Rocket to the Moon

Chapter Three

About Eyes and Princes

. . .

After leaving the shower Arnold was getting ready for his working day. Another working day. It wasn't eight in the morning yet and they already had a visit: Brenda. He could hear her and Claire's voices in the kitchen but didn't care to listen. Surely they were talking about their job of last day at the community center. Well, about Claire's job, because Brenda absence was what kept his girlfriend working so late in first place.

Leaving the bedroom he entered into the kitchen where the girls' chat didn't die because of his presence.

"Do you think it'll work?" he saw Claire biting her lip "I mean… isn't it too…?" she vacillated, looking at the girl in front of her, then at Arnold, who was filling his bowl with cereal. She looked hesitant, but at the same time her eyes shone with excitement. Brenda didn't even bother to answer his morning greeting. It wasn't an isolated occurrence. Brenda almost lived with them. If they weren't late visits then they would be early visits. Every single day.

"Come on Claire! Do you think it kept me busy the whole afternoon for nothing? Everything is ready now."

"It just that… you're sure it'd be appropriate? I mean this soon?"

"Of course it is! I am telling you!" Brenda said with her loud voice again. Arnold exhaled noisily to make her remember he was also there, then he placed the bottle of milk in the middle of the table. He used to keep himself away from their business but hated seeing Brenda pushing Claire this way. "I know you also want this. We've worked hard and deserve something like this. This could be our moment to shine; what takes us to the next step."

"Is not the end what I am questioning, but the means…"

"We have the same rights that every other organization; and don't forget I already have the invitation…"

"Organization?" Arnold interfered, laughing half-heartedly "You are not an organization. You're only a couple of girls who work hard to…" Arnold stopped at the sight of Claire. Her dark eyes open to the maximums.

"We are an organization, Arnold." Brenda stated as Claire nodded slowly.

"Since when you are an organization?" he asked cautiously then. To his girlfriend, but the other girl answered.

"Yesterday afternoon…" Brenda emphasized with an ample nod, her blonde bangs moved up and down. He frowned.

"How did you…?" he stopped again. He needed to reformulate the question. "Did you consult Claire before doing it?"

"Of course I did! She totally agreed. Right, Claire?"

"You did?" he inquired Claire. Seeing Brenda hesitation made him realize he wasn't quite wrong with his assumption that it was all Brenda's idea and probably all Brenda's doing.

"I…" Claire stuttered. He turned to Brenda then.

"Do you know you didn't have any right to act upon your…?"

"Arnold…" Claire stopped him to speak with firmness "It's alright. Brenda didn't ask, but if she did I'd say yes. She knows that. I hope you don't have problem with that because I don't, in the least. Are we clear?" she looked at him in the eye.

Arnold inhaled deeply before nodding. Then exhaled; slowly. Alright. If she was so sure…

"Alright. If you're so sure…" he stretched his neck and then shrugged again, looking around in search of his stuff. He didn't know why he even cared, after all.

"I am" she stated, still firm. "And I also want you supporting me. I need you with me in this." She added then, holding her breath.

"If that's really what you want I'll support you. You know that." He said with coolness as he exhaled again. Feeling her questioning gaze still on him, he turned to say "What exactly you need me for?"

"I need you coming to the party with us."

"Why?" he protested "You know I that's not my kind of stuff…"

"Because I want you on my side; and because I know that despite everything, you also support this. As you said, we are only two girls out there; two lonely girls. We need you."

"Besides, you have this… bohemian air." Brenda intervened. "You look smart. You're honest; people always realize it. People see you and they know you are trustworthy. You'd make our organization to look more… authentic, more honorable."

Arnold frowned. Brenda flattering him? They were probably in dire need of him. But more that her praising what Arnold noted the most was Claire speech, her words. Seemed that she already knew something was wrong to him, but she was being discreet. That meant Brenda did know nothing. His answer was nod, small but concise. He didn't want to press the subject any further. Not now. They'd talk about that later. Claire's brown eyes told him she was in the same tune.

"Alright."

Claire's smile attempted to be recompensing. He didn't know how to feel. He needed to go.

"Told cha! It was easy!" Brenda clicked her tongue and Arnold cursed inwardly. That girl was getting more and more insufferable the more he knew her. "I bet you didn't have a plan for that day, anyway."

Arnold took his time before answer.

"For a moment I thought you really needed me."

"And we need you. Really. But I told Claire she was worrying for nothing. I was sure you'd go"

"And why were you so sure?"

"Because it'd be quite The Ball; at Downtown, I mean, it's Lower Manhattan. Who would lose it?"

"Those who didn't get an invite…?"

"Well, but WE got an invite…" Brenda rummaged inside her voluminous handbag. "And I didn't kill anybody to get it, did I?" finally she took out some small delicate looking paper with her big, kind of masculine hands and put them on the table. Arnold took the milk away, fearful that its wetness could damage the elegant golden and white invitations. "Do you have idea how hard is to get only ONE of this darlings? Well, I got it, but not only one, but THREE!"

"And how did you get it?" Arnold asked without too much interest as he placed his bowl in the sink. Brenda turned to see him with such excited look in her face that made him regretting having asked. He turned to see the clock hanging in the kitchen wall.

"That, my friend, is the question!" she started with her strong, enthusiast voice "Remember Jenna? The girl from Soho I told you two about, like two months ago? The one I helped out when the musician she hired didn't came to the party…?"

Arnold shrugged, not caring to remember, but it was only because Brenda didn't wait for his response. She never did. Brenda had quite an interesting life. She was the kind of girl who was always involved in a variety of adventures and misadventures; always involved in questionable, strange, sneaky episodes. Everything happened always to Brenda. She was like this character Kramer, from the TV show Seinfeld.

And she was somewhat Claire's best friend, but she was the kind of best friend who was always bossing her around. On Arnold's point of view, Claire had some other friends who could do a better job as best friend; friends who she could spend time with when it wasn't all about fundraisings and doing voluntary work.

Sometimes he thought Brenda used Claire because she was better looking. Brenda was attractive on her own style, but everything about her was big. She was too tall, too loud and too expressive; her features weren't particularly feminine. But what Brenda lacked in femininity, she more than made up for in the personality department. The girl was a bustling; she was a force of nature; with a thousand of ideas fluttering in her head. She led a group of girls, like Claire, who used to do voluntary work. She pointed them guidelines and objectives. She was always pushing them, making sure they do the job; that they got their goals. For an unknown reason, she seemed had developed a special bond with his girlfriend, who seemed to reciprocate the feeling.

"… and this is the put on practice of that idea." Brenda was still talking to him, seemingly unaware of his spacing out "So, they hope, Arnold, for this Ball, to be a success and become the first of many of its kind. It's the first time that the City summons all the corporations whose main offices are situated in Downtown. You know, like GE, Great Buy, Channell, McMart, Green Insurance Inc.… I mean, sorry, but only –the -biggest- hugest companies, not firms like that shitty place where you worked before…" she jabbered, as if she were talking to an audience "Then there will be also us; the non-profit organizations who provide assistance to the different kind of needs…"

"I get it." He cut her off "Then this will be some kind of draft?

"A.. Huh… draft?" she frowned.

"You know, the draft, where teams trade their players…. But here, the organizations, like yourselves, will be selling themselves to the highest bidder?" he ironized "I must admit it. Rich people know how to entertain themselves, huh?"

"Come on, Arnold…"

"That's why you said you were hesitant about the means, though not the end, right?" he asked Claire.

"Well," Claire started "It's a great opportunity… what made me vacillate was that I still don't feel like we are an organization, but that's all. Not because I think we don't deserve to receive some help to, for instance, take "Eyes for US" to the whole district. Maybe even to dream and take it eventually to the County… to the State. Any of those companies can help us to carry out that dream. I am willing to work hard for that. If all I need to do is to be there and 'sell' us well, I'll do it." There it was her comeback to his sarcasm. Arnold snorted inwardly "What we need from them is money. And money is what they are willing to give away, if they show up, aren't they?"

Well, that was Claire for you all who didn't know her when she wanted to make her point clear. Arnold still admired her fervor even when he couldn't share it anymore. He should have gone long ago, now it was uncomfortable to be there. Something was definitively wrong with him.

"It's a huge opportunity! Can you see it too, Arnold? We could get the support we need…"

"Alright, alright," Arnold finally accepted. "Just tell me when to not make any plan…"

"Next Thursday,"

"Next Thursday, huh? Alright…" he walked to the bedroom again to pick up his jacket. "It's a date."

"I'll be late tonight… again…" Claire said when he was back in the kitchen and leaned to kiss her goodbye.

"Again?" Arnold complained. That meant another night in blank? No sex? Was that clean punishment now or what?

"We need to find our gowns!" Brenda was who spoke up now, excitedly, wiggling her brows. "We're going to outdo ourselves," then she stood up and did a little turn. Arnold blinked. Brenda acting girlish? She went on to the doorway walking as if she were an exquisite model "We need to look smart… -beautiful. All the Princes of the Reign will be there."

"Princes of the Reign?" Arnold snorted loudly "This is hardly a reign!" he mocked her.

Brenda seemed annoyed for being taken so abruptly away from her reverie and looked at him with disgust.

"Well, here in Harlem is hardly a reign!" she pointed to the floor of the kitchen with vehemence. "But downtown is something else! It's the real New York! And there, Arnold dear, are some men who could easily be considered Princes!"

Arnold shook his head, laughing. She should go live to downtown if she was so fond of it.

"You should go to live to Downtown if you're so fond of it." Claire vocalized his thoughts. Arnold smiled to her with lovingness. "Maybe you'd even find your Prince Charming in there."

"Oh, girly! I'd do it if I could!" Brenda puffed "But you already know that's my dream. A bunch of girls have done it before, why couldn't I? Really Claire! I swear it. I swear to you that someday I'm gonna meet my better half in there! No matter what!"

.

Arnold decided to go then, leaving them to have their time. Of course he bit his tongue before saying something he regretted. Something on the line that maybe all Brenda charity projects and fundraisings activities were only a façade to hide her real interest: to find a wealthy husband. Maybe she should drop it all and put all her effort in the task at hand. That way she'd leave Claire alone and they could be what they were before the she came into the picture, when Claire practiced charity only in her free time. Now it was different. Charity took most of her time. It had become a priority in her life.

As he walked up the street he realized his resolutions from the previous day were somewhat ingenuous… rushed... or maybe just plainly stupid. For starters, they didn't contemplate Claire's side. And Claire's side and priorities wasn't as clear to him as they used to be.

At the beginning of their relationship they used to share everything, they used to talk about the future. If it was right that they didn't make long-term plans, at least they both were always optimistic; shared long, nice talks about their jobs, interests, plans and dreams; enjoyed hobbies and outdoor activities together; confessed to each other like how much they loved kids and dreamed of a future living in the suburbs and having a wonderful, full life. Now their talks were reduced to the quick, hollow conversations they had at breakfast table in the morning and sometimes at dinner.

As Arnold kept moving forward he wondered if he was jealous of the diminished attention he was receiving from his girlfriend. It wasn't the first time the question came to his mind. And he always thought that he wasn't. Jealous, he meant. But to be true, he was getting tired of having Brenda always over. He felt as if they almost didn't have time to themselves anymore. It was true that they still go out to the movies or to have dinner or a couple of times per month, but it wasn't the same. Maybe he was actually jealous… or maybe more than jealous he was… he looked to himself in a window mirror as he waited for the green light… he looked into his own green eyes, those green eyes that weren't as admired nowadays as they were in the past. He stood still… then he inhaled deeply to shake off a sudden stupor as he crossed the street and turned right in the opposite corner.

Maybe more than jealous he was unsatisfied. Or more than unsatisfied he was…

He was what? Arnold wondered again. When he was alone in the house he didn't miss Claire too much, he could say. He could be at home to watch TV, going to walks, buying groceries. She used to be the same when it was her.

And when they both were over they used to be on their own business each: cooking, cleaning up, reading, surfing the net, watching TV. Then there were moments when they could be a couple, to walk together, to go out, to make love…. But those moments used to be less and less frequent every time… or it was only his perception?

It was only his perception that their routine was getting boring? Their routine…? Were they becoming boring? Arnold shook his head. What have changed? He was the same, he was sure… and Claire was also the same, of course. She still enjoyed her job as a preschooler teacher; she still cared a lot about kids, and still dedicated time and effort to help the community center. And he…and he were not.

Arnold exhaled. He was not. They were not.

They have changed. They weren't the same. They didn't share the same ideals. They didn't work upon the same precepts anymore. Their relation was becoming boring. Not even sex was what used to be.

Arnold realized he inwardly blamed Brenda for that, because she was over even so often that sometimes by the time she left he wasn't in the mood anymore. But maybe that wasn't the only one reason. Maybe there was something else.

Maybe…

The blond young man exhaled when realized he had stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, then blinked when saw the spot where exactly he was. It was 116th street again, right in front of Big Bob's Stores. Arnold breathed deeply as he walked on, leaving the showcase window behind. He shook his head, confused. It was right that he used to take different paths through the streets to get to and from work every day, but it wasn't usual to take the same street twice in a row.

When he reached the corner he turned his head to take a last look to the store. Big Bob Beepers were called Big Bob Stores nowadays. That was Mr. Pataki's legacy, something to remember the big boisterous man all along the country even when he wasn't around anymore. The stores didn't sell beepers and cellphones like in the older days, but electronics components, speakers, batteries, cables, headphones, chips, that kind of electronic stuff. It was an electronic store, not a beepers store anymore; and it wasn't owned by the Patakis now but by a multinational corporation.

.

It wasn't the only thing from old Hillwood that had changed, but it was what made him remember his old town. He left Hillwood after realizing that there wasn't life for him in there anymore. He wanted to make something of his life, he dreamed of success, and Hillwood was a relatively small town. He dreamed of coming to the Big Apple and to be prosperous. Hillwood was in some ways a town in decadence.

Everything had changed; even the people he grew up with weren't the same anymore; everybody had taken separated ways. Of course they all were different; nobody expected from those kids to be the same twenty years later. As they grew up they developed their own interests and ways. Stinky went back to Arkansas to become a farmer; Sid enjoyed so much Big Gino's gang that was now escalating positions in his world of crime. Harold somewhat ended owning a landscaping company and was specialist in create vertical and roof gardens.

His elementary school crush, Lila, had married long ago the son of his father's boss and was a happy housewife nowadays. Regarding the rest of the girls, Arnold knew almost nothing about them. He hadn't seen Nadine or Sheena since those old summers of the college years. The only one he actually still kept in contact was Phoebe, and it was only because she had married his best friend. After years without talking to her, Arnold was happy to realize she was the still the nice, smart, easy going girl from the past.

And it was because of Phoebe that he knew Rhonda Lloyd moved to New York in her young twenties. Arnold had never met her again. Maybe because she moved to Downtown, as Brenda would do if she could afford it, he mocked, and he lived up north. Phoebe and Rhonda remained close friends. After Middle School, when the then young kids started to take separated ways Rhonda, Phoebe and Helga, each one in their own disappointed way, -either because lack of classism, challenge or love-, said 'Hell No' to Hillwood High, the district high school where most of the gang were bound to attend to, and enrolled in a private high school. They weren't seeing around much after that anymore; just here and there; parties that they couldn't avoid. From then on they moved in a different circle than him and the rest of the gang.

.

After developing to their better selves in that fancy school all through four years, the trio left to only Ivy League colleges. Rhonda went to Princeton as she always shouted it from the rooftops; Phoebe went to Brown and Helga to Columbia.

But fate finds always a way to change people plans. Phoebe was the only one who followed her plans to the letter. She became a doctor and was now a radiologist at the main hospital in Seattle. Rhonda ended up changing her majoring from Design to Communication and was now working her way up, eager to become part of Ann Vinteurs' élite team. And Helga… -Arnold took an intake- … Helga was the one whose plans changed in the most drastic way.

The blonde was twenty and was enjoying at the fullest being one of the best students at Columbia when right during Thanksgiving break of her sophomore year Big Bob suffered a heart attack and passed away. Fortunately Helga was in town when this happened and had the opportunity to say good bye to her father, but life was never the same for her.

Arnold remembered having seen her lost when he went to present his condolences. 'You always so gentile, Football Head,' was her answer when he told her everything will be eventually alright. She hadn't shed a tear; not in public at least, but Phoebe, who was already dating Gerald, knew better and she told him she was devastated.

Helga found herself all of a sudden in charge of her father company, which comprised six Beepers stores in an area that included Seattle, Hillwood, Tacoma and Oregon. She never went back to school.

As far as Arnold knew, if reluctantly, she struggled for a couple of years to keep the company afloat, freeing it of its debts and keeping it leveled despite the distrust of creditors, bankers and clients. She changed its nature from beepers to electronics; seemed to be finally developing a fondness for his father legacy, and even went too far to open a new store in North Dakota when, unexpectedly, she sold everything. Big Bob Stores went to form part of the Mueller Conglomerate and Helga Pataki disappeared from the face of the Earth.

It was until several years later that she was seen again at Gerald and Phoebe's wedding. Helga came up to be at Phoebe's side as her maid of honor and she did it well accompanied by a tanned, handsome man with extremely white teeth and arrogant stance. When Arnold got the chance to talk to her she told him that he didn't have to worry; that she wasn't lost at all, but she lived in Europe now and worked as a chambermaid in one of the most expensive cruisers that roamed the Mediterranean; and that Lucca, the guy who was blinding him with his sparkling smile, was the captain of the ship. Arnold had never guessed something like that about her, but shrugged it off. She looked healthy and happy, and despite to still be oddly fresh in his mind that he used to be the one and only who would ever hold her heart, he supposed she had eventually moved on and was happy now the same way he was.

But then, when the party was over and the gang saw each other in the following days, they realized Helga had unashamedly lied to everybody. Lila told them she said to her she had spent three years in prison after participating in a robbery at gunpoint; Patty Smith said she was told by Helga that she was librarian in a small, peaceful town in Texas; and Iggy said she was a starving aspirant to actress who spent her days waiting tables at a seedy bar in Los Angeles. Someone else said she practiced extreme biking.

He should know it wouldn't be that easy.

When Arnold went to Phoebe she smiled and mumbled to herself that it was good to see she still had a vivid imagination. For a while the memory of her remained in his head, but then eventually it also was forgotten. Through the course of the years it only once that Gerald mentioned her to him and all what he said was that he shouldn't worry because she was alright.

Why was he pondering all this right now? Precisely now? Precisely her? Turning down the street of his working office he wondered if the fact of seeing her former store brought these memories to his mind. 116th wasn't one of the streets he used the most, but he'd used it nonetheless, and it never brought memories of her to his mind before. Specific memories of her willowy body; memories of her long soft blonde hair.

Maybe thinking about love was the trigger. About what love was actually and about what he thought love was back then. About the confession of her feelings for him the last day shared at school. Their last class; eighth grade…

He told her he felt honored but he didn't feel the same way. She said she was okay with that; she only wanted him to know it. Then they shared the summer days in company of the rest of the gang. Later, at fall, when school started she didn't show up, nor Rhonda, nor Phoebe. They started a new life in a new school and with new friends. Their absence was evident. The girls missed Rhonda; Gerald missed Phoebe. Nobody seemed to be missing Helga, to say the truth, but maybe she was the most missed. By him, at least. He arrived to the office where some people were in the waiting room already and it wasn't nine o'clock yet. He went to his private and closed the door.

But in reality he didn't realize back then he missed her; he didn't realize for years. He realized now, every now and then. When he thought of love and there was nothing in real life to compare the kind of love her words promised; the kind of love that she promised; the kind of love that the blue of her eyes, bluer that the sky, promised.

. . .

I don't own Hey Arnold!

I don't own Seinfeld, Kramer or any other TM mentioned here.

I own the plot and the OC (all of them).

Sorry for the long waiting. It has been a really busy month, work and health problems included. I assure you next chapter will be here next week. It'd be short and it's half done.

Thanks for being here. Double thanks to you who make me know their presence by leaving reviews or following/favoring the story; especially to Nep2uune, PresleyRox, MorTay3 and Babyjokerkc48. I appreciate every one of your words.

Have a nice weekend.

August 1st, 2014.