Chapter Four: Hg Rising
Timmy awoke with a start. He had the most peculiar dream: someone carved his face while he slept. The same someone caressed his hair and licked his cheek. To compound it, the dream had also involved a magical shield disappearing and then reappearing without a word. He blinked, running his fingers over where the knife had gone.
There were odder things. For example, the ghosts of Mr. and Mrs. Turner currently floated above his bed, grinning at him. Excitement filled him. It had been years since his parents had been present for his waking. Normally, it was Cosmo and Wanda who greeted him, but they weren't around. That, come to think of it, was also strange.
"Timmy!" Mrs. Turner beamed at her son. Timmy glanced out his window and scowled. Cosmo and Wanda were watching. They were also staying out of his parents' line of sight, just in case. Old habits died hard.
For one who claimed to only want the best, Wanda certainly wore an ugly look. It was as though she disliked his parents, but that couldn't be the case. Who could hate his parents when they were right here, waiting for him? He was too happy to consider anything amiss.
The tree house curtains moved and Tootie stared out at him with Cosmo and Wanda floating on either side. Cal was, as usual, absent.
((Timmy,)) she sent. Her eyes narrowed.
((Why are you all spying on me?)) Timmy snapped.
"Mom! Dad!" he jumped up and tried to embrace them, but they passed through, making him shiver. He could see right through them. "Mom? Dad?"
"Sweetie, we did die."
"I don't remember dying!" Mr. Turner protested, fighting a losing battle. Timmy shuddered, thinking of The Other.
((We've been talking, and...)) Wanda's voice was substantially weaker than Tootie's. Timmy ignored her completely and sensed her irritation.
"I thought I'd never see you again!" He settled for holding his arms out and encompassing the space they occupied. He beamed.
Tootie interjected again, ((That's what we want to talk to you about! Don't you find it strange your parents mysteriously became ghosts right after the dream I had? Right after The Other suddenly became involved again in your life?))
((No.)) Timmy replied, obstinate.
((And just what The Other said would happen, did?)) she pressed.
"What the matter?" Mrs. Turner's face fell.
"Yeah, we thought you'd be ecstatic to see us!"
"I am, but…"
((Timmy!)) This mind voice was weak but easily identifiable. Apparently, Tootie was no good so they'd switched to Wanda.
((What are you doing in my head?))
((Sport, I know it's nice to see your parents again, but-))
((Stay out of this!))
((Timmy, please, listen to me. If you won't listen to Tootie, listen to me. Timmy, please.))
((No.))
Mr. and Mrs. Turner exchanged glances, perplexed. However, the moment passed and they jumped right back on the bandwagon. Whatever was going on, it wasn't their concern. Timmy saw Wanda scowl at him through the window.
"Now we can spend time with you!" Mrs. Turner gushed, enthralled.
"Yeah, and play baseball!" Mr. Turner attempted, unsuccessfully, to pick up on lying about. "Or not!"
"And," Timmy added, jumping up, out of bed, "there's no Vicky!"
((Will you listen to us? We know what we're talking about!)) Tootie, Cosmo, and Wanda snapped. Cal appeared, floating near Tootie's head, but seemed unable to project. Timmy didn't know or care why.
((We do?)) Cosmo inquired, confused yet again.
((Butterfly!)) Cosmo cried as one passed by the tree house. ((I'm going to call you Betty!))
((Focus!)) Wanda snapped.
((Timmy, we think The Other-)) Tootie started.
((SHUT UP!)) He roared. ((LEAVE ME ALONE!))
((Just look in the mirror if you don't believe me!)) Tootie cried frantically. The telepathic trio looked like they had newly found headaches.
"Are you okay? Do you want some breakfast?" Mrs. Turner inquired worriedly.
"Ooh! Breakfast!" Mr. Turner bounced about in the air.
"Yeah, breakfast would be good," Timmy said, pulling down his window shade, "that'd be great."
Tootie unleashed a howl of pure frustration. True, Timmy could be a bit thick at times, but couldn't he see what was staring him in the face? Her dream, the prediction, his face, they all fit. God!
Wanda restored the blinds and scowled at the now empty room. They'd returned to Timmy's room, fat load of good it had done them. Tootie was seething.
"What're we gonna do?" Cosmo watched his wife's face anxiously.
"We're going to have to convince him, somehow…"
Breakfast was a bust. Despite the skillet and broken eggs lying haphazardly on the floor (Mrs. Turner tried in vain to create some vague resemblance of a meal), all three were balled over in laughter. It was relief and an alleviation of grief (and guilt on Timmy's part). More than that, it was affirmation. Sure, his parents weren't completely alive, but they weren't dead either.
The merriment ended abruptly with Tootie's arrival. Shooting darts with her eyes, she practically leaped from the landing to the living room and from there to the table. Pink and green cats accompanied her in addition to a brown scrunchie. She meant business.
"Timmy!" Beside him, she grabbed his arm and began to tug him away. "We need to talk."
((NOW.)) Her mental voice clawed at his mind's walls and he winced. He apologized profusely to his parents and unwillingly followed her into the living room. Cosmo and Wanda promptly sound-proofed the room and prevented any one from observing (a silk, scarlet curtain with yellow lace sprung in the doorway). Even if it probably didn't matter whether or not Mrs. and Mr. Turner knew about them, again, old habits died hard.
"What?" Timmy shrugged off Tootie's arm. "What do you want?"
"We tried to talk to you earlier, but you refused to listen," Wanda retorted.
"You were too busy with your parents," Tootie agreed sympathetically.
"It's not like they return from the dead every day!" Timmy shot back, instantly on the defensive.
"Timmy, don't you find it weird that the thing you wish for the most, but cannot be granted, is exactly predicted by The Other, and it occurs the next day?" Wanda said, arms folded about her chest.
"We're just worried about you," Cosmo supplemented.
"Look," Timmy snapped, "my parents-"
He made a motion to leave but Tootie slammed him into the couch. Placing her hands firmly on his shoulders, she leaned forward, pressing her weight down. Despite her small frame, Timmy failed to fend her off since he wasn't particularly strong either.
((Listen.)) her mental voice was frigid and unwilling to budge an inch. She reminded him of her sister and, feeling cornered, he reluctantly stopped fighting them.
"Thanks," Cosmo said, a trifle coldly. Timmy blinked and Wanda glanced at her husband before speaking.
"Look, even if The Other isn't behind this, you need to be on guard, all right, sport?" Wanda forced a smile and ruffled her godson's hair.
"Can I leave now?" Timmy said sulkily.
"Fine," Tootie spat, surprised at the venom. Timmy did a double take too, gawking at her. She lifted her hands off his shoulders, spun on her heels, and stomped up the stairs, shaking.
Cosmo and Wanda gave him an indiscernible look, and, then, they too vanished to parts unknown. Without them, Timmy's hostility vanished and he, grinning like the Cheshire Cat, nearly floated back to his parents.
Suffice to say, the rest of the summer was only enjoyable for one person in the house, Timmy Turner. Tensions rose between he and all living in the house (his parents were oblivious, as usual).
After a while, Cosmo and Wanda ceased to leave their tree house at all, since nearly every confrontation exploded into violent arguments. In the last one, Timmy, through a Freudian slip, cursed Wanda out. Hurt and angry (but mildly amused after Cosmo tried to tell Timmy off unsuccessfully), Wanda stated until Timmy regained his sanity, he would hear nothing from them.
Tootie and Timmy had a falling out, ultimately leading to her declaration: "You got yourself into this mess! You fix it! I don't care!". She collapsed into tears and stated vehemently to refrain from speaking to him (this was after Timmy and his godparents had had their falling out). She too avoided the downstairs.
Timmy, on the other hand, spent the remnant of his summer making up for lost time. He played charades (finally deducing what his father indicating after a record of two hours), discovered just how many lies his parents told him, but, mostly, they talked. Never had he felt so close to his parents (at the same time, he drove a wedge between he and all those who cared for him), and never had he been so content. Alas, all good things come to an end.
The last day of summer vacation and Timmy had yet to do his homework. Every day, he familiarized himself anew with his parents, growing closer and closer (sending his godparents further and further away).
Conversely, Tootie, in an effort to eliminate any type of interaction between her and her love, spent all of her time reading and answering the question packets. Consequentially, after a quick wish (school supplies), she was prepared for tomorrow. All packed and ready to go…
"Darn it! Where are my books? Where is my homework? I haven't done any of it yet and it's due tomorrow!" Timmy tore up his room, sending video games, a computer, and a Crimson Chin doll sailing through his father. His father stared at the book, but had thankfully grown used to it.
"Ten points!" he declared. Timmy would have smiled if he weren't so worried about his homework.
A pink book materialized in his hands, the face atop regarding him wistfully. Bags beneath her eyes, she hadn't had a decent night's sleep since the argument. Tears appeared and she blinked furiously.
He wasn't surprised to see her. Cosmo and Wanda were persistent, showing up everywhere from inside his games to the bathroom, right when he least expected them. They usually vanished at the first sign of his parents, but that didn't prevent them from slipping in a warning. No matter how many times Timmy angrily brushed them off, they still showed up. Whatever the case, it was grating on his nerves.
"Timmy, we need to talk," Wanda said.
"Get out!" he muttered and flung her into the wall. If Cosmo hadn't transformed into a plushy green bean bag chair at the last split second, she and the wall would have had a nasty meeting. As it was, she tumbled headfirst into the seat and landed facedown.
"Aha!" Timmy slipped on a book strangely resembling Da Rules (it too flew towards Cosmo) and produced a thick packets of sheets, many were extremely mangled, from beneath his bed. A quick perusal told him one thing- three two hundred page books were due the next day in addition to forty questions for each book. For the love of God, he'd never finish this, even without distractions. It was times like these that made him wish he'd never quarreled with his fairy godparents in the first place- they might be able to fix it so he could complete it before the century ended, but, minus them, the changes were two: slim and none.
Maybe if they apologized...
Timmy, snatching Wanda from the Cosmo cushion, darted from the room and into the hall, praying for privacy but not wishing for it. At the moment, she gave him a reproachful look, so wishful thinking was all it would remain.
"Can you make it so I read all of these-" He indicated the "mountain" of books in his room, "-super fast?"
"That wasn't in wish form," Wanda retorted. Timmy bristled. She was being irritating on purpose. They didn't necessarily have to have things in wish form.
"Fine. I wish I could read everything super fast."
"Extremely rapidly," Wanda corrected but granted it. Her eyes blazed and she clenched her hands. Timmy ignored her. "Anything else?" Her question was pointed.
Timmy shook his head.
"Nothing about how you might still want to keep your guard up? Nothing about how we might be right? Nothing about how you've treated us all summer? Nothing?" Wanda yelled, her temper reaching fever pitch.
"You're not right! My parents want to spend time with me and you're just trying to keep me from seeing them!"
Under her breath, Wanda muttered a few choice words in fairy language (they'd existed for hundred of thousands of years- English couldn't have been the only language they spoke) and swallowed hard.
"So that makes it all right to keep treating us like this? Because we're 'trying to keep you from seeing them?'"
"Butt out, Wanda!"
"You're our godchild and our responsibility!" Wanda retorted. "And I'm telling you again you're in terrible danger!"
"And I'm telling you again to BUTT OUT!" Timmy skidded into his room and slammed the door. Anger made him tremble and he hated Wanda fiercely at that moment. Wanda and Cosmo were just trying to hurt him and take his parents away from him. He hated them...wanted to make them shut up by any means necessarily...
Inhaling shakily, he willed himself to calm down. He thought he could understand how The Other could loathe them. They were such interfering pains in the butt.
All he wanted were his parents. Why couldn't they see that? What dire warnings? What the hell were they talking about?