The Remote of Un-Reality
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Disclaimer: I don't own the Titanic characters. This is based upon a real incident that occurred a few weeks ago.
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Cal was not alright. Not alright at all. He was used to feeling panicked; what with the state of his soaps, who wouldn't be? That was trivial compared to this. His gateway to the world, portal to entertainment was gone. In short, he had lost the remote.
He had noticed its absence when he came back from the kitchen on one of his frequent snack trips. He had settled back onto the couch, doughnuts in hand, when he realized he couldn't find the remote.
Now, four hours later, he was in full on panic mode. He had missed his soaps, and Oprah was near the half-way point. If he didn't find it soon he would be in total T.V. viewing hell.
Frantically, he threw empty chip bags and beer bottles, as he searched. He was so engrossed that he didn't notice Rose come in early from work. She stood in the living room doorway, watching him as he searched.
"What are you doing?" she asked. Cal whirled around, his arms full of old cookie boxes. "I was.." he tried to keep the tears out of his voice. Jack had recently lectured him profusely on when not to burst into tears, and he wasn't sure if this fell under that category or not.
"I lost the….." Despite his best efforts, tears filled his eyes. Rose groaned inwardly. She had no experience with Cal when he cried, but didn't imagine it would be a nice thing to go through. At least, not from the stories Jack had told her.
"What did you lose?" she asked gently. Maybe if she was careful, she could avoid tears. "The remote!" Cal cried. He burst into a torrent of tears. Rose crossed the room to him. She patted his arm.
"Have you looked for it?" "I've looked everywhere!" Rose surveyed the living room. Pillows and empty food containers were strewn all around. "Maybe you did. Come on, I'll make you tea and you can calm down." Her voice was soothing. "Ok."
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Fabrizo arrived home soon after. He was immediately disturbed as he couldn't hear the T.V. or crying. What was wrong with Cal? Maybe he was abducted by eco-terrorists who want his money, he thought. The fact that they had spent all of Cal's money on acid in the 60's didn't occur to him.
He heard a CREAK sound and voices. It was coming from somewhere in the house. They were still in the house! Maybe they wanted him too! Fabrizo ran down the hallway, not stopping to look in the living room or kitchen. He ran up the stairs, and up to the attic.
Rose peered out the kitchen doorway. What was that? she wondered. She shook her head in frustration; Cal's rants about the remote were obviously getting to her.
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Jack too was disturbed by the lack of Cal crying on the couch, but he took a more logical approach to it. He went to the kitchen. Rose was sitting at the table, reading the paper, her top hat perched atop her head, beer in hand.
Cal, was over at the stove, cooking. His face showed signs of tears. "Why aren't you watching T.V.?" he asked. Cal's lower lip trembled slightly. "I-" he couldn't continue as his voice was too blocked by tears to get out more than a low croak.
Jack turned to Rose. "He lost the remote," she answered. Jack nodded. Ah, that was it. He might have known. He sat down at the table. "Why didn't you just get up and change the channel yourself?"
Cal looked at him incuriously. This was clearly a new concept to him. "Myself?" he said. The tears stopped falling. "I'll explain it later." Cal nodded, and went back to cooking
An hour later, they were preparing to eat dinner when Rose realized that they were missing a housemate. "Where's Fabrizo?" she asked. Cal and Jack shrugged. It didn't matter, they'd find him later.
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Later that night, Jack was taking a shower, when he heard a creaking sound. Assuming it was Cal or Rose downstairs, he ignored it. Five minutes later, Fabrizo fell through the ceiling and into his shower.
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AN: Hope you liked that! Thanks to Grace for reviewing.