Friday, September 29th 6:15 PM
"Yeah, alright mom," Helga said. Helga, saw her mother go back into the kitchen. Seeing her mother jump at the demands of her father broke her heart. She loved her mother. As Helga got older and her mother's problems became worse, Helga started helping her mother more and more. In between the bouts of excessive drinking her mother would be sober and easy to speak to. A simple conversation between a mother and daughter was rare in Helga's life. It was the best part about Merriam, when she wasn't drinking.
Like clock work her father would put some demand on her mother and it would lead her back to her bottle. It was like living with two different women. The caring, easy to speak to mother that Helga loved, and the drunk who self medicated to get over how miserable she was in her marriage, and how barbaric her father can be. Helga pitied that Merriam. Helga sat on the couch, looking more and more at her mother. "I wonder which one is my mother," thought to herself.
Helga sat back on the couch, looked over at the screen. The Postman Always Rings Twice still playing on the screen. Helga felt her phone buzz and she took it out to see who had texted her. She looked at the phone hoping it was a random text from someone specific. She was disappointed to see it was Amber, her friend she danced with in her group. Amber was the second in command in their informal group and she loved to organize. Hey there angry eyes. There's this gym I need someone with authority in the group to check out. It's a mixed martial arts gym, but the owner said he'd be open to letting us use some of the space on certain days. Can you check it out? Helga typed back, Great, like I need more excuses to be around cavemen and their need to lift things and hit each other. I'll check it out. Send me the address. Amber sent over the address with a Thanks! Attached to it.
As Helga went to put away her phone, she heard the door open. Her dad walked into the house. Putting away his coat he walked into the living room. "Hey there Olga," he said as he passed her. "Helga, dad. My name is Helga. The younger one. It also means blessed in some Scandinavian languages," Helga said not looking up from her phone. "Oh right, that's your sister," he said. "I actually got finished talking to her. Did you she was traveling for work now?" Helga looked up to answer that she did know, however Bob went on not waiting for an answer. "I just now find out about this. I swear, that idiot husband of hers has her avoid my calls I know it. He's always been trash, I never liked him…" Bob continued to rant. "Funny enough, Olga also means blessed," Helga said not looking up from her phone, letting her dad rant. "Twitter would be a lot more interesting than the complaining," she thought to herself. She continued to scroll through some of the tweets from her favorite reporters. She read through a couple articles as her father continued.
"You know what I mean?" Bob had asked Helga not paying attention. "Hey I'm talking to you, pay attention when I speak. I'm your father!" He yelled to Helga. "Oh I was listening Bob, you make it tough not to," She answered. "Well, what do you think?" He asked. Helga not knowing all what he said she said absentmindedly, "well we can't be as amazing as you dad." At this he raised his voice yet again. "You didn't listen to a word I said did you?" Bob Said. "Well dad, I can't really relate to anything you're saying because I speak to Olga regularly, as well as her awesome husband Owen." Helga said. At this point Helga usually would drop her objections and be on her way. Something in her caused her to say "further more, if you're wondering why I have no response that would be because you only started speaking to me to complain about Olga. Go start a podcast if you need someone to vent to," Helga said.
At this Bob narrowed his eyes at Helga. "Well maybe if you actually talked about anything I could have a conversation with you," He said. "I never seem to have this issue with mom. I wonder what the difference is," Helga finished. "Alright then girly, let me ask you: Have you figured out your major yet? I told you have to do that. No daughter of mine is gonna float through college without declaring anything like some idiot communications student," her father said. "Helga looked at him finally, seeing the anger beneath the surface. "I'm not letting him take his anger out on me like he always does, not gonna get sucked up into this." She thought to herself. "Well I have a few choices dad. However I think I might do writing," she said. "What? I told you, you can't make any money writing. Unless you're a Steven King, which you ain't. Why don't you go into business and get a business degree?" Bob demanded. "Just tell him, you'll think about it and end this. Then you can walk away," she thought to herself. However, when Helga went to make the deflection she found herself saying, "Well dad, writing has always been something I like doing. You would know that if you ever had a normal conversation with your younger daughter. As far as choosing a more bankable major, those things they make movies based off of, they're called books. Which people charge money for. You can make plenty of money writing," Helga finished turning back to her phone and getting ready to walk to her room. "Where are you going? We're not done talking!" Bob said. "Well I'm done talking," Helga said making her way to the stairs. Her father bolted up from the chair, grabbing her wrist, and pulling her towards him.
"Ow, let go of me!" Helga yelled. "Now you listen to me young lady, I will not put up with the condescending attitude. This is my house and I will be treated with respect," He said to her, still gripping her wrist. "Wow Bob, condescending. Does repeating words with more than three syllables hurt your head?" Helga asked, smirking at him. "Now let go of me!" Helga continued. "I don't think so," Bob started pulling Helga's wrist so that she was even closer to him. "Listen you smart ass little shit. You're not going to speak to me that way, and you're gonna start listening to what I say. Maybe then you'll have a little more direction in your life. I'm sick of you wondering around here like you rent a room," he was screaming angrily at her. Helga could see the fury in his eyes. "You're gonna start to shape up!" he yelled pulling her wrist again. Helga could not contain her fury. "The day I listen to you, about anything is the day they're rolling me into a shallow grave, now let me go asshole!" Helga yelled, matching his fury. "What? You little…" Bob raised his hand instinctively when he was interrupted by Merriam "Bob! Dinner isn't ready yet. So you'll have to hangout for a little while." Helga, unsurprised that her mother ignored the loud argument she and her father were having, yanked her wrist away.
Bob looking at the kitchen for a new abuse victim, let Helga go. Helga took the opportunity to leave and head to her room to change. There was no way she was going to attempt to dine with her family this evening. Helga heard her parents start to argue. "Goddamnit Merriam! Why isn't dinner ready when I get home? I ask one for one thing around here and that one thing it to be able to eat at a reasonable time! Why is this hard," Bob yelled. "Bob, I started just as you were getting in. We don't really have anything so I have to go out and grab something, I'm sorry," Merriam pleaded. "Yeah you're real sorry while your family is dying. Do you need to be a terrible mother all the time?" Bob yelled. "I'm not perfect Bob but I try!" Merriam screamed back at him. "Oh yeah, I can see you trying hard. You sleep all day and night, you don't cook, you don't fuck me, you don't even come to bed! What the hell are you trying at?" Bob continued to yell and scream at his wife while Helga quickly got dressed. She looked in the mirror a second, and started downstairs.
"There you are, where do you think you're going?" Bob yelled at Helga as Helga made towards the door without a word. She looked back into the kitchen for moment to see Merriam taking a large swig from a glass. The bottle to the left as usual. Merriam and Helga locked eyes for a moment. The moment stretched as Merriam continued drinking from the glass. Merriam averted her eyes and walked away. Helga looked one last time at the kitchen, and started to unconsciously shake her head.
Helga walked outside without her jacket. "I'll just crank the heat in the car and stay indoors. I won't need a jacket. I'm not going back in there." She thought to herself. She walked right past her car without thinking. She wandered without a destination looking at the sky, folding her arms. She had seen her father be aggressive many times. It had always stopped short of physical violence, but he was getting worse. "It's only a matter of time, mom needs to get out of there. I can't protect her if I'm away at college," she thought to herself. She wandered still. It was a little chilly out but she could survive. She wandered even further without a destination in mind. "Eventually I'm gonna need to eat. I just need to shake off this anger," she thought to herself. Her thoughts drifted to one specific person who had recently made her feel better when she got like this. She put the thought out of her mind. However, the boy was put back on her mind when she looked up and realized she had wandered over to the Sunset Arms boarding house without realizing.
"He said he was doing stuff so he might not be home," She thought to herself. She got her phone out, found their latest conversation thread and started typing, I need to go out, I have an idea but I'm not going to tell you what it is. Up to you, indulge in a little mystery or stay boring? Your choice. "I really hope he's not busy, I need to see him. I have no idea why," she thought to herself. Her phone buzzed and she looked at the message, If you'll be there then I'll be there in 10 for the mystery. She smiled and suddenly felt warmer. Well alright then, this is going to sound weird but I'm actually in front of your house are you home? She typed. The response came immediately, No I'm gonna be heading home in two minutes though. You don't have to stand outside, it's cold out. If you head inside you can just wait in my room. Don't worry I don't need to shower. She smiled again at his consideration. Too bad, I heard you were the most swole guy in school. Thought I should take a second look, she replied with a wink face. She made here way to the front door and knocked.
The door opened to a women she recognized as Arnold's mother. "Oh hello, you're Helga right?" Stella asked. "Yes I am, I'm sorry we've met once or twice," Helga started when Stella spoke up. "Yes I remember, Arnold just called and told me that you two were going to hangout this evening and he asked me to have you wait in his room. He also asked me not to interrogate you, which I find odd since he knows I ask plenty of questions. Unless he likes you and doesn't want to be embarrassed," Stella said. Helga was completely taken aback as she had never experienced such frankness from an adult. "We're just friends, and I just wanted to get out of the house. Arnold said he was free so I figured I'd torture him tonight," Helga said. "Well I'm glad my son can at least convince girls to hang out with him, platonically or otherwise. I was starting to think he was incapable of speaking to the opposite sex. You know, it's a little creepy when the only girl your son likes to talk to is his mother. You're solving a lot of my worries here," Stella said. Helga stared for a moment at Stella. "Wow you just say what you think, don't you?" Helga asked. "Well of course. So do you, I see. That's good," Stella smiled, and Helga responded with a smile.
"I prefer young women who can speak their minds rather than the mousy polite ones," Stella continued. "I prefer young men myself," Helga said, hoping she got the joke. "Ah, not a dull knife either. Good," Stella said looking Helga up and down. Stella nodded. "You know where his room is right?" Stella asked. "Yes, I've been here couple times," Helga said. "Well go on up, he said he'd be here any minute," Stella said. "Thanks," Helga said making her way up to Arnold's attic room.
Helga walked in and looked around. The painting she saw before was gone. She took a look around his room. It had changed a bit from when he was nine. The couch was still there, there was more lighting in the room now. She wondered if that was for his paintings. His bed had been torn out and replaced with a queen sized bed. Turned ninety degrees so that it could fit. "Makes sense, since he's a so damn tall now," she thought to herself. On his desk was his computer and his electronic drawing pad. He had a drafting table full of sketches right next to the drawing pad. Helga smiled. "Arnold prefers to draw the old school way," she thought. She peaked over at the sketches curiously. There were a ton of different drawings there. She saw one drawing of a naked women, and her interest was piqued. She studied the drawing. "This is not what I would expect here. So he's Jack Dawson now? This is really classy so I'm guessing he didn't bang her after the drawing. That's not Arnold. Jesus, what more don't I know about you Football Head?" she thought to herself. She put down the drawings, headed over to his bed, and sat down. She crossed her legs and took her phone out when the door to the room opened.
"Hey there Helga!" She heard Arnold say as he walked in and put his bag down. "Well hey there Football Head, where are you coming from?" Helga asked. "Well, I was just getting some stuff done, now I'm here," Arnold answered. "Is everything alright? You seemed like you might be crawling the walls at home," Arnold asked changing the subject. Helga didn't answer immediately, she looked into his eyes as he sat right next to her on the bed. "There's that damn feeling again, where I want to tell him everything," she thought to herself. "All good here Arnoldo," She answered. "Come on Helga, I'm great with going out. We can do…. Something or indulge in that mystery you talked about. Whatever that is," Arnold started to say. "Is he propositioning me?" She thought to herself. "I think if there's something bothering you then you can talk to me about it. It doesn't have to be all walls between us." Arnold smiled at Helga. "Goddamn him and his perfect eyes," she thought to herself. "Well, I just had a fight with my dad is all," she stopped short of going into details. She averted her eyes and started to rub her elbow. "Can we talk about it later?" Helga finally said. "Of course we can, I'm sorry. I don't mean to be nosy," Arnold smiled at her and put his hand over hers. She felt his warm strong hand go over hers and she looked up at him. He quickly took his hand away as if he hadn't realized what he did until he did it. "You are being nosy, Arnold. Although, somehow I always feel better when I talk to you about things that are bothering me," She admitted. "Well I just hope I can help," Helga saw Arnold put on the most earnest smile. "I hate that smile, so much. I can't tell if it's just Arnold wanting to save everyone, or if he actually cares about me. He looks so damn cute. I just want to hit him," she thought to herself.
"So, we're going somewhere?" Arnold asked. "Yeah, I had an idea of where to go," Helga answered. "Should I wear something dressy or no?" Arnold asked. "I think you should look good but be comfortable," Helga answered looking up as Arnold ripped off his shirt he had been wearing exposing his bare upper body. Helga was caught off guard and couldn't stop looking away. "Oh my god why is he changing in front of me? My god look at his chest, I just want to eat ice cream off of his pecks. Is he an idiot?" she thought to herself. He applied deodorant and put on a black Black Keys shirt and put on a black and white checkered long sleeve shirt over it. As Helga watched him roll up the sleeves, he turned around saying, "Oh crap, I'm so sorry. I just started changing. I promised I wouldn't flash you like that," he laughed and grew a little red. "It's alright, really," Helga responded conspicuously turning red. "No, it's inappropriate. I'm sorry. I can be clueless sometimes," He said again. "Yeah you can be, but it's alright. I got a show," Helga said smiling. Arnold smiled back at her. "So where were you thinking of going?" Arnold asked.