Chapter 3 - A special gift

December 5, 1985

He took a deep breath, holding it for as long as he could before exhaling quickly. Six Candles were arranged on a chocolate frosted cake: five for his age and a sixth for next year's birthday. The flames flickered as he blew them out, eventually fading out one by one. Yakko panted as his lungs couldn't comprehend exhaling so much air at once. His family clapped as smoke bellowed over the cake; Wakko patted his hands against his highchair in joy. Yakko beamed as he was applauded.

He was five years old today. One year older than he was the day before. Yakko was excited that it was his birthday today. Of course, he was always excited when his special day rolled around. But this year he felt different. In a way, he sort of felt like a new toon. His body felt weird: it felt as if his insides were stretching out. It wasn't too noticeable, but Yakko felt it happening. His mom had told him that he was growing up; getting taller and smarter by the day. He wasn't sure whether that was the case or not - she didn't seem to want to talk about it - but he felt inclined to believe her anyway.

Parents say weird stuff sometimes, he thought.

Yakko's dad approached him and patted him on the back. Startled, he looked up at his father standing over him.

"Happy birthday, son." His father told him with a smile. He put a butter knife in front of him. "Now go ahead and cut the cake. It's your birthday, so feel free to cut a big slice for yourself."

Surprised to have been given the honor of cutting the first slice, as he had never done it before, Yakko grabbed the butter knife from his dad. His father helped him with cutting the cake, showing him the right way to do it. He was nervous about suddenly making a mistake, but he felt better with his dad by his side. Slowly, Yakko was able to cut his own piece of cake. He glanced at his father for reassurance: the man looked very pleased with him.

"Not bad, kiddo," he said as he, once again, patted him on the back. "You've managed to impress your old man."

He grinned upon hearing his dad's kind words. His father used the butter knife and a fork to maneuver the cake onto the plate in front of him. Yakko stared in awe at his birthday cake, but not long before he grabbed his fork and shoved a bite of cake into his mouth. It was a vanilla cake that tasted creamy and moist. There was a generous amount of frosting layered on top of it. It was chocolate as preferred.

His aunt snapped a photo of him as he ate his slice of cake. Yakko winced as the camera flash blinded him. He never liked it when a photo was taken of him for this reason. Aunt Amelia firmly had told him on several occasions that these pictures can be saved as visual memories of good times. But he didn't see any good use for them. Not that he didn't like photos or didn't like when his photo was taken, Yakko just didn't care all that much about them. At least not as much as his aunt seemed to.

You'll learn to appreciate a picture when you're older. Just you wait, she claimed.

As he ate his delicious dessert, Yakko took note of his little brother sitting across the table from him. Wakko was wearing a pair of blue denim overalls, sort of like the overalls that he wears. His mother was standing over him. She was holding a fork of cake in her hand: she was trying to feed it to Wakko. Yakko noticed the face his brother was making. He didn't look to be appetized by the cake, as he scrunched up his face and turned his head away from his mom.

"Come on, Wakky," his mom said desperately.

She was making that high pitched voice that made Yakko want to pull his ears off his head. It didn't even work as Wakko didn't even acknowledge her. He made some sort of grunt as his mom tried to force the fork into his mouth.

"Here comes the plane!" Still, nothing.

She was really trying by this point.

"Come on, Ellie. He doesn't want it," his aunt said finally. "Just set the fork down. Maybe then he'll eat it."

Yakko grew bored of observing the situation, so he turned his focus back to his cake. But as he shoved more cake into his mouth, he heard his mom gasp before squealing in joy. Turning his head, he saw Wakko with his hand in his mouth. He laughed at the sight. It turned out his brother wanted cake after all. Even funnier was that Wakko reached his arms out toward his aunt: he wanted more. Unbelievable.

His aunt laughed and gave him some more cake crumbs to eat. Unsurprisingly, the baby boy shoved the small bite-sized pieces into his mouth like there was no tomorrow. Yakko was quite impressed.

"Is it good?" Aunt Amelia asked Wakko.

Wakko didn't answer, he was too busy licking his plate clean of every last cake crumb. His hands and mouth were covered in vanilla frosting and chocolate crumbs: his brother ate like a pig. But Yakko couldn't blame his brother for eating the way he did. The cakes his mom makes were always the best.

His mom and aunt seemed to be getting a kick out of cake covered Wakko, who just stared out into space as he tried to figure out what was going on. Aunt Amelia took a photo of the scene, laughing as she did so. Once again, Yakko winced as the camera flash blinded him. Rubbing his eyes, he decided to get back to eating his own slice of cake that was half eaten.

His mom laughed still, wiping a tear from her eye.

"Who knew that you'd like cake so much." His mom said aloud, rubbing Wakko's forehead.

Wakko smiled a toothy grin. His first set of teeth were beginning to grow in. They only looked like little white stubs right now, but they were there.

"Well everyone likes cake," Amelia claimed. "But it looks like he got most of it on himself."

His brother giggled, clapping his hands together. He was making weird babbling sounds that only he could understand.

"Here, let's clean you up," his mom said as she pulled a wet washcloth from behind her back and began to wipe the boy's face clean.

His brother didn't take this so keenly, moving his head around to avoid the wet soapy washcloth heading to his face. He didn't succeed at this though, and soon his mom was scrubbing his face clean. The fussy baby tried to fight back to no avail: his mom was going to clean his face no matter how much he didn't want her to. Eventually, after a lot of fussing, Wakko's face was clean. His fur had fluffed out from the water, making him look like a little puffball. Yakko glanced at the situation and couldn't help but laugh at the way his brother looked at that moment.

Wakko, on the other hand, wasn't so impressed by his new look. It didn't take long before the baby burst out into tears. He had enough. He was banging his fists against his highchair, screaming at the top of his lungs. Yakko flinched, he had never seen his brother throw a tantrum before. At least to this extent (Wakko had a tendency to cry very loudly from time to time, which drove him nuts). Both his mom and aunt were also shocked by this sudden outburst. The former scooped the infant into her arms, shushing him and rubbing his head gently.

"Come on, you," his mom said, sounding displeased by her younger son's actions. "I think it's about time that you had a nap."

The woman left the room with baby Wakko still crying in her arms. While Yakko was glad that the crying baby was no longer in the same room as him, he couldn't help but feel bad for his brother at the same time. Mostly because he's been through similar experiences.

Wakko, while still fairly young, had been coming out of his shell as of recently. He was becoming more and more active during the day, and was starting to do his dumb baby things less often. Yakko had become more adjacent to his brother's presence and wasn't annoyed by him as much as he used to be. But of course, that depends on the day. Wakko could still be a pain in the butt.

For example, Last Saturday, Yakko was playing with his Hot Wheels in the living room while cartoons played on the TV. Wakko crawled into the living room with a cute little smirk on his face. He didn't spot his brother at first as he was too busy playing and watching the morning cartoons. That was when Wakko decided it would be a good idea to eat one of his cars. He was baffled when he looked over to see the infant sucking on the small metallic car like it was a lolly pop. Beyond furious that his brother would do such a thing, he yanked the car right out of Wakko's mouth, which of course caused him to cry. Yakko tried to shush the baby, but it was too late. His father sent him straight upstairs to his room, banning him from TV for the rest of the day.

Brothers, Yakko thought, shaking his head in anguish.

But despite their shortcomings, Yakko had a healthy relationship with his sibling. They were playing together more often: Yakko had introduced Wakko to his Hot Wheels collection, which his brother seemed to be interested in. His parents loved the fact that he and Wakko were playing nicely together. They often gush over how their little boys are growing up and that they used to be so little. Yakko didn't care much for his parents' gossip. He didn't play with his brother for the soul reason of getting his parents attention. He did it because he wanted to, more often than not, he did it because he felt lonely.

"Yakko?"

Yakko snapped out of his thoughts, not realizing that he had been zoning out for the last five minutes. He turned his head to his aunt, who was staring at him with a big smile on her face.

"How's the birthday boy feeling today?" She asked.

Not knowing exactly how he felt at the moment, Yakko replied with a simple "good".

"How was the cake? Pretty good, right?"

Yakko nodded. "It was delicious!"

His aunt chuckled. "Good to hear. Are you excited for presents?"

Yakko nodded again, gleefully.

"What did you get me?"

"Oh, you'll see."

The family entered the living room. Excitement was building up inside Yakko as he awaited the presents his aunt bought for him. He couldn't wait to play with all the fun new toys he got.

Yakko's father sat down on the couch; Yakko followed, sitting next to him. His mom entered the room next, coming back from putting his brother down for a nap. She did not sit down, instead looming over him. There was a bright grin on her face, she looked to be just as excited for the presents as he was. She brushed her hand against his head, which made him happy.

His aunt finally walked in, carrying a huge bag beside her. Yakko's eyes widened as he glanced at the bag, his excitement growing. It's easy to say that Yakko was pleased with what he was looking at.

"Yay presents!" Yakko shouted gleefully.

Amelia smirked. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"Thanks, Auntie," he told her.

Amelia chuckled and dug through the bag, taking out a wrapped gift. Yakko was ecstatic and lunged for the present. His father rolled his eyes, wearing a slight smirk on his face. Tearing open the colorful wrapping paper, Yakko was delighted to see three new packs of Matchbox cars to add to his ever growing collection. He threw the pack to the side and dug through the bag of presents himself. His excitement only grew when he discovered there were three more presents in the bag, all different sizes from one another. His eyes winced at another camera flash, but that didn't stop him from pulling out his second gift.

His eyes studied the second present in his hands. It was a lot bigger than the first, but to Yakko, it wasn't a bad thing. He shook the present, hearing something inside. He tore open the wrapping paper to reveal a Tonka dump truck. He was overjoyed by this, as he loved construction vehicles. The dump truck would gladly fit in with his toy ambulance and police car that he got for his last birthday.

"Thank you sooo much, Auntie!" He told his aunt with gratitude.

His aunt grinned. "Hold it up so I can take your picture."

Doing as told, she took his picture with the dump truck. The flash of the camera was even worse this time as Yakko was staring directly in the camera's line of view. Yakko grumbled to himself as he rubbed his eyes; his parents and aunt laughed at his misery.

"Don't worry about it, sport," his dad said. "The pain doesn't last too long. Though, I should admit that I'm sensitive to light myself. You get it from me."

Yakko really wished that his aunt would stop taking so many photos of him. She's taken plenty of photos, and there's no need to take any more after this.

The next couple of presents were normal when it came to his expectations. Hot Wheels cars, a toy ambulance, Jenga blocks, Uno cards: All things that would appease a child's boredom. Aunt Amelia watched him the whole time, her grin growing wider with every present that was opened. Yakko was greatly satisfied by all of his presents Aunt Amelia had bought for him this year.

But there was one more.

At the bottom of the gift bag was a small, rectangular shaped present. Curious, the child took the gift out of the bag and glanced at it for a moment. It looked different than any of the other presents he had seen so far. Yakko wasn't sure what it could possibly be. He shook the present, it didn't make a sound. He grew worried.

"What is this?" Yakko asked himself, not realizing that he said that aloud.

His aunt's brain clicked upon hearing his nephews' question. Her eyes grew wide as she gazed at him in intrigue. Yakko didn't know what the deal was. Was it something he said?

"What?"

"Oh, you are going to love that", Aunt Amelia told him.

"What, This? Is it a toy, auntie?"

"Nope. Even better. Go on, open it!"

Yakko grew curious about the strange object. His aunt was making it out to be the greatest thing ever, so he assumed he was going to like it. Tearing apart the wrapping paper, his excitement dropped almost immediately. It was a small brown box with a lid on top of it. What kind of present was this? This, a neutral colored box, was supposedly better than everything else he has received so far?

Yakko's heart sank: all that anticipation for nothing. The expression he had on his face was remarkable. His father chuckled; his mom wiped a tear from her eye. His aunt said nothing, she had a look of empathy on her face like she knew he was going to feel this way after opening the strange gift.

After a short pause of silence, Yakko asked: "What is this? It's just some..box."

"Well I know that," his aunt said sarcastically. Her face then changed into a mysterious smirk, raising her left eyebrow ever so slightly. Yakko tilted his head in confusion

"Go ahead and open the box. You tell me what's in there."

Yakko did as he was told. He opened the lid of the box and peered inside. When he saw what was in there, he gasped. He couldn't believe what he was looking at. Inside the box was a pair of white rubber gloves, the same ones that both his aunt and parents wore. Unbelievable! Did his aunt actually go out and buy him a pair of gloves of his very own? He always wanted a pair of gloves like his parents wore. When he asked, he was always told he was too young to wear them.

No sweetie, they'd say, you're way too young to hold the honor of wearing gloves. Sorry, but that's just the way it is. Why don't we talk more about this when you're a little bit older, ok?

It seemed like his parents finally came to their senses and bought him gloves like he had asked for previously. While he was a little frustrated about the thought of his parents not being able to trust him, he couldn't help but be overjoyed by finally receiving his gloves at long last.

Still in a state of shock, Yakko stared at his aunt with a blank face. Aunt Amelia chuckled.

"Try them on," she told him. "See what you think."

Taking the gloves out of the box, Yakko took note of the soft, rubbery texture of the gloves. They had a soft and silky feeling to them, one that felt oddly satisfying to him. Slipping the gloves onto his hands, he was immediately put off by the way his hands felt with gloves on. They felt different. He twiddled his fingers, feeling the rubbery texture on his hand. He noticed that his hands felt more flexible with the gloves on. It was off-putting, but yet it felt..natural.

"How do you feel?" His aunt asked.

"T-they feel funny," Yakko said with a frown. "My hands are starting to feel funny."

"That's your hands flexing," his aunt pointed out.

"Flexing?"

"Yeah. The gloves make your hands flexible, meaning you can bend and stretch your hands easily," Aunt Amelia explained. "Toon gloves make it possible for a toon to perform tricks and techniques for many different purposes, like stretching your arms out to reach the top of a high shelf, for example."

"What?"

Yakko was dumbfounded. This all sounded too complicated for him. He was now starting to understand why his parents were so hesitant to get him a pair of gloves.

"I know this all sounds complicated, and I understand that you're confused. But there's no need to worry, bud. Every toon usually gets their first pair of gloves when they are around five years old."

"You're lucky. I didn't get my first pair of gloves until I was six," his father added.

"It takes some time to adjust to it," his aunt continued. "But you'll get used to them soon enough."

He smiled. While he was confused by the gloves, Yakko felt grown up when he was wearing them. Reaching the top of a high shelf by extending your arm sounded cool to him. He was suddenly curious about the tricks and techniques his aunt was talking about. So he asked about it.

"Auntie. I have a question."

"What is it, bud?"

"What kind of things can you do with the gloves?"

His aunt beamed. "That's a great question. There are all kinds of cool little tricks you can do. But let's take it one step at a time and learn the basics first. Come on, let's go out to the middle of the living room for a moment."

Both excited and curious as to what Aunt Amelia was going to show him, Yakko slid off the couch and followed his aunt to the middle of the living room like she told him. His parents watched with grins on their faces. When the two of them got to said spot of the room, his aunt bent down to eye level. Yakko stared back at her with curiosity in his eyes. She stroked his cheek slightly with her hand.

"First thing first, I'm going to teach you about your hammerspace."

"What's that?"

"It's the invisible space behind your back that-"

A panicked Yakko cut her off abruptly. An invisible space? Behind his back!?

"Where!?" Yakko shouted as he was frantically turning his head back and forth, looking for this "invisible space" his aunt was talking about.

His aunt laughed and put a hand on his shoulder, stopping his panic. His parents, more specifically father, were dying with laughter in the background.

"No, no you can't see it!" she chuckled. "I said invisible, meaning that you can't see it with your eyes. You can feel it though, which is what I'm going to teach you now."

Aunt Amelia then stood up. Yakko watched as she put her hand behind her back, looking as if she was trying to find something. A short while later, she retreated her arm to reveal something in her hand. His eyes widened in surprise. There was a shiny nickel in the woman's hand: it looked as if it had appeared out of thin air.

Yakko was amazed to say the least.

"Where did that come from?" He asked.

"My hammerspace, of course," his aunt replied. "You see, when I put my hand behind my back, I had the nickel on my mind: I was thinking about it. I imagined what that nickel looked like, what it felt like and how big I wanted it to be. I thought about it for a few seconds, and wah lah! There's a nickel in my hand."

He was amazed. Amazed that it was possible for a toon to create objects out of thin air. It sounds impossible, but it's real and a toon can do it. Yakko suddenly remembered all the times he saw a cartoon character on the TV pull something out of thin air, whether it was a pie or a giant mallet. He would always laugh when someone like Bugs Bunny would use their space for comedy.

His aunt flicked the nickel with her thumb; he caught it in his hand.

"Cool stuff, isn't it?"

Yakko nodded. "I wanna do that! I wanna do that!" He chanted.

Thrilled by the thought, he put his hand behind his back, hoping that he could pull a nickel out from behind his back, too. But when he pulled his hand back out, he was sad to find that there was not a shiny nickel in his hand: both his palms were free of any object.

He frowned. "I…didn't do it." He felt like he was going to cry.

"It takes a lot of practice to do it, and it's hard to do at first. But if you keep trying, you're bound to do it eventually," Amelia comforted him. Yakko looked up at his aunt with puppy eyes.

"I know. Why don't we practice some more the next time you come over to my house. I don't mean to brag, but I'm quite the expert on this."

"Oh! That sounds fun!" His mom chimed in with utmost enthusiasm

Yakko smiled, a single cheek rolling down his face.

"Can we do that?"

His aunt nodded. Yakko was so happy in the moment that he gave her the biggest hug he could. The two wrapped their arms around each other and shared a moment together.

"Thanks, auntie," he said gratefully.

A few hours after the party, the family had settled down for a relaxing evening. Yakko was upstairs in his room, practicing using his hammerspace. He was trying again and again to pull a nickel out from behind his back, just like his aunt had done a few hours earlier. Attempt after attempt, it was no use. Yakko was becoming frustrated by his inability to perform the simple trick that he had been taught.

His aunt often told him patience was the key to victory. Usually, he believed her when she told him that, but not so much right now. How could he be patient when this was so difficult? After failing to do the trick for the umpteenth time, Yakko finally gave up.

"It's no use!" He said hopelessly. "I can't do it!"

Yakko took the quarter that his aunt had given him out of his pants pocket. He stared at the object intensely, pondering to himself.

Auntie Amelia is good at using her hammerspace, he thought. Much better than me. She says that I will get good at it, but I'm not!

Feeling hopeless, Yakko ran across his room and flung himself onto his bed. He buried his head inside his pillow, continuing to spit out hopeless thoughts of not being able to use his hammerspace properly like his aunt can. He kept repeating that to himself like a broken record until he believed it to be true.

He glanced around his room, messier than usual. Boxes stacked upon one another aligned his bedroom walls. Much of his toys, clothes among other things were inside those boxes. Yakko frowned at the constant reminder that his family would be moving soon. His parents had found a small apartment space on the other side of the city; they would be living much further away from their aunt than they do now. He got a chance to tour the place a week ago. He did not like the look of the apartment at all. The apartment looked small, dull and cramped, which deeply contrasted the big open space that their current home offers.

Yakko was not happy, and that was an understatement: he was furious by this. He threw a huge tantrum over the ordeal and refused to talk to his parents for the rest of the night. His mom tried to reassure him, saying how the apartment was nice in its own way, and that everything was going to be just fine.

Seemed to him that everyone was saying that as of late.

He just wished that his family didn't have to move, that his father didn't lose his job and got a new one that was farther away. At the very least, he didn't want to live in an apartment. They hadn't even moved into the place yet, and Yakko already felt uncomfortable playing in such an environment. His new bedroom looked tiny; his brother Wakko didn't even have a bedroom…

Yakko's ears perked up as a realization hit him. He hasn't shown his brother his gloves yet.

Inclined by a new found excitement inside him, Yakko jumped up from his bed and ran out of his room, not even bothering to close the door behind him. Running down the hall, he halted when he got to Wakko's nursery door. Opening the door, he found that the lights inside the room were off, so naturally, he flipped on the lightswitch. He winced as a dim light filled the room. The walls were made up of a faint blue color; the paint was old and slowly peeling away. To the side was a crib, with a dresser located next to it and another across from that. An orange chair was in the corner of the room back when it was the family room.

Yakko peered inside his brother's crib to find him lying down under a blue blanket. The infant's eyes opened slowly, he made some sort of whimper as he did so. When his eyes came upon his older brother, the baby smiled almost instantaneously, happy to see him.

Eager to show his brother the gloves, Yakko put his hands against the bars of the crib, hoping to catch Wakko's attention.

"Look, look, I got my gloves," he told him excitedly. "Cool, huh?"

Wakko looked fascinated by the gloves. His eyes grew wide and his ears even perked up a little. The baby boy turned himself over onto his stomach, bringing himself onto his knees. He inched closer to the edge of the crib and, to Yakko's surprise, put his own hands against the bars of the crib just like he was doing. Startled, Yakko jumped back as he wasn't expecting his brother to copy him. But not before long, he started laughing. Wakko looked so goofy putting his hands on the edge of the crib.

This gave him an idea. What else could he make Wakko do? Curious by the thought, Yakko decided to stick his tongue out and make a funny face. When his brother noticed this, he tried to imitate his actions by sticking his tongue out and trying his best to copy the face he was making. Yakko laughed, he was quite impressed by Wakko's efforts. He made another face and the same thing happened again. Wakko tried to copy what he saw his older brother doing. Yakko was finding great fun in this, so was Wakko.

The two went at it for a while, making all sorts of faces indescribable; Wakko was even creating a few faces of his own. Yakko kept laughing as he tried coming up with new faces to make. It eventually came to a point where the brothers were laughing more at previous faces made rather than making new ones. Both of them found this to be hilarious.

" Ahem."

Yakko froze at the sound, knowing who had just entered the room. Looming over him was his mom, who had an irritated look on her face.

"Um, hi mommy," Yakko said slowly. He had not expected his mom to enter the room. "Me and Wakko were making funny faces."

"I don't care," she told him, having no interest in what they were doing. "You woke him up."

"No I didn't."

"Yes you did!" She was accused. "You came in here. I saw the door was open."

"Yeah, but-"

"No buts. Say what you will, but I saw the door open, and I saw you in here. Now go to your room. You're going to bed soon."

He was crushed by his mother's harsh words. He didn't know what he did wrong. He didn't cause Wakko any harm, it was the opposite of that. Wanting to defend his case, but knowing he would only get into more trouble by arguing and talking back, Yakko lowered his head and slowly walked out of the room. He looked back at his brother, who had a sad and confused look on his face. His mom pointed her finger toward his room and he continued walking.

It was fun while it lasted, he supposed.