Chapter Twenty Five

YEN SID'S NARRATION VOICE:

"I'm glad that you liked the sausage stovies and baked apples." Javier said to Agapito. "I think that I should show you how to make those when my father plans to make them again."

Agapito smiled…and let out a small belch…

Whoa! That was a pretty good one.

…which surprised him a little bit.

Javier laughed.

"Don't worry. That was just a burp." He said. "It's natural and everybody burps…even girls."

Then, Cortez shouted from the inside of the house,

"Javier! It's almost time for you to go to work! Bring in the dishes and get ready for work!"

Javier groaned and quickly picked up the plates and utensils that he and Agapito used. Then, he ran into the house, through the living room, and into the kitchen. The rushed young man placed the plates and utensils next to the sink and ran out of the kitchen without even thinking about washing them. Javier quickly ran to his room and closed the door.

Agapito stood on the front porch and waited for his master to return. After a few more seconds of waiting, he walked into the house. As he walked, Agapito looked around nervously and carefully. He didn't want to experience another interaction with Juana and get hit with something that the angry grandmother can easily reach.

The toon weasel heard footsteps running towards him. He stood still and looked to where the sound of running footsteps was coming from.

To his relief, Agapito saw Javier walking towards him…with a book as thick as a dictionary in his hand.

"Look, I wish that I can stay here with you, Agapito," Javier explained while leading the toon weasel to his room, "but I have to work. You are going to stay in my room reading this book with this record playing. I'm doing this because you really need to start talking and you are going to be famous!"

Wait a second. Are you FORCING Greasy to speak by making him read and listen to a vinyl record? That's not going to work! You can't make someone talk that way!

"By October the first, you will be a Disney star!" Javier exclaimed as he placed the needle on the spinning vinyl record.

Is that why you're acting so excited, Javier? You're just forcing Greasy so that you can get the money! And…*gasp*!...Why does that remind me of the time when my mom tried to force me to join a dance team?

As soon as Javier left the room, a song was heard playing on the vinyl record player. After a few more seconds, Agapito heard a man singing that song in Spanish and Javier ran out of the room.

The toon weasel reached his hand out like he was saying, "Wait. Don't leave me."

Aww, Greasy. I know that feeling. That's exactly how I felt when my dad dropped me off at pre-school.

Then, Agapito looked at the record player and sighed.

He walked over to a tall bookshelf and pulled out a book that had both English and Spanish words written in it. As he listened to the man from the record player sing louder and louder, Agapito opened the book and started reading it.

When a Toon tries out reading and writing for the first time, learning speeds vary a lot. Some Toons may not understand the words that are read or written after the first time and some Toons may learn the meaning of the words right away.

And is Greasy a fast learner or a slow learner?

Despite of his talking function not being fully developed, Agapito's ability to read was kind of in the middle. He knew some of the words that were in the book because he heard Javier and Cortez saying them a few minutes ago. As for the rest of the words, they looked new to Agapito. He knew that he had to learn how to pronounce, read, and write those words so that he can communicate.

Agapito's eyes began to scan the words in the book.

…..

Third Person POV:

*MEANWHILE AT CRESSIDA'S HOUSE*

Cressida scrolled her phone's email page up as she checked her anything new. So far, nothing new had popped up yet…Oh, wait. Something new just…No. Never mind. It was just another email from the UnderArmour Company.

"I'm going to delete that." Cressida said to herself.

She tapped on some of the tabs on her phone and deleted the email without reading it. Then, Cressida turned off her phone and plugged it in to let it charge for the night. After that, Cressida placed her phone on her night stand, slid off her bed, took out a large book, and—

Suddenly, someone knocks on her bedroom door, causing her to put the book away. After sitting back down on her bed, Cressida asked,

"Who is it?"

"It's Penny. I came to tell you that Wheezy's here."

Cressida's eyes widened in surprise.

"Really?" She asked.

"Yes. He's waiting in the living room." Penny replied.

"Oh, okay. Uh, tell Wheezy that I'll be coming out in just a second."

…..

YEN SID'S NARRATION VOICE:

The words in book were immediately absorbed into Agapito's brain. The things that were playing on the record player had provided some pronunciations of some of the book's words for Agapito.

Even though that the weasel was beginning to know how to speak, he still didn't feel the urge to say some words out loud. Agapito wanted other people to know that he can talk…but his ability to talk was still in the process of developing. He wanted to communicate with Javier, greet Cortez properly, and even tell Juana to stop treating him like garbage.

For now, all that Agapito had to do was listen to almost every pronunciation and figure out the speaking part later.

…..

THIRD PERSON POV:

While smoking on three cigarettes, Wheezy walked over to a small box full of VHS tapes and looked at what was inside of it. Some of the titles of the VHS tapes were kind of attention-grabbing…but there was one that grabbed Wheezy's attention almost immediately after looking at it.

That VHS tape was titled Grave of the Fireflies.

Wheezy coughed at couple of times and mumbled,

"Hmm. Very interesting."

He picked up the VHS tape that almost slid out of its paper case. His eyes widened with surprise after seeing the front of the case.

Two individuals were standing underneath a pitch black airplane with a torn umbrella over their heads. Just by looking at the tall individual carrying the small individual on his back, Wheezy had a feeling that he was looking at two siblings instead of two average individuals.

"Why are the siblings standing under a—?" Wheezy asked himself and just stopped after looking at the airplane.

Oh no. He thought as he stared at the plane in horror.

The memories of his past were coming back to him again, making him clench his teeth again. Just like what happened during Cressida's party, Wheezy began to hear voices and sounds in his head.

In his head, he began to hear explosions, loud splashes, machine guns, tommy guns, men shouting, waves splashing, and airplanes roaring in the sky.

"JOHNATHAN! WATCH OUT FOR THE ENEMY!"

"THERE'S TOO MANY OF 'EM! THERE'S NO ESCAPE!"

*BANG-BANG-BANG*! *BANG-BANG-BANG*!

…

*BOOM*!

…

"MAYDAY, MAYDAY! THE SHAMROCK'S BEEN HIT! I REPEAT, THE SHAMROCK'S BEEN HIT!"

…

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

…

"JOHNATHAN! NOOOOOOOO!"

…

"GET AWAY FROM ME…AND MY HOME! IF I SEE YOU AGAIN, I'LL BEAT THE INK OUT OF YOU!"

"AHHHHHHHH…!"

"Hi, Wheezy."

Immediately after hearing a gentle voice, Wheezy snapped back to reality and looked at where the voice was coming from.

Cressida was standing behind the couch while wearing a lavender sports tank top and black pajama pants. Her eyes were partially displaying concern while Wheezy looked back at her.

As if he realized that he was in a trance, Wheezy snapped back to reality and said,

"Hey, Cressida."

"Is everything all right?" Cressida asked as she walked around the couch.

"*cough, cough*! Yeah. Everything's fine. I just…wasn't acting like myself, that's all. I'm fine now."

"Oh, okay."

Then, Cressida noticed the Grave of the Fireflies tape in Wheezy's right hand after sitting down on the couch.

"Grave of the Fireflies, huh?" She asked. "What a very interesting movie choice, Wheezy."

"Huh?" Wheezy asked and then looked at the tape. "Oh! Uh, sorry. *cough, cough, cough*! I just—*cough*!—looking at this…thing while I was waiting for you in here. The title caught my attention and I just wanted to see what that was about."

As he put the tape back where he found it, Cressida explained,

"That movie is about two siblings in Japan who try to survive during the final months of World War II after their mother dies during an air raid."

Wheezy looked up at the wall in front of him, blinked twice in surprise, and said,

"An air raid? I was in an air raid once."

"Really?"

"*cough*! Yeah."

As Wheezy walked over to where Cressida was sitting, Cressida asked,

"What was it like to be in an air raid?"

Wheezy sat down next to Cressida and exhaled, letting a small but thick cloud of smoke slip out of his mouth before fading away into nothing.

Then, without trying to trigger more memories, Wheezy replied,

"It's really crazy and scary—*cough*!—at the same time. So many things would happen all at once when something happens."

"Wow."

"I wish that I can reveal a little more about air raids…but there are some things that I don't want to bring up and I don't—*cough, cough, cough*!—want to act like what had happened at your party."

"It's okay if you don't want to talk any more about the air raids, Wheezy. I'm not going to make you."

Wheezy smiled.

"Thank you." He said in a raspy voice.

"No problem at all." Cressida replied.

Then, Wheezy inhaled on his cigarettes, paused for a second, and blew out a small puffy cloud of smoke. He watch it float away from him and Cressida for a brief second before turning his head back to her.

"I would like to mention that—*cough, cough, cough*!—I didn't come here to talk about air raids and movies." He said. "I just thought about coming here and see how you are doing right now."

"Well, Wheezy," Cressida began, "I'm doing great. I'm just getting used to the summer break."

"That's good."

"How about you?"

"It's kind of the same for me."

"Hmm." Cressida replied as she nodded her head.

Wheezy looked at Cressida's head and noticed that only a little bit of her hair was growing back.

"Are you thinking about growing your hair back out?" He asked.

"I'm thinking about it." Cressida replied. "I can't really decide whether I should grow my hair back or just shave my hair off. I don't know. What do you think, Wheezy? Should I grow my hair back or no?"

Uh oh.

This is a moment that Wheezy had a funny feeling about for a while. He knew that there might be a day when Cressida was going to ask him a question like this. But asking him on this night? That was too unexpected. Greasy can easily handle something like this but…how, he thought, can he do that without ticking a woman off? He had no idea. Greasy had more experience and made loving a woman look too easy, thanks to how long he's been hanging out with Beatrice.

Well, if he can remember clearly, Wheezy knew that women can be pretty sensitive about some things, even when it comes to their beauty and the truth. He knew because Greasy used to focus on a woman's body instead of her feelings before he met Beatrice.

Wheezy also knew that lying about what you say, do, or think isn't the way to go either. Women prefer the truth and—

Why the heck is he thinking about all of this? He is thinking too much and is leaving Cressida to wait for his answer.

Well, Wheezy thought, I guess that I should be honest with her…even if Cressida might not pick a good choice almost immediately after I give her my answer.

"You look pretty either way, Cressida." He said. "With or without hair, you still look pretty."

Then, Wheezy widened his eyes in shock and slapped a hand over his mouth.

He…ACTUALLY said it.

He looked away from Cressida in embarrassment.

Was he too honest? Did he mess up?

He had no idea.

"Really, Wheezy?" Cressida asked. "Do you really think so?"

Wheezy slowly uncovered his mouth.

"I truly—*cough*!—do." He replied nervously.

"Aw, Wheezy, don't sound ashamed." Cressida said. "You didn't mess up. What you just said was really nice."

Wheezy looked at Cressida and explained,

"I'm really sorry…but I've never really talked to a girl like this before. I'm really nervous about this. I might—*cough, cough*! *gasssssp*! *cough, cough, cough, cough*!—apologize a lot."

"You don't need to worry, Wheezy." Cressida said as she placed a hand on Wheezy's shoulder. "As long as you're honest with me, then you really have nothing to worry about."

"You sure?"

Cressida nodded.

"Okay. I'll just…try not to worry about anything." Wheezy said.

Then, just as Cressida was about to say something, Penny walked in the living room and said,

"Cressida, where do you keep your spare phone chargers?"

Cressida looked at Penny and replied,

"I keep my spare phone chargers in my lower right desk drawer."

"But I looked in there and I still couldn't find one."

Cressida sighed.

"Can you hold on just a second?" She asked Wheezy.

"I'll wait. I have all night." He replied.

…

YEN SID'S NARRATION VOICE:

For the next several hours, Agapito read every book that was available while listening to the same record over and over and over. His ability to understand words increased word by word but his ability to pronounce them still didn't develop.

I'm sure that Greasy will start talking once he and Javier go to the auditions. Right? I mean, sometimes greater confidence doesn't come to an individual until they're actually do something at a certain place. At least…at least that sort of thing happens in the movies.

Agapito felt worn out. He didn't know what to do. Should he find another way to communicate or stay silent?

He had no idea.

Suddenly, the door swung open, surprising Agapito.

But to his relief, it was Javier.

"I'm sorry to barge in like this, Agapito," Javier said while trying to catch his breath, "but I have some wonderful news. I just got a script from some man who is managing the auditions for toon weasels. I want you to look at this part that's underlined. It's that one line."

After Javier handed him the script, Agapito looked at that one underlined part. The part was only three words long.

Whoa. That's a really short part.

"All you have to say is 'Who goes there'." Javier said. "'Who goes there' and that's it. I have a feeling that you're going to be famous after the audition!"