Oblivion – Chapter Three: Overdrive
Lor stomped to Tino's house. Carver followed behind kind of looking like a dog who had just been rebuked by his master. He had seen the determination in Lor's eyes and he had seen the indifference in Tish's eyes and quite frankly it scared him. Scared him like he'd never been scared before. He swore that he could feel the world, nay, the universe collapsing all around him. With no one to turn to, the world seemed a cold and ugly place. His trust in any form of constant in the fabric of reality had been torn, shredded and tossed to the ground like a piece of trash. His only hope was to see to it that existence itself did not render itself asunder further. Carver decided the best way to go about this was to buy shoes and a shirt and pair of pants to match them. In the comfort of a cool new outfit he could properly do the task that had been assigned to him by the great forces that guided this mixed-up universe of ours. He was destined to be the savior of this world, but he really needed to buy that new outfit.
"Carver!" Lor suddenly called.
"Yeah?"
"Why are you narrating to yourself in the third person?"
"Was I doing that out loud?" Carver asked a little sheepishly.
"Enough of that, I need your help in fixing Tino so pay attention, got it?"
"I'll try my best."
"Destined to be savior of the world… ridiculous," Lor scoffed.
Carver buried his face in his hands.
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"Your rosy cheeks, your dark brown hair and the way it shimmers in the moonlight, your wild smile, the intoxicating smell of your perfume and shampoo, how you laugh at my bad jokes, the way you make villains in tights cry, and of course your beautiful eyes. I could go on about everything I love about you but it would take forever, my lady," Tino gushed.
Rena giggled, maybe even Tee-heed, at Tino.
"Aren't you the kind one?"
"But it's true! It really is," Tino said defensive of his reply.
"Okay, okay. I'm not one to turn down a sincere compliment. So what do you want to do?"
"I want to gaze into your eyes, lose myself in them and never be found," Tino replied with a flourish of his hand.
Rena smiled.
"You are such a romantic. You must have to fight the girls off with a stick."
"I was quite the playboy, but you have reined in my wild spirit, my lady," Tino responded his mind obviously not functioning properly.
"I am so lucky."
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Tish strode along the streets of Bahia Bay headed toward the beach. She figured it best to forget her problem in an order of chili cheese fries from the Snack Shack. The confidence of her walk belied the troubled conscience inside her. It was not like Tish to ditch her friends and the feeling it gave her was weird.
"No wonder Carver eats so much. It all makes sense now. When you act inconsiderate food is the only thing that seems appealing. But then I guess that begs the question as to why Lor doesn't eat as much as Carver. I guess I don't have this all figured out," Tish thought.
The Snack Shack now lay dead ahead with no one standing around in line. In fact the whole area seemed a bit deserted, but then it was getting late in the day. Tish thought nothing of it and went right up to buy herself some chili cheese fries and a chug-a-freeze to wash them down.
"You're by yourself today? That seems odd usually there is at least one of your other friends with you," the Snack Shack guy commented.
"Yeah, well, they apparently have better things to do with their time," Tish responded with little enthusiasm.
"I see…" the Snack Shack guy said.
Tish got her fries and drink and headed inside to eat. There were two kids, a boy and a girl, inside sitting at one of the tables. They were kids Tish knew to see but she had never talked to them. She often wondered why that was since she saw them and so many other kids all the time at various events. It was almost as if the whole seventh grade worked as a whole rather than as individuals.
"Hmmm, maybe I should go over and talk to them. They look friendly enough. Plus, it could take my mind off of the guys for a little while," Tish thought.
Tish placed her order down at the table she and her friends usually sat at, and turned to go to speak with the other kids. She stopped in her tracks as the girl in the pair pounded the table.
"Unbelievable! I can't believe Patricia ditched us. She always wants us to help her and help others out, constantly talking about the right thing to do and listening to your conscience. Now here Tony is in clear need of our help and she refuses! I just don't understand it, Craven," the girl said.
"I know, Laura, I feel the same way, but I guess it's up to us now to help, Tony. I don't like it, but we have to do it. The problem is where do we start? Usually, Patricia does all of the thinking."
"Yeah, you're right. Plus, it's hard to think straight when I'm boiling over Patricia's attitude. Man, I really feel like smacking her one, just to see if it would bring her to her senses."
"Maybe we would think better if we got ourselves another couple orders of the broccoli and cheese. My hunger pains aren't helping me think either."
"Hunger pains? But you just had 2 orders of carrot sticks, 2 bowls of tomato soup, a salad, and order of tofu. How could you possibly be hungry after all of that?"
"Because I'm always hungry for some broccoli and cheese. It might be my absolute favorite food, it's delicious."
"You're hopeless, Craven. Utterly hopeless."
Tish sat back down at the table.
"Ehhh, maybe it's best that I not go to talk with them. They sound a bit too familiar for me, familiar to the point of this just being plain weird. Maybe I'll take my food out onto the ledge," Tish thought.
The sun was beginning to set in the west and it made for a breathtaking array of colors in the sky. The beauty of nature made Tish smile as she took up a seat on the concrete ledge. She faced outward toward the water rocking her feet back and forth into the air.
"Yeah, this is much better. See now if I went to help Tino I would be missing this absolutely magnificent sunset. I think this justifies myself, right? Of course."
Tish beamed a little more but then her cheery face drooped suddenly with a sigh.
"I'm justifying myself to myself, yyyyyeah I have a lot of confidence."
Tish continued looking out to the water slowly eating her food trying her best to avoid any and all negative thoughts.
"Aww, nuts," she sighed.
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Carver and Lor stood looking at the door to Tino's room mentally preparing themselves for the challenge before them.
"Okay, now we know something is wrong with Tino but we aren't sure what. He could be scared, hurt, angry, depressed, hungry, tired, or maybe he's just bloated. It doesn't really matter what he is since we are both equally unqualified for any of those situations so we'll handle them all the same way, strong arm style," Lor said.
"Are you sure about that? Maybe we should be discreet and comforting, ya know, something like Tish would do," Carver commented.
"Well, Tish isn't here. She backed out of this one so we're going with my plan now, no ifs, ands, or buts."
"Hey how come I don't get a say in this?"
"Because your plan involved you buying new clothes and that's just crazy, but not quite as crazy as you being the savior of the world."
"Okay, forget I asked and let's never bring that up again."
"All right then, here we go, on three. One… Two… Three!"
Lor threw the door open and jumped inside ready to Ah-ha! However, she was dumbfounded as she jumped in and saw Tino sleeping standing up. The very sight boggled Lor's mind and it made her sit down.
"How is he doing that?" Lor whispered.
"I don't know, but that is quite a feat. Looks like a great way to keep wrinkles out of your clothes if you sleep in them though."
Lor shook her head violently.
"I have to focus! I can't let this odd sleeping arrangement play mind games with me."
Lor slapped her face a bit to get herself situated.
"Checkmate," Carver muttered under his breath.
"What was that?" Lor shot.
Carver simply looked away and whistled.
"Whatever. I guess we should just wake him up. That shouldn't be any trouble at all… HEY TINO!" Lor bellowed like only she could for a 12 year old girl.
Carver dropped to the ground holding his ears but Tino remained asleep unfazed.
Lor waved her hand in front of Tino's face. No reaction.
"I can't believe it. He didn't even move. How could that possibly be?"
"What? I can't hear you! I think I might be deaf!" Carver said.
"Real funny, Carv. Stop acting like a child and help out."
Carver stood up and dusted himself off. He moved in front of Tino and cracked his knuckles and stretched his neck.
"Watch and learn, Lor. I'll show you how it's done."
Carver grabbed Tino by the shoulders and gave him a vigorous shaking while saying his name as fast as humanly possible. Tino's head shifted back and forth from the shaking but other than that there was no movement at all. His deep sleep continued on. Lor clapped her hands sarcastically.
"Wow, I wish I had had a notebook here to take notes in."
Carver grumbled and stepped aside.
"Well, what are we gonna do? This seems to be more than an ordinary nap. He just won't wake up. I'm not sure if we can do this," he commented.
Lor held up her hand and then left the room for a moment. Carver raised his eye brow wondering where she had just gone. Within moments Lor was back in the room but now she was carrying a cup of water.
"Ya know if this works, I don't think Tino is going to be all that happy," Carver commented.
"Well he should have thought about that before he decided to take an afternoon coma."
"Riiiiiight."
Lor aimed and then hurled the entire cup of water directly at Tino's face. It splashed all over him soaking his face, hair, and shirt, but it still failed to remove Tino from his slumber. He just stood there with water dripping al over.
Lor threw the cup against the ground out of frustration.
"Face it, Lor. There's nothing we can do. This sleep of Tino's is just too much for us to handle."
"No, I still have one last trick up my sleeve. I didn't want to have to resort to this but it looks like I have no other choice. This is the move that works on all my brothers. It's a patented MacQuarrie technique passed down through the generations. Now I'm afraid I'm gonna have to use it on Tino."
"And what exactly would this move be?"
"A wedgie. And from the looks of it I think I'm gonna have to go all out and use an atomic wedgie."
Carver grimaced just thinking about it.
"That poor, poor pair of briefs. What did they do to deserve this?" he lamented.
"I'm pretty sure this will be a lot worse for Tino than for his underwear."
Lor pulled her sleeves up, rubbed her hands together, and took a deep breath.
"It's go time."
Downstairs, Ms. Tonitini looked up from her tea and paper as an earth shattering yell tore through her house.
Tino stood there with his underwear up to the middle of his back with the elastic torn off in Lor's hand, but still he slept.
"Carver, why did you yell like that?"
"The tearing of the clothes, it was just too horrible, I couldn't help it!" Carver said.
Lor shook her head.
"Well now I'm out of ideas. The atomic wedgie didn't work, and that's the best tool in the book! No boy is supposed to be able to withstand it. I really, really hate to do it, but I have to admit defeat."
"Yeah, me too. It's just too-" Carver stopped mid sentence.
"What is it, Carv?"
"This poster, when did Tino get it? I don't remember it ever being here before," Carver said drawn to the wondrous sight.
"You're right. I don't remember it either I guess it's new. A bunch of women, eh? I certainly hope Tino doesn't take after you."
"Yeah, right, after me."
"Carver? You okay? Hey, snap out of it, Carver! Don't go losing yourself over some girls on a poster."
Carver shook the cobwebs from his head.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said.
"Whatever, let's go. There's nothing else we can do here."
Carver agreed and they both headed downstairs.
"Hey, you two, is everything okay? I heard some screaming earlier," Tino's mom called from the kitchen.
The two kids walked out to talk with her.
"Yeah, everything is fine. Just lost our cool for a moment, that's all," Lor answered.
"Oh that's good. So any luck solving the mystery of the sleeping Tino?"
"Nope, we tried several methods and we just couldn't get him to come around. Tino is in one heck of a sleep. I mean he's sleeping standing up! That still confuses me."
"Sleeping standing up? I wonder if he's become a narcoleptic," Tino's Mom commented.
Lor gasped. "Do you really think he's doing drugs!"
Tino's mom paused for a moment then turned to Carver.
"So yeah, this seems to be quite a problem."
"I definitely agree. He is completely out of it. I just don't understand how someone could sleep that soundly."
"Well, actually, I have an idea as to what might be happening, but it's kinda crazy."
"Any ideas would probably be helpful."
"Well I think that this might have something to do with that new poster of Tino's, the one with all of the women on it. I get a bad feeling from it."
"I see… Have you had any seafood casserole recently?" Carver asked.
Tino's Mom narrowed her eyes.
"I was just asking."
"Well, it's the only thing I can come up with. I see that poster today and Tino starts acting weird today. I think it's just logical."
"Right, this is a difficult problem to figure out."
"Maybe if you had a third person to bounce ideas off of this might not be so bad."
"Yeah, well, Tish decided to sit this one out. I bet she's living it up somewhere without a care in the world," Lor said throwing her arms up in the air.
"That doesn't sound like Tish. Did you guys try talking with her? I bet she's feeling pretty bad about not being here."
Lor scoffed.
"Trust me on this. You should start with trying to get Tish back and then worry about Tino. If you just talk to her I'm sure you can work things out."
Lor sighed.
"I guess it couldn't hurt. We're out of ideas, anyway, though I hate the idea of having to beg."
"It's not begging, Lor. It's reasoning."
"Right. C'mon, Carver, let's go. Tomorrow is gonna be a long day, starting with reasoning with Tish. One of my least favorite things in the world, which is why you'll have to be there."
Carver sighed. "Right, right. I gotcha."
Lor and Carver said goodbye to Tino's Mom and then left for their respective homes. Ms. Tonitini took another sip of her tea and looked at her kitchen vacantly.
"I think I'll have to call upon my backup as well. I'll make sure to do that first thing in the morning," she thought and then went back to reading her paper.
End of Chapter Three
Well, there's finally a new chapter. I think I made good time and I'm pretty pleased with the result. Hopefully, both of those will become trends but who knows. I don't really have anything else to say, and even what I did say was pretty lame so I'll stop now. Read, review, you know the usual nonsense down here.