Chapter 56: I'm a Failure
The sun rises on another morning for the Dark family manor, beaming its bright golden rays through the crack in Alura's curtains.
The sun glistens off the back of her hair as most of her body lies curled up under a flannel, rosy sheet. As she turns in discomfort the sun finds an opening in her eyes and strikes without mercy.
Her eyelids scrunch up and with a light moan from her they open partway. She weakly wagged her hand towards the sun and mumbled "Go away" under her breath while trying to resume her sleep.
Her body then flinched as the piercing sound of her alarm goes off on the table behind her. She turned and flopped onto her back, throwing her hand down on top of the clock in the same motion, only to repeatedly miss the off button.
When that ear devastating noise finally ended, her arm hung off the side of the bed and she stared half-awake at the ceiling.
Her eyelids sagged, softly lulling her back to sleep...
"Knck! Knck! Knck!" Sounded the door off the rhythmic thumping of one Joe Dark's fist.
"Hey, Alura! Time to get up!" He hollered.
"Mmrrrr..." And thus Alura's eyes opened for the third and final time, and she slowly lifted herself upright.
As Joe Dark fled the scene she rubbed her crusted over right eye and murmured, "Jerk Dark..."
She patted her yawning mouth twice and then pulled the sheets off, lumbering out onto the carpet floor below dressed in her pinkish night gown.
"Another morning..." She bemoaned. Its been two weeks since she got a job, but what Julius and Joe Dark neglected to mention at the time was that she was now required to get up early.
She already missed the days where she could sleep in until noon in the comfort of her bed. Now she was trapped, in a terrifying predicament that Julius gravely described as a "daily routine".
She was given an "alarm clock" to help her get up in the morning, yet Joe Dark would always come and make a bunch of noise anyways. So what was the point of the alarm?
"Stupid Joe Dark..." Feeling in a foul mood this morning, Alura dragged her feet over to her dresser drawers equipped with a big round mirror and stared at herself with a glazed over look in her eyes.
"Mmrrr..." Her hair looked bad again. She patted the loose strands down and then applied a bit of make up to her face, which she found added a little color to her cheeks.
Julius said it would help since she doesn't get out in the sun much, but to her, she thought it helped her look "sexy".
After exchanging her gown for a low cut skull and crossbones shirt she headed downstairs, letting out one last, cutesy yawn as she rounded for the dining room.
At least she'd get to enjoy breakfast. Julius was a great cook and she's gotten to try out tons of new foods. Thoughts of bacon strips dancing around her head brought out her first smile today.
At the dining room Joe Dark was already sitting at his chair reading from a magazine while Julius served food onto both their plates.
"G'mornin'..." Alura moaned, shaking the last bit of tiredness out of her system.
"Good morning, Miss Alura." Julius said in a welcoming tone.
"Morning sleepyhead." While Joe Dark was...Joe Dark.
As he turned to look at her his eyes suddenly widened and his face started turning red. For some reason he couldn't stop looking at her even as she sat down. The chair felt a little colder than usual today.
She stared back, trying not to blink. The color in his face continued to darken, and his mouth squirmed.
"Is this a staring contest, Joe Dark?" She widened her eyes and locked onto his eyes, "Staaaaaaare."
"A-Alura..." He stuttered.
"Hmmm?"
"Miss Alura." Julius coughed and she looked right at him. He was trying to stare at her face but it was hard not to given, well...
"Are your...affairs in order this morning?" He said in a delicate tone, contrasting the brutality that would soon follow from Joe Dark.
"Alura!" He shouted with immense frustration, "P-Put some goddamn pants on!"
"Huh?" Alura stared down and saw her bare legs and panties staring back. With a couple blinks she muttered, "Oh."
Failing to realize why this was so bad, she nevertheless returned to her home and put some pants on. Meanwhile, Julius gave Joe Dark a stern glare.
When she returned a plate full of eggs, bacon and toast awaited her. Oh, and a glass of orange juice too.
It was a quiet meal overall thanks to the awkward feeling Alura's negligence left hanging over the men's head. Afterwards she thanked Julius for breakfast and got up from the table.
A glance at the clock showed she still had an hour and a half until work.
"So, going to lay back and look at your tablet until work again?" Said Joe Dark in a teasing manner.
"Uh uh," Alura shook her head and stared into Joe Dark's eyes, "I want to go visit Mew."
"Uhhh, why?" Joe Dark said with a blank look on his face.
"No reason." Alura responded.
Of course, that was a clever lie she came up with.
Joe Dark had been teasing her constantly lately about putting on weight. Every time he did she felt madder and madder about it and she didn't know why.
But lately her stomach had been feeling a little jiggly and it didn't feel good. So she went onto good ol' reliable Google and looked up answers. Apparently when a human puts on weight, they can get rid of it through diet and exercise.
Dieting requires giving up bacon and ice cream though and that's simply unacceptable!
So she looked into exercising. Work-outs, training...It sounded like things Mew did normally in his daily routine.
Alura had felt good getting one over on Joe Dark when she got a job first. But now he had one too and that feeling was gone.
So she'll just get one over on him again by learning how to exercise all that extra weight off. She'll get so many "incredible gains" that he'll never get to call her "pudgy pudding" ever again!
Following a dull shrug Joe Dark opened a dark rift that'd allow her to go to Mew's house so long as she made it back in time.
According to the internet, 30 minutes of working out is all one needs. Perfect. Plenty of time.
It had been a while since she'd been at Mew's place. She didn't remember it being so...cold though. Her body shivered and her arms wrapped against her chest on their own.
But the house itself looked the same as always. Yet it felt smaller now, having lived in the mansion for a month.
She looked ahead and, conveniently enough, Mew was outside with Maria standing next to him bundled up in a thick jacket.
They were doing some stretches, confirming Alura's assumption on Mew's expertise towards exercise.
Mew and Maria synchronized pulling their arm across their chest and he raised his head with a quick remark of "Oh hey!" towards their guest.
Alura walked up to them and Mew stopped exercising to wave his hand out, "Haven't seen you in a while, Alura. How're you doing? Did you get a haircut?"
Alura nodded and then stared up at Mew's face, "Mew, I believe you're an expert in exercising, correct?"
Mew crossed his arms and said with a hint of curiosity, "Yeah? Why do you ask?"
"No reason." She replied.
Mew cracked a snicker and remarked, "Is it because of something Joe Dark said?"
Alura felt her heart skipping a beat and her eyes darted away on their own, "N-No..."
"Oh Joe..." Mew shook his head and then declared, "Well you came at just the right time, Alura! Maria and I were just about to go mountain climbing."
"That's a good exercise?" Alura said with a tilt of the head.
"Yeah, it'll really work your legs and cardio," Mew slightly shifted towards Maria and remarked, "I'm hoping this'll help boost Maria's stamina so she doesn't keep falling asl-"
"Papa, she doesn't need to know that!" Maria proclaimed before lightly slapping Mew's leg.
"Ha ha!" Mew looked at Alura and asked, "So? Feel like joining us?"
"Yes, that's why I'm here, Mew." She gave a straight-laced answer.
"I don't know papa," Maria shook her head, "I don't think she's tough enough."
"Maria..." Mew sighed with a reprimanding tone, "Its the effort that matters."
"She can't even wake up on her own." Maria's gaze was turning somewhat malicious yet, dominated mostly by her innocence, Mew failed to notice.
Alura pumped her fists up to her chest and stated, "I can do this! I can!"
Mew crossed his arms again and sighed longer, "I ain't gonna tell you no. We're doing a short walk anyways, just to warm up. Plus, Joe Dark would finally kill me if I let you be late for work."
"Thank you, Mew." Alura bobbed her head and then stuck her tongue out at Maria, making her flinch.
"We'll be climbing up that hill today." Mew pointed out to the right and when Alura faced it, her whole body trembled.
She craned her head back and saw a high slope that seemed to get longer and taller the more she pulled her head back. Her heart began to race, nearly louder than her thoughts.
"This is a warm up?" A deep breath cooled her heart and she clutched her fists in determination, "I can do this! I'll conquer the pudginess in no time!"
A few moments later...
"Ha...ha...ha..." Alura's mouth had to remain open constantly to keep a steady air flow in and out. Her legs felt like wood, and not the smooth kind either. This rough, throbbing sensation inside her legs must have been her muscles getting stronger to combat the fat, she thought.
Her body briefly got warmer, but now felt colder than when she had started. And now her body was feeling wet all over. This happened when she was on the beach too. Joe Dark called it "sweat", which sounded like "sweet", but worse.
Mew and Maria were a few feet ahead and stopped to look back at her, Mew in particular looking mildly concerned.
"Uhhh, Alura?" He stated quietly, "We're only a few feet up the mountain."
Maria took his opportune chance to say, "I told you she couldn't do it papa."
"This is probably her first time exerting herself physically. Right, Alura?"
Alura weakly nodded her head and felt her mouth getting drier, which made her breaths heavier, and a little painful.
Mew snapped his fingers out and said, "Maria, share some of your water."
Maria turned around and walked back down to Alura with a bottle of water in hand, wiggling it close to her lips.
Alura raised the back of her hand to the water and said, "I-I don't need your water."
Maria shrugged and popped the cap back on, turning around and remarking, "She's had her fill now papa."
Then she merrily pranced back up to Mew's side while looking over her shoulder and sticking her tongue out.
A spark went off in Alura's heart, pushing her further onward with steeled determination. But the farther she walked, the more agonizing it felt in her legs.
Her body forced itself to a stop and she hung over with her hands on her knees, drops of sweat falling to the ground.
Mew stopped again and said to her, "Are you going to be ok? We can stop if you want."
"I...haaa...I...haaaa...I'm fine...haaaaaa..." Alura lifted her head up high and immediately upon taking one step forward, tripped and fell face first into a puddle of mud.
"...Ow." Alura pulled her head out of the brown muck and was immediately assaulted by a cold, wet waterfall from above.
Maria was kneeling over her and dumped the contents of her water bottle onto her head, shaking out the very last drops.
Alura's head was cleaned, but it sure didn't feel like it.
Mew carried Alura back to her house and let her take a shower while he cleaned and dried her clothes. By the time they were done Alura was going to be cutting it close on getting to work.
As she hurried out the door Mew waved her off and said "Better luck next time" which was a little more than a bandage wound over an ever-growing scar.
She hurried through the dark rift to get back to the manor, where she found Joe Dark waiting for her in the living room.
"Cutting it close aren't we?" He remarked as he rose from the couch dressed in shirt and tie. If there's any bright spot to this morning so far, its that. He looks so goofy in that attire that it automatically brings a tiny smile to Alura's face every time she sees it.
They got their bagged lunches from Julius, waved him goodbye, and headed out the door. Joe Dark then asked, "So, you gonna tell me what you were doing at Mew's?"
"It was nothing important." Alura insisted upon.
"Ooookay?" Joe Dark raised his nose after a couple sniffs remarked, "Why am I smelling essence of peach all of a sudden?"
Alura found herself blushing while she fiddled hand through her hair and caught the scent on it.
Once they were on the bus to the city Alura leaned back into the routinely uncomfortable seat and thought to herself, "Exercising was horrible. But its fine. I'll just have to beat pudginess another way..."
Alura's workplace was the closest from the bus stop so once Joe Dark saw her off he headed on his way to be a cashier at Safeway.
"Metalheads" was the name of the music store, as she found out the day after coming here. This place is a "chain" that sells lots of "old records" that their "boss" tells them to as ordered by their "corporation". All those words flew over Alura's head but she memorized them cause they sounded very important.
The first day on the job was weird. The boss came in and had a long talk with Jeff Montoya and Stewart Bolt, looking even redder than Joe Dark on his most frustrated of days. There was a lot of yelling and shouting, but eventually Stewart won the boss over with an impassioned speech about something called "diversity".
And apparently this meant Alura could work here "full-time", which meant eight hours a day, and getting paid for every hour.
She's done a lot of sitting around while Jeff and Stewart talk to each other about some very odd things. And every hour of that puts 21 dollars into something called a "paycheck", which she's learned to deposit into a "bank account" from Julius.
And to think, Julius was saying that its tough to earn money.
"I'm learning so much lately. It feels good." Alura wore a proud, tiny smile as she opened the door and the bell above announced her entrance.
So far Jeff was the only one in, sorting some CDs in the boxes. But he took a moment out of his time to say "Hello" and "Good morning", much like Julius, which was nice.
"Good morning, Jeff Montoya." She said back.
This place had a bad odor and it looked like it was coming apart at the seams. There weren't very many customers per day and whenever there were, Jeff and Stewart handled them. All the while, Alura got to sit comfortably in her chair and fiddle around with the guitar, a privilege only employees like her could have.
She's been TRYING to figure out how to copy that beautiful melody Jeff made with it. She's picked away at it slowly, quickly, one string at a time, randomly, nothing seems to work.
Half an hour into work Stewart came stumbling in with his pants dangling close to his knees. After getting himself fixed up he sat down at the cash register next to a dumbfounded Jeff and the two passed the time staring out at the rest of the store.
Seeing as it was the weekend there were a few more customers coming in than usual. Around lunchtime though it quieted down for a bit.
Alura nibbled away at her ham sandwich with mustard and tomato on it while Jeff and Stewart had another one of their weird talks. Once again the subject was on women. They sure did like to talk about them a lot.
"So last night I was at a bar looking to hook up with a couple lucky ladies when all of a sudden this ginger walked up to me. She had a perky face, nice long legs, BUT..." Stewart dug his pointer finger deep into his right cheek, "She had this BIG OL MOLE right on her cheek. Talking like 'Taking up the whole city block' big. So I politely turned her down-"
"You did not." Jeff retorted bluntly.
"Dude I'm telling you, it was a biggun."
"Not THAT, the part about you turning her down politely."
"Well...that's what I vaguely remember doing anyways."
"Stewart, for the love of..." Jeff could barely take a bite out of his own sandwich without looking disgusted, "And you get on my case for not having a girlfriend? You're like a magnet set permanently on repulse."
"Hey magnets can attract AND repulse buster."
Jeff withdrew back to his sandwich for a few moments while Stewart leaned over the counter and remarked, "Hey, Alura!"
Jeff suddenly spat up part of his meal.
"If a man you were attracted to made a comment about your appearance you didn't like, how would you respond?"
"Ummmm..." Alura stared blankly at Stewart's face and tilted her head, "Attracted...to?"
"Yeah like, you've fallen in love with someone hot. Take for example..."
Jeff slapped his hand over Stewart's mouth and grumbled loudly, "Finish that sentence and I'm gonna slap your mouth off."
Alura hung her head and echoed those words a couple times in a whisper. "Love" She didn't feel anything like that towards anyone. But she did remember how she felt when Joe Dark told her she was pudgy: Frustrated, angry, the urge to punch him...
She gripped the sides of her sandwich tightly and murmured, "I'd call them a jerk. Jerk Dark..."
As Jeff peeled his hand away he told Stewart, "See? Even she knows better than you."
"Dude, low blow..." Stewart sighed and took a massive bite of his sandwich.
When lunch break was over Alura continued to work on the guitar. There suddenly came a loud noise from the back and Jeff leaned out of his chair towards the door.
"Oh, delivery." He got up and stretched his arms, then made his way for the door.
"Have fun Jeff, I'll just be right here wait-"
Jeff clamped his hand onto Stewart's shoulder and pulled him up, "You arecoming with me."
"Ow, fine! Don't have to be so grabby crabby." Stewart walked ahead of him, as Jeff had one last thing to take care of.
"Alura," He said to get her attention, "Can you hold the fort for a bit until we get back?"
Alura gave a brief nod and Jeff raised a thumb up. Alura stared at the back of the store and turned her head with a hint of curiosity. She hadn't been allowed to go back there yet, but the odor coming out was definitely worse, so maybe she didn't need to.
Alura stared down at her guitar and strummed away at it, making sound, but not THE sound. She tried to think about what she was doing wrong given what she learned from working here so far.
"Some music have people singing too. Maybe that's what's missing..." She pulled her head back and looked sad, "I haven't sang in a while."
Taking a deep breath, she settled the guitar pack over the center of the strings and recalled her favorite song, "I hear your voice..."
Before she could take the first strum the bell rang and she thrust her eyes open to see a customer walk in. He looked as old as Julius but with a bigger belly and no hair on his head. He too, must be dealing with the terrors of pudginess.
With a nice coat and tie he looked like a nice person. He wandered her way and raised his hand to say "Hello" and then immediately followed up by asking, "I'm looking for something fresh to get for my son's birthday. Do you happen to know what's fresh these days?"
He gently rubbed the back of his head and chuckled, "I'm totally behind on the hip trends anymore, ha ha ha!"
Alura stared straight into the man's face like he was speaking an alien language, "Uhhhh...fresh?"
Flipping through her mental dictionary told her that "fresh" meant "clean". She stared at the crusty walls and raised a brow as she told the man, "I-I don't think you'll find anything fresh here."
"Oh really?" The man rubbed his big chin and looked around, "Well surely you have to have something hip and cool for the kids of this generation right?"
"Hip and...cool?" Alura flipped through the dictionary again and her manner of speaking started going the way of auto-pilot, "So you need to find something that's...hip?"
"Yeah." The man said with a sincere smile.
"So, something wide, like your hips."
The man's eyes began to slant and his smile was not so bright, "E-Excuse me?"
"Your hips are wide sir. But there's nothing wrong with that. I too, am inflicted with being pudgy." Alura poked her stomach with the guitar pick a couple times, unaware of the man's face wrinkling up in frustration.
"I'm just asking if you have a certain type of music in stock, there's no need to give me attitude young lady."
Alura stared him in the eyes and said stoically, "You need to be more specific sir."
"Specific?!" The man yelled, "You're a music store for crying out loud!"
"There's no reason to shout sir."
"You're right...!" The man grit his teeth and turned away, wagging one hand down hard as he retreated for the door, "Screw this, I'm taking my business elsewhere."
He shut the door with a sudden, hard slam that made Alura flinch. She stared at him marching away from the store wondering, "I don't get it. I answered his questions, I called him 'sir'...Why was he so mad?"
Jeff suddenly rushed into the room exclaiming "What the HELL was that noise?!"
Alura stared at him with a drawn out "Uhhhh" as he looked towards the door and then straight to Alura, "Was that a customer just now?!"
She gave a brief nod and he suddenly raised his voice "ALURA!" while grabbing the sides of his hair and dragging himself towards the floor a little.
"Ugh...! You can't scare off customers, we barely get any as is!" As he continued to raise his voice, Alura felt a sinking feeling in her heart and scrunched up against the chair.
"Mrrrr..."
Jeff threw his arms down by his hips and only let out a sigh before he sat back down in his chair.
The latter half of the day went by extra long. She left the store and was picked up by Joe Dark. He tried talking to her on the way back but she didn't feel like speaking up.
Something felt very, very wrong inside of her. Like...something was grabbing her heart and twisting it like a door knob. She didn't feel tired, just sick to her stomach and her head was throbbing a little too.
When they got home Alura just wanted to go lie in her bed. But it was dinner time, and her stomach wouldn't let her go to sleep hungry.
She dragged her feet towards the dining room and along the way happened to overhear a conversation between Joe Dark and Julius.
"You want to make dinner tonight, Master Joseph?"
"You've been working hard all day Julius, take a break."
"Making...dinner?" Alura wandered into the kitchen, drawn on by her curiosity.
Joe Dark was standing in front of the stove with some food on the counter next to him. Julius was standing by.
Not only was Joe Dark matching her in terms of having a job, but he was not pudgy and now also trying to make dinner.
That this was happening made the feeling in Alura's chest worsen, and against any sense of free will she found herself in the kitchen yelling, "Umm! I want to make dinner tonight!"
The two men immediately turned their heads with surprise plastered all over their faces.
"Alura...?" Joe Dark murmured, "What're you...?"
"Please! I have to make dinner!" She pumped her tiny fists before her chest and stared deep into Joe Dark's eyes until he gave up.
"You don't need to do anything except sit down and wait to eat. Relax, I got this." As Joe Dark faced the stove she stamped her foot down and shocked everyone, including herself.
"I-I insist!" She said.
"Master Joseph, just let her do this. I'll be by her side."
Joe Dark hung his hands and sighed, "Fiiiine."
He left the room without another peep and Alura wandered up right next to Julius, staring at the food gathered on the counter. There was hamburger, three kinds of vegetables, and something called "broth" in a can.
"Well Miss Alura, shall we make some beef stew?"
"Ok." She nodded and stared at the stove for a long while at it.
"First," Julius reached down to one of the knobs and gave it a turn, "We must heat our meat."
"Heat...our meat." Alura picked up the hamburger and put it onto the pan, then look at Julius. He smiled and nodded.
"Heh." She gave a tiny smile back and then reached towards the other ingredients.
"Ah!" Julius blurted out, "Wash your hands. Don't want to contaminate other food with meat."
After Alura washed her hands Julius handled chopping up the vegetables while leaving Alura to fill a pot with water for the broth. Meanwhile the meat sizzled and browned on the pan.
Eventually they got the water to a boil and put a broth cube into it, followed by the vegetables once the cube dissolved. All that was left was the meat, which Julius chopped up before adding.
"Alright Miss Alura, I'll leave the spices to you while I clean the pan." He took the empty meat pan and Alura stared up at the spice rack.
There were like 1000 different spices arranged in rows.
"Ummmm...!" She pre-emptively turned towards Julius but then jerked her head back towards the spices, "I can do this!"
She grabbed the one labeled "Cayenne" and started shaking it into the broth.
Meanwhile, Joe Dark sat at the table twiddling his thumbs and leaning back over the chair to peek into the kitchen.
He tapped along the edge of the table and let out a sigh, "Nothing's burning yet..."
He forced himself to turn away and rested his hands together on the table, "Relax Joe, she's got Julius there to help. She'll be fine."
His stomach was grumbling obnoxiously and he wound up muttering "God I hope so" as his anticipation and nervousness grew.
A few minutes later Julius announced "Dinner is ready" and came out of the kitchen carrying a bowl of beef stew. Joe Dark caught a whiff of it and found it smelled...nice.
"Huh, not bad so..." A deeper, more powerful scent penetrated his nostrils and stung him like a bee had gotten in. With his head suffering a sudden recoil he stared down at the bowl placed before him.
The meat and vegetables looked fine but the broth? It was bright red and bubbling over like a light form of lava. He hesitated to turn his head to the right and found Alura had snuck up on him with her eyes staring with a subtle eagerness to them.
Meanwhile he panned up and saw Julius arching his brows, basically saying "Take a bite" without any room for disagreement.
Joe Dark grabbed his spoon tight as if his life depended on it and then scooped up part of the stew. His hand was shaking, bits of the hot liquid dribbling onto the table as the spoon went towards his mouth.
The powerful scent burned his nose and made him sweat before he even tasted it.
"I am going to die," He thought bluntly, "Sorry tongue, you've been a good friend..."
He closed his eyes and forced the spoon in. The tenderness of the meat and vibrant flavors of the vegetables quickly gave way to this overwhelming spiciness that set his mouth on fire. His face turned bright red and broke into a sweat, as he forced the stew down his throat in one quick, mighty gulp, longing for the sweet release of death to take him at last.
Yet it failed him yet again, as he pulled his head back and with a powerful gasp, found himself breathing new life into his body.
His hand shook as he clutched the spoon and brought it to the table with a ringing sound. He then forced a grin and turned towards Alura, telling her with a staggering degree of restraint, "T-This is good...!"
Alura's eyes widened and started wobbling. Then, he caught the glimpse of a rare sight, an omen of what was soon to come. Her brows began to arch downward, her face turning bright red. Her mouth began to open, giving him but one second to brace his ears for the incoming glass-shattering wail.
"SHUT UP!"
It was an instant that lasted ten seconds, as evidenced by the ringing in his ears. When he came to his senses Alura was gone, stampeding her way up to the second floor, where he heard a door slamming shut hard enough to loosen dirt from the ceiling above him.
He fluttered his eyes and felt aghast from what he'd just heard.
"I-I don't understand..." He stammered out.
"Haaaa..." Julius hung and shook his head shamefully, "Honestly Master Joseph..."
"What?" He turned with his eyes wide open, "What?!"
Julius pierced him with a gaze as white and cold as snow, "You'll stay right here until I return. We have a long discussion ahead of us tonight."
Joe Dark remained stiff as a statue while Julius wandered away to the stairs.
Up in her room, Alura had thrown herself atop her bed and buried her head tightly under a pillow. Her heart was in terrible pain, like it wanted to break free, and she felt wet all over her face.
Despite her situation being what it was, she nevertheless heard the door open and the voice of Julius calling out to her, "Miss Alura?"
"Go away!" Her voice came out all muffled.
Julius inched closer until he could kneel down beside the bed and lay a hand on her pillow. When he tried to lift it she pulled it back down with a hard tug.
"Leave me alone..." She groaned in sorrowful loneliness.
"Miss Alura, the stew wasn't that terrible for your first time. Why, your choice of-"
"I don't care! I don't care I don't care I don't care!" She rambled uncontrollably, "I can't get up on my own, I'm bad at exercise, I sucked at my job, and I failed at making dinner! I'm a failure at life!"
Julius placed his hand on the edge of the bed and leaned in closer, "You've had a really terrible day, haven't you?"
"I'll never be good at anything...! I'm worthless...!" Through her pained cries came a string of hard to hear whimpers.
"So, you'll let your entire self-worth be defined by one bad day?"
"I tried and I tried but I couldn't do anything right!"
"So what?" Remarked Julius bluntly. In two words, he had masterfully brought Alura to silence.
"Then you simply have to keep trying." And with but a few words more, her grip on the pillow began to loosen.
He reached out and helped take it off. Underneath her eyes were red and starting to dry, while the rest of her face looked pink and frail.
"Sit up." He said softly, scooting up onto the bed beside her. She pulled her knees up to her face and didn't look him in the eyes as he spoke.
"A wise man once said 'Failure is something we make, success is something we earn'."
"...Who said that?"
"Why, Master Joseph's father, of course."
Alura poked her head up slightly to look at Julius, as he looked to her with a smile, "You see, Miss Alura, we are not born knowing everything. But we have the ability to learn, if we so choose."
"But knowledge isn't a free gift. It sometimes comes with struggles. Loss, pain, anger, frustration...Even through great hardships do we learn valuable lessons."
"Have you ever struggled, Julius?"
Julius paused and turned away to reflect upon his past, his answer somber but relaxed, "Yes, I have."
"I have lost loved ones, and taken loved ones from others. My body has been nothing but a loaded gun, aimed at my enemies..." Julius reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a golden watch, "I never got married, or had kids. To be honest, I don't know the first thing about being a parent..."
He put the watch away and looked her straight in the eyes, "But my years on the battlefield have given me plenty of knowledge to pass on to others. And I can't think of two better souls deserving of it than you and Master Joseph."
"...Why?" Alura murmured.
"I look into your eyes and see them gleaming with curiosity for the world around you. Every single new thing you see and hear about that catches your attention, you just HAVE to learn about it immediately."
"Why, take today for example. You went and tried to go exercise all on your own. That shows incredible independence and a powerful sense of initiative, Miss Alura."
"So what? I fell face first into mud..."
"But until then, didn't it feel good to try?"
"..." Alura glided her hand across the side of her hair and muttered, "Yes."
"And when you made dinner, didn't it feel good then?"
"Until Jerk Dark said that horrible lie..." Alura squeezed her fists against her legs.
"Ha ha ha, that's his problem, not yours," Julius laid back against the head of the bed and put his hands on his stomach, "Honestly like he's even one to talk."
"Huh?" Alura tilted aside to look at him.
"Why, remember that burnt turkey a few nights ago?"
"It tasted really bad." Alura stuck her tongue out in disgust.
"That was him." Julius said with a wily smirk.
"That was him...?" Alura's interest was piqued.
"Indeed. Master Joseph has a terrible sense of flavor balance. Like..." Julius' face turned cross as he muttered in annoyance, "Honestly, who puts that much salt on a turkey skin?!"
Alura smiled and giggled.
He looked her way and said in a softer tone, "You're both learning. There's a lot of potential inside you both that has yet to be tapped into."
Alura looked at him, keeping that smile going strong as he continued to speak with the wisdom of a sage behind his voice, "You can't take every failure as a sign to give up, but as another step forward. And you're not alone. You'll never be alone. So never be afraid to ask any of us for help."
He smiled one more time and then reached out, stroking the fine strands of Alura's silky hair between his fingers, "And, if I may say...You have a beautiful smile, Miss Alura."
Alura's heart felt different now. It was like hundreds of tiny wings fluttered inside. Her smile widened, and with a gentle nod she said, "T-Thank you, Julius."
He pulled his hand away and chuckled, "Now, why don't I order us some take-out? We'll have a good meal and then once I've given Master Joseph a stern lecture, we can go over what happened today and see how you can improve on it tomorrow."
"Ok. I'd like that."
Julius left the room in short order and the rest of the night went by like a breeze after...
The next morning...
Joe Dark wandered across the second floor halls to knock on Alura's doorframe as he passed by, "Hey c'mon sleepyhead, wakey wake..."
Something was off though. No alarm going off for one. But then he peeked into the room and saw the lights were on and Alura was standing in front of her dresser mirror, fully dressed, and combing her hair.
He stood there mouth agape and muttered, "You're...up?"
Alura turned with a clean, lively (for her) looking face and tilted her head.
"Yes." She said nice and plainly.
"...U-Uhhh, ok then."
As he turned away Alura suddenly said his name so he had to look back. She stared down and remarked, "Your pants are loose."
"..." He stared down and saw a bit of his underwear slipping out, "Shit."
He pulled his pants up and quickly wandered away while Alura giggled.
The two of them went down to have another of Julius' wonderful breakfasts. When it was over, Alura approached Joe Dark with a request, "I'd like to go visit Mew again before work."
Joe Dark blinked a few times and tucked a hand into his pockets, "Maybe I should come with you and say 'Hi'."
"No!" Alura blurted out, "I want to go on my own!"
"Alright fine!" Joe Dark sighed and held his hand out to open another dark rift for her to go through.
As she was about to head through...
"Miss Alura!" Julius proclaimed, tossing a water bottle straight to her, which she turned and expertly caught with a leap.
"Thank you, Julius!" She waved him off and headed into the rift.
Joe Dark stared where she stood and then back to Julius, who cracked a smirk.
"Are you two hiding some sort of...secret party from me or something?"
Alura wandered out into Mew's front yard and found him and Maria doing some more morning stretches. Mew immediately turned his head up and remarked "You're back!" in a completely surprised tone.
"I'm ready this time, Mew."
Mew crossed his arms and remarked, "You don't have to try so hard, Alura. If you want to come back later I-"
She pulled out the water bottle and shoved it in Mew's face. Once he'd been caught by surprise she then turned the water bottle on Maria and wagged it right against her face.
"You're serious about this." Mew said softly.
"I know what I did wrong last time. I will climb this mountain, and conquer my pudginess!"
A few minutes later Alura was climbing up alongside Mew and Maria. Utilizing proper breathing through her nose and mouth, she was able to last a bit longer than before, with the occasional drink adding a bit more time to her walk.
But she only managed to get about a few hundred feet from the ground before she ran out of water and started to feel exhaustion.
When she dropped her hands on her knees and finished panting she lifted her head up and told Mew, "I-I think I've reached my limit..."
Mew stared at a watch on his wrist and remarked, "654 feet, talk about a major improvement!"
He gestured at her and said, "Need me to walk you down or can you manage?"
"I-I'll be fine. But thanks."
She made her way down with plenty of time to spare towards cleaning the sweat off her face back home. Then her and Joe Dark went off to work.
Along the way Alura fiddled with her tablet to try and find some information on how to play the guitar. There were plenty of tutorial videos to watch, so she picked one and listened in.
This made time go by quickly before she had to arrive at work. She felt a little hesitation going on, but steeled her nerves and opened the door gently.
Jeff was organizing the albums as usual, and this time Stewart was actually at the counter.
"Good mornin' Jeff Montoya."
Jeff faced her and stuttered, "H-Hey...morning."
Alura tucked her tablet away in her bag and walked up to him. He rubbed the back of his head and started off saying, "Listen I...want to apologize for yesterday."
"Hmmm?" Alura stayed quiet and listened.
"I raised my voice at you and that wasn't right. It was because well..." Jeff waved his hand out and admitted sincerely, "I was frustrated at myself and I took it out on you instead. I made the bright decision to hire you without really thinking how you'd be able to a job. B-Because honestly, I thought you were kind of..."
He dropped his hand and with a blush in his cheeks sighed heavily, "You know what, forget it...I know the pay's good and all but if you don't feel comfortable working here then-"
"I love music," Alura remarked softly, "And I want to learn how to talk to people."
She closed her eyes and gave a feathery shrug, "I think this is the best place for me to be."
So looked at his dumbfounded face and asked, "So can you teach me how to talk to people today, Jeff Montoya?"
"Y-Yeah, absolutely!"
Jeff taught her a few very important things: Maintain eye contact, listen to what they have to say carefully, and most importantly, don't mention anything about their bodies even if they're mean.
Sadly it was a quiet day so she didn't get to put any of this into practice, but she felt more confident about herself by the time the day was over. AND, she got some nice guitar practice in to boot.
Now there was only one thing left on her list to attempt again...dinner.
Right upon returning home she ran straight for the kitchen and intercepted Julius setting up food to cook, "I'm ready to make dinner again, Julius."
Joe Dark audibly groaned at the doorway.
"Just let me handle dinner tonight."
Julius smiled and chuckled, "All you must do, Master Joseph, is sit down at the table and wait to eat."
"But I-"
Julius' white eyed glare returned in full force, silencing him without a word. Joe Dark meekly tucked his hands into his pockets and walked to the dining room in a slump. Along the way, he snuck the Chinese take-out menu into his back pocket for safekeeping.
He sat and tapped his fingers on the edge of the table while peeking into the kitchen, "No burnt smell again..."
But the memory of that powerful spice necessitating many cups of milk to overpower was...burned into his memory forever.
"I still don't get what I did wrong last night but..." He squirmed out of a subconscious remembrance of Julius' lecture, "I'd rather fight Dracula again than endure another lecture..."
The meal preparation seemed to take longer than it actually did and thus caught him by surprise when Julius walked the plates of food out with a proudly display.
An unnecessarily grandiose display for simple cheeseburgers...If they'll even be able to be called that. They might now have to be renamed "hotburgers" given Alura's handled them.
Joe Dark sighed as the plate was placed before him, and Alura took a seat adjacent to his. She leaned against the table and stared at his face, making him feel uncomfortable wanting to eat anything.
"Staaaaare...!"
He ignored her and the chill crawling up his spine from Julius' gaze behind him and focused entirely on his meal. A nicely cooked patty of meat was wedged between a seedy bun and covered in melted cheese, ketchup, mustard, pickles, the works.
He didn't smell anything off on initial examination, but he nevertheless grabbed the burger with the cautious approach he'd save towards his worst enemies.
He brought the burger to his mouth and took a bite with all the ingredients entering his mouth at once. His mouth twitched, his tastebuds dancing in delight as the multitude of flavors combined forces into one powerful decisive attack.
"Ungh...!" His smile was forced to surface between his stuffed cheeks, and soon after came the long, drawn out swallow.
"I-Its good...!" He uttered sincerely.
"Ah...!" Alura's eyes immediately lit up like a firework sprinkler.
"I-I mean...!" Joe Dark lowered the burger to his plate and tripped all over his words, "I mean yeah its edible but its nothing fantastic or anything. I-I've had better burgers at McDonald-"
"You said it was goooood." Alura sang-song in a soft, teasing tone.
"I-I said your stew was good last night, what's the difference now?!" He exclaimed, turning to face her with a pissed off look in his eyes.
Alura suddenly held up her tablet and tapped the screen.
"I-Its good...!" Joe Dark horrifyingly endured the echo of his own voice.
Alura tapped the screen again.
"I-Its good...!"
She lowered the tablet and Joe Dark's jaw dropped all the way. With a perky smirk she said, "I got you this time, Joe Dark."
Curling his fist, Joe Dark glared over his shoulder and exclaimed, "JULIUS!"
Julius whistled innocuously under the doorway.
"W-Why are you teaching her stuff like this?!"
Julius kept his motives locked behind his wily smile, forever out of Joe Dark's reach. Alura, meanwhile, smiled a little wider than her norm and giggled.
"I'm not a failure. I just gotta keep trying, and maybe someday..." She stared at Joe Dark's face and felt that strange fluttering feeling in her chest again, making her hide all but her eyes behind the tablet, "Y-You'll be the one relying on me, Joe Dark."
Next Time: Double Date Dilemma