by Bob Bannon
He set the video camera and the notebook down on the floor and found the bag of food by the door. He lined up all eight bowls of food on his new shelf, right next to his new microwave. He took two of the macaroni and cheese bowls and put one in the microwave. With the other, he read the instructions on the back very carefully. He punched in two minutes on the microwave timer. While that was going, he walked outside to get the diet soda from the patio.
He hadn’t realized it was relatively warm in the tree-house. Since all of the curtains were closed, there must have been some heat trapped inside. When he opened the door, he shivered. It was incredibly cold. He picked up the soda and found that it had remained chilled, just like it had been when he pulled it from the cooler at the gas station.
On his way back in, the microwave sounded. He took out the first bowl and put another in. He spent the next fifteen minutes eating his warm meal, which beat cold canned-vegetables hands down.
When he was finished, he realized he didn’t have a trash can. So he had nowhere to put the empty bowls. He decided he would use some of his new money to buy trash bags next time he was in town.
So he went into the room with the claw-foot tub and turned on the water. He didn’t have a sink, so he let the water run into the tub and rinsed the two microwave bowls and his spoon. Then he made sure that there was no residual cheese on the bottom of the tub. He thought it would be pretty funny if he actually did decide to take a bath at some point and wound up smelling like macaroni and cheese.
He replaced the bowls and the spoon back on the shelf near the microwave and then took the two-liter bottle of soda back out to the patio.
Jonah had become too accustomed to hanging out with Eric all afternoon. He was at a loss for what to do next, so he decided to move some things in the tree-house around, but the only things he could really move were the camping hammocks. He left one by the generator so the electric blanket would reach it and he moved the other two against the wall so that all three lined up with each other. The electric blanket was still plugged in, so he left it in a heap next to the hammock.
For a lack of anything better to do, he spent the rest of the evening sorting through the three footlockers to see what was actually there.
While he was sorting through clothes and various items, he came across a pair of khaki pants he had only worn once last year. He and his father never went anywhere that was necessarily dressy but he remembered that his father had bought them because they were on sale. That’s when it hit him that he may not have had anywhere to wear the pants then, but he certainly did now. He remembered the Winter Ball was coming Saturday and he had told Emma Wong that he and Eric would go with her. He hadn’t even discussed it with Eric since.
At the time, he hadn’t even thought of the fact he was going to have nothing to wear, and that he would look pretty silly if he went to the dance in his sweater and jeans when, apparently, it was a formal occasion. He wondered what Emma would have thought of him then.
He tried on the khaki pants and they still fit perfectly, although they were a little wrinkled. He put his boots back on, since he didn’t have good shoes. If he wore the pants down around his hips, instead of around his waist, the boots almost looked like they could pass for good shoes. He hoped it would snow the night of the Winter Ball and then at least he would have an excuse.
Jonah put his jeans back on, then carefully folded the pants, smoothed them out, and laid them on top of everything else in the footlocker. If he could straighten out the pants a little bit more, he could wear them and one of his sweaters to the dance and he might just fit in.
Tonight would be the first night he would change into his basketball shorts and t-shirt that he always slept in at home. Once he was in them, it did seem that there was a chill in the air, but that was quickly fixed when he got under the electric blanket. As he snuggled down on the hammock he was instantly comfortable. This was going to be much different than sleeping in his nest in the warehouse.
He tried to keep his eyes open as he began to watch a streaming television show on the tablet, but he quickly grew too tired. The last thing he did before he fell asleep was unplug the Christmas lights. The room went entirely black.
XXI
As soon as he woke, Jonah knew he had changed during the night. He didn’t know how he knew, there wasn’t the associated pain anymore, but somehow he felt it.
He couldn’t tell if it was morning or noon, but he could see daylight coming through where the roof of the tree-house met the round trunk.
Jonah rolled over and touched the tablet, which lit up and told him it was after eleven. Then he plugged in the Christmas tree lights.
Rolling back over into the hammock, it was strange to realize how comfortable he was in his new surroundings. He stretched and decided, since he had nothing else to do, he might just go back to sleep.
That’s when he saw the notebook propped up against the hammock that was just to his left. Whoever he changed into had left him a note. He was going to have to have another internal conversation with himself about not changing without his permission and hope that the others paid attention.
He sat up and stretched again and reached for the notebook. It was a confession from Devlin saying that Jonah had fallen asleep sometime around nine o’clock the night before. At around nine-thirty, Devlin had manifested and had gone out for a while.
Jonah took this first paragraph in stride. He was mildly upset that Devlin had come out without permission, but that wasn’t the worst thing that’s happened. Until he read the first sentence of the second paragraph that started out with “Please don’t be mad.”
This made Jonah sit bolt upright and read a little faster. Apparently, Devlin took it upon himself to race down to a payphone down by the industrial district. He made sure no one was around and then dialed Eric’s phone number using the same code Eric had used to block his mobile phone number.
This struck Jonah as odd. He had remembered seeing the numbers on the phone, but couldn’t recall them off hand. He was sure even if he was standing at a payphone he couldn’t remember Eric’s exact phone number. It was just another piece of the puzzle that the others inside him could recover a memory like that. But the thought had distracted his growing anger.
The note went on to say that he had called Eric’s mother and told her that he was Doctor Havensby. He apologized for having to hang up so abruptly the last time they spoke but felt he had to call again to apologize for the boys’ recent behavior. He said that he had told them both to have Eric home on time before he left for a meeting and apologized profusely for not bringing Eric home himself when he left.
Eric’s mother seemed to really appreciate the phone call, but before she could start a new conversation, he said he had to go and they’d talk soon.
The note was signed with a sweeping large “D” at the bottom and, under that, one sentence that simply said, “Please don’t be mad.” again
Jonah tossed the notebook into the footlocker that he had earmarked for supplies, rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands and scratched his head with both hands. He was annoyed, that was for sure, but he wouldn’t know if any damage had been done until he talked to Eric.
He had to let the anger go, because there wasn’t anyone he could necessarily yell at. These others inside him had certainly interfered in his life in a number of ways, but it seemed like it was always to his benefit. Now it was like they were interfering in things they had no business getting involved in.
On the other hand, it did make sense that Jonah’s father would call to apologize. The boys had lied and said they were at Jonah’s house that night, and isn’t that what any parent would do?
He decided to take a walk to clear his head. Jonah grabbed his jacket and the work gloves, swept the money he had into the pocket of his jeans, and made sure the green gem was in his other pocket. He decided he would walk all the way to the mall. He wanted to see if he could buy a shirt to wear to the Winter Ball anyway and a good two
-hour walk would let him work off some steam.
He walked out the door into a burst of freezing cold. There was a steady wind blowing through the trees which he had not been aware of because the heavy velvet curtains were still shut tight. He braced himself against the wind and almost lowered the rope ladder, then almost turned toward the bike, but then he stopped. He turned and went back into the house.
“Okay, Devlin,” he said to himself. “You want to make it up to me? Get me close to the mall. Don’t go running around town for an hour. Don’t go beating anybody up. This is strictly ‘get me close to the mall without being seen.’ Get it?”
He walked over to the generator and picked up the tablet. “I’m checking the time,” he said to himself with a subtle threat and then put the tablet back down.
And Devlin began to manifest.
The next thing Jonah knew, he was standing at the Southwest corner of the woods. It would still be a fifteen-minute walk to the mall, but he felt like he just shaved an hour and change off the trip.
He was standing just inside the wood-line in his coat and gloves. When he stepped out, he noticed it was even colder than it had been in the woods. With nothing to block the wind, his face stung. He pulled up the hood of his coat, jammed his hands down in his coat pockets and began to walk with his head turned as low as he could and still see where he was going.
When he got to the mall, Jonah decided to go in the older entrance, the one farthest from Mrs. MacIntyre’s store. He wouldn’t be comfortable running into her because he felt responsible for getting Eric into trouble, and he also had to talk to Eric first to see what Devlin’s conversation with her turned out to be.
As his luck would have it, the minute he lowered his hood and welcomed the heat of the interior of the mall, Mrs. MacIntyre was just coming in from the Promenade section carrying two cups of coffee. She delivered the coffees to two janitors who were replacing some of the overhead lights. When she turned, they made eye contact. Jonah was nervous for a moment, but Mrs. MacIntyre broke into a grin and started over to him.
“Hi, Jonah,” she said warmly. “Look at you. You look chilled to the bone,” She straightened his hair a little. “You shouldn’t be out on afternoons like today, it’s too cold.”
“Hi, Mrs. MacIntyre,” Jonah stumbled.
“Missing your partner in crime, huh?” She asked.
“Huh?” He responded only to the word ‘crime’.
“It’s only two more days and you guys can be right back to your video games. Kind of sucks when your friends get in trouble and there’s nothing to do, huh?” She asked.
“Oh, I wasn’t really looking for Eric,” Jonah explained. “I have to find a shirt to wear to the Winter Ball.”
“Are you going?” She asked.
“Well, Emma Wong asked me, I said I’d only go if Eric went, so…” he trailed off.
“Eric’s going to the ball?” She asked. She lit up when she said it. “He hasn’t told me anything about it. I just agreed to chaperone the dance and he didn’t say a word.”
“Well, I don’t know if he’s going…” Jonah said, but he was cut off when she pulled her mobile phone from her pocket, pushed a few buttons and the other end of the line began to ring through the speaker.
Eric answered after just two rings.
“Young man, do you have anything you’d like to tell me about?” she asked into it. “Anything pertaining to a particular event that’s coming up?”
Jonah didn’t know how he kept getting himself in these awkward situations.
“Oh,” Eric said. Jonah could hear him very clearly through the phone. “Yep, I’m probably gonna go.”
“You’re ‘probably gonna go’?” Mrs. MacIntyre asked in return. “And this is something you didn’t mention to your mother the entire time I was telling you I signed up to chaperone?”
“I haven’t even talked to Jonah about it, why would I say anything?” Eric asked.
“Because mother’s like to know these things in advance, Eric. It’s kind of a thing these days.” She retorted. “Do you even have anything clean to wear?”
“Um, I don’t know,” he replied, there was the distinct sound of the closet door opening. “I guess.”
“Okay,” she said. “Find your khaki pants and your white button-down shirt and put them both on my bed. I’ll have to get to the one-hour dry cleaners tomorrow. Then find your brown shoes in that wreck of a closet.”
“Alright. Alright. Jeez.” Eric said. “How’d you even find out?”
“Jonah’s right here. He came to the mall to buy a shirt for the dance and I had to find out from him.” She said.
“Oh, tell him I said thanks a lot,” Eric said.
“Sorry dude,” Jonah spoke up.
“So I guess we’re going?” Eric asked.
“Guess so,” Jonah said.
“So, Jonah will come over for dinner tomorrow night and we can work out a game plan,” she said. This part of the conversation obviously included both of them. “I can obviously drive, since I’m going anyway.”
“Can Jonah stay over?” Eric asked hopefully.
“You’re still technically grounded young man,” she said. “I’m just making a special circumstance.”
“Alright,” Eric huffed through the phone. “Nice talking to people on the outside.”
“You’ll survive.” She said. As a good bye, she said “Love you.”
“Love you too,” Eric said, but Jonah could envision the accompanying eye roll.
She rang off.
“So do you know where you’re going?” she asked Jonah.
“Yes, ma’am, just over to the department store.” Jonah said.
It was the store his father always took him to, although this would be his first time shopping by himself.
“Okay,” Mrs. MacIntyre said. “Don’t shop too long, it’s supposed to snow tonight.” Then she added. “And thank your father for the phone call last night. We had a really nice conversation.”
At this Jonah’s breath caught for just a moment, but she seemed to have genuinely bought that Devlin was his dad. That was kind of a relief. “I’ll tell him.” He replied.
“Will I see him at the dance?” She asked.
No, I don’t think so.” Jonah said.
“Oh, that’s too bad. You should invite him along.”
“I will, but he might be busy.” Jonah said almost too quickly.
“Okay. Get home safe.” She said with a wave and then she was off through the Promenade doors towards her store on the other side of the mall.
Jonah knew exactly where the boys section was in the department store. He went through the revolving door and went right through the store until he came to the section of both casual and dress wear.
He sauntered through the displays, trying to look just like any other shopper, but he was on a mission. He simply wanted to get a shirt and get back out. The problem was, he had never been shopping by himself. He flipped through a rack of t-shirts with different designs on them, but concentrated more on the section that was marked ‘medium’. At least he knew what size he was, that was going to help. And all of the clothes seemed to have price tags. That was another good thing.
But when he made his way over to the button-down shirts, he found that not all of the racks were marked with pricing, and some of the shirts were wrapped in plastic and had no tags at all. He maintained his composure when a saleswoman smiled at him from the counter, he certainly didn’t want to involve her in the search.
Just then, he spotted a circular rack of button-down shirts with a sign announcing that anything on this particular rack was seventeen-ninety-nine. He breathed a steady sigh of relief, not only because the price was clearly marked, but also because it was a price he could certainly afford.
He walked over and found the ‘medium’ section and began to look through. Some of the shirts had subtle designs sewn into them, which he wasn’t quite sure he liked. He decided he should ignore those and look for
something in a solid color. He found a white one and a white one with blue stripes and tried to decide which one was right when the saleswoman finally made her way over.
“Would you like to try those on?” She asked with a smile.
His father always made him try things on. He was pretty sure he should, but shopping was turning out to be more stressful than he thought it would be and he just wanted to get out of there.
“No, thanks,” he said. “I’m just going to take this one.” He held up the striped shirt without even realizing he had made a decision between the two.
After he had paid and was putting his remaining money in his pocket, he decided he was going to save the rest of his money until it was time to buy food again.
Everything went pretty well when Jonah came over for dinner the next night. He was nearly frozen when he got to the house. He brought Mrs. MacIntyre’s bike back all the way from the tree-house. She was disappointed, again, with not meeting Jonah’s father. She asked if she might meet him if she drove Jonah home, but he had come prepared for this and told her they were meeting at the movie theatre in the mall, but he’d appreciate a ride over there after dinner.
During dinner, Mrs. MacIntyre laid out her plan for the night of the dance. She would drive the boys over, since she was chaperoning with some of the other parents. Jonah would have to arrive at their house just before seven o’clock so they could make it there by seven-thirty. Eric had asked if they could sleep over at Jonah’s that night, which she didn’t have a problem with as long as Doctor Havensby called her beforehand to finalize the plan.
Eric also asked if Jonah could stay and hang out, but his mother told him he was still technically grounded for one more day, so that wasn’t going to happen.
When she drove Jonah to the mall, Mrs. MacIntyre asked if she should come in with him just to meet his father. He put her off by saying they might be late for the movie already, said he’d have his father call, thanked her for the ride and almost too abruptly shut the car door. Then he walked into the mall without turning around.
