Disclaimer: I do not own Hey Arnold or it's characters.
Chapter 14,
Dear Diary,
We were all so excited to see the new 'Killer Vegetables from Space' movie, because the trailer looked so good. Well, we went to see it today, and it really sucked wind. We were all so incredibly disappointed by it.
And when we got out of the theater, we saw the sun setting and the streetlights went on. We missed the bus, and we were at the Avon theater, so we were really far from our homes. Arnold suggested that we take a cab, but that would have cost over thirty dollars, and we only had a few nickels and dimes between the five of us. Arnold noted that our only real option to make it home in time was to ride the subway.
Ok, now I've walked everywhere in this town, and rode nearly every available bus route, but the subway is grimy and dirty and that's why rats love it. It's like a rodent breeding ground- ugh! I hate rats! I walked away, saying that I refused to ride the subway. Heck, it would have been better to walk then deal with all of those plague-infested fur balls.
Arnold walked over to me, so we could talk privately. He asked me if I was gonna let Harold show me up 'proving he was the brave one by riding the subway, when I didn't. I told him if Harold is foolish enough to think that makes him braver then me, then he better be preparing his face for a knuckle sandwich.
Then Arnold mildly surprised me. He put his hand on my shoulder and he said he knew I hated rats, so if it would make me feel better, he swore that he wouldn't let any rats near me. I looked at his hand, then at his genuine smile, and he easily won me over. I brushed past him, telling him to stop begging, and I went down to ride the stupid subway, even though I couldn't believe it.
Arnold went ahead and called his grandmother, to let her know where he was. I tried calling, but I didn't get an answer. I bet Miriam took the phone off the hook so it wouldn't interrupt her buzz.
Arnold seemed rather calm, but it took a while for me to relax. I couldn't stop myself from thinking about the possible rats hiding on this car. And in a strange sort of way, it also reminded me of the time Arnold, Gerald and I rode the 'haunted' train to the steel mill. Little things made me jump, almost like a I had some sort of PTSD from that experience.
I looked around the subway, when I finally leveled out. There was a homeless guy, who considered this his home, a man and woman sat across from me, a blind man and his dog, and then a boarded psychiatrist with his claustrophobic patient.
Out of everyone, the couple in front of me were probably the most 'normal', but they still creeped me out because they kept staring and whispering about me. I picked up on the woman calling me a sweet little girl, and I have mixed feelings about that. Because I'm glad they recognized me as a girl, but the staring and compliment felt unusual to me. I simply gave them a smile, because I didn't know how to react, but I knew she meant no ill will.
The psychiatrist told his patient, Hillary, to face her fears is the only way to overcome them. Then he had her saying 'big open spaces', while he blatantly ignored her, by reading. Newspaper. (Scoff) Man, What kind of a shrink is he, anyways?
I may not know much about confronting fears, but I don't think 'confronting them' is the only way to help you. Maybe I'm wrong... I mean, maybe this Hillary is benefiting from this exercise. And look at Stoop Kid; Arnold made him confront his fear and he's no longer scared to leave his stoop... he might still live there, but he can leave now. I just think that maybe there's more power in figuring out why you are scared of something, then doing something just because it scares you. That sounds too much like thrill-seeking if you ask me.
Gerald might have put us on the wrong train, but halfway to the Waterloo stop, I decided to go ahead and tell Arnold that taking the subway was a good idea. He smiled at me, and so did Phoebe, but I tried not to look at them. I think Phoebe was genuinely happy that I brought myself to compliment him, but we don't really talk about the fact I like Arnold.
Shortly after that, there was large electric sparks outside the window and the train stopped moving; throwing half of us against the wall.
We all kinda went off the rails, I'll admit. Even when the driver tried to calm us down, he was too scared to keep his mouth shut. Like, when you are trapped in a hole, one of the last things I want to think about if that hole being filled with water and drowning to death. He even started crying on the speaker. I had enough of the subway, and I opened the exit door, even if Arnold didn't want me too. The second I saw a bunch of rats, I slammed that door right back up.
I was barely holding it together, and when two-faced conductor kept switching from calm to 'all hope is lost', I finally broke down and started crying. We were trapped and most likely gonna die. If we didn't suffocate, then we would starve; if we didn't starve, we'd dehydrated; if we didn't dehydrated, we'd be crushed by the tunnel, or even drown from the water above us, or killed and eaten by the rats outside the door.
I could barely hear Arnold stepping towards me, wanting to do something, anything, to ease the tension; but there wasn't anything he could do. Soon the psychologist snapped, telling Arnold to shut me up, and calling Hillary a mental case when she tried to help him.
Then the blind man smelled chocolate, and we see that Harold was hiding dozens of candy bars on his person. We all fought over the candy, and I blamed Gerold and Harold for this whole situation. Now that I think about it, I never did blame Arnold, who wanted to take the subway to begin with.
Besides, we all stopped fighting when Arnold pointed out the blind man's dog wasn't well. Turns out the dog was going into labor, and Arnold helped deliver the puppies. Arnold was so fantastic, and I couldn't resist picking up one of those sweet dogs and holding them. Then, miraculously, the train started back up again and the homeless man suggested we sing, so we did.
When we got to our stop, a woman jumped from the roof of the train and it turned out to be Arnold's grandmother. She said she knew she was the only ex-coo in this town crazy enough to save us. She climbed down into the subway system, found a wire the rats ate through and connected them so we could move again.
I asked her if she was scared of the rats, and she said rats are like most other animals. If you show them whose boss, they'll leave you alone. After all, the king of the jungle ain't no field mouse. I should probably consider that, the next time I'm afraid.
Anyways, she figured we were all sick of riding the subway, and she paid a cab to take us all home. She even went the extra mile to get out and explain to our folks what happened. I like her.
Arnold read this as he rode the bus to the hospital. It wasn't difficult to recall being trapped down there. Gerald coward in the corner, Harold was worried about running out of oxygen, Helga was crying, that lady said 'big open spaces' over a hundred times.
So many negativity happened, it's was forgettable that Helga complimented him, and refused to blame him for what happened. Like other aspects of Helga, it was one of her subtle ways of showing him that she was really in love with him.
When he walked into the building, he thought about some of the things he read. Helga technically didn't steal his hat, just didn't return it. She spent three hours searching for it, just so he could have it back. Not to mention the fact that she still thinks he's cute without his hat, when others think he looked terrible without it.
She constantly believes he is strong and brave, like when he stood up to the Jolly Olly man, saving Bob, Phoebe and Helga from the wilderness, facing the evil of all evils with Engine 25, convincing the adults to give them Gerald's Field back, and whatnot.
And it was also surprising how much Helga can read people. She surprisingly loves Arnold's grandmother, despite barely being around her; she knew Frankie G was bad news days before he did; and she knew exactly how he was feeling after he got mugged.
She was very smart. She even paid attention to Stoop Kid, and everything he's gone through with... Dr. Bliss... Dr. Bliss...? Didn't a Dr. Bliss visit their classroom one time?
"Hello Arnold." Phoebe said. Arnold looked up, he didn't even realize he had entered Helga's room.
"Hey Phoebe." He said, handing her the key. She started gathering her textbooks and Arnold bit his lip.
"Hey, Phoebe. I was reading about this lady named Dr. Bliss, and she sounded familiar, but I couldn't remember why I knew that name." Arnold said.
"Oh? You're already reading about Dr. Bliss?" Phoebe asked suspiciously.
"Helga wrote about how she was working with Stoop Kid." Arnold said and Phoebe relaxed.
"Oh, well, Dr. Bliss is Helga's school appointed psychologist. She sees her on Tuesdays and Thursdays." Phoebe said and Arnold blinked. Perhaps it makes sense for Helga to be in therapy, but he never really thought about it before.
"Oh, right." Arnold muttered. He grabbed Phoebe's chair, and he sat down next to Helga. Phoebe looked at him and she looked at Helga.
"You know, I think it might be beneficial for you to have a session with Dr. Bliss." Phoebe said and Arnold blinked at her.
"What?" Arnold asked and she nodded.
"Yeah. Helga mentioned several times that Dr. Bliss was kind and considerate, though she rarely mentioned what they discussed. I think you could benefit talking to her." Phoebe said.
"Oh, I don't know." Arnold hesitated. Phoebe took a deep breath and she exhaled slowly.
"I feel really strongly about this Arnold. Please don't force me to make it a requirement for you to borrow the key." Phoebe said and Arnold's eyes widened. That's right, Phoebe can change the rules whenever she wants to.
"Well... maybe I could stop by today after I'm done talking to Helga." Arnold said and Phoebe pulled out a tiny notebook and wrote down the address for Arnold.
"Here's her office building." Phoebe said and Arnold took it politely.
"It might be fun." Arnold said optimistically. This made Phoebe smile, and she left quietly; while Arnold spent the longest time staring at this address.