A Tale of Two Dead Ringers - Chapter 7
OK, since chapter 6 had already been covered by most fragments, here's an all-new chapter 7, with no repeated parts. Enjoy! Next installment, on Sunday.
Title: Chapter 7 - Mr. T Cookie Jar
Word count: 3,593
Chapter count: 21
Previous chapters: Chapter summaries, Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6
Observations: Do you remember Mr. T? Well, he's having a special participation in our story.
Previously on "A Tale of Two Dead Ringers"
It's Halloween, and a mystery makes it necessary for two identical men, Aaron and Ned, to switch places. It involves voodoo dolls representing Ned and Chuck, anonymous notes threatening Emerson and his friends, an old lady with a muffins poisoned with “the zombie drug,” and a sinister coroner who moonlights as travel agent between two strangely magical lands.
Aaron convinces Ned to go to Niagara Falls to protect his sister. He goes in search of the infamous Muffin lady, their number one suspect, so the danger won't get anywhere near Chuck and his friends.
Summary of Chapter 5 - “Bearskin Rug”
Ned has a strange dream in which he's in a beautiful garden having a picnic with all his friends, even his dead mother, and a younger version of Chuck and himself. The dream gives him a warm, comfortable feeling probably triggered by the family dinner he had with the Tylers. In the dream, he kisses Chuck and, confused, he asks her how come they can touch. She says it's because they know the secret. He asks her to tell him the secret again, but then is awoken by a meowing cat.
Ned realizes he's in Niagara Falls, passing as Aaron Tyler. Ned decides to give the Tylers a present and prepares them the best breakfast they've ever had.
However, since Aaron can't cook, the Tylers receive the present with great concern, and don't know how to respond to such an unusual and unexpected situation. But at some level, Aaron's mother senses there's good in that situation, bonds with Ned, and tells him good-bye when she leaves home to work.
When Ned thinks he's out of danger, he's “attacked” by Aaron's girlfriend, Mahandra. Ned is in trouble because he can barely remember her name, but a slice of his magic pie wins her over. She becomes too friendly, as she leaves her romantic intentions very clear. Ned, trying to run away from her, trips and falls on a bearskin rug with Mahandra. The rug growls and dies again.
Right at that moment, they notice Jaye right in front of them. Mahandra is confused and wonders if there was a growling animal in the room. Jaye finds the situation funny, until her expression changes and is filled with concern. She tells Aaron (Ned) to come with her and he, with pleasure and relief, complies.
VII
Mr. T Cookie Jar
“At this very moment in the town of Niagara Falls, young Jaye Tyler was 10 years, three weeks and twelve minutes of age, and she was going to school with her brother and sister. But studying was the last thing in this little girl's mind. Young Jaye had a secret admirer!”
Jaye is in the back of a big car between Aaron and Sharon. The three kids are impeccably dressed. Jaye's long brown hair is perfectly straight, with not a single hair out of place.
She opens a colorful metal box, revealing a card with a romantic read heart drawn with crayons in a very hesitant and erratic way. Below the heart, she can see the words, 'I love you,' also written in a childish and insecure handwriting.
Jaye removes the card. Beneath it, the box is full of chocolate chip cookies. Sharon tries to get one of the cookies, but Jaye slaps her hand. She closes the box, and presses it against her chest. She looks at Sharon and then at Aaron with the yes of a hungry animal.
“Or perhaps, the last thing that passed in little Jaye's mind was sharing her chocolate chip cookies.”
The car stops and the door opens by itself. The three kids leave without saying a word.
“The first morning classes passed seemed to drag forever for Jaye, but finally it was recess time. Divided by her thoughts on who her admirer could be, and the chocolate flavor of those fine chocolates, she had little room in her life to socialize with other girls. Instead, she was more than happy to spend her time by herself, daydreaming and wondering which of those handsome (and older) boys was her admirer.”
Jaye sits at a bench in the school yard, detached to the commotion of the other kids who play not very far to her. She observes a group of older boys play an excited basketball game, admiring the players' athletic skills, among other of their more evident characteristics.
“Jaye considered herself self-sufficient, and was proud of it. But sometimes, she enjoyed the connection with another human being, as long as it was on her own terms. The good thing is, if things didn't work out, she could go back to being reclusive, detached, and in absolute control.”
She opens the metal box, and takes a cookie, which she starts eating. She smiles at one of the players, a blond kid. The boy looks at her with a confused look, but then goes back to play.
“And young Jaye soon remembered exactly why she liked to be self-sufficient, as she was reminded of the dangers of opening up too hastily.”
A very big and chubby boy sits next to her. The redhead kid looks at her and smiles. He points at the card in the box.
“What young Jaye hadn't expected was that her secret admirer would be the school bully, the same one that made her life, and that of all the other kids, a living hell whenever he could. And once a bully, even if it's a bully in love, always a bully.”
Jaye seems weary at the presence of the heavy kid. She slides away from the boy as far as she can, without falling off the bench. The boy gets near her again anyway.
Suddenly he kisses her on the cheek. Startled, she stands up, and starts to walk away. The redhead boy, follows her and stands right in front of Jaye. Now he's angry.
“And like every bully, this one didn't like to be contradicted, and had his own sense justice. 'If you don't like me,' he would say, 'it's OK, just give me my cookies back!'”
The boy tries to pull the cookie box from her hands. He's rough, but she's tough. Little Jaye ends on the ground, hurting her buttocks. But she won't let go of her cookies, and, most important of all, won't cry. Meanwhile, her sister Sharon watches the whole altercation, but won't do a thing.
“Fortunately, not all was lost for young Jaye. Filled with sheer courage and relentless determination, her brother Aaron decided to take action, and teach that nasty kid a lesson.”
Young Aaron, seeming to have appeared out of nowhere, taps the bully on his back. Jaye's brother makes an angry face, closes his fist, and delivers his best punch on the bully's cheek.
“However, sheer courage and relentless determination aren't always enough to win a fight in a school yard. And there's usually a good reason why the bully is a bully.”
The big boy is unfazed, and Aaron's punch has little or no effect on him. The bully gives a wicked smile, because now he seems to feel he has all the justifications to be mean.
“My turn!” he says, and punches Aaron on the nose, throwing him on the ground.
“But if the bully could easily face one Tyler, he would soon find out that when facing two Tylers at the same time, the odds would start to be against him.”
Now Jaye is behind the redhead, and kicks his shin. The bully screams in pain. Then she starts hitting him with the metal box. The box opens, and cookies spread all over the place.
When the bully is ready to fight Jaye, Aaron, even with his nose bleeding jumps on him and the big kid falls to the ground, like King Kong from the Empire State Building. Jaye hits the bully again.
“The worst had passed and that kid had learned a lesson: don't mess with the Tylers. But those two Tyler kids also had a lesson to learn: that tough actions, even when necessary and justified, always had consequences one would have to live with.”
Now, Aaron and Jaye are sitting at a bench near a door with a sign which reads “PRINCIPAL.” Jaye's hair is no longer perfectly straight. Aaron's clothes are no longer impeccable, he has a purple eye, and one of his nostrils is stuffed with a piece of bloodstained cotton. In other words, those two kids are a real mess!
Little blonde Sharon comes and stops right in front of them with a disapproval look.
“I'm going to tell mom and dad all about it,” she says and walks away.
Jaye opens her metal box, which now is greatly dented. Miraculously, there are still two chocolate chip cookies in it.
“Young Jaye would also learn a lesson of her own. That there are some people in this world who are worth sharing your last cookies with.”
Jaye offers Aaron one of the cookies. He smiles, and both laugh. He bites the cookie carefully, because his jaw also seems to hurt...
* * *
(October 31st, Halloween morning - Niagara Falls - Jaye Tyler's trailer)
Jaye Tyler woke up in her trailer in the High and Dry trailer park. She was awoken by an argument, the same argument her nearest neighbors, a noisy couple that spent all the time fighting, had every morning. Something about his drinking, and her uninhibited social behavior, as far as Jaye could understand.
But Aaron Tyler's youngest sister was OK with all that chaos. In fact, that made her feel alive because those were real people with real problems. And besides, the more her neighbors complained about one another, the less they'd meddle in her life. And privacy was something she enjoyed greatly.
Her sleep had been light and convoluted because she had a lot in her mind. First, she was still intrigued by Aaron's behavior the night before. His customary sarcasm was gone, and he seemed to be a little lost in his own home, with his own family. But at the same time, she felt a reassuring connection with her brother.
However, if her brother's quirks were her only source of concern, that would be something she could handle just fine, because she had other concerns to have trouble sleeping. As she lay awake in bed, tossing and turning, she thought about the circumstances in which she had last talked to her boyfriend Eric.
Eric was a nice guy, a real do-gooder, and this is one of the things that she found attractive in him to begin with. But there was a limit for everything. She just wished she had found a nicer way to express that the last time they had talked at that bus station.
“So, Jaye, you understand why I have to do this, right?”
“Eric, I understand why you won't refuse helping her,” said Jaye. “But what I don't understand is why you have to drop everything just because your ex-wife claims she needs you!”
“Heidi is going through a very rough moment right now. She broke up with her fiancé and she needs my help to sell her apartment in Manhattan. That's what friends are for, Jaye.”
“Come on! Did you forget everything that she did?”
Maybe Eric had forgotten, but Jaye never did. She remembered very well how lost Eric had been feeling when she first met him. After all, coming to Niagara Falls to spend your honeymoon, just to catch your wife in the act, doing it with the bellboy was enough to destroy anybody's faith in love. And as if that wasn't enough, Heidi left, and when Eric was finally moving on and building a relationship with Jaye, the ex once again returned to Niagara to claim it was her right to have what now Eric and Jaye shared. But in the end Jaye and Eric's relationship was strong enough and he regained his faith in love, especially now that he had Jaye.
“It's precisely because I got my heart broken that I know how difficult it is to deal with the problem when it happens. How could I say no to her?”
That's right. He couldn't say no, and the same thing that Jaye loved in Eric, his kindness and readiness to help, was what was driving a wedge between them right now.
As Jaye was about to protest, she noticed the lizard picture on Eric's shirt wink at her. “Tell him to go,” said the lizard in a deep eerie voice. “Tell him to go.”
Oh, yes. The fact that Jaye could hear subliminal and outright explicit messages from figurines (as long as they had a face) or any cartoon animals whatsoever, didn't make things easy for her mental and emotional stability. The only thing that helped was the fact she believed there was some hidden wisdom in that surreal intrusion.
Jaye was too fed-up with the whole situation to resist. She no longer had the stamina to go against the wishes of her surreal talking muses. Besides their advice had to be for the best, and defying them had serious consequences. She had learned that the hard way.
“Fine, Eric. If you must go, then go.”
“Tell him you're happy he's going,” said the lizard with a provocative grin.
A teenage girl passed by them, and then stopped, looking around to find her bus. She was carrying a backpack showing a big, round, stylized, yellow happy face.
“Don't worry. Be happy!” said the face, in a childish, high pitched tone.
“Good, because I would like you to be fine with this. It would make things so much easier for us.”
“Don't worry. Be happy!” said the two figures in a strange, unharmonious chorus.
“No, Eric. I'm sorry. I can't make things easy for you,” Jaye blurted, despite her muses advice. “And I WON'T make things easier for her. If you still think you can go, then go!”
Eric paused for a moment and then lowered his head. Maybe he was looking for an excuse to go. Maybe he was just disappointed. But Jaye decided to give him any more time to think. She turned on her heel and started walking away from him.
She made a few steps, then stopped. Deep inside she had hopes that he would come to her, give her a warm hug and say he wouldn't go if that bothered her so much. OK, so she hadn't completely obeyed the muses. She had told him to go, but wouldn't lie and say she was fine with that. Big deal! She had given him a chance to see the error of his ways, while she still had caught the gist of the muses' “suggestion.”
She stood there a few seconds... then, a minute... then realized she might stay there the whole night. She turned around and looked at where Eric had stood. He was no longer there. And a few yards further, his bus was moving away.
Things wouldn't have been so bad if Eric had come back to Jaye the night before, like he had promised to. But apparently he had found some good reason to remain in New York City, which made Jaye feel guilty because that might have been a consequence to the fact she hadn't obeyed the lizard, and never told Eric she was happy he was going. At least she had spent a surprisingly pleasant dinner with her family in an evening in which her brother had been particularly charming.
Well, definitely with so much in her mind, Jaye couldn't stay in bed, even if it was her vacation week, and she loved sleeping until late whenever she had a chance. So, she promptly got up.
She stumbled to the other end of the trailer where her kitchen area was. What could she eat? She wasn't particularly hungry that morning and she was too lazy to fix breakfast. Perhaps she could grab a bite at her parents'. But that would mean having to talk to mom and dad, and no matter how well things had turned out the night before, she was always worried about giving too much space to her overbearing folks.
Then she noticed her cookie jar sitting on an upper shelf, Mr. T cookie jar. She didn't like it very much, but it had been a well-humored present from her brother Aaron. There was an old TV show with this man or something, and when Aaron saw the cookie jar with Mr. T's face in a garage sale, her brother told her he had to buy it. Then he told her, “Mr. T will protect your chocolate chip cookies. His angry mood will chase the bullies away.” She knew it was a joke, but she also knew he cared, so how could she refuse that weird piece of china?
Jaye picked Mr. T, which was a glossy brown porcelain jar in the shape of the head or a mean-looking African American wrestler/actor, with many necklaces and a Mohawk haircut. She removed the top of the head, holding it by the Mohawk. She peeked inside: there were two chocolate chip cookies. How great is it when you find a hidden treat you forgot you had? She took one, and looked at the object.
“You're ugly,” she sentenced.
“Yo, man! And you're a fool!” replied the cookie jar.
“Oh, great. Just what I need,” she let out impatiently. “I've had you for months. You never talked before, why start today?” she asked as she got the cookie closer to her mouth.
“I ain't talking if I ain't got nothing to say! Now I do. Save one for Aaron!”
Mr. T Cookie Jar spoke with a gruff, angry voice, with that African American intonation she imagined Mr. T himself would use.
“What?” She stopped before biting the cookie.
“Save one for Aaron! Listen up, fool! Stuff this cookie in my head and I'll help keep it fresh and safe for Aaron.”
“OK, OK. I'll just eat one then. I'll give the other one to my brother.”
“No! Put it back! And if I catch you trying to get it, I'll bite your foolish fingers off. I'm Mr. T, damnit!”
“Hey, relax, OK. All right. I'll share the cookies with my brother. But I have an idea. If you let me have one, I'll get you more necklaces!”
“I love me some bling-bling! I believe in the Golden Rule: The Man with the Gold... Rules.”
“So do we have a deal?” said Jaye with a wicked smile.
“Thanks, but no thanks. Save one for Aaron. And I pity the fool that tries to get up in my dome piece and steal my cookies!”
“But I'm hungry,” she protested.
“Big deal! As a kid, I got three meals a day. Oatmeal, miss-a-meal and no meal," retorted the cookie jar.
“Yeah? So, what are you gonna do?” challenged Jaye. “It's not like you have arms to stop me,” she said, provoking Mr. T, swinging the cookie in front of his nose.
“No, but I can give a disapproving look...”
Mr. T Cookie Jar then frowned and stared at Jaye. She chuckled, but then, as the silence grew uncomfortable, she started feeling restless. She rested the cookie on saucer.
“Put the cookie back in my head, fool! And bring your brother here! Give him the cookie!”
“I don't want to go there and risk meeting my mother,” she reasoned.
“Treat your momma right!” commanded Mr. T.
“But...”
“Shut up! Quit yo jibba jabba, sucka.”
Definitely that was one of the most outspoken figurines she had ever come across. Yep, that serious, disapproving look was effective. Besides, she wasn't that hungry, or at least she tried to convince herself, so she placed the cookie back in Mr. T's head, and closed it.
So, she had to bring her brother? She might do it later. She would like to talk to him about the night before, but maybe she'd rather stay home and do nothing for awhile. Loitering was always a good option. But then something made her change her mind.
“Save him from her,” said the Brass Monkey.
“What?”
“Save him from her!” insisted the monkey.
Jaye remembered the last time the monkey had spoken. It was a couple years ago, and he had said the same thing. And because she had listened to him, she prevented a deranged woman from killing her psychiatrist, Dr. Ron. But now, Mr. T had just talked about Aaron. Maybe her brother needed saving? Well, it was worth giving it a try.
She changed her clothes, and went to the door, just to hear again:
“Save him from her.”
She decided then to come back and take the Brass Monkey.
“You're so heavy to carry around,” she complained. “Why don't I get messages from the Wax Lion anymore instead?” She looked at the Wax Lion.
“Hmpf...” said the lion as it shrugged.
* * *
A little later she was parking in the Tylers' driveway. She was looking for the door key in her purse, and that was even harder than usual because she had to carry that heavy Brass Monkey, when she heard a terrifying sound coming from the inside,
“GROWWWWWL!!!!”
“Save him from her!” said the Brass Monkey.
What could it have been? A wild dog? She found the key, opened the door, and darted into the house. Then she saw a funny and weird scene that would forever be engraved in her memory: Mahandra was on top of Ned, both on the living room bearskin rug.
“What's going on here?” Jaye asked. She felt like laughing, but made an effort not to.
Jaye looked at Mahandra, who was holding a piece of Aaron's torn sweatshirt. Mahandra looked strangely pale, like she had just seen a ghost or something.
“Something... Something just growled in here... I think...” She looked at the bearskin, then looked at Jaye. “Something roared. Jaye, do you have a dog?”
Jaye looked at Ned, who immediately responded,
“No, the rug didn't growl!”
That scene was so weird, but inherently funny. Is Mahandra the danger I was supposed to save Aaron from? Jaye thought. Jaye couldn't hold her laughter any longer. She laughed, making Mahandra angry.
“Don't you laugh at me! I ain't crazy!” she protested.
Jaye then looked at the rug's bear head, and suddenly it winked at her.
“Yes, I growled. Hee, hee, hee,” said the bearskin rug. It spoke with a deep male voice, but the laughter was a little high-pitched. “What are you going to do, Jaye?” asked the bearskin rug in a mocking tone.
She looked at the man she thought was her brother, and he, too, was pale like a candle.
“Don't be ridiculous, Mahandra. Bearskins don't growl,” said Jaye, trying to fix things, but causing more damages in the process. “You ain't crazy! Come with me, Aaron.”
“Hey, I never said it was the bearskin,” protested Mahandra again.
“Gotta go, miss,” said Ned, pushing Mahandra aside. “I'll catch up with you later.”
Ned quickly responded. He pushed Mahandra aside. And so Ned and Jaye walked away very quickly, leaving a bewildered Mahandra behind on top of the rug, apparently still trying to figure out what was going on.
Title: Chapter 7 - Mr. T Cookie Jar
Word count: 3,593
Chapter count: 21
Previous chapters: Chapter summaries, Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6
Observations: Do you remember Mr. T? Well, he's having a special participation in our story.
Previously on "A Tale of Two Dead Ringers"
It's Halloween, and a mystery makes it necessary for two identical men, Aaron and Ned, to switch places. It involves voodoo dolls representing Ned and Chuck, anonymous notes threatening Emerson and his friends, an old lady with a muffins poisoned with “the zombie drug,” and a sinister coroner who moonlights as travel agent between two strangely magical lands.
Aaron convinces Ned to go to Niagara Falls to protect his sister. He goes in search of the infamous Muffin lady, their number one suspect, so the danger won't get anywhere near Chuck and his friends.
Summary of Chapter 5 - “Bearskin Rug”
Ned has a strange dream in which he's in a beautiful garden having a picnic with all his friends, even his dead mother, and a younger version of Chuck and himself. The dream gives him a warm, comfortable feeling probably triggered by the family dinner he had with the Tylers. In the dream, he kisses Chuck and, confused, he asks her how come they can touch. She says it's because they know the secret. He asks her to tell him the secret again, but then is awoken by a meowing cat.
Ned realizes he's in Niagara Falls, passing as Aaron Tyler. Ned decides to give the Tylers a present and prepares them the best breakfast they've ever had.
However, since Aaron can't cook, the Tylers receive the present with great concern, and don't know how to respond to such an unusual and unexpected situation. But at some level, Aaron's mother senses there's good in that situation, bonds with Ned, and tells him good-bye when she leaves home to work.
When Ned thinks he's out of danger, he's “attacked” by Aaron's girlfriend, Mahandra. Ned is in trouble because he can barely remember her name, but a slice of his magic pie wins her over. She becomes too friendly, as she leaves her romantic intentions very clear. Ned, trying to run away from her, trips and falls on a bearskin rug with Mahandra. The rug growls and dies again.
Right at that moment, they notice Jaye right in front of them. Mahandra is confused and wonders if there was a growling animal in the room. Jaye finds the situation funny, until her expression changes and is filled with concern. She tells Aaron (Ned) to come with her and he, with pleasure and relief, complies.
VII
Mr. T Cookie Jar
“At this very moment in the town of Niagara Falls, young Jaye Tyler was 10 years, three weeks and twelve minutes of age, and she was going to school with her brother and sister. But studying was the last thing in this little girl's mind. Young Jaye had a secret admirer!”
Jaye is in the back of a big car between Aaron and Sharon. The three kids are impeccably dressed. Jaye's long brown hair is perfectly straight, with not a single hair out of place.
She opens a colorful metal box, revealing a card with a romantic read heart drawn with crayons in a very hesitant and erratic way. Below the heart, she can see the words, 'I love you,' also written in a childish and insecure handwriting.
Jaye removes the card. Beneath it, the box is full of chocolate chip cookies. Sharon tries to get one of the cookies, but Jaye slaps her hand. She closes the box, and presses it against her chest. She looks at Sharon and then at Aaron with the yes of a hungry animal.
“Or perhaps, the last thing that passed in little Jaye's mind was sharing her chocolate chip cookies.”
The car stops and the door opens by itself. The three kids leave without saying a word.
“The first morning classes passed seemed to drag forever for Jaye, but finally it was recess time. Divided by her thoughts on who her admirer could be, and the chocolate flavor of those fine chocolates, she had little room in her life to socialize with other girls. Instead, she was more than happy to spend her time by herself, daydreaming and wondering which of those handsome (and older) boys was her admirer.”
Jaye sits at a bench in the school yard, detached to the commotion of the other kids who play not very far to her. She observes a group of older boys play an excited basketball game, admiring the players' athletic skills, among other of their more evident characteristics.
“Jaye considered herself self-sufficient, and was proud of it. But sometimes, she enjoyed the connection with another human being, as long as it was on her own terms. The good thing is, if things didn't work out, she could go back to being reclusive, detached, and in absolute control.”
She opens the metal box, and takes a cookie, which she starts eating. She smiles at one of the players, a blond kid. The boy looks at her with a confused look, but then goes back to play.
“And young Jaye soon remembered exactly why she liked to be self-sufficient, as she was reminded of the dangers of opening up too hastily.”
A very big and chubby boy sits next to her. The redhead kid looks at her and smiles. He points at the card in the box.
“What young Jaye hadn't expected was that her secret admirer would be the school bully, the same one that made her life, and that of all the other kids, a living hell whenever he could. And once a bully, even if it's a bully in love, always a bully.”
Jaye seems weary at the presence of the heavy kid. She slides away from the boy as far as she can, without falling off the bench. The boy gets near her again anyway.
Suddenly he kisses her on the cheek. Startled, she stands up, and starts to walk away. The redhead boy, follows her and stands right in front of Jaye. Now he's angry.
“And like every bully, this one didn't like to be contradicted, and had his own sense justice. 'If you don't like me,' he would say, 'it's OK, just give me my cookies back!'”
The boy tries to pull the cookie box from her hands. He's rough, but she's tough. Little Jaye ends on the ground, hurting her buttocks. But she won't let go of her cookies, and, most important of all, won't cry. Meanwhile, her sister Sharon watches the whole altercation, but won't do a thing.
“Fortunately, not all was lost for young Jaye. Filled with sheer courage and relentless determination, her brother Aaron decided to take action, and teach that nasty kid a lesson.”
Young Aaron, seeming to have appeared out of nowhere, taps the bully on his back. Jaye's brother makes an angry face, closes his fist, and delivers his best punch on the bully's cheek.
“However, sheer courage and relentless determination aren't always enough to win a fight in a school yard. And there's usually a good reason why the bully is a bully.”
The big boy is unfazed, and Aaron's punch has little or no effect on him. The bully gives a wicked smile, because now he seems to feel he has all the justifications to be mean.
“My turn!” he says, and punches Aaron on the nose, throwing him on the ground.
“But if the bully could easily face one Tyler, he would soon find out that when facing two Tylers at the same time, the odds would start to be against him.”
Now Jaye is behind the redhead, and kicks his shin. The bully screams in pain. Then she starts hitting him with the metal box. The box opens, and cookies spread all over the place.
When the bully is ready to fight Jaye, Aaron, even with his nose bleeding jumps on him and the big kid falls to the ground, like King Kong from the Empire State Building. Jaye hits the bully again.
“The worst had passed and that kid had learned a lesson: don't mess with the Tylers. But those two Tyler kids also had a lesson to learn: that tough actions, even when necessary and justified, always had consequences one would have to live with.”
Now, Aaron and Jaye are sitting at a bench near a door with a sign which reads “PRINCIPAL.” Jaye's hair is no longer perfectly straight. Aaron's clothes are no longer impeccable, he has a purple eye, and one of his nostrils is stuffed with a piece of bloodstained cotton. In other words, those two kids are a real mess!
Little blonde Sharon comes and stops right in front of them with a disapproval look.
“I'm going to tell mom and dad all about it,” she says and walks away.
Jaye opens her metal box, which now is greatly dented. Miraculously, there are still two chocolate chip cookies in it.
“Young Jaye would also learn a lesson of her own. That there are some people in this world who are worth sharing your last cookies with.”
Jaye offers Aaron one of the cookies. He smiles, and both laugh. He bites the cookie carefully, because his jaw also seems to hurt...
* * *
(October 31st, Halloween morning - Niagara Falls - Jaye Tyler's trailer)
Jaye Tyler woke up in her trailer in the High and Dry trailer park. She was awoken by an argument, the same argument her nearest neighbors, a noisy couple that spent all the time fighting, had every morning. Something about his drinking, and her uninhibited social behavior, as far as Jaye could understand.
But Aaron Tyler's youngest sister was OK with all that chaos. In fact, that made her feel alive because those were real people with real problems. And besides, the more her neighbors complained about one another, the less they'd meddle in her life. And privacy was something she enjoyed greatly.
Her sleep had been light and convoluted because she had a lot in her mind. First, she was still intrigued by Aaron's behavior the night before. His customary sarcasm was gone, and he seemed to be a little lost in his own home, with his own family. But at the same time, she felt a reassuring connection with her brother.
However, if her brother's quirks were her only source of concern, that would be something she could handle just fine, because she had other concerns to have trouble sleeping. As she lay awake in bed, tossing and turning, she thought about the circumstances in which she had last talked to her boyfriend Eric.
Eric was a nice guy, a real do-gooder, and this is one of the things that she found attractive in him to begin with. But there was a limit for everything. She just wished she had found a nicer way to express that the last time they had talked at that bus station.
“So, Jaye, you understand why I have to do this, right?”
“Eric, I understand why you won't refuse helping her,” said Jaye. “But what I don't understand is why you have to drop everything just because your ex-wife claims she needs you!”
“Heidi is going through a very rough moment right now. She broke up with her fiancé and she needs my help to sell her apartment in Manhattan. That's what friends are for, Jaye.”
“Come on! Did you forget everything that she did?”
Maybe Eric had forgotten, but Jaye never did. She remembered very well how lost Eric had been feeling when she first met him. After all, coming to Niagara Falls to spend your honeymoon, just to catch your wife in the act, doing it with the bellboy was enough to destroy anybody's faith in love. And as if that wasn't enough, Heidi left, and when Eric was finally moving on and building a relationship with Jaye, the ex once again returned to Niagara to claim it was her right to have what now Eric and Jaye shared. But in the end Jaye and Eric's relationship was strong enough and he regained his faith in love, especially now that he had Jaye.
“It's precisely because I got my heart broken that I know how difficult it is to deal with the problem when it happens. How could I say no to her?”
That's right. He couldn't say no, and the same thing that Jaye loved in Eric, his kindness and readiness to help, was what was driving a wedge between them right now.
As Jaye was about to protest, she noticed the lizard picture on Eric's shirt wink at her. “Tell him to go,” said the lizard in a deep eerie voice. “Tell him to go.”
Oh, yes. The fact that Jaye could hear subliminal and outright explicit messages from figurines (as long as they had a face) or any cartoon animals whatsoever, didn't make things easy for her mental and emotional stability. The only thing that helped was the fact she believed there was some hidden wisdom in that surreal intrusion.
Jaye was too fed-up with the whole situation to resist. She no longer had the stamina to go against the wishes of her surreal talking muses. Besides their advice had to be for the best, and defying them had serious consequences. She had learned that the hard way.
“Fine, Eric. If you must go, then go.”
“Tell him you're happy he's going,” said the lizard with a provocative grin.
A teenage girl passed by them, and then stopped, looking around to find her bus. She was carrying a backpack showing a big, round, stylized, yellow happy face.
“Don't worry. Be happy!” said the face, in a childish, high pitched tone.
“Good, because I would like you to be fine with this. It would make things so much easier for us.”
“Don't worry. Be happy!” said the two figures in a strange, unharmonious chorus.
“No, Eric. I'm sorry. I can't make things easy for you,” Jaye blurted, despite her muses advice. “And I WON'T make things easier for her. If you still think you can go, then go!”
Eric paused for a moment and then lowered his head. Maybe he was looking for an excuse to go. Maybe he was just disappointed. But Jaye decided to give him any more time to think. She turned on her heel and started walking away from him.
She made a few steps, then stopped. Deep inside she had hopes that he would come to her, give her a warm hug and say he wouldn't go if that bothered her so much. OK, so she hadn't completely obeyed the muses. She had told him to go, but wouldn't lie and say she was fine with that. Big deal! She had given him a chance to see the error of his ways, while she still had caught the gist of the muses' “suggestion.”
She stood there a few seconds... then, a minute... then realized she might stay there the whole night. She turned around and looked at where Eric had stood. He was no longer there. And a few yards further, his bus was moving away.
Things wouldn't have been so bad if Eric had come back to Jaye the night before, like he had promised to. But apparently he had found some good reason to remain in New York City, which made Jaye feel guilty because that might have been a consequence to the fact she hadn't obeyed the lizard, and never told Eric she was happy he was going. At least she had spent a surprisingly pleasant dinner with her family in an evening in which her brother had been particularly charming.
Well, definitely with so much in her mind, Jaye couldn't stay in bed, even if it was her vacation week, and she loved sleeping until late whenever she had a chance. So, she promptly got up.
She stumbled to the other end of the trailer where her kitchen area was. What could she eat? She wasn't particularly hungry that morning and she was too lazy to fix breakfast. Perhaps she could grab a bite at her parents'. But that would mean having to talk to mom and dad, and no matter how well things had turned out the night before, she was always worried about giving too much space to her overbearing folks.
Then she noticed her cookie jar sitting on an upper shelf, Mr. T cookie jar. She didn't like it very much, but it had been a well-humored present from her brother Aaron. There was an old TV show with this man or something, and when Aaron saw the cookie jar with Mr. T's face in a garage sale, her brother told her he had to buy it. Then he told her, “Mr. T will protect your chocolate chip cookies. His angry mood will chase the bullies away.” She knew it was a joke, but she also knew he cared, so how could she refuse that weird piece of china?
Jaye picked Mr. T, which was a glossy brown porcelain jar in the shape of the head or a mean-looking African American wrestler/actor, with many necklaces and a Mohawk haircut. She removed the top of the head, holding it by the Mohawk. She peeked inside: there were two chocolate chip cookies. How great is it when you find a hidden treat you forgot you had? She took one, and looked at the object.
“You're ugly,” she sentenced.
“Yo, man! And you're a fool!” replied the cookie jar.
“Oh, great. Just what I need,” she let out impatiently. “I've had you for months. You never talked before, why start today?” she asked as she got the cookie closer to her mouth.
“I ain't talking if I ain't got nothing to say! Now I do. Save one for Aaron!”
Mr. T Cookie Jar spoke with a gruff, angry voice, with that African American intonation she imagined Mr. T himself would use.
“What?” She stopped before biting the cookie.
“Save one for Aaron! Listen up, fool! Stuff this cookie in my head and I'll help keep it fresh and safe for Aaron.”
“OK, OK. I'll just eat one then. I'll give the other one to my brother.”
“No! Put it back! And if I catch you trying to get it, I'll bite your foolish fingers off. I'm Mr. T, damnit!”
“Hey, relax, OK. All right. I'll share the cookies with my brother. But I have an idea. If you let me have one, I'll get you more necklaces!”
“I love me some bling-bling! I believe in the Golden Rule: The Man with the Gold... Rules.”
“So do we have a deal?” said Jaye with a wicked smile.
“Thanks, but no thanks. Save one for Aaron. And I pity the fool that tries to get up in my dome piece and steal my cookies!”
“But I'm hungry,” she protested.
“Big deal! As a kid, I got three meals a day. Oatmeal, miss-a-meal and no meal," retorted the cookie jar.
“Yeah? So, what are you gonna do?” challenged Jaye. “It's not like you have arms to stop me,” she said, provoking Mr. T, swinging the cookie in front of his nose.
“No, but I can give a disapproving look...”
Mr. T Cookie Jar then frowned and stared at Jaye. She chuckled, but then, as the silence grew uncomfortable, she started feeling restless. She rested the cookie on saucer.
“Put the cookie back in my head, fool! And bring your brother here! Give him the cookie!”
“I don't want to go there and risk meeting my mother,” she reasoned.
“Treat your momma right!” commanded Mr. T.
“But...”
“Shut up! Quit yo jibba jabba, sucka.”
Definitely that was one of the most outspoken figurines she had ever come across. Yep, that serious, disapproving look was effective. Besides, she wasn't that hungry, or at least she tried to convince herself, so she placed the cookie back in Mr. T's head, and closed it.
So, she had to bring her brother? She might do it later. She would like to talk to him about the night before, but maybe she'd rather stay home and do nothing for awhile. Loitering was always a good option. But then something made her change her mind.
“Save him from her,” said the Brass Monkey.
“What?”
“Save him from her!” insisted the monkey.
Jaye remembered the last time the monkey had spoken. It was a couple years ago, and he had said the same thing. And because she had listened to him, she prevented a deranged woman from killing her psychiatrist, Dr. Ron. But now, Mr. T had just talked about Aaron. Maybe her brother needed saving? Well, it was worth giving it a try.
She changed her clothes, and went to the door, just to hear again:
“Save him from her.”
She decided then to come back and take the Brass Monkey.
“You're so heavy to carry around,” she complained. “Why don't I get messages from the Wax Lion anymore instead?” She looked at the Wax Lion.
“Hmpf...” said the lion as it shrugged.
* * *
A little later she was parking in the Tylers' driveway. She was looking for the door key in her purse, and that was even harder than usual because she had to carry that heavy Brass Monkey, when she heard a terrifying sound coming from the inside,
“GROWWWWWL!!!!”
“Save him from her!” said the Brass Monkey.
What could it have been? A wild dog? She found the key, opened the door, and darted into the house. Then she saw a funny and weird scene that would forever be engraved in her memory: Mahandra was on top of Ned, both on the living room bearskin rug.
“What's going on here?” Jaye asked. She felt like laughing, but made an effort not to.
Jaye looked at Mahandra, who was holding a piece of Aaron's torn sweatshirt. Mahandra looked strangely pale, like she had just seen a ghost or something.
“Something... Something just growled in here... I think...” She looked at the bearskin, then looked at Jaye. “Something roared. Jaye, do you have a dog?”
Jaye looked at Ned, who immediately responded,
“No, the rug didn't growl!”
That scene was so weird, but inherently funny. Is Mahandra the danger I was supposed to save Aaron from? Jaye thought. Jaye couldn't hold her laughter any longer. She laughed, making Mahandra angry.
“Don't you laugh at me! I ain't crazy!” she protested.
Jaye then looked at the rug's bear head, and suddenly it winked at her.
“Yes, I growled. Hee, hee, hee,” said the bearskin rug. It spoke with a deep male voice, but the laughter was a little high-pitched. “What are you going to do, Jaye?” asked the bearskin rug in a mocking tone.
She looked at the man she thought was her brother, and he, too, was pale like a candle.
“Don't be ridiculous, Mahandra. Bearskins don't growl,” said Jaye, trying to fix things, but causing more damages in the process. “You ain't crazy! Come with me, Aaron.”
“Hey, I never said it was the bearskin,” protested Mahandra again.
“Gotta go, miss,” said Ned, pushing Mahandra aside. “I'll catch up with you later.”
Ned quickly responded. He pushed Mahandra aside. And so Ned and Jaye walked away very quickly, leaving a bewildered Mahandra behind on top of the rug, apparently still trying to figure out what was going on.