"Maria, get that book for me. I can't reach it."
"Hey Maria, I know you don't like this kind of movie, but I'm not allowed to watch it by myself. Watch it with me!"
"Nuh-uh Maria, I won! This is how I play it, so from now on rock beats paper."
"Fix my jacket for me. Make the zipper work. You're a big kid so you know how to, right?"
"Maria!"
Abraham wasn't shy about requesting Maria's assistance or cooperation. She didn't mind, as she loved helping others, but at times she felt exhausted and overwhelmed, and even annoyed. Looking after the rambunctious kid was a large and taxing responsibility.
One day Abe visited her for a play date. When she asked what he wanted to do, he admitted he wasn't sure, and so began looking around for something to inspire him.
Inside her bedroom was a shelf on the wall that piqued his interest. He pointed at it and said, "I wanna see the old toy box."
A latched steel box sat on the shelf, containing Maria's old toys that she no longer played with. They were things she had offered to give to him before, but he had declined because they didn't seem fun. His request to look through them now surprised her, but it had been so long since they were used that she didn't question it.
She brought it down and undid the latch. There was a rattle, a toy xylophone, a pretend makeup kit, a toy phone, a paddleball, a sliding tile puzzle, a Slinky, and...
Abe pulled out a hunk of wood carved and painted like a dog, only with wheels instead of legs. It had long ears, beady eyes, and a curl at the tip of its tail. A collar surrounded its neck with a long white string coming out to act as a leash.
"That was my favorite toy when I was little," Maria spoke fondly, thinking back to past memories of petting and walking it. She remembered cherishing it like a friend.
"I can play with it, right?" Abe asked.
"Sure! I'm glad you changed your mind about these old toys. I thought they were too babyish for you."
"Well, I'm just bored today, that's all." He stood up holding the string and placed the wooden dog on the ground. "I wanted to play with something different."
He ended up liking the noise of it clattering as he pulled the string along. It tipped over whenever he tried to run with it, so he made Maria show him how to move fast without it doing that.
They took turns walking it all around her quarters. Abe recalled Chuck the cockroach and lamented that he was never able to take him for a proper walk. The pull toy was good enough, though. Maria added that maybe someday he'd have a real pet dog to take for walks.
"Those cost a lot of money! It would be easier to find a Mobian dog to go on a walk with."
"Then maybe someday you'll meet a friend like that," she laughed.
When he left, he asked if he could have the toy. Maria, surprised but pleased, agreed and waved both of them goodbye. The dog clacked as it rolled down the hall.
The next evening, after not seeing a trace of Abe all day, she put off dinner to look for him instead, wishing to know if he was still having fun with her old pull toy or growing bored with it.
The first place she sought was his room, but as she approached the front door, it slid open and he stepped out.
She called to him, making him flinch. He swung his head toward the door as if wanting to dash back inside.
She asked him how his day was, but he avoided her gaze. Shoulders hunched, he said, "Bad..."
"What happened?" she asked gently.
"It's gone," he confessed. "I lost the toy you gave me. I'm really sorry! I didn't mean it!"
The toy had been a precious keepsake of her childhood, but she wasn't as disappointed as she was glad he didn't hide the truth from her.
He explained what happened. "I was going on an adventure and I was running, and I know you said I had to be careful or it would tip over, but I didn't care. I was having too much fun to stop and make it stand up again. I was crossing a bridge and the dog got stuck in the fence and I pulled too hard, so the string broke. I tried to see where it fell, but the bottom was too far down."
Maria figured the "bridge" was one of the Ark's walkways and the "fence" was its railing.
Abe reached inside his pocket and pulled something out. "This is all I have left of it, honest." He handed her a bit of familiar white string.
She took it and he timidly added, "I was playing in the lower levels. Please don't tell anyone."
The Ark's lower levels technically weren't off-limits, but they were still dangerous. Abe should not have been there by himself.
She clutched the string to her chest.
They shared a moment of silence, but it broke when the boy's face lit up. "Oh, hey! Wait a second! Maybe it's still okay!"
"What?"
"Come on!" he answered and ran past her, making her heart jump. She turned on her heel and chased after him, wondering how he could think her old wooden toy might still be intact after taking damage from a great fall.
The halls grew dimmer as they traveled, since the lights in the lower levels weren't as many or as bright as the ones in populated areas. There were also several pipes and vents along the walls, reminding Maria of a dungeon. They encountered the long metal walkway where Abe lost the pull toy. The floor clanked beneath their feet as he led her toward a section of the handrail.
She stood beside him and looked down. There was darkness below, with a row of faintly glowing tiny green dots at the bottom. She recognized the color and realized they were vats of hot toxic waste. Her toy would have melted if it landed in one. And if it didn't, it was surely scattered in pieces in the room below.
"See, I didn't hear it crash, so maybe that means it's alright," Abe said, eyes scanning the gloomy depths.
She softly placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know you don't want to lose hope, but maybe you didn't hear it because it's too far down." She pointed at the dots. "Or maybe there was no crash because it fell in one of those toxic vats and melted."
His hands squeezed the guardrail. "Well... I want to look again. Let's get a flashlight."
They'd passed a janitorial closet on the way, but the flashlight they borrowed wasn't strong enough to illuminate the floor of the room. They checked parts of the walls extending downward in case it was wedged between a pipe or something, but no luck.
Abe suggested they return to the closet and look for some really long rope to climb down and investigate on foot, but Maria rejected the dangerous idea. They were too high. It was too risky.
"What if we used the rope to fish for it, then?"
"It's made of wood, silly! Even if it was made of metal and we attached a super strong magnet, it'd still be pretty much impossible."
Another option was to find the door to the room below and convince someone to unlock it for them, but that would mean revealing Abe's misbehavior.
"We could pretend it was you playing here instead of me."
"Oh no, I'm not covering for you this time." She put her hands on her hips and looked down her nose at him. "Remember the gym? You left without helping me pick up those discs and I let it slide because I knew you didn't mean to run away."
"I didn't mean to lose the dog, either!"
"But you did mean to come to the lower levels on your own."
He opened his mouth to retaliate, but nothing came out. He puffed his cheeks, crossed his arms, and pouted. "Fine!"
She smiled, partially because his attitude was cute and partially because remembering the gym gave her an idea. "I know someone who can help and who we don't have to lie to."
He raised an eyebrow, arms still crossed. "Really? Who?"
"Shadow the Hedgehog."
Abe's stance fell apart as he stepped back, bumping into the rail and staring at her like she'd grown a second head.
"You know who Shadow the Hedgehog is, right, Abe?"
"Yeah, so?" Once again, he pouted and crossed his arms, avoiding her eyes. "He won't care about some kids and some lost toy."
"Oh, no, he's not like that at all! He doesn't mind helping out people on the Ark when he can."
"How do you know?"
"Because we're friends. Here, we can find him and then you can get to know him and see for yourself."
Abe shook his head. "I don't want to meet him. I already saw enough when that alien and Professor Gerald woke him up. He's no good, Maria, no matter what he does."
She couldn't help the snicker that escaped her lips and quickly covered it up with her hand.
He turned defensive. "It's not like I'm scared of him or anything! But what about you? Do you really believe in him that much?"
"Of course." She chuckled, but a part of her felt uneasy. She knew he was not the only one who mistrusted Shadow, but she also knew with certainty that everyone's suspicions were unfounded. Abe was young, so perhaps he was parroting what he heard some of the adults saying, or perhaps he was only judging Shadow because of the way he looked. She didn't know what to make of the alien claim, whether he meant it literally or not, but what did it matter? Shadow was Shadow. Anyone who took the time to know him would see him the way she did.
Abe sighed and glanced at the ground. Maria held out her hand for him to take, but after a long pause, he frowned and shook his head. "I'm sorry I lost the toy you gave me, but maybe you were right. Maybe it's in a hundred pieces or melted into a puddle, so there's no use trying to find it."
His stomach chose that moment to growl, low and long, causing him to flush and stammer and Maria to giggle.
"It's not funny!" He stamped his foot. "B-Besides, it's time for dinner now, so let's go back."
"You go ahead, Little Abe. Maybe it is gone forever, but I'm not ready to give up yet. I'm going to find Shadow."
"You can't be friends with a bad guy, Maria."
His stomach rumbled again, she laughed again, and he exploded. "Stop laughing, I'm serious! Shut up!" He growled and curled his hands into fists. With a squeak in his voice, he yelled, "That does it!" and tore down the walkway, making the floor clank loudly and adding one last remark. "You'll be sorry!"
"Abe, wait!"
But he was gone.
She took a few breaths to steady herself. It was clear how much this affected him, but the whole thing was absurd! He'd come around, though. He wouldn't stay mad at her, especially once he had a full belly.
And she knew how to prove him wrong. All she had to do was find the "bad guy." She shook her head in amusement.
Tracking Shadow on her own was far from frustrating; in fact, the longer it took, the more she looked forward to seeing him.
He was watching the stars out of a hall window. He seemed deep in thought, arms crossed and eyes fixed in a neutral gaze.
Smiling, she ran to him. After exchanging a quick greeting, she explained the situation and asked for his help (and to keep Little Abe's mischief a secret).
He nodded and unfolded his arms. "Lead the way."
The two of them stood looking over the handrail, noting how far down it was.
"I'm sure it's either destroyed or melted, but if you can salvage anything, I'd be grateful."
He leaped over the rail and stuck his landing to the wall on the other side. She watched him use his Wall Jump ability to zip back and forth between the walls, working his way down until he was no longer in sight.
She waited and ignored something she'd been avoiding since her search: a surge of hunger. It was her stomach's turn to rumble, but she was starving for answers more than food. Her ears strained to hear any activity from the lowest level, but to no avail. The glowing green dots twinkled like ghastly stars.
Each time her hands squeezed the guardrail, she forced them to relax again. Shadow would be okay.
There was a faint flicker, and the room below flooded with light. A tiny black shape roamed about. She glued her eyes to it, following until it moved out of range and seeking it again whenever it re-emerged.
She watched when it hopped onto the wall, ran vertically for a while and began jumping between the walls again to reach her.
Gathered in one arm were some colored pieces of wood. Among them was the head of her childhood toy, missing an ear.
"It took forever to find the lights," he said, handing the pile to her. "I couldn't find all four wheels, either."
"That's alright. I'm just glad you were able to find any of it at all." She smiled warmly. "Thank you, Shadow."
"Do you need anything else?"
"No, but I'd love to go to the cafeteria with you for dinner."
She thought it strange that his cheeks turned a light shade of pink, similar to when he blushed at seeing her in a bath towel. The moment passed quickly. He gave a solemn nod and escorted her first to her room to drop off the broken toy, then to the cafeteria.
She kept an eye out for Little Abe the whole time, wanting to introduce the two of them and prove the bad guy was a good guy, but they never crossed paths. Perhaps he was already asleep. At one point she believed she caught a glimpse of a small boy's silhouette, but one blink later and the figure vanished.
The next day, Maria found him. She excitedly talked about how Shadow succeeded in recovering some broken pieces of the toy, but Abe wasn't impressed. He didn't want them back or to even look at them, either. He was still grumpy, but she noticed he perked back to normal when she didn't speak of Shadow, so she decided to avoid the subject if she could help it. She couldn't force people to change their minds.
Later that night, she was lounging on the sofa in her living space when there was a knock at her front door. She went to let in an unexpected but welcome guest.
"It's always nice when you visit, Shadow. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
The hedgehog followed her further inside, glanced at the floor, cleared his throat, and said, "I just stopped by to..." He cleared his throat again and started over. "I just wanted to..." He grunted as if frustrated with himself and showed her what he carried in his hands. It was a small glass figurine of a dog.
She hesitated. Eyes narrowed, she gathered it up carefully, bringing it closer for inspection. It had long ears, beady eyes, and a curl at the tip of its tail, just like her old pull toy.
"Remember the researcher who gave me a bonsai tree? I ran into her again today... I told her about how I helped you—don't worry, I didn't mention the other kid—and when she heard about your toy, she gave me this. Turns out she likes collecting glass trinkets as well as raising bonsai trees."
Maria wished she could meet this woman; she sounded like a nice person. And she trusted Shadow, which was a bonus.
She tried giving it back, but he gently pushed her hands back toward herself. Though the figurine had been given to him, he knew the researcher was aware of his intention to give it to Maria.
"I know it can't replace what was lost, but I still want you to have this."
She glanced at their connected hands. His gloves completely covered her fingers, hiding them with ease. She noticed how warm and comfortable they felt nestled deep within, and it sent a small but distinct stir in her chest.
Her eyes traveled from his hands to his face and peered at his crimson red eyes.
She squeezed the glass figurine, lightly. Her voice slipped out softer than she expected. "Thank you."
He stared like he didn't hear her, and she wondered if she should repeat herself, but then he said, "You're welcome," just as soft, and unwrapped his hands from hers.
She pressed her gift close to her body and walked him to the door. He stepped out to the hall and turned to her. Those brilliant red eyes again. She caught herself staring at them just like he was staring at her and didn't realize it until the door slid shut.
She walked airily to her bedroom, steps delicate like a dance, and placed the glass dog figurine on the shelf beside her old toy box. She took care to position it just right, thinking about Shadow all the while.
She happily awaited a chance to meet with him again. Her patience was rewarded during her next visit to the Ark's main library. She'd been carrying a stack of books she needed to study for her lessons and stumbled under their weight, nearly dropping them all, but a familiar touch steadied her. Shadow caught the book that fell from the top of the stack with smooth abandon. He asked if she needed help, which she gratefully accepted.
He did a lot of favors for her that day and the next several times they met.
"Do you want me to get that for you?"
"You go ahead. I'll take care of it."
"Fine, I admit that I lost on purpose, but only because you seem so happy when you win."
"Let me help you with that."
"It's nothing, Maria. I'm doing this for you because I want to. Don't ever think you have to pay me back."
