Ack… Family!
By: ChickenGoddess
Dreams and Dinner
The borders had assembled for dinner, each trying to ignore the sound of Arnie's incessant snort. Grandma had made chicken for dinner as the borders could not stand the sound of Arnie's slurping and his snorting at the same time.
"Hey kid… you ever see the doctor about that snort?" Ernie asked as casual as possible.
"No."
"Maybe he can make it go away…" Suzy added.
"It's ok. I've gotten used to it."
"This kid is very… creepy!" Mr. Hyunh whispered to Ernie.
"So… Arnie, do you have any new hobbies?" Suzy asked.
"I have a lucky pile of dirt."
"Oh… that's … nice." She replied.
"You are a very strange child." Oscar said bluntly.
"Oscar!" Suzy shouted.
"What?"
Amidst all this, Arnold sighed. He wanted to be far away from here… from his apathetic cousin who always managed to throw everything off balance. There was nothing Arnie could screw up this time, though. He wondered if he had been as obsessed as Gerald said he had been over Lila during Arnie's last visit. He laughed mentally. "Little Miss Perfect"… wasn't that what they had called her? Yes. She was nice and they would always be casual friends and that was fine. Too much of her syrupy sweet niceness and sugarcoated reality was enough to make you cringe. He had pretended to be interested in Helga… brushing her hair, massaging her feet and sharing the same piece of gum. He smiled at his foolishness. Her hair did smell good. He would admit that. It was soft, too…
"Arnold! Earth to the Short Man!" His grandpa's voice beckoned.
He blinked back into reality and realized that dinner was over and he had barely touched his food.
"Are you going to eat any more of your food, my good buddy?" Oscar asked.
Arnold sighed. "No Mr. Kokshka. You can have it."
"Oh thank you, Arnold. You don't know how much this means to me!" He cried.
"Yeah, yeah, until tomorrow." Ernie remarked.
Day one of Arnie's visit was nearly over. Arnold laid thinking in his bed and Arnie occupied the couch that Gerald had come to know as home away from home.
'I wasn't really thinking about Helga again, was I?' he asked himself.
"Arnold" Arnie asked with a snort.
"What?"
"Does Helga," snort, "have a boyfriend?"
Arnold's heart stopped beating. "I don't think so…"
"Ok."
"Why'd you wanna know?" Arnold asked, defensiveness in his tone.
Arnie was already asleep, snoring loudly.
"What does it matter… he just wanted to know if Helga was with anyone, that's no reason to freak out on the guy. Besides, he likes Lila. Oh why do I care?!" he cried loudly. Sighing, he rolled to his side and fell into sleep.
When he woke, he again found himself in that huge black void of nothingness.
"I've done this dream before." He said to no one in particular. "Oh well." He sighed, walking to the right. He wondered where exactly this void of nothingness was… and his purpose for being in it. It was like being in space… with gravity. There was nothing ahead and nothing behind. Finally, his eye caught sight of some color. It was a blond girl dressed in pink, sitting on what appeared to be the ground.
"Helga?" He asked the figure.
Her head turned to face him. She smiled. "Hello Arnold."
"What? No 'Football Head'?" He joked.
She screwed her face in confusion, as if she had no comprehension of what he had just said.
"Please tell me my jokes aren't as bad as my grandfathers." He replied.
She gave a small smile.
"Can you tell me where I am?" He asked.
Her face fell. "I wish I could, Arnold, but I can't do that."
"Don't you trust me? We'll get out of here together." He said, extending a hand to her.
"I do trust you, Arnold. More than you suspect, and I wish that I could lead you out of here, but that would be against the rules." She replied, looking away.
"Whose rules? I don't understand."
Tears pricked her eyes. "You will." She said, turning away.
"Wait! Don't leave me here!" He cried, placing his hand on her shoulder.
She sighed. "Don't make this harder than it is."
He thought he saw her glance at him out of the corner of her eyes before she began to walk into the shadows of the oblivion. He stood there, again alone.
"Harder for which of us?" He mused bitterly.
"Don't put this on her, Arnold. She's doing the best she can." The sweet mellow voice he had come to know as Hilda said.
He turned around and she was standing there, just as he had expected. "What's going on here? Why doesn't anyone want to get out of here?"
"You seem awfully anxious to leave…" Hilda observed.
"Well, a black hole isn't exactly my idea of a good dream." He replied.
"That's what you think this is?" She asked, a bit shocked, "A black hole?"
"…I don't know what I think! I just want to get out! Don't you?" He asked. "Don't you ever get tired of this?"
Hilda sighed, her eyes unleveled with Arnold's. "I used to. I got out once… but it wasn't right. The time will come."
Arnold had never been more confused in his young life than he was right now.
"Don't worry," Hilda sympathized, "it'll make sense."
Arnold wasn't quite sure that anything would make sense, at least in this world.
"You can leave if you want." Hilda said, looking away.
His head whipped to face her. "I can?"
"Hey Arnold- Hey Arnold- Hey Arnold-" The alarm clock continued to ring in such a fashion until its groggy owner pulled the wires from the potato on which it ran.
Arnold sighed as he glanced at his cousin who still remained asleep… today would be a long day, indeed.