Chapter 58

Falling in More than One Way

Arnold and Helga jumped at the same time. They fell through the warm night air, sprinkled with rain.

"This isn't half bad," Helga thought. "Okay, so it's terrifying, but hey, Arnold's here, right? I mean, what could possibly go wrong?" She drifted into her poetic state. "Flying through the sky with my heavenly angel, with the depths of our love surrounding us, as thick as the dark, mystic night sky. Flying with Heaven above and Earth below and only us, alone in the world, to occupy the peaceful atmosphere of passion and romance. Oh, my beloved, at last my impossible dream has become a reality, at last our love has blossomed into its full potential. I will never let go of you my dear, my one, my only, my love."

"What I wouldn't give to be back on the ground," Arnold thought. "I officially don't like heights. Or falling, for that matter. And to think Helga was the one who was scared!" He glanced over at her and was surprised to see that she was smiling. She seemed completely unaware that they were falling with alarming speed, hundreds of feet in the air, heading closer and closer to the forbidding ground. "That's it; I'm opening this stupid parachute. I don't care if we're supposed to wait until we're five hundred feet above the ground. How are we even supposed to know where we are? I'm not taking any chances. I'm opening it now."

He turned to Helga. "Helga!"

She glanced at him, still in her trance. "Yes, my love?"

"What? Oh, right," Arnold said, choosing to ignore her remarks until they were back on the ground. "Listen, on the count of three, open your parachute. Okay?"

"What?" she shouted, the wind making it too difficult to hear.

"On the count of three," he said a bit louder, "open your parachute."

"Hey, Arnold, do you think you could talk just a little bit softer?" Helga said sarcastically.

"Okay, one," Arnold began, thinking that she had heard him.

"What?"

"Two-"

"Arnold, you might as well save your breath because I have no idea what you're saying."

"Three!" Arnold pulled on the tab Jack had shown them, and immediately a humongous blue parachute started to unfold.

Helga finally got the idea and pulled on her tab. Nothing happened. She tried again. Nothing.

"Oh, criminy! Open, you useless piece of junk!"

"What's wrong?" Arnold shouted over the wind.

"It won't open!" she screamed, starting to fear for her life.

"Oh, my-"

"Arnold, if you let go of my hand I'll kill you in the most brutal method I know!"

Suddenly, Arnold's parachute finished unfolding. For an instant he jerked to a stop, and their hands were almost pulled apart.

"ARNOLD!" Helga screamed.

"Hang on!" he called.

"Arnold, I'm slipping!" she cried, tears forming in her eyes.

"Helga, I-"

"DO SOMETHING!" she cried desperately, her tears threatening to spill.

Arnold reached down and grabbed her other hand. Fighting against gravity, he pulled her up until she was right in front of him. He brought his arms down to her waist and drew her against him as tight as he could.

Once again in his embrace, Helga was sure she was safe. That was, if he could hold onto her. The wind was rushing past them so fast; it might tear them apart any second. She could tell he was already having trouble.

"Helga, I…I can't hold onto you much longer!" Arnold exclaimed.

Helga wrapped her arms around his neck and hung on for dear life.

"Don't you dare, you stupid football head!" she sobbed into his shoulder.

"But the wind is too strong!"

"Well, our love is stronger!"

"Huh?"

Helga stopped crying and took a deep breath. "Listen, Arnold, I love you, and you love me, so regardless of any outside forces, you are going to keep holding me until we are on the ground….Maybe longer than that," she added, almost to herself.

At first Arnold thought she was kidding, but she sounded so serious that he quickly dismissed that thought.

"You're right, Helga," he said softly. He tightened his hold on her, closing off any space that could have possibly been between them. "I've got to keep holding you, and I will. Don't worry." He ran his fingers through her hair. "I'll never let go."

Helga sighed to herself, although he couldn't see it. "You'd better not, bucko, unless you want to answer to Old Betsy."

"I thought you loved me?" Arnold asked, pretending to be confused.

"So? Just because I love the living heck out of you doesn't mean…yes it does," Helga said, trying to cease her continuous harassment. "Sorry, football head." She mentally slapped herself. "See, there I go again. Just don't listen cause I don't mean a word of it."

"I can't believe her!" Arnold thought to himself. "She loves me, and she still won't stop bugging me! I can't believe I was actually starting to like her lik-what am I saying?!" he thought with alarm. "She's the one with the crush, not me!" But try as he might, he couldn't stay angry at her for very long, although he did pretend to.

"If you can't say something nice, maybe you shouldn't say anything at all," he told her coldly.

"Hey, I said I was sorry, bucko, what more do you want?" she said, but her voice lacked its usual sarcasm.

"Well, maybe you should just-"

"Look, Arnold," Helga interrupted him, "it isn't everyday that I get to fly through the heavens in your arms, so can we please stop fighting so I can enjoy it?"

"She's asking me to stop fighting?" Arnold thought. "That's a change."

"Helga, all I've ever wanted was for you to stop picking on me all the time, so that we could get along. I've never wanted to fight with you." He paused, and then continued. "It seems like ever since we first met, we've been mortal enemies. And…well…I'm just sick of it. I've always known you had a kinder, gentler side, and I've always wanted to get to know that part of you better."

"You didn't make it very known," she accused him.

"I should have. I'm sorry. But it's not like you gave me many chances! You hardly ever let me get a glimpse of the person you really are, but when you did it was…indescribable. If you were only like that all the time…" Arnold trailed off, mentally telling himself not to finish that thought. "But you never were. You always closed yourself off again. But I knew it wasn't the real you. I knew it was just an act."

"You thought you had me all figured out, didn't you?" Helga asked smugly.

"Not really. It only made you more of a mystery. If you had been all nice or all mean, it would have made sense. And most of the time you were all mean. But then you'd do something completely out of character, and it just…made me think twice about who you really were. Of course, I didn't know why you had this split personality, but it was pretty obvious you were hiding something."

"It was?!"

"To me anyway. I doubt anyone else noticed, if that's what you're worried about."

"Yeah, figures you'd be the only one," Helga said. "That's one of the things I love about you. You were the first person who ever noticed me."

"Oh, criminy, did I just say that?" she thought worriedly.

"Really?" Arnold asked incredulously.

"Well…yeah. Don't you remember?"

"Remember what?"

"Remember the day we met! Doi!"

"Um…" Arnold tried to recall that day. "Wouldn't that have been sometime around preschool?"

"The first day of preschool!"

"Really? I kind of remember that day…I think there was a girl in the rain that I helped…she seemed sad…but she was really pretty…and she had this bow-"

"Arnold, that was me!" Helga cried in exasperation.

"What?!"

"The girl was me!"

"Really?"

"Doi! Who did you think it was?!"

"I-I don't know. Just some girl. I mean, that was years ago! I don't remember everything that happened to the last detail."

"You don't think it would be that hard to remember the name of your first crush," Helga said accusingly.

"Excuse me?!"

"Wow, you really are dense, aren't you? Do you not remember at all?"

"Wait, back up," Arnold said, his head in a whirl. "You said something about a first crush…"

Helga happily sighed just thinking about it. "Oh, yes, your first crush…"

"Who was it?!"

"What do you mean, 'who was it'? It was me, paste for brains!"

"What?! You're kidding…right?"

"Would I lie to you?" Helga said sweetly.

"You have been for the past…" Arnold paused to count, "six years."

"That was a long time ago."

"That was this morning."

"Like I said, it was a long time ago. It seems that way at least."

"I can't believe Helga was my first crush," Arnold thought, still not quite believing it. "Why? Why her? What was it, fate? Are we destined to fall in love? No, no I can't love her! I love Lila, not her! I won't let myself love her!" He pondered over his last thought for a moment. "Can you even choose who you love? Oh, no…I can't! It can't be true!"

"I don't get it! Why…how…did I really love you?" he asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"Yes," Helga whispered.

"How do you know? I mean, can anyone even tell what love is when they're three?"

"We could."

"Can anyone tell what love is at all?!" Arnold continued to rant, ignoring her. "I mean, we're only nine! How do we know what love is?"

"I don't get it. What are you saying?"

"Or even you?" he asked. "How do you know what love is?"

"If I told you, you'd probably freak out," Helga told him, slyly smiling.

"No one can really know for sure! What is love anyway?"

"The most wonderful thing in the world. And the most horrible. It's a blessing and a curse."

"How can someone really know if they're in love?" Arnold asked again, determined to get some sort of reasonable answer out of her.

"They just know. It's not something they can control. If it happens, it happens."

"How would you know?" he asked angrily.

"Because I've been in love with you for two thirds of my young life!" Helga snapped back at him.

"Why?"

"Arnold, you're not making any sense! What are you trying to say?"

"I don't know! How can I tell you, when I'm not sure myself?"

Helga sighed and looked down. "Arnold! We're about to lan-"

"Don't interrupt me; I'm trying to tell you something."

"But, Arnold-"

"Don't." He took a deep breath. "Helga, I think I lov-"