Black isn't white, up isn't down, and I don't own Invader Zim or the main characters Dib, Gaz or Professor Membrane. The honor of creating them belongs to Jhonen Vasquez.
Poop colas and delicious bologna sandwiches to everyone who took the time to review! Your feedback is duly noted and greatly appreciated.
I did say I would welcome constructive criticism... well, the response to "Enough to Wake the Dead" has made me very happy indeed! :-D
I didn't change Part One at all, but Part Two is a little different and the biggest change is in Part Three.
Geez... now why on earth... OR on Irk... didn't I think of ending it like this in the first place? Thank you all so, so much! ( J. Random Lurker, you totally rock!)
At their mother's wake, Gaz begins to truly stretch her wings. Dib fans, and God knows I'm one myself, be warned that parts of this will not be pretty. The Funeral Director is mine, and one-dimensional, but you're absolutely right, Senri, poor Dib SO needs a break!
Enough to Wake the Dead
The Funeral Director was well aware that the late Ms. Membrane had left two children, but when he actually met them and asked them their ages, his heart sank. Out of everything this job threw at you, this had to be the hardest. A bereaved child, trying somehow to be brave but looking all the more lost for doing so, was the only sight even worse than those terrible little white coffins with the teddy bears.
A medium height man of medium build, with hair that was just beginning to recede and turn grey at the temples, he vowed, as always, to do as much as he could for this family for as long as he had the opportunity. He guided the family to the parlor where the late Ms. Membrane was to be waked.
For this occasion, Dib had been persuaded to wear a white shirt with a black bow tie, but nothing could induce him to leave off the trench coat his mother had bought for him. Upon his first sight of his mother lying absolutely motionless in her casket, Dib gasped but caught himself just in time before calling out "Mom!"
When the Funeral Director asked the Professor had he decided what readings he wanted for the service and what inscription for the tombstone, Dib's father told him, just a little too cheerfully, "Son, keep an eye on Gaz for me. I have something I must work on!" before stepping back into the Funeral Director's office to make his selections and sign the necessary papers.
Gaz walked right up to the casket, carrying her GameSlave as always. As rapidly as Gaz's playing was improving, Dib was even more rapidly learning to keep tensely on the alert when she was playing her video games nearby. When the difficulty level of the game she was playing outpaced her ability to keep up, as it still did all too often, Gaz's target of choice for lashing out at in her frustration was her brother. Then her mother used to inflict the ultimate injustice, taking away her beloved GameSlave for nothing more than attacking Dib. These incidents infuriated Gaz so much that she would wish her mother dead, and when her mother finally did go to the hospital, Gaz had overheard everyone whispering that she might...
Even seeing her mother like this, Gaz still didn't believe she was dead."Wake up, Mommy. This is your wake, so when do you wake up?" Getting no response at all, Gaz tried something that had always gotten a reaction from her mother quickly enough before; she kicked Dib, this time square in the kneecap.
"OWW GAZ! What was THAT for?" Dib howled, limping away. But her mother did not react in any way. She didn't scold Gaz, ask Dib stupid questions like was he okay, or even move... so it had to be true.
Gaz's awe swelled so huge inside her that it was almost frightening. Her eyes widened, her breath came in rapid gusts and her hands began to shake. I'm actually strong enough to make people dead, even... even Mommy? Wow... Now I have Daddy all to myself! It was a scary thrill, deeper even than her first time crossing the street alone. Just to make sure, she aimed another kick at Dib, but this time he was watching and hopped clear.
"Dib!" came the voice of his father, as the Funeral Director showed him back to the parlor. "Skipping and playing at a time like this?" The Funeral Director spoke up and told him he was sure the boy meant no disrespect, as a parent's death could often take a long time to sink in.
Gaz took the end of the sofa closest to her mother's head and turned on her GameSlave. Dib slowly sat at the opposite end, staring at the casket. As he rubbed his knee, his eyes filled with tears.
Dib could barely remember anything about his life before Gaz, but there was no end to the photo albums full of pictures of baby Dib and a very fat Mommy. She'd been the kind of mother who enjoyed showing him how much fun you could find in life if you just looked for it. They had played in the park, gazed at stars, filled bird feeders, collected leaves, carved pumpkins at the supermarket, gone to every children's event at the library... you name it, they had done it. Their favorite activity was reading, and before long his mother was getting Dib's books about ghosts and aliens from the bookstore instead of the library.
Later his mother was taking both Dib and Gaz to these fun places, but after a day of trying to find something that DID interest Gaz and keep her from savaging Dib, she would return home too exhausted to do much more than prepare supper and read them one story each. Quite by accident she discovered that the game on her cell phone kept Gaz happy, and the days immediately after she bought Gaz her own GameSlave were the very happiest days Dib could actually remember... as long as his mother was nearby for those occasions when Gaz could no longer keep her game going.
Even when she got sick, Dib's mother had continued to show him love, although by then her mind was often elsewhere with pain and worry. She still tried to catch Gaz each time she hit or kicked him, even preventing it if at all possible. He wasn't allowed to hit or kick her back, she kept saying, so it wasn't fair for Gaz to hit or kick him. So simple and so reasonable... and yet so incomprehensible to everyone else!
When his mother came home from the hospital she was still sick, too sick to go anywhere. So she spent as much time as possible going over the old photo albums with Dib, while Gaz sat nearby playing on her GameSlave, until her headache came back and she had to sleep.
And now she was gone, his mother, who had always found more time for him than anybody else ever did. She answered all his childish questions, always listened when he was learning to read, and when everyone else told him such stuff was nonsense or were obviously humoring him, it had been his mother who listened when he talked about vampires and aliens and -
GHOSTS! Maybe she'd come back as a ghost and talk to him! If anyone could see ghosts, it would be him! There was a way to do this, wasn't there? There had to be!
Dib walked up to his mother's casket and leaned over to softly ask her, "Mom? Mom, are you really dead? Can you still hear me somehow... Mom?"
Without looking up from her game, Gaz growled, "You know she's dead; she's finally minding her own business for once. Now shut up about your stupid ghost foolishness NOW... because if I lose this game I'll put YOU in a coffin too."
Something about the creepy way she said it told Dib she was not exaggerating.
End of Part One