Words I Couldn't Say
Chapter Nine: "Dinner Balderdash"
(Helga's Point-of-View)
I nervously reached up and pushed the doorbell. I could hear children inside laughing and making all sorts of noises. Finally the door opened to reveal the most adorable, older version of Sandy. Slightly shorter than her younger counterpart, this woman was in her late thirties. She had brown hair with crimson highlights, deep hazel eyes with charming wrinkles at the corner of each, and a little more weight than Sandy. She smiled down at me and I smiled back.
"You must be Helga. I'm Sandy's mom, you can call me Marsha," she said pulling me into a warm friendly hug. "She has told me all about you. You're from Hillwood right?" she asked pulling me into the little entry way.
Already from what I could see this house was warm and inviting. The entry way was a warm cream color, in a little corner stood a little brown table overflowing with a beautiful autumn bouquet. Above it stood an antique clock that deeply chimed the hour just as I walked in. Autumn floral garlands laced the upper wall and ceiling.
"That's right," I smiled back.
"Well, the kids are in the living room right this way playing and I'll get dinner finished up and we can all sit down to a nice meal! Then we can all get to know you."
She led me into another warm colored room. This room was also the sweet cream color with old fashioned looking chairs and beautiful autumn paintings on the wall.
Just then something came whizzing by my head and as I jumped back in surprise I heard laughter trickling through the room. When I looked closer I saw the tops of heads.
"Sorry, Helga, I couldn't resist," Arnold said standing up, a nerfgun in hand.
Sandy stood up, as well as two younger boys.
"Hey, Helga, we are glad you could make it in time to join our battle before dinner." She smiled and put her arm around the little boy next to her. "This is my little brother, Trevor, who is nine." The little freckle faced boy waved shyly. "And that over there next to Arnold is Michael. He's fourteen." The cute teenager muttered a low "hey".
"What in the world are you guys doing?" I laughed looking around at the mess. Couch pillows were strewn everywhere, it seemed nerf gun ammo and rubberbands was covering the floors and walls, and rubber bands also flooded the floor. "Looks fun," I added with a wink at Trevor.
He suddenly lit up excitedly and ran over. "We're playing war! Me and Sandy against Arnold and Mike. We built forts and we stocked ammo and everything it's a lot of fun. Wanna play?" he asked smiling up at me.
"Of course! Who's team do I get to be on?" I asked, hands on my knees so I could see eye level with the little boy.
"Mine," he stated proudly. "I'm pretty sure you are going to be very good at this."
I held back a laugh as he grabbed my hand and pulled me over to their fort. Sandy gave me an approving smile and I winked at her.
"Here's your weapon," Trevor said, completely serious, handing me a larger nerf gun. Sandy was decked out with a machine-gun type nerf gun and a sling shot and little Trevor had an old orange Nintendo gun that the cable had been cut off of.
"Isn't that gun for duck hunting on the old Mario game?" I asked laughing and trying to figure out how it would even work in a nerf/rubber band war.
"Yep, but we don't have the unit anymore," Sandy stated, "so we use it for more important purposes. Like winning this war!" She let out a terrifying war cry.
Trevor rolled his eyes at her . "And this makes the perfect rubberband gun," Trevor said, as I watched him string his rubberband on it and pull it back. Letting go it flew across the room, smacking into a bookshelf.
"Can I try it?" I asked, starting to feel excited. This all looked really fun.
The little boy nodded and handed it over to me.
"Are you guys ready yet?" Mike whined.
"Almost," I said with a careful wink to Trevor. Slowly I snuck a look around the corner of the pillow fort until I could see Arnold's shoulder. With a nod from Sandy, and a mischievous grin from Trevor, I pushed the trigger. There was a noise from their fort and the sounds of scrambling around.
"No fair!" Arnold whined. "We weren't ready!"
"In war there is no ready!" I exclaimed evilly, handing Trevor back his gun, and the game began.
We played for near to half an hour with Sandy, Trevor and I creaming Arnold and Mike, and them whining about how we were cheating.
"We are so not cheating," Sandy laughed hysterically. "You guys are just mad 'cause you are losing!" Just then a rubber ended nerf bullet hit Sandy in the face. "Ow! Ooh, Mikey! You are gonna get it!" She hollered running out from behind the fort and climbing on top of the big chair by their fort and shooting her nerf gun down at the boys through a whole in their fort.
"Stop! Stop!" Mike yelled as they crawled out, nerf bullets pummeling them in a constant stream.
With an Indian war cry I jumped out and tackled Arnold getting him nice and hard in the forehead with the nerf gun. (I of course held back the sigh that threatened to destroy my war tactics as we touched for a moment.)
"Why you—" he began trying to take me down in return.
Before too long we were wrestling and trying to kill each other with our guns—not by shooting them, but by attacking each other and causing what would soon be very big bruises. Meanwhile, Sandy and her brothers attempting to shoot the enemy (either me or Arnold) and so we were successfully being attacked on all sides.
"I will win, football head!" I yelled as I wrapped me legs around his waist and my arms around his neck.
He tried to stand and dump me off but he soon found this to be quite impossible. Next he dropped to the ground and rolled over trying to crush me with his weight.
"Not…going…to…happen…buddy…boy," I stated between gasps as I gave a final attempt to free myself my digging in my nails. "HA!" I exclaimed jumping to my feet and he let go and cried out with pain. "I am the winner," I shouted turning to look at the other players.
Sandy's face looked quite serious and I think maybe even very jealous and I tried to hide the wicked and victorious smirk that threatened to destroy our friendship. But seriously, for once she was the jealous one instead of me! It felt good.
Apparently Arnold missed this jealous look because before I knew what hit me I was thrown to the floor momentarily out of breath.
"Apparently you lose, Helga." He stated dusting off his hands. Just as he was turning to look at Sandy, I kicked him in the rear.
And what should happen, but that he should fall right into Sandy's arms as they went crashing to the ground with him landing on top of her. Even with Mike shooting at me and Trevor trying to throw pillows in front of me to protect me I saw the little look that passed between them before they helped each other up. Inwardly I kicked myself for having distracted Arnold from me by sending him right into her arms.
Just then a man in his early forties ran in the room with a loud shriek and began pummeling us with Sandy's machine-gun nerf weapon. "Dinner's ready, kids!"
"Dad! Ow! Dad!" Sandy cried scrambling for cover beneath a cushion.
"Mommy! Dad's slaughtering us!" Trever yelled through the doorway. I stifled a laugh at his wordage.
"Kevin Transtrum! How old are you? All I did was ask you to tell them dinner was ready," Mrs. Transtrum exclaimed from the doorway, a hand on each hip. "Come on, kids."
"Aw, gee!" Trevor said sadly. "We were so close to winning!"
"There'll be other times, Trevor," Mrs. Transtrum smiled at him.
Sandy and Arnold immediately began resituating the living room to its usual living condition. I hoped over to the corner chair and started putting the cushions back on.
"Well, Helga," Arnold said, his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. "That was quite the show." He almost looked impressed.
(Arnold's Point-of-view)
"Oh, that was nothing," she smiled at me. "I was being easy on you guys!"
I grinned at her thoroughly impressed with her nerf gun war skills. "Right, as if." We laughed together as we followed Sandy and her brothers into the dining room.
Sandy's dad sat at one end of the table and smiled when we walked in. Sandy gave him a kiss on the top of his salt and pepper colored hair. "Hi, Daddy! How was work?"
"Well, one of the townhomes flooded at Aspen Creek. Dave's having a cow because some kids took out all the street lights with a baseball bat at Steeple Pines…so you know, same old same old." He gave a wink. "Okay, enough about work. You kids have a seat now so we can get to eating."
Sandy, Helga and I sat on one side of the table while Mike and Trevor sat on the other. Mrs. Transtrum placed a delicious looking plate filled with noodles and some kind of sauce, a dark muffin, and a lovely green salad.
"Hmm! One of my favorites," Mr. Transtrum sighed and smelled the food.
"What is it?" Helga asked, almost sounding a little nervous.
"Red stuff and noodles," Trevor said as if she was the stupidest person in the world to ask.
"Red stuff and noodles?" she asked softly.
"Well, that's not the real name, dear," Mrs. Transtrum smiled reassuringly. "It has some ridiculously long name when I found it in a cookbook years and years ago and I couldn't remember it and Sandy Ann just starting calling it red stuff and noodles and it kind of stuck." She shrugged. "It's really good though, dear. It's got steak in there and just lots of flavorful stuff. And that's a delicious ginger muffin Sandy Ann made. We just love ginger muffins in this house!" She took her seat at the other head of the table next to Helga.
"I'm willing to try anything once," I stated giving Helga a daring look.
"Oh, yah, Arnoldo? Well, I'm willing to try anything twice!" she grabbed her fork as if getting ready for a race.
"Oh yah, Helga," little Trevor said. "I'll try anything a million, trillion times!" He burst into little boy giggles and everyone smiled.
"Good for you, Trev," Sandy smiled at him.
As soon as I took a bite of the meal I knew why it was a favorite of their family. It was so good and very spicy! The sauce filled my mouth and once swallowed left my mouth watering for more.
"Oh, my!" Helga exclaimed suddenly. "This is amazing!"
"So tell us about yourself, Helga," Mr. Transtrum smiled at her.
"No, Dad," Mike said, "play the would you rather game!" He gave me a menacing look.
"Yah, that's best and most fun way to get to know people!" Sandy added with a giggle.
"The 'Would You Rather' game?" Helga asked curiously.
Arnold laughed. Leaning toward me and he smiled evilly, "yes, let's play."
Mr. Transtrum leaned back in his chair, "okay, Helga, we'll start easy. Would you rather eat raw beef or raw pork."
She nodded in understanding then. She leaned forward as if meeting with a formidable opponent. "Easy. Pork."
"I got one, Dad!" Trevor exclaimed, hardly containing his excitment. "Would you rather eat dog poop or cat poop!" He giggled, very impressed with himself.
"Trevor! We are at the dinner table! Really," Mrs. Transtrum sighed. "Enough of that. We can play that later."
"Marsha, she has to answer first!" Mr. Transtrum exclaimed, aiding in his child's mischievousness.
Helga laughed warmly.
"Fine," Mrs. Transtrum sighed with a hand to her head as if she was getting a headache. "Helga?"
Helga paused and pretending to think really deeply. Finally she said, decidedly, "dog poop. Cat poop is too runny," Helga replied with a smirk, knowing fully well she'd get a good reaction.
Trevor and Michael and their father started laughing and Mrs. Transtrum and Sandy let out disgusted "ewwws". I smiled, impressed with her humor and ability to know how to work a room.
"T.M.I., Helga!" Sandy groaned. "Bleh."
The rest of the meal was so much fun and I really had a lot of fun watching Helga throughout the meal. She was so animated. She had been quite the feat to beat in our little wrestling match, but it had been very fun and challenging and I had felt quite the thrill out of it.
Sandy's family was great as always and brought out each person at the table and made them feel involved. I really enjoyed the night and was sad when it began to draw to a close. That's when I had the idea.
"Hey," I said leaning back in my chair. "Why don't we have a big dinner at my house on Veteran's day in a few weeks. Grandma thinks it's St. Patrick's Day so it should be a lot of fun if you all come. What do you all think? And Helga you could bring your family too!"
Everyone got excited and started talking excitedly except for Helga. I didn't want to embarrass her so I decided to ask her after we had left. We came to that part of the evening and we grabbed our jackets and got ready to leave. Sandy's family sent us of with hugs and wishes and even a few rubberbands from Trevor's Nintendo gun. Once the door was finally closed I went to my car and was surprised to see Helga didn't have one.
"Where's your car?" I asked her nonchalantly.
"Didn't bring it. I walked," she mumbled, not looking at me and shoving her fists in her sweatshirt pocket.
I paused, remembering Helga to be a very proud person. But then I decided what did that matter and asked, "want a ride?"
She froze for a second, before finally turning around. "Alright."
I opened her door for her and went around to side to hop in. "Where do you live?" I asked as I buckled up.
"Malloy."
"Okay, I know where that is. So Helga," I began, "you didn't say if you thought you and your family could make it to the dinner at my house."
She was silent for a moment, staring out the window. "Oh, I just am not sure yet. I mean I haven't even asked them."
"Oh, well, of course."
She paused and finally took a deep breath. "Arnold, I...well..." she seemed at a loss for a words. So I kept my mouth shut and just waited for her to gather her thoughts. "My parents are better now-different then when you knew them-but they still aren't the most social…at least Dad isn't. Actually they've been avoiding people all together recently." She paused and seemed to search for the right words again. "I think they are afraid...or something."
I noticed she called her dad "Dad" and not Big Bob like she used. "That's okay, I'm sure it will be fun. Don't worry about it, Helga. Remember…my grandparents are crazy." I smiled at her and slowly a grin crept to her face. "So they shouldn't feel awkward…my grandparents will be the weirdest ones there."
"True story, football head," she said with a small chuckle.
Posted: December 2008
Updated: December 2015
-Arnold's Love