(no subject)
Apr. 25th, 2006 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
joegoda'My life is good." thought Pockets.
He sat on one of the stones of the parapet outside of what he called his room. It was in the Keep, and very high up. Pockets didn't really like to be that high, but he loved the view, so he figured the trade off was worth it.
From his perch, he could see the entire kingdom. He could see the lights on in the Mansion and see tiny figures moving against the lights. He pretended he could hear laughter from the group as Bags told them tales from their adventures or jokes that he had heard a thousand times.
He imagined sitting there, among the family, eating and talking and just being... normal. He sighed. He knew, for all his imagining and wishing that it would never be, could never be true.
His life, his mind, drifting between hither and yon, this world and the next and the one after that, was made up of such stuff that even he did not understand it. He envied Bags, for his normalcy, for his love of Grizelda, for the ability to walk down the street and not wonder at ... for simply being able to walk down the street with a calm mind.
He was not sad, truly. He was, if anything, perhaps a bit melancholy, a bit cheered, a bit distant. He did, indeed, love his life. All the little things that came and went, the adventures, the bad times, the good times. And the people. Ah, yes. It was the people that he met.
Grizelda, with her never ending capacity to love, to accept, to try to understand. How lucky was he to have her in his life. How fortunate to have someone that would be there to correct him when he was wrong, to love him for all his faults and oddities.
Capitani, with her bottomless joy and love of everything and everyone. Her husband Thom seemed like a very good man, incredibly supportive. Bren, whose real name was Josh, but Capitani introduced him as Bren just as a joke. Exactly the sort of thing she'd do. Josh or Bren, either way, was a lucky boy to have such parents. The boy himself, bright and curious with a wicked sense of humor. Yes, he'd do fine in the future.
'Good lord!' he thought to himself. 'How many have there been? Hundreds? Thousands?' And now there was Journiey, who was going to teach him one of the things that had always been outside his reach.
And there was Bags. Bags from the beginning and Bags to the end. Friend, brother, father. There were no words, only images of past adventures.
A tear ran down his smiling face. He paid it no mind. He wondered, though at the amount of tears he had shed over the past few weeks. It was as if he had never cried before, there seemed to be so many.
"Maybe I'm getting old." he said. "Sensitive in my old age."
He longed to hear the music of the Queen's Gamboni again, to talk to Bruce or listen to Suzy's laughter as she went off on one of her wild tales of their adventures. He knew they had gone to a land where she said magic ruled, and he wondered how it all turned out.
"Thinking and thinking and solving problems I create", he thought aloud. "That's all I'm really good for."
A figure detached from the wall behind him. It was dressed in the black and white, day and night of her trade. Capitani crossed over to where Pockets was sitting, and joined him. Her legs dangled over the edge and as she swung them, her heels would make a rhythmic thump on the stones.
"I figured I'd find you up here. Bren was asking about you." she said, looking off in to the distance.
"I thought his name is Josh." Pockets said.
"If I start to call him Josh now, everyone will be confused." she laughed. "So here, in this place, I'll call him Bren. At least for a little while. Maybe on his next birthday I'll change his name to the right one."
The two sat in silence, looking out over the kingdom. Lights could be seen coming on or going off in the various houses, shacks, and shops.
"It's beautiful up here." She said, interrupting the night.
"Yes." he agreed. "It is."
"You know, Pockets," she began, "if I had not have met Thom..." she let it trail off.
"I like it up here," he said, "because up here it's quiet. Because up here, there's just me and my thoughts, and up here I can't cause any trouble."
"Shall I go, then?" she asked, looking at him.
He turned and looked at her full in the face. He took in the tired brow, the blue eyes that shone with just the start of a tear and he shook his head. "No. It's okay. I was just ... somewhere else."
"Somewhere sad?" she asked.
"No. Not really." He sighed. Somewhere in the distance, in the dark, a few notes of a flute floated up to them. "Actually, I was thinking how lucky I am, to have all the people in my life. People like you." He started to reach up to stroke her cheek, but stopped half way and the hand softly drifted back to his lap. "Sometimes I don't think I deserve them, Capitani."
"Ah, but Pockets." she said. "Have you ever stopped to think that these very people feel the same way about you? That without you in their life, it would be so very dull and lifeless?"
She reached over, picked up his hand and stroked her cheek with it. He stiffened slightly, but she ignored it, and continued to hold his hand. "I won't go anywhere, my friend. Not yet, anyway."
Softly, in a far off voice, he replied, "I know."
Night birds twittered in counter-point to the flute, which was a good thing, because while the birds knew their song, the flautist apparently did not. Overhead, a shooting star dropped from the sky to circle the planet and fling itself back out into the void. Bigun, the larger of the twin moons shone down with reflected light, and smiled.
"Just old ghosts, Capi." Pockets said. "I have a wonderful life." He nodded. "Yes I do. There are just some times, though..."
"I know, Pockets. We all have those moments." she filled in the space.
"I wish I could tell you what is in my head. I wish I could show you the things I have seen. There are times when I wish to find the Mad Wizard and have him take back all the gifts that he gave me." He looked over at her. "I don't know everything, you know?"
She laughed and hugged him and kissed his cheek. Then she stood up and walked the dangerous parapet for a few feet before doing a handstand and bouncing back to sit next to him.
"Pockets", she said, in a deep and sonorous voice, "nobody knows everything! Their head would blow up!" She poked him in the ribs, which got a wriggle out of him. She bopped him on the top of his head, which got a poke at her in response.
"There you go! Come back to life, little Pockets." she smiled at him. "When you go away, it makes me feel sad and lonely."
"You have Thom, and Jo.. Bren. Now, you have Griz and Bags, too." he said.
"Ah, this is true, this is true." She sang as she hopped off the parapet and stood with her hands on her hips, facing him. She stood there so long in silence that Pockets had to turn around and look back. Quick as a wink, perhaps a bit quicker, she rushed up to him, pulled his face forward with both her hands and kissed him full on the lips. Then she let him go, without removing her hands.
"Do not think, not for one second, Mister Chester Pockets, that you being out of anyone’s life will keep them from being sad and lonely. YOU are, and you always will be the one, the only, truly incredible Pockets."
She leaned forward as if to whisper in his ear. Instead, she gently bit it, which produced a yelp from him. "And that was for ever, ever thinking otherwise!" She bounded away from him, while he reached up and rubbed the place where her teeth had been.
"That hurt, Capitani!" he complained.
"Oh, don't be such a baby!" she said. She put her hands behind her back and wriggled at him with a mischevious smile on her face. "I brought you a present."
"You did what?" Pockets asked, uncomprehendingly.
"I brought you a present! Well... actually, it was Thom and Bren, but they asked me, and I told them I thought it was perfect. So the three of us went back to the Midway and we got it for you." She disappeared through the doors to his bedroom. A second later, her head popped back out to say, "Wait here." before disappearing. A moment after that it reappeared to say "Don't go anywhere." and she was gone.
The third time it popped back to ask "Have you gone yet?" Pockets cried out "Capi!" And she came out on to the parapet with her hands behind her back.
"Now, it's not much, but I want to tell you the story first. Is that all right?" she asked.
Pockets nodded.
"Thom and Bren were walking through the midway when they saw this thing. It was a small thing, but they said it reminded them so much of you, they just had to have it, but they came and got me to make sure."
"Sure of what?" Pockets asked.
"That you'd take it. That you'd accept it." she answered. "So, when I saw it, I knew it was the perfect thing too, but I wanted to make sure as well. Tonight, after Bags and Grizelda came home, we showed them this thing and they thought it was perfect as well."
"We were going to bring it down to the shop to surprise you, but when we got there, it was all dark and locked up. By the way, those locks are the neatest things. Did you make them to keep folks out or keep you in?" She waited for his answer.
"Uh," replied Pockets, after he realized it was his turn, "I don't want anyone to get hurt, so it's to keep folks out when I'm not there."
Capitani nodded. "I figured as much. There was a woman there, large, dressed in a green gown, beautiful face. She said we might find you up here." she paused and gave Pockets a sideways sly look. "Is this someone I should be worried about, Pockets, my love?"
Caught off guard, Pockets could only stammer. "Nnno. She's just... well.. she's a friend." He gave up and said "She's going to teach me how to read."
"Oh, how marvelous!" Capitani laughed and clapped. "That's wonderful, Pockets, really it is." She smiled at him, with her big blue eyes shining, until he could not help it but smile back. "Now... where was I? You know I get lost these days..."
"Journiey told you that I was up here." Pockets supplied.
"Ohhhhh. It's Journiey, huh?" Capitani poked. Pockets obligingly blushed silently in the dark.
"Okay, we saw the light on in your room and the others sent me up to get you. I decided that was kind of silly, when they could very well come up and see you themselves. I told them, however, to wait for my signal before coming up, because I wanted to talk to you."
Her face showed a bit of confusion, and she pulled on hand from behind her back and counted. "Found Pockets. Check." She ticked off one finger. "Talk to Pockets." She looked at him, and asked "All right?"
He nodded, smiling at her silliness. "I'm much better, Capitani." he said.
"Good, and check." she ticked off another finger. "Give Pockets his present." She peered at him again. Stepping closer without revealing what was behind her back, she looked all around him, left and right and said "Hmmm... Not check."
She looked at her hand with it's two fingers and one thumb, and continued, "Now... where did I put it? It was here just a minute ago."
She reached behind her and brought her other hand out, empty. "Nope. Not there."
Again, she reached behind her with her free hand, and brought out her other hand, empty as well. "Not there either. Well, this is a mystery!" She put on a pouty face of pondering disappointment.
Pockets started to chuckle where he sat. Quietly he applauded her for his private performance of Capitani's foolery.
"I know!" she said. She bounded straight up, did a somersault, which revealed something small and brown at her back, held by one hand. She landed facing him, and said, "Did you see it?"
Pockets nodded.
"Where was it?" she asked worriedly. "I've been looking for it everywhere!"
"Capi, it's behind you! In your hand!" Pockets cried, exactly as if he was a child at a birthday party.
Capitani looked very puzzled, pulled her hand out from behind her back, empty. "You mean this hand?" She asked him.
Pockets was now laughing full blown. He couldn't help himself. It was a joy to be here, to be him, and see his friend performing for just him. He had to steady himself to keep from falling off the parapet.
"No! In your other hand!" he cried, laughing.
Her other hand came out empty as well. More puzzled then every, she complained, "Well, phooey. Perhaps you should come show me, Mister Chester Pockets, if you know so much!"
She stood there while Pockets hopped down from his perch. He walked over to her, his smiling eyes never leaving hers. Standing toe to toe, nose to nose, he reached, gingerly around her with both hands.
And felt something furry. His eyes grew wide and he said "What the hell?"
"Don't you let go of it, buddy." Capitani said. She kissed him once again on the lips and leapt right out of his embrace, to land a few feet away, near the door.
Pockets looked at what he held. It was small, and it was brown, and it smiled back at him with a crooked grin and beady eyes. Its arms were short and stubby and its legs were too long for its body. What tail it had looked more like an after thought than the real thing. And it was stuffed.
"It's a monkey." was all he said, smiling. He pulled it close and hugged it. From closed eyes, tears started to run down his face, leaking into his smile.
Capitani nodded to herself, walked over to the parapet and whistled, long and loud. She turned and walked back to Pockets, and gently said. "You might want to pull yourself together, Chet. How often do your friends see you crying over a stuffed monkey?"
Pockets wiped his eyes with one hand and nodded, and said "Aw, to hell with 'em." He kissed Capitani on her cheek and whispered. "Thank you, Capi."
"My pleasure, Chet."
There was a dinner that night, held in the high room of the Keep. There was laughter, and there was song. Queen's Gamboni had returned from their adventure at the Village of Shopkeepers with a tale of wonder and magic. Harv and Carlie, reunited, left off as if no time had elapsed. They were inseparable, and apparently could hear nothing that was going on.
"Get a room, you two!" Suzy cried. At her prompting, they did just that, somewhere else in the Keep.
Bags told a tale about a merchant, out on the Midway, who was accosted by two men. Apparently the two men became enamored with one of the merchant's wares, something he had just that very day received from one of the merchants of Bangala.
The merchant was told by these two men that if he sold it his life would be forfeit. So fearing for his life, he held onto it until the two men returned, followed by a fearsome woman, dressed in black and white.
The woman walked straight up to the merchant, and flanked by the two men looked him in the eyes and asked in a rather gruff and foreign sounding voice. "How much for the monkey?"
The merchant, terrified for his life, gave out an answer that was half the price of the stuffed animal. After paying the asked for price, the threatening trio disappeared into the crowd.
The merchant, a law abiding man if ever there was one, went straight to the pub and complained to Bags about the evil people in the kingdom. Bags consoled the man, paid him the other half of the price of the monkey and bought him an ale.
"And that is the sort of trouble I have!" Bags complained. "If I had not recognized the outfit you wear, Capitani, I would have had to organize a search party to find the bad guys and bring them to justice."
"Trouble?" asked Capitani. "Me?" She blinked her blue eyes and smiled sweetly. "Lil’ old me?"
"Don't you believe her, Bags." her husband injected. "She may look sweet on the outside, but on the inside..." he suddenly found he couldn't finish the sentence. Probably because of the elbow that appeared in his midriff. When he got his breath back, he continued, a bit harshly "On the inside, you'll find her just as sweet."
"Thank you, dear." Capitani said, smiling broadly to show her innocence.
"Have you named him yet?" Grizelda asked of Pockets.
"Sure!" Pockets replied. "He told me his name the second he met me." He held the monkey in one hand, and manipulated its head until it was looking directly at Grizelda. "His name is Simon."
Grizelda made a sideways comment to Bags, "He looks like he's looking right at you, doesn't he?"
The conversation broke down to how lifelike the stuffed monkey, Simon was. Everyone had to hold him and commented upon how soft he was. Everyone had a turn at making his head turn and manipulating him so that he danced or sung, or told jokes.
Nobody was better at it then Bags. In Bags' hands Simon took on a broader life, answering questions and asking some of his own. Quickly, it seemed, Simon had become part of the group.
"It seems that Simon has found his place in our legend, Bags." Pockets said when Simon came back to him. "Did you know that there are books in the library that contain stories about us?"
"No way!" said Bags and Grizelda, together.
"I didn't even know we had a library." said Bags.
"How do you know that, Pockets?" asked Grizelda. "You can't read."
"Not yet," said Pockets, "but I will."
"What brought this change about?" Grizelda asked. She turned to the others and explained that Pockets had never had much use for reading.
"Well, see. There's this friend, who's going to be helping me learn. She's the one that told me about the books."
"She?" asked Bags, his eyes growing wide. "Not another woman, Pockets." He placed his face in his hands and said again, "Not another woman." Theatrical sobbing came from his hands, but it was obvious to all that he was smiling all the while.
"It's not like that at all, Bags. This is a special woman. Her name is Journiey, and she's a wood spirit, okay?
"Sure she is." said Grizelda, winking broadly. "A special woman, for a special man."
"Aw Griz, quit teasing. This will be different, I promise. No more trouble-making for me." Pockets crossed his heart.
"Besides," he continued, "I'm not going to have time for trouble-making. I'm going to be making something rather unusual for the next few weeks. I'll need to learn to read if I'm going to find the sort of information I'm looking for."
"Oh. My. God." said Bags, splitting each word into its separate sentence. "What are you going to make this time?"
"I call it a 'hot air balloon'" Pockets said. "It's for traveling long distances through the air."
"Through the air?!" Suzy exclaimed. "Well, that would be novel, that it would." She turned to Bruce and asked "Do ye think we could maybe work up a song about that, lover? Bags and Pockets and Grizelda too, all sailing though the air?"
"And let's not forget about Simon!" Capitani chimed in.
"Legends" muttered Pockets. "That's what we'll all be someday."
"Damn straight!" said Grizelda. Standing up, she raised her glass. "To legends!" she toasted.
"Wait!" said Pockets. Grizelda looked at him puzzled. He stood up on the table and raised his own glass, "To Legends, most certainly." He paused and looked around at all the faces there, familiar, warm, loving. "But to family, most definitely!" He took a mighty swallow and said "To Family!"
And the roar went out through the open window, to float up to the moons and fall back again.
"To Family!"
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-25 10:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-25 10:37 pm (UTC)*dips into the dashes*
*measures out a half a cup*
*heh*
trouble-making, for instance. And there are others. You'll need these.
and.... ""Through the air?!" Suzy said. "Well, that would be novel, that it would." She turned to Bruce and asked "Do ye think we could maybe work up a song about that lover? ((i suspicion there needs to be a comma between "that" and "lover", yes?))
And..... did you know? there was almost a grizzly bear in your box....
Just sayin'!!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-25 10:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-25 11:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-26 12:06 am (UTC)*whew*
I must apologize for leaving you alone with the dashes, but there seems to be a mom-duty demand tonight and i must tend to it. Watching you easter-egg hunt for them is kinda fun, but unintentional, if you see what i mean?
I have to go take my baby boy to the library. If there's any juice left when i get home, i will happily devote it to dash hunting. *hee*
I love you!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-26 12:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-26 12:24 am (UTC)You do what you need to, because family is important! Juice or no juice, you take care of you, bestest as you can, k? The story is NOT going anywhere.
(Reply to this)(Parent)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-26 12:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-26 12:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-26 12:28 am (UTC)Guess i need to take a pic of the grizzly bears for ya..... Simon is making me giggle!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-26 12:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-26 03:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-26 12:27 am (UTC)Actually, watching you talk to ALL of us on here was where i got the impression, not just from the dash hunt. *grin* Thought i'd better make sure you knew it was 'posta be fun, just in case!
You already knew. *grin* YAY!!
Aye, family is important. Mom-duty trumps almost everything, unless i'm REALLY sick, in which case *i* trump everything. But it's not that bad here, so we are eating spag and going to the library to get this boy back on track, cuz now there are TWO research papers due! Yoiks.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-26 12:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-26 03:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-25 10:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-25 10:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-25 11:02 pm (UTC)--And even if it's "published" online (100 copies from Kinkos is also "published"), it's still your story, and if a publisher balks at your manuscript all you have to do is change one word and it's not exactly the same story any more. The online version was just "practice."
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-25 11:14 pm (UTC)I second this remark.
Date: 2006-04-25 11:15 pm (UTC)O.K my first comment isn't showing.. so I'll try again.
Date: 2006-04-25 11:17 pm (UTC)That was PERFECT!
"To FAMILY!"
Re: O.K my first comment isn't showing.. so I'll try again.
Date: 2006-04-25 11:30 pm (UTC).
Date: 2006-04-26 05:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-26 07:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-26 03:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-26 01:18 pm (UTC)"And that was for ever, ever
ythinking otherwise!"Spelling...mischievous (that still doesn't look right to me!)
And dear Pock, er, Chet, that is a really wonderful story. I'm so glad that QG came back before the end. *snicker* That "get a room" made me guffaw right outloud since that's what people tend to say to us!
Anyway, yes...'To Family' indeed.
Do you know, I was there last night? Yep, I dreamed it. I saw the keep and the moat and the tables and chairs and the blacksmith shop and most of all the forest, yes, lovely forest.
I tend to do that with the last thing I read right before going to sleep. It was lovely.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-26 03:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-26 06:20 pm (UTC)Although I've discovered that both Amber and Bruce are far better at it than I am.
I just didn't want the fella to think we were pouncing on him!
*sigh* It IS a simply wonderful story, isn't it?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-26 07:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-26 07:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-28 09:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-29 03:23 pm (UTC)I'm going to add a comment to the 'edits'... it's a pet peeve of mine that I think few people notice, but I nearly always do, because I see it everywhere in books and newspapers.
"all the people that had worked hard..." should be "all the people *who* had worked hard..." Objects are 'that's, people are 'who's. (I suspect even Simon would require a 'who', since he has a proper name.) It crops up all over the place, and I hesitated to say something because it seems so, well, picky. ;) But I guess grammar is all about being picky, eh? I used to proofread when I worked for an advertising dept. *grin* and *hugs*
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-29 06:51 pm (UTC)Thanks, ma'am!