God's Will
Chapter 2: Halloween
...Heero didn't know what to make of it, so he continued his walk. As he approached the playground area, he saw many children of
various age ranges playing happily. The toddlers were in the sandboxes and on the mini-swing sets while the older tykes were on the
larger swings, jungle gyms and sliding down the 'big-kid' slides. The bigger girls were playing hopscotch and jump rope in their small
area of the playground and the bigger boys were busy playing marbles and poking (1) in their corner. The parents of the kids were
conversing in a friendly manner as they watched their children play. Heero rested his grocery bags down on an empty park bench and
leaned on the wooden fence as he too enjoyed the sight of the kids at play. Watching them always made him turn to memories of his
own childhood, memories he no longer recalled or could even verify ever existed.
Slowly, he began to notice that the pleasant murmuring of the parents had ceased. He turned to look at them and see what the problem
was. The parents' vigilant gazes were no longer on their little darlings. They all were staring at him, some nervously while others glared or
tried to avoid eye contact with him. He sighed inwardly, he saw the problem…him. He nodded at the staring adults and politely picked
up his grocery bags and decided to go home.
As he walked with a slight breeze against his back, he noticed that many of the couples he had passed on the way into the park had left
and new ones had replaced them. This didn't bother him but then he noticed that the strange man he'd seen sleeping when he came in
was gone also. There was no sign that he had been there at all. The bench he'd been lying on was covered with the fall leaves again…
Heero turned the corner that led away from the park and onto his home street. A moving van parked a few houses up the street caught his attention.
'This should be interesting' he thought as he approached the house. As he passed the house he faltered long enough to notice that the
movers were unpacking very few things. A well used faded out red sofa and a kid-sized swing set caught his eye.
'Definitely a kid-household' he thought. He looked around to see who the new occupants were but there was no one in sight, save the
movers in their odd-looking striped uniforms. He looked at the house that seemed to have a subtle air of a Victorian cathedral somehow
with its elaborate dome windows and architectural accuracy. His eyes wavered at a window on the top story of the house. There was
a tall lean shadow. Whoever it was, was looking straight at him with an intensity Heero found almost overwhelming. He turned from the
gaze to the movers and inquired of one of the movers,
"Who's going to be living here?"
The mover nearest to him, a short, pudgy, balding guy with droopy tired looking eyes, shrugged his shoulders indicating his lack of interest.
"Some lady and a kid" he mumbled almost inaudibly and continued his job and not giving Heero a second glance.
Heero looked back up at the window on the top floor but the shadowy figure was gone. Heero sighed half-heartedly then continued his
trek home in thought.
At Home
Heero rested his bags of grocery down and picked up the mail he'd left n the front table that morning. He sorted through it rather hastily.
IT was mostly bills or junk mail. He slowed down when he came to a local advertisement flyer. It read:
Come One, Come All,
To the most fun Halloween Celebration ever held
Foods, Drinks, Prizes, Surprises, Competitions
And activities for the kiddies
T be held at the Local Community Park,
From 1 pm Until on Halloween Day…
'Uhm' thought Heero. He'd entirely forgotten about Halloween and it would soon arrive in a matter of two days.
The general community was serious about Halloween and he'd have to be ready for the trick-or-treaters, not that he was expecting any
considering that he wasn't a 'favorite' in the local society.
Halloween was probably among his least favorite times of the year but he didn't know why.Heero sighed again and let the flyer flutter to the ground. He then picked up the bags and headed to the kitchen t put his groceries away.
Afterward he headed upstairs to his room. His morning voyage had gotten him tired and exhausted from tension. As soon as he had
dropped into bed and was on the verge of drowning in the world of endless dreams, he heard a faint, indistinct sound. He tried to ignore
it but his curiosity got the better of him. He sat up on his bed and listened again. When it came, he got up and trekked down the stairs
again. The sound came again, it sounded like a yowl and faint scratching.
Heero cautiously opened the door and sitting quite politely on his doorstep was a cat. A silky silver gray calico cat with odd twinkling
blue eyes. Heero's first instinct was to shoo the animal away and close the door but the cat dashed passed him and into the house
somewhere. Heero slammed the door and ran after the cat. He searched everywhere; in the kitchen, living room, washroom, closets,
bathroom but the feline was nowhere to be found. Heero decided to let the cat come out n its own accord and he headed back upstairs
to try to go back to sleep. He laid down on his bed and felt the allurement of sleep come over him once again but something was
stopping him. He felt a faint gush of air brush his cheek every few seconds. He opened his eyes and was caught in the quiet feline stare
of his unwelcomed visitor. Heero almost jumped in surprise but he kept his composure and his muscles relaxed. He and the calico
stayed in a dead-lock for almost five minutes before he finally muttered,
"What am I going to do with you?"
The cat blinked questioningly, then yawned as it curled up in a ball and fell asleep on his pillow.
"A cat…" he murmured and ventured to touch his newly found pet. 'Who'd have thought…"
Two days later
Halloween day
Heero awoke to the friendly yet demanding yowl of Ices, that's what he decided to call the cat due to the icy-blueness of its eyes. He
got up and yawned as Ices rubbed against his legs impatiently. Heero went downstairs to the kitchen with Ices leading the way. He
opened a can of exquisite gourmet cat food and poured it into a glass dish for the cat then he pored a cup of cream in a separate dish
for the picky pet.
"You're one spoiled feline" he muttered annoyedly as he rubbed his eyes sleepily. "I'm going to have a bath"
Heero headed back upstairs toward his bathroom. He groggily stripped himself of his nightclothes, a pair of silk boxers, and stood
admiring his bronzed toned Grecian profile in the full-length mirror before he turned on the shower taps. He stepped into the shower. He
felt entirely invigorated as the water massaged his tense muscles and stung his scars, scars he couldn't remember ever acquiring. He felt
his thick unruly hair become soaked in the water and reluctantly fall lifelessly around his smooth rounded face (2). As he pushed the hair
out of his eyes, the growing feeling that he was being watched grew bothersome. He sighed out of annoyance and slight amusement.
"You know you shouldn't make this a habit," he said to his audience. "It's not only disturbing but it's also unnatural."
He heard an inquisitive yowl in response. He turned his head to the snooping feline and slightly smirked.
"Yes, it is" he said and flecked some of the warm water at the cat who scowled and bared its fangs heatedly in response. Heero looked
at the cat and a sudden sadness came over him. He shook his head and sighed as he turned off the taps and stepped out of the shower.
He reached for his drying off towel.
'What's the world coming to? Talking to cats…hmh' he thought. He turned to the grooming cat and dropped the now damp towel on
him. "You're leaving as soon as I find your owner" he muttered. (3)
That Evening
The true Halloween festivities had begun and the entire neighbourhood was a mass mayhem of excitement. The celebration in the park
had long begun and everyone from blocks around was present and were enjoying themselves. Helium balloons in golds, orange, blacks,
greens and bronze littered the air. Streamers, crepe paper lanterns, jack-o-lanterns, scarecrows and other 'scary' Halloween-like items
decorated the park. Kids and adults alike were caught up in the joys of Halloween and were all dressed in their costumes. Nothing
could spoil this joyous occasion that everyone was enjoying…
Heero sat in the living room watching cartoons as evening came. He had little intention of going outside or dressing up like a natural idiot.
He didn't expect visiting trick-or-treaters either but he still had a bowl of cavity-forming delicacies waiting on the front table for the little
terrorists just in case. He sat quite contently in his boredom on his couch with Ices on his lap for company. But suddenly the strange cat
grew restless and jumped from his lap and ran to the front door, scratching at it furiously.
"No" said Heero, "You're not going out, not on a night like this. Anything could happen to a stupid cat like you."
'Not that I care' he pondered half-heartedly
The cat ignored him and continued to scratch at the door for a few minutes more. It stopped after a while and sat looking at him with its
big blue sorrowful eyes and yowled pitifully. Heero glanced at it and felt sympathetic. He reluctantly got up and unlocked the door. The
cat bounded out the door and disappeared into the dim twilight. Heero had fully intended to head back indoors but the amusing sight
that greeted his animated Prussian eyes made him reconsider. He saw people everywhere…mostly little kids of course. The entire street
was alight with spooky jack-o-lanterns and ornaments or figurines of witches, scarecrows, bats, cats and the like lined most lawns.
Some houses had green and orange lights decorating their fences, light poles or mailboxes. Little kids in costumes were dashing
everywhere excitedly. Little pink witches, giant blue teddy bears, mini league baseball players, 'evil' snowmen, seductive bunnies from
mars (4), crying ninjas, baby Dark Vaders, black and orange misshapened butterflies, 'dust-weight' boxers, cute little green 'men' and
miniature lions and dinos ran amuck from one house to another in delightful ecstasy. Heero noted that the parents skillfully steered their
kids away from his house whenever they ventured near, which was fine with him.
Heero went back inside his house after a few moments of amusement.
"The stupid cat will come back if it wants to" he said as he pondered as to where the cat could've gone off to. 'Maybe home, wherever
that is…'
"Not that I care." He murmured and sat down on his couch again. He was just getting absorbed in a Rurouni Kenshin re-run when he
heard a faint, strange sound at the front door.
'That stupid cat didn't even last a good ten minutes' he smirked and went to the front door.
To his surprise, he found a bundle of leaves sitting on his doorstep. He looked around to see if there were any snickering, guilty-looking
kids in the vicinity.
'Is this their idea of a joke?' he thought to himself. He was just about to pick up the bag and throw it away when he heard a whimper.
He took a better look at the bag, which was an ordinary hefty or glad garbage bag that had drawstrings and was overflowing with
leaves. He poked it and the bag wriggled.
'Hey' whimpered a small voice. The bag of leaves turned around and revealed that it was a little girl…
To Be Continued (very soon)
Author's Note: Well this chapter took long enough. Actually I already have the next two maybe three chapters written, my prob is just
sitting down taking my time to type them and upload them. No matter, Maybe I'll type the next chapter today and post it tomorrow.
Well I am better, health wise. Thank you my reviewers. I will get to my other fic…eventually. I'm having a hard time writing what I have
in my mind and Net, why do you torture me? I know my other fic isn't…wait I'll reprimand in my other fic not now.
(1)I don't know if you people know about playing marbles and poking. These games are common games played among boys in my country, the Bahamas. Marbles is basically about drawing a circle in the dirt and depositing al the player's marbles in the circle. Each player chooses one marble as their shooting marble and they take turns 'shooting' the marbles out of the circle. What ever marbles are shot out of the ring, that player keeps for himself, if he misses the marbles entirely when he shoots or doesn't hit them hard enough to get any out then the next person takes his/her turn (boyish girls like me can play). The game continues until all the marbles are gone. Poking was probably my favorite game in primary school. Poking is about using a tennis ball maybe a hard fruit like an acorn or almond or maybe a rock (if you want to see blood) to hit each other. You learn to hit really straight and hard from this game. It also helps wanna-be-baseball pitchers with their fastballs. It's an intense, violent sometimes-painful game. There is generally no point of end or general point to the game to tell the truth but it's fun. The game ends when the school bell rings or we lose the ball by throwing it over a wall or something. Sometimes team play is incorporated but not always. Lady-like girls don't play this game but I'm no lady, so there.
(2)Net, remember that pic of Vana and you in the leaves when you were kids? Remember Vana's head? I mean that kind of round. Actually no one elses head can be as round as vana's so why did do that comparison? Hmh…
(3)This scene was inspired by December (or was it Leopard), one of Net and V's cats. That cat stalked me for the entire day I was over at their house. I went to have a bath and realized that it had followed me in the bathroom too and I kinda did the same thing Heero did in the fic when I saw the perverted cat. Bad kitty. Later I found out that he does that to everyone, and that the affection wasn't personal….anyway.
(4) This was a joke Net and Vana concocted about a picture they drew for a story. i don't remember the details now.