Parents
Tenna sat on the couch doing her best to hold down the shivering child. She hoped really hard that Devi wouldn't be mad. It wasn't her fault that the kid was so afraid of everything.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door, and since Tenna never locked said door it came open and Devi walked in. "Hello?"
"Hi Devi!" Tenna squealed waving. When she did her grip on the nervous little Squee was loosened and the boy bolted to Devi nearly knocking her over, squishing Shmee between them.
"What the hell happened to you?" Devi asked knowing full well that Tenna hadn't been the source of Todd's discomfort, she was too cheery to hurt people.
"Well." Tenna started as she got up. "First the toaster tried to strangle him with it's cord, then pigeons from outside turned out to be actual rats with wings that tried to carry him away and then the thing from the toilet tried to eat him." She paused. "Then we had lunch and the oven attempted revenge for his lost friend the toaster." She squeaked Spooky. "He had a rough day."
Devi only stared at Tenna for a moment. "Okay..." She looked down at Todd. "Ready to go back to my place now?"
Todd nodded furiously.
"Okay then. Thank Tenna." She waved at her friend, who she paid for baby-sitting in croutons by the way.
"Bye Squeegee!" Tenna squealed waving enthusiastically to him.
Todd waved back slowly with one hand and clung to Devi with the other.
She unlocked her door and opened it. "So what do you want for dinner tonight?" She asked as they went in. "Ramen noodles or canned-Johnny!" She instinctively pulled Todd behind her at the sight of Johnny standing in her living room.
"You don't have to hide him from me Devi." He said, he sounded depressed. She'd seen him this way before, a long time ago, before. He would come into the book store looking as though he'd found out his dog had died along with the rest of his family. Back then she could usually get him to at least leave with a half-smile on his face if not more.
But that was then, this was now.
"Hi Johnny." Todd squeaked feeling a sort of tension between the two.
"Hey Squee." Johnny replied. His eyes darted back to Devi. "We need to talk."
"Todd, go to your room okay?"
"Okay Devi." He went to his room peeking out the door as he closed it.
"Nice kid." Johnny said absently.
"So what do you want to talk about?" Devi almost demanded as she crossed her arms wondering where she had but that bottle of mace.
"Him." Nny said sitting on the couch. "I can take him back if you still don't think you can take care of him."
"I can take care of him just fine now." She replied sitting stiffly in a chair.
"That's." He seemed at a loss for a word to finish with. "Good." He finished after fighting with his vocabulary.
There was a pause between them.
"He hears a voice you know." Johnny said. "His bear. I don't know if it's a good one or a bad one."
"Voices are rarely anything good." She said rather bitterly.
His eyes snapped to her, she thought he was about to spring at her. "What kind do you hear Devi?" He asked.
She glared. "We're supposed to be discussing Todd, not my mental problems."
"I'll bet I know what kind." His voice took on a twistingly knowing edge. "I'll bet it's the kind that burrows into your head, hears everything and knows what you know. What's its' name Devi? How much of you has this one stolen like mine did to me?"
She shifted in her chair. "Not that it's any of your business but her name is Sickness, and unlike you I rejected her. All that's left is a couple screws in my bag and her crying every once in a while in the back of my head." She crossed her arms and looked away from him.
He stood up edging to the door, his own arms crossed and appearing very withdrawn. "I must go, out, I'll give you money. Got to leave, monkeys after me." The last part was mumbled so she didn't quite catch it.
Then as quickly as he appeared he was gone. She hadn't even noticed the door opening. But then this was Nny, he did things like that.
She got up quietly and shuffled to Todd's room. She half expected to hear him talking to Shmee.
Voices. Did everyone she know hear voices out of inanimate objects or was it just her imagination?
But she heard nothing, just silence. She pushed open the door slowly. "Todd?"
He was sitting on his bed looking down at his teddy bear in his arms. "Am I going away?" He asked not casting his eyes away from the bear.
She sat on the bed next to him and hugged him with one arm. "No. You're staying right here with me." She felt him jerk in surprise. "Looks like you're stuck with me."
"You mean it?" He practically burst out with happiness.
"I mean it. Looks like you exchanged a dysfunctional family for an insane one though." She was of course referring to the fact that his new 'mommy' and 'daddy' both hear voices that told them to do bad things. But he didn't need to know about her little doll Sickness whose eyes were in-fact still in her bag like she'd told Johnny.
He hugged her tightly. "I'm glad."
There was a flash. "Aww how cute! Kodak moment!" Tenna cried letting the camera down.
She bounced on into the room. "Hey since you're going to play mommy Devi can I play sister?" She asked.
"I don't know if that's such a."
"Oh please, oh please, oh please!" Tenna interrupted getting on her knees. "I wanna be sister!"
Devi glanced down at Todd.
"I never had a sister before." Todd said.
"I guess it would be okay." Devi said. And why the hell not? Kid already had a derange dad and less than motherly mom. Why not a psychotically happy sister?
"Oh yay!" Tenna cheered squeaking Spooky madly.
Yes most definitely an insane family.
* * *
Todd ran with all his might down the street. He was in the suburban area around his home. Ever since the realization dawned on Devi that Todd's house was sitting empty without his parents He, Devi and even Tenna had moved in. Not that Todd really cared. It kept him closer to, well, closer to his dad.
But right now it yielded little protection from what he was fleeing from.
He rounded a corner jumping with every ounce of energy he had and grabbed hold of a tree branch from a Cedar tree that was growing by the sidewalk in someone's yard. Quickly as he could he pulled himself up a few of the branches making himself look small. His dark clothes hid him in the evergreen tree and he held his breath.
A group of six kids went rushing under the branch moments later. They were grunting their frustration at not finding him in striking distance. They ambled past and around another corner. He was about to let himself down when one of the kids started back in his direction.
After years of fleeing and hiding he had learned many things, one was to hold his breath for long periods of time and calm it as well. Right now he was breathing normally even after the nearly three hundred yard dash he'd been through.
The kid stopped just under his branch and actually looked like he was trying to sniff him out. He grunted a lot but just wouldn't leave.
In the back of his mind Shmee whispered a few possible routs of escape all of which involved setting the kid on fire with the lighter in Todd's pocket.
Todd rolled his eyes, he was getting fed up, and his legs were stinging from the sudden inactivity and cramped position. He angled himself and dropped down right on his would-be attacker. The other kid crumpled under him. He didn't weight much but he had surprised the other boy.
Once it was confirmed that the other boy was out he got his bearings back and dashed for his house. His sneakers made almost no noise as he ran carefully along the road. He jumped a fence out stepping a mini-Doberman into the other yard where he had to outrun a Mastiff.
On the other side of that fence he ran across a front lawn streaking across the road narrowly missed being run over by a car and landed feet first in his own lawn.
He glanced around to see if his pursuers had seen him and followed. But upon seeing no one but a stray cat down the street he made the last sprint to his front step and went into his house.
"I'm home!" He called out. He tried to dry the sweat from his hair since the running had made him a little too hot.
"I'm in here Todd!"
He went into the kitchen finding Devi at the table. She had a book in front of her. He knew what it was, 'Larry Potthead and the Sorcerer's Stoned', a book he'd had for a while now.
She immediately saw the signs of his run-around. "Trouble at school?" She marked her place and closed the book.
He reached into the fridge for the juice bottle. "Nah, some lunks thought it would be fun to play 'Smear the Queer' with me as the guy with the ball permanently. Nothing out of the ordinary." He poured himself some juice, which happened to be cherry flavored. "How was work today?"
"Didn't have work today remember?"
"Oh yeah." He drank some juice and sat down across from her. "So what *did* you do today?"
"Shopped." She said simply.
"For what?" He took another drink.
"For whatever is in that bag on the counter." She motioned to a paper bag he had overlooked when he had gone for his juice.
He glanced at her and then got up to investigate. He opened the bag and his jaw dropped. "Wow." He pulled out a shiny black writing pad with 'Todd' in silver on the front.
"Happy birthday Todd." She got up and hugged him.
"Thanks." He paused. "Mom."
"Congratulations, you made it to sixteen without getting a girl pregnant!"
He reddened a bit.
"No, really, that's a big accomplishment." She smirked.
He fingered the silver lettering on his new writing pad. "Is dad going to stop by today?" He looked up at her slowly.
"I can't really tell." She shrugged. "He's been in there for a week now, you know how he gets."
"Yeah." Old images from when he was little flashed through his head. "I know."
"Well, you go and check on him today. Take a can of skettios from under the counter, see if he at least ate the last one you brought him." She said patting him on the shoulder.
Todd nodded and reached down for the can. He kicked his way across his lawn to the dirt yard next door. He tossed the can and caught it as he went. A lanky teenager he wasn't extremely tall but looked it from a distance. He was thin but thanks to Devi he wasn't as thin as Johnny.
He knocked on the door to Johnny's house and let it open a crack. "Hello? Johnny? It's Todd, you in here?" He knew Johnny would be here, he only seemed to go out at night, if he went out at all.
He let himself in and went directly to the kitchen. He found a few cans of skettios opened and empty, including the one he'd brought over a few days ago. At least he was eating.
He set the new can down and went in search of Nny.
His search ended in the 'workshop' in the back. It had a closet that actually led down below if you knew where to find the trap door. The rest of the room was filled with all sorts of tools. Files, whetstones, mechanisms. It was where Johnny maintained and invented his monstrous creations.
Johnny lay on the floor twitching a little. Todd first looked for blood but found none, he the realized Johnny wasn't dying, he was sleeping.
Todd sat on the floor knowing quite well that Johnny simply did no sleep, and when he did he never woke up fully aware. But Johnny did need his sleep every once in awhile. Why not just let him rest? Maybe get a blanket or something.
Todd got back up and went to the main room grabbing an old blanket from the couch. He reentered the workshop and noticed something about the way Nny was sleeping. He seemed upset and made a sort of whining noise as he twitched.
There was only one conclusion. A nightmare.
"Well crap."
The sound of his voice seemed to be the trigger. Johnny sat upright so fast he scared Todd witless. The boy scrambled out of the room away from the screaming man.
Johnny stopped screaming and looked around. Now where was he?
"Uh, Nny?" A voice! Yes a familiar one at that.
"What? Who?"
"Todd."
"Todd? Oh Todd!" Johnny got up but looked a bit dazed. "Where was I?"
"Asleep, I didn't mean to wake you." Todd peered back into the room. "I brought you some skettios."
"Skettios? What day is it?" Johnny asked scratching his head and walking out of the workshop.
"Tuesday."
"Month?"
"April."
"Date?"
"The seventeenth." Todd knew the drill. Johnny couldn't trust his memory after he'd been asleep and anything he asked was just for confirmation.
After these few years Johnny actually didn't look any different. Neither did Devi, or Todd's crazy 'sister' Tenna for that matter.
Only Todd seemed to be the one to have changed. He still looked a lot like that scared little kid he'd been. But now he was just a taller version that didn't carry around his teddy bear. He still had a piece of fluff from the bear of course, the rest of Shmee was up in his room.
"Seventeenth? April?" Nny asked as if he was trying to put something together. "Oh! Birthday!" He cried out throwing up his hands. "Now where did I put it?" He started to rummage around. "You had school right?"
"Yeah." Todd answered ducking a randomly thrown object. He settled at the table in the kitchen leafing through some of Johnny's comics as he waited.
"Good day?" Nny asked murmuring that the thing had to be around somewhere.
"Better than most."
"Ah ha! Found you!" Johnny said triumphantly handing Todd a newspaper wrapped item. "Go ahead, open it." Johnny said grinning like the Cheshire cat and sitting across from the boy.
Todd ripped off the paper and stared dumfounded at the knife he now held I his hands. It had a black leather sheath and leather wrapped over the steel handle. The blade was thin and finely sharpened when he pulled it out. 'Squee' was inscribed on the blade.
"Beautiful blade." Nny said absently. "Just beautiful."
Todd nodded. "Yes it is."
"You, you go on home now." Nny suddenly said. "Nice seeing you, thanks for the skettios." He got up and gripped the edge of the table tightly.
"Yeah okay." Todd got up to. "Thanks, dad." There was that same pause from when he was talking with Devi.
"No problem." His voice sounded strained.
"I'll save you some cake."
Johnny only nodded.
Todd left the house with the three crooked sevens. Johnny had obviously gone through another one of his infamous mood swings. From dazed to insidious in a few seconds.
As Todd crossed the yard again he wrapped the knife back up.
All in all, he knew he wouldn't have given up anything about this birthday. Not even to save his life.
Tenna sat on the couch doing her best to hold down the shivering child. She hoped really hard that Devi wouldn't be mad. It wasn't her fault that the kid was so afraid of everything.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door, and since Tenna never locked said door it came open and Devi walked in. "Hello?"
"Hi Devi!" Tenna squealed waving. When she did her grip on the nervous little Squee was loosened and the boy bolted to Devi nearly knocking her over, squishing Shmee between them.
"What the hell happened to you?" Devi asked knowing full well that Tenna hadn't been the source of Todd's discomfort, she was too cheery to hurt people.
"Well." Tenna started as she got up. "First the toaster tried to strangle him with it's cord, then pigeons from outside turned out to be actual rats with wings that tried to carry him away and then the thing from the toilet tried to eat him." She paused. "Then we had lunch and the oven attempted revenge for his lost friend the toaster." She squeaked Spooky. "He had a rough day."
Devi only stared at Tenna for a moment. "Okay..." She looked down at Todd. "Ready to go back to my place now?"
Todd nodded furiously.
"Okay then. Thank Tenna." She waved at her friend, who she paid for baby-sitting in croutons by the way.
"Bye Squeegee!" Tenna squealed waving enthusiastically to him.
Todd waved back slowly with one hand and clung to Devi with the other.
She unlocked her door and opened it. "So what do you want for dinner tonight?" She asked as they went in. "Ramen noodles or canned-Johnny!" She instinctively pulled Todd behind her at the sight of Johnny standing in her living room.
"You don't have to hide him from me Devi." He said, he sounded depressed. She'd seen him this way before, a long time ago, before. He would come into the book store looking as though he'd found out his dog had died along with the rest of his family. Back then she could usually get him to at least leave with a half-smile on his face if not more.
But that was then, this was now.
"Hi Johnny." Todd squeaked feeling a sort of tension between the two.
"Hey Squee." Johnny replied. His eyes darted back to Devi. "We need to talk."
"Todd, go to your room okay?"
"Okay Devi." He went to his room peeking out the door as he closed it.
"Nice kid." Johnny said absently.
"So what do you want to talk about?" Devi almost demanded as she crossed her arms wondering where she had but that bottle of mace.
"Him." Nny said sitting on the couch. "I can take him back if you still don't think you can take care of him."
"I can take care of him just fine now." She replied sitting stiffly in a chair.
"That's." He seemed at a loss for a word to finish with. "Good." He finished after fighting with his vocabulary.
There was a pause between them.
"He hears a voice you know." Johnny said. "His bear. I don't know if it's a good one or a bad one."
"Voices are rarely anything good." She said rather bitterly.
His eyes snapped to her, she thought he was about to spring at her. "What kind do you hear Devi?" He asked.
She glared. "We're supposed to be discussing Todd, not my mental problems."
"I'll bet I know what kind." His voice took on a twistingly knowing edge. "I'll bet it's the kind that burrows into your head, hears everything and knows what you know. What's its' name Devi? How much of you has this one stolen like mine did to me?"
She shifted in her chair. "Not that it's any of your business but her name is Sickness, and unlike you I rejected her. All that's left is a couple screws in my bag and her crying every once in a while in the back of my head." She crossed her arms and looked away from him.
He stood up edging to the door, his own arms crossed and appearing very withdrawn. "I must go, out, I'll give you money. Got to leave, monkeys after me." The last part was mumbled so she didn't quite catch it.
Then as quickly as he appeared he was gone. She hadn't even noticed the door opening. But then this was Nny, he did things like that.
She got up quietly and shuffled to Todd's room. She half expected to hear him talking to Shmee.
Voices. Did everyone she know hear voices out of inanimate objects or was it just her imagination?
But she heard nothing, just silence. She pushed open the door slowly. "Todd?"
He was sitting on his bed looking down at his teddy bear in his arms. "Am I going away?" He asked not casting his eyes away from the bear.
She sat on the bed next to him and hugged him with one arm. "No. You're staying right here with me." She felt him jerk in surprise. "Looks like you're stuck with me."
"You mean it?" He practically burst out with happiness.
"I mean it. Looks like you exchanged a dysfunctional family for an insane one though." She was of course referring to the fact that his new 'mommy' and 'daddy' both hear voices that told them to do bad things. But he didn't need to know about her little doll Sickness whose eyes were in-fact still in her bag like she'd told Johnny.
He hugged her tightly. "I'm glad."
There was a flash. "Aww how cute! Kodak moment!" Tenna cried letting the camera down.
She bounced on into the room. "Hey since you're going to play mommy Devi can I play sister?" She asked.
"I don't know if that's such a."
"Oh please, oh please, oh please!" Tenna interrupted getting on her knees. "I wanna be sister!"
Devi glanced down at Todd.
"I never had a sister before." Todd said.
"I guess it would be okay." Devi said. And why the hell not? Kid already had a derange dad and less than motherly mom. Why not a psychotically happy sister?
"Oh yay!" Tenna cheered squeaking Spooky madly.
Yes most definitely an insane family.
* * *
Todd ran with all his might down the street. He was in the suburban area around his home. Ever since the realization dawned on Devi that Todd's house was sitting empty without his parents He, Devi and even Tenna had moved in. Not that Todd really cared. It kept him closer to, well, closer to his dad.
But right now it yielded little protection from what he was fleeing from.
He rounded a corner jumping with every ounce of energy he had and grabbed hold of a tree branch from a Cedar tree that was growing by the sidewalk in someone's yard. Quickly as he could he pulled himself up a few of the branches making himself look small. His dark clothes hid him in the evergreen tree and he held his breath.
A group of six kids went rushing under the branch moments later. They were grunting their frustration at not finding him in striking distance. They ambled past and around another corner. He was about to let himself down when one of the kids started back in his direction.
After years of fleeing and hiding he had learned many things, one was to hold his breath for long periods of time and calm it as well. Right now he was breathing normally even after the nearly three hundred yard dash he'd been through.
The kid stopped just under his branch and actually looked like he was trying to sniff him out. He grunted a lot but just wouldn't leave.
In the back of his mind Shmee whispered a few possible routs of escape all of which involved setting the kid on fire with the lighter in Todd's pocket.
Todd rolled his eyes, he was getting fed up, and his legs were stinging from the sudden inactivity and cramped position. He angled himself and dropped down right on his would-be attacker. The other kid crumpled under him. He didn't weight much but he had surprised the other boy.
Once it was confirmed that the other boy was out he got his bearings back and dashed for his house. His sneakers made almost no noise as he ran carefully along the road. He jumped a fence out stepping a mini-Doberman into the other yard where he had to outrun a Mastiff.
On the other side of that fence he ran across a front lawn streaking across the road narrowly missed being run over by a car and landed feet first in his own lawn.
He glanced around to see if his pursuers had seen him and followed. But upon seeing no one but a stray cat down the street he made the last sprint to his front step and went into his house.
"I'm home!" He called out. He tried to dry the sweat from his hair since the running had made him a little too hot.
"I'm in here Todd!"
He went into the kitchen finding Devi at the table. She had a book in front of her. He knew what it was, 'Larry Potthead and the Sorcerer's Stoned', a book he'd had for a while now.
She immediately saw the signs of his run-around. "Trouble at school?" She marked her place and closed the book.
He reached into the fridge for the juice bottle. "Nah, some lunks thought it would be fun to play 'Smear the Queer' with me as the guy with the ball permanently. Nothing out of the ordinary." He poured himself some juice, which happened to be cherry flavored. "How was work today?"
"Didn't have work today remember?"
"Oh yeah." He drank some juice and sat down across from her. "So what *did* you do today?"
"Shopped." She said simply.
"For what?" He took another drink.
"For whatever is in that bag on the counter." She motioned to a paper bag he had overlooked when he had gone for his juice.
He glanced at her and then got up to investigate. He opened the bag and his jaw dropped. "Wow." He pulled out a shiny black writing pad with 'Todd' in silver on the front.
"Happy birthday Todd." She got up and hugged him.
"Thanks." He paused. "Mom."
"Congratulations, you made it to sixteen without getting a girl pregnant!"
He reddened a bit.
"No, really, that's a big accomplishment." She smirked.
He fingered the silver lettering on his new writing pad. "Is dad going to stop by today?" He looked up at her slowly.
"I can't really tell." She shrugged. "He's been in there for a week now, you know how he gets."
"Yeah." Old images from when he was little flashed through his head. "I know."
"Well, you go and check on him today. Take a can of skettios from under the counter, see if he at least ate the last one you brought him." She said patting him on the shoulder.
Todd nodded and reached down for the can. He kicked his way across his lawn to the dirt yard next door. He tossed the can and caught it as he went. A lanky teenager he wasn't extremely tall but looked it from a distance. He was thin but thanks to Devi he wasn't as thin as Johnny.
He knocked on the door to Johnny's house and let it open a crack. "Hello? Johnny? It's Todd, you in here?" He knew Johnny would be here, he only seemed to go out at night, if he went out at all.
He let himself in and went directly to the kitchen. He found a few cans of skettios opened and empty, including the one he'd brought over a few days ago. At least he was eating.
He set the new can down and went in search of Nny.
His search ended in the 'workshop' in the back. It had a closet that actually led down below if you knew where to find the trap door. The rest of the room was filled with all sorts of tools. Files, whetstones, mechanisms. It was where Johnny maintained and invented his monstrous creations.
Johnny lay on the floor twitching a little. Todd first looked for blood but found none, he the realized Johnny wasn't dying, he was sleeping.
Todd sat on the floor knowing quite well that Johnny simply did no sleep, and when he did he never woke up fully aware. But Johnny did need his sleep every once in awhile. Why not just let him rest? Maybe get a blanket or something.
Todd got back up and went to the main room grabbing an old blanket from the couch. He reentered the workshop and noticed something about the way Nny was sleeping. He seemed upset and made a sort of whining noise as he twitched.
There was only one conclusion. A nightmare.
"Well crap."
The sound of his voice seemed to be the trigger. Johnny sat upright so fast he scared Todd witless. The boy scrambled out of the room away from the screaming man.
Johnny stopped screaming and looked around. Now where was he?
"Uh, Nny?" A voice! Yes a familiar one at that.
"What? Who?"
"Todd."
"Todd? Oh Todd!" Johnny got up but looked a bit dazed. "Where was I?"
"Asleep, I didn't mean to wake you." Todd peered back into the room. "I brought you some skettios."
"Skettios? What day is it?" Johnny asked scratching his head and walking out of the workshop.
"Tuesday."
"Month?"
"April."
"Date?"
"The seventeenth." Todd knew the drill. Johnny couldn't trust his memory after he'd been asleep and anything he asked was just for confirmation.
After these few years Johnny actually didn't look any different. Neither did Devi, or Todd's crazy 'sister' Tenna for that matter.
Only Todd seemed to be the one to have changed. He still looked a lot like that scared little kid he'd been. But now he was just a taller version that didn't carry around his teddy bear. He still had a piece of fluff from the bear of course, the rest of Shmee was up in his room.
"Seventeenth? April?" Nny asked as if he was trying to put something together. "Oh! Birthday!" He cried out throwing up his hands. "Now where did I put it?" He started to rummage around. "You had school right?"
"Yeah." Todd answered ducking a randomly thrown object. He settled at the table in the kitchen leafing through some of Johnny's comics as he waited.
"Good day?" Nny asked murmuring that the thing had to be around somewhere.
"Better than most."
"Ah ha! Found you!" Johnny said triumphantly handing Todd a newspaper wrapped item. "Go ahead, open it." Johnny said grinning like the Cheshire cat and sitting across from the boy.
Todd ripped off the paper and stared dumfounded at the knife he now held I his hands. It had a black leather sheath and leather wrapped over the steel handle. The blade was thin and finely sharpened when he pulled it out. 'Squee' was inscribed on the blade.
"Beautiful blade." Nny said absently. "Just beautiful."
Todd nodded. "Yes it is."
"You, you go on home now." Nny suddenly said. "Nice seeing you, thanks for the skettios." He got up and gripped the edge of the table tightly.
"Yeah okay." Todd got up to. "Thanks, dad." There was that same pause from when he was talking with Devi.
"No problem." His voice sounded strained.
"I'll save you some cake."
Johnny only nodded.
Todd left the house with the three crooked sevens. Johnny had obviously gone through another one of his infamous mood swings. From dazed to insidious in a few seconds.
As Todd crossed the yard again he wrapped the knife back up.
All in all, he knew he wouldn't have given up anything about this birthday. Not even to save his life.
