JMJ
Chapter Five
Brother, my Brother
Jenny and Sheldon were laughing as they left the store. If all she was going to do was get a Tremorton Community College sweatshirt and she would fit right in Jenny needed nothing from Any's, and they were teasing each other more than not right up to the leaving the threshold. She could not remember a time she had felt her relationship with Sheldon not being forced. It was great. She was almost feeling as loose with him as she usually did with Brad, and speaking of Brad…
She stopped short long before Sheldon noticed Brad and Tuck at the pinball machine. Normally she would not have bat an eye-shutter at Brad playing arcade games in the mall or even Tuck looking impatient about it, but she knew instantly that she did not like the scene.
Something was bothering Brad. She knew that for certain now.
The tension was off the chart of tension meters. Tuck, no longer hiding in his bush, was looking up at Jenny and Sheldon's approach with a miserable expression. He did not notice the leaves sticking out of his hair still.
"Wow!" said Sheldon suddenly. "That's a crazy score!"
Brad did not answer, but it was a crazy score. Brad was sweating buckets and his brow pinched with concentration or maybe it was something else. It almost looked like the opposite of concentration, at least on the game. He was mesmerized by something else, something gross like a giant bug squirting its guts out or something.
"Brad? Are you okay?" asked Jenny hesitantly.
"No, he's not!" gasped Tuck grabbing on Jenny's hand. "It's like he's possessed! He won't even talk! He—"
"Look, I'm fine!" Brad snapped, and it was amazing that his fingers kept going at the pinball machine all the while with score going up and up, but he didn't sound fine. Mostly he sounded angry until he laughed, which somehow was worse. "In fact, I'm better than okay, I just cracked open the secret to the genius."
"You what?" demanded Jenny.
"I think he broke something, ate something, fell into something!" Tuck said. "He's suddenly like a super computer and he won't stop! See, see, just look at him.
ERR!
The pinball fell. Game over. But the score was the highest Jenny had ever seen— that was not her own, but she was a robot, after all. Brad huffed and did not even look back at the numbers as he turned around.
"There y'see, now you made me lose, happy?" he sniffed leaning against the side of the machine idly, but not very kindly.
"No!" snapped Tuck.
"But what did you mean by you cracked open the secret to 'the genius' or whatever?" Jenny asked crossing her arms suspiciously.
"Last night," Tuck said, "he started drawing out all those equations like a madman and—"
Brad held up his hand in front of Tuck's face.
"And I solved the problems all by myself. My math brain finally kicked into gear and now I'm popping wheelies!"
"But what does high-scoring pinball have to do with having a math brain?" Jenny demanded.
"Well, actually," said Sheldon with a wince. "If you knew the dimensions of the components inside the pinball machine and knew the exact pressure needed to use the paddles perfectly then you could have a circular route as smooth as an electric current potentially for eternity if you could keep it up without getting carpel tunnel or at least eye strain, but unless Brad—"
"Yeah!" snapped Jenny. "I doubt Brad measured all those components, Sheldon. You got a calculator or a device to cheat, didn't you, Bradley Carbunkle, and you feel guilty about it even though you wanted to show everybody up."
"No, you guys, it's not just some gadget!" Tuck butted in impatiently. "His brain is being controlled by aliens, Jenny!"
"Now let's not jump to conclusions, Tuck," said Jenny.
"I knew you all thought I couldn't do it," said Brad.
"Do what?" Jenny snapped back; his tone was just getting under her casing like a bad case of rust.
"Have the math brain I need to be a scientist."
"But I thought that was why I was tutoring you," said Sheldon with a shrug.
"Yeah!" sniffed Brad. "And you thought it was going to take years, didn't you?"
"Uh… I wasn't making a hypothesis on the duration of my torturing," Sheldon muttered.
"But you don't believe me," Brad pointed out.
"That you unlocked hidden genius that was lying dormant inside your brain?" Sheldon offered trying in vain to keep the argument low key with his candid way of talking. "Well, as unlikely as that is, I do know that people are known for unlocking math brains, but in this case I—"
"See!" snapped Brad shoving his finger into Sheldon's chest, and Sheldon's eyes grew wide in alarm. "See!? You don't believe me! None of you do!"
"Leave Sheldon alone!" snapped Jenny getting in between the two boys now. "You're the one that made this whole thing into a big scene! We were helping you, what more did you want?!"
"He can't help it!" Tuck nearly squealed. "He's got something lodged in his head like Chuck or something!"
"Guys, we're going to be kicked out of the mall," squeaked Sheldon.
Brad snorted and pushed passed Jenny's arm. Had she wanted she could have easily not allowed him to do so. No matter how he became whatever he was now, he had not gained super strength, right? Even if he did seem a little stronger than usual in his rage somehow as though he could throw a car across the street at her. She only crossed her arms as he turned back at them as though they were the ones with the problem.
"Whatever, this is getting stupid," said Brad. "I'm going home. Thanks for nothing, guys."
"Come on, Jenny!" cried Tuck. "Get him, stop him! We gotta get his brain fixed and quick! Before he talks to mom and dad like this!"
"Maybe he should," sniffed Jenny holding her arms in place and turning her head up proudly. "Then he can get grounded."
"After high school?" Sheldon raised brow.
"Why not? My mom would still ground me!" Jenny said. "What does age matter when someone's acting like a little brat?"
"Well, I mean at this age, a parent's more likely to kick us out for being ungrateful for allowing us to stay at home while we go to college," Sheldon muttered.
"At least I'm not stuck up!" Brad called over his shoulder mostly likely at Jenny.
"Little brats are always stuck up," Jenny retorted.
"Yeah, well, see if I ever go anywhere with you again!" Brad called.
A shiver went through Jenny then with an electric buzz. "Well, it's not like I'm going to invite you anywhere again with me if you're gunna be like this!"
"FINE!"
"FIIIINE!"
"Ahem!"
Jenny turned and sure enough there was a very official looking person standing behind her.
"Look super hero or not, the whole mall doesn't belong to you and your petty friend arguments."
"Yeah, fine, we're going now," huffed Jenny. "Come on, Sheldon!"
She grabbed him by the arm.
"Whoa!"
Maybe she had whipped him along kind of hard, but it was weird him not being totally blinded with love for her that he actually was resisting it instead of flying behind her like a kite with hearts tailing behind his head to keep him aloft. Somehow at the moment it just made her more comforted no matter how contrary that sounded.
It was like the whole world was turned upside down with Sheldon being the level-headed one and Brad had gone totally ballistic. At least Tuck was still the same, but she was almost too angry to even chase Brad down the street with a rain of laser-fire as she used to after a Sheldon episode. It was because she was more than angry, more than even embarrassed. She was hurt. She felt more hurt than Sheldon had ever hurt her and it was just this little argument.
Why?!
Ugh! It was one of the few times she almost wished her mom had not programmed her with the ability to feel human emotions. It could be such a drag sometimes.
"Jenny!" Sheldon squeaked after adjusting himself enough to walk straight so he could talk at the same time and not have to keep as much track of his feet. "Jenny, I'm sure this is just— ih!" he almost tripped again on the base-stand of a sign. "—just a misunderstanding! Good old Tucker might be on to something. Maybe we should—"
"No! I'm not in the mood!" snapped Jenny. "He can fry his brain in a thunderstorm and walk with applejacks in his shoes until he gets kidnapped for all I care, and I won't come to his rescue!"
"Come on, Jenny, you don't mean tha—ack!" Sheldon quacked as he stopped himself just barely from knocking over a pile of match-car boxes, but just as he was sighing with relief he rammed into a very hefty customer causing her to drop her pile of intoxicatingly floral-smelling parcels and for him to practically smash his nose into her rock-hard purse.
Jenny gasped. "Oh, no! Please! I'm sorry!"
During the commotion that followed, no one remembered Tuck. He was standing by himself in the mall with eyes bulging and staring at the pinball machine as he tried to figure out what had just happened except a bunch of supposed grownups fighting like they were still teenagers.
Despite his frozen outward appearance and mouth open slightly ajar he was thinking very deeply about his next move.
#
"I can't believe I yelled at my friends like that," said Brad to himself flopping onto his bed on his back. "What came over me? I don't get it? It was stupider than a high school cartoon forcing two friends to fight over nothing!"
Don't you like your genius? That strange voice thought back at him.
"Well, yeah, of course, but not if it's gunna make me have mood swing relapses form back when I was sixteen!" huffed Brad.
"They aren't mood swings if you really have a reason to be angry."
"Well, yeah, but, they were just worried."
"They just looked like they were worried because they were afraid of you. You were strong and smart and everything that they couldn't think you could be…"
"You think?" asked Brad.
It was funny that the voice seemed to be out loud and yet it was funnier still that it seemed to matter less. After all, it sounded just like him now instead of some creepy voice.
"Sure!"
Brad paused. It was hard to think of a reason why they should be mad at him, especially Jenny. The voice was probably right. It felt good to listen to it like paddling with the stream on a river rather than up it.
"Even if they were concerned a little, they had no right to be," he pointed out. Or should he have said "reason to be".
"No, that's right," said the voice that sounded like his.
Well, it was his voice. It came out of his own mouth and voice box.
Should he be concerned about that?
"Nah," he said or was it the voice that just came out from him that sounded like him for the plausible reason that it came from his voice box.
"What?"
"Uh, did I just confuse myself?"
"Whatever, now that you know you have no reason to feel guilty, you should show them, you know, what you're capable of in a more refined manner, don't you think?"
"Yeah," said Brad musingly.
"Show the world what you're capable of."
"Right."
Listening to the voice was getting easier and easier. The thought of resisting was becoming dimmer and dimmer.
"Show yourself that you can overcome any obstacle. Nothing can stand in your way."
"Exactly!" said Brad punching the air.
It was like adrenaline now pulsing through his veins. He felt more confident and powerful like he could do and be anything.
"So let's ditch this joint and do something powerful!"
"Yes, I—"
Crunch.
It sounded like a piece of paper under his bed.
Brad paused. Terror went through him like the guilt of shoplifting and being caught in the act by the shop owner even though he had never done that. Then again he had never experienced a tidal wave crashing through the room, which was his second comparison, but it passed like gas.
The sound had come from under his bed. Anger crashed through him then. He knew who was there and why.
He flung his arm under the bed in a swinging swoop with dexterity that might have looked unnatural to a bystander. Even Tuck had not seen it as he had been so scrunched back under Brad's bed, but Brad had the boy by the arm like he was a stuffed animal. He glared at Tuck's huge wide eyes at eye level. Tuck dropped the recording equipment.
"What's the big idea spying on me! I'm gunna kill you for this, Tuck!"
Tuck gulped as though he quite believed him, but he had no words.
Brad was just about to throw him down when the other side of his voice said, "Then what you waiting for? He's only in the way! Kill him."
Brad blinked in shock. In an instant all drama had suddenly left the room to two brother just having a normal conflict. The brothers blinked stupidly and confused at each other. Then Brad said simply, "What? No. I'm not gunna kill my own brother."
"Then lock him in the closet," said his other disgruntled voice.
"Exactly!" said Brad and the storm of emotion took over again as Brad threw Tuck into his own closet and locked the door.
After some stumbling noises and crashing there was complete and utter silence. Then Brad slipped out his own window and disappeared like a cat burglar into the eerie dusk. With all atmospheric darkness it was as though that last act had left Brad in the closet with Tuck, and someone else was walking out in his skin.
