Chapter 10: Back To Normal

I woke up to an odd smell. Something was on my face. It was warm and big. Once I opened my eyes, I realized that it was King's foot covered with a dirty white sock.

"Ill!" I yelled as I rolled away from him, "What's WRONG with you! That smelled like…grilled cheese sandwiches!"

King laughed at me. "Sorry. It was the only way I knew to wake you up!" he replied.

"You're GROSS!" I yelled as I rubbed my face where his foot had been. The smell had attached itself to my skin, I couldn't believe it.

"I hate when you do that!" I yelled. King laughed harder as he fell onto his bed, sometimes he reminded me of a playful child. As his laughter died down, I sat on my bed and got serious.

"What happened? I mean, how are we okay?" I asked.

King sat up and smiled at me saying, "Your friend Jamila rescued us. She carried you away and broke me out of my cell. Guess she's not so devious after all, huh?" I took in his words and thought about them for a minute.

'Jamila saved us? What happened to Nexeu?' I thought before I asked King, "Did she get Nexeu?"

King shook his head replying, "No. He got away. She said that saving you was more important."

"She said that?" I asked.

"Yep. Nexeu used a sedative to knock you out. Thank God it was only that." King replied.

I shifted on the bed and thought about something else, something that had been bothering since I said it.

"King?"

"Yes?"

"I'm really sorry about what I said before. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings or anything. It's just that…" I tried to think of the words before I said them.

"It's just that whenever people see who I really am, I get defensive, scared even. When you saw my pictures, I was afraid of what you would think of me. So I'm very sorry for saying what I said, it was stupid and selfish of me to even think that way."

King laid back on his elbows and was quiet for a few seconds. Finally, he broke the silence. "It's okay Pete. Don't worry, I don't think of you any differently now. I understand that you're going through hard times, and there's nothing wrong with that. Tell you what, why don't we end this vacation by doing some fun things, you know, as a father-son bonding."

I smiled as I replied, "Sure. I'd actually like that."

Then, I took on a more playful tone saying, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go pluck out the burned hairs from my nose ok? " King laughed at my statement as he took off his sock and threw it in my direction. I avoided it like the plague, leaping into the bathroom and landing on all fours.

After I was done in the bathroom, I came out and faced King again. "You need a shower, then we can do something afterwards." King laughed softly as he walked past me into the bathroom.

"Yes daddy." He said in a sing-song voice, trying to annoy me.

"And wash those feet!" I yelled after him.

'Hmmm…' I thought of something…exquisite. 'This is going to be priceless!'

A few minutes later, I came out of the hotel room and snuck down the hall. I had my hand behind my back, hiding something. Suddenly, I sat on the floor and pulled out my new treasure, King's jaguar mask. He took it off to shower and he didn't even realize that I had taken it.

"Now I'll FINALLY know what it's like to be King…" I said as I slowly raised the mask towards my face.

"Hmm, does your father know you are doing that?" a voice said.

I spun around just in time to see Jamila leaning against the corner of the wall. Quickly, I put King's mask into the back pocket of my black jeans as I stood to face her.

"Um…hi." I said, hoping that she would go along with this subject-change.

"No. I guess he does not know." She replied.

'Dang, she's good!' I thought. I laughed nervously as I walked a little closer to her, no longer feeling as afraid as I usually was around her.

"I just wanted to say thanks…for everything." I said.

"It was no big deal, really." She replied.

I laughed to myself a bit. "So I heard you let Nexeu go…to save me?" Jamila tossed her long black hair over her shoulder.

"I didn't let him go. He got away." She said.

"Uh huh, suuuure." I said with a smile. A thought struck me. "Hey. I bet I could make you laugh." I said in an annoying voice.

"PETE!" King's voice roared from down the hall. He came at me, wearing Armor King's mask as he wore nothing but a towel on his wet body.

"Uh! Gotta go! Thanks again Jamila!" I yelled as I ran away down the hall, King following close in tow.

"Well. It looks like things are back to normal!"