FORWARD: Note To The Reader:
The events in this story take place after Book 1: "The Extra Son The World Would Never Need" and includes major details from and continues the story of the Fanfiction story "Scar of his Past" by omega1979; ID: 8203940.
It is highly recommended to read the above stories before reading this.
This story itself is my own original work inspired by the above author's work and by Dargur , my single most dedicated fan without whom this story would never have seen the light of day. Through his constant messaging and pitching of ideas that I have had the freedom to do with what I wanted, this story has been made.
From October 21, 2022 when I started writing this story until April 27, 2024 when I finished the first rough draft, to today, August 26, 2024 when all editing was finally complete and publishing began; this story has been both a great joy to write and a massive undertaking to complete but finally, here we are.
Publishing Schedule: Each week I will be posting approximately one to three chapters of the story and they will be posted on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday in accordance with my schedule with an emphasis on Tuesdays.
Lastly, I want to add this:
Reviews are not only welcomed but ENCOURAGED; I will read them and do my best to respond to them. If anyone has the desire to send me a direct message, please do so through the FanFiction website and direct messaging function; I will respond. And without further delay, please enjoy the story, I hope it brings as much joy to you reading it as it did to me writing it.
-END FORWARD: Note To The Reader-
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TaleSpin: All Quiet On The Home Front
Book 2
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PROLOGUE
" Organize the accounts, ready the income tax forms, and…..OH NO!" Rebecca Cunningham was frantically going about her office with a myriad of tasks flowing through her head like rapids in a river. She had forgotten to write up the new employee information submissions and tax forms what with everything that was going on and had happened in the past two weeks.
"Kit, Baloo, Wildcat, but Kit is a child so that means he requires more information, but he is over age ten so he is exempt from most of the new child labor laws, but still his will be hardest and…"
Rebecca walked to the door of the newly named Higher for Higher building and opened it to see Baloo, Kit, and Molly on the dock resting in hammocks that swayed gently in the ocean breeze and were shaded from the late morning sun. Baloo was slumbering deeply in his hammock which was just one space in between the dock support beams away from the small twelve-year-old boy who was sharing his with an even smaller honey colored six-year-old girl with pigtailed ears tied with blue ribbon. Side by side Kit and Molly slept in the cool air, neither of the three on the dock looking up from their nap. Rebecca opened her mouth but halted the advance of her words as she decided at the last minute to let them all sleep for a while longer; opting instead to postpone the filing of tax forms for a few more hours; after all, no deliveries were set to ship for yet a few more days anyways.
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*The Next Day*
Ms. Cunningham gestured to the chair in front of her desk, "Have a seat Kit, we have to talk."
Kit started to become nervous. He had heard this term before at the orphanages when he was younger. It always meant something bad was about to happen and so Kit readied himself to hit the road, his mind immediately jumping to a packing list. This was a nice place but apparently nothing lasts forever.
"What did I do?" Kit inquired with confused guilt.
"Oh, nothing, and that's the problem. I just need to file some employee tax forms and I need some information from you is all." Miss Cunningham eyed Kit and noticed that he was on edge and decided to clarify the situation with a slight smile. "Don't worry, you aren't in any trouble." With these words Rebecca saw Kit visibly relax a little. Miss Cunningham sat down and pulled out a pen to begin her obligation to the IRS and the Department of Labor. "So, Kit, your last name is Cloudkicker, correct?"
"Yes Mam" Kit slowly kicked his feet, his legs dangling from the chair but still too short to reach the ground, his hands grasping the arm rests as Ms. Cunningham wrote down his answer. Rebecca thought nothing of the rather unique name beyond that it sounded like it was made up but then dismissed the notion in her mind after all, who was she to judge? Besides, at least he had a last name which would make this all a little easier than Baloo's forms from yesterday. Once she finished writing she asked Kit for his identification and social security number and received more or less the response she expected from the boy.
"But…Miz Cunningham, I'm just a kid. I don't even have an ID card…and what's a social security number?"
Ms. Cunningham sighed as she stopped writing and twiddled with the pen in her hand, beginning a staring contest with the form on her desk. After filling out Baloo's form yesterday and discovering that Kit was not Baloo's son but that in fact, he was just some random orphan he had taken in, she had concluded that these tax and employment information forms were going to be extra difficult if not impossible to fill out and so considered filing some temporary forms given Kit's unique position.
"Kit, weren't you provided with…." Ms. Cunningham stopped midsentence when she looked up at Kit and saw the uneasy quizzical look on the poor kid's face. This interrogation was making him uncomfortable though she was not sure why; she was sure that not even he knew why he was uncomfortable for that matter. What she did know was that Kit was an orphan, Lord only knows what happened to his parents or other family…that is, if he had any. She knew that Kit was a Sky Pirate (emphasis on 'was'), it would be foolish to assume that those outlaws would have kept up with anything that would identify and incriminate a member of their crew. She knew that Kit was once homeless, for how long Rebecca did not know, but it would be safe to bet that food, money, and shelter took priority over an ID card. Plus, Social Security Numbers had only begun to have been issued to the population within the past year; the ridiculous concept of those brutish pirates taking Kit to a government office to be issued a social security number and card was laughable, which brought her to the last link in her chain of logical deductive thinking. She also knew, again, by his own admission, that Kit was a runaway from an orphanage; anything that they would have provided him for life would have been dispensed upon his legal departure, be it a transfer to another facility, adoption, or age-out. But runaways were given nothing more than the luck of the draw that they took with them when they disappeared in the still of the night, if they managed to get away that is.
"Provided with what?" Kit stated softly, clearly having no idea where this was going.
Ms. Cunningham took a breath and then began. "Kit, do you remember the name of the orphanage you ran away from?"
Kit began to panic, get defensive, and put his walls up. Did he do something wrong? Did Baloo not want him around anymore? No, if that were the case then Baloo would not have told him yesterday that he cared about him and that he was a great kid and that he was glad he was around. Besides, it was his boss asking these questions, the person who paid him to deliver packages, not Papa Bear. But what if it was a trick? No, it couldn't be, not after the $100,000 sacrifice he had made to cash in that gem to fix the Seaduck for Baloo. But still, there was the possibility. Either way, he decided to answer but resolved that he was not going back to that orphanage. "Why do you want to know that?"
"Well, we could go to the Court House or the Department of Public Safety and Census Records here in Cape Suzette and have them dig through files or possibly have them make record requests from other cities and islands in Usland to find this information, but we also have an airplane just outside. It would be significantly faster by weeks to stop by your old orphanage and just ask for the information; not to mention that, aside from fuel, it would be free."
Kit figured that by this point, those who were after him from his days as a vagabond orphan and air-hobo had long since given up the hunt and that the revelation of this specific part of his past could be inconsequential. Furthermore, he had forgotten most of the information in his file when he quickly looked at it the night he absconded from the Freeport Orphanage, burying it deep in his mind, locking it so far away not even he could find it again. His memories of that night were clouded at best, the panic of staying and the stress of being caught clashing together, blurring his thoughts in a storm of unknown and undesirable futures. He had no choice but to run away, he was to be transferred to the Marshland Home for Troubled Youth for something he didn't do, for something he was framed for and he would rather take his chances on the street than go to that disgusting child-prison place. "The Freeport Home for Children" he stated hesitantly.
Ms. Cunningham stared at him blankly in minor shock. "Freeport? You got here all the way from Freeport?! How long ago did you leave the Freeport Home?"
Kit was starting to feel a little more relaxed but kept his guard up mainly because he had not yet revealed his air-hobo past to Baloo or Ms. Cunningham yet or why he ran away, that was something he would keep secret…..for now at least. "I don't know exactly when I left Miz Cunningham. I just left."
Ms. Cunningham suddenly became inquisitive. Call it a desire to know more crossed with starting to care about the kid across her desk combined with prying, "Why did you leave?" she asked but suddenly stopped herself. "Actually, don't answer that. You can tell me if you want, but it's not really my business. This is strictly a professional conversation".
Kit's heart jumped but then quickly resettled as he just nodded in response.
Ms. Cunningham scribbled and filled out the forms as best she could before noticing a blank slot at the top that she was surprised she had overlooked. "Kit, when is your birthday?"
"1925." Answered Kit in confidence without delay.
"What month and day?" inquired Ms. Cunningham.
"Weeeelllllll" Kit rubbed the back of his neck with a slight smile of embarrassment, "that is the confusing part."
Ms. Cunningham leaned back in her chair twirling her pen with an eyebrow raised and waited expectantly for the rest.
"You see, I have been told that it is May fifth, but I have also been told that it is July nineteenth."
Ms. Cunningham wondered to herself how such a situation occurred to Kit but decided that the need to ask what was directly to the point was most appropriate, "Which one do you celebrate?"
"I celebrate my birthday on May fifth, it makes me two and a half months older."
Ms. Cunningham let out a single chuckle before noting May 5, 1925 on the temporary tax and employment forms as the date of birth for her youngest employee.
"Do you need anything else Miz Cunningham?" stated Kit as his body language was asking something completely different entirely as he eyed Molly outside the window in the corner waving at him to come play; a hint Ms. Cunningham picked up on.
"No Kit, I think we are done for now; we will see about getting the rest of your identification later but for now the IRS and the Department of Labor will have to be satisfied with this." Ms. Cunningham looked at the time and noticed how late it was. "You and Molly can go play; we will be having dinner soon. Tell Baloo and Wildcat I need to see them."
"Ummmm" Kit said nervously, "Do…..do I have to go back there with you?... back to the orphanage I mean?"
Ms. Cunningham rested her head on her left arm while she continued to write with her other arm. She looked at Kit with a casual expression, "Let's worry about that when the time comes; for now, let's just wait and see."
"Yes Mam" said Kit as he flew off the chair and ran out the door, just as relieved to be outside as he was to be done with that interview, Molly meeting him just outside, grabbing his hat off his head and taking off with it, Kit only delighted to give chase.
Rebecca leaned back in her chair alone in the room at the end of the day, staring at the chair Baloo and Kit had now both sat in for the onboarding process at her new Higher for Hire business and took just a moment to clear her thoughts trying to figure out how she could possibly keep her personal and professional lives separate. Was it even possible?
-END PROLOGUE-
