I've been lining up my dominos, time to knock them over!
Also, for any Californians out there. I am so sorry. I cannot fathom your slang. All I could do was think how Greg Cipes would say stuff.
But I will nail Wintergreen, since I'm, like, British. That's why some words are spelt differently.
There's something unsettling about hospitals. Even though they're busy, time somehow stands still in them. A boy with a suitcase walked up to the front desk and smiled at the secretary.
"Hay. I'm Eddie, I'm here to see Gar. Ur, Garfield Dayton. He should be expecting me."
"Oh, yes. He came by earlier and left a note... That someone spilt coffee on." She held up the post-it. A dried coffee ring had warped the paper and the text had bled into a black smudge. She consulted the computer, instead. "According to this, he was in room B.D-14. You could try there?"
"Sure. He ain't replied to my texts, so I'll post up there."
"Um, sure. I'll let them know you're coming up. First, what's in the suitcase?"
"Hair and make up stuff. That kinda thing. Some arty things as well. Clothes... like, general industry costume dep things. Ya feel?"
"Hu? Alright?"
Eddie waved at the secretary and headed for the lift. Ward B was only on the next floor up, but he wasn't about to lug a suitcase up the stairs. Once he was out it was easy enough to find the B ward, but not so easy getting to room D-14.
"There's the Cs... This is D-1." He walked down the hall and expected to come across D-14 eventually, but instead was faced with a door number that made no sense. "2 35?" He went to the rooms right and left of the door. They were D-13 and D-15- this had to be D-14. Eddie knocked, but the door wasn't shut properly and slowly creaked open. "Dude, these digs are hella cutty... "
The room was dark and had a slight, damp smell. There wasn't any of the usual, fancy hospital equipment, just a bed and a side table with a note on it. Eddie propped the door open with his suitcase and picked up the folded piece of paper. 'Gar' was written on the front in ominous handwriting. There was a sudden THUD. Eddie spun round and saw his suit case flat on the floor as the door inched closed. "NO WAY, BRO!" He yelled, racing to the door and sticking his foot in in between it and the frame. "I ain't getting taken by some spooky room!"
Foot steps came from outside, growing louder and faster.
"DUDE!?"
"Help! Open the door!" Eddie called, his fingers curled round the edge of the door as he tried to get an arm through the gap.
The guy on the other side wasn't making any difference with his pushing.
"I'm, I'm gonna ram it! Make sure you aren't in the way!"
His voice was familiar, with an accent that made him pronounce each letter in a word with a sort of crackly softness. Once Eddie realised who the voice belonged to, he quickly obeyed the command- moving as much of himself out of the way as he could. The room must have heard, also. The door loosened, and the guy ramming into it had nothing to slow his charge.
Gar tripped on the suitcase, but righted himself straight away. He knew this smell.
"Get out!" He ordered, pushing the case into the hall and slamming the door shut behind them.
Eddie was dishevelled with his long, sandy blonde hair sticking out from behind his ears. "Dude! That room was tryna off us!" He panted from the rush, looking up in admiration at his rescuer. "I wudda been nabbed if it weren't for you! That was clutch!"
"You wouldn't have been a target if it weren't for me..."
"What the hells did you do getta ghost room after you?!"
"Guess I'm, um. Guess I'm just lucky like that."
Eddie got up and put his suitcase back on its wheels. He straighten his ski jacket, adjusted his back pack and tied his boot lace.
"So, dude- lets book it. I'm stoked to see what the deal is."
Back in the break room, Dick was still asleep and Vic was thinking about how he should act when Gar got back.
There was no real evidence towards anything he was speculating, but it made too much sense to just be a coincidence.
The handle turned, and the kid's short silhouette moved in the frosted glass.
"Hay, look what I found." Gar announced, introducing his friend.
Eddie looked at the cyborg, awestruck. "DUDE! Awesome!" He shouted, a grin plastered on his lightly freckled face.
"Look at that, you have, um, you have a fan."
It was an unexpected reaction. Vic didn't know how to reply, so just smiled awkwardly.
"Eddie, Vic. Vic, Eddie. Just so you know, he is from SoCal, um, California. They, like, they have their own language."
"...And that explains the ski jacket... Not used to the cold, Eddie?"
"Nar, man, but everyone here is. I looks like a total kook!"
"Dude, he's metal, I'm green, you're fine."
"Nar, he's rad. Like, gnarly. And you're totally sick! And I'm just, like, cold, man! It's, like, 50 here! SoCal's, like, 70!"
"Long island was, like, 40 when I left." Eddie twisted his face in response to the cold temperature, his hands in his pockets. "Dude, you wonna, like, come in and sit down?"
"Yeah, dude, I'll pull out my stuff. Get, like, set up and all that."
"Totally. I gotta, like, um, tell Vic something. Be back in a sec."
Vic went into the hall with Gar, closing the door behind them.
"Dude, I, like, should have totally, like, set up, like, a rad Cali bingo, or, like, something gnarly, man."
"Dude, that's just whack. You're like, a total shoobie."
There was no way for Vic to reply. He had stepped back into high school way of thinking and made a joke his school friends would have laughed at. But that was Gar's friend, and in this little group Vic wasn't top dog. He was just some guy who had so far been vulnerable and upset, and made some cry, and was no making fun the guys who had offered to help. Plus, he had no idea what a shoobie was.
"Hum, yeah, I get it. I was being a jerk. I'll stop. What did you want to talk about?"
"I, um, I did that thing you wanted me to do. Talking to the, to the morgue people. And, um, there were only 2 bodies found in the fire. One was you. The other... "
"Just say it..."
"Your mom. But they, they don't know where your dad's body is..."
Gar trailed off, inside his mind another conversation was going on.
Gar: Well, I told him.
David: And you did very well. But I, I see you thinking, there. What's going on?
Gar: I know I was there. I know I found the bodies. Everything's all fuzzy, though. Why can't I remember everything?
David: Well, Craig was probably there, too. And you were a dog. Someone else probably got the other parts of the information.
Gar: Great... Urg, There was that smell, too. The room. Is there some way I can talk to the dog?
David: I can have a look about and see if I can find him. Maybe Nalia can help.
Gar: … you can do that? Wait, who's Nalia?
David: Oh, she's great, you're gonna LOVE her!
Gar: What?!
David: Just wait here, I'll see if I can find her.
Gar: What? No, don't leave me! Who's Nalia?
When Garfield zoned back in he apologised to Victor and they went back into the break room. Eddie had covered the floor, a couple chairs and a table in newspaper, and was emptying out his suitcase.
"So, you wonna know what's going on?"
There were scales on the table, and a large tub labelled silicon, that was oozing tick white goop.
"Yeah, I think that's for the best...You sure you know what you're doing, though?"
"Oh, totally, dude. Fo 'sho. I was brunged up in the industry. Gonna, like, make a cast of yo' rad face and then I can, like, makes it normal with some FX. If you gotsta pee, pee now. You're not, like, claustrophobic?"
Vic shook his head.
He was guided to the chair and talked through the process as straws were stuck in his nose, and a hairdressing cloak was draped over him.
"Hay, I can't sit on these chairs. I'm too heavy" He said, backing away.
Eddie had to improvise. He cleared a space and covered one of the mattresses in newspaper, whilst being careful not to wake Dick.
"Dude, that guy is a heavy sleeper. Did you, like, keep him up last night?"
"I-I think I must have, like, slept on him. When I, um, when I woke up I was, um, sprawled out."
"Plus- you totally talk in your sleep, bro. Like, every time I've shared a room with you!"
"Heh, yeah. That too..."
DUN DUN DUN
Have you figured it out, yet? You get the Easter eggs? I LOVE putting in Easter eggs! and HATE dyslexia. hang on whilst I scroll back and fix the fact that a 3 and 8 look the same.
