Symby (18 page)

Jody morphed instantly from misery to ecstasy. He pumped his fist into the air, shouting "Yes! Yes!" to the heavens.

Spud and Kim stared at each other for a while, each longing for physical contact but thinking that it might be unwise to take that last step. Later, as darkness descended, Jody walked ahead of his parents on the path through the woods. When he turned back to make sure he hadn't gotten too far ahead, he saw his father slip his arm around his mother. She leaned against him, smiling and chattering. His life would be awesome from now on, he was sure of it.

Jody knocked on Missy's door and waited patiently for her parents to open it. They greeted him warmly, as always. Missy came out of her room and gave him a quick hug in the hallway.

"Would you kids like to join us in the living room for a while?" asked Ken. "We can stream that new superhero movie if you'd like."

Jody thanked Ken for his offer, but told him that he couldn't stay long because his mom was expecting him home soon. The truth was that he couldn't wait to be alone with Missy so they could conduct their experiment. Ken and Lisa registered their usual disappointment, but they were used to being rejected by Missy and Jody. Missy grabbed Jody's hand and escorted him to her room.

"Did you bring him?" she asked.

Jody unstrapped his knapsack and pulled Telly out.

"Where's Symby?" he asked.

Missy unlatched her trunk and retrieved Symby. It was time for their two little friends to meet each other.

"What if they start fighting and tear each other apart?" asked Missy, restating a concern she had expressed at school when they first came up with the idea.

"I told you," Jody said. "We just pull them apart and never let them near each other again. Anyway, how could they possibly hurt each other? They don't even have teeth or claws."

Missy remained apprehensive, but curiosity got the better of her.

"Okay, you put Telly down on my desk, and I'll bring Symby over," she said. "I'll bet they'll really like each other. I've always felt kind of sad that they don't have any friends of their own kind."

Jody placed Telly on the desk. Telly curled into a ball, as he always did when he wasn't attached to somebody. Missy held Symby in her hand and began walking over to the desk. Just a few feet away, she stopped short.

"Hey wait!" she exclaimed. "How will we know which one is which later?"

Jody contemplated this interesting question. He came back with the obvious answer. "What's the difference?" he said. "They look identical and they both do the same things, so why does it matter?"

Missy wasn't satisfied. "What if there's some subtle difference we can't see? I've got an idea." She walked to her night stand and pulled out a scotch tape dispenser. Shearing a small piece of tape off, she placed it onto Symby's back. Symby didn't seem to mind, and now she would be assured of getting her own little pet back.

"Aren't you going to label Symby's tape with an 'S' and put another piece labeled 'T' on Telly?" asked Jody.

Missy laughed. "We don't need to, dumbhead. All we have to do is remember that Symby is the one with the tape."

"Oh, right," said Jody, feeling foolish. He didn't like being laughed at, but she had demonstrated yet again that she really was smarter than him.

Missy strode to the desk and dropped Symby just a few inches away from Telly. Symby curled into a ball, just as Telly had. Missy and Jody waited and watched, and then waited and watched some more. Nothing happened. The experiment was a big disappointment. Eventually, boredom set in.

"Want to go watch that movie with my parents?" asked Missy.

"Sure, we might as well," answered Jody. "We can still catch the last hour at least. I'll just tell your parents that I called my mom and she said it was all right to stay and watch the movie."

Ken and Lisa were pleased to have the company of their two recluses. The movie contained plenty of explosions and special effects, and ended with the superhero dropping the invincible villain onto another planet, where he would be trapped for eternity. Jody and Missy thought it was a stupid movie, but wondered whether Telly and Symby were trapped on earth forever, too.

Jody diverted to the bathroom on the way back to Missy's room. Before he could even unzip, he heard Missy shriek. He ran to her room and got there just before her parents burst in. Missy was staring at Symby and Telly, who appeared to be fighting. They had congealed into one large indistinguishable ball of fur, and were rolling around on the desk, pulsating and vibrating intensely.

"What the hell is that!" Ken shouted as Lisa screamed. "Don't move. I'll get my shovel and get the damned thing out of here!"

As Ken turned to leave, Jody called him back. "Wait, Mr. Bryant, don't do that! It's okay, everything will be fine!"

Ken eyed the rolling ball of fur again and rejected Jody's request. "How can you say things are fine with that thing in here? I'm getting the shovel!"

By now, Missy had figured out what was really happening. She helped Jody stop her father.

"Jody's right, Dad!" she yelled. "If you hurt Symby or Telly, you'll be killing Jody and me. I'm sorry I screamed, but everything is fine now, so don't worry."

Lisa now added her input to the fray. "Get the shovel, Ken, get it!" she blared.

Ken paused, totally bewildered. "Who the hell are Symby and Telly?" he asked.

Jody and Missy exchanged knowing glances. The jig was up. Missy answered by pointing towards the rolling ball of fur.

"They are," she said. "If you kill them, you kill us. You don't think that I suddenly got better because of that stupid clinic's mega-vitamins and needles, do you?"

Now it was Lisa's turn to be confused. "This isn't making sense. For one thing, I only see one rat, so why are you calling it by two names?"

"Because there are actually two of them, you just can't see it right now. One belongs to me and the other to Jody. Actually, both of them technically belong to Jody, because he and his father found them first, but..."

This was more than Ken and Lisa could take. Ken turned purple. "You mean to say that Jody's father had something to do with putting rodents in our house?!"

"Daaad!" Missy groaned in frustration. "Of course not, but he found Telly at the same time that Jody found Symby. And they're not rats! Symby and Telly emit some kind of medicine that cures people. That's why both Jody and I are suddenly so much better. We're pretty sure they're both from another planet and..."

Ken put an abrupt end to Missy's statement. He hadn't disciplined his ailing daughter for a long time, but this seemed like an appropriate moment. "Young lady, you're just making things up like you did when you were little. You're too old to be dreaming about alien creatures that cure people. It's ridiculous and you know it!"

He turned to Jody, still red-faced. "Jody, I won't stand for you putting crazy ideas into Missy's head. You are banned from this house. Get out of here now!"

Pandemonium broke loose. Missy wailed and Jody protested but Lisa's viewpoint ultimately prevailed.

"You stay right here, Jody!" she commanded, and then turned her attention to her fuming husband. "Ken, calm down and think about what you're doing. You know Jody's been good for Missy, whether they make up stories or not. We should at least hear them out before making snap judgments. The fact is that Missy has been cured, at least for now. Haven't you wondered how vitamins and acupuncture managed to cure her, after all of the other technologies failed? And what about Jody? He seems to have made an amazing recovery too. Maybe there's something to what they're telling us."

The room fell silent as Ken considered Lisa's counsel. Before Ken could respond, Missy shouted again, pointing at Telly and Symby.

"Look, they separated!"

All eyes turned to the desk. Symby and Telly lay next to each other, touching slightly, but now clearly two distinct creatures. The loud pulsations had stopped, replaced by soft vibrations.

Ken suddenly got it. He began laughing uncontrollably, to the point where he was doubled over trying to catch his breath. Between gulps of air, he managed to croak out one short sentence.

"Somebody get those two a cigarette!"

Jimmy staggered out of his house, praying that his father wouldn't follow him. His battered body had taken as much abuse as it could withstand. He was bleeding from his nose and his head. His jaw throbbed and wasn't working the way it was supposed to. Pain wracked his body every time he tried to take a breath. His arm hung limply at his side. The only components of his body that remained intact were his legs. He began pumping them in a desperate attempt to escape.

He had run less than one hundred yards before the coughing began. He put his hand to his mouth to cover the coughs. When he drew his hand away, it was stained with blood. He could no longer run. He looked back frantically at his house. His father remained inside, either too drunk to follow or perhaps satisfied that he had successfully delivered yet another valuable lesson.

Jimmy needed help, but he was at a loss where to get it. He stumbled down the street, desperately searching for sanctuary. As he passed Stevie Watson's house, he regretted taunting Stevie at school. Stevie might have helped him if Jimmy hadn't been such a jerk. He couldn't think of anybody who would be willing to help him, until he came upon Willow Street. There was a person who lived on Willow Street who might be willing and able to deliver the help he so desperately needed.

Jimmy barely managed to ring Missy's doorbell before he doubled over in pain. He had been watching her furtively at school, taking pleasure in observing her apparent recovery from her terrible disease. He was sure that giving back Symby had had a lot to do with her obvious rejuvenation. He hoped that would be enough for her to come to his aid in his time of need.

Jimmy had been paying dearly for returning Symby to Missy. He had hoped that his father would stop beating him after the confrontation that had resulted in Jimmy coming out on top, but that was not to be. At the end of the day, his father was still an abusive alcoholic. His father's brain had been rotting for so long that Jimmy wasn't sure he even remembered Jimmy's lone victory. Jimmy had contemplated fighting back several times, but rejected the idea. The new Jimmy was forgiving and gentle. The new Jimmy was determined to keep his new persona no matter what the price. Today's price had been paid at the wrong end of a baseball bat, something that even he had not foreseen.

Jimmy heard Missy's small voice call from behind the locked door. "Who's there?"

"Missy, it's me, Jimmy Hines," he managed to say. "I need help! Please open up!"

Missy sounded suspicious. "Jimmy? What are you doing here? Is this some kind of trick?"

"No, it's no trick," gasped Jimmy. "I really need help. My dad hurt me pretty bad!"

Missy had been taught to keep the door closed when her parents weren't home, but she could clearly hear the desperation in Jimmy's voice. But what if Jimmy was just up to his old tricks? She had seen enough teen slasher movies to inspire caution.

"Jimmy, I'm sorry, but how do I know you're not here to take Symby back or hurt me?"

Jimmy was pleading now. "Please Missy, you've got to help me. I don't think I can make it anywhere..." Jimmy's voice dropped off. Something heavy thumped against the door.

"Jimmy?" said Missy. No answer. "Jimmy!" Still no answer.

Missy unlocked the door. A bloodied Jimmy lay crumpled on the small concrete porch. His chest heaved as he gasped for breath and looked up at her helplessly. This was no trick.

"Oh, my god!" exclaimed Missy. "Hold on, Jimmy, I'll call 911!" She ran back into her room, grabbed her cell phone and pulled Symby out of his trunk. She returned to find Jimmy in the same position she had left him in, splayed on the porch. Just before she called an ambulance, she dropped Symby onto Jimmy's heaving chest. She reached down and stroked Symby as she watched the little creature attach itself to Jimmy's chest.

"Symby you've got to help this boy," she begged, though she still had no reason to believe that Symby understood language. "Please help him!"

As she described the situation to the 911 operator, she noticed Symby's liquid spreading across Jody's shirt. By the time the ambulance arrived, Jimmy was breathing almost normally again. Before Missy greeted them, she pulled Symby off of Jimmy and placed him on her shoulder. She wondered whether Jimmy was better off with the ambulance or with Symby, but that ship had already sailed.

As the emergency medical services people began hauling Jimmy's gurney into the ambulance, Missy called out to him. "Jimmy, I'll visit you in the hospital and I'll bring Symby, so don't worry!"

One of the technicians, a large, black man with an outsized head and bulging eyes, looked back at her from the ambulance. "Who is Symby?" he asked, smiling.

Missy returned his smile as best she could. "Symby is a close friend of ours, a friend who is always there for us in times like this."

The technician spoke one last time just before the doors closed. "Sure wish I had a friend like that," he said. "Sounds to me like everyone needs a friend like that."

As the ambulance drove away, Missy turned to Symby, still attached to her shoulder. "He's right, you know, everyone needs a friend like you."