Chapter 618: Tangers LV--Into the Lion's Den

Chapter 618: Tangers LV—Into the Lion’s Den

 

 

 

            I smelled the perfume blanketing the air as soon as I got out of the car in the driveway. In fact, it came off so strong that one would have assumed a dishwasher had exploded to spray “mountain fresh” scented suds everywhere. I wrinkled my nose as I got closer to the house, because I began to recognize the spicy, sweet undertones. Michele’s perfume? I knocked on the door rather than ring the doorbell because I heard one of the children screaming just at the other side of the door.

            Frederick answered the door, flung it open, and my eyes widened to see his scarlet, distorted face. “GOOD! Finally someone SANE!” The little boy backed up, crossing his arms and then turning to glare at his father who stood; pink cheeked, and slumped against the wall. Strange to say, but Patrick’s face reminded me of a man defeated, someone actually broken by loss.

            “What’s going on?”

            Patrick opened his mouth but Frederick jumped in.

            “My brother and my sister are TROLLS!” Freddy cried. “You gotta save me Alex! It’s…I’m beyond my limits here. It’s bad enough we already have the forces of every dimension beyond science yanking my chain, now I have to deal with two morons who’d rather get their asses fried than actually do something rational like OBEY RULES for once? Isn’t life hard enough already, Alex, that they don’t have to go screwing the rest of it up because they’re bored? Huh? HUH?”

            Freddy shook his fist and I half-considered turning and running right out of the lion’s den rather than facing this angry little cub for five seconds more. But I remembered Mimi and how desperately she needed me, so I sucked it up and remained calm. “Um, tell me what’s wrong, Freddy, and I think we can fix it.”

            “FIX IT?” Freddy howled and he straightened his arms against his sides and he jumped up and down like a pogo stick. “The only way we can fix this is if we pack up both of those idiots and send them back to the freaking ass defective stork that dropped em off here. And then when we’ve found that stork, we SHOOT IT!”

            “Freddy!” I gasped and I looked to Patrick for help here. Patty grimaced and shook his head sadly.

            “I think I might agree with Frederick tonight, my friend.”

            “Eh,” I frowned. “Can someone tell me what’s happened? Where’s your mother, Freddy, where’s Jana and Jonathan?”

            Frederick closed his eyes. “Jonathan is in exile and Mom’s hosing Jana down.”

            “Hosing…”

            “She decided to empty all of Mimi’s perfume onto herself,” Patrick replied. “It’s pretty intense, yes?”

            I contorted my lips, trying not to gag. “That would explain the smell.”

            “I’ll say!” Freddy sighed. “If Mom ever hugs me again I’ll puke!”

            My first thoughts went to the possibility of this being yet another one of those inter-dimensional traumas that had been plaguing the children over the last year, it would be one of the easiest explanations to come to, but Frederick did not seem to support that theory. “What do you think got into them?” I asked, patting him on the shoulder and trying my best to show him that he could confide in me.

            Taking this cue, Patty cleared his throat and muttered something about checking on Jana’s bath before going upstairs. Freddy watched him go, and then I tapped his chin and pinched his nose. “Hey kid, you can tell me anything. You know that.”

            Freddy sighed and closed his eyes and slumped, almost falling to the floor before blinking it off and shaking his head. Poor little boy, his eyes seemed shadowed and sunken as if he’d been struggling under a heavy load and a persistent illness. “They just went nuts, Alex. That’s all I can say.”

            “Do you think…”

            Freddy lowered his eyelids and this time his voice slurred. “I don’t think it was anything like that it’s different. It’s evil, or something. Jonathan did like everything he wasn’t supposed to times ten! He ordered like sixty bucks worth of pizza and stole the money from Dad’s dresser and Jana, well she made this mess we’re standing on and she wasted Mom’s perfume. It’s almost like they wanted to get in trouble. I don’t get it.”

            “Why would they want to get into trouble, Freddy?” I used my kindest voice possible, and I rubbed his shoulder. “Maybe they had a lot of energy and it just went the wrong way? We went through a lot of trauma on that last trip, don’t you think?”

            Freddy shrugged. “We’ve been through worse.”

            “Are you in trouble? You’re not getting blamed for the stuff they did, are you?”

            “No, thank God!” Fred groaned. “I’ve gone from Satan to saint in like two hours. But that still doesn’t mean I’m thrilled about what’s happening to Jonathan and Jana.”

            I hugged Frederick, who clung to me tightly as a small child might. “Poor kid, do you need a break?”

            “Uh huh!” Fred moaned and he burst into tears.

            Poor kid.

            I held him at arm’s length now and I mussed up his spiky hair. “Look, why don’t you pack some overnight things, and you can stay at my place for tonight, I’ll take you to school in the morning, just to give you a little break? Okay?”

            “I have to ask Mom,” Fred sniffled and he grabbed a tissue from an end table and blew his nose.

            “Go ahead,” I patted his cheek, “Go on, I think that’s why she called me anyway.”

            Freddy ran upstairs and I puckered my lips and blew out some air. Sheesh! I scratched my chin and marveled at how just a half hour ago I was on a couch with Penelope ready to go to a new level of bliss and now I was in the middle of Cub Fight 2003. Life is amazing, is it not?

            “Oh, thank God!” Michele said, coming down the stairs. She was wearing a nice silk blouse and skirt, both of which were splattered with water, and her long sleeves were rolled up past her elbows. I wondered if her pretty oufit might be damaged due to the crumpling and water. “Alex I cannot thank you enough for coming to our rescue. You are an angel, my dear boy!”

            I squirmed as she squished my cheeks under her palms and kissed my forehead.

            “It’s not problem, Michele. So is it okay if Freddy comes with me tonight while you guys get this straightened up?”

            “Oh, yes! Yes I was hoping you’d say that!” And then her face crumpled, worried. “Ah, but I haven’t interrupted, that is, I haven’t disturbed anything between you and Penelope? Yes?”

            Nope unless you consider ruining the entire evening for her a disturbance, I wanted to say but I didn’t. As bitterly as I felt about my aborted night of ecstasy, I knew that paled in comparison to the mental health of the children that I loved as if they were my own siblings.

            “No, Penelope understands. Everything’s fine, I discussed it with her before leaving.” I stretched my arms out and then stifled a yawn. “So any idea about what exactly happened here?”

            “The children have run wild, and it is our fault, I am sure. First of all, we should not have left them alone, and we should have disciplined them more fervently when they’ve acted up like this before. I mean, Alex, my God they destroyed a Zamboni last year and all they ever received as a punishment was a quick spanking and no dessert! What example is this to teach them?”

            “Not a good one,” I frowned. I remembered that incident, and I remember being equally stunned at the punishment being so light.

            “Pfft!” Michele spat and she waved her hands in the air as if washing herself of this annoyance. “That is past. But oh, Poor Frederick, how he has suffered. So nobly he suffered and this is because of Patrick and me. We’ve been so harsh on him, but we only wanted to force the hand of the other two. We, at least, I assumed that they would not bear the tough treatment on the brother and things would change, that something good would come of this All Star disaster. But no, they are stubborn, they act like wild monkeys and leave poor Frederick to suffer! How selfish! Why would they be this horrible to their beloved brother? What has Frederick ever done to them to receive such contemptible treatment, eh?”

            My eyes widened, but I could not reply. “What’s going to happen?”

            Michele shook her head, “We will decide this later. For now, however, I want Frederick to be with you, just for tonight, to clear his poor head. And tomorrow I will tell him the good news.”

            “Good news?” I couldn’t imagine anything good coming from tonight.

            “Mm,” Michele pursed her lips. “Frederick has decided that he will no longer aide and abet these wild savage games his siblings insist on dragging him into. Since he’s become so mature, than that means Patrick and I will allow him to participate in the Quebec tournament. He will be pleased to hear this, I think.”

            He’d been denied the Quebec tournament earlier? My heart broke for the agony poor Freddy must have been in over the past couple of days. Definitely, the good of tonight would be his parents’ change of heart about his participation in… My heart skipped a pulse and I stopped a smile from cracking my face. On second thought, it seemed to me that Freddy may have the best brother and sister a boy could ever have.