Chapter 20: A Look into the 80's
Just a day had passed after my biological parents' funeral and everything was peaceful in the Heeler house. It was one of the days where it'd be just me and Bandit in the house today so we were once again the men of the house. Trying to find something to do, I was looking around in the hallway that lead to Bluey and Bingo's bedroom until the corner of my eye caught something from above, it just so happened to be a doorway into the attic on the ceiling.
I was about to ask Bandit for permission to check up into said attic until I remembered that he was going to mostly be busy working on his study computer and thus wasn't going to want any interruptions, and waiting for him to finish would be out of the question so I looked in the nearby storage closet and found a ladder good enough to get me up there. Propping up said ladder, I climbed up and pushed the attic door flap open, which took a little bit of muscle to move and within seconds, I was faced with a dark and dusty open space much like any other attic, the very little light pouring in from the open flap to downstairs.
Nothing about the attic seemed out of the ordinary, most of the space being occupied by tons of cardboard boxes piled onto each other and after a thorough search and seeing nothing else, I was about to head back down and close up the attic… until I just managed to spot something at the last second.
A small piece of white paper was sticking out of one of the smaller boxes within a pile of others. Approaching the set of boxes and moving the ones on top out of the way, I opened the one box the paper was sticking out of and took a look at it.
What I found was an old photograph of three young dogs in a tussle with two of them having their hands on a some kind of muscular dog shaped action figure with bowl cut hair. If I had never met Stripe or Radley, I would've never recognised two of the young dogs in the photo as either of them. Then that must've meant that the other dog, whom had a small tuft of hair on top and some fur stuck out on the sides was none other than a younger Bandit. What I was looking at was no doubt a photo of the three back then as kids in a typical sibling rivalry, most likely over the toy in the photo.
That was when I remembered the box the photo was sticking out of and peered inside. Aside from just dust and some disturbed cobwebs, all there was inside was a bundle of cloth, possibly a blanket or something.
When I pulled it out however, it turned out to actually be a shirt, a rather small one that would just about fit Bluey. I turned it around a little to see if there was a design on the front until my eyes fell upon something. There was definitely a printed design on the shirt's front, but because of how dark it was, I couldn't make out a thing. It wasn't until I felt my shoulder brush against something that I felt around for what it was until I felt something like plastic and something jutting out of the middle. I exhaled, a little annoyed that it took me until now to figure out that the attic had a light and a switch for it as I pressed said switch, and with the attic now illuminated, I looked back down at the shirt's design.
…
I almost practically dropped the shirt in shock upon seeing the design on the shirt. It was a printed on photograph of the young Bandit again… and standing right next to him with both their arms around each other's backs in a buddy photo was neither Stripe or Radley, but…
"D-Dad?!"
"Nate, you up there?" My shock ended upon hearing Bandit's voice just down below the attic's doorway before hearing footsteps up the ladder and I turned my head to see the Heeler's head in question pop up through the entryway with a bit of a quizzical look.
"What's that you found there, kid?" Bandit asked as he walked over to take a look at the shirt I was holding.
"...You… knew my dad?" I responded, still trying to process the whole discovery as Bandit only replied with a "Huh?" before I showed him the shirt, making sure he got a good view of the front.
I didn't hear a word from Bandit after I showed him the shirt as I noticed his face light up with what I could assume was astonishment, as if he was just remembering something he had forgotten for so long.
"Oh, James…!" Bandit finally spoke out loud with recognition as he took the shirt and kept his eyes on it before blinking and looking back down at me.
"Hang on… What was that about your dad?" He asked me as I stared back at the printed picture of him and the human as kids, the human which I still remember my dad showing me a photo of a few years ago.
"Bandit… That IS my dad."
As soon as those words left my mouth, Bandit's jaw slowly fell as he registered what I had just said.
"Wow… I had… no idea. To think that the human we'd been housing was my human mate's kid." Bandit said, mostly to himself, still dumbfounded.
"...So you and my dad were best friends back then?" I then asked, curious to know the full story.
"Well, yeah! James and I were best mates back then! ...I was wondering why that first name sounded familiar." Bandit's expression changed to a smile as he was starting to slowly reminisce about his times with my dad, but something however didn't make sense.
"...If you knew my dad's name, how did you not recognise him at the funeral?" Bandit blinked before glancing aside with a sheepish look.
"...I… might have never asked him about his last name." He slowly admitted, still with a sheepish grin as my look turned to one of indignance that said "...Really?", Bandit's eyes then trailed down as his grin melted into a frown.
"...I guess with everything that's gone on after the war and raising the kids, I just forgot." Bandit mumbled rather sullenly, looking ashamed to have forgotten about a close friend.
"Do you remember anything about him?" I asked calmly as Bandit looked back up to me.
"It's all coming back to me, kid. I'm honestly glad you found that shirt, or I would've never remembered the day I met your dad." Bandit replied with a hint of relief in his voice as he began to tell his tale.
Third Person POV – The 80's
"It's MY turn, you've had Action Lad all morning!" A young Stripe Heeler exclaimed to his older brother, Bandit with a frustrated glare.
"You had him all day yesterday, he's MINE!" Bandit yelled back as he was shooting back a glare that had as much ferocity as Stripe's.
"No, YOU had him all day yesterday!" Radley, who was standing beside the two fired back at Bandit.
"I did NOT!" Bandit argued, stomping a foot in frustration.
"Did too!"
"DID NOT!"
"DID TOO!"
"DID NOT!"
"DID TOO!" Stripe practically almost screeched with growing anger before tackling Bandit and just managed to rip the toy out of his hands.
"HEY, GIVE THAT BACK!" Bandit demanded before dog-piling onto Stripe, trying to reach for the Action Lad figure, which Stripe was just barely managing to keep out of reach.
"I saw him first today!" It was Radley's turn to exclaim as he leapt into the pile of scuffling brothers, all of them trying to overwhelm each other and take the doll for themselves, letting out audible thumps, yelps and grunts as the fight continued on.
"GIVE HIM HERE, STRIPE!" Bandit screamed through the quarrel, Stripe still had a strong grip on Action Lad.
"HE'S MINE, BANDINA!" Stripe yelled back, refusing to give the toy up, which made Bandit even angrier.
"Stripe, if you don't give him to me, I'm gonna…! GRRRRRR!"
…
Bandit didn't think. It had happened all in one second as in a bout of anger, Bandit had lunged forward with his mouth open and the next thing he knew, his teeth had sunk right into Stripe's arm, yet it would be seconds later when Bandit's ears would hear the shrill scream of pain coming from his younger brother.
Without wasting another second, Bandit quickly pulled away, but Stripe continued to cry out in agony as he clutched his arm. Both Bandit and Radley were quick to notice the marks on their brother's arm. It didn't take them long either to notice the first few drips of red start to ooze from the wound.
"MUUHUUUUM, B-BANDIT BIT MEEEEHEEEEE!" Stripe just managed to yell out through his sobs. Bandit meanwhile trembled as he stepped back a little, horrified at what he just did before quickly turning and fleeing, leaving Radley whom was quick to try and help Stripe up.
Bandit didn't care how far he ran. He knew there and then just how much he messed up. But it wasn't just the fear of punishment from his mother that made him run, it was something else.
Guilt?
Bandit's marathon only stopped when he ended up tripping over a stray rock, but he didn't even bother to get up at this point, the image of Stripe lying on the ground clutching his bleeding arm and wailing.
At this point, he didn't care how mad his mum would get nor how brutal the punishment would be. He just wished that he could somehow rewind time and stop himself from hurting his younger brother.
"...Are you alright?"
The sudden voice of a young boy almost caught Bandit off-guard, making the young Heeler look up to see a human boy around the same age as him, looking down at the pitiful dog in concern, which only heightened when the human saw the growing tears in Bandit's eyes.
"Did you hurt yourself?" The human asked as he gently took Bandit's hand and helped him up. All Bandit did was shake his head "No" in response. The human would then dig into one of his pockets and pull out a tissue, holding it out to Bandit, whom took it to wipe his wet eyes.
"Mmdmdamvmbmdthmg…" Bandit mumbled lowly, his gaze focused on the floor.
"What?"
"...I did a very bad thing…" Bandit rephrased, much clearer this time.
The young Heeler then explained the whole story, the start of his, Stripe and Radley's usual scuffle, how Bandit lost his patience and what that resulted in and how he reacted to it.
"...Ohhh, that's not good." The human child said, worry laced in his tone before continuing. "You should go back and try to apologise." He suggested as Bandit looked up at the boy, looking a little fearful.
"Dad once said to me that if I was to ever do something bad, I'd be a coward if I never owed up to it." The boy then said, hoping the advice would be enough to convince Bandit to do the right thing.
"Bandit McCormack Heeler! Do you have ANY idea what you've done, young man?!" Bandit's mother, Chris exclaimed in the notable angry mum tone that was enough to even make the human boy whom was watching flinch a little.
"I-I'm sorry, mum…" Was all Bandit weakly said, rubbing his arm in shame.
"I should very well think so! Any deeper and your brother would've had to get stitches! Honestly, why can't any of you just ever get along for even one day?! Just you wait until your dad hears about this!"
"James, what have I said about wandering off like that?!" Chris' parental tirade was suddenly cut short by another adult voice as another human, this one an adult male came into the scene, walking up to the younger human.
"I am so sorry, James has a tendency to just waltz off to wherever he feels like." The adult would sigh as he noticed Chris and Bandit, his apology softening the former's current mood.
"Oh, that's quite alright. In fact, I should be thanking your son for talking Bandit into coming back after running off." Chris explained, shooting a quick stern glance at her son in question.
The adult human blinked before looking down at his son as his former look of annoyance turned to a bit of a smile.
"So… you wandered off to make a friend?" The adult asked the boy a little jokingly whom nodded before looking back at Bandit and holding out his hand.
"Hi… I'm James."
The young Heeler couldn't help but give a small smile of his own as he shook James' hand.
"...I'm Bandit."
Nathan's POV – Back to Present Time
"So did you and Stripe make up?" I asked, genuinely worried about Stripe.
"Yep. Though it took a while for him to look at me. That's how brothers are sometimes, kid. Tend to fight a lot and one of us ends up doing something we shouldn't have done, then we eventually become friends again. And it's because of your dad that I decided to be a man and face the music. The "music" being my mum. And hoo boy, did she show me just how mad at me she was." Bandit answered, his eyebrows raising upon mentioning Chris.
"Grounded for a whole month?"
"Nah. Let's just say that when it was over, my bum was sore for two whole weeks." Bandit explained, glancing aside with a bit of an embarrassed smile. It only took me a few seconds to realize what he actually meant by that and he could tell what was on my mind by my expression alone.
"It was the eighties, mate. Mums were meaner back then. I think I must've ended up crying harder than maybe even Stripe halfway through." Bandit said, rolling his eyes with a smile which couldn't help but make me chuckle a little.
"Still though, I can't believe you met my dad as a kid." It honestly did feel like such a small world.
"Hey Nate, you said that you and your oldies crash landed on a small plane, right? Where was it you were going?" I blinked as Bandit asked me that question. Honestly, I had almost forgotten about why and how I had come here in the first place.
"Well… The thing is, my dad never told me where we were going. He always said that it was a surprise… But he did give me a hint; that it was somewhere where a childhood friend of his lives."
It only took us both a second to realize and figure out EXACTLY what that meant at the time as me and Bandit both stared at each other, though I think Bandit looked more stunned than I did.
"He was going to… Oh, James…" Bandit bemoaned, likely feeling at fault over forgetting his recently passed childhood friend that was my father, whom all this time had planned to take me to visit him and the Heelers perhaps as like a friend reunion.
Bandit may have forgotten… but my father never did.
"The last time I saw him was just a few days after we first met before he went home to Denver…" Bandit then mumbled, looking the lowest I've ever seen him.
With a stomach full of sympathy, I gently lifted a hand and placed it on his shoulder.
"There is one good thing about this…" I started with a hopeful tone.
"Is that at least I got to meet you and your family in the end. And we can both be sad together."
Upon hearing those words, Bandit's frown turned into a sad smile before he pulled me into a gentle embrace.
"Thanks, Nate…"
And so that was another mystery solved, the very mystery my grandpa Alfred had given me in that dream.
To think that Bandit's first interaction with a human was my own father.
Author's Note:
Yes, WriterOfGod42, Nathan was meant to say "at the end of the day", typical grammar error I overlooked.
And no, none of the Season 3's episodes will be the basis for the chapters, there may be call-forwards and possibly a few characters from said season but nothing else.
And Anon, thanks for the suggestions, the majority of them are perfect.
