I sailed over to the kitchen, opening and closing the cabinets impatiently. “Konohamaru! Where’s the peanut butter!?”
Konohamaru came into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes impatiently, in his pj’s. It was interesting to see they had teddy bears all over them.
I grinned at Konohamaru mischievously, and he looked down and blushed. “The old man brought them for me!”
I laughed and said, “Ok brat, where’s the p and p?” There was popping sound as the toast jumped out of the toaster. I caught them, one in each hand, and managed to strike a pose before I scalded my fingers.
Let me explain. The Hokage roped me into taking care of Konohamaru after Kakashi told him (die Kakashi! Your make out paradise book will pay!!!) that I had baby-sitting experience.
Don’t get me wrong. I love kids, but, Konohamaru is a handful, even for me. Right now, it would be impossible to tell which one of us is more exhausted.
“What? Isn’t that P and J?”
I shook my head as I drowned my smoking fingers under the faucet. “P and P, pickles and peanut butter.”
Konohamaru frowned, but he got out the goods anyway. When he saw me slather the peanut butter against one slice of bread and add the pickles to the other, then jam them together, his face went white and he said, “You’re not going to eat that, are you?”
I answered his question by taking a big bite. It was fun seeing his face turn green.
“How can you eat that!?” he said in a way that was so like Mark I missed him, and I said, “P and P is H-A-P-P-I-N-E-S-S.”
Konohamaru stared at me so quizzically, I almost choked by laughing. I shooed him off to bed, and plopped myself down on the couch and remembered the person who had told me that.
I was eight - it was a couple years after mom passed away, and dad was in the hospital from his second heart attack.
I really didn’t understand all that much, all I knew was that my mom had been taken away from me, and my dad was most likely fixing to be too.
*Flashback*
I looked up at David. His face was stone still, his jaw clenched. It seemed to me as though he was trying very hard not to cry.
I hadn’t cried. I was trying so hard not to cry, it hurt.
Mark was coming towards us, being led along by a nurse, and his face was worried. He looked at us, as though the answer to his unspoken question would be in our faces. I knew that it was there in mine.
I let go of David’s hand and ran, as fast as I could, past Mark. I saw his face crumple as he realized what the answer to his question was.
Dad was dead.
I wanted to run away, run far away, leave this terrible, horrible, sad world behind in my dust.
I didn’t make it that far. I slammed into a white robed boy with enough force to bring him to his knees. Then I let the tears out, in a flood.
Now that I think about it, I seriously wonder what that boy was thinking at that moment. A too tall eight year old girl slamming into him with enough force to bring him to the ground, and the next instant sobbing hysterically into his chest.
The tears that ran down my face soaked into the hospital gown. There was a moment as the boy caught his breath and patted my head awkwardly, then he stood up. I was still sitting there on the ground, sobbing my eyes out.
He lifted me up by the shoulders and carried me somewhere, but I was past caring. I was put on a bed, and there was a creaking noise as somebody else sat in it. By this time I stopped crying and looked up into the face of a boy with very fake hair.
I stared at him, then said accusingly, “What are you doing here?”
“Uh.” He smiled awkwardly, and scratched the back of his head. “This is my room..?”
I wiped my tears away, and blew my nose on his bed-cover and looked around the room. It was true, a normal hospital room. “What am I doing here?”
“Uh.. Well you slammed into me and you were.. uh… your eyes were dripping liquid really bad, so I got you in here…”
I stared at him. “My eyes were.. dripping?” I said incredulously.
He shrugged.
There was the thud of footsteps, and a nurse came into the room, followed by a stone faced David and red eyed Mark. I and the boy, who, by the way looked to be about 12 and had brown eyes, looked over at them silently, and stared silently.
The boy seemed rather apprehensive of David, and he said, “Uh…hello?”
David stared at him, then at me (red eyed, tear stained) and said, “Come on Jinni.” In a hoarse voice. I got up, and went to him slowly. The boy got out of the bed and said, “Well..Bye. Come back some time and share p and p sandwich with me sometime.”
David looked at him stonily and said “Bye.”
I grabbed David’s hand and waved at him with my other, and we turned and left the room. I could dimly hear Mark say, “Don’t take it wrong. Something…happened.” In an emotionless voice.
*
The funeral was on a sunny day. I thought that the least the world could do was cry on that day, but it was a day made for a picnic.
A couple days after the funeral, we were back at the hospital, signing some papers. I decided to sneak away and meet that boy.
*
I stood in the doorway to the boy’s room, and looked at the bed. He was lying there, staring out the window at the park. It was actually a beautiful view, with a lake and people fishing left and right. From way up here, people were small colored blobs walking about.
I went over to the bed, stood there looking at it, then jumped on it obnoxiously. I had seen his name on the tag on the door, and said, “Jason.”
He turned over on the bed, looking up at me, and stared for a moment, before it clicked. “Oh! The girl from before. How are you?”
“Good. What’s a p and p sandwhcih?”
Jason smiled at me, and pressed a button, and said, “The usual, doubled please.” A little while later. A nurse came in and lay a plate next to Jason, and smiled at me. “The usual Jason.” She said sweetly, then wrinkled her nose. “I can’t believe you can eat that!”
He smiled at her, and said innocently, “I can’t imagine why I shouldn’t!”
She rolled her eyes, and smiled, closing the door behind her. Jason sat up straighter, and reached for the cover covering the plate, and lifted it off. Underneath, were two, very normal, toasted sandwiches.
I stared at them, puzzled, and lifted one up, lifting up the top bread dubiously. Inside there was peanut butter and thick slices of.. pickle.
I wrinkled my nose, and said, “Peanut butter and pickle!?”
Jason said, “Yeah!” and grabbed the other one, taking a big bite out of it.
“P and p,” he said, chewing and swallowing, “Is the food of happiness!”
I grinned at him, and at the peanut butter smeared all over his face, and took a tentative bite out of the sandwich. I chewed. Swallowed. Jason watched silently.
I was surprised. “It’s good!”
He laughed. “Of course it is!”
Over the next few months I kept on visiting the hospital. Once, I asked Jason if he was bald, and he said yes. He explained that he had cancer, and I left off then.
Jason was an awesome friend, even though he was closer to Mark’s age then mine, and I walked over to the hospital every other day to have a chat and a sandwich. I met Jason’s family.
‘And then, “ I told Jason, “I –“ there was the tell-tale tap of someone at th door, and it opened. In the doorway stood a stern looking woman. Beside her was a rather harried looking husband.
The woman had blond hair, and stormy gray eyes. Her husband had brown hair and matching eyes, and was short and plump, unlike than his tall, ramrod thin and straight wife.
I looked at her rather suspiciously, then said, “Hallo! You must be Jason’s parents, it’s very nice to meet you!”
There was a silence, and I was pretty sure I did something wrong. The woman looked at me, and I smiled awkwardly.
Her eyes traveled up and down my body, and Jason was silent behind me. After a while, I said, “Are you done?”
She raised an eyebrow in question.
“Done sizing me up?”
She (and everyone else in the room- I do have a habit of putting my foot in my mouth, don’t I?) looked rather shocked, and stared at me.
“Uh , no, that didn’t come out the way it was supposed to.”
Jason snorted behind me, than burst into laughter. The woman’s face softened, and she smiled. She looked pretty like that. It was clear where Jason inherited his looks, when you looked at his beautiful mom, and pleasant looking dad.
“Yes.” She said. “ And I like what I see. Very nice to meet you.”
I gave a small, manga induced bow, feeling as though I should apologize in ‘some’ way, and said, “You too.”
We got on finely after that, and found lots to talk about.
David had been taking up jobs to make money while, and was busy every day. After he got out of high school, he would go to his jobs and work.
Dad had left us some money, but there were problems getting it out of the bank, so we were saving on a whole bunch of things. Cousins and aunts and social workers visited frequently, offering to take us in, but since David was old enough and was adamantly refusing everything except money, they soon left us alone. They dropped by every now and then to help out.
Jason came over one time, and met David and Mark properly. It was a rather nice day, and he nurses let him, and we came over in a cab.
We walked over, and as we went, I asked Jason, “When’s your operation?”
“Soon. I’m not sure.”
“Oh.”
I thought for a second. “What is the first thing that you’ll do afterwards?”
“Well.” Jason thought for a moment, and smiled at me, saying, “I’ll eat a P and p sandwich!”
I punched his arm, and said, “With me!”
“With you.” He said, confirming it.
Then I frowned. “But what if you can’t?”
“I’ll do the next best thing!”
We had arrived at my house and I never got to ask him what that was.
I went in the front door, and found Mark. “Mark, we’re having someone over for dinner.”
“Really?” said Mark absently, looking at the computer screen. “Yah! Die, die, die!”
Jason went over and stood beside Mark. “Ah, quick, a xz2 2o!”
Mark did that (whatever it was) and I sighed when he turned to greet Jason enthusiastically.
For the rest of the day, the two were no fun at all, so I grabbed some popcorn and watched a movie. Jason met David that night, and the two got on famously as well.
I rather felt as though my brothers were stealing Jason, but the next day Jason was the same, although he asked the much anticipated question of why I didn’t look like my brothers.
I was rather relieved. For some reason, I was feeling rather possessive of Jason lately.
In summer, we went fishing at the lake.
I frowned at Jason and said, “You’re putting the worm on the hook wrong!”
Jason stared at the worm wriggling in one hand, and the hook in the other, and said, “But won’t it hurt?”
I sighed impatiently. “Him or you?”
“Him.”
I exploded. “What do you think!?”
He frowned, then his face was set as though he had made a decision, and he bent down to put the worm in the soil.
“What are you doing?” I said, calming down a bit.
“Everyone deserves to live.,” Jason piled a little moist dirt on the worm and looked up at me, giving me one of his million dollar smiles. “Don’t you think?”
I stared at the worm as it disappeared into the earth, and silently turned the rest of the worms loose.
“If you think like that,” I grumbled, removing some fake bait. “Then we won’t be able to have any fish for lunch!”
He laughed.
I laughed with him, and then he leaned over and patted me on the head.
I stared at him for a moment, and he smiled at me. There was a sudden yank on his pole, as a fish went for it, and I didn’t quite forget, but didn’t think about it.
Actually, we did end up turning the fish loose. It was my fault. I tripped over the bucket and went for a swim while pulling the rest of the fish and Jason in with me.
In the following days, Jason became skinnier and skinnier. He seemed unwell, and the nurses forbade him to leave the hospital. For a week, during winter, I was unable to see him because of the snows.
One day, after winter and the snows were over, I went over to the hospital as usual. “Is Jason in? From room 402?”
The lady smiled at me, and told me she would check, and typed into the computer. After a moment, she frowned at the screen, stood up, indicating that I should wait a moment.
I stood there, fidgeting anxiously.
She came back a moment later with the hospital warden. She explained to me, much too gently and sweetly, that Jason had been ‘taken to another hospital.’
I stood there, digesting this information, and said to her face, my heart hurting, “I’m not stupid.”
There was a lump in my throat, and I turned around and ran all the way home.
I locked myself in my room, and refused to come out for the rest of the day. I didn’t cry, but I just lay donw staring at the ceiling. Mark pounded on the door. “Jinni? Jinni! What’s wrong?”
I didn’t open up.
Jason is gone. I told myself, staring at the ceiling. He’s just gone to another hospital. It’s alright.
No. I shook my head, and the tears came. That was funny, I had thought myself to be all cried out after dad died.
Jason is dead.
I stayed in there all night, and well into the morning the next day. I didn’t eat, or sleep, or use the bathroom, just stared up at the ceiling in mute despair.
There was a small knock on the door. “Go away.” I said.
There was an audible sigh, and then I could hear David slide something under the door. I looked over curiously, and found myself looking at a toasted, peanut butter and pickle sandwich, placed on a plate.
I stared at for a moment, before getting up and sitting on my knees beside the sandwich. The tears started again, and I lifted up the sandwich and took a bite out of it, remembering Jason.
It tasted the same, creamy, crunchy..bitter.
Peanut butter and Pickle, I thought
* End of Flashback*
I finished my sandwich and my thought. Is bitter sweet happiness.
I threw the crusts in a wastebasket, not feeling like eating them, and sat back down in the chair, waiting for the old man to arrive.
I remembered the package that arrived one day, and smiled at the memory .
It was a small envelope, and inside of it was one thing.
On the back of it, were the words, ‘The next best thing.’
It was A picture.
Of a boy.
With warm brown eyes,
And blond hair, that was certainly not fake.
And a charming smile.
And a very healthy , handsome appearance.
And he was eating a peanut butter and pickle sandwich.
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Chapter notes: Ok! here you go, Terry, my one-shot! I hope you like it.
To read this story, you need only read the first chapter of DropDeadThenDance's story.
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