Symby (14 page)

As Jody wrapped his arms around his father, his hands came to rest at the rear of Spud's knapsack. His fingertips began picking up vibrations emanating from the canvas container. Something moved against his hand. Shocked, he pushed himself away from his father.

"Do you have an animal in your knapsack, Dad?" he asked. "I just felt something move."

Spud hadn't wanted to reveal the existence of Telly, let alone tell anyone that he believed his little furry friend had cured him. The world had already correctly labeled him as a homeless, alcoholic loser. There was no point in adding "insane" to his growing catalog of negatives. He decided to let Jody have a look and leave his miraculous cure unmentioned.

"That's Telly," he answered, pulling the knapsack off his back as he spoke. "He's a funny, little guy I found at my camp one night. He's been keeping me company. Snuffles likes him too. The strange thing is that I could swear that Snuffles was more interested in Telly than me when he first arrived. Here you go. Careful, don't drop him." He made a move to hand Telly to Jody. Jody's eyes widened to the size of silver dollars. He looked at his father accusingly, hatred in his eyes.

"You took Symby too? It's bad enough you took Snuffles, but taking Symby away from Missy, that's just mean. She might die without Symby!"

Spud felt as though the insanity label had shifted from father to son.

"What the heck are you talking about?" he fired back. "What's a Symby? Who's Missy? Telly showed up in my camp one night and so did Snuffles, so don't accuse me of taking them!"

As upset as he was, Jody recognized his father's genuine surprise. As he thought more about it, how could his father even have known about Symby? And why would he wait three years to abscond with Snuffles, only to return him? Just to be safe, he decided to introduce his father to Missy. If Missy didn't have Symby, then he would figure out a way to take Symby back from his lunatic father and get rid of him forever.

"Come on inside, Dad," he said. "I'll introduce you to Missy. She's my girlfriend."

"She's here?" asked Spud. "Does your mother know?" He winced at this last misspeak. He had no right to say things that a father might say to his son.

Jody looked disgusted. "No, she's not here, but we can viddy her. Let's go inside."

Spud followed Jody into the house with Snuffles trailing behind. As they walked, he noticed that Jody's gait seemed to have improved somewhat since the last time he had seen him. He chalked it up to wishful thinking on his part. After all, Jody's disease was progressive and incurable.

Spud viewed the interior of his old house with a sense of wonderment. The furniture and the prints in the living room, dining room and kitchen remained in their previous locations. The rugs were the same rugs he and Kim had bought together at Addison's Home Furnishings on Main Street before it had closed forever, another victim of the big box stores. Photos of friends and relatives still covered most of the refrigerator's surface area. This year's version of Kim's favorite cat calendar hung on the wall next to the refrigerator, the same cat calendar she bought every year. Everything looked almost exactly the same as it had three years ago when he had left. Almost, Spud noted sadly, observing that all traces of his former presence in the house had been eradicated.

Jody led Spud directly back to his room at the rear of the house. Here too, the same furnishings and rugs remained, though some of the posters had been replaced. Spud scanned the room futilely for evidence that he had ever existed in his son's life, but found none. Jody walked to his desk and clicked on the computer he and Kim had bought for him after enduring a year's worth of prodding from their son. He clicked on an icon labeled "Missy." The PC emitted only a few beeps before a girl's voice answered.

"Hi boyfriend," the voice said cheerily. "Did you just get back from church?"

"No, I told my Mom I didn't want to go," said Jody. "You know I don't really like church."

The screen slowly began to reveal the image of a moon-faced girl with large, green eyes. Her brown hair was cut unnaturally short, just a bit longer than a crew cut, yet the lack of hair seemed to emphasize the natural beauty of her face. Spud was impressed, but worried that she might be anorexic based on her gaunt appearance.

"Who's with you?" asked Missy, thinking that the man appeared rather old to be a new friend of Jody's.

"This is my Dad," said Jody, motioning to his father. Missy hid her surprise and managed a simple, pleasant greeting.

"Hi, Mr. Mattlin, it's nice to meet you," she said. "I've heard so much about you from Jody."

Spud didn't dare ask whether she had heard good things or horror stories.

"Hi Missy, it's a pleasure to meet you, too," he said. "I'd like to tell you about all the good things I've heard about you, but I just learned about you a minute ago. I'm looking forward to hearing all the good stuff later from Jody."

Jody spoke next. "How are you feeling today, Missy?"

"I'm done with the pantry and halfway through the refrigerator," she joked. "Do I look fat yet?"

"No, you look great," answered Jody, an answer that mystified Spud. Missy seemed to be happy and unruffled. He held his breath as he asked his next question, knowing that the fate of his renewed relationship with his father hung in the balance. "Is Symby still dosing you?"

"Yep, three or four times a day," answered Missy. "I'm feeling better already."

"Can I see him?" requested Jody.

"I thought we agreed that Symby would be our little secret," said Missy, a look of bewilderment crossing her face.

"I need to see him right now, please go get him and show him to me," Jody commanded. He wanted to be completely sure that his father had not taken Symby.

"Sure, he's right here in my lap, cooing away," answered Missy, wondering why Jody was so strident. She held her little companion up to the screen. "Here you go."

Both Jody and Spud were amazed. They exchanged shocked expressions and uttered the same word simultaneously.

"Jesus!" The two of them glanced at each other, each wondering what came next. Jody thought that Missy deserved to be included on the latest Symby-related secret.

"Missy, we've got something to show you that you're not going to believe unless you see it with your own eyes," he said. He held Telly up to his camera and watched Missy's eyes, already large, grow to saucer-like dimensions.

"Another one?" she said. "You've got another one?"

"Yep," answered Jody. "My Dad found one at his camp. He calls this one Telly, named after the Greek god of healing. Does that tell you anything?"

"Maybe," answered Missy. "Mr. Mattlin, did Telly cure some disease that you have like Symby helps us with ours?"

Spud debated whether to tell Missy and Jody about his belief that Telly had cured his alcoholism. His fear of the lunatic label still controlled him. He decided to hedge.

"Let's just say that ever since Telly arrived, my life's been better. I haven't had a drink since he showed up. It's probably just because Telly makes great company."

Jody and Missy laughed out loud together.

"What's so funny?" asked Spud, afraid that they were mocking him.

"Dad, I'm going to tell you something that nobody except Missy and I know. You have to promise to take us seriously and not just shrug off what I say as some kind of kid's fantasy, because we know it's true," said Jody.

Spud realized that his fear of disparagement for believing that the creatures could help people wasn't limited to just his side of the conversation. He had a feeling he knew what Jody had to say. He was anxious to hear it.

"You've got my word," he said, "provided that I get the same consideration from you."

"Okay, Dad, here goes," said Jody. "I think Snuffles found our little creature a few months ago in our backyard. I didn't even know he had found Symby until I collapsed in front of our house one day. Next thing I knew, Symby was on me and Snuffles was standing over me. I thought Symby had peed on me, but then I realized it wasn't pee, it was something else. I still don't know what it is, but I suddenly got better and better every time Symby put some of his liquid on me. I mean really better, Dad. I straightened up and I was running to school every day for a while. I was much better than I am now for a couple of weeks."

Jody had said exactly what Spud had anticipated. Spud was puzzled, though.

"I noticed right away that you seemed to be moving better than you were the last time I saw you," said Spud. "I thought it was just my imagination, but you do seem better. So what happened? Why aren't you as well as you were before?"

"I can answer that question, Mr. Mattlin," said Missy. "It's because Jody gave Symby to me."

"Jody, why would you give up Symby to Missy when you felt as though Symby had helped you so much?" asked Spud.

"Because she needed Symby more than me," answered Jody. "Her disease is worse than mine. She almost died, and she might still die, but she just got Symby back a few days ago so we're hoping Symby can help her again. So far, so good."

Spud was totally disoriented now. "Just got Symby back?" he said, befuddled. "I thought you said you gave Symby to Missy weeks ago."

"I did, Dad, and Missy got better for a while," responded Jody, "but then Jimmy Hines stole Symby from Missy's house, and Missy got worse again."

"Who's Jimmy Hines?" queried Spud.

"He's our school bully. Missy and I got him suspended for a week, so he got us back by stealing Symby."

"Didn't you report the breakin at Missy's house?" asked Spud. Missy answered this question.

"No, we didn't, because the only thing he took was Symby. We were afraid that the police would just laugh at us if we told them we both needed Symby to cure us. Even if they believed us, they might have taken Symby away to be studied or something like that."

"Sounds like you two have had even more ups and downs than I have in the last few months," said Spud. "Like I said, ever since I found Telly, my life's been nothing but ups."

Jody asked the obvious question. "So do you think Telly has cured your alcoholism, Dad?"

Spud considered his answer carefully before he replied.

"I don't really know for sure, son, but I do know that it wasn't long after Telly arrived that I got the strength to throw my last bottle in the river. I've been dry ever since. So you say you've regressed some since you gave Symby to Missy?"

"A lot, Dad," answered Jody. "When Jimmy Hines challenged me to a fight, I nailed him. You would have been proud of me."

"Jody, I've always been proud of you. The real problem is that I haven't given you any reason to be proud of me. I left here because I just couldn't handle watching you get worse. As much as your disease was hurting you, it was killing me. So what did I do? I messed up my life and hurt the ones I loved most by developing my own disease. I'm so sorry, son, you can't even imagine."

"So what about you, Dad?" said Jody. "If you lost Telly would you go back to drinking?"

Spud had already thought out his answer to this question. He knew what he had to do. "No, so you keep Telly," he replied. "Maybe Telly's liquid is the same as Symby's and you'll both get healthier again."

Jody challenged him. "Are you sure, Dad? I can get along all right for a while as I am, I'm used to it. Please don't disappear again!"

"I promise I won't disappear again, son," he said, hoping against hope that he could keep his promise without Telly.

Jody wrapped his arms around his father and hugged him for all he was worth. Spud resolved to remember this moment every time he was tempted to take a drink. It might just be enough to make it without Telly, he thought.

As Jody's embrace continued, another critical question entered his mind. He withdrew from his father to ask it.

"Mom's going to be home any minute. Should we tell her about Symby and Telly?"

Spud mulled this over for a moment. "How about if we keep this a secret for a while," he answered. "I've been worried about people thinking I'm crazy for thinking that Telly cured me. You two have been worried about people calling you wacked for thinking the same thing about Symby. We've probably got better odds convincing people that we're still sane now that all three of us are believers, but your mother is going to have enough to deal with now that I'm back. I'd rather not have her thinking that I'm contributing to a fantasy of yours. Does that make sense?"

Both Jody and Missy agreed to keep silent, at least until Jody's mother was convinced that liquor hadn't decayed Spud's brain. The three of them talked excitedly about a future with Symby and Telly until Jody heard the front door open.

"Mom's home," he whispered to his father. "Are you ready?"

"Okay, let's do this," replied Spud.

"Missy, we're going to click off now, my mom is home," said Jody to Missy's image. "Wish us luck."

"Good luck," said Missy. "I can't wait to meet you in person, Mr. Mattlin,"

"I'll be looking forward to meeting you, too," said Spud.

As he and his father had arranged, Jody walked out of his room to greet his mother, leaving his father in Jody's bedroom.