"R-Rudy... Are you sure...?" Penny whispered softly. "It wasn't some big mistake?"
Rudy sniffled once before saying back to her, "I heard what she said. I'm not deaf, Penny."
The girl leaned slightly away from Rudy at this. She sucked on her lip as she watched her friend lean forward, resting his chin on his hands. He hadn't really cried much, but it was clear that he was holding all of it in. She could see the way that his body shook and she could see the look in his eyes. She knew that he was preoccupied and she knew what that was.
She tried to think of a way to cheer him up. But outside of just putting her hand on his shoulder and gently squeezing it, she couldn't really think of anything. After all, how could she cheer him up after...this?
Oh poor Rudy... He didn't deserve to have this happen to him. He didn't deserve to have life be so cruel as to strike him down like this. He didn't deserve to lose something so precious. She couldn't understand why things could never go a more positive way, or why they... Her thoughts trailed off as she realized how much of her tears had swelled up in her eyes. She wiped them away furiously.
"I can't believe it. I-I don't want to believe it." Penny whispered softly, her voice shaky. "C-Couldn't that machine be wrong?"
Rudy shook his head. "She said it was highly accurate." There was a long, unsettling pause before he went on to say, "A-A-And she said that the chances of this being wrong were...low."
Penny could feel her heart stop beating. It was like someone had grabbed her heart and squeezed it tightly, forcing it to pump harder and harder, making her feel something tense there. As she stared at Rudy for a long few moments, her mind wandered to what had been said earlier. She could hear those words ringing in her head over and over again. What Rudy had said to her moments after his parents went in to speak with the nurse.
"I'm not getting my eyesight back."
While Rudy had actually regained some of his eyesight, that statement wasn't wrong. What he had meant to say was, it wasn't going to get any better. What he had now, that's what he'd have to live with. Unless of course, he could afford expensive surgery, which sadly, he could not.
Penny struggled to fight back the increasing amount of tears wanting to crawl out of her face. She shook her head once and eventually managed to hold her own. Aside from a few sniffles, she managed to keep quiet. The horrible news continued to linger over her head, but she tried not to let it control her for long. Unable to think of anything else, she moved her arm over her friend and pulled him close to her.
Life really wasn't far, was it? She recalled how Rudy informed her of his parents needing to go to court soon. In a few days, wasn't it? And now there was this to worry about. She could feel her stomach stinging as she realized just how horrible of timing that this really was. Not only did this family have to worry about court hearings, but now they had to fear the possibility of Rudy having permanent eyesight damage.
And while she kept silent about it, she knew that there was something else they needed to worry about in regards to the blindness. There was no doubt in her mind that it would be used in the court against Rudy's parents. If it was discovered that their actions led to him becoming permanently legally blind, then the punishment would be more severe.
There had been nothing but a thin sliver of hope that they could make it out of the hearings in tact. But with this now at the forefront of everything, she realized now just how unlikely that really was. Now that sliver of a chance had vanished completely, as far as she was concerned. She had no idea what hope, if any, the Tabootie family had left in remaining secured as a single unit.
Her heart clenched tightly as she tried to think of just where Rudy would go after this. Would he even stay in Plainsville? Would he and her even be able to see each other again? How would his new family treat him? What would they be like? This and other questions crowded her mind, which did little to ease her aching head.
She tried to focus her attention on comforting Rudy. Such a difficult task to pull off, but she wanted to at least try to help Rudy feel a little better. She wanted to attempt to help him raise his mood up, get his mind off of things. But that would be difficult. How could one distract another from the reality of blindness?
Penny still struggled to think of something. There had to be a way to try to soothe Rudy's mind. Something to help him relax more. Desperate, she said the first thing that came to her mind.
"Hey...do you want to come into ChalkZone later? I'm sure the zoners would like to get s... get a visit from you." She had to quickly correct herself. "What do you say?"
Rudy didn't respond outside of a small grunt. He didn't even try to meet her gaze. He was deliberately keeping his head turned away from her. This made Penny cringe slightly. The lack of a response worried her deeply. She wasn't going to give up, though. So she tried again.
"Snap has been asking about you. He wants to know how you're doing." Penny waited for Rudy to speak up. He still ended up remaining silent, prompting Penny to keep trying to speak with him. "Did you want to pay him a visit?"
At this, Rudy did seem to finally respond. Though it was more just a quick wave of his hand with not enough context for her to know what he meant by it. Penny stared at him for a few seconds. She didn't want to push him too hard, but at the same time, she couldn't stand the thought of him cooping up all of his emotions inside of him.
Squeezing his hand tightly, he said, "Rudy, I understand that you're going through is painful. This isn't the sort of thing that's just easy to accept. But..." She held his hand more firmly. "...don't forget, you have people supporting you. The zoners in ChalkZone will still accept you, regardless of your sight. They're not going to..."
"What does it matter?!" Rudy snapped, taking Penny aback. She leaned away from him, staring at him in shock. His body shook hard, his fingers flexing and gripping at his head. "If I can't protect them, what good am I?!"
"R-Rudy..." Penny whispered. She reached out and tried to touch him on the shoulder. But Rudy just jerked himself away from her, releasing a loud grunt. "Rudy, please... I know you're upset. But that's no reason to act like this." She leaned in closer to him, trying to get him to look at her. "I'm your friend. I'm not going to let you just beat yourself up like this. It wasn't your fault that this happened."
Rudy paused for a moment. It almost seemed like something went through to him. But then he turned to glare at her almost viciously. Penny nearly let out a scream. She hadn't expected him to look at her like that. And then the words that came out of his mouth... "Are you saying that it's my parents' fault?"
Penny stammered. "I-I.. I never said... I mean..."
Rudy didn't take too kindly to her stumbling words. In fact, it seemed to convince him of something that she never confessed to. "So you do think that they were responsible. You think that they're the reason that I'm like this." He pointed his fingers towards his eyes firmly. "Don't you? I bet you think they did it on purpose, too!"
The girl immediately raised her hands up, pulling herself back more. She couldn't stop staring at Rudy in utter horror. What in the world has gotten into him? Why was he making these allegations all of a sudden? Penny bit her lip as she struggled to think of how to pacify him. But she couldn't think of anything. Her mind was frozen.
All the while, Rudy didn't exactly seem like he was ready to stop. His expression, the way that his eyes looked, the tension everywhere... Something was driving Rudy into this. Something was making him unleash his fury in a way that she did not expect. Penny would feel her heart skipping several beats as she realized how much worse this could get if she didn't do something quick.
Rudy took in a few shaky breaths. There was something of a smile crawling along his face. It was creepy, making Penny's blood start to chill. "You know, you are starting to remind me a lot of Dr. Bendor. He thinks that my parents were responsible, too."
"Rudy..." Penny started to say. "I..."
Rudy narrowed his eyes as he cut her off. "But I never thought that you two would share the same beliefs. I thought that you would have at least... I don't know." He raised his hand up in gesture. "At least try to give my parents a chance or something."
Penny couldn't take it any longer. She wanted to get the message across that she was not betraying him or his parents. There was never a point in time that she did. Her mom actually blamed them more than she herself did. Penny had acknowledged that they played a role, as did Rudy himself. But she was trying her best not to accuse them or blame them as that wasn't going to help. She...
She stopped herself to try to clear her head. At this point, Rudy had looked away from her. He was far from done speaking, but it would seem that he at least was going to try to chill out a little. Maybe he was going to realize just how much he was blowing things out of proportion. Maybe then they could get some real discussion going. She dare not speak too soon, for fear of triggering something.
She noticed that it was getting pretty uncomfortable in this hallway all of a sudden. Maybe it was the occasional stare from people who overheard their conversation. Maybe it was the air around them that suddenly started to feel rather stagnant. It could also be her own internal feelings. Whatever the case may be, she really wanted to get up and start walking around for a bit. The only thing keeping her there was Rudy. She did not want to leave him like this.
But what could she say? It felt like, at any moment, she might end up upsetting him. He was in a delicate position right now. She should have realized that he would be like this after he learned that he was going to remain blind. That must have caused a cascade of emotions to rise up. It made her realize that he may not have actually believed that she was against his parents; he was just looking for some way to release his anger.
She realized that it was going to be a bit more tricky helping Rudy right now than it was with Snap. Not that Snap's situation was easy; but she at least had a better idea of what to do. She had at least started the process, anyway, by getting Snap to apologize to that baker that he had attacked.
She knew that it would take longer than one apology and she was not surprised the baker zoner didn't seem happy with Snap, even after he said that he was sorry. Still, that situation was on its way to being resolved. But Rudy's on the other hand...
She stopped herself when she heard the doors opening up, revealing Mr. and Mrs. Tabootie coming out. She could see the solemn looks in their eyes, the tears that had formed. She could see how regretful the nurse seemed, her head slightly bowed as she guided them out. Penny said not a word when the parents walked over towards Rudy.
"I am so sorry." The nurse said softly. "You can...go up in the front then. We'll have the next appointment scheduled." That was the last thing the nurse said before she disappeared down the hallway.
Penny watched her leave, biting her lip firmly. She then looked over at where Rudy and his parents were. She thought about saying something. But she couldn't really think of anything. She soon decided that it was just best that she leave Rudy to be with his parents in his moment need. They might have a better chance at calming him down than she did.
And besides, her mother was probably waiting for her, wasn't she?
Without saying a word, Penny got up from her seat and walked away. She paused for a moment to give a sympathetic glance over to Rudy and his parents. Then she turned around and walked away.
sss
Rudy couldn't think of anything to say. He could only just lean himself back against the chair, only partially aware of where he was. The world around him seemed to spin as emotions created a whirlwind inside of him. It soon devolved into some sort of earthquake and there was little that he could do to stop it.
That is, until Snap's voice called out to him.
"Hey Rudy, it's your turn."
Rudy shook his head once, blinking his eyes as he tried to recollect his surroundings. He looked around at the partially shaped blurs of color all around him. But he soon stopped and stared ahead at the blue and brown blobs that he recognized as Snap and Penny. It was difficult to tell just how they were looking at him, but Snap's tone of voice suggested that they were worried about him.
"Oh, hey guys. I..I guess I forgot." Rudy admitted. He looked down at the board. It had been created large enough to accomodate his bad vision. He squinted a little to try to get a sharp enough image. Then he made his move, pushing the piece forward. "There."
This had been Penny's idea. After he had gotten home and after Penny spoke with her mother, she had called him up and asked, in a rather impressively discreet way so that their parents were not suspicious, if he would like to go into ChalkZone and play a game of chess. She suggested that they could make it a little bit of fun, given ChalkZone's nature.
Rudy had been on the edge on what to do. He was still reeling from the news and he just wanted to lay down. He eventually settled with waiting until the next day. He was suddenly really tired and he felt that a good night's sleep would help him out.
He had tried his best not to let the news weigh him down too much. That had been really hard. He and his parents were taking it pretty badly, with Rudy feeling like an idiot and his parents feeling guilty. They had hardly spoken when they were home. Not even during dinner time, unlike how they usually go about things. It was just... Rudy had never welcomed the night time so fast before.
He did feel a little better once he had arrived in ChalkZone. It didn't take away the pain that quickly. And it didn't help that some of the zoners appeared to express concern on the matter. But once they were in ChalkZone's treehouse, that seemed to go away. Now he was alone in here, with no one but his two friends. They had done a good job with not bringing up the whole blindness thing, allowing them all to focus on the game.
He had to admit, this was pretty fun. The board itself was large in size with glowing lines, an idea that Penny had in order to maximize his chance of seeing it well enough. When they moved the pieces forward, they would animate if they were close to another piece, each striking each other in a short, video game-like battle. The pieces would disappear in a puff and then reappear at the opposite player's side when they were 'captured'.
Penny was right. This change to the game made it a lot more interesting to play.
Rudy turned his head when he saw some blurry movement. Penny was making her move now. Rudy might not be able to see exact details of what was happening, but he could see enough to enjoy what was happening. The pieces weren't really alive; they were programmed to do this, which made it less painful to watch.
As he heard the blip sound of one of his pieces being captured by Penny, Rudy gave a small smile in her direction. "So is that how you want to play?" Rudy said in a soft tone of voice. "Then maybe you should try to defend yourself against this."
With that, Rudy reached over to grab onto another piece. One of his rooks would do nicely. He pushed it upward and had it ram up against one of Penny's unguarded rooks. Since he was the one to make the move, just like in real chess, he was the victor. Now he had another of Penny's pieces to add to his collection.
Penny chuckled softly. He thought he could see her smiling more broadly. "You think that it's going to be over that fast, eh?" Penny interlocked her fingers and stretched them forward, releasing a crack into the air. Snap shuddered at this while Rudy flinched slightly. "Well it isn't over until it's over." Penny rubbed her hands together eagerly as she looked around for another move that she could make.
"I don't know, Penny." Snap said as he surveyed the area carefully. "I think Rudy has you licked."
Penny turned to stare at Snap. "Oh? You doubt me?"
Snap shrugged his shoulders, turning his head to one side. "He has ten of your pieces and you only took six of his. Just saying..."
"Yeah, that's right, Penny." Rudy said in a playful tone, raising an eyebrow. "How are you going to catch up to me?"
Penny didn't sound all that worried. "Most that you took were pawns. The only ones that weren't pawns were that one rook and the bishop." She pointed her finger towards the board in front of her. "While I may have only claimed two of your pawns, don't forget, I took both of your bishops, one rook, and one knight." She spoke playfully, "I think I have a better chance of winning this."
"Oh you think so?" Rudy let himself laugh a little bit. "Okay, you want to try me?"
"Bring it on." Said Penny.
Snap immediately pulled the bowl of popcorn closer and began to munch on it. "I'd like to see where this is going."
Rudy and Penny stared at each other intently as they resumed their game.
