Having A Rotten Time; Wish You Were Here

Part 6

            "What's the matter with the door?" Christine grunted. She and Jerry were standing in the Link itself outside the door to Daina's side. The door itself was there, but no handles or knobs to open it with.

            "Did you lock it from the other side?" he asked, feeling around for any secret handles.

            "Of course not, I was a Power Ranger doll, remember?" Christine retorted.

            "Well, isn't there supposed to be a doorknob, at least?"

            "Yeah, well, find this doorknob!" Chris said, stamping her foot and gesturing toward the door.

            "I'm trying, okay?" said Jerry, just as irritably.

            "Maybe it opens from the other side," suggested a voice. They both turned around to find Stevie watching them.

            "Stevie, what are you doing here?" Jerry said. "I thought I told you to stay home."

            "But I wanna help!" Stevie wailed.

            "Not now, Stevie," said Jerry, turning back to Christine. "Look, we need something to pry it open."

            "Well, get a crowbar, then," said Christine.

            "I don't have one."

            "I bet if you just hit, it'll pop open, like on tv," said Stevie.

            "Shut up, Stevie!" snapped Christine. "So just make one; it's your brain!" she said to Jerry.

            "You know, you need to stop talking to me like this before I feel the need to smack you," Jerry said.

            "I am trying to help my sister and I don't need to get lectured on my attitude just now!" Chris shot back.

            "Well, I'm trying to help your sister, too, so quit acting like a spoiled brat!" Jerry retorted.

            "I may be acting like a spoiled brat," Christine yelled, "but you are definitely a moron!"

            "Alright, that's it...!" Jerry grabbed Christine up and was about to spank her right there when Stevie hit the door quickly with his palm. It sprung open and both Jerry and Chris looked at it in surprise.

            "See," said Stevie, with a proud smile. "Told ya."

 

 

            "Alan fixed the door so that Christine couldn't bring back any help," I told Naomi. "I'm gonna get the door open and hope she can go from there. Then I'll..." Noises from below us told me Naomi's stalling effort was coming to the proverbial climax. "Move me back and I'll start writing."

            Robin put my jar back and I began to scribble furiously:

   Alan was definitely in control, but not for long. Little did he know that help was on its way. The door he had tried to rig shut for good wasn't going to be able to stand up to the rigorous abuse it was getting from the other side.

          He was definitely on his way to a majorly embarrassing downfall.

            But what kind of downfall?, I thought. What could I make happen to him that wouldn't directly conflict with the ultimate power he had right now? I was trying to add more when I heard Alan sit up. "Jee-zus," he groaned. "That was..." He paused, at a lost for words.

            "Yeah," sighed Naomi. "That was."

            "Wonder how that translated on the computer?" he said, a smile in his voice.

            "I don't know," said Naomi, in the same tone. "Why don't you read it and see?"

            Naomi!!!, I yelled at her mentally. You idiot!

            What?, she asked dreamily, then suddenly she remembered. "No, wait a minute, don't read it...!"

            But he was already standing up and reading the screen next to me. The smile on his face disappeared as he began to read all about how we'd tricked him.

            "Are you people fucking around with me?!?!" he shouted.

            "I was," said Naomi cheerfully, raising her hand.

            "God-dammit!" he snarled. He began typing furiously and suddenly Robin and Naomi flew backward against the wall and stayed as if pinned there. "I can see I'm going to have to show you all how serious I am." My room door creaked open and to my surprise, there stood Joshua in the doorway.

            "Hi, N'omi," he said, going over and looking at her curiously. "Whatcha doing?"

            "Joshua, get out of here!" she yelled to him, but Alan was typing again. Joshua turned to Alan and, realizing he was the cause of Naomi's anxiety, ran over and slapped Alan's arm.

            "You leave my N'omi 'lone!" said the little boy.

            I watched in horror as the words Alan typed formed on my paper:

        As Naomi, Robin and Daina watched, helpless to do anything, Joshua suddenly and painfully ceased to exist.

            Little Joshua's agonized scream echoed as if they were between planes for a moment and as they did, I added on my paper:

        ...in Daina's subconscious. He reappeared on Jerry's side of the Link totally unharmed.

            I wasn't sure if it had worked, but I didn't have time to think about it. Alan was laughing hysterically and Naomi was cursing him vehemently.

            "You sonuvabitch!" Naomi yelled. "You lousy sonuvabitch! Dammit, if I ever get off this wall...!!!"

            "Do you realize," he said, pointing at me, "that all I need to do is type that I have this power and I become you?"

            "You can't ever be me," I said, suddenly furious. "If you type that...you're just..."

            "Watch me!" he snapped. Alan began to type and I started to write, hoping I could beat him to the punch. Almost at the same moment, the door burst in. I looked up to see Jerry and Christine running in.

            "Back off, Alan," said Jerry to him. "You've got no power over here."

            "That's what you think, sucker!" he said. He pointed to my jar and snapped his fingers. My perspective jumped from a mini-sized one in the jar to a normal sized one next to Alan. I felt dizzy, unable to stand up straight. The notebook and pen fell from my hands as I began to fall. I felt someone catching me, just as I heard Alan say, "Later, assholes", but by then, everything had gone black.

 

 

            Stevie was mad.

            Really mad.

            He could've helped Jerry and Christine, but Jerry was being mean and Christine was being a mean girl, which was worse. It was probably her fault Jerry was being mean, anyway. If she'dve just played right, then none of this would have happened and he'd still have somebody to talk to right now...

            Almost on cue, another little boy appeared. He was the same color as Christine and probably the same age as Stevie, even though Stevie was a little taller. He looked scared, as if something bad had just happened to him, but when he saw Stevie, his face back a mirror image of Stevie's curiosity.

            The boy cocked his head sideways, as if trying to size him up and Stevie did the same.

            "Who are you?" they asked simultaneously.

            "I'm Stevie," said he.

            "I'm Joshua," said he.

            "I know you!" they both exclaimed excitedly.

            "You're my friend in Jerry's head!" said Joshua.

            "And you're my friend in Daina's head!" said Stevie. "But how come you're over here now? Daina's in Dallas and this is Jerry's side in Austin. Jerry's over there helping her."

            "I was talking to my Naomi and this man was in there and I hitted him and ne hurted me and I came here," explained Joshua.

            "That was Alan," Stevie nodded. "He told me Christine was the Pink Ranger pwisoner doll and she wasn't."

            "A'course not, silly," said Joshua. "The Pink Ranger's a different color girl and 'sides, my sister can't do 'nastics like her."

            "That's true," sighed Stevie. He was slightly jealous at this point. He had found a hole in Alan's Pink Ranger story faster than Stevie himself had and had apparently seen more action than Stevie was ever going to see. Unless...

            "Hey, you wanna go back and help Naomi?" Stevie asked.

            "Yeah, we'll get that Alan and beat 'im up!" said Joshua.

            "Yeah!" said Stevie, pumped for a fight already. "I'll be Jason and you be Zach."

            "No, I wanna be Jason and you be Zach!" said Stevie.

            "You can't be Jason, 'cause you're a little black boy and I'm a little white boy, so I have to be Jason," said Stevie matter-of-factly.

            "My sister told me that it doesn't matter what color you are when you play 'cause it's all pretend, anyway."

            "Well, Alan told me that I can't be a black boy 'cause I'm white."

            "Nuh-uh, this is white," said Joshua, showing his sweatsocks. "This is peach and this is brown," he added, pointing to Stevie and himself respectively. "Alan's not the good guy, so he doesn't know."

            "Oh," said Stevie. "Okay, then I'll be Tommy and you be Jason."

            "No, I don't wanna be Power Rangers no more," said Joshua.

            "Okay, let's be wizardmans! I'll be Merlin and you be...uh...you be..."

            "Marcus!" exclaimed Joshua.

            "Marcus?" said Stevie. "Who's he?"

            "He's my friend," said Joshua. "He shoots crossbows and en'gy guns and he makes people feel more better when they get hurted. My big sis'er said he's a squealer."

            "Okay," shrugged Stevie, not sure what a squealer was, but sure Merlin was tougher than that. "Lemme get my magic stuff and we'll go."

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