Lucky Indeed
Title: Lucky Indeed
Fandom: Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
Character(s): Wilt
Genre: Drama
Rating: K+/PG
Disclaimers: Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends © Craig McCracken
Notes: Another show that I think none of my other friends have really seen. Oh well. I think it's cute, and I love one of the main characters. That's why I wrote a story about him. A lot of fans wondered about his origins, especially since he's missing an arm, looks like he's had stitches, and his left eye doesn't even seem to work. But he's always willing to help and apologizes when things go back, even when it's not his fault. So, a lot of fans wrote stories to fill the gaps about what happened to him and why. And of course, I'm no exception. So....yeah, that's where this came from. Enjoy.
Summary: Wilt shares a story with Mac, telling the tale of how he was created and how he came to live at Foster's.
Lucky Indeed
The sound of a roaring cheer could be heard in the TV room, the glow from the television screen falling upon a tall, red imaginary friend sitting on the couch. He listened as the sound of the crowd picked up again, and his larger eye watched as the orange ball flew into the basket, causing the crowd to cheer even louder. He appeared to be entranced by the basketball game, but even he noticed as a small, familiar boy with brown hair walked into the room, accompanied by his small blue friend.
“Hey Wilt,” the boy and imaginary friend both said as they entered.
“Hey Mac, Bloo,” the taller friend replied, waving at them.
“Whatcha watching?” Mac asked, looking at the television.
“I was just flipping through when I found a basketball game…”
“Yeah, great,” Bloo said sarcastically, sitting on the couch next to Wilt. “Say, can I see the remote?”
“Sure…” Extending his elongated arm, the cheerful imagination picked up the remote, handing it to the other.
“Thanks,” Bloo replied, grinning slightly. “You don’t mind if I change it, do you?”
“Um….” Wilt glanced at the television with his good eye. “I guess….” But before he could finish, the smaller friend had already changed the channel.
“Bloo!” Mac chastised. “Wilt was watching that!”
“Hey, it’s okay, Mac,” the troublesome friend replied, waving the other off. Looking at the taller one, he said, “You don’t mind, do you?”
“Nah,” Wilt replied, getting to his feet and towering over the two. “That’s okay. You two enjoy, I’ve got other things to do anyway.”
“Yeah, thanks……” Bloo said, already engrossed in the show.
Smiling a little, the optimistic one headed to the door and walked out of the room, a few easy steps for his lengthy legs.
“Hey Wilt!” Mac called after the tall friend, hurrying after him.
The basketball player stopped, turning back to the boy. “What’s up, Mac?” he asked. “Do you need anything?”
“No, it’s not that…” the boy replied, stopping in front of the other. “I just wanted to say sorry for what Bloo did…”
“Oh, that’s no problem, Mac. The game was halfway over, anyway…”
Mac blinked a little. He was pretty used to Wilt’s easy-going nature, but he often wondered why the cheerful imagination acted the way he did. It was a bit hard to believe that anyone could act that carefree.
“Well, you know that you can say no to Bloo every once in a while.”
Wilt shook his head. “I couldn’t do that. Besides, I really don’t mind.”
The boy frowned a little. “Not even once in a while? You seem to never mind…”
“I know. I really don’t. I’m pretty used to it…”
“How come?” Mac asked, more curious than ever about the basketball player’s cheerful and almost subservient disposition.
Wilt just shrugged slightly. “I don’t know. I guess I just am…I’ve been doing it so long, it’s just natural, you know?”
“But why?” the boy pushed farther. “Does it have something to do with your creator?”
It was at that point that Wilt froze, looking down at the small boy. Even his crazy left eye seemed to stop rolling. An expression of pain seemed to pass over the normally cheerful friend’s face, and he turned away from the boy quickly.
Realizing that he must have hit a sensitive nerve, Mac quickly said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to….”
“No, no!” Wilt said suddenly, turning back to the other, once again his merry self. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”
It always amazed Mac how Wilt would always apologize for things, even if it wasn’t his fault or if the situation didn’t really need an apology.
“It’s just…” the imagination continued, “it’s been a long time since I thought about my creator…I mean……I guess I think about him all the time……But I try not to remember what happened then……”
“What do you mean?” Mac asked, though he tried to be careful about being too nosy.
“Well…” Wilt waved the stump that remained of his left arm. “This is a constant reminder……”
The boy’s eyes widened slightly. “What….happened then……?”
“Well…I guess I should tell you a little more about my creator first…”
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to…If it’s too painful for you……”
“Nah, I don’t mind…”
“Well…” Mac replied hesitantly, “okay……”
“See…Bobby, my creator……Oh, he was a great kid. You kind of remind me of him, actually……”
“I do?” the boy asked.
Wilt grinned slightly. “Yeah. Bobby was pretty smart for his age. He was also kind of shy, but he was a pretty nice kid. And he loved to play basketball. Whenever he wasn’t busy, Bobby would always head to the park and shoot some hoops.
“But Bobby didn’t have a lot of friends, and both his parents worked a lot, so Bobby was mostly alone at the house. He didn’t like the woman who took care of him very much, mainly because she would never let him play basketball that much. So one day……well, I was created…….Of course, I had both my arms then, and my eyes were both the same size…and both worked, too……”
“But you were the same height, right?”
Wilt nodded. “Yup. See, even though Bobby loved to play basketball, he was pretty small for his age. So he made me tall, and I’d carry him up to the basket.” The cheerful friend smiled as he recollected such memories. “Bobby and I had a lot of fun then……Eventually, Bobby’s parents put me in charge of not only Bobby, but the house. Things were pretty good for a while……”
“But….what happened……?”
The tall imagination sighed softly. “Well, one day, when he was about your age, Bobby and I were heading for the park to play basketball, like we usually did. When we were crossing the street, though, this truck tried to run the red light……I guess the driver didn’t see us…”
Mac’s eyes widened slightly, but he said nothing, wanting the other to continue.
“Neither of us noticed the truck until it was too close…” Wilt looked down at his one hand. “I didn’t know what else to do, so I pushed Bobby out of the way just as the truck came at me……Things pretty much blacked out after that……
“When I woke up, I found myself in the hospital. I didn’t notice anything at first, until I started looking around and I saw Bobby lying in the bed next to mine. The doctors later told me that when I pushed him out of the way of the truck, I accidentally pushed him into the way of a car……I lost an arm and an eye that day……But both of Bobby’s legs were permanently paralyzed……
“The doctors gave me this fake eye and some stitches for my injuries, even though they couldn’t do anything about my arm…But they couldn’t do anything for Bobby, who was in a slight coma for a while. And even though his parents never said anything, I knew they were thinking that it was my fault that Bobby would never be able to walk again, and I knew they were right.”
“But you didn’t know that the other car was coming,” Mac argued.
“But I still pushed him in the way…” Wilt replied softly, looking at the ground. “When Bobby finally was able to return to school, all the other kids ignored him, because he was so different. And his parents began to work more than ever, to pay off the expenses for the hospital. Bobby’s life became a lot harder after the accident……For most other kids, it would have been a distressing time.
“But Bobby……he remained as cheerful as he could…He said that…with me around, he didn’t feel upset.” The basketball player rubbed the back of his head. “I couldn’t understand why he didn’t blame me for what happened to him, or how he could still want me around after the accident, but I wanted to do anything I could to make his life easier. So I began to do anything he asked me to do…any little chore, errand, anything to make him smile, make him laugh, or even just to make him proud of me. I didn’t mind doing all those things……I just wanted to make him happy……”
“Sounds like you two were really close…” Mac said softly.
“Yeah…I guess we were…..Bobby didn’t have any other friends, because of his handicap……But that made me want to help him even more. I wanted to do everything I could to make up for what happened……for everything he lost and everything he would never gain……And…even though it was hard with only one arm…I still helped him play basketball……because that’s what he wanted most to do, even without his legs……”
“I never knew……that your life had been so hard……”
Wilt shrugged nonchalantly. “I don’t really talk about it…No one ever really asks…”
‘So that’s why he acts that way,’ the boy thought. ‘He’s so used to doing things for Bobby, and so used to being cheerful for Bobby’s sake, it became automatic for him and he kept doing things and being cheerful for everyone else…’ Looking up at the cheerful friend, the boy asked, “So then, how did you end up here?”
“Well…” Wilt thought for a moment. “Sometime after Bobby turned thirteen…”
“Thirteen?!”
“Yeah……Like I said, Bobby didn’t have a lot of friends, and I made a promise to him that I’d stay until he had another friend……”
“Oh…Did he find one?”
“Yeah…a little while after his thirteenth birthday, a girl named Katherine moved in next door to us. She saw me and Bobby in the driveway, and she came over to talk to Bobby. She didn’t mind that he was in a wheelchair and couldn’t walk, or that he still had an imaginary friend. Katherine really seemed to like Bobby, and it was obvious that Bobby liked her too.
“Bobby began to spend a lot of time with Katherine, and the more time he spent with her, the less time he spent with me. Sometimes, after he came home from an afternoon with Katherine, he wouldn’t even talk to me. I think he even forgot I was still around.”
“Didn’t you mind?”
“Not at all……I was just glad that he was happy, and far be it for me to stop anything that made Bobby happy. I spent years doing everything I could for him to make him as happy as possible, but I knew he was happier with Katherine than I could ever make him. So, finally, I packed my things and left.”
“Just like that?” Mac asked, surprised. “Did he even notice you were gone?”
“Not that I know of…” Wilt replied thoughtfully, sounding as though nothing was wrong. “I was wandering around on the streets for a few days……That’s when I met Frankie, and she took me back here……”
“Wow……” the boy said, gathering everything that the friendly imagination had told him. ‘He acts so cheerful, no one would ever know that all these things happened to him……’
“I’m sorry,” Wilt said suddenly, “did I talk too much?”
“No, not at all. It’s just……I’m sorry all these things happened to you……”
“Oh, don’t be sorry. It’s fine, really. Everything turned out okay.”
Mac smiled a little. “You’re gonna make a great friend for another kid one day…”
Wilt chuckled softly. “Oh, I don’t know about that. I don’t think anyone would want to adopt someone like me…”
“Why not? You’re a great imaginary friend. I’m sure one day, you’ll be adopted by a kid who would really appreciate and need you…”
The tall imagination blinked in surprise. That was the first time he had heard that from anyone. Before he could reply, however, Bloo’s voice called from the TV room, “Mac, hurry up! You’re missing the best part!”
“Coming!” the boy replied. Looking back at the tall friend, he asked, “You wanna watch with us?”
“Nah, that’s okay…” the friend replied. “I’ve got other things I need to do…”
“Okay……see ya later…” With that, Mac turned and headed back into the TV room.
Watching the boy leave, Wilt smiled a little before he headed in the opposite direction. Perhaps one day, he would be adopted by a child. A child who wouldn’t care about what he looked like, who would be happy for who he was.
But until then, he would think about how good his life had been already. He had had a wonderful creator and friend, he now had a great and comfortable place to live, and he was surrounded by awesome friends, including a boy who treated Wilt as one of his own.
He knew Mac could never replace Bobby in his heart. He knew Mac wasn’t his creator, that he wasn’t exactly like the very first friend he had ever had. But he didn’t need to be. Mac wasn’t Bobby, and that was perfectly fine. It was just because he was Mac that the cheerful friend was accepted for who he was, and was once again loved by a child who had plenty to share.
Wilt smiled to himself. His life had been very difficult, and he wouldn’t wish it on anyone. But despite everything he had been through, he knew he was lucky indeed.
The End
Fandom: Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
Character(s): Wilt
Genre: Drama
Rating: K+/PG
Disclaimers: Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends © Craig McCracken
Notes: Another show that I think none of my other friends have really seen. Oh well. I think it's cute, and I love one of the main characters. That's why I wrote a story about him. A lot of fans wondered about his origins, especially since he's missing an arm, looks like he's had stitches, and his left eye doesn't even seem to work. But he's always willing to help and apologizes when things go back, even when it's not his fault. So, a lot of fans wrote stories to fill the gaps about what happened to him and why. And of course, I'm no exception. So....yeah, that's where this came from. Enjoy.
Summary: Wilt shares a story with Mac, telling the tale of how he was created and how he came to live at Foster's.
Lucky Indeed
The sound of a roaring cheer could be heard in the TV room, the glow from the television screen falling upon a tall, red imaginary friend sitting on the couch. He listened as the sound of the crowd picked up again, and his larger eye watched as the orange ball flew into the basket, causing the crowd to cheer even louder. He appeared to be entranced by the basketball game, but even he noticed as a small, familiar boy with brown hair walked into the room, accompanied by his small blue friend.
“Hey Wilt,” the boy and imaginary friend both said as they entered.
“Hey Mac, Bloo,” the taller friend replied, waving at them.
“Whatcha watching?” Mac asked, looking at the television.
“I was just flipping through when I found a basketball game…”
“Yeah, great,” Bloo said sarcastically, sitting on the couch next to Wilt. “Say, can I see the remote?”
“Sure…” Extending his elongated arm, the cheerful imagination picked up the remote, handing it to the other.
“Thanks,” Bloo replied, grinning slightly. “You don’t mind if I change it, do you?”
“Um….” Wilt glanced at the television with his good eye. “I guess….” But before he could finish, the smaller friend had already changed the channel.
“Bloo!” Mac chastised. “Wilt was watching that!”
“Hey, it’s okay, Mac,” the troublesome friend replied, waving the other off. Looking at the taller one, he said, “You don’t mind, do you?”
“Nah,” Wilt replied, getting to his feet and towering over the two. “That’s okay. You two enjoy, I’ve got other things to do anyway.”
“Yeah, thanks……” Bloo said, already engrossed in the show.
Smiling a little, the optimistic one headed to the door and walked out of the room, a few easy steps for his lengthy legs.
“Hey Wilt!” Mac called after the tall friend, hurrying after him.
The basketball player stopped, turning back to the boy. “What’s up, Mac?” he asked. “Do you need anything?”
“No, it’s not that…” the boy replied, stopping in front of the other. “I just wanted to say sorry for what Bloo did…”
“Oh, that’s no problem, Mac. The game was halfway over, anyway…”
Mac blinked a little. He was pretty used to Wilt’s easy-going nature, but he often wondered why the cheerful imagination acted the way he did. It was a bit hard to believe that anyone could act that carefree.
“Well, you know that you can say no to Bloo every once in a while.”
Wilt shook his head. “I couldn’t do that. Besides, I really don’t mind.”
The boy frowned a little. “Not even once in a while? You seem to never mind…”
“I know. I really don’t. I’m pretty used to it…”
“How come?” Mac asked, more curious than ever about the basketball player’s cheerful and almost subservient disposition.
Wilt just shrugged slightly. “I don’t know. I guess I just am…I’ve been doing it so long, it’s just natural, you know?”
“But why?” the boy pushed farther. “Does it have something to do with your creator?”
It was at that point that Wilt froze, looking down at the small boy. Even his crazy left eye seemed to stop rolling. An expression of pain seemed to pass over the normally cheerful friend’s face, and he turned away from the boy quickly.
Realizing that he must have hit a sensitive nerve, Mac quickly said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to….”
“No, no!” Wilt said suddenly, turning back to the other, once again his merry self. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”
It always amazed Mac how Wilt would always apologize for things, even if it wasn’t his fault or if the situation didn’t really need an apology.
“It’s just…” the imagination continued, “it’s been a long time since I thought about my creator…I mean……I guess I think about him all the time……But I try not to remember what happened then……”
“What do you mean?” Mac asked, though he tried to be careful about being too nosy.
“Well…” Wilt waved the stump that remained of his left arm. “This is a constant reminder……”
The boy’s eyes widened slightly. “What….happened then……?”
“Well…I guess I should tell you a little more about my creator first…”
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to…If it’s too painful for you……”
“Nah, I don’t mind…”
“Well…” Mac replied hesitantly, “okay……”
“See…Bobby, my creator……Oh, he was a great kid. You kind of remind me of him, actually……”
“I do?” the boy asked.
Wilt grinned slightly. “Yeah. Bobby was pretty smart for his age. He was also kind of shy, but he was a pretty nice kid. And he loved to play basketball. Whenever he wasn’t busy, Bobby would always head to the park and shoot some hoops.
“But Bobby didn’t have a lot of friends, and both his parents worked a lot, so Bobby was mostly alone at the house. He didn’t like the woman who took care of him very much, mainly because she would never let him play basketball that much. So one day……well, I was created…….Of course, I had both my arms then, and my eyes were both the same size…and both worked, too……”
“But you were the same height, right?”
Wilt nodded. “Yup. See, even though Bobby loved to play basketball, he was pretty small for his age. So he made me tall, and I’d carry him up to the basket.” The cheerful friend smiled as he recollected such memories. “Bobby and I had a lot of fun then……Eventually, Bobby’s parents put me in charge of not only Bobby, but the house. Things were pretty good for a while……”
“But….what happened……?”
The tall imagination sighed softly. “Well, one day, when he was about your age, Bobby and I were heading for the park to play basketball, like we usually did. When we were crossing the street, though, this truck tried to run the red light……I guess the driver didn’t see us…”
Mac’s eyes widened slightly, but he said nothing, wanting the other to continue.
“Neither of us noticed the truck until it was too close…” Wilt looked down at his one hand. “I didn’t know what else to do, so I pushed Bobby out of the way just as the truck came at me……Things pretty much blacked out after that……
“When I woke up, I found myself in the hospital. I didn’t notice anything at first, until I started looking around and I saw Bobby lying in the bed next to mine. The doctors later told me that when I pushed him out of the way of the truck, I accidentally pushed him into the way of a car……I lost an arm and an eye that day……But both of Bobby’s legs were permanently paralyzed……
“The doctors gave me this fake eye and some stitches for my injuries, even though they couldn’t do anything about my arm…But they couldn’t do anything for Bobby, who was in a slight coma for a while. And even though his parents never said anything, I knew they were thinking that it was my fault that Bobby would never be able to walk again, and I knew they were right.”
“But you didn’t know that the other car was coming,” Mac argued.
“But I still pushed him in the way…” Wilt replied softly, looking at the ground. “When Bobby finally was able to return to school, all the other kids ignored him, because he was so different. And his parents began to work more than ever, to pay off the expenses for the hospital. Bobby’s life became a lot harder after the accident……For most other kids, it would have been a distressing time.
“But Bobby……he remained as cheerful as he could…He said that…with me around, he didn’t feel upset.” The basketball player rubbed the back of his head. “I couldn’t understand why he didn’t blame me for what happened to him, or how he could still want me around after the accident, but I wanted to do anything I could to make his life easier. So I began to do anything he asked me to do…any little chore, errand, anything to make him smile, make him laugh, or even just to make him proud of me. I didn’t mind doing all those things……I just wanted to make him happy……”
“Sounds like you two were really close…” Mac said softly.
“Yeah…I guess we were…..Bobby didn’t have any other friends, because of his handicap……But that made me want to help him even more. I wanted to do everything I could to make up for what happened……for everything he lost and everything he would never gain……And…even though it was hard with only one arm…I still helped him play basketball……because that’s what he wanted most to do, even without his legs……”
“I never knew……that your life had been so hard……”
Wilt shrugged nonchalantly. “I don’t really talk about it…No one ever really asks…”
‘So that’s why he acts that way,’ the boy thought. ‘He’s so used to doing things for Bobby, and so used to being cheerful for Bobby’s sake, it became automatic for him and he kept doing things and being cheerful for everyone else…’ Looking up at the cheerful friend, the boy asked, “So then, how did you end up here?”
“Well…” Wilt thought for a moment. “Sometime after Bobby turned thirteen…”
“Thirteen?!”
“Yeah……Like I said, Bobby didn’t have a lot of friends, and I made a promise to him that I’d stay until he had another friend……”
“Oh…Did he find one?”
“Yeah…a little while after his thirteenth birthday, a girl named Katherine moved in next door to us. She saw me and Bobby in the driveway, and she came over to talk to Bobby. She didn’t mind that he was in a wheelchair and couldn’t walk, or that he still had an imaginary friend. Katherine really seemed to like Bobby, and it was obvious that Bobby liked her too.
“Bobby began to spend a lot of time with Katherine, and the more time he spent with her, the less time he spent with me. Sometimes, after he came home from an afternoon with Katherine, he wouldn’t even talk to me. I think he even forgot I was still around.”
“Didn’t you mind?”
“Not at all……I was just glad that he was happy, and far be it for me to stop anything that made Bobby happy. I spent years doing everything I could for him to make him as happy as possible, but I knew he was happier with Katherine than I could ever make him. So, finally, I packed my things and left.”
“Just like that?” Mac asked, surprised. “Did he even notice you were gone?”
“Not that I know of…” Wilt replied thoughtfully, sounding as though nothing was wrong. “I was wandering around on the streets for a few days……That’s when I met Frankie, and she took me back here……”
“Wow……” the boy said, gathering everything that the friendly imagination had told him. ‘He acts so cheerful, no one would ever know that all these things happened to him……’
“I’m sorry,” Wilt said suddenly, “did I talk too much?”
“No, not at all. It’s just……I’m sorry all these things happened to you……”
“Oh, don’t be sorry. It’s fine, really. Everything turned out okay.”
Mac smiled a little. “You’re gonna make a great friend for another kid one day…”
Wilt chuckled softly. “Oh, I don’t know about that. I don’t think anyone would want to adopt someone like me…”
“Why not? You’re a great imaginary friend. I’m sure one day, you’ll be adopted by a kid who would really appreciate and need you…”
The tall imagination blinked in surprise. That was the first time he had heard that from anyone. Before he could reply, however, Bloo’s voice called from the TV room, “Mac, hurry up! You’re missing the best part!”
“Coming!” the boy replied. Looking back at the tall friend, he asked, “You wanna watch with us?”
“Nah, that’s okay…” the friend replied. “I’ve got other things I need to do…”
“Okay……see ya later…” With that, Mac turned and headed back into the TV room.
Watching the boy leave, Wilt smiled a little before he headed in the opposite direction. Perhaps one day, he would be adopted by a child. A child who wouldn’t care about what he looked like, who would be happy for who he was.
But until then, he would think about how good his life had been already. He had had a wonderful creator and friend, he now had a great and comfortable place to live, and he was surrounded by awesome friends, including a boy who treated Wilt as one of his own.
He knew Mac could never replace Bobby in his heart. He knew Mac wasn’t his creator, that he wasn’t exactly like the very first friend he had ever had. But he didn’t need to be. Mac wasn’t Bobby, and that was perfectly fine. It was just because he was Mac that the cheerful friend was accepted for who he was, and was once again loved by a child who had plenty to share.
Wilt smiled to himself. His life had been very difficult, and he wouldn’t wish it on anyone. But despite everything he had been through, he knew he was lucky indeed.
The End