7. An Insight into the Male Mind
Eddy was sat in the lounge, trying to ignore the world. The kids were in bed now, although how much sleep they were getting was in question. The journalists were still crowded out side the front of the house, and the story was still the only thing on television. Eddy had resorted to listening to music and reading a book at the same time, to try and drown out the world, and to give himself some peace. It didn't help though. Not long earlier Murdock had called to tell him that Blossom had told the police everything, and was intending to plead guilty.
"Why?" Eddy had asked.
"Because she doesn't want this to be dragged out over a long legal battle that could put pressure on the children," had been Murdock's explanation. Because SHE wants it over with quickly, had been Eddy's cynical thought.
He was ashamed of him self for even thinking it; Blossom surely wouldn't want to leave her kids. But still it lingered in the back of his mind. What if she did want out? It was a stupid thought, but one he couldn't get rid of.
The doorbell rang. Repeatedly. Eddy was going to ignore it, as it was probably journalists, having one final attempt to get an interview before the deadline. However, eventually the letter box was pushed open, and some one called through;
"For God's sake Eddy, open up!" It was Boomer. Eddy though the door open and thrust the blue Ruff inside, once again slamming it in the faces of the surging reporters.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, "it's gone ten, shouldn't you be with Bubbles?"
Boomer picked himself up. "She threw me out," he said sadly. "We had a row about Blossom, I think she blames me for it, or something like that."
"Did you defend yourself?" Eddy asked. Boomer drew himself up to his full height (which was a good half foot up on Eddy.)
"Of course I did!"
"That's where you get wrong then," Eddy said, walking into the kitchen, "you should let then walk over you when they're angry, let them shout and blame you for everything, and you should unreservedly apologise. Then spend one night on the couch, and by the time morning comes, they'll have realised that they were too harsh/plain wrong, and apologise to you. Once that's done, you can have a rational discussion and sort the problem out. Drink?"
"Triple scotch please."
"Okay. But you see now that you've argued she has something else to be upset about. How would you feel if just after Brick had died your wife had argued with you about it?"
Boomer downed the scotch. "I wasn't married," he said.
"But if you were!"
"Oh, pretty angry, I suppose."
"You see," Eddy said, "that how Bubbles feels. She thinks you were being insensitive, by not letting her get out some of her frustration, and anger or unhappiness over the situation." He downed a scotch himself. "You see, men and women are actually almost exactly the same, if you strip away the layers. The only differences in personalities are environmental. Men can be just as bitchy as women, and women can be just as competitive, or loutish, or what ever."
"Then how come life's so complicated then?"
"Because when they're with each other, women always worry if the man only wants sex, men always worry that the women is going to take away his life, and they both worry that the other one doesn't actually like them."
Boomer thought for a moment. "So basically, I'm buggered," he said.
Eddy paused too. "Not totally, you just need to spent the rest of the day preparing for a lot of grovelling tomorrow. Or you'll just have to wait for it to blow over, in about a week. Why are you here anyway, I would have thought you'd have gone to Butch's?"
"I didn't think things would be to stable there," Boomer said, "I thought I'd give them some space."
"Oh, so the most stable and unstressed household you could think of was here, was it?"
"Err…"
"Oh never mind," Eddy said, "since you're here, can you keep an ear out for the kids for a while."
"Sure, I've got nothing better to do. Where are you going?"
"For a walk," Eddy said, and he left through the back door. If he went through the neighbours' back gardens, he could probably avoid the crowds at the front.
Upstairs, Edward was in his room. The lights were off and he was in bed, but there was no chance of sleep. His mind was racing.
What right do you have to complain? it said.
"I don't want to be a superhero. I never asked for this."
Do you think any heroes ever asked for it?
"Yes! Lots!"
Always so stubborn aren't we? You never take anything lying down. That's why you get hurt.
"My old life was fine! We played board games on Sundays, had proper food cooked for us, I never had to do it. Mum was around to tuck me in at night… She had time for me. Now she only has… had time for the world."
That's life you fool. The old life was a life of being a nobody. Strong people, true heroes (and villains) don't need other people, other people need them!
"I don't want to be a hero. I want to be a nobody! I want life to be simple; I want to work in a dull office for a faceless multinational company. I want 2.4 children! I want my Mum to be here and for her to love me."
She isn't here. You have to go to her.
"I'm not going there! I'm not going to spend the rest of my life doing something I don't want to do!"
You have no choice. You are a puff/ruff. It is your destiny.
"Screw destiny, I want to do what I want to do! Why's it okay for the girls to do whatever they want, and not for me!"
Because they want to do the right thing. You don't. You are as bad as every super villain that ever lived. You have the power, you MUST use it. Till you do, everyone who dies is your responsibility. If there is an accident you could have stopped, every death that takes place is your fault.
"No it isn't"
Your fault.
"No…"
Your fault.
"NOOOO!"
Edward sat up in cold sweat. He swung round angrily. "IT'S NOT MY FAULT, OR MY RESPONSIBILITY! AND SHE DOES LOVE ME! SHE DOES!"
He sat there in silence for a while just listening to his breathing and trying to justify his actions to himself. There was nothing wrong with not wanting the pressure of being a superhero, was there? It was his life.
But he wasn't sure. Nothing was certain in his life at the moment. Only yesterday, the idea that his mother was a murder would have been unthinkable. Now it was reality. Only a few months earlier, she hadn't even been a superhero. He thought about the ten years of his life before he'd known. Had it all been a lie? Could he trust anything that had been said before? Did she really think it was okay for him to do what he wanted to?
"Oh Mum," he whispered quietly, "I don't know who you are."
Eddy wondered through the dark streets, kicking his heals. They were empty for now. He tried to clear his head, but he couldn't. It was so depressing. Was she really just going to let her self be taken away from him, without a fight? It made sense; the only reason she had to stay was the kids. He was just and added extra, part of the assemble kit.
He spotted something ahead of him on the pavement. As he approached, he realised it was a person, just lying on the floor. The closer he got, he soon realised that it wasn't a beggar, as he'd initially thought. It was a teenage kid, lying unconscious in a pool of his own vomit. Eddy glanced about, but there was no one else around. So he approached.
The kid wasn't breathing. Eddy desperately thought about what to do next. A thought suddenly struck him; he yanked open the mouth, put his hand inside and pulled the tongue out of the kids throat. He chocked up some more vomit, and started breathing again. Eddy dragged him over to a wall and sat him up against it. Then he called an ambulance.
It had been that quick, and that calm. Slowly, as he talked on the phone to the operator, a feeling of satisfaction spread over him. He'd saved a life, hadn't he? If it wasn't for him, the kid would have died…
"Dam, wasted trip," said a voice. Eddy swung round,
"YOU!" he said. Brick looked up.
"Oh, can all your family see me?" he said, slightly exasperatedly.
"Yes, that's right," said Eddy coldly, advancing towards him. "MY FAMILY! NOT YOUR'S!"
Brick blinked. "You upset about something?" he asked, totally relaxed. Eddy nearly blew a gasket.
"Oh just leave me alone!" he turned away. "You'll soon have it all anyway. Why should I fight it?"
Brick looked at his feet. "Listen Eddy," he began, but Eddy cut him off.
"You know, I hate men like you. You're so cool and comfortable around women, it all comes so easily to you. You sidle slowly along side, showing off your muscles in that subtle yet revealing way, and calmly push off the guy who has been spending three months trying to pluck up the confidence to talk to her. We just look like a pathetic ball of sweat compared to you, and you can back it up with you're smooth tongue, in more ways then one. Then, job done, you dump her the following morning, and move on to the next girl, leaving the previous one even more prickly and unapproachable. You make it impossible for us!"
"Hang on…" Brick began.
"Come on, tell me it isn't true, at least at one stage of your life!"
"I can't."
"Of course not." Eddy slumped to the floor. "I mean, what are we supposed to do? We can't help being ugly and nervous. I… we're just afraid of rejection. For you it hardly matters."
"Oh come on, that's not fair!" Brick had given up trying to get his point across. "I got rejected by Blossom multiple times! Do you think it didn't hurt?"
"How many girls did you reject?"
"Err… how many have you?"
"None. No one ever asked."
"Why is this my fault," Brick asked angrily. "I can't help being good with women! And I can't help it that Blossom loves me more than you! If she hadn't fallen for me, someone else would have got to her ages before you! You should be grateful for what you've got! It's not so great over here you know, I'm dead! I'm never going to have children or anything like that! So I played around a bit when I was younger, and so what if my one night stands made it harder for people like you to get a girlfriend. How does that diminish my right to fall in love? I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Blossom! I wanted to raise children with her, I wanted to marry her! Do you know how painful it is to watch that all happen with someone else? Her wedding? Her first child? I should have been there, not you!"
Eddy sat there in silence, while Brick calmed down. Eventually Eddy spoke.
"I know you should. She really loves you. She always has. All I can do is to show my love for her by letting her show you, and not moaning about it. But I just wish that once in my life, I could look in her eyes, and see that she loved me as much as I love her. But I don't suppose I deserve it. If I really love her, I should let her go."
"That's a bit defeatist isn't it?"
Eddy looked up. "Of course it is, how can I beat you?"
"You know," Brick said angrily, "I used to respect you, because of the way you looked after Blossom, and didn't try to make her forget about me. I would watch her go through her life with you and think, "Well I'm glad it's him, and not anyone else." But now I realise it's not because you want her to be happy that you let her continue to love me. It's because you're too scared of loosing her, so you'd rather settle for second prize, and hope for the best!"
"That's a lie!" Eddy protested, but now Brick was in full flow.
"You have nothing but Blossom. Absolutely nothing. Your life is meaningless without her, and yet you're just going to let her be carried out of it. You're a coward Eddy."
"Of course I am, that's what I've been saying for the last ten minutes! Why do you care anyway? Would it help inflate your ego if she actually rejected me properly and went back to you?"
"No, but I don't want to see Blossom strapped into to a chair and burnt to death!" Brick finally shouted. There was silence.
"You don't?" Eddy eventually said.
"No, like you, I love Blossom. I don't want to see her hurt. I want her to bring up her kids. I want her to be happy more then I want her to be with me! But if your to cowardly to help her, and just let her blindly stagger into the electric chair, what can I do?"
"What can I do? She wants to be with you. I can't stop that."
"You've got to be cruel to be kind," Brick said bitterly. "By the time the morning papers are out tomorrow, she will feel hated by the entire world. She'll see the harassment you and the children are getting, and she'll decide that the best thing for everyone is if she just leaves you all alone. The only way she'll stop if you tell her how much you really love her."
"Can't the kids do it?" Eddy asked desperately.
"No, she'll think that as their mother, she knows best." Brick turned to walk away, be still seemed angry. Eddy was terrified.
"What if she rejects me? What if she feels betrayed thinks that I've lied to her in the past? What if this ruins us?"
Brick turned back once more. "You are about to lose it all anyway. If you gamble, you might just win."
"If I fail, it will hurt more!" Eddy called after him, but the siren from the ambulance distracted him momentarily. When he looked back, Brick was gone.
Okay, please review. Sorry if that wasn't as good as normal, it was extremely hard to write. For those of you wondering, Sonic should be back next chapter…
