're not pranks. Or if they are, it is in very poor taste." He sniffs to show his disapproval and offers to sit down and tell me. I'm glad he does - I think I'm gonna need a break before we start the walk back home.
For the past few months, the animals would notice excessively amounts of trash - usually cans or other plastic stuff - but just after we heard Ted had brought in and planted the last seed, things started to pick up and it got more - well, I'm not sure if you call a drawing vicious but *I* certainly do!
The 'drawing' is actually a spray-painted picture on the side of a brick building - of a Bar-ba-loot with a target sign on its back. This greatly unnerved them, as this apparently was not there the other times they had settled there. (That would definitely unnerve me!)
"At the very start of it, we thought whatever, there are just bad apples -um, no pun intended," he says after he realizes that. "Then I noticed something that told me it was - isn't - random."
Oh, this does not sound good. "What?"
"We'd find things in every one of the places the animals would trek to during their seasonal migrations. Some of it was really smelly, and we would remember what you told us about certain things that couldn't be thrown out 'the ordinary way'. All of us would go to our areas hoping nothing was there, only to..." he trails off.
"You think someone is FOLLOWING you?"
Is anyone else having a little trouble imaging this? I am! I cannot imagine who would wanna follow my animal friends and their guardian around and make their homes dirty and scare them with graffiti pictures.
"It's the only explanation I can think of...unless you have a better one?" I don't, sadly. "Well, we can get by for a few more months, at least until the Truffulas here start producing more fruit and grow a bit taller."
Then I get an idea. "You said you find stuff every time you leave an area and come back?"
"Yeah...?"
"Why don't we do a test?" He looks confused. "I'd like to see if someone really IS following you or not. So here's what we do: All of the animals and you move somewhere closer to my house and over the coming days, we see if there are any changes in the immediate area. Then you move back to where you were before and see what happens - or has happened."
This is a REALLY big risk I'm taking: If the cops had trouble getting here, what would happen if we actually find our stalker? What if they try to hurt Mustache, or the animals? And what if Ted or Audrey somehow found them? But I try to push those thoughts away. The biggest advantage I can see us (possibly) having is strength in numbers.
"That does sound like a good idea..." he nods, "but where would all the animals sleep? We may sleep on the ground, but that doesn't mean we like getting dirty - or dusty, in the case of your factory floor."
I totally agree. "You can stay in my house, just like you used to do." When they're not sneaking in and trying to send me down a river. Ha ha!
"But there are more of us now. Isn't your house a little small?"
"I'll make room. And you can all sleep in my room with me."
He thinks about it for a minute. "That sounds good to me." He gets up noticeably happier. "We better get goin', otherwise the littler ones are gonna think somethin's happened to us."
"Hee, yeah, let's go." I get up and follow him back to my house, ready to discuss my idea for seeing if someone is being random or actually stalking them.
MY plan - for telling Mustache the truth about this baby in the photos - will have to be put on hold for a little longer. Even so, I keep a little ways behind The Lorax, adjusting my hat and keeping the red album as close as I can get without hurting myself.
Ohhhhh, boy! No wonder our Once-ler is a bit (okay, a LOT) antsy about showing others his red album. HIS child?! How did THIS come about?! :O
#1: The baby takes its likeness from the baby you can have in one of the Harvest Moon video games. Tell me which one you think it is! :D
#2: The two cops' names are based off the two main characters from the late-1960s TV series Adam-12. It's a show about two beat cops and it is done as realistically as humanly possible. I've seen a few and I think it's really good!
This is one of many chapters where I wish I could draw better XD But anyway...
In our next chapter:
A fun sleepover chapter in which The Once-ler tells everyone about a famous book series...