Chapter Twenty Five

Beatrice:

"All right," I said, straightening myself up. "What did I do this time?"

"Psycho, let go of the broad." Smarty said.

Psycho looks at Smarty and rolls off the bed in insanity. He giggles as he's rolling around on the floor, acting like a pig rolling around in mud.

"And do you realize that the term 'broad' is an offensive word for girls, especially me?" I asked.

"We want to know why you were sneaking out of your room." Smarty said. He pulls his switchblade out of his coat and flips it open. "I want answers right now."

Greasy and Wheezy catch Smarty with the switchblade in his hand and sigh in irritation.

"Boss," Greasy said. "We talked about this. Put the switchblade away."

"Yeah," Wheezy agreed. "Let's not use weapons this time."

Is Wheezy siding with Greasy? I thought.

"All right." Smarty said and closes the switchblade. "Why were you looking up on some clips about our cousins?"

"My curiosity overpowered me." I replied. "I was really curious about your cousins and I wanted to know why people thought that they didn't laugh themselves to death."

"What are you talking about?"

"C'mon, boss." Stupid said. "You know very well that we followed her and you know why our cousins died."

"Wait, what?" I asked.

"Yes, we followed you and we now know that our cousins died with 'rust' in their 'fungs'."

"It's 'dust' and 'lungs'."

"Whatever." Smarty said. "We didn't want to cause any trouble and thanks for 'corroborating' with us."

"It's 'cooperating'". I corrected.

Smarty rolled his eyes and frowned at me.

"Is that all you're going to do?" He asked.

"Do what?" I asked back.

"Correcting everything that I'm saying. Aren't you going to spit on my face or punch me or something?"

Punching Smarty sounds tempting but I know better than to do that. I have other options and one of them was trying to talk Smarty out of fighting. He probably wouldn't hit a girl like me.

"Look, Smarty." I said. "I don't want to fight you anymore. Plus, fighting isn't always my first choice."

"FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT! HEE HEE HEE!" Psycho exclaimed.

"Oh, really?" Smarty asked me, mockingly.

"I have other choices. I could choose to ignore you, which can sometimes mean that I'm giving you a warning."

"Any other choices, you broad?"

"If you continue to push me around, I can give you another warning, then, an irritating stare, and if you don't listen to any of my warnings, then I can spit on your face and maybe…" I looked down at my right fist. "…maybe, if you go too far, I'll punch you and I swear, you will regret EVERYTHING because the punch would hurt like heck, way worse than a rattlesnake or black widow bite."

Smarty gave me a scared look and the rest of the Toon Patrol looks at him.

"Heh, heh, heh." Greasy chuckled. "What's the matter, boss? You afraid of the muchacha?"

Then, Psycho, Wheezy, and Stupid joined Greasy and his laughing. But they didn't laugh for long after complaining about how their chests are still hurting after getting defibrillated back to life. I seriously wasn't trying to sound like a bully but this is another one of those things that I can choose besides fighting. It's called 'giving someone a taste of their own medicine', or 'revenge'…for short.

"No, I'm not afraid of the broad." Smarty said. "But if she still has the 'de-tire' to punch me, then she better get it out of her 'dictum'."

"First of all, it's 'desire' and 'system'." I said. "Second of all, I still don't want to punch you, although I'm really tempted, and third of all, Smarty, read a dictionary or a book with six hundred pages. You have to extend that vocabulary and cut down on your malapropisms."

"All right, all right, all right. I get the point. I don't need any more answers from you."

Smarty leaves the room and everyone, except for Greasy, exits with him.

"Nice one!" He said. "You were on a role!"

"I hope Smarty knows better and thinks twice before trying to mess with me." I replied.

"Yeah, he will."

…..

Tommy:

When Eddie was driving me to the hospital, I realized that today was the day that Beatrice and I turn seventeen. I was so busy with helping Eddie on finding the conclusion of the mystery that I wasn't keeping track of the date. Also, if Beatrice is well enough to walk again, then we can drive back home and tell Mom that she doesn't need to treat Beatrice badly or give her bad advice.

I seriously wonder if Mom and Dad have been worried sick after thinking that we've ran away.

"Is everything all right, Tommy?" Eddie asked me.

"I'm just thinking about how my mom would react after hearing Beatrice stick up for herself for once." I replied. "But then again, I'm afraid that if Beatrice tries to speak again, then she'll stop in the middle of her sentence and stop talking."

"I'm sure that Beatrice will speak up. Remember last night when she found the will? Beatrice said a big mouthful of words."

"Yeah, she sure did." I said with a mixture of motivation and doubt.

Eddie detected the hint of doubt in my voice.

"Beatrice will be all right, Tommy." He said sternly, almost sounding like Dad. "Even if she doesn't speak up for herself, she'll be all right. Just stick with her, no matter what. Got it?"

I nodded and Eddie parked close to the door.

"All right. Let's act like we didn't have this conversation and see if Beatrice is good to check out." Eddie said.

We got out of the car and walked in to the hospital. I walked up to the receptionist and told her that I came, along with Eddie Valiant, to check on my sister. At first, the receptionist was confused but when I told her Beatrice's name, she immediately told me and Eddie to follow Nurse Mary, a woman with red curls, red lips, and green eyes.

As soon as Nurse Mary led me and Eddie to Beatrice's room, Greasy walked out of her room with a big smile on his face. I wonder what's making his morning great.

I walked in to the room and we saw Beatrice with a small smile on her face.

"Hey, guys." She said.

"How are feeling right now?" Eddie asked.

"I'm feeling good right now. I wonder if I'm able to walk, even with a gunshot wound in my leg."

"Let's see you try." I suggested.

Beatrice immediately shoves the blanket off of her and swings her legs off the edge of her bed.

"There's no rush." Eddie reminded. "Even though that you're a trooper, there's no rush."

Beatrice slowly slides off of her bed and her feet touch the floor. She takes a deep breath and stands up. She steps with her right foot…then, slowly, she steps with her left. Beatrice winces a little bit but she continues to walk. Then, walking turns to limping but as she walks in a Figure Eight path, Beatrice's limping transforms into almost flawless walking. What I mean to say is that Beatrice is barely limping while walking around.

"Wow." Eddie said. "It seems that you're fully healed already."

"Yay! I can walk again!" Beatrice answered.

"Wow!" Nurse Mary exclaimed. "Way to go!"

Then, Beatrice stands on one foot like she was a stork. Perfectly balanced. She opens her arms, as if she had airplane wings made out of cardboard and cereal boxes taped on to her. Still in perfect balance. I wonder if Beatrice will still have good balance if I had a book…or maybe six bathroom towels…and put them on her head.

Anyway, Nurse Mary looked up on Beatrice's chart and after a brief look, Nurse Mary made it official. Beatrice is well enough to leave the hospital and go home. Eddie, Beatrice, and I smiled in satisfaction.

When we left the room, Jessica walked in and told us that she brought Beatrice's truck. Beatrice thanked Jessica for bringing it over.

Roger came over to us with a big smile on his face.

"Thanks to you, Eddie, Tommy, Beatrice, and Jessica, my name is cleared and the police say that I'm off the hook!" He exclaimed. "Toon Town is saved and we can live in harmony!"

"Judge Doom will no longer come back to haunt the Toons but I'm pretty sure that he'll be a story that'll probably scare many kids and make them behave." Eddie said.

We nodded our heads.

"Well, Beatrice," I said. "Are you ready to go home?"

"Yep." She replied. "It's time to show Mom that I can talk again."

"Beatrice?" Roger asked.

"Yes?"

"I was really proud when you said those things to Doom. I thought that you weren't going to speak up for yourself."

"Well, I did what you told me to and it felt really good to get something out of my mouth."

"As you go back home, Beatrice, I want you to remember what I said about keeping secrets."

"I will remember that, Roger."

"And," Eddie said. "I want you to try to be more careful when you're out on your own."

Then, we said our good-byes. They weren't too emotional and the good-byes were really quick. Beatrice and I had to do them before we go back to Houston.

After Roger gave me and Beatrice two pictures of himself and Jessica wishing us good luck on our way back home, Beatrice and I left the hospital. I volunteered to drive us back home since Beatrice has gone through a lot of injuries and needs a little break from moving around.

I started the truck and carefully pulled out of the parking lot. We were at least fifteen feet away from the hospital when Eddie came running out of the hospital and chased after us. I stopped and pulled over.

"Roger told me that it was your birthday today and he reminded me to tell you 'Happy Birthday'." Eddie said while a little out of breath.

"Thanks, Eddie." I said.

"And I got something for you two."

He reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out two police badges. I looked at the badges and the inscriptions had 'Eddie' and 'Teddy' written on them.

"Eddie, these are really nice but these badges belong to you and Teddy." I said.

"You two can keep them." He said. "Despite of you two being teenagers, you helped me a lot in the case. It's time for me to get new badges anyway. But, ah, these badges are also reminders, to help you remember Roger's set-up and when Beatrice got her voice back. Good luck on your drive."

"Thanks, Eddie." Beatrice said. "These look really nice."

Eddie smiled and left us.

I started the truck again and began our drive home.

Then, something just hit me.

"Beatrice, when Greasy left your room at the hospital, he had a smile on his face. What was he smiling about?" I asked.

"Greasy and I talked about some things. I told him that I wasn't ready to start dating and instead of being enemies or anything worse than that, I wanted to be friends with him. We shook on it and things worked out." She explained.

"Oh."

"I sure hope two things. I hope that Greasy will remember our deal and I hope that Mom doesn't get mad at me once I speak up for myself."

"I'm sure that she won't be too mad. I mean, she will be mad but only a little."

I, along with Beatrice, sure do hope Mom doesn't get too mad.