Perspectives VI:
A Christmas Perspective
by Matthew Atanian
some elements from Boy Scouts ½,
part 13 by Michael D. Quadrozzi
©2000 by Matthew Atanian and Jason Bertovich
Boy Scouts ½ created by Matthew Atanian
Perspectives created by Jason Bertovich
A Christmas Perspective
by Matthew Atanian
some elements from Boy Scouts ½,
part 13 by Michael D. Quadrozzi
©2000 by Matthew Atanian and Jason Bertovich
Boy Scouts ½ created by Matthew Atanian
Perspectives created by Jason Bertovich
Chapter One: A Fresh Perspective
6:42 PM. 23 December 1997.
A thin layer of snow had fallen that morning, covering the Springfield area with a pristine white blanket an inch and a half thick. It was only the second or third noticeable snowfall since the year's unusually warm winter season had begun. Of course, abnormal weather is considered perfectly normal in New England.
Yet, as the sun began its slow journey back behind the hills and dusk steadily approached, the small patches of grass on the outskirts of the Holyoke Mall’s parking lot stood triumphantly uncovered, displaying proof for all to see that the meager snow that had fallen in morning was no match for the warmth that had come with the afternoon.
Now, it was evening. John Hoelscher was at work. It had been his first day back, actually. He didn’t know what he was thinking, having volunteered to return to work now, when they would have surely let him stay off until the new year! Normally he’d have thought he must be mad, but he didn’t think that of himself anymore.
It was something of an irony, he thought, working in the shoe department while confined to a wheelchair. He smiled. Even being in a wheelchair, he was happy, truly at peace, for the first time in quite a while. He had faced his personal demons – literally faced them – and won. How many people could say that?
He looked off in the direction of the Women’s Clothing department, and his smile faded. It wasn’t replaced with a frown… but rather with a different kind of smile. A smile of happy memories past, memories of break-times spent in the food court with good friends.
Those days were past, and life goes on. Jason had a new job, no longer at the mall. He still saw Jas often enough, mind you. The two were still pretty close, after all. But he missed those daily meetings in the food court with Jas and…
He turned away from the Women’s department, a look of slight sadness on his face, now.
…and Fenny. Around the same time he had had his trial with his inner demons, Fenny had vanished without a trace. Jas didn’t know where she had gone, either, but had assured him that wherever she was, she was safe, and she wished the best for them. Jas had refused to tell John how he knew this, however.
Yes, he certainly missed their daily meetings in the…
“So how’s the first day back? I know I don’t miss it.”
John swiveled his chair at the sound of the voice. “Jas!” he said, the smile returning. “How’s it going?”
Jason Bertovich stood there, and beside him stood Nicole Porter. John didn’t know what to make of their relationship. They seemed to see each other semi-frequently, but hadn’t committed themselves to a formal relationship. Despite this, John hadn’t heard of either of them dating other people. Perhaps they were just taking their time for the moment…
“So what brings you here?” John asked.
“Oh, you know, this and that,” Jason said. “Nicole and I have a little last minute shopping to do, and so did her sister and her friend…” (That was another pair that John noted a definite lack of a formal relationship, not that he knew them nearly as well as Jas and Nicole.) “…and I figured, as long as I was here, I might take some time out of my precious schedule and see how my buddy’s doing on his first day back at the salt mines.”
“How magnanimous of you,” John said dryly. His smile broadened in spite of himself.
“How are you feeling, John?” Nicole asked.
“Much better, actually. Finely out of those damn casts, and I hope to even be able to give up the chair in a month or two. It’ll be a while before I’m fully recovered, though.” John glanced at his watch. “You know, just happens to be time for my break,” he said.
John banged his hand on the table, and proclaimed, “I hereby call this meeting of the Holyoke Refugees of Employment Hell to some sort of order."
"Here, here!" Jason applauded.
“As the only current member of the H.R.E.H.,” John then continued, “I’d like to welcome one of our alumni, and his lovely guest.”
Nicole giggled. “So how’s your new job, Jason?” John asked.
“Pretty good,” Jason responded. “Nice people over at the station, and it was certainly nice to get out of here before the annual December chaos. There’s this one lady in particular at the station that I’ve become pretty good friends with. You should meet her, you’d probably like her. Her name’s Lina.”
John spat out his Sprite. “You tell me her last name’s ‘Inverse’ and I’ll have to have you committed, Jas.”
Jason laughed. “No, it’s Lina Wells.”
“Well, we should get together some time,” John said. “Go bowling or something.” He laughed. “I doubt they make bowling shoes for this thing, though,” he said, giving the chair a little wiggle.
“Hey, I just remembered something,” Nicole said.
“Oh, what’s that?” Jason asked her.
“The Boy Scout troop is having a Christmas Party tomorrow night. The guys invited me and my sisters, and they said we could bring friends if we wanted. Why don’t you two come along, and bring your friend Lina, too?”
“Nicole, my dear,” Jason said, “that sounds like a wonderful idea.”
Kirstin Porter emerged from the changing room.
"What do you think of this one?" she asked Aaron.
"Great," Aaron said, although he thought his words to be the understatement of the year.
Kirstin smiled in reply and re-entered the changing room.
Aaron stood in silent reflection as he waited for her. After a few moments, a thought occurred to him. He gathered himself together. "Hey Kirstin?" he called.
"Yeah?" he heard her call back.
"You're not actually planning on, like, buying all of this stuff, right?"
She laughed. "Good Lord, no! It's just fun to try it all on!"
Aaron smiled and settled back in the padded chair by the changing room door, joyfully fascinated by Kirstin Porter. His fascination was interrupted, however, when a voice from behind him, very similar to Kirstin's, but also quite different, said, “Why should she plan on buying it? That’s what guys are for.”
Aaron jumped slightly, startled. He turned. “Ah, um, hi, Nicole. Hey, Jason.”
Kirstin re-emerged moments later, clad once more in her own clothes. She smiled at the sight of her sister and her friend. “Well, guys,” she said, “I think I’ve had enough for today. I should get home, anyway.”
As usual, Kirstin was concerned with her housework, as if she felt that the Porter residence would fall apart if she was not there to keep things in order. Of course,Nicole thought, everything probably would fall apart with out her.“Well, sis, I’m set if the guys are.”
Kirstin put away the sweater she had been trying on, and turned back to the others. “Shall we go, then?” she asked.
“Fine by me,” Jason responded.
“Actually,” Aaron said, suddenly, “I just remembered something. You guys go on, I’ll catch up.”
“Okay,” Kirstin told him, “see you in a moment, then.”
As Jason, Nicole, and Kirstin walked out into the parking lot, Nicole grinned and whispered quiet enough so that her twin wouldn’t overhear, “Hope you liked that sweater, sis.”
Jason Bertovich was dreaming.
At least, he was pretty sure he was. His mind was muddled. It was like his thoughts were swimming upstream, against the currents of his consciousness. He found it slightly hard to concentrate. Still, he could think clearly enough to fixate on two aspects of his environment that pointed towards the conclusion that he was dreaming.
The first was his present environment itself. It was completely featureless. Jason looked around, taking in everything, and all he saw was inky blackness. Everywhere, just... nothing. He could feel stable ground beneath his feet, but when he looked down, he looked down into emptiness.
The second strange aspect of this experience was the figure walking toward him out of the darkness. Well, perhaps walking wasn't the right word. Jason couldn't see any clear figure, only a shimmering outline that grew a little bigger and a little more distinct over time, as if it were traveling towards him.
After a few minutes, the figure became the sharp image of a man in peak physical condition, wearing a slightly shiny tuxedo with a thin bow tie. Another figure “walked” besides him, also in a shiny tuxedo and thin bow tie, but he was shorter and, while not out of shape, a bit pudgier.
“Hi, there, folks!” the second man said, his voice that of a trained announcer. “I’m Guy Makihashi!”
“And I’m Toro Watanabe!”the first added. “And this is Jason Bertovich’s dream sequence!”
Jason thought these two looked familiar. He remembered them from a weird dream he had once when he had been in the hospital.
“So, um, what’s going on here?” Jason asked them.
“You tell me, bud, it’s your dream,” Guy responded.
“I thought you might be here with some inspirational message or something about the meaning of Christmas,” Jason told the pair.
“Inspirational message about Christmas? Us?” Toro said. He laughed slightly. “Well, we could help spread Christmas cheer the good old-fashioned WDF style!”
The two snapped their fingers in unison, and suddenly Jason was standing in one corner of a ring. Guy and Toro were off in the announcer’s booth.
“Hi there Fight fans! I’m Guy Makihashi!”
“And I’m Toro Watanabe! Welcome to our annual installment of the WORLD DEATHMATCH FEDERATION’S‘CHRUSHMAS BASH’!”
“And tonight is certainly a special bought, as our WDF Champion once again defends his title against a most surprising opponent!”
The Champ, Jason thought. He smiled. That’d be me.
“Ready for the fight, Jas?” a woman said from behind him.
He turned, and there was an attractive blond woman wearing a formal kimono. On her feet were wooden sandals. Her blond hair was done up in a bun, upon which sat a nurse’s cap. Jason smiled some more. Of course, he thought. “Hello, Miss Manners,” he said.
“The name’s Anako,” she scolded him. “I thought you weren’t supposed to be delirious until after the match.”
“Um, yeah…” Jason said, slightly confused.
The ring announcer stepped up to the microphone hanging over the ring, gripped it, and spoke firmly into it. “Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to tonight’s main event! It is scheduled for to the death, and it is for the WDF Heavyweight championship! Ladies and gentlemen…are you ready?” the man asked.
The crowded roared in approval, and the man continued. “I said…are you rrrrrrready?”
The crowd again roared, even louder than before.
“Then ladies and gentlemen…for the thousands in attendance, for the millions watching at home…Ladies and gentlemen, Let’s get ready to rumbbbbbbbblllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” The crowd exploded into a fury of cheers and shouting while various pyrotechnics exploded.
“In the red corner, weighing in at 187 pounds, with his manager Anako, Jason Bertovich!”
A few people in the audience cheered half-heartedly.
“Some introduction for the Champion, huh?” Jason said to Anako. He then looked at his clothing. Sneakers. An old pair of jeans. An El-Hazard T-shirt, without even another shirt on over it. “And where’s my usual getup?”
Anako laughed at the first part of what he’d said. “Pretty sure of yourself, ain’t ya?”
Jason feared that there was something vitally important he had failed to grasp, and a moment later he realized what that was. He realized it when his opponent was introduced.
The man in the center turned his attention to his ramp. “And his opponent: he hails from the ‘School of Hard Knocks’ where he earned his Ph.D. in Punishment, he also weighs in at 187 pounds, and he is accompanied by his manager Miss Manners, he is the current WDF Champion of the World, this is Jason “The Professor” Robertson!”
The crowd went absolutely wild as an exact twin of Jason walked up, followed by an exact twin of Anako. Well, exact except for their style of dress. Jason’s doppelganger was wearing light blue denim jeans, a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a dark red dress vest, and red tie to complete the ensemble. Wrapped around his waist was a belt with a buckle that would put any southerner to shame. A giant gold plate with a black leather strap confirmed that he was in fact the “WDF Heavyweight Champion.” Anako’s double wore a conservative dress with matching high-healed shoes.
“Oh, damn,” Jason said. Jason Bertovich, that is, not Jason Robertson.
Simultaneously, Anako and Miss Manners exited the ring and took their respective places in their respective corners. Robertson eyed Jason with a look that seemed hungry for blood.
“This isn’t working out at all as I thought it would,” Jason said to no one in particular.
“Jason…”
Jason bolted awake.“Fenny!” he shouted. He looked around.
It was dark. He was in his apartment. It was cramped. It was a mess. It was dark.
He was alone.
“Hello?” he called out.
No one responded.
He settled back down, and tried to return to sleep.
"Hey, sis!" Nicole Porter called, standing up from where she had knelt by the bed. Under the bed had been the first place she'd looked, and the second time around had yielded the same results.
"What?"
Nicole walked into the kitchen where her older sister sat surrounded by cardboard boxes. Sarah looked up from here seat on the floor. "What is it?" she asked again.
Nicole sighed, obviously more upset over asking for help than the actual problem. "Have you seen Neko-chan around anywhere?"
"No," Sarah answered, "not recently." She smiled. "I would've figured it would be kind of hard to loose a cat in a place this size."
"Well, I can't find him anywhere."
Sarah continued with her work, not looking up. "Didn't you let him out before?"
"Oh... yeah," Nicole said, frowning. She'd let him outside that afternoon. Neko-chan had seemed keen on getting some fresh air. Hadn't she let him back in, though?
Sarah could see the frown forming on her younger sibling's face. "Don't worry. I'm sure he'll turn up tonight, scratching at the door, just like last time."
Nicole sighed again. "Yeah, I bet you're right." She sank down to the floor, taking a seat next to Sarah. "So, what're you doing?"
Sarah looked around the room at the boxes she'd brought up from the basement of their building. "Oh, just unpacking our winter stuff. I figured since there's actually a bit snow on the ground now it's finally time to start bringing it all out."
Nicole smiled, giving the boxes an appreciative glance. Some of them lay opened, spilling their wooly contents on the floor. She decided to change the subject. "So," she began slowly, picking her words with care, "Were you planning on attending the party tomorrow?"
Sarah didn't look up. "And what party would that be?" she asked.
"The Boy Scouts' Christmas party."
Sarah looked up. "Why would I want to do that?"
"Oh, come on," Nicole said, "Aaron and the guys invited us. It'll be fun." She saw that she wasn't impressing her sister. "Besides, what else are you going to be doing tomorrow night?"
"I don't know," Sarah said, pulling the lid open on another box. "Maybe I've got some more shopping to do."
Nicole smirked. "I happen to know that you finished all of your shopping weeks ago."
"Oh, really?"
"Yes, really."
Sarah sighed. She threw a glance, briefly, at the ticking clock on the wall. "All right, fine," she said, "I'll go. Maybe Matty Hayes will be there."
"See now, that wasn't so hard, was it?" her sister chided. She got up to leave the room, then a thought struck her. She smiled. "I believe that was a Nicole Porter counseling session, sis. I'll charge you for the hour. You owe me!"
"Just put it on my tab."
Jason continued to lay upon his futon staring up at his ceiling. Sleep had it continued to allude him. All he could think about was how he had heard Fenny call out his name, and how he had been sure that it had not been a part of the dream…
Yet, as the sun began its slow journey back behind the hills and dusk steadily approached, the small patches of grass on the outskirts of the Holyoke Mall’s parking lot stood triumphantly uncovered, displaying proof for all to see that the meager snow that had fallen in morning was no match for the warmth that had come with the afternoon.
Now, it was evening. John Hoelscher was at work. It had been his first day back, actually. He didn’t know what he was thinking, having volunteered to return to work now, when they would have surely let him stay off until the new year! Normally he’d have thought he must be mad, but he didn’t think that of himself anymore.
It was something of an irony, he thought, working in the shoe department while confined to a wheelchair. He smiled. Even being in a wheelchair, he was happy, truly at peace, for the first time in quite a while. He had faced his personal demons – literally faced them – and won. How many people could say that?
He looked off in the direction of the Women’s Clothing department, and his smile faded. It wasn’t replaced with a frown… but rather with a different kind of smile. A smile of happy memories past, memories of break-times spent in the food court with good friends.
Those days were past, and life goes on. Jason had a new job, no longer at the mall. He still saw Jas often enough, mind you. The two were still pretty close, after all. But he missed those daily meetings in the food court with Jas and…
He turned away from the Women’s department, a look of slight sadness on his face, now.
…and Fenny. Around the same time he had had his trial with his inner demons, Fenny had vanished without a trace. Jas didn’t know where she had gone, either, but had assured him that wherever she was, she was safe, and she wished the best for them. Jas had refused to tell John how he knew this, however.
Yes, he certainly missed their daily meetings in the…
“So how’s the first day back? I know I don’t miss it.”
John swiveled his chair at the sound of the voice. “Jas!” he said, the smile returning. “How’s it going?”
Jason Bertovich stood there, and beside him stood Nicole Porter. John didn’t know what to make of their relationship. They seemed to see each other semi-frequently, but hadn’t committed themselves to a formal relationship. Despite this, John hadn’t heard of either of them dating other people. Perhaps they were just taking their time for the moment…
“So what brings you here?” John asked.
“Oh, you know, this and that,” Jason said. “Nicole and I have a little last minute shopping to do, and so did her sister and her friend…” (That was another pair that John noted a definite lack of a formal relationship, not that he knew them nearly as well as Jas and Nicole.) “…and I figured, as long as I was here, I might take some time out of my precious schedule and see how my buddy’s doing on his first day back at the salt mines.”
“How magnanimous of you,” John said dryly. His smile broadened in spite of himself.
“How are you feeling, John?” Nicole asked.
“Much better, actually. Finely out of those damn casts, and I hope to even be able to give up the chair in a month or two. It’ll be a while before I’m fully recovered, though.” John glanced at his watch. “You know, just happens to be time for my break,” he said.
John banged his hand on the table, and proclaimed, “I hereby call this meeting of the Holyoke Refugees of Employment Hell to some sort of order."
"Here, here!" Jason applauded.
“As the only current member of the H.R.E.H.,” John then continued, “I’d like to welcome one of our alumni, and his lovely guest.”
Nicole giggled. “So how’s your new job, Jason?” John asked.
“Pretty good,” Jason responded. “Nice people over at the station, and it was certainly nice to get out of here before the annual December chaos. There’s this one lady in particular at the station that I’ve become pretty good friends with. You should meet her, you’d probably like her. Her name’s Lina.”
John spat out his Sprite. “You tell me her last name’s ‘Inverse’ and I’ll have to have you committed, Jas.”
Jason laughed. “No, it’s Lina Wells.”
“Well, we should get together some time,” John said. “Go bowling or something.” He laughed. “I doubt they make bowling shoes for this thing, though,” he said, giving the chair a little wiggle.
“Hey, I just remembered something,” Nicole said.
“Oh, what’s that?” Jason asked her.
“The Boy Scout troop is having a Christmas Party tomorrow night. The guys invited me and my sisters, and they said we could bring friends if we wanted. Why don’t you two come along, and bring your friend Lina, too?”
“Nicole, my dear,” Jason said, “that sounds like a wonderful idea.”
Kirstin Porter emerged from the changing room.
"What do you think of this one?" she asked Aaron.
"Great," Aaron said, although he thought his words to be the understatement of the year.
Kirstin smiled in reply and re-entered the changing room.
Aaron stood in silent reflection as he waited for her. After a few moments, a thought occurred to him. He gathered himself together. "Hey Kirstin?" he called.
"Yeah?" he heard her call back.
"You're not actually planning on, like, buying all of this stuff, right?"
She laughed. "Good Lord, no! It's just fun to try it all on!"
Aaron smiled and settled back in the padded chair by the changing room door, joyfully fascinated by Kirstin Porter. His fascination was interrupted, however, when a voice from behind him, very similar to Kirstin's, but also quite different, said, “Why should she plan on buying it? That’s what guys are for.”
Aaron jumped slightly, startled. He turned. “Ah, um, hi, Nicole. Hey, Jason.”
Kirstin re-emerged moments later, clad once more in her own clothes. She smiled at the sight of her sister and her friend. “Well, guys,” she said, “I think I’ve had enough for today. I should get home, anyway.”
As usual, Kirstin was concerned with her housework, as if she felt that the Porter residence would fall apart if she was not there to keep things in order. Of course,Nicole thought, everything probably would fall apart with out her.“Well, sis, I’m set if the guys are.”
Kirstin put away the sweater she had been trying on, and turned back to the others. “Shall we go, then?” she asked.
“Fine by me,” Jason responded.
“Actually,” Aaron said, suddenly, “I just remembered something. You guys go on, I’ll catch up.”
“Okay,” Kirstin told him, “see you in a moment, then.”
As Jason, Nicole, and Kirstin walked out into the parking lot, Nicole grinned and whispered quiet enough so that her twin wouldn’t overhear, “Hope you liked that sweater, sis.”
Jason Bertovich was dreaming.
At least, he was pretty sure he was. His mind was muddled. It was like his thoughts were swimming upstream, against the currents of his consciousness. He found it slightly hard to concentrate. Still, he could think clearly enough to fixate on two aspects of his environment that pointed towards the conclusion that he was dreaming.
The first was his present environment itself. It was completely featureless. Jason looked around, taking in everything, and all he saw was inky blackness. Everywhere, just... nothing. He could feel stable ground beneath his feet, but when he looked down, he looked down into emptiness.
The second strange aspect of this experience was the figure walking toward him out of the darkness. Well, perhaps walking wasn't the right word. Jason couldn't see any clear figure, only a shimmering outline that grew a little bigger and a little more distinct over time, as if it were traveling towards him.
After a few minutes, the figure became the sharp image of a man in peak physical condition, wearing a slightly shiny tuxedo with a thin bow tie. Another figure “walked” besides him, also in a shiny tuxedo and thin bow tie, but he was shorter and, while not out of shape, a bit pudgier.
“Hi, there, folks!” the second man said, his voice that of a trained announcer. “I’m Guy Makihashi!”
“And I’m Toro Watanabe!”the first added. “And this is Jason Bertovich’s dream sequence!”
Jason thought these two looked familiar. He remembered them from a weird dream he had once when he had been in the hospital.
“So, um, what’s going on here?” Jason asked them.
“You tell me, bud, it’s your dream,” Guy responded.
“I thought you might be here with some inspirational message or something about the meaning of Christmas,” Jason told the pair.
“Inspirational message about Christmas? Us?” Toro said. He laughed slightly. “Well, we could help spread Christmas cheer the good old-fashioned WDF style!”
The two snapped their fingers in unison, and suddenly Jason was standing in one corner of a ring. Guy and Toro were off in the announcer’s booth.
“Hi there Fight fans! I’m Guy Makihashi!”
“And I’m Toro Watanabe! Welcome to our annual installment of the WORLD DEATHMATCH FEDERATION’S‘CHRUSHMAS BASH’!”
“And tonight is certainly a special bought, as our WDF Champion once again defends his title against a most surprising opponent!”
The Champ, Jason thought. He smiled. That’d be me.
“Ready for the fight, Jas?” a woman said from behind him.
He turned, and there was an attractive blond woman wearing a formal kimono. On her feet were wooden sandals. Her blond hair was done up in a bun, upon which sat a nurse’s cap. Jason smiled some more. Of course, he thought. “Hello, Miss Manners,” he said.
“The name’s Anako,” she scolded him. “I thought you weren’t supposed to be delirious until after the match.”
“Um, yeah…” Jason said, slightly confused.
The ring announcer stepped up to the microphone hanging over the ring, gripped it, and spoke firmly into it. “Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to tonight’s main event! It is scheduled for to the death, and it is for the WDF Heavyweight championship! Ladies and gentlemen…are you ready?” the man asked.
The crowded roared in approval, and the man continued. “I said…are you rrrrrrready?”
The crowd again roared, even louder than before.
“Then ladies and gentlemen…for the thousands in attendance, for the millions watching at home…Ladies and gentlemen, Let’s get ready to rumbbbbbbbblllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” The crowd exploded into a fury of cheers and shouting while various pyrotechnics exploded.
“In the red corner, weighing in at 187 pounds, with his manager Anako, Jason Bertovich!”
A few people in the audience cheered half-heartedly.
“Some introduction for the Champion, huh?” Jason said to Anako. He then looked at his clothing. Sneakers. An old pair of jeans. An El-Hazard T-shirt, without even another shirt on over it. “And where’s my usual getup?”
Anako laughed at the first part of what he’d said. “Pretty sure of yourself, ain’t ya?”
Jason feared that there was something vitally important he had failed to grasp, and a moment later he realized what that was. He realized it when his opponent was introduced.
The man in the center turned his attention to his ramp. “And his opponent: he hails from the ‘School of Hard Knocks’ where he earned his Ph.D. in Punishment, he also weighs in at 187 pounds, and he is accompanied by his manager Miss Manners, he is the current WDF Champion of the World, this is Jason “The Professor” Robertson!”
The crowd went absolutely wild as an exact twin of Jason walked up, followed by an exact twin of Anako. Well, exact except for their style of dress. Jason’s doppelganger was wearing light blue denim jeans, a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a dark red dress vest, and red tie to complete the ensemble. Wrapped around his waist was a belt with a buckle that would put any southerner to shame. A giant gold plate with a black leather strap confirmed that he was in fact the “WDF Heavyweight Champion.” Anako’s double wore a conservative dress with matching high-healed shoes.
“Oh, damn,” Jason said. Jason Bertovich, that is, not Jason Robertson.
Simultaneously, Anako and Miss Manners exited the ring and took their respective places in their respective corners. Robertson eyed Jason with a look that seemed hungry for blood.
“This isn’t working out at all as I thought it would,” Jason said to no one in particular.
“Jason…”
Jason bolted awake.“Fenny!” he shouted. He looked around.
It was dark. He was in his apartment. It was cramped. It was a mess. It was dark.
He was alone.
“Hello?” he called out.
No one responded.
He settled back down, and tried to return to sleep.
"Hey, sis!" Nicole Porter called, standing up from where she had knelt by the bed. Under the bed had been the first place she'd looked, and the second time around had yielded the same results.
"What?"
Nicole walked into the kitchen where her older sister sat surrounded by cardboard boxes. Sarah looked up from here seat on the floor. "What is it?" she asked again.
Nicole sighed, obviously more upset over asking for help than the actual problem. "Have you seen Neko-chan around anywhere?"
"No," Sarah answered, "not recently." She smiled. "I would've figured it would be kind of hard to loose a cat in a place this size."
"Well, I can't find him anywhere."
Sarah continued with her work, not looking up. "Didn't you let him out before?"
"Oh... yeah," Nicole said, frowning. She'd let him outside that afternoon. Neko-chan had seemed keen on getting some fresh air. Hadn't she let him back in, though?
Sarah could see the frown forming on her younger sibling's face. "Don't worry. I'm sure he'll turn up tonight, scratching at the door, just like last time."
Nicole sighed again. "Yeah, I bet you're right." She sank down to the floor, taking a seat next to Sarah. "So, what're you doing?"
Sarah looked around the room at the boxes she'd brought up from the basement of their building. "Oh, just unpacking our winter stuff. I figured since there's actually a bit snow on the ground now it's finally time to start bringing it all out."
Nicole smiled, giving the boxes an appreciative glance. Some of them lay opened, spilling their wooly contents on the floor. She decided to change the subject. "So," she began slowly, picking her words with care, "Were you planning on attending the party tomorrow?"
Sarah didn't look up. "And what party would that be?" she asked.
"The Boy Scouts' Christmas party."
Sarah looked up. "Why would I want to do that?"
"Oh, come on," Nicole said, "Aaron and the guys invited us. It'll be fun." She saw that she wasn't impressing her sister. "Besides, what else are you going to be doing tomorrow night?"
"I don't know," Sarah said, pulling the lid open on another box. "Maybe I've got some more shopping to do."
Nicole smirked. "I happen to know that you finished all of your shopping weeks ago."
"Oh, really?"
"Yes, really."
Sarah sighed. She threw a glance, briefly, at the ticking clock on the wall. "All right, fine," she said, "I'll go. Maybe Matty Hayes will be there."
"See now, that wasn't so hard, was it?" her sister chided. She got up to leave the room, then a thought struck her. She smiled. "I believe that was a Nicole Porter counseling session, sis. I'll charge you for the hour. You owe me!"
"Just put it on my tab."
Jason continued to lay upon his futon staring up at his ceiling. Sleep had it continued to allude him. All he could think about was how he had heard Fenny call out his name, and how he had been sure that it had not been a part of the dream…
Chapter Two: A Completely Different Perspective
10:23 AM. 24 December 1997.
It was the day before Christmas, and the sun rose slowly over the rolling foothills of the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts. This sun, seemingly incapable of shedding any warmth on a typical winter's day yet remaining stubbornly bright in the sky, rose up and banished the night to the other side of the world. Light streamed across the sky and gleamed off the low-hanging, foreboding clouds. Mustering all its strength as a celestial furnace, the sun prepared to melt any lasting vestige of ice and snow from the ground and leave the inhabitants of Holyoke a reminder of winter in the form of ankle deep puddles of frigid water and dirty brown mush by the side of the road.
But all that was unimportant to John Hoelscher, because he was sitting in a folding metal chair in the middle of an empty, windowless room. The only light in the room was in the form of a single shaft of light, coming from an unseen source, that shone down directly upon him.
“Why am I here?” John asked. “Why now? I thought I was done with this!”
Another shaft of light suddenly came on, illuminating a figure facing him, sitting in a similar chair a few feet in front of him. It was Shinji-John.
“Hello, John,”Shinji-John said.
“Why have you come back?” John asked, nervously. “I thought you had already had your fun with me!”
“Don’t worry, John,”Shinji-John told him. “I’m not here to punish you again. You have more then paid for your crime in full.”
John tilted his head slightly, confused. “Why are you here?” he asked.
“I’m here because… we miss you, John. We need you to exist. And also because we’ve been a part of you so long that you’ll eventually find that you need us to exist, too. We can be very useful, you see. I, of course, am the original you. You need me to be true to yourself.”
Another shaft of light came into being directly behind and to the left of Shinji-John, illuminating Touga-John, standing there silently. “You need him,” Shinji-John continued, “to be comfortable in social situations.”
A fourth shaft came on, this one directly behind and to the right of Shinji-John, illuminating a silently standing Jinnai-John. “And you need him when the situation calls for assertiveness, directness, and other such qualities.”
“I think I’ve been getting on fine these past few months without you,” John told them.
“Did you ever watch the original Star Trek TV series?” Shinji-John asked.
“What? Of course. Why?”
“Do you remember that episode when the transporter split Captain Kirk into two halves? The good Kirk and the evil Kirk?”
“Yes, why?” John asked. Then he realized, “The good Kirk found that he couldn’t survive without the evil Kirk. Many of the qualities that made him who he was were in the evil Kirk.”
“Exactly,” Shinji-John said. “The good Kirk needed the evil Kirk to survive, but he had to temper the qualities of the evil Kirk with those found in the good Kirk.”
“So what are you saying?” John asked.
“I’m saying that you need us to survive. You need the qualities found in those two, but you also need me to temper them and help you remain true to yourself, so things don’t get out of control like they did in High School.”
“No!” John suddenly shouted.“No! I don’t need you! I am my own man!”
And with that, he disappeared.
“Where do you think he went?” Touga-John asked.
“I think he woke up,”Shinji-John responded. “Have patience, he’ll come around eventually. He has to.”
“Yes, of course he does!” Jinnai-John decreed as he began a bought of maniacal laughter.
John bolted upright and looked around. He was back in his apartment. He covered his face with his hands for a moment and rubbed at his eyes.
He glanced at his clock.Shit, he thought, must have forgotten to set the alarm. He had meant to set it for ten, as he had to work at noon, but he was sure that a half-hour’s extra sleep wouldn’t make him late.
He rolled over and pulled his chair closer to the bed, and then dumped himself into the chair. Off he then went to get ready for the day.
By himself.
He was his own man.
Jason had to work, too. Radio stations didn’t exactly close for Christmas. He did have the day off, tomorrow, and he had an early day today… but of course, that just meant more work in less time.
Well, beats the Christmas rush at the ol’ EB, he thought, and he was instantly much happier about his current situation.
“Hey, Jason, the boss was wondering if you’d look these over and get them ready for broadcast,” a woman said, dropping a not-quite-thin stack of papers on the desk in front of him.
Better then EB, he told himself again. Once again, it worked. It always did. He then looked up at the person who had brought him the work. He didn’t have to look up far, however.
She was a petite woman. Even though she was twenty, he could easily mistake her for younger. She had a girlish glow of innocence about her, her eyes seemed to sparkle, and her long, black hair seemed to move with a mind of it’s own whenever she made the slightest motion. Whenever he looked at her, Jason thought that, except for her normal looking ears, she’d make the perfect elf.
“Oh, hi, Lina!” he said.“I’m glad I ran into you. I’ve been invited to a party tonight, and was wondering if you’d like to go.”
“A party, eh?” She laughed. “Wouldn’t that nice gal of yours get mad if you went off to a party with someone else?”
“Oh, no!” Jason answered, waving his hands defensively. “Nothing like that. She’s the one who invited me, and suggested bringing you along. That guy I told you about will probably be there, too.”
“Oh, John?” Lina asked.“I’d love to meet him. From what you said, he sounds like a real fun guy.”
“He’s not any kind of mushroom,” Jason responded. He immediately regretted his really bad joke.
Lina, however, laughed. The laugh seemed genuine, too. “That’s a good one, Jason! Fun guy… fungi!” She laughed some more, and it had a very nice sound.
Jason smiled. “Well, if you’re interested, it’s in Springfield, the Church in the Acres, around six o’clock.”
“I’ll be there!” she said brightly, walking away.
Jason rubbed his eyes. He must have been seeing things. For a moment, he’d have sworn she’d been gliding…
Nicole Porter walked into Card and Comic and looked around. She noticed a couple of familiar people in the store, one of them standing at the counter. He was looking towards her direction, but hadn’t noticed her. He instead seemed fixated on the store next door.
"Hey! Bruno's Pizza is gone!" Mike Qaudrozzi said.
"Yep," the man behind the counter responded.
"Is anything going to replace Bruno's?"
"Maybe."
"Do you know what?"
"Six dollars and fifty cents, please," the man responded, sounding irritated.
Mike promptly handed the man six one-dollar bills and fifty cents even. He smiled. "Merry Christmas, Roy," he said.
The clerk responded by flipping the receipt with a mastered precision so that it somehow slapped Mike square in the forehead.
Mike flashed a silly grin in response and turned to leave. That was when he noticed her.
“Hey, Nicole! How’s it going?”
“Good, and you?” she responded.
“Well, got myself a Magic fix, and now I have to get home with the milk,” he said, picking the gallon container up from where he had put it on the counter whilst he had paid for his purchase. “What brings you here?”
“Picking up a present for someone,” she responded.
“I see,” Mike said.
“Hey, Mike?” Nicole asked warmly.
“No,” Mike said.
“You didn’t even know what I was going to ask,” Nicole pouted.
Mike grinned, and tipped his hat to her. “I have a pretty good idea. See you at the party tonight?”
“You bet. I invited a couple of friends, is that okay?”
“Yeah, it’s fine.” Mike opened the door.
“Bye, then,” Nicole said.
“Bye!” The door closed behind Mike as he began his trek home.
Nicole turned her attention to the other familiar face in the store, yet another Boy Scout from Troop 192. “Hey, Becker!” she called out to him.
Becker’s attention stayed upon the rack of comic books he was intently studying.
She walked up to him. Even when she had closed only half of the distance, she could clearly hear the music coming from his headphones.
She tapped him on the shoulder.
“HI, KIRSTIN!” Becker shouted after turning around.
Nicole frowned. She hated when people did that. “It’s Nicole, not Kirstin,” she told him.
"WHAT?”
“IT’S NICOLE, NOT…”
The clerk looked up from behind the counter. “Hey, keep it down in here,” he demanded.
“WHAT?” Becker said.
Suddenly, the sound coming from the headphones stopped.
Panic gripped Becker’s face. He pulled the CD player from his pocket and furiously stabbed at the“play” button. Nothing happened. He shook the player, and this produced the same response.
“Nooooooooooo!” Becker wailed.
Nicole smiled.
“Hey, Becker, you got any money on you?”
Becker paused from his weeping to nod an affirmative.
Nicole’s smile widened. She pulled from her pocket a fresh pocket of AA batteries. “Twenty bucks, and they’re yours,” Nicole told him.
Becker grabbed at the batteries like a drug-addict desperate for another hit. Nicole snatched the batteries away.
“Tisk, tisk. Money first, please.”
Becker pulled out his wallet and pulled out a crisp, new twenty dollar bill. Nicole deftly confiscated the bill and pocketed it, all in one swift, graceful motion. She then handed the batteries over into Becker’s greedy grasp.
Becker furiously tore into the package and inserted the new batteries into the CD player. A moment later, bliss filled his face as the loud noise once more emanated from his headphones.
Nicole smiled once more, satisfied.
“Pleasure doing business with you,” she told him.
“WHAT?”
She turned, her business with Becker done, and went up to the counter to buy what she had come in for. And to pay for it, she used a crisp, new twenty dollar bill.
"Again?" Aaron Abdowmassy asked, exasperated.
"Uh-huh," Kirstin said.
"We just did it!"
"But I need more."
He sighed. "I'm getting kind of tired."
"Already?"
"It was your idea to go in the long way!"
She looked down at him, pouting. "Please, Aaron?"
"Fine. But this is the last one, right?"
Kirstin smiled. "I promise it won't take long."
"Just back to Pembroke's and that's it?" he asked, looking around at all the other weary last-minute shoppers that were at the mall with them this morning. This time they were at Eastfield Mall, a much smaller mall, but being in Springfield it was also closer to home.
She nodded.
"Okay." Aaron hefted the two bags of gifts they'd bought for the party that night and stood up from the bench. "Let's go."
"Come on!" Kirstin called to him, ten steps ahead. She pranced away down the crowded pathway. Aaron eventually had to get up to a light jog to keep up.
“Thank you, and Happy Holidays,” John said as the proud owner of a new pair of shoes walked off into the Christmas-time mall crowd.
He wheeled away from the register and looked around. Somehow, thankfully, the shoe department wasn’t very busy today.
Just when he thought he’d get a bit of time to relax, however, a customer came over.
He was wearing a black trench-coat and fedora, and looked like he’d gotten little sleep.
“Hey, can you help me?”the man asked.
“Sure, what can I do for you?” John responded.
“I need a present for someone,” the man said. He scratched his head. “God, I haven’t got a clue what to get her!”
“See anything here you like?” John asked, trying to be helpful.
The man looked around.“I suppose everyone needs shoes, right?” He scratched his head some more.
“What size does she wear?” John asked.
The man scratched his head once again. “I don’t really know what size Sarah wears. Maybe I could ask Kirstin or Nicole?”
“Porter?” John asked.
The man nodded. “You know them?”
“Well, I know Nicole through my friend Jas.”
“Jason Bertovich?” the man asked. John nodded. “Yeah, I met him a couple of times,” the man admitted.“Well, I sort of met him… oh, never mind.”
“Well,” John said, “if you can’t think of anything else, how about a gift certificate? Then she can come and pick out anything she’d like.”
“No!” the man said forcefully. “Sorry,” he then added. “Just… I have to get her something perfect!”
With that, the man turned and walked away, seemingly a man on a mission.
“Last minute Christmas shoppers can be so weird,” John commented.
“I must be weird or something to have waited until the last minute like this,” Jason commented to himself. He deftly maneuvered through the crowd, his time past as a mall employee having given him a superior to normal skill at it.
He passed one poor chap in a black trench-coat and fedora who seemed to be flying any which way the crowd deemed fit to propel him. “Amateur,” Jason commented. If he could, he’d stop to help the man, but in this type of situation, stopping could be deadly. Jason said a silent prayer for the man (who seemed to have lost his fedora as he flew up into the air) as he moved on.
Having been distracted by the poor trench-coat clad man’s ordeal, Jason accidentally bumped into someone. Jason was alarmed to discover it to be Officer Stan Kelly.
"Hi, Officer. Sorry about that.”
“Oh, no problem,” the cop replied. “Hey, I remember you. Jason, right?”
“Yup,” Jason responded.“What brings you here, today?”
“Mall Security asked us if we could help out a bit. They were a little overwhelmed, today.”
Jason laughed. “They’re a little overwhelmed by a small crowd of those mall-wandering old ladies.”
“Now, we should respect mall security,” Stan responded. It was clear he was trying his best not to laugh at Jason’s comment. “Even if they are only rent-a-cops, and not the real thing,” Stan couldn’t help adding.
“Officer Stan, I’m shocked!” Jason said in mock-horror.
Stan shrugged. “So, what brings you here, today? Going to work?”
“Nah,” Jason responded.“Already off work. Don’t work at the mall, anymore. Got a better job.”
“Hey, good for you! So, what does bring you here?”
“Last minute shopping,”Jason said. “Need a gift for a special lady.”
“The same special lady who was visiting you in the hospital?”
“That’s the one,” Jason responded. “Any suggestions?”
“Damn it, Jason, I’m a State Trooper, not a love advice line,” Stan responded. “Wish I could help, but I don’t know much about that kind of thing. Sorry.”
“Well, I should get going, then,” Jason said, “before the vultures get all of the remaining good stuff. Thanks, anyways.”
“Good luck, Jason, and Merry Christmas!”
A few minutes later, Jason found himself passing a store he knew quite well… Electronics Boutique. He glanced in, and wasn’t entirely surprised to see all of the shelves were completely empty. Not a sausage remained.
Despite this, there were three people in the store, badgering the poor woman behind the counter.
“Don’t you have anything left?” one of the pasty faced teens asked her, pleadingly. “I’ve just gotta have that new game!”
“Sorry, we’re sold out of everything at the moment,” she told them.
"No fuckin' way!" the first teen shouted.
"Bull-fucking-shit!" the second added.
"Sonuva-fucking-bitch!" the third added.
Such lovely language, Jason thought to himself.
“You don’t have anything in the back room?” one of the teens said.
“No, I’m sorry,” the woman said. “You see, when I say we’re out of everything, that includes the back room. There is absolutely no merchandise in the store at the moment. I’m even sold out of Barney Battle Power.”
That was, of course, the worst fighting game ever conceived. Who wanted to play a fighting game where, instead of throwing punches and kicks, all you could do was give your opponent flowers and say, “I love you!”
"No fuckin' way!" the first teen shouted.
"Bull-fucking-shit!" the second added.
"Sonuva-fucking-bitch!" the third added.
They wandered out of the store to find another employee elsewhere in the mall to make miserable.
Jason wandered into the store. "Hey, Evadne," he said, waving to the woman behind the counter.
His former boss smiled upon seeing him. "Jason, hi!" she said. "Good to see you! How's my former best employee? Still can't talk you into coming back?"
"I don't have the word's 'gullible fool' stamped onto my forehead, now, do I?" Jason retorted good-naturedly.
The woman laughed. "Can't say as I blame you. Don't suppose there's any openings at your radio station, is there?"
"Nope, can't say that there are."
"Well, it was worth a shot," she responded. "So, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Christmas shopping. Need something for the last person on my list... and the most special person."
"Must be for Nicole," Evadne responded.
"You guessed it."
"Well, we're all out of financial software. All out of everything, actually."
A random thought occurred to Jason. "Did that game ever come in? ECWCWWF EXTREME THUNDEROUS ATITUDE II?"
"Oh, she into wrestling like you, then?"
"No, not really. Just curious. It always bugged me how that shipment never came, and no one could ever explain why."
Evadne shrugged. "Still not in. Go figure."
"So anyways," Jason asked, switching subjects again, "what exactly do women want?"
Of all the responses Jason could have hoped to get, laughter was not one of them. It was the one he did get, however. "Wow," she gasped between chuckles, wiping her eyes, "you sure can pick 'em, Jason. Why don't you just go ahead and ask me if there's life after death, or to work out pi to the millionth place in my head?"
Jason blinked.
"Okay, philosophy aside," Evadne said, "whatever you get Nicole, it's obviously got to be special, right?"
"That's it, exactly," Jason said. "I want to get her something that will show her how I feel, but something uniquely from me. Something beyond just a material possession."
"A dilemma."
"By definition."
"So you want to get her something that says, Something that says, 'This is for you, because you are special to me.'"
"Any ideas?"
"Sorry. None whatsoever," Evadne said. She checked her watch. "But, hey, you've got four and a half hours, yet."
Jason smiled. "Thanks."
"Neko-chan!" Nicole Porter cried, kneeling down to scoop the cat up off of the front step and into her arms. "I knew you'd be back!"
Neko-chan purred contentedly as Nicole held the cat close to her and scratched its head. She began talking to it in a silly baby voice, which she probably wouldn't have used if she had known that her pet could actually understand her. "We just have to keep a closer eye on you, don't we? Yes, we do!"
Nicole stepped back through the front door. "Come on," she continued to the purring feline, "let's go back inside."
Lina looked at herself in the mirror and smiled appreciatively. The dress she had decided to wear had been left by the apartment's former occupant, as had most of the possessions in the apartment. However, after she made some alterations to the dress, it fit quite nicely on her smaller frame.
She smiled again. Tonight, at the party, she'd meet John. Things were definitely going according to plan.
John wheeled about his apartment making a few hasty last minute preparations before the van arrived to bring him to the party. On the CD he was listening to as he did this, one song ended and another began.
As the music started, maniacal laughter filled the room. With disgust, John realized what song it was. "The Conqueror Jinnai." He wheeled over to his CD player and changed the track, hoping that "Little Flower" might calm him back down.
"Going somewhere? A party, perhaps?" a voice called out.
John froze. He'd been hoping that it hadn't been real, that it had only been a dream. He had been hoping that they weren't back. However, he was quite awake now, and he had heard the voice. There was no one else present that he could see, but that voice could only belong to Jinnai-John.
"What's it to you?" John angrily answered.
"We should go with you," the voice responded. "You'll probably need us."
"No! I can do this myself! I don't need you!"
"You seem to fail to understand that we are a part of you. You should be honored to have me as part of you!" The voice broke into laughter much like that that had been coming from the CD player moments before.
"No! I don't need you! I can handle this evening by myself!"
"If you are so certain, then we shall see," a new voice said. It was Shinji-John. "You'll be free of us for the rest of the evening," he assured John, "and tomorrow we'll discuss how you did." He paused. "Are you sure you won't change your mind? We do only want to help."
"Just leave me alone!" John demanded. "Do you hear me? I DON'T NEED YOU!"
Silence was John's only response.
But all that was unimportant to John Hoelscher, because he was sitting in a folding metal chair in the middle of an empty, windowless room. The only light in the room was in the form of a single shaft of light, coming from an unseen source, that shone down directly upon him.
“Why am I here?” John asked. “Why now? I thought I was done with this!”
Another shaft of light suddenly came on, illuminating a figure facing him, sitting in a similar chair a few feet in front of him. It was Shinji-John.
“Hello, John,”Shinji-John said.
“Why have you come back?” John asked, nervously. “I thought you had already had your fun with me!”
“Don’t worry, John,”Shinji-John told him. “I’m not here to punish you again. You have more then paid for your crime in full.”
John tilted his head slightly, confused. “Why are you here?” he asked.
“I’m here because… we miss you, John. We need you to exist. And also because we’ve been a part of you so long that you’ll eventually find that you need us to exist, too. We can be very useful, you see. I, of course, am the original you. You need me to be true to yourself.”
Another shaft of light came into being directly behind and to the left of Shinji-John, illuminating Touga-John, standing there silently. “You need him,” Shinji-John continued, “to be comfortable in social situations.”
A fourth shaft came on, this one directly behind and to the right of Shinji-John, illuminating a silently standing Jinnai-John. “And you need him when the situation calls for assertiveness, directness, and other such qualities.”
“I think I’ve been getting on fine these past few months without you,” John told them.
“Did you ever watch the original Star Trek TV series?” Shinji-John asked.
“What? Of course. Why?”
“Do you remember that episode when the transporter split Captain Kirk into two halves? The good Kirk and the evil Kirk?”
“Yes, why?” John asked. Then he realized, “The good Kirk found that he couldn’t survive without the evil Kirk. Many of the qualities that made him who he was were in the evil Kirk.”
“Exactly,” Shinji-John said. “The good Kirk needed the evil Kirk to survive, but he had to temper the qualities of the evil Kirk with those found in the good Kirk.”
“So what are you saying?” John asked.
“I’m saying that you need us to survive. You need the qualities found in those two, but you also need me to temper them and help you remain true to yourself, so things don’t get out of control like they did in High School.”
“No!” John suddenly shouted.“No! I don’t need you! I am my own man!”
And with that, he disappeared.
“Where do you think he went?” Touga-John asked.
“I think he woke up,”Shinji-John responded. “Have patience, he’ll come around eventually. He has to.”
“Yes, of course he does!” Jinnai-John decreed as he began a bought of maniacal laughter.
John bolted upright and looked around. He was back in his apartment. He covered his face with his hands for a moment and rubbed at his eyes.
He glanced at his clock.Shit, he thought, must have forgotten to set the alarm. He had meant to set it for ten, as he had to work at noon, but he was sure that a half-hour’s extra sleep wouldn’t make him late.
He rolled over and pulled his chair closer to the bed, and then dumped himself into the chair. Off he then went to get ready for the day.
By himself.
He was his own man.
Jason had to work, too. Radio stations didn’t exactly close for Christmas. He did have the day off, tomorrow, and he had an early day today… but of course, that just meant more work in less time.
Well, beats the Christmas rush at the ol’ EB, he thought, and he was instantly much happier about his current situation.
“Hey, Jason, the boss was wondering if you’d look these over and get them ready for broadcast,” a woman said, dropping a not-quite-thin stack of papers on the desk in front of him.
Better then EB, he told himself again. Once again, it worked. It always did. He then looked up at the person who had brought him the work. He didn’t have to look up far, however.
She was a petite woman. Even though she was twenty, he could easily mistake her for younger. She had a girlish glow of innocence about her, her eyes seemed to sparkle, and her long, black hair seemed to move with a mind of it’s own whenever she made the slightest motion. Whenever he looked at her, Jason thought that, except for her normal looking ears, she’d make the perfect elf.
“Oh, hi, Lina!” he said.“I’m glad I ran into you. I’ve been invited to a party tonight, and was wondering if you’d like to go.”
“A party, eh?” She laughed. “Wouldn’t that nice gal of yours get mad if you went off to a party with someone else?”
“Oh, no!” Jason answered, waving his hands defensively. “Nothing like that. She’s the one who invited me, and suggested bringing you along. That guy I told you about will probably be there, too.”
“Oh, John?” Lina asked.“I’d love to meet him. From what you said, he sounds like a real fun guy.”
“He’s not any kind of mushroom,” Jason responded. He immediately regretted his really bad joke.
Lina, however, laughed. The laugh seemed genuine, too. “That’s a good one, Jason! Fun guy… fungi!” She laughed some more, and it had a very nice sound.
Jason smiled. “Well, if you’re interested, it’s in Springfield, the Church in the Acres, around six o’clock.”
“I’ll be there!” she said brightly, walking away.
Jason rubbed his eyes. He must have been seeing things. For a moment, he’d have sworn she’d been gliding…
Nicole Porter walked into Card and Comic and looked around. She noticed a couple of familiar people in the store, one of them standing at the counter. He was looking towards her direction, but hadn’t noticed her. He instead seemed fixated on the store next door.
"Hey! Bruno's Pizza is gone!" Mike Qaudrozzi said.
"Yep," the man behind the counter responded.
"Is anything going to replace Bruno's?"
"Maybe."
"Do you know what?"
"Six dollars and fifty cents, please," the man responded, sounding irritated.
Mike promptly handed the man six one-dollar bills and fifty cents even. He smiled. "Merry Christmas, Roy," he said.
The clerk responded by flipping the receipt with a mastered precision so that it somehow slapped Mike square in the forehead.
Mike flashed a silly grin in response and turned to leave. That was when he noticed her.
“Hey, Nicole! How’s it going?”
“Good, and you?” she responded.
“Well, got myself a Magic fix, and now I have to get home with the milk,” he said, picking the gallon container up from where he had put it on the counter whilst he had paid for his purchase. “What brings you here?”
“Picking up a present for someone,” she responded.
“I see,” Mike said.
“Hey, Mike?” Nicole asked warmly.
“No,” Mike said.
“You didn’t even know what I was going to ask,” Nicole pouted.
Mike grinned, and tipped his hat to her. “I have a pretty good idea. See you at the party tonight?”
“You bet. I invited a couple of friends, is that okay?”
“Yeah, it’s fine.” Mike opened the door.
“Bye, then,” Nicole said.
“Bye!” The door closed behind Mike as he began his trek home.
Nicole turned her attention to the other familiar face in the store, yet another Boy Scout from Troop 192. “Hey, Becker!” she called out to him.
Becker’s attention stayed upon the rack of comic books he was intently studying.
She walked up to him. Even when she had closed only half of the distance, she could clearly hear the music coming from his headphones.
She tapped him on the shoulder.
“HI, KIRSTIN!” Becker shouted after turning around.
Nicole frowned. She hated when people did that. “It’s Nicole, not Kirstin,” she told him.
"WHAT?”
“IT’S NICOLE, NOT…”
The clerk looked up from behind the counter. “Hey, keep it down in here,” he demanded.
“WHAT?” Becker said.
Suddenly, the sound coming from the headphones stopped.
Panic gripped Becker’s face. He pulled the CD player from his pocket and furiously stabbed at the“play” button. Nothing happened. He shook the player, and this produced the same response.
“Nooooooooooo!” Becker wailed.
Nicole smiled.
“Hey, Becker, you got any money on you?”
Becker paused from his weeping to nod an affirmative.
Nicole’s smile widened. She pulled from her pocket a fresh pocket of AA batteries. “Twenty bucks, and they’re yours,” Nicole told him.
Becker grabbed at the batteries like a drug-addict desperate for another hit. Nicole snatched the batteries away.
“Tisk, tisk. Money first, please.”
Becker pulled out his wallet and pulled out a crisp, new twenty dollar bill. Nicole deftly confiscated the bill and pocketed it, all in one swift, graceful motion. She then handed the batteries over into Becker’s greedy grasp.
Becker furiously tore into the package and inserted the new batteries into the CD player. A moment later, bliss filled his face as the loud noise once more emanated from his headphones.
Nicole smiled once more, satisfied.
“Pleasure doing business with you,” she told him.
“WHAT?”
She turned, her business with Becker done, and went up to the counter to buy what she had come in for. And to pay for it, she used a crisp, new twenty dollar bill.
"Again?" Aaron Abdowmassy asked, exasperated.
"Uh-huh," Kirstin said.
"We just did it!"
"But I need more."
He sighed. "I'm getting kind of tired."
"Already?"
"It was your idea to go in the long way!"
She looked down at him, pouting. "Please, Aaron?"
"Fine. But this is the last one, right?"
Kirstin smiled. "I promise it won't take long."
"Just back to Pembroke's and that's it?" he asked, looking around at all the other weary last-minute shoppers that were at the mall with them this morning. This time they were at Eastfield Mall, a much smaller mall, but being in Springfield it was also closer to home.
She nodded.
"Okay." Aaron hefted the two bags of gifts they'd bought for the party that night and stood up from the bench. "Let's go."
"Come on!" Kirstin called to him, ten steps ahead. She pranced away down the crowded pathway. Aaron eventually had to get up to a light jog to keep up.
“Thank you, and Happy Holidays,” John said as the proud owner of a new pair of shoes walked off into the Christmas-time mall crowd.
He wheeled away from the register and looked around. Somehow, thankfully, the shoe department wasn’t very busy today.
Just when he thought he’d get a bit of time to relax, however, a customer came over.
He was wearing a black trench-coat and fedora, and looked like he’d gotten little sleep.
“Hey, can you help me?”the man asked.
“Sure, what can I do for you?” John responded.
“I need a present for someone,” the man said. He scratched his head. “God, I haven’t got a clue what to get her!”
“See anything here you like?” John asked, trying to be helpful.
The man looked around.“I suppose everyone needs shoes, right?” He scratched his head some more.
“What size does she wear?” John asked.
The man scratched his head once again. “I don’t really know what size Sarah wears. Maybe I could ask Kirstin or Nicole?”
“Porter?” John asked.
The man nodded. “You know them?”
“Well, I know Nicole through my friend Jas.”
“Jason Bertovich?” the man asked. John nodded. “Yeah, I met him a couple of times,” the man admitted.“Well, I sort of met him… oh, never mind.”
“Well,” John said, “if you can’t think of anything else, how about a gift certificate? Then she can come and pick out anything she’d like.”
“No!” the man said forcefully. “Sorry,” he then added. “Just… I have to get her something perfect!”
With that, the man turned and walked away, seemingly a man on a mission.
“Last minute Christmas shoppers can be so weird,” John commented.
“I must be weird or something to have waited until the last minute like this,” Jason commented to himself. He deftly maneuvered through the crowd, his time past as a mall employee having given him a superior to normal skill at it.
He passed one poor chap in a black trench-coat and fedora who seemed to be flying any which way the crowd deemed fit to propel him. “Amateur,” Jason commented. If he could, he’d stop to help the man, but in this type of situation, stopping could be deadly. Jason said a silent prayer for the man (who seemed to have lost his fedora as he flew up into the air) as he moved on.
Having been distracted by the poor trench-coat clad man’s ordeal, Jason accidentally bumped into someone. Jason was alarmed to discover it to be Officer Stan Kelly.
"Hi, Officer. Sorry about that.”
“Oh, no problem,” the cop replied. “Hey, I remember you. Jason, right?”
“Yup,” Jason responded.“What brings you here, today?”
“Mall Security asked us if we could help out a bit. They were a little overwhelmed, today.”
Jason laughed. “They’re a little overwhelmed by a small crowd of those mall-wandering old ladies.”
“Now, we should respect mall security,” Stan responded. It was clear he was trying his best not to laugh at Jason’s comment. “Even if they are only rent-a-cops, and not the real thing,” Stan couldn’t help adding.
“Officer Stan, I’m shocked!” Jason said in mock-horror.
Stan shrugged. “So, what brings you here, today? Going to work?”
“Nah,” Jason responded.“Already off work. Don’t work at the mall, anymore. Got a better job.”
“Hey, good for you! So, what does bring you here?”
“Last minute shopping,”Jason said. “Need a gift for a special lady.”
“The same special lady who was visiting you in the hospital?”
“That’s the one,” Jason responded. “Any suggestions?”
“Damn it, Jason, I’m a State Trooper, not a love advice line,” Stan responded. “Wish I could help, but I don’t know much about that kind of thing. Sorry.”
“Well, I should get going, then,” Jason said, “before the vultures get all of the remaining good stuff. Thanks, anyways.”
“Good luck, Jason, and Merry Christmas!”
A few minutes later, Jason found himself passing a store he knew quite well… Electronics Boutique. He glanced in, and wasn’t entirely surprised to see all of the shelves were completely empty. Not a sausage remained.
Despite this, there were three people in the store, badgering the poor woman behind the counter.
“Don’t you have anything left?” one of the pasty faced teens asked her, pleadingly. “I’ve just gotta have that new game!”
“Sorry, we’re sold out of everything at the moment,” she told them.
"No fuckin' way!" the first teen shouted.
"Bull-fucking-shit!" the second added.
"Sonuva-fucking-bitch!" the third added.
Such lovely language, Jason thought to himself.
“You don’t have anything in the back room?” one of the teens said.
“No, I’m sorry,” the woman said. “You see, when I say we’re out of everything, that includes the back room. There is absolutely no merchandise in the store at the moment. I’m even sold out of Barney Battle Power.”
That was, of course, the worst fighting game ever conceived. Who wanted to play a fighting game where, instead of throwing punches and kicks, all you could do was give your opponent flowers and say, “I love you!”
"No fuckin' way!" the first teen shouted.
"Bull-fucking-shit!" the second added.
"Sonuva-fucking-bitch!" the third added.
They wandered out of the store to find another employee elsewhere in the mall to make miserable.
Jason wandered into the store. "Hey, Evadne," he said, waving to the woman behind the counter.
His former boss smiled upon seeing him. "Jason, hi!" she said. "Good to see you! How's my former best employee? Still can't talk you into coming back?"
"I don't have the word's 'gullible fool' stamped onto my forehead, now, do I?" Jason retorted good-naturedly.
The woman laughed. "Can't say as I blame you. Don't suppose there's any openings at your radio station, is there?"
"Nope, can't say that there are."
"Well, it was worth a shot," she responded. "So, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Christmas shopping. Need something for the last person on my list... and the most special person."
"Must be for Nicole," Evadne responded.
"You guessed it."
"Well, we're all out of financial software. All out of everything, actually."
A random thought occurred to Jason. "Did that game ever come in? ECWCWWF EXTREME THUNDEROUS ATITUDE II?"
"Oh, she into wrestling like you, then?"
"No, not really. Just curious. It always bugged me how that shipment never came, and no one could ever explain why."
Evadne shrugged. "Still not in. Go figure."
"So anyways," Jason asked, switching subjects again, "what exactly do women want?"
Of all the responses Jason could have hoped to get, laughter was not one of them. It was the one he did get, however. "Wow," she gasped between chuckles, wiping her eyes, "you sure can pick 'em, Jason. Why don't you just go ahead and ask me if there's life after death, or to work out pi to the millionth place in my head?"
Jason blinked.
"Okay, philosophy aside," Evadne said, "whatever you get Nicole, it's obviously got to be special, right?"
"That's it, exactly," Jason said. "I want to get her something that will show her how I feel, but something uniquely from me. Something beyond just a material possession."
"A dilemma."
"By definition."
"So you want to get her something that says, Something that says, 'This is for you, because you are special to me.'"
"Any ideas?"
"Sorry. None whatsoever," Evadne said. She checked her watch. "But, hey, you've got four and a half hours, yet."
Jason smiled. "Thanks."
"Neko-chan!" Nicole Porter cried, kneeling down to scoop the cat up off of the front step and into her arms. "I knew you'd be back!"
Neko-chan purred contentedly as Nicole held the cat close to her and scratched its head. She began talking to it in a silly baby voice, which she probably wouldn't have used if she had known that her pet could actually understand her. "We just have to keep a closer eye on you, don't we? Yes, we do!"
Nicole stepped back through the front door. "Come on," she continued to the purring feline, "let's go back inside."
Lina looked at herself in the mirror and smiled appreciatively. The dress she had decided to wear had been left by the apartment's former occupant, as had most of the possessions in the apartment. However, after she made some alterations to the dress, it fit quite nicely on her smaller frame.
She smiled again. Tonight, at the party, she'd meet John. Things were definitely going according to plan.
John wheeled about his apartment making a few hasty last minute preparations before the van arrived to bring him to the party. On the CD he was listening to as he did this, one song ended and another began.
As the music started, maniacal laughter filled the room. With disgust, John realized what song it was. "The Conqueror Jinnai." He wheeled over to his CD player and changed the track, hoping that "Little Flower" might calm him back down.
"Going somewhere? A party, perhaps?" a voice called out.
John froze. He'd been hoping that it hadn't been real, that it had only been a dream. He had been hoping that they weren't back. However, he was quite awake now, and he had heard the voice. There was no one else present that he could see, but that voice could only belong to Jinnai-John.
"What's it to you?" John angrily answered.
"We should go with you," the voice responded. "You'll probably need us."
"No! I can do this myself! I don't need you!"
"You seem to fail to understand that we are a part of you. You should be honored to have me as part of you!" The voice broke into laughter much like that that had been coming from the CD player moments before.
"No! I don't need you! I can handle this evening by myself!"
"If you are so certain, then we shall see," a new voice said. It was Shinji-John. "You'll be free of us for the rest of the evening," he assured John, "and tomorrow we'll discuss how you did." He paused. "Are you sure you won't change your mind? We do only want to help."
"Just leave me alone!" John demanded. "Do you hear me? I DON'T NEED YOU!"
Silence was John's only response.
Chapter Three: Party Perspectives
6:07 PM. 24 December 1997.
The Church in the Acres stood, starkly silhouetted against the darkening evening sky, and let the cars speed by on Wilbraham Road. The only lights on in the building were the ones in the main hall, which had been turned on by Matt Atanian who'd gotten there early. That had been over half an hour, ago, and inside the church’s main hall the party was beginning.
As Jason stepped from his car, he observed a large white van pulling into the church’s parking lot. Jason walked over to the van and greeted John as his friend was lowered out of the vehicle and onto the ground.
“Glad you could make it, John,” Jason said.
“Yeah, nice to be out for a change.” John hadn’t gotten out much in the last few months. “Where’s Nicole?”
“She’s coming with her sisters,” Jason told his friend. “I don’t think she’s here yet. I don’t notice Lina’s car, either. Shall we go in?”
John hesitated, nervous for some reason. What are you worried about? he asked himself. You’ve been to parties before! Go on! Have fun!
“John, you okay?”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
The two friends made their way up the ramp to the double doors. When they got there, Jason opened them and they went in.
They looked around.
There was already a sizable crowd there, many of them in Boy Scout uniforms. Obviously, many of those affiliated with the Troop must have arrived early.
A bitter looking old man pushed his way past John and Jason, and was then almost run over by a midget-sized Boy Scout who was acting like he had just eaten a pound of sugar.“Jesus H. Chrysler!” the man exclaimed. He then turned to a crock-pot bearing woman beside him, probably his wife, and started barking orders to her.
“Nice crowd,” John mused.
“I’m sure they’re not all bad,” Jason responded. “Nicole speaks fondly of some of… Jesus H. Chrysler!!”
“What is it?” John asked. Jason pointed at what had inspired his sudden outburst. “Wow,” John then said upon noticing the papier-mâché constructions at the front of the hall.“Those have got to be the second biggest candy canes I have ever seen.”
The two large candy canes towered to either side of the stage, and huge Christmas wreaths lined the walls. Of to one side was a large tree which was still being decorated with festive thingies and doodads.
“Hi, welcome to the party!” a man said, walking over.
Jason had a sudden feeling of deja vu upon seeing the man, as if he had met him before in some half-forgotten memory struggling to stay buried. The Other… the other what? Jason struggled to remember, but the harder he tried the less he could recall. Never mind.
“Hi,” Jason said.
“Hey, Jason,” the man responded.
“Do I know you?”
The man started to respond, but then hesitated. Finely, he said, “No, actually, but I know Nicole. Name’s Matthew Atanian.” He turned to John. “Didn’t I see you at Filene’s earlier?”
John nodded.
"Well, welcome to the party, again. Please enjoy yourself,” he said. He then noticed someone else who had just entered.
“Oh, excuse me,” Matt said, walking off. A moment later, in delighted surprise, he called out,“Colin!”
John looked to Jason.“Sure are… a lot of people… huh?”
“You okay, John?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Well, okay,” Jason said. “You just don’t seem yourself. You’re usually the life of the party.”
“Well… haven’t been out in a while, you know? Give me a few minutes, I’ll be okay.”
“Sure,” Jason said. “You need anything, though, you let me know.”
John was about to respond when a voice called out, “Hey! Want me to help you light it?"
A tall Boy Scout with longish hair, wearing camouflaged fatigues with his Scout uniform rather then official BSA pants, ran eagerly towards the tree, which was nearly done being decorated. He was hungrily holding a zippo lighter. A moment later, there was a bit of excitement as those who had toiled to decorate the tree then had to extinguish it.
Things seemed to move in slow motion for a split second as Lina Wells joined the party. She walked over to Jason and John, her face full with a warm smile. “Hi, Jason,” she said.“This your friend?”
“John Hoelscher, meet Lina Wells,” Jason said in introduction.
“Um, hi,” John said, timidly.
Lina smiled at him.“You’re cute,” she said.
John just sat in his wheelchair, unsure what to say in response.
Lina flashed him a smile.
“N… nice to meet you,”John said. “Um, hi.”
“Nice to meet you, too,”Lina responded. “Jason’s told me a lot about you.”
Jason looked at John with concern.
“I’m sorry,” John said,“could you excuse me a moment?” With that, he wheeled away.
Jason turned to Lina.“I’m sorry,” he apologized, “John’s not usually like that. He’s seemed a bit different ever since the accident.”
“No need to explain,”Lina said. “I’m sure he just needs time to get to know me, then everything will be peachy keen.”
“I hope so,” Jason responded. “I’ve been worried about him.”
“Well,” Lina told him,“you never know what’ll happen. If you’ll excuse me, Jas, I think I’ll get some punch.”
Lina disappeared into the crowd.
A moment later, a pair of hands came from behind Jason and closed themselves over his eyes. “Merry Christmas,” someone said in a bouncy voice. “Guess who!”
Jason turned around quicker then he could have thought possible. Shock, amazement, and happiness simultaneously crowded his expression.
“Fenny!” he exclaimed.
“None other,” she proclaimed.
“God, I’ve been worried sick about you! Where’ve you been?”
Fenny smiled. “Didn’t I tell you?”
“No, you didn’t,” Jason told her. “Your cryptic post card said nothing about where you were. Not even a post-mark on it to give any clue where it was mailed from.”
“I can’t remember exactly what I wrote,” Fenny confessed. “What did it say?”
Some logical part of Jason’s mind noted something peculiar about this conversation, but his joy at seeing his friend alive and safe made him ignore it and continue. “Just that you were safe with family, and I shouldn’t worry about you. You said you’d tell me more, except you didn’t want to put me in danger. Fenny, what happened to you?”
“Oh, is John here?”Fenny asked. “I have to see him, too!”
“Um, yeah,” Jason responded, confused. “He’s off over that way, somewhere.”
“Thanks! Bye, Jason-honey!”
Fenny disappeared into the crowd.
“Fenny, wait!”
“Punch?”
Jason turned around.“What?”
Lina held out a glass to him. “Did you want some punch? I thought I’d get you a cup, too. Who was that you were talking to? Was that the famous Nicole I hope to meet this evening?”
“No, that was…” Jason turned to try and spot her, but she had completely disappeared into the crowd.“Fenny,” he listlessly said.
John was sitting by himself in a corner of the hall, watching the party proceed without him. He sighed.
“You there! Crippled peon!”
John looked up as a self-important looking Boy Scout approached him. “Do you mean me?” John asked.
“Do you see any other cripples here? Well, physically crippled, that is! You are all crippled mentally, compared to me!” he decreed. He began to laugh maniacally.
John just sat quietly until the laughter subsided some time later. “Did you… did you want something, sir?” he then asked.
The scout smiled. “Ah,”he commented. “Respect, coupled with a healthy dose of fear. I like you.”
John waited for the scout to come to his point.
“You haven’t seen a speech lying about anywhere, have you?” he asked finely. He held his hands about a foot apart. “About so thick?”
“I’m sorry, I haven’t,”John admitted.
“Well, then, have you seen my worthless assistant? He is supposed to be looking for it!”
“I’m sorry, I haven’t,”John repeated. He did wish the boy would leave him alone, but he couldn’t work up the courage to tell him so.
“Humph,” the boy said. John was immediately disregarded by him, as he stormed off. “Proctor! Where are you with my speech!” he said as he moved away.
The Porters joined the party soon after, stepping in from the cold night. Kirstin soon made her way towards Aaron and the others, and Nicole, with Neko-chan purring contentedly in her folded arms, flitted from conversation to conversation. Sarah Porter took off her hat and gloves in favor of an
appropriate holiday smile, which she wore as if under duress.
"WHAT'S WITH THE CAT?" Becker asked Nicole at a couple hundred decibels.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, there aren't many other pets here tonight," Mike said.
"But he's just the life of the party now," Nicole said, and nuzzled Neko-chan, who continued to purr as if purring was about to be made a federal crime, punishable by hanging and a $5000 fine billed to the estate of the deceased.
Kenny Pendrell spoke without looking up from his book. "It's been suggested by leading minds in the medical field that pets actually lower the blood pressure of their owners considerably."
The others looked at him.
Mike looked at Neko-chan.
Neko-chan looked back, daring him with feline arrogance.
"So, how have all of you guys been, lately," Nicole asked. "How's Matt?"
Mike shrugged. "We're fine," he said. He looked around. "Come to think of it, where did Matt get off to?"
“Our host?” Jason said, walking over. “Haven’t seen him for a while.”
“Jason!” Nicole exclaimed delightedly. “You made it!”
“I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” Jason told her.
“WHAT?” Becker exclaimed.
Neko-chan hissed an Jason. “Hey, you ever get the cat… um… you know…” Jason whispered to Nicole.
“Um… well… I never seem to have the time,” Nicole responded. “On those rare occasions when I might have made the time, it seems like he knows what I’m planning and he disappears.”
“If you want, I could take him to the vet some time,” Jason offered.
Neko-chan’s hissing intensified, now accompanied by growling.
Mike smiled. “Want me to take him for a while?” he offered.
Nicole passed the cat over to Mike. “Thanks,” she said.
If you were to look at the cat then, you’d almost think he was frowning.
Jason smiled at Nicole.“Would you gentlemen,” he said, addressing the others, “mind if I borrowed the lovely Miss Porter for a while?”
“Be our guest,” Mike told him.
Jason held out his arm, which Nicole gladly took as they walked off together.
The double doors were thrown wide open, and the partygoers of 192 saw a young Asian man dressed in yellow walk into the hall. An umbrella poked from the pack on his back. The bandanna he wore around his forehead was also yellow.
The figure slumped on the threshold, obviously worn out from some journey or another. "Akane!" he cried, suddenly full of energy. "I'm here! I made it, I…"
The young man glanced around the room and came to the conclusion that of all the people who were staring back at him, he knew no one.
"Oh," he said darkly. "Sorry." He turned to leave.
"Hey, wait!" Someone called.
The man looked back and faced Kirstin Porter as she walked towards him. "You look tired," she said. "Want some punch?"
The Asian man was utterly surprised. "Um... sure." He smiled. "Thank you."
“Hey, John.”
“F… Fenny?” John stuttered. “Is it really you?”
“Nah, of course not,”Fenny said.
“Don’t joke around,”John said. He grinned. “Fenny, I can’t believe it’s you! I’ve missed you.”
“I missed you, too,”Fenny told him. “I just had to see you and Jas for Christmas, so I had to come.”
“Where’ve you been?”John asked her.
“You don’t know?”
“No, of course not,”John told her. “You were already gone when I came back from… from Ohio,” he said, “and Jason never said where you were. I got the feeling he didn’t know anything.”
Fenny smiled. “Hey, John, you know what?”
“What?”
“I met this girl, friend of Jason’s. Lina something. I think she likes you.”
John blushed. “I doubt it,” he told her.
“Oh, come on now,” she said. “Would the bouncy one lie about something like that? I think you should definitely get to know her better. What do you say, will you give it a shot? For me?”
Slowly, the annual Troop 192 Christmas Party was winding to a close, and so came the merriest part of the evening, the present swap.
Everyone who had attended the party had been required to show up with a small gift, which was to be swapped at random in the traditional fashion. Of course, there were always a few gifts that turned out to not be so random at all.
"Oh, piffle," Justy Yung said upon the disappointment of realizing his speech would not be delivered to his mass of followers.
"We were all looking forward to it, Captain," Proctor told him. Proctor meant it, although in actuality he had been the only one who had looked forward to it. "If it's any consolation, Merry Christmas, sir." He handed Justy a small gift-wrapped package in the shape of a stick.
Justy snatched the package and tore it open. "What's this?" he asked, holding the stick in his hand. It was about a foot long, black and had a leather strap at one end.
"It's a sort of baton, Captain…"
"I know what it is!" Justy interrupted, smacking his assistant over the head with his new toy. He admired the object and its potential for dispensing pain and subversion.
"Thank you, Proctor," he said. "How thoughtful."
Proctor rubbed his head. "You're welcome, Captain."
Most of the other gift swapping was not as exciting. Many of the items were simply small doodads or gift certificates to the cinema or a local restaurant. Mike Quadrozzi opened his gift and found a small sign, made of the same material as dry erase boards. Its use completely escaped him, and most likely it had escaped whoever had been desperate enough to bring such a thing as a gift, too. Elsewhere, Kirstin Porter shared a meaningful look with Aaron after receiving a cute knitted Christmas sweater with reindeer and things on it from an anonymous person.
Elsewhere still, Matt Swett turned around after unwrapping the jar of peanut butter he himself had donated to the gift-swap in the first place to come face to face with a man dressed in the distinctive dark brown khakis of the United Parcel Service.
"Good evening," the UPS Guy said.
"Hey, how you doing," Swett replied.
"So where would you like the order?"
"What?"
UPS Guy indicated the cardboard box near his feet. He consulted his clipboard. "Er... a shipment of ECWCWWF EXTREME THUNDEROUS ATTITUDE II. Can you sign for it?"
Matt Swett hardly blinked before he smiled and reached for the man's pen. "Why, of course, my good man."
Jason observed this and almost walked over to say something to the UPS Guy, but a tug on his arm convinced him that his attention was needed elsewhere. “Come on,” Nicole told him. “I got you something.”
Nicole led him out to the front lawn, hoping to get some privacy. A few yards away stood another couple. She briefly noted with amusement that it was her older sister with Matt Atanian. I thought she despised him? she thought. She quickly filed that bit of info away, however, to concentrate on the matters at hand.
She handed a gift wrapped package to Jason. From the size of it, it was clearly a video cassette. He smiled as he tore into the package. He had a good idea what it was… and yes it was!
“The new Evangelion tape! Just what I wanted!” Jason smiled. “Thanks, Nicole!”
“You’re welcome,” she told him. “So…?”
“Huh? Oh!” Jason fumbled around in his pocket for a moment, and then pulled out a small, simply wrapped package.
“What is it,” Nicole said, examining it with a critical eye. “A diamond ring?”
“Not quite,” Jason told her, “but I hope you like it, anyways.”
She saw that Jason was watching her intently, and she began unwrapping the present. After removing the simple wrapping, she regarded the small object she held in her hand.
Nicole slowly smiled. "Oh, Jason," she said softly. "This is... perfect. Thank you."
She leaned close to him and kissed him softly on the cheek.
Inside, standing next to John, Fenny was looking out of the window at Jason and Nicole. She smiled slightly, and snapped her fingers.
As Nicole pulled her lips away from Jason, a single, tiny snowflake fell from the sky, dancing in the bitter wind before it landed on the church lawn.
"Look, everyone!" A voice called from behind them, "it's snowing!"
The two of them looked, and indeed snow was beginning to come down around them. It looked like they were to have a White Christmas, after all.
Everyone from the party rushed outside onto the church’s front lawn. Boy Scouts and the other guests alike laughed and frolicked as the pure white powder floated down from the stars above.
“Fenny, isn’t it beautiful?” John asked as he pulled his chair to a halt. When no response was forthcoming, he turned around. “Fenny?” Funny, she was right there a moment ago, John pondered.
“Hey, stranger.”
John turned again. It was Lina. “Oh, um… hi,” he said.
“Mind if I join you to watch the snow fall?” she asked.
“Not at, um… not at all,” John told her.
She laughed, her laughter mingling with the falling snow and the joyful shouts and cries of the others to form a sweet cacophony of holiday cheer.
Nicole and Jason approached the pair, as did Aaron Abdowmassy and Kirstin. Kirstin was snug in her new sweater. Matt Atanian soon joined them as well, as did Sarah, who was not quite as hostile towards Matt as she usually was.
And for the rest of the evening, they truly had a merry time.
As Jason stepped from his car, he observed a large white van pulling into the church’s parking lot. Jason walked over to the van and greeted John as his friend was lowered out of the vehicle and onto the ground.
“Glad you could make it, John,” Jason said.
“Yeah, nice to be out for a change.” John hadn’t gotten out much in the last few months. “Where’s Nicole?”
“She’s coming with her sisters,” Jason told his friend. “I don’t think she’s here yet. I don’t notice Lina’s car, either. Shall we go in?”
John hesitated, nervous for some reason. What are you worried about? he asked himself. You’ve been to parties before! Go on! Have fun!
“John, you okay?”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
The two friends made their way up the ramp to the double doors. When they got there, Jason opened them and they went in.
They looked around.
There was already a sizable crowd there, many of them in Boy Scout uniforms. Obviously, many of those affiliated with the Troop must have arrived early.
A bitter looking old man pushed his way past John and Jason, and was then almost run over by a midget-sized Boy Scout who was acting like he had just eaten a pound of sugar.“Jesus H. Chrysler!” the man exclaimed. He then turned to a crock-pot bearing woman beside him, probably his wife, and started barking orders to her.
“Nice crowd,” John mused.
“I’m sure they’re not all bad,” Jason responded. “Nicole speaks fondly of some of… Jesus H. Chrysler!!”
“What is it?” John asked. Jason pointed at what had inspired his sudden outburst. “Wow,” John then said upon noticing the papier-mâché constructions at the front of the hall.“Those have got to be the second biggest candy canes I have ever seen.”
The two large candy canes towered to either side of the stage, and huge Christmas wreaths lined the walls. Of to one side was a large tree which was still being decorated with festive thingies and doodads.
“Hi, welcome to the party!” a man said, walking over.
Jason had a sudden feeling of deja vu upon seeing the man, as if he had met him before in some half-forgotten memory struggling to stay buried. The Other… the other what? Jason struggled to remember, but the harder he tried the less he could recall. Never mind.
“Hi,” Jason said.
“Hey, Jason,” the man responded.
“Do I know you?”
The man started to respond, but then hesitated. Finely, he said, “No, actually, but I know Nicole. Name’s Matthew Atanian.” He turned to John. “Didn’t I see you at Filene’s earlier?”
John nodded.
"Well, welcome to the party, again. Please enjoy yourself,” he said. He then noticed someone else who had just entered.
“Oh, excuse me,” Matt said, walking off. A moment later, in delighted surprise, he called out,“Colin!”
John looked to Jason.“Sure are… a lot of people… huh?”
“You okay, John?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Well, okay,” Jason said. “You just don’t seem yourself. You’re usually the life of the party.”
“Well… haven’t been out in a while, you know? Give me a few minutes, I’ll be okay.”
“Sure,” Jason said. “You need anything, though, you let me know.”
John was about to respond when a voice called out, “Hey! Want me to help you light it?"
A tall Boy Scout with longish hair, wearing camouflaged fatigues with his Scout uniform rather then official BSA pants, ran eagerly towards the tree, which was nearly done being decorated. He was hungrily holding a zippo lighter. A moment later, there was a bit of excitement as those who had toiled to decorate the tree then had to extinguish it.
Things seemed to move in slow motion for a split second as Lina Wells joined the party. She walked over to Jason and John, her face full with a warm smile. “Hi, Jason,” she said.“This your friend?”
“John Hoelscher, meet Lina Wells,” Jason said in introduction.
“Um, hi,” John said, timidly.
Lina smiled at him.“You’re cute,” she said.
John just sat in his wheelchair, unsure what to say in response.
Lina flashed him a smile.
“N… nice to meet you,”John said. “Um, hi.”
“Nice to meet you, too,”Lina responded. “Jason’s told me a lot about you.”
Jason looked at John with concern.
“I’m sorry,” John said,“could you excuse me a moment?” With that, he wheeled away.
Jason turned to Lina.“I’m sorry,” he apologized, “John’s not usually like that. He’s seemed a bit different ever since the accident.”
“No need to explain,”Lina said. “I’m sure he just needs time to get to know me, then everything will be peachy keen.”
“I hope so,” Jason responded. “I’ve been worried about him.”
“Well,” Lina told him,“you never know what’ll happen. If you’ll excuse me, Jas, I think I’ll get some punch.”
Lina disappeared into the crowd.
A moment later, a pair of hands came from behind Jason and closed themselves over his eyes. “Merry Christmas,” someone said in a bouncy voice. “Guess who!”
Jason turned around quicker then he could have thought possible. Shock, amazement, and happiness simultaneously crowded his expression.
“Fenny!” he exclaimed.
“None other,” she proclaimed.
“God, I’ve been worried sick about you! Where’ve you been?”
Fenny smiled. “Didn’t I tell you?”
“No, you didn’t,” Jason told her. “Your cryptic post card said nothing about where you were. Not even a post-mark on it to give any clue where it was mailed from.”
“I can’t remember exactly what I wrote,” Fenny confessed. “What did it say?”
Some logical part of Jason’s mind noted something peculiar about this conversation, but his joy at seeing his friend alive and safe made him ignore it and continue. “Just that you were safe with family, and I shouldn’t worry about you. You said you’d tell me more, except you didn’t want to put me in danger. Fenny, what happened to you?”
“Oh, is John here?”Fenny asked. “I have to see him, too!”
“Um, yeah,” Jason responded, confused. “He’s off over that way, somewhere.”
“Thanks! Bye, Jason-honey!”
Fenny disappeared into the crowd.
“Fenny, wait!”
“Punch?”
Jason turned around.“What?”
Lina held out a glass to him. “Did you want some punch? I thought I’d get you a cup, too. Who was that you were talking to? Was that the famous Nicole I hope to meet this evening?”
“No, that was…” Jason turned to try and spot her, but she had completely disappeared into the crowd.“Fenny,” he listlessly said.
John was sitting by himself in a corner of the hall, watching the party proceed without him. He sighed.
“You there! Crippled peon!”
John looked up as a self-important looking Boy Scout approached him. “Do you mean me?” John asked.
“Do you see any other cripples here? Well, physically crippled, that is! You are all crippled mentally, compared to me!” he decreed. He began to laugh maniacally.
John just sat quietly until the laughter subsided some time later. “Did you… did you want something, sir?” he then asked.
The scout smiled. “Ah,”he commented. “Respect, coupled with a healthy dose of fear. I like you.”
John waited for the scout to come to his point.
“You haven’t seen a speech lying about anywhere, have you?” he asked finely. He held his hands about a foot apart. “About so thick?”
“I’m sorry, I haven’t,”John admitted.
“Well, then, have you seen my worthless assistant? He is supposed to be looking for it!”
“I’m sorry, I haven’t,”John repeated. He did wish the boy would leave him alone, but he couldn’t work up the courage to tell him so.
“Humph,” the boy said. John was immediately disregarded by him, as he stormed off. “Proctor! Where are you with my speech!” he said as he moved away.
The Porters joined the party soon after, stepping in from the cold night. Kirstin soon made her way towards Aaron and the others, and Nicole, with Neko-chan purring contentedly in her folded arms, flitted from conversation to conversation. Sarah Porter took off her hat and gloves in favor of an
appropriate holiday smile, which she wore as if under duress.
"WHAT'S WITH THE CAT?" Becker asked Nicole at a couple hundred decibels.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, there aren't many other pets here tonight," Mike said.
"But he's just the life of the party now," Nicole said, and nuzzled Neko-chan, who continued to purr as if purring was about to be made a federal crime, punishable by hanging and a $5000 fine billed to the estate of the deceased.
Kenny Pendrell spoke without looking up from his book. "It's been suggested by leading minds in the medical field that pets actually lower the blood pressure of their owners considerably."
The others looked at him.
Mike looked at Neko-chan.
Neko-chan looked back, daring him with feline arrogance.
"So, how have all of you guys been, lately," Nicole asked. "How's Matt?"
Mike shrugged. "We're fine," he said. He looked around. "Come to think of it, where did Matt get off to?"
“Our host?” Jason said, walking over. “Haven’t seen him for a while.”
“Jason!” Nicole exclaimed delightedly. “You made it!”
“I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” Jason told her.
“WHAT?” Becker exclaimed.
Neko-chan hissed an Jason. “Hey, you ever get the cat… um… you know…” Jason whispered to Nicole.
“Um… well… I never seem to have the time,” Nicole responded. “On those rare occasions when I might have made the time, it seems like he knows what I’m planning and he disappears.”
“If you want, I could take him to the vet some time,” Jason offered.
Neko-chan’s hissing intensified, now accompanied by growling.
Mike smiled. “Want me to take him for a while?” he offered.
Nicole passed the cat over to Mike. “Thanks,” she said.
If you were to look at the cat then, you’d almost think he was frowning.
Jason smiled at Nicole.“Would you gentlemen,” he said, addressing the others, “mind if I borrowed the lovely Miss Porter for a while?”
“Be our guest,” Mike told him.
Jason held out his arm, which Nicole gladly took as they walked off together.
The double doors were thrown wide open, and the partygoers of 192 saw a young Asian man dressed in yellow walk into the hall. An umbrella poked from the pack on his back. The bandanna he wore around his forehead was also yellow.
The figure slumped on the threshold, obviously worn out from some journey or another. "Akane!" he cried, suddenly full of energy. "I'm here! I made it, I…"
The young man glanced around the room and came to the conclusion that of all the people who were staring back at him, he knew no one.
"Oh," he said darkly. "Sorry." He turned to leave.
"Hey, wait!" Someone called.
The man looked back and faced Kirstin Porter as she walked towards him. "You look tired," she said. "Want some punch?"
The Asian man was utterly surprised. "Um... sure." He smiled. "Thank you."
“Hey, John.”
“F… Fenny?” John stuttered. “Is it really you?”
“Nah, of course not,”Fenny said.
“Don’t joke around,”John said. He grinned. “Fenny, I can’t believe it’s you! I’ve missed you.”
“I missed you, too,”Fenny told him. “I just had to see you and Jas for Christmas, so I had to come.”
“Where’ve you been?”John asked her.
“You don’t know?”
“No, of course not,”John told her. “You were already gone when I came back from… from Ohio,” he said, “and Jason never said where you were. I got the feeling he didn’t know anything.”
Fenny smiled. “Hey, John, you know what?”
“What?”
“I met this girl, friend of Jason’s. Lina something. I think she likes you.”
John blushed. “I doubt it,” he told her.
“Oh, come on now,” she said. “Would the bouncy one lie about something like that? I think you should definitely get to know her better. What do you say, will you give it a shot? For me?”
Slowly, the annual Troop 192 Christmas Party was winding to a close, and so came the merriest part of the evening, the present swap.
Everyone who had attended the party had been required to show up with a small gift, which was to be swapped at random in the traditional fashion. Of course, there were always a few gifts that turned out to not be so random at all.
"Oh, piffle," Justy Yung said upon the disappointment of realizing his speech would not be delivered to his mass of followers.
"We were all looking forward to it, Captain," Proctor told him. Proctor meant it, although in actuality he had been the only one who had looked forward to it. "If it's any consolation, Merry Christmas, sir." He handed Justy a small gift-wrapped package in the shape of a stick.
Justy snatched the package and tore it open. "What's this?" he asked, holding the stick in his hand. It was about a foot long, black and had a leather strap at one end.
"It's a sort of baton, Captain…"
"I know what it is!" Justy interrupted, smacking his assistant over the head with his new toy. He admired the object and its potential for dispensing pain and subversion.
"Thank you, Proctor," he said. "How thoughtful."
Proctor rubbed his head. "You're welcome, Captain."
Most of the other gift swapping was not as exciting. Many of the items were simply small doodads or gift certificates to the cinema or a local restaurant. Mike Quadrozzi opened his gift and found a small sign, made of the same material as dry erase boards. Its use completely escaped him, and most likely it had escaped whoever had been desperate enough to bring such a thing as a gift, too. Elsewhere, Kirstin Porter shared a meaningful look with Aaron after receiving a cute knitted Christmas sweater with reindeer and things on it from an anonymous person.
Elsewhere still, Matt Swett turned around after unwrapping the jar of peanut butter he himself had donated to the gift-swap in the first place to come face to face with a man dressed in the distinctive dark brown khakis of the United Parcel Service.
"Good evening," the UPS Guy said.
"Hey, how you doing," Swett replied.
"So where would you like the order?"
"What?"
UPS Guy indicated the cardboard box near his feet. He consulted his clipboard. "Er... a shipment of ECWCWWF EXTREME THUNDEROUS ATTITUDE II. Can you sign for it?"
Matt Swett hardly blinked before he smiled and reached for the man's pen. "Why, of course, my good man."
Jason observed this and almost walked over to say something to the UPS Guy, but a tug on his arm convinced him that his attention was needed elsewhere. “Come on,” Nicole told him. “I got you something.”
Nicole led him out to the front lawn, hoping to get some privacy. A few yards away stood another couple. She briefly noted with amusement that it was her older sister with Matt Atanian. I thought she despised him? she thought. She quickly filed that bit of info away, however, to concentrate on the matters at hand.
She handed a gift wrapped package to Jason. From the size of it, it was clearly a video cassette. He smiled as he tore into the package. He had a good idea what it was… and yes it was!
“The new Evangelion tape! Just what I wanted!” Jason smiled. “Thanks, Nicole!”
“You’re welcome,” she told him. “So…?”
“Huh? Oh!” Jason fumbled around in his pocket for a moment, and then pulled out a small, simply wrapped package.
“What is it,” Nicole said, examining it with a critical eye. “A diamond ring?”
“Not quite,” Jason told her, “but I hope you like it, anyways.”
She saw that Jason was watching her intently, and she began unwrapping the present. After removing the simple wrapping, she regarded the small object she held in her hand.
Nicole slowly smiled. "Oh, Jason," she said softly. "This is... perfect. Thank you."
She leaned close to him and kissed him softly on the cheek.
Inside, standing next to John, Fenny was looking out of the window at Jason and Nicole. She smiled slightly, and snapped her fingers.
As Nicole pulled her lips away from Jason, a single, tiny snowflake fell from the sky, dancing in the bitter wind before it landed on the church lawn.
"Look, everyone!" A voice called from behind them, "it's snowing!"
The two of them looked, and indeed snow was beginning to come down around them. It looked like they were to have a White Christmas, after all.
Everyone from the party rushed outside onto the church’s front lawn. Boy Scouts and the other guests alike laughed and frolicked as the pure white powder floated down from the stars above.
“Fenny, isn’t it beautiful?” John asked as he pulled his chair to a halt. When no response was forthcoming, he turned around. “Fenny?” Funny, she was right there a moment ago, John pondered.
“Hey, stranger.”
John turned again. It was Lina. “Oh, um… hi,” he said.
“Mind if I join you to watch the snow fall?” she asked.
“Not at, um… not at all,” John told her.
She laughed, her laughter mingling with the falling snow and the joyful shouts and cries of the others to form a sweet cacophony of holiday cheer.
Nicole and Jason approached the pair, as did Aaron Abdowmassy and Kirstin. Kirstin was snug in her new sweater. Matt Atanian soon joined them as well, as did Sarah, who was not quite as hostile towards Matt as she usually was.
And for the rest of the evening, they truly had a merry time.
Author's Notes & Disclaimers
Hi, everybody!
Well, at the end of Perspectives V, The Other Author promised the character of Jason that things would continue. As I suppose The Other Author was probably supposed to be me, I could hardly go back on my word, now could I?
And thus I submit for your approval Perspectives VI. In a way, this story brings the series full circle, back to it’s beginnings. The over all tone is lighter, for one thing. (Not to say that the darker tone of the more recent Perspectives stories was a bad thing. They were very good stories, in my opinion.) Also, this story takes events from an original Boy Scouts ½ story (this time, Mike Quadrozzi’s part 13: Yes, Virginia, It’s a Wonderful Life with 192, Though I Wouldn’t Call It Christmas in Heaven) and re-tells the day’s events as they unfolded from the perspective of other characters.
Of course, this is just the starting point for this. There are a few unanswered questions in this story, which I will take at least two more new and upcoming Perspectives stories to answer, so stay tuned!
Now for the legal stuff: Jusenkyo curses and the character of Ryoga borrowed without permission from Ranma ½ by Takahashi Rumiko. In the Perspectives stories that Jason wrote, he always said in his notes at the end how he looked forward to my comments on the story. I think it’s only fitting to now turn the tables on him, especially as I am quite keen to see what he has to say about this work. Without further ado… here’s Jason!
Well, at the end of Perspectives V, The Other Author promised the character of Jason that things would continue. As I suppose The Other Author was probably supposed to be me, I could hardly go back on my word, now could I?
And thus I submit for your approval Perspectives VI. In a way, this story brings the series full circle, back to it’s beginnings. The over all tone is lighter, for one thing. (Not to say that the darker tone of the more recent Perspectives stories was a bad thing. They were very good stories, in my opinion.) Also, this story takes events from an original Boy Scouts ½ story (this time, Mike Quadrozzi’s part 13: Yes, Virginia, It’s a Wonderful Life with 192, Though I Wouldn’t Call It Christmas in Heaven) and re-tells the day’s events as they unfolded from the perspective of other characters.
Of course, this is just the starting point for this. There are a few unanswered questions in this story, which I will take at least two more new and upcoming Perspectives stories to answer, so stay tuned!
Now for the legal stuff: Jusenkyo curses and the character of Ryoga borrowed without permission from Ranma ½ by Takahashi Rumiko. In the Perspectives stories that Jason wrote, he always said in his notes at the end how he looked forward to my comments on the story. I think it’s only fitting to now turn the tables on him, especially as I am quite keen to see what he has to say about this work. Without further ado… here’s Jason!
Jason's Outlooks & Viewpoints
Just as I was about to take a break from Perspectives to go on to other endeavors that require my attention (The biggest of which is my internship in a city four hours away from home…) Matt-kun comes along and picks up the slack wonderfully.
Now he’s got me all excited and intrigued to what he’ll do next. This “Segue” series is a wonderful addition and I’m glad that Matt-kun decided to take an active role.
Great job on showing just how heartless a clod Justy Yung really is. I like this Lina character… Hmmm… now she is an enigma… One I wouldn’t mind trying to solve…
Some people have been overall shocked to see the darker tone that Perspectives took as the story progressed. I guess I’ve wanted to comment on it now that we’re in a remission period. When I first envisioned Perspectives, It was meant to be a short humor side-story building off a cameo appearance. However, I began to see much more potential. Perspectives is my interpretation of life itself viewed through many different perspectives (I mean you can’t get any different than a goddess, a Twin, a Sales Clerk who has the worst chain of luck in history, and a clerk with multiple personalities.) However, like life, things aren’t always going to be happy or humorous. Yes, sometimes everyone is miserable. That’s why I really like this chapter. It shows the characters happy again. Life is like that. Despite anything that can and does happen, people will usually one day find a reason to be happy again.
Happy Belated Christmas.
Now he’s got me all excited and intrigued to what he’ll do next. This “Segue” series is a wonderful addition and I’m glad that Matt-kun decided to take an active role.
Great job on showing just how heartless a clod Justy Yung really is. I like this Lina character… Hmmm… now she is an enigma… One I wouldn’t mind trying to solve…
Some people have been overall shocked to see the darker tone that Perspectives took as the story progressed. I guess I’ve wanted to comment on it now that we’re in a remission period. When I first envisioned Perspectives, It was meant to be a short humor side-story building off a cameo appearance. However, I began to see much more potential. Perspectives is my interpretation of life itself viewed through many different perspectives (I mean you can’t get any different than a goddess, a Twin, a Sales Clerk who has the worst chain of luck in history, and a clerk with multiple personalities.) However, like life, things aren’t always going to be happy or humorous. Yes, sometimes everyone is miserable. That’s why I really like this chapter. It shows the characters happy again. Life is like that. Despite anything that can and does happen, people will usually one day find a reason to be happy again.
Happy Belated Christmas.