Osborne had just pulled into the long term parking garage at the relatively large airport. He had driven so far from his hometown in Anaheim that it was hard to tell where in California they were. Sure, they would find out inside the airport, but for all we know they could've been somewhere in San Diego. It wouldn't matter, they would be in Chicago in a while.
They were able to find parking on the first floor of the garage marked 'long term', not too far from the exit leading to the terminals in fact. It was the summer, and people usually come to California rather than leave it. So it made sense. Nonetheless, there it was still a sizeable turnout; travelers coming and going.
In the back, Chucky, Tiffany and the twins situated themselves in a dufflebag. Before arriving to the airport, Ozzy and Shauna stopped at a travel store nearby...directly next to the airfield actually. Travel store next to an airport, convenient right? They picked up a bag of medium size to accommodate the Rays traveling like luggage. Chucky had said a simple cardboard box would do, but Ozzy felt like spoiling them...plus they sold candy by the register in there. Can't go wrong there.
Chucky fluffed up the bag interior with those pillows he had stolen from the motel, remember those?
"Alright, everyone inside," he directed his wife and two kids. Glen and Glenda climbed inside, engaging in the 'this is your side, this is my side' bit.
"So, we'll just check you in at the terminal, then pick you up at the baggage claim at O'Hare. That's it?" Ozzy went through his own bag.
"Pretty much," Chucky said, "Unless you find some way to fuck this up. But I'm pretty sure you won't. Not with Lottie with you. Right, princess?"
"One hundred percent, dad," Lottie nodded, "You've sent me through the mail, I think I could handle a low profile four hour flight coach."
"Yeah, that kind of reminds me," Glenda poked her head up from the bag as her mother climbed in, "What are we supposed to do down there in the cargo hold for four whole hours….I mean, that's like an entire day."
"To you maybe," said Glen. He was honestly going to meditate the whole time.
"Glen, when your ADHD is as bad as mine, every passing second is a century. God, I'll die from boredom on this flight." Glenda huffed.
"Well here," Ozzy handed her his IPhone with earbuds, "I think you guys will need this more than me." Glenda eagerly snatched it from him.
"Sick! What do you have on here, Dreadie?"
"I got a couple of seasons of 'Thrones'," Ozzy listed off, "Other than that you I got Amazon video on there. I'm on the Prime trial so I think you have some variety. Same goes for music, got a lot of rock, reggae, and rap; my three R's. There's also a EDM playlist I put together, highly recommend that. It's pretty dank."
"Oh Dreadie, you really do care!" Glenda squeed, hugging the phone to her chest, "Thank you." Glen, Tiffany and Chucky sighed in relief. It would seem that Glenda was going to be quiet for the majority of the flight...at least until the battery dies. An IPhone battery can't go four hours without dying, that pause Dora the Explorer takes after asking a question is longer than that battery life.
"Chucky, can you kinda do me a solid here as well?" Ozzy asked, unzipping the messenger bag he had been carrying around this entire venture.
"Possibly," Chucky raised an eyebrow in interest, first at Ozzy then at the ziplock containing a sizeable portion of the recurring motif, I mean, cannabis he took out from his bag.
"Ok so…" Ozzy found this hard to put to words to the slasher, "As you know, I'm got a product...with me of illicit nature." Like a family of domestic cats, Chucky and his kin tilted their heads, "And I think the last place I want to be caught...is at an airport...smuggling it across multiple state lines…"
Chucky held his hands before him in a triangle shape. The kind people always make when they're in deep thought. His variant of this had an obvious mock to it.
"Ozzy…" he exhaled, "Are you asking me to be your drug mule?"
"Ah! No!" Ozzy sheepishly shook his head, "Drug mule? Nah, you're way too good for that, Chucky. You'd be more of a drug...bronco. You know, majestic as fuck." Chucky stared him down a bit before taking the ziplock.
"Easy there. Kiss my ass a little bit more and you might give it mano. Sure, I'll hold onto your shit for the flight, but I get first drag whenever you spark up again." Ozzy nodded.
"Appreciate it...hey, while you're in there; you aren't going to, you know, ice anyone?" Chucky gave Ozzy an appalling look.
"On a plane? Fuck no," he shooked his head, "I'm crazy enough to take on the Chicago and L.A. police department, but homeland security? Nooooo thank you."
"Ok, that's good to know. But what if the bag gets searched?"
"Haha, no one ever suspects a doll, Ozzy. Trust me on that." Chucky laughed, beginning to zip up the bag as his family hunkered lower by the light of Ozzy's phone.
"You'll take care of Lottie, right?" Tiffany couldn't help but ask this.
"Oh, don't you worry, Tiffany," Osborne assured, "pretty sure, she's gonna be the one looking after me." Lottie rolled her eyes humorously as she bid her family a temporary farewell.
Shauna gently handled the near weightless duffle bag. Well, it wasn't exactly weightless. Together, Chucky, Tiffany, and the twins may weigh as much as two medium sized dogs (I'm talking pit bulls or a pomeranian that maybe had a bit too much of those bacon bit snacks). Ozzy had offered to handle the bag, but Shauna refused to surrender that favor to him. Saying she wanted the 'exercise'. But that may have been a more polite way or saying she didn't want to carry Lottie. Ozzy shrugged.
"So…" he said, after locking down his car for what would have been the fifth time, "how...are we going to do this?"
"Just carry me, you know, like a doll," Lottie said bluntly and raised her arm, "Here, just grab me and pull me off the ground."
"But you'll just be hanging by your arm," Ozzy sympathized, "Won't that hurt you or something?"
"Oh, touched that you care, but it's ok," Lottie said kindly, "I won't feel a thing." This is true. When in 'barbie mode', Chucky and his kin become completely limp. Kinda like when you pick up ragdoll cats (are the Rays really that much like cats. That's like the second cat simile I got here).
Ozzy awkwardly lifted Lottie up by her wrist. She didn't struggle or make any movements for that matter. She just went limp and her face seemed to revert back to a static expression of a child's plaything.
"No, you deserve better." Ozzy sighed and moved her under his forearm, hugging her to the side to his chest. "Better?"
"Comfortable," Lottie commented, "Let's go. If you need to talk to me in there just hold me up to your ear. That's a little thing I learned from my dad, but don't make it obvious."
"Alright, operation low-key is at hand," Ozzy said confidently and they started off towards the terminal.
Shauna wheeled the duffle bag alongside her boyfriend. It hit a bump or crack in the street and sidewalks but the Rays inside stayed quiet, seemingly getting in some practice before heading inside the airport.
"Hey, wait!" Glenda (who else) spoke up from within the bag, "When the phone battery dies, have we decided what Disney songs we're gonna sing for the rest of the flight? Because I'm feeling some tunes from the Renaissance."
"Mr...Swackhammer?" The security officer, a man of an amusing stature somewhere between four or five feet at the checkpoint eyed Ozzy's fake, more surprised at the name then doubtful. The fakes has already proven to work, the officer had accepted Shauna as if it were the real deal. Maybe it was Ozzy's choice with the last name after all.
"That's correct," Ozzy said confidently, "It's German. You know, like 'Sw-ock-ham-ar."
Without another moment of thought, the officer, gave him his ID and the boarding pass he had acquired, after checking their 'baggage' at one of the front desks, Jet Blue incase you were wondering. They had gotten through the security line pretty quickly. The whole thing moved a steady pace like those walk in haunted houses at amusement parks during the Halloween season.
All that while, Lottie had remained still and unmoving. Ozzy couldn't help but wonder if she had to hold her breath while like that. It was as convincing as can be. They got some envious looks from the children of passerbys. And a few weird ones too, considering a grown ass man is carrying around a doll in public. The Acolyte would shrug it off.
"Ok," finally said the officer and returned their fakes, after doing those drawing those weird orange highlighter circles on their boarding passes, "have a good flight, you three." A chuckle emitted at the delivery of the punchline. Ah well, it's homeland security, it's their job to mercilessly judge people.
Now, by its subjective definition, a story is an account of an event, or series of events. Usually not boring in nature, because if they were than they would never be told in the first place. For the trek over to Chicago, this is the case. Nothing went wrong that flight, it all went off without a hitch. But that's not to say that this chapter won't have it's highlight reel.
The first one began relatively quick the officer had sent them on their way, just about as Ozzy and Shauna were about to head through the metal detector. The couple monotonously followed the mandatory and often times bizarre security protocols. Remove shoes, put bags on the belt, etc. etc. Some say that the whole security thing at airports violate our basic human rights, others say it's imperative to our country's security. All I know is that they can see our junk with their fancy X Ray machines. Normally I charge for that.
"Sir, the doll has to go through screening." Another officer. This one, a short little woman with the body mass of a potato.
"Huh?" Ozzy glanced at her than at Lottie. She gave a mechanical blink, the plastic on her eyes tapped against her cheek for a pretty convincing effect. That had been a little code she and Ozzy had worked out. One blink for yes, two for no kind of deal.
"Oh, right right," he said and placed her on the belt.
Shauna had just passed through the checkpoint and was waiting for him. Through his passing through, Ozzy just kept glancing over at the officer monitoring the X Rays. When he finally did pass through as did Lottie, he noticed that the officer's face shift from neutral as hell to suspiciously interested.
"Sir," she said, picking Lottie up from the belt, "What kind of doll is this?" she was holding her by the neck, that couldn't have been comfortable.
"It's...exactly what it looks like," Ozzy said, "It's just a doll, you know...a toy for kids. Totally harmless. No need to be a hero today. You won't want to hold that line you got back there, would you?"
"I'm asking because this 'doll' has a skeleton."
"A what now?" Ozzy blinked.
"The X Rays we take show that this doll has a skeleton." The officer was right. The X Ray machine had worked on Lottie a little too well. The monitor displayed a small but fully formed skeletal system, "normal dolls don't do that."
Ozzy looked at Lottie helplessly. He knew that she sure as hell wasn't going to anything. He just didn't know what to say here. Ok...gotta bullshit my way out of this.
"That's because it's a really...uh, advanced doll. Super expensive too, they go for as much as a smartphone on the market."
I'm worth more than that Lottie's face remained blank, but her thoughts didn't.
"Why would someone your age need a doll like this?" the security officer was probably not taking this seriously anymore.
"Because-"
"Because it's for my health studies final," Shauna stepped in, "I'm Amanda Johnson. I'm a summer student over at Citrus, you know community college in Anaheim.-"
Ozzy just stared speechlessly at Shauna taking control of this. Lottie while still in barbie mode was probably doing the same. The potato lady (I want to call her that from now on) raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, for my health final, teacher assigned us that 'parental responsibility project'. We get a doll and we have to treat like it's a real baby for a week." Shauna continued.
"That's right," her boyfriend said, "You must've had to do that at one point too, right?"
The potato lady's eyebrow raised a bit more, clearly not getting it.
"C'mon," Ozzy threw his hands, "It's like that one episode of Danny Phantom." Damn, that was a good show...cool rogues gallery too. Who was that one ghost, though? The scientist one… Shauna smirked, it was often when Ozzy would geek out after blazing.
"We kind of need that doll now," she gestured to Lottie, "If I don't pass this class, I won't get enough credits to transfer to UCLA. You wouldn't want to deny me that, would you?"
The potato lady paused and glanced at Lottie in her grip.
"So, you have to look after this doll like you're its' parents," She seemed to buy it and handed Lottie back to Ozzy, "You know, that's actually really cute." She smiled here.
"Yep, we're just one happy family, enjoying our...familiness." Ozzy saw her smile and raised her a fake one.
"Does she have a name?" the potato lady asked.
"Lottie," Ozzy said, "But not because it's short for Charlotte, but because we felt like we won her in a lottery. We got first pick."
"Adorable, you have a nice flight than."
Ozzy and Shauna left the security checkpoint with haste. From there on out it would be smooth sailing.
"Nice thinking there, Shauna," Ozzy kissed her cheek, "For a moment I thought we were busted. Have you done this before?"
"Remember that time I had that roller derby meet in Seattle and I left my ID at your place?"
"No...really?"
"Yeah, Amanda Johnson had quite a highlight reel there."
"Slick as fuck," Ozzy moved the still Lottie up to his ear, "You good, Lottie?"
The youngest Ray remained silent for a moment. She wasn't trying to put on a convincing barbie mode, just speechless.
"Not because it's short for Charlotte, but because we felt like we won her in a lottery?" she repeated.
"What? Too much?" Ozzy asked. Lottie giggled.
"I think that may have been the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me." She laughed softly. Ozzy chuckled too.
"That was not at all what I was going for."
"Because we felt like we won her in a lottery," Lottie said again, trying to contain her laughter.
"Let's head to our gate," Shauna read their boarding passes, "Gate...forty six." They looked to their left and there was gate two. Figures.
This airport was one of those airports. You know, the ones with storefronts on storefronts of high end stores; Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Chanel, etc. etc. There was even a second story. Had it be not for the airfield and planes, one might assume it was just a mall.
Ozzy and Shauna never understood that. What was the point of putting such expensive stores in an airport. They already paid well over two hundred dollars for the flight tickets, what makes you think they're gonna pick up Gucci shades? It seemed to be an easy day here, plenty of space between people walking to their own gates.
The Acolyte held Lottie to his chest like a toddler. She had remained still for most of their elongated walk, but just as they were reaching the gate, Ozzy felt her shivering a tiny bit.
"You ok, Lottie?" he asked her, again holding her up to his ear.
"Fine, it's just a little chilly here." She wasn't wrong. For whatever reason management found it fit to keep their airport's air conditioning set somewhere in the low sixties.
"You might have to power through," Shauna said, "I think it might even be colder on the plane once we get up in the air."
"It's no problem." Chucky's daughter said.
"No, Lottie, I'll find something," Ozzy looked around, "Maybe there's a store I can get a blanket or something from. Here," he held Lottie out to Shauna, "You two wait at the gate, I'll catch up later."
Shauna glanced awkwardly at the doll being offered to her before taking a step back.
"Ozzy I-"
"Oh, Shauna, c'mon. She doesn't bite. Lottie's a sweetheart." Externally Lottie remained static but internally she was blushing profusely. Did Ozzy only have nice things to say about her?
"Ok...I guess." And her boyfriend handed her Lottie. Shauna stood there, with the same uneasiness a tourist might feel taking a picture with a tiger.
"Good, just wait for me. I won't take long." Ozzy headed back to the storefront while Shauna, silent as Lottie, found a seat by the gate.
Osborne looked around the storefronts. If he was buying Lottie a luxury accessory than maybe this would be easier. His luck changed when he just happened to run into an American Girl store. As plain as the bookstore next to it.
Ozzy first wondered why in the world there would be an American Girl in the middle of an airport. Then it suddenly made sense. New people fly every day and younger girls are some of those people. Maybe their parents might buy them a doll to ease their fear of first time flying. Because let's be real, flying is scary. Nothing like being sealed in a jet powered air tight capsule with wings and being launched into the sky. Ozzy made his first stop at American Girl.
"I'm back, girls." Osborne had found Shauna and Lottie in the seats by the window overlooking the plane they would soon be boarding.
"What did you end up getting?" Shauna asked, seeing how he had two bags with him.
"Reading material." Ozzy pulled a series of graphic novels out of the first bag. Mostly some pieces by DC; The Dark Knight Returns, Superman; For What Tommorrow, and a couple of Justice League Volumes. The only Marvel one he got was Old Man Logan, "You mess with comics, Lottie?"
"I've read some manga before," she said and saw the bag labeled American Girl, "What's that?"
"Check it out," Ozzy pulled out a doll's sized jacket. Lottie eyed it, weirdly. The jacket was slick with leather with no zipper running down the middle. It also had no pockets. In fact, it looked a bit like the black jacket that her mother had.
"What's that?"
"It's for you. I figure it's a better option than a blanket since we'll probably throw it out or something later, but this you can keep." Lottie tilted her head.
"I appreciate it, but I never really been a jacket person, Osborne."
"C'mon, just try it on. I bet you can pull it off. Here-" Ozzy picked her up and slipped her arms through the sleeves. There were still some people around, so Lottie didn't risk moving on her own.
"What do you think?." He set her back down. Lottie moved her arms about slightly. The jacket allowed easy movements and she didn't feel impeded by it. She was able to see a hint of her own reflection in the window she sat across from.
"Perfect fit...I like it. Thank you, Osborne."
"That's what homies do. Shauna, what do you think?" His girlfriend shrugged.
"It's alright…" was all she had to say.
Within the next five minutes. The intercom announced that the boarding process had begun. Before Ozzy and Shauna entered the plane, they turned back and looked behind them at the last Californian ground they had set foot on. Hoping that they would return.
I wanna love
Love and treat you
Love and treat you
Love and treat you
Love and treat you
The music slowly faded out as the final song on Ozzy's playlist, a Bob Marley EDM remix of Is This Love, ended.
Fast forward about three hours into the flight in the cargo hold. Chucky and his kin had let themselves out of the travel bag and were freely lounging about the hold. The slasher and his wife were nestled together by Ozzy's phone as it played music. They lay together against the pillow stolen from the motel. Tiffany's head rested in the crook of Chucky's neck as he held her close to him, sharing their body heat in the chilly baggage hold.
Glen wasn't too far away, his tantō layed out in front of him. He sat, legs crossed and his fists pushed together in front of him. His head was lowered and his eyes gently closed, deep in meditation. Glen's meditations wasn't only a moment of mental relaxation for himself, but also silent prayer, to no god in specific, but rather to himself. He hoped that everything would work out in the end, that he wouldn't have to take anyone's life, most of all, he hoped Ozzy, Shauna and his family would all make it out safely of whatever awaited them in Chicago.
His twin, was up to her usual mischief. Glenda was rummaging through the other luggage, playing dress up with whatever she could find. At least she was busy doing something. When Glenda is bored, she gets whiney and when she gets whiney her voice reaches decibels thought not possible for any humans to reach. Real recipe for an ear bleed.
"Hey mom, dad! Look!" she emerged from another suitcase wearing a fur scarf, "Look at me! I'm an aristocrat!" she flipped it over her shoulder and strutted forward to her parents, "Here ye, here ye! The duchess of Los Angeles has arrived! Would you care to join me in the parlor for some wine tasting?" she howled with laughter. Tiffany laughed too, but it wasn't nearly as loud as her daughter's. Chucky displayed his unamusement with a face of stone.
Glenda then snatched up Ozzy's phone. The battery was nearly dead at this point.
"What are you doing, Glenda?" her dad asked.
"Looking for dick pics," Glenda said as she scrolled through the phone's photo gallery, "There's gotta be some here."
"Gimme that!" Chucky grabbed the phone from her, "Fuck, can you do anything other than hounding over the Acolyte?"
"I can do this." Glenda then proceeded to make bubbles with her spit. That's some real talent right there. Chucky pinched his brow than began to have a look through Ozzy's pictures himself.
"Hypocrite!" cried Glenda, "I'm not allowed to look at dick pics and you are?"
"I'm not fucking looking at pictures of his dick, Glenda!" yelled Chucky, "I just want to see if there's anything...special about Ozzy. I mean, Damballa had to choose him as the Acolyte for a reason."
Chucky honestly didn't know what he expected to find in the photo album, but all of Ozzy's pictures seemed normal...for a pothead. The norm seemed to be him either with or without Shauna smoking weed in an exotic place of some sort. Other pictures were just zoomed in frames of his eyes showing how red they were.
There were some other honorable mentions though. There was one of Ozzy and Shauna at Disneyland, another one on Hollywood Boulevard, and there was one of them at a Clippers game. They seemed to be avid travelers of California. But there were no pictures that indicated that Ozzy was special in anyway. Just a stoner and his athlete girlfriend enjoying life.
"They kind of remind me of us, Chucky," Tiffany, who had also been looking at the phone, said.
"How?"
"Remember how we used to live in the city? You know, the eighties." Chucky paused, than the memories came.
"Yeah…"
Back in the eighties, Chucky and Tiffany shared a place in Chicago. Chucky had started his career as a killer long before, but his killings were kept anonymous. There was a Lakeshore Strangler, but no one had figured out that it was him (at least until the CPD hired Detective Norris in 88'). During this time, Chucky could simply walk the streets in daylight and no one would ever suspect a thing.
He and Tiffany knew all the good spots in the Windy City; Millennium Park, Wrigleyville, Navy Pier (before it sucked). Hell, he even got season tickets to the Bulls, who had recently drafted Michael Jordan. Yeah, living in Chicago during the eighties kicked ass.
"I want to see if he have any games on that!" Glenda swiped the phone from her father. About one picosecond after she had it in her grip, the battery died. She pressed and held down the power button, but this was in vain.
"Shit!" she threw the phone in the bag they had smuggled themselves in, intentional or unintentional we will never know, "How much longer until we get there?"
"I don't know, Glenda," her mother said, "Why don't you just do what Glen is doing? He seems to be killing time pretty well." Glenda glanced at her meditating brother.
"But he's doing weird weeaboo shit."
"Twat!." Glen apparently heard everything.
"Commit seppuku you fucking weeb!"
"How about we just play sit down, shut the fuck up, and don't piss me off?" Chucky said. There really shouldn't be a question mark there. That was an order.
Glenda huffed and dropped down. She folded her arms as she sat, grumbling to herself. Chucky gave a satisfied nod and laid back down besides Tiffany. Oblivious to the new grin that was forming on Glenda's face, who stood back up remembering that they never had Disney song time….
"I can show you the world,"
"Glenda," Chucky warned.
"Shining, shimmering, splendid."
"Glenda, you promised."
"Tell me, daddy, now when did you last let your heart decide?"
"Shut the fuck up, Glenda."
"I can open your eyes," Glenda shuffled over to her dad here, "Take you wonder by wonder."
"Fucking stop, Glenda."
"Over sideways and under on a magic carpet ride," Glenda put both her hands on Chucky's stitched cheeks, then squeezed them together, "A whole new wooooooooorld! A new fantastic point of view! No one to tell us no! Or where to go! Or say we're only dreaming!"
"Let go of my face right fucking now, Glenda."
"A whole new wooooooorld! A dazzling place I never knew! But when I'm waaaay up here! It's crystal clear! That now I'm in a whole new world with you!"
Welcome to the next hour and a half of your flight, Charles Lee Ray.
Fortunately, the upper deck of the Boeing was much more quiet. It was at this time in the flight where most passengers were either asleep or absorbed into their electronics. The stewardesses, oh shit, they hate being called that...the flight attendants had stopped running up and down the aisle and finally found some time to themselves.
Ozzy and Shauna were seated just one row behind first class. The middle arm rest was up and Lottie sat in between them. Ozzy got the aisle seat and his frame mostly hid her from view. And since everyone around seemed to be snoozing, Lottie was able to move on her own. Subtly though. Shauna had the window shade up as she stared outside while tuned into the armrest aux. Ozzy had just gotten through some of the graphic novels and now was drawing something or other in his sketchbook. Lottie had asked him what it was, but he told her to wait and see. From the construction lines he had made Lottie would make out a human shape. But the proportions were a little bit off. They seemed...smaller. Osborne was also tuned into the aux. He always looked to music for inspiration when he drew and there was a channel for that.
Lottie, herself, had also read through the graphic novels. Her favorite seemed to be Old Man Logan, seeing how she went back to reread some of the pages. After that she grabbed the Skymall from the seat pocket and flipped through the pages. Honestly, how can you be on a plane and not read Skymall? For the most part, most of the products were pretty mundane...and moronic. A strip of fake grass for your dog to shit on? You kidding me with that?
When she flipped through the novelties section, there was something of interest. 'Little Washington' it was called. A doll marketed to what seemed to be children and collectors. Lottie read the description. The doll was photographed in a First Continental Army Uniform, the ones from 1776. It was posed with a bright, optimistic smile with its' left hand in a salute while the other held a little American flag. It was advertised as fully posable and even sung 'Yankee Doodle' if squeezed. Batteries were not included and it stood around two feet, Chucky's own height. There was a little blurb of text just below the price listing. 'Ask for the special XL edition, standing at 3'. Order today!' The price listing was $79.99, and a whole $110 for the XL edition. Damn, if only the 80s had dolls like this. Can you imagine how much more destructive Chucky would be? Lottie slipped the magazine pack into the seat pouch. She leaned back against the seat and exhaled. What else was there to do? As she blankly stared off towards the roof of the plane, Lottie could make out Shauna in the seat next to her looking at her in her peripheral vision.
"If you want to document me, at least use a camera," she said in good humor to Shauna. Ozzy's girlfriend blinked before taking her earbuds out and setting them aside.
"Even if I did, who would believe me?" she asked, rhetorically, "So...Lottie, huh?" Shauna found this awkward. She and Lottie had never really talked that much. Than again, the only time she really did share any dialogue with her or her family was when they extracted (I refuse to use the word rescue) her from her dorm and as we all know, that could've gone better.
"Hmmm," Lottie hummed, "You don't like me that much, do you?"
"Am I supposed to?" Shauna with the rhetorics. Lottie shrugged.
"It's not a requirement," there was a brief silence between the two here, "I hear from Osborne you're into roller derbies. Is that so?" Smart move, Lottie. Making it about her.
"You really want to know about that?" Shauna asked.
"We got time to kill. Why not?" Lottie said, "Besides, I never met a roller girl before. I didn't even know they still have those. Are you a member of a league?"
"No," Shauna shook her head, "Just a club I do after classes and on the weekends. I skate for the thrill, the sport and maybe a little for the roughness...it's one thing to hurt someone else. But hurting someone else when you got a rink full of people either cheering for you or trying to hurt you back, and they say football is rough."
"Sounds like you do it to vent anger...would you say you're an angry person, Shauna?" Lottie lowered the armrest between herself and Shauna and leaned on it, listening with interest.
"I've taken classes on that." was all she would say. Lottie could see that she hit a dead end. Time to change the subject.
"How did someone like you meet someone like Osborne?" she asked, "I could tell he doesn't go to your school. No judgement, I just want to know." Shauna gave her a weird look.
"Why would you want to know that?"
"I've grown to know Osborne," Lottie said, "I think I kind of want to know you to, seeing how my family and I now have to work double time to keep you both alive. And...I've always had a soft spot for stories like that. My mom always tells me about how her and my dad met. Back when they were in grade school. Dad was the quiet social outcast and mom was the new girl from New Jersey. She saw him and just fell. She pestered him until he just broke and let her in. And they've been together ever since."
"Knowing your parents, that story probably gets dark really, really fast.
"Oh, it does. It does," Lottie nodded, "What about yours and Osborne's?"
"Nothing much, actually." Shauna said, "We matched on Tinder."
"Huh?"
"Yeah, we just matched on Tinder."
"That's it?" Lottie asked, a bit underwhelmed.
"Pretty much," Shauna smirked, "One Saturday or maybe Sunday night, I was swiping and got a match. He was my fourth match and I was his seventh. We met at the rink, went back to his place, smoked a bit and...how old are you?"
"Ten."
"Hmmm, I'm not gonna tell you the rest."
"You don't need to...I know."
"Wha?"
"Saw my parents at it..." Lottie silenced a gag.
"Oh...damn. That's uh...tough." Shauna didn't know what to say.
"The fact that my dad was in his doll body and my mom was in Jennifer Tilly's body-"
"I already go to anger management class, don't make me go into psychotherapy," Shauna stopped her.
"Apologizes," Lottie giggled, "So, from there on out, did you and Osborne just feel something click and decided to stay together?"
"Firstly, to answer your question; yes. He began coming to my derbies on the reg and we got to know each other more and what we got is pretty magical, at least in Ozzy's words. Second, you ask a lot of questions about love lives. Lottie...have you ever been in love?" Lottie hid what would've been the largest look of astonishment, but kept her ground.
"Again, I'm ten...so no," she said.
"C'mon, every little girl dreams of meeting her prince one day. You must have, growing up as Jennifer Tilly's daughter living in a fancy mansion and all. You can tell me. I've told you about me, so it's only fair if you tell me about you." Lottie was silent for a moment, mentally weighing her thoughts.
"I guess, I could tell you...but it's not what you think." Her voice became quieter here and Shauna caught on.
"Should I brace myself? This is the tragic backstory isn't it?" Lottie looked at her funny.
"Shauna, I've lived the life of a daughter of an Oscar nominated actress. My backstory is anything but tragic."
"Oh...continue." Lottie sighed nostalgically.
"My siblings and I, we all had lives before this. The world almost seemed too perfect...save for the serial killer dad posing as a children's toy popping in for a visit between whatever bloodlusted escapades he went on. We went to school, we had our interests and people who cared about us. Glenda had some degree of friends but also plenty of enemies. Nothing she couldn't handle. Glen, now he's the one with the tragic backstory, got on his feet relatively well. I think he was an outcast too, but he was totally fine with it. He too had friends and even a girlfriend actually. Julie, I remember when he would bring her over to the house. He met her at the Anime club after school."
Shauna chuckled here.
"Right? And then there was myself...born into the Tilly fortune. It almost seems like another lifetime ago," Lottie pinched at her plastic hide again, "Wow...I'm getting back of my head emotional about this..."
"You don't have to tell me everything, Lottie," Shauna spoke softly, a bit too soft for herself, "I just want his name...and I know there is a him."
"Timothy..." Lottie said, finally, "His name was Timothy. And no he wasn't a boyfriend, just a friend. Can't tell you how many times I had to tell Glenda that.
"Just a friend?" Shauna asked.
"Just a friend," Lottie repeated, "We had classes together. A select few of my classmates would speak to me and he was one of them. I scared them apparently, the way I walked and looked at people. I could've done something about that..but no I was comfortable. If me being comfortable made others uncomfortable than something's wrong, and not with me. Timothy understood that." Lottie noticed the small smile on Shauna's lips. She gave her an unamused look, much akin to her father's.
"You're just picturing him and I together and find it cute, aren't you?"
"Yeah, very much," said Shauna, "You guys do anything together?"
"Everything," Lottie said, "We'd work on art projects together, play during recess...the schoolyard actually had a frisbee golf course and we always would have to hold a tiebreaker. Really funny story actually, we have a strict play it where it lies rule and Timothy somehow threw it on the slide this one time, so he had to stand on the slope and throw the frisbee to the basket fifteen yards away," Lottie laughed bit at the memory, Shauna gave a chuckle too, "Yeah...we'd do things for the holidays too; trick or treating during Halloween, egg hunts during Easter, just everything. Other friends came and went, but Timothy, he stayed."
"What happened to him?" Shauna asked, trying to be sensitive.
"Nothing." Lottie said, bluntly.
"Nothing?"
"Yes, nothing," Lottie affirmed, "I know that he is still alive and well right now, and it's going to stay that way."
"Does...he know about-"
"No, he thinks I'm dead. And once again, it's going to stay that way. When we had to leave behind the Tillys because of this whole thing, I made sure the Shadowmen wouldn't be able to find him. After transferring our souls into these bodies we had time. I remember Glen taking everything Julie had ever given him and anything that could be traced back to here and burning it in the firepit in the backyard. He knew that they would come after anyone who we've been in contact with. I burned everything related to Timothy too; pictures of us, gifts, contact info, everything. And as soon as everything was ash, I saw Glen go over to our dad. And he grabbed him by his overall straps and said, 'If anything happens to Julie, then you're gonna take that to your fucking grave.' Then he took out his blade and pressed it to his side and he said again, 'Your fucking grave.'"
"Damn, what did your dad say?"
"He told Glen how proud he was of him..of course he would."
"So Timothy's alive, but he thinks you're dead?"
"As it should be."
"But you're alive and well, here, when we land you can call him and tell him that you're ok." Lottie folded her arms.
"Shauna, that is possibly the most stupidest thing I could ever do."
"Wouldn't you want to see him again?"
"If there was a way, then yes. But there isn't. If I get back into contact with him, then the Shadowmen could find him."
"We're going to Chicago," Shauna said, "They'll all follow us there and there won't be any left in L.A. But Lottie, I don't think it's because of that. I think you can't call him because you don't want to." Lottie took her arms off the armrest and fell back. She was silent before running her hand through her hair and sighing.
"You'd be right, Shauna," she said, "Look at me. I don't want him to see me like this. And I won't let the past repeat itself."
"This happened before?"
With my parents," said Lottie, "My mom thought my dad was dead, and she had a chance at a normal life. But she didn't decide to take it. My existence, Glen and Glenda's, are because of her refusal to do so. You can't look at my parents and say that they will be ok. Us, living as monsters and leaving a wake of bodies in every place we go to. You think Shadowmen are the only people my dad's going to kill in Chicago. I can't take Timothy being apart of this life I'm living, he's too good for it. So I-"
"You let him go," Shauna finished. Lottie nodded.
"My mom always told me to never make the same mistakes as she and my dad did...and I won't. If I grow up and I'm like my parents...I will be very unhappy."
"Wow...that's actually really mature, Lottie. I respect the hell out of you." And Shauna thought she was hardcore.
"I thank you kindly for that Shauna," said Lottie.
"Attention all passengers, we are now beginning our descent into Chicago O'Hare International Airport. Approximate landing time in thirty minutes. Flight attendants, please prepare for landing." The captain on the intercom announced. Ozzy, who had been silently drawing off to the side, took off his headphones.
"What did I miss?" he asked Shauna.
"Just about to land soon," she said, "How's the drawing coming?"
"I finished most of the penciling." A flight attendant almost appeared out of nowhere in the aisle with a white garbage bag.
"Mr. and Ms., you have anything you want to throw away?"
Ozzy took out a couple of Sprite cans from his seat pocket. He reached over and took some of the other ones that Shauna offered to him. Lottie sat in the middle of them, now in static barbie mode, how she would remain until the plane lands.
"Thank you," the flight attendant said as she walked away, "cute doll by the way."
"Don't we know it?" Shauna said to who Ozzy assumed was himself.
After once again, trekking across an airport, collecting their one piece of luggage from the claim and then taking forty five minutes to rent a Hertz car because renting a vehicle is rocket science. Ozzy, Shauna and Lottie were on their way out of the terminal with Ozzy in the driver's seat.
"Ok, we're a good distance away, let them out." Ozzy told Shauna. And Shauna unzipped the bag in the back seat of the Mustang (drive out in style amiright? Sky's the limit if you have a credit card that doesn't belong to you). Chucky, Tiffany and the twins quickly climbed out.
"Fuck...it was getting dank in there, and I'm not talking about the humidity," Chucky commented,
"Lottie!"
Lottie climbed from the front to the back and embraced her parents.
"How was the flight?" Tiffany asked her.
"It was just fine." Lottie glanced over to the passenger seat where Shauna sat and smiled. The skater girl smiled back.
"Well, here we are in Chi-city," Glenda pressed her head to the window, "Is Lollapalooza in town?"
"We're a month late," Ozzy said, "Where do we go from here, Chucky?"
"Just keep driving Ozzy, we need to get to the city first. From there, I'll get us where we need to go."
"And where's that?"
"Jo-"
"Glenda! Stop touching me!" Glen shouted.
"I want the window seat!" his twin sister shouted back.
"Stop making a big deal out of everything!" Glen gave her a push away. Glenda didn't fall off the seat, but something did fall out of her dress pocket. A small rustic screw. Her dad pointed at it.
"Glenda, is that...the screw from Shauna's dorm when we were in the vents?" he asked.
"Uh...yes." Glenda quickly pocketed it again.
"Why the fuck would you still have that?" her dad asked, peeved.
"Dad, I took this screw for a number of reasons...the most dominant one being that it was shiny."
"Ok...sure, just don't poke me with that. You might give me tetanus"
"HOLY SHIT!" Ozzy suddenly pulled over to the road shoulder. The Mustang screeched violently, both from the sudden breaking and rough concrete on the shoulder before coming to a complete stop.
"WHAT!?" Literally everyone in the car shouted.
"TECHNUS! The scientist ghost from Danny Phantom! That's his name! Oh...oh yes, that was eating away at me for the entire flight."