Julie had been bored for a really
long time. Jerry never even spoke to her anymore, Alan practically looked right
through her and Stevie played with Josh all the time
and they both treated her like a baby. She didn't mind it so much from Stevie, but she kind of liked Josh and when he was mean to
her, she really hated it. Josh also liked some girl named LD who was older than
even him and that really bothered Julie, too.
She knew, of course, that at age 3
and a half, she was still smarter than all of them put together. She knew how
to make people be scared, she knew how to make people cry, and she knew how to
be cute. Using all that talent, she thought, she should be able to get somebody
to play with her. Of course, Alan and Jerry were too old to play with, but Stevie and Josh weren't and she was sure that given enough
scary stuff, they'd do almost anything without even having to be asked.
Which meant if she
wanted to, she could make them both
play house with her.
She grinned and giggled aloud, kicking her chubby little legs against her chair. She really liked making people hurt bad.
Jerry was slightly bummed out. Daina was dead, Naomi was taking her place and life in general was kind of boring without some random mental adventure to go on. "Thom," he said, turning to his friend.
Thom looked up from his copy of The Dallas Observer. "Yes?"
"I'm worried about Daina, man," he said.
"Stop it. Naomi told us not to worry," Thom replied, looking back at his paper.
"Yeah, but it's weird not having her around...like really around. Besides, I don't listen to Naomi; she's an idiot."
"I heard that!" said she, walking in the doorway.
"Y'see, that's weird!" Jerry exclaimed. "She walks in just like she's Daina, but she's not, she's Naomi and she's pregnant and it's just weird!"
Thom sighed. "Would it make you feel better if I went and found her?" he asked.
Jerry snorted in disbelief. "Yeah, right!" he said.
"i'm serious!"
"My ass you are!" Jerry retorted.
"My ass, your ass, who gives a damn!" Thom snapped. "Why can't I, who just finished helping your butt escape Queen Kareen (no applause or thanks necessary), go and help Daina out and get her back?"
"Be-CAUSE, THOM, it takes a lot of TIME and THOUGHT to DO stuff like that and YOU...(here Naomi cleared her throat)...what?" Jerry demanded.
"Two things," she replied, walking over to Jerry. "One, shut the hell up; Thom DID save your ass and he can do what he wants if he wants when he wants. And, two, what do contractions feel like?"
"Like abbreviated words," Thom replied helpfully.
"Arrgh!" said Naomi, gripping Jerry's hand. Jerry winced horribly, then squeaked,
"I don't think she meant that kind of contraction!"
Josh walked slowly down the set of
file cabinets, half grinning, half frowning. "I'm not givin'
up, you big stupefied! I can find you anyplace, anytime, Stevie!"
He'd sincerely hoped he'd get an
answer, since he actually was having difficulty finding his best friend. On top
of that embarrassing truth, he was almost sure he was lost, too. He was afraid
to go back the way he'd come for fear he really would find himself lost, so
he'd continued going forward, hoping to find Stevie
before he began to worry.
Stevie had
the home advantage in this game of hide-and-seek, since they had decided to
play in Jerry's mental file room instead of Daina's
(this after Stevie had threatened their friendship over
Josh's insistence on playing in Daina's file room all
the time). Josh knew enough about Jerry's file room to know that it was an
intriguing, but scary place to play. It had always held his interest though,
since all the adults in life (and Naomi) had made both he and Stevie swear at one time or another to never play in it.
Actually, the worst thing about
playing in the place, he thought, was all the corners. Daina's
file room was rows upon rows of high straight aisles, but Jerry's mind had so
many dark recesses and winding corners and corridors in it that one never knew
what they would run into...
"Hi, Josh," came a soft
voice.
Josh literally leapt backward as he
whirled around to find the owner of the voice. "Jeez, JULIE!" he snapped,
gasping a little . "What're you tryina do, kill me?"
Julie smiled and giggled a little in
a way that made Josh a little nervous. "No, silly," she said.
"Why would I want to kill you?"
"Uh, I dunno,"
he said, realizing that he was answering as if the question were serious.
"What're you doing back here?"
"I live back here," she
said, with a shrug. Josh knew that, but always asked, anyway. "Wanna see something?"
"Yeah, you disappear," he
grumbled.
"Noooo,"
she said, "I got something better than that."
"Hmph!"
said Josh skeptically. "It's gotta be pretty
amazing before it beats you disappearing."
"It is," she said, and
suddenly, she produced a camera.
"Oh, yay,"
said Josh boredly.
"It takes things," she
said.
"It's
pictures, dummy, it's a camera! Duh!"
Julie shrugged.
"Pictures...yeah, I guess that's the word." She aimed at one of
Jerry's file cabinets. "Want one?" she asked.
The flash went off, nearly blinding
Josh. When he could see again, she was holding a perfect image of the cabinet
on a paper that almost looked like it had been cut from the air itself. It
almost looked as though Julie had taken the space that the cabinet had been in
and condensed it to fit in the form of a small photograph.
"Why would I want a dumb old
picture of Jerry's file cabinet?" he demanded. She pointed at the cabinet,
but didn't reply. Josh looked in the direction she was pointing, saying "Wha-at?", then dropped his jaw as he realized the
cabinet was no longer there. "Wh-Wh-where is
it?"
Julie waved the picture as if trying
to dry it like a Polaroid shot. "Right here," she said casually.
"I told you it takes things."
"Put it back!" he said in
shock.
"Why?" she asked.
"Because...because you could
get in trouble!"
"Who's gonna
tell?"
"I will!" said Josh defiantly.
Julie smiled at him again. "Y'know, Josh, I really think everyone, even you, is really gonna want my next picture," she said. To Josh's
horror, she aimed the camera at him.
"AHHHHH!" he shrieked,
just as the flash went off, blinding him again. He felt a great pressure
pulling at him, pushing him down to the ground. He screamed, trying desperately
to fight back, but couldn't get the pressure to let up...
"Josh!!!" he heard from a
great distance. He yelled back, trying to call for help and heard:
"I'm right here, stupid, what
are you yelling at me for?"
Josh's vision cleared. He was
standing right next to Stevie, who looked at him
funny. "What's your deal, man?" he asked.
Josh blinked in surprise,
then began babbling incoherently. "Stevie, jeez,
man, Julie was right here a second ago and she had this camera and she was
pointing it at stuff and it was disappearing and..."
"Uh-huh," said Stevie. "Are we playing hide-and-seek or what?"
Josh stared at him in surprise.
"We were, ya,
big stupefied, and then...we were, right?"
Stevie
gave him a look that suggested something other than agreement. "You are
way too young to be going nuts, man," he sighed, walking off. "Start countin'; you're it first."
"Why
me?"
"'Cause I said," came the reply. He disappeared into the stacks and along
with him went nearly all of Josh's memory of what had just happened. Josh
frowned, then started counting. Something had happened, he knew, but since he
wasn't exactly sure what or when or even why anymore...well, there wasn't much
point in letting Stevie get a head start in
hide-and-seek...
"Ready or not, here I
come!" he shouted, running after Stevie and not
noticing the big space in the floor where something (about the size of a file
cabinet) had been keeping dust from falling for a long time.