A quick crackling sound whipped through the night, causing the birds to chirp and car alarms to go off. The crackling sound was loud, then it was silent. A silence that filled the night. The night had a long pause. The pause seemed almost unnatural. Even as unnatural as the silence was, the night remained silent. Then there was a second unannounced crackling. The crackling was louder as it roared the sheets off of Cartman.
Cartman yelled a scream of terror. He awoke drenched in sweat dripping from his forehead. The now frightened Cartman grabbed his scruffy beard and his thoughts ran wild. As he stared at his hand he noticed water droplets on them and he whipped his eyes. A woman with long blonde hair next to him turned her exposed body toward him. "Babe, what's wrong? Did you have another bad dream?" She asked as she rubbed his lower back. Cartman felt the warmth of her fingertips sliding around his body. The warmth eased his tensions, but his thoughts remained scattered. An uneasiness remained that Cartman could not shake.
"It's my mother. I keep having the same dream, over and over again. I see her in the hospital, pleading with the nurses. I hear her calling for me . 'Help me! Help me! Baby boy, Help me!' The sad thing is I know she's not dead, but she never was the same after she caught Covid. I've been feeling guilty, like I made the wrong choices in life. I keep thinking that I was too selfish to do anything to help her." Cartman sniffled as he brought snot back into his nose. His voice was sorrowful."Klari,I feel like deep down that I might be a bad person. A person that does bad things and turns people away. I turned away Kyle, Stan and Kenny. I even turned away my own goddam mother!"
Klari sat up stern with the posture of a proud woman. She confidently grabbed Cartman into her arms. She cradled Cartman like a child in need of guidance from a loved one. His head became embraced by her exposed body, she hummed her own indistinct nursing rhythm to him, while wiping away his tears. "Cartman, baby you've never done anything wrong. You are doing the lord's will. The true lord, and Kyle, he was never your friend. People like him can never be your friend. They want to rule the world and we are meant for a grander purpose." Klari paused a second as she contemplated her next thoughts into words "Your mother on the other hand…Well you could say she made her choice and she will have to live in that nursing home, knowing she turned her only son away " Klari swirled her fingers around Cartman's hair as she continued to hum.
Cartman sat up staring at his girlfriend. The moonlight from the window blinds danced around the figure of her body. Cartman felt something in his heart, as tears had already formed in his eyes. He tried to hold himself together, while he absorbed what his girlfriend presented to him. Cartman had a troubled mind. He had trauma conflicting with him on all fronts of his mind, but when Klari spoke his thoughts became clearer, more defined. His thoughts became free. "You know what? Your fucking right! Fuck those assholes! and fuck my mom! She can suck my dick for all I care." Cartman screamed with passion and conviction in his voice. The fat young chubby Cartman was back to himself. Klari always had a way of bringing out the true Cartman.
Cartman grabbed Klari with his palms, both of their lips touched. Love was in the air and hate in the mind and soul. They shared a mutual hate, one that Cartman had growing in him for a long time, ever since he was in south park elementary with Kyle Broflovski. The hate only ever metastasized after going through his older years.
Both Klari and Cartman fell to the bed holding each other, while they exchanged each other's tongues. "Klari, you make me whole and my heart beats faster than it has with anyone else. For the first time I can say this and only to you. I love you, Klari" Cartman felt guilty for not saying it sooner. They had been together for almost a year. He didn't even know if Klari felt the same. He felt his heart beat faster, waiting in anticipation.
"Cartman you know I love you, our love holds true beyond all obstacles and to tell you the truth I feel like I have also never felt this kind of love before. I don't even know if I've ever felt love at all." Klari gave a smile before diverting her attention downward. Cartman could sense something was wrong. He knew Klari and he knew she wanted to say something. He didn't know what but he knew something was off. In Cartman's mind It was not like Klari to be happy then lose it in an instant.
Cartman moved Klari's hair as he stared into her blue eyes intimately. He rubbed her warm pale cheek, it felt like a bun freshly out of the oven." Klari, what's wrong? Why are you so sad? This is not like you" Klari gazed back toward Cartman. Her gaze was full of regret and sadness. She tried to pull back from Cartman, but he insisted on an answer.
"I know, it's just…Just that I have something to tell you. Something you might not like to hear" Cartman became worried, but the woman he loved needed to tell him something and he knew it would hurt her if she didn't tell him and get it off her chest. Cartman came closer to Klari as he held her hand, rubbing it softly and with care and consideration of her feelings .
"I can't promise that I won't be mad after listening or that I'll like what I hear. What I can say though is that as long as you tell the truth then I have faith we can get through whatever it is you have to tell me." Klari had remained nervous, but she gave a small smile that glowed with radiance. It was still a far cry from her normal bubbly and more dominant personality. For her, her normal was a lioness, but in the moment she was a fearless gazelle facing eye to eye with her apex predator. She took a quick inhale through her nostrils. I have to tell him before it's late. She thought to herself.
"Alright, I'll tell you. The thing I have to tell you is that-" before she could finish her thought the sound of cartman and klari's phone went off simultaneously. Cartman quickly looked at his phone, his eyes widened and he swiftly ran to the blinds, almost tripping over himself by the speed in which he came to the blinds. He pinched them to see outside and the light from the sun scorned his eyes. The burning sensation shut his eyes, while he jerked his neck beck and lifted his finger off the blinds, causing the blinds to position themselves back in the proper place.
"Damn it's morning already. We have to hurry and get ready." A scattered Cartman quickly looked around his room scavenging around for clothes to put on. Klari had a strange look while she covered her exposed body with the bed sheets. she had a look of shock and confusion. The shock was not from the morning sun, but from the actions of Cartman.
"Eric Cartman!" Klari yet as Cartman quickly stopped and gave his full attention back to Klari. Klari chuckled in a sarcastic way. Cartman knew from her expression that Klari was fuming a fire in her mind so hot that the sound of her voice would scorn him more drastically than any fire could.
Cartman responded with what he felt was an inquisitive question. "What?" Cartman responded with. The fumes that were once a timid fire, turned into a roaring one. Klari could hardly hide her feelings of anger. How could he so easily forget? She thought.
"Did you forget that I had something to tell you or did that just slip your mind, it only happened a few seconds ago. Or should I take you to the doctor for early dementia?" Carmen felt bashful. The heat of the moment in rush cause him to not realize what they had just been discussing. In the moment Cartman realized and understood the anger Klari was feeling.
"Klari, I apologize, but you know as well as I do how important service is." Cartman climbed back on the bed, as he came closer to Klari. He grabbed her hand into his palms while he gently rubbed it. "I know you have something important to tell me. But can it please wait until after the service, huh?" Klari barely looked at Cartman before removing her hand from his and leaving the bed. She did not say a word as Cartman remained on the bed with a confused expression.
Cartman knew she was angry but after a short thought he assumed she would calm down after a while and let her anger pass. At Least Cartman hoped it would. The befuddled Cartman had finally got off the bed and got ready for service. Throughout that time all Cartman could think about was what Klari had to tell him.
Cartman lingered in the mirror, while he adjusted his shirt collar that he had just buttoned up. He saw the changed man he was. He was still chubby, but he felt a change in his mind. He felt like he was doing the right thing, on the right path. He grabbed his scruffy beard and he contemplated shaving it. As the thought remained he responded to it in the mirror. "Fuck it" He said leaving the beard.
While he was Gazing in the mirror he noticed a picture of him and his mother pinned in a gap between the mirror. He quickly grabbed it before his girlfriend could see it. Cartman knew Klari hated anything dealing with his past, especially his mother. Klari could see the sadness in Cartman as remembered the past. She told him not to look at pictures of the past because she said it made her depressed to see Cartman in such a pathetic state.
Cartman turned the picture over. He knew the picture so well that he had already known there was writing on the back. He read it out loud "Me and my loving son enjoying a time at the arcade." Before Cartman could fully feel the emotion he was feeling, he heard the footsteps of Klari coming behind him. Cartman quickly placed the picture in his pocket and turned around. "Are you ready to go?" Cartman had a small smile displayed on his face. He was trying to hide the fact that he was looking at a picture of his mother. Klari quickly nodded and they started heading to the service.
