Symby (3 page)

"God almighty!" he suddenly exclaimed, "I thought I told you to stop doing that!" The creature had wet him again, just a few drops this time. "I swear, I'm gonna train you to stop doing that!"

He looked at the little thing on his shoulder and felt it pulsating again.

"Yeah, I know, you're sorry, right? Well, try to stop doing that and we'll get along just fine." He continued his journey to the tent. As he approached the tent, though, his intentions began to waiver. He crawled into the tent, retrieved the bottle and carried it back out with him. He continued walking through the woods all the way to the river, almost a quarter of a mile, as he debated whether to open the bottle. By the time he arrived at the shore of the river, he had made his final decision. He raised his arm back and threw the bottle out into the river as far as he could. The bottle splashed into the middle of the river and sank from sight. As he walked back through the woods, his feeling of euphoria grew. He did not regret his actions, as he had so many times before when he had smashed bottles out of frustration. What in the world, or perhaps more accurately, out of this world, was happening to him? He smiled at the little ball of fur attached to his shoulder.

"Did you have anything to do with that?"

Snuffles greeted Jody at the fence, jumping up and down with excitement. Was it just his imagination, or was Snuffles jumping higher and farther than he had in a long time?

"Hi Snuffles," said Jody as he unlatched the gate. "You look like you had a good day, but I'll bet mine was better."

Jody had no way of knowing that Snuffles had had more than just a good day. He was feeling better than he had in years, and he had made a friend. His friend was back near the dog house, munching on his food. The little creature didn't eat much, and sharing was now just fine with Snuffles. He had begun to realize that he was getting something back from his relationship with the little creature. Every time it jumped on his back, the droplets that oozed onto him made him feel better. His joints didn't ache nearly as much as they had just the day before. Snuffle's nose told him that the droplets were not urine, but something more benign. The liquid smelled really good. He had already adjusted to the creature's habit of climbing onto his back. The creature pulsed and vibrated when it attached itself to him. Snuffles could feel love coming from the creature. If the creature loved him, why not love him back?

Snuffles tried to let Jody know about his new friend, running back and forth towards the backyard, but Jody seemed preoccupied. Jody ignored Snuffle's entreaties and headed straight for the house. Snuffles whimpered and returned to the back of the yard to check on what his little friend was up to.

Jody skipped preparing his afternoon snack and headed straight for his bedroom. He sat down at the computer at the far corner of the room, beneath his Caylie poster, the one that had replaced his Rihanna poster. Caylie's music sucked, but she looked really hot in her tiny bikini. His computer was a few years old, a bottom of the line generic brand. That was all his Mom could afford. He prayed that it had enough memory and speed to run BFF's video service. He knew that buying a new PC was out of the question.

"Here goes nothing," he thought. He typed BFF.com into his browser. The login page of the site appeared. Empty data fields beckoned, asking him to either log in or register. He typed "Jody&Missy" as his password. After he typed some of his personal information at the next screen, the site congratulated him for successfully signing up on BFF.com. He had no interest in creating his home page, nor did he pause to import the few "friends" he had on Facebook. He went straight to the BFF search field.

Jody's hands no longer worked well enough to type normally. He pecked two words into the search engine using his two best fingers.

"Melissa Bryant," he repeated to himself after checking his spelling.

Thumbnails for thirty-three females named "Melissa Bryant" popped up.

"Jeez, thirty-three?" he said aloud. He wanted to get to her site ASAP. Returning to the search engine, he added the word "California" to the search. Twelve Melissa Bryants remained. Inspiration flashed, and he typed "Missy" into the search engine.

"Now that's more like it," he thought, as he viewed only three remaining Melissa Bryants. There was no need to refine his search further, as only one of the females he had retrieved was young, and only one wore a kerchief. He clicked on the thumbnail to enlarge it. She was as beautiful in the picture as she was in real life.

"Boy, she's really into the hippie chick look," he thought, eyeing both the kerchief and the peasant dress she had worn to school. "Must be her favorite outfit," he thought.

He already liked BFF.com better than Facebook. When he clicked on Melissa's name next to her picture, her home page came right up. A lot of the pages on Facebook required "friending" before you could view them. This was better, he thought. He clicked on the first video he saw, one that had been uploaded only the day before. He wanted to see her move and talk and smile again. She sat in front of her bed, adjusting her PC until its tiny camera lens framed her face and the upper half of her body. When she was satisfied, she leaned back and started talking.

"Hi, everybody, it's me. Here I am in my new town even though I'd rather be back with you all. I'm starting at my new school tomorrow, and I'm kind of worried that they won't like me or won't want to hang out with me like you guys did."

Jody was taken aback. Who wouldn't want to hang out with someone as cool as Missy?

"I know that we had to move so I could get better treatment, but I'm still depressed about leaving. I miss you all."

Better treatment? What was she talking about? Jody began to worry. Missy continued.

"Let's face it, the chemo wasn't working very well. All it did was make me sicker and make my hair fall out. I really don't want to go through surgery again, either. Dad says there's a clinic here that might be able to help me, so off we went. I guess I'm never coming back, but I'd really love it if you folks would keep texting me and sending me videos. I'm going to keep trying really hard to beat this disease, and when I do I'll get my parents to fly me back to Cally and we'll head out to the beach like we used to before all this happened. So stay in touch, okay? Love to everybody." Missy leaned forward and extended her hand towards the PC. The video faded to black.

Jody was stunned. She hadn't said what was wrong with her, but if it involved chemo and surgery, then it had to be really, really bad. He guessed that if her parents were willing to pick up and move just to get better treatment for her, she might even be dying. Initially, an overwhelming sadness took hold of him. He felt sorry for her. He worried about her.

He tried to stay focused on empathy for her, but he couldn't stop his thoughts from straying to more selfish considerations. He felt betrayed. Now he knew why she had picked him to hang out with. It was just his luck that the only girl who had ever held his hand might be dying. This was the story of his entire, incredibly unlucky life, and it was never going to change, was it? Why hadn't she told him up front about her disease?

He wallowed in self-pity for a while, until another thought occurred to him. He still had a girlfriend. Who was he to judge her, when he probably wasn't going to make it out of his teens either? Beyond that, if her new treatment worked, she would outlast him by decades. He came to a decision. If she wanted to be with him, he would be with her. She needed support and friendship and so did he. They could help each other, maybe even love each other. He clicked on the next video.

Jody learned much about the girl he hoped would be his girlfriend. He sat glued to the computer viewing her photos and reading her blogs, to the point where he felt almost perverted for wanting to learn so much about her. What would she be able to learn from his Facebook site? Not much, he thought sadly.

She liked rock more than hip hop, but that was all right. He wasn't really sure whether he liked hip hop because it was good music or just because it was cool. Before her illness, she had actually done some surfing. There were a few pictures of her riding her board out in the ocean. She seemed so tiny and frail now that he had a hard time picturing her as the same girl on the surf board. She had a book tablet that she had downloaded hundreds of books to. Jody was still taking old-fashioned print books out of the library. She had been on the dean's list at her old school in California. Jody had never made the Dean's list.

He heard the creaking of the door hinges below. His mother had returned from work. Footsteps echoed down the hallway. She poked her head into his room.

"How was school today?" she asked.

"The usual," he answered falsely.

"Who's that?" she asked, pointing to Missy's picture on his computer screen.

"Just somebody I met at school today," he replied, misleading her again.

"Oh, that's nice. Are you two texting?"

"Naah, I just thought I'd check her out online," he fibbed again.

"Oh, okay," she said, sounding a bit disappointed. "Well, I'll have dinner ready in a half hour. We're having hamburger casserole tonight."

"Okay, Mom, sounds good. Thanks," said Jody. As his Mother turned to walk into the kitchen, Jody stopped her.

"Can I ask you a question, Mom?"

"Sure," she replied.

"If you loved a person who had a really bad disease, would you stay with them?"

"I think you already know the answer to that question," she answered. "Your father left me, not the other way around, remember?"

"Oh, yeah, right," said Jody. "I guess he had one of the worst diseases of all, huh?"

"Yes, he did," answered his mom. She turned around and headed back towards the kitchen.

Just before eight o'clock, Jody sat down at the computer again. He had never viddied anyone, let alone a girl. He could feel adrenalin begin to course through his body. His hands shook as he positioned his camera to display him from the neck up. No sense in highlighting his defects, he thought.

When the clock displayed "8:00," Jody clicked on Missy's viddy link. After a few seconds of beeping, Missy appeared on his computer screen, still wearing her kerchief. She greeted him first with the most elementary greeting possible.

"Hi Jody."

"Hi Missy. It's nice to see you again."

"Did you have time to check out my BFF site?" she asked. She looked worried.

"Yep. Man, you've got a lot of stuff on there. Your friends seem nice," said Jody.

"So did you see the viddy of me without my kerchief?" she asked, looking a bit scared.

"Yeah," said Jody plainly.

"So what did you think?"

Jody was ready with his rehearsed response. "I think Angelina Jolie didn't look nearly as pretty as you when she shaved her head."

Missy visibly exhaled. The worried look disappeared from her face. Her eyes sparkled as she laughed. "Wow, I think that's the best compliment I've ever gotten."

"It's the truth," said Jody. He knew that other people might not feel the same way, but he meant what he said.

"You look awesome on camera yourself," said Missy.

Jody thought she might be overstating, but he hadn't been complimented on his looks for so long that her words washed over him like a soft ocean breeze. The two of them began chattering animatedly. Before long, it felt to Jody as if she were right there in the room with him. There was no longer any doubt in his mind that sticking with her was the right move.

It was quite a while before Missy asked him the question that caused him shame.

"So who is that guy who threw your books in the hallway today?"

"That's Jimmy Hines," answered Jody. "He's kind of the school jerk."

"I noticed," said Missy. "How long has he been messing with you?"

"Ever since he knew I couldn't defend myself."

"That figures. That's what bullies do. They prey on the ones that they know can't fight back. I've been thinking about Jimmy. I've got a plan, if you've got the guts."

Jody was certainly not about to admit that he wasn't brave enough to fight back. "O.K., what's the plan?" he said hesitantly. He listened as Missy described her idea. By the time she finished, he was on board.

"Let's do it," he said. Missy told him that she already had what they needed to accomplish their ninja mission, and she would bring it to school tomorrow. Jody could feel his enthusiasm growing as he anticipated a chance to get back at Jimmy. She was so cool!

Just before 10:00, Jody's mother's curiosity about the voices emanating from Jody's room finally got the better of her. She crept up to Jody's closed door and put her ear as close to the door as she dared. Ten minutes later, she crept back. She climbed the stairs to her bedroom, so happy for Jody she could barely contain herself. She thought of Jody's initial response to her query about how his school day had gone. "The usual, my butt!" she thought happily.

Jody awoke early the next day. Normally groggy when he first woke up, he was instantly alert today. For the first time in a very long time, he was eagerly anticipating his arduous hike to school. Unaccustomed energy coursed through his body. He sailed through his shower and dressed faster than he had in months. There was still more than an hour left before it would be time to leave for school. He decided to put the time to good use. He scurried about the kitchen retrieving pots and pans, turning on stove burners, and pushing the levers on the toaster. By the time his mother arrived to prepare breakfast, there was no need for her efforts.

"Well, this is a treat!" she exclaimed as she pulled her chair beneath her. She eyed the plate of bacon, eggs and toast that Jody had placed before her. "This looks great! What's gotten into you today?" She already knew what had gotten into Jody, but she hoped he would tell her about the girl he had been talking to last night. No such luck.

"I just woke up early and decided to make breakfast," stated Jody.

"Where'd you learn how to make all this?" she asked, thoroughly enjoying a crisp slice of bacon.

"From watching you, Mom. You're a good cook, you know."

Breakfast and compliments on the same day? She couldn't wait to meet this girl.

As the two of them ate breakfast together at the table Jody told her about Mr. Belden's lecture on symbiosis and his theory of evolution based on cooperation. Jody's mom was pleased that he was learning important concepts, but kept hoping that he would switch topics. When Jody removed her empty plate, it was clear to her that her preferred topic would have to wait.

During the walk to school, Snuffles seemed to be moving even faster than he had the day before. He continually ran in front of Jody, then ran back and circled him. He jumped up on Jody's legs several times. Jody hadn't seen Snuffles move like this since he was a puppy. He was fun to watch.

Snuffle's speed was a stark contrast to Jody's slow pace. Just like the day before, he found it difficult to make the last leg of the trip. Perhaps it had not been a good idea to expend so much energy making breakfast. He was forced to pause several times as he traversed the last two blocks. Fear gripped him as he realized that he was pausing for breath, not merely to rest his contorted limbs.

Jody spied Missy sitting on the steps at the entrance to the school, just as they had arranged. He walked as forcefully as he could towards her. She smiled a big smile.

"Hi stranger. Ready for our big day?"

Jody wasn't actually ready, but he wasn't about to admit it. He forced a grin, trying to look confident. "You bet. Did you bring it?"

Missy held an opaque plastic bag in front of her. "Yep, it's in here."

"Cool. So do you want to try now or wait till later?" he asked, hoping for at least a short reprieve.

"No time like the present. Otherwise we might chicken out."

Jody had no options left. "Okay, I'll head up the hallway. Jimmy goes past my locker every day. If he doesn't start something, I will, like we agreed. Just make sure you're in position. I don't want to get hurt for nothing."

Missy flashed him a mischievous smile. "Aye, aye, commander," she said, saluting. She cupped her hands to her mouth and imitated a ship's horn. "Battle stations, battle stations!" she giggled.

"I'll see you afterwards, right?" asked Jody.

"Yep. I haven't seen the principal's office yet. I'm sure it's nice."

Jody hadn't seen the principal's office yet either. They walked into the school separately. Jody opened his locker and pulled out a few books. He gave her the thumbs up sign. She had remained behind, further up the hall near the school's entrance. The two of them stayed in their assigned spots for the next few minutes. Jody's tension increased as each minute passed. He was sweating despite the school's early morning chill. Adrenalin surged when he saw Jimmy walking down the hall with his usual strut. After Jimmy passed Missy she gave Jody a thumbs-up sign. When Jimmy got close enough to Jody, Jody shouted to him.

"How's hiney doing today?"

Jimmy stopped, looking shocked.

"What'd you call me?" he said menacingly.

"I said how's hiney doing today?" Jody repeated.

Jimmy pulled Jody's books away from him and launched them down the hallway. "Hines is doing just fine," he snarled. "Call me that again and I'll break your face, the only part left of you that isn't already broken, crip." Jimmy disappeared rapidly down the hallway, as he always did. This was what made Jimmy so good at bullying. He always checked for teachers in the area and he always made a quick exit.

Jody ignored his books and focused on Missy, who was walking towards him.

"Did you get it?" he asked.

She flashed her mischievous smile again. "Yep, all of it. He's toast."

Jody laughed, relieved at her assurances. "That's my second helping of toast today. Let me see."

Missy handed him the tiny video camera. He watched the entire encounter happen again on replay. The image was clear as a bell.

"Awesome," said Jody. "Wanna head to the principal's office now?"

"No time like the present," answered Missy, employing one of her favorite phrases.

"Thanks for the help," said Jody. "It'll be nice to finally get rid of that pain in the ass."

"Hey, you took all the risk. He might have clobbered you."

"It still would have been worth it," said Jody. "I am just so tired of that jerk messing up my life."

The two of them walked hand in hand directly to the principal's office. Twenty minutes later, Missy grabbed Jody's hand again as they exited the office. Jody spoke first.

"Wow, a whole week, that's stiff," he said.

"You heard the principal," said Missy. "We're not the only ones who have complained about Jimmy. Lots of kids have, but we're the first ones who could prove it."

"Yeah, but a week is a long time to be suspended," said Jody.

"Well, I think he deserved it. My only worry is that I've already made an enemy on just my second day here. On the other hand, I think I've also got a boyfriend already, right?"

Boyfriend? Jody couldn't believe what he was hearing. He now had an official girlfriend. Jody turned towards her and confirmed their relationship in one abbreviated word. "Yep."

Jody walked home on air that afternoon. He and Missy had eaten lunch together and talked and held hands after Mr. Belden's class. She was smarter and cooler than him, he was sure of that. In just one day, she had solved his Jimmy problem. His mind whirled with anticipation of a new life with a beautiful girlfriend. Even if he died now, at least he would die happy.

As Jody continued his walk home, he suddenly began to feel as though he might actually die happy. He was having more and more trouble getting his legs to coordinate and his breathing became heavy and labored. He began sweating profusely in the hot sun. He wobbled as nausea and dizziness took hold. His vision began to blur. He knew he was close to home because he could hear Snuffles barking.

"Not now, God, not now, please!" he murmured.

He stumbled onto the white fence surrounding his home. He managed to unlatch the fence just before he fell forward, sprawling onto the lawn. He felt Snuffle's wet tongue licking his face just before he passed out.