“And that says who you are?”
Even though he was purposely acting dumb, it made me feel better.
“Well, sort of. At birth, we get a birth certificate and a social security card. I suppose our social security number is much like your name embedded into your arm.”
“Can I see them?” He asked.
“I don’t have my birth certificate, but I have my ID.” I said.
The balcony creaked under my steps. All the weight it had undergone today may’ve unhinged it slightly. Or it was just a typical wrought iron balcony. However, I slid into the window and grabbed my purse. Sebastian followed me, sliding in the same way I had. It was funny. When he made it to my side, I handed over my driver’s license.
“What does all this mean?” He asked, tilting it around.
“There are water marks so it can’t be forged, dates to show my birthday, expiration, and age when I’m allowed to drink-”
“Allowed to drink? You are not allowed beverages until a certain age?” He was appalled.
“No, no. I said that wrong. We are not allowed alcoholic beverages until we are the age of 21. Regular beverages everyone can drink just fine. Although, some parents don’t let kids have soda.”
“What is this alcohol and soda?”
“Soda is just a sugary, bubbly drink. It’s not good for kids, anyway. And alcohol, well I guess it’s not good for anyone, really.”
An image of my father flashed in my eyes. The destruction, the mangled cars, I didn’t understand any of it until around the time I met Rida. She had been gentle with me. It had helped me create my own decision to never touch the stuff. If it made anyone like that, why would I want it?
“Then why do others wish to drink things that are bad for them? I liked the beverage in your fridge. What was that?”
“Fruit juice.” I said. “And I don’t know why people do the things they do.”
“You are upset again?”
“Yes, Sebastian. Did you forget about my father driving his car into a pole and him and my mother dying? Yeah, he did that because he drank too much alcohol.”
I didn’t mean to say it so rudely, but I couldn’t help it.
“Oh, oh my. I am so sorry. It wasn’t the alcohol that did that you know.”
“If he never drank it, he would never have done that. That’s why I will never touch the stuff.”
“This stuff you call alcohol, I think we have that in our world. Ours is delicious. You should try it, if you ever visited. of course.”
“Visit you?” I put everything back into my purse. “Can I?”
“I’m not sure… ” He trailed off.
I glanced up at him. Somehow. he made me so angry and yet. so happy. I couldn’t understand him. I liked him. He was so fascinating in all the dullness I had been used to. But with more things in my life, comes more drama.
“Okay. Well, let’s get going.” I laughed.
I put my heels back on then grabbed my car keys and purse. The cardigan I had on wasn’t really for out of the house adventures. It was warming up again now that the day had moved on. Maybe all I needed was the belt to tie the black in with the shoes? The arcade might be chilly.
When I ran down the hall, my bangs fell loose for the last time. I knew I had cut them too short. They’d be alright now with my hair dried. I pulled them free and fluffed my hair. Turning back to Sebastian, I placed the hair tie and bobby pins in their spot on my wrist.
“To the arcade?!” He called to me.
“Yes.” I laughed.
Spike was sitting there, next to Sebastian. It was pathetic. I could just tell they were scheming against me. He knew better, both of them. I had no control over this.
“He really would like to go with you.”
“Well, I told you, dogs aren’t allowed where we are going.”
“Yes, well... ”
Sebastian stood there with a face as sad as Spike’s. Pathetic.
“Yes. We can talk more in the car. C’mon.” I pulled him out the door.
This is awkward.
((hope is wanting to believe, faith is believing))
“What’s that?” Sebastian asked for the fifteenth time.
I was all for him wanting to learn, but he was really getting on my nerves. Isn’t this the stuff that he learned in his “school”, or wherever he learned about the human race?
“It’s Brick Backs.” I sighed.
“Brick Backs?”
“Yes, they serve food.”
“You mean it’s a market?”
“No. They have it all there, and they prepare whatever we want to eat.”
“I do not understand.”
“A market is where you go get the specific food you want, right?” I asked. I wanted to see what his definition of a market was, first.
“Yes... ”
“Okay, well in there, there is a menu that you pick the food you want to eat from. Then, after a few minutes or so, it comes to you, all ready.”
“And you eat every meal here? What about the fresh food?”
“Some people do.” I said.
My stomach growled, I was hungry.
“No wonder your breed is primarily fat, too.” He mumbled.
“Can’t argue with you there.”
“What’s that?” He asked pointing to a stop sign.
“It’s a stop sign. You don’t have those?”
“No, what does it do?” He asked.
“It controls traffic flow. How do you get around your city or whatever?”
“Aegyssus? We have predetermined routes that are only used for certain directions and needs. For example, the Drybucks are for inside our town. If my status was higher, and we were in dire need, we would use the Mainbucks.”
“What do you guys use for transportation?”
When we passed three street signs in silence, I finally looked over at him. He was just staring at me. I didn’t get it. I looked at the road then looked back at him.
“What?!”
“You’re serious?”
“Yes, Sebastian, tell me!”
“We have wings, Mirabelle.”
“Right, of course I knew that. Then why have roads? You literally hover fly everywhere?”
I imagined a line of him fluttering down a road. I saw them at a four way cross, bickering about who got there first with their fancy ties and briefcases. I tried not to laugh.
“The Mainbucks have a different mode of transportation, but I cannot speak of that. In the city, yes, we walk everywhere.”
“Hmm.” I sighed.
His world sounded like an uncivilized country that hadn’t been touched by technology. I was very much interested to know what they were learning from us. Could it be possible that technology wasn’t everything? He did have some form of magic, though, why would they need computers to do the work for them?
It was silent again. Maybe it was best to let the conversation die down. It was somewhat nice to have nothing to say. My thoughts could finally unravel. A lot had happened in the three days it took me to get through half a day. I still didn’t really understand it all myself, but that wasn’t important anymore. Joe had taken some serious risks with me. I wondered if I’d see him when we got back. Would he be waiting on me? We should have swapped numbers.
Slowing down, the GPS application on my phone showed me that I needed to be making a right soon. We were almost there. I decided to leave Joe at this spot. Sebastian deserved some of my attention for what he had done for me. His treatment here hadn’t exactly been all that it could have been on my end. I really hoped this made up for it.
The still hum of the car came to a stop as I cut the engine. Rolling up the windows, Sebastian was getting impatient. Maybe he was nervous? I couldn’t help but to laugh at him. I felt like he was my son on his birthday. I bet that’s how he felt, too. Oh goodness, his reaction once we actually got inside the place was going to be priceless. Why couldn’t they have cameras set up just inside the doors at places
like this, instead of the utmost worst twists on rollercoaster’s? I’d buy the picture of Sebastian entering the arcade.
Checking on him, I sighed when he was still sitting in the car. He was going to need me to drag him every step of the way, I just knew it. The door creaked and popped open. He still didn’t move.
“C’mon!” I urged him out.
He got up and suction cupped himself to my side. I knew it. Placing my arm around him, I patted his shoulder much like I would do Spike. Together, we walked across the wooden deck with my heels echoing every step of the way. Suddenly, I was yanked back. He stopped moving. Trying to figure out what would make him afraid, I realized we were about to pass over the suspended bridge. Why would he be afraid of that? The alligators were fake! Surely, he knew that.
I managed to peel his hand off my side and put my fingers around his. Squeezing with my other hand, I coaxed him forward. This man was made of bricks. Turning towards him, I took the daring steps onto the bridge to show him it was safe. His eyebrow went up. Was he trusting me? He really should trust me.
With curious eyes, he looked around me then at his own feet. I tugged lightly on him and nodded my head. His foot lifted up. Carefully, slowly, and cautiously, he placed it from solid ground to suspended bridge. His eyes were closed. He touched the wood and a sigh of relief escaped his lungs.
“You did it! Yay!!” I screamed.
I jumped up and down and danced in a circle. He smiled and danced in a circle with me. We danced all the way up to the other side together like complete total nutcases. I loved it. The door man was laughing at us. I guess it helped that he had a sense of humor. He certainly, on looks alone, did not belong welcoming kids and families into the place. Joe should be standing there. He’d get all sorts of people to feel welcome and want to spend as much money as possible to stay there with him. No, stop thinking of Joe, this is about Sebastian.
When he spoke, I was taken off guard again. The voice that came out of this big, round man was so light and bubbly. I should really stop judging people by their looks. Feeling bad for my previous thoughts, I went ahead and got the all-inclusive package. Hopefully, he’d get some sort of compensation for that. Damn, he was a good salesman.
The man pulled out a clump of orange wrist bands and peeled two off for us. Without another word, he taped the bands on our wrists then opened the door for us. It was like stepping into Wonka’s chocolate factory.
“Oh, wow.” Sebastian mumbled.
He was looking everywhere his eyes could see. Then, he grabbed my arms and danced with me again. I burst into giggles. He was adorable. I was so happy he was enjoying himself.
“Where do you want to go first?” I asked.
“I don’t even know. What is all of this?”
He took off to the right and stopped in front of a claw machine.
“Well, we are standing in the arcade area. There are token games, video games, and things that win you money. Over there, in that corner, there’s the laser tag arena. Out those doors is where the mini golf and go karts are. I have a feeling you’ll like laser tag the best.” I laughed.
I saw a vision of him and myself rolling through the fog. He would, of course, be like a ninja and bounce off walls, doing flips and things. I would be ducked low to the ground to take that final kill without him having a single clue it was coming. Who was I kidding? There was no way I’d beat an alien.
“Alien!” He snorted.
“You know what I meant.”
“Yeah. I’d win.” He laughed.
He grabbed my hand the way I had taken it on the deck, and smiled at me. Before I could smile back, he pulled me off to the next game. We went down, aisle after aisle, while he stopped in front of each of them for a second. I was laughing uncontrollably. People were looking at us like we were crazy, but I didn’t care. We were the crazy dancing duo who had never set foot in an arcade before, it suited us.
“This one.” He said stopping in front of one of the slot machines.
“Okay, well we have to go to the counter and get our tokens.”
“Tokens?”
“Yes, they’re the things that make these things work.”
“You mean you can’t just use them?” He asked.
I shook my head and sucked in my lips to apologetically tell him ‘no’. He raised his eyebrow and grinned. With both of his hands on either side of the machine, he lifted up his right hand and in slow motion, pushed the button. The machine went into action. The dial spun and music started playing all over the place. Someone must’ve just left a credit on it. He got lucky. I jumped when the music got louder. People stopped as they went to pass us to see what the commotion was about. Was it breaking? I looked at the screen and my jaw dropped when I saw the three stars sitting there. We had just won the jackpot. Well technically, he had.
“I can’t believe it! This whole time!”
I swatted his arm.
“What do you mean?” He whispered, although people were finally walking off.
He rubbed where I had hit him and I grabbed a cup next to the machine to start collecting all the tickets that were coming out. Apparently that was boring, because not a single person was left around us as I folded the tickets nicely.
“What do you mean, what do I mean?!”
I jumped up next to him and swatted his arm again.
“You can do magic?!” I hissed.
“Well, duh…” He said matter-of-factly. “How else do you think I change form, enter your world, and all those other things I’ve been doing?”
“What other things?”
I knelt back down and continued folding the tickets. There were so many of them.
“I just won on a machine without your precious tokens… ” He grinned.
“Oh, right. Well, still! You should have told me.”
“Forgive me.”
He started laughing. At this point I was tired of trying to make perfect folds so I was just waiting for all of the tickets to come out. This was insane. There had to be over a thousand already and they were still getting spewed out. We were going to need another cup at this rate. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Sebastian was holding one for me. I snatched it and folded up the others. When it finally stopped, he held his hand out again, this time to help me up. I was really going to have to start paying attention to him if I didn’t want to feel so stupid around him anymore.
“Where to now, Oh Great One?” I asked.
“Hmm, you pick one.”
He put his arm over my shoulders; I couldn’t help but to smile. It was nice. I didn’t think I was going to enjoy the arcade as much as I was. I grabbed his hand that was hanging over my shoulders and carried on. We passed all the slot machines and started towards the actual arcade games. I found the perfect one.
“This.” I said in front of the racing game.
“What’s the prize?” He asked.
“Bragging rights.” I smiled.
“What are bragging rights?”
“What?! You know, who gets to be better than the other one. Pride.”
“Ah, I know pride. You judge that off games?”
“We judge it off of winning, sometimes, yes. What we win from is to each their own.”
“I see. Well, if that’s really all you want to play for?”
“Mm-hmm.” I nodded my head.
I got on the motorcycle and set the cups down next to my ankle. He sighed and then got on the other one. He touched the buttons a few times and then the game started up. I felt a little bad that we were cheating, but this place had to rob enough people that a few lousy tokens wouldn't cost them.
“What level?” He called over to me.
“Um, let’s start with the easy one.” I said.
“That’s not a challenge!”
He winked at me then looked back at his screen. A whooshing sound erupted form the speakers when he clicked on the hardest level. I quickly clicked it, too, so I wouldn’t be left behind. Sebastian bent low and dug his
toes in like a pro. It’s times like this I wish I had a camera again. Then I realized that that meant he knew how to ride. That wasn’t fair! I was supposed to annihilate him. I was awesome at these games when I used to go to the arcade in the mall. The mall! I should have just taken him there. Nah, this was better. It was new to both of us.
The game started rumbling. It was almost go time. I quickly followed suit and tightened my grip on the bike. Fake revving the engine, I glared at him and he glared back. The edges of my lips curled into a grin that wanted desperately to smile. He was taking this so seriously! It was priceless.
The countdown started. When the flag was waved, we took off. I gunned it and my bike wobbled at the start up. Mario Kart would be shaking its head at me right now. The shakes led to a crash on the first turn. I did manage to side swipe about three other players. My laughter let itself free at that point. I couldn’t help it. Sebastian was paying no mind to me. He was completely into the game. I tried to imagine what was going through his mind when his eyes twitched.
The machine swerved under me and I realized that I had reset. I tried to go again, but I lost it. This was just too funny for me. My only goal was to wait for Sebastian to lap me so I could wreck him. Peeking over at his screen to see where he was, he held his hand up and pushed me back. Drats! He was on to me. I had to just let him win.
The lights started flashing on the monitor indicating it was the last lap. The fake motorcycle leaned in for the last turn towards me and I saw my opportunity. I reached out and grabbed his handlebars. The bike on the screen took a hard left and spun out of control. Three bikes zoomed by and I just sat there with a smug look on my face. Sebastian’s face slowly lost all focus.
“Hey!” He called out. I started laughing again. “That wasn’t fair.” He sat up as the race finished.
“I didn’t know you were a professional driver.” I said.
“I’m not, it’s just a passion.”
His eyes shined a beautiful violet. I grinned at him. The screen flashed a continue offer, but I declined it. This game was not for us.
“I thought you guys didn’t have vehicles, you just walked everywhere?”
“Hence, passion. We love collecting your possessions and making them our own.”
Monsters & Fairytales Page 15