Something wet and fuzzy was on my forehead. Gross. I couldn't find the rest of my body, but it was here somewhere. I just had to keep looking. But I was too lazy to search for it. Who needs a body anyway? Grumbling quietly to myself, I wondered if I should call out into the darkness. Somebody's gotta be there. I tried calling out Lauren's name, but it came out as a mumble. This sucks. I'm gonna be a blubbering head for the rest of my life. Maybe I really do need a body...possibly. I tried calling out again, a little louder, and this time I got an answer.
"Arnold?" Lauren's voice broke through the darkness and I saw a light. No Arnold, DON"T GO INTO THE LIGHT! Attempting to avoid this catastrophy was not simple, being just a head and all. How does a head move? Rolling? Bouncing? Neither succeeded. It only seemed to draw me even closer to the light. Oh well. Just let it come, Arnold. Maybe heaven will have orange soda fountains and unlimited pizza buffets. Thinking this over I smiled at the thought and welcomed death with open arms. Suddenly, feeling came back to my shoulders. No. It traveled down through my arms. No. I had found my body. NO! Early retirement was of course too good to be true. I gloomily watched the light vanish, then wandered about the darkness, kicking invisible rocks. Having my body back did feel great, but I was really looking forward to the unlimited pizza buffets. Sigh.
Moments later, I was covered with an eerie red glow. Strange... Was heaven coming back for me? No... this light was red. I slowly craned my neck up and saw a large mass of swirling red and black clouds. No WAY. I haven't been a bad kid! Well, there was that one time when I started a food fight in the cafeteria, but Mathew dared me to do it! The death clouds zoomed toward me at an incredible speed. I stared in horror and attempted to run away, but my feet were glued to the ground. Panic didn't even describe the feelings hurricaning inside me. The clouds were an inch above me when they stopped. I relaxed and felt myself getting really heavy, falling through the darkness and into a soft bed. Wait. What?
My eyelids sluggishly lifted open, got a taste of light, then flapped shut again.
"Ugh," I moaned pitifully. All the memories came flooding back. Was...was Lauren OK? I slowly got up but someone pushed me back down.
"Easy, easy." My mother's voice came to me through the gloom.
"What happened?" I sputtered. Someone took the wet washcloth off my head and dunked it into a bucket of ice water.
"Lauren!" I shouted, bolting up again. She pushed me back down with freezing hands and replaced the washcloth on my forehead, giving me one of her small smiles.
"How...How...How'd you get away?"
"Easy. Another foot sweep and I went racing after you."
"So I wasn't being chased by one of Charlie's goons?" I needed reassurance.
Lauren giggled,"No."
"But...I heard a loud bang...and..."
Lauren sat confused, then her face lit up."You ran into a street lamp Arnold!"
I ran into a pole? Geez that's rough... My hands crept up towards my head and felt an enormous, swollen bump the size of a golf ball. I must've made a weird face because the girls both cracked up with laughter.
Once it ceased, my mom continued the story. "She carried you all the way home Arnold. Then she helped me set you in bed, told the entire story, and insisted she stay until you woke up." She smiled respectfully at Lauren, making her face turn pink.
"It was nothing." Then the kettle went off.
"Oh! Excuse me." Mom rose and hurried to the kitchen, giving Lauren and I some time to say goodbye.
"So what does your mom do?" Lauren asked.
"Uh, she works at the Starbucks down the street." I adverted my eyes.
Lauren replied with a simple, "Oh."
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
"Hey is that a crow?" Lauren made her way across the room to George's perch and stroked his beak. "How did you get a crow?"
Now that was a story I wanted to tell. I propped up on my elbows. "Actually, it's a raven and his name is George Harrison, the most intelligent bird in the world."
"Really?"
"I guarantee it." I soaked in the astonished look on her face then continued. "He appeared on my window sill one day and almost broke a hole in the glass." I gestured to the cracks in the window pane, the spot where George had pecked in desperation to get to shelter. "It was raining. All this lightning and thunder. He was starving."
Lauren looked at George with a different light in her eyes.
"Mom let him in because she couldn't stand looking at the poor scrawny bird. She loves animals. Paints them all the time. She loves art, my mom." I paused.
"Does she sell her work?" Lauren asked.
"Oh ya. She sells it for a few extra bucks. Trying to save for my collage. I tell her to give it up. It ain't gonna happen. She doesn't listen." Sigh. "So we let George in, fed him some Goldfish, and he's been living here ever since."
"You haven't told me why he's the most intelligent bird in the world yet."
"He's special. You can tell from the look in his eyes. And he seems to understand what I say."
"Hm... I'm gonna give that a test." Lauren looked into George's beady eyes and asked him to fly over to me and land on my head. Lovely. Following orders, he flew over to me and plopped on my head. I smiled smugly.
"Told ya."
Lauren started to laugh with disbelief. "Wow!"
"He even knows his name. Watch." I took George off my head and said,"Whats your name, Georgy?"
And he screeched: "GGGGGGGRRRRRROOOOOGGGGGG"
"Closest you can get when you have a beak and when you're a raven." I reached for the bedside table and grabbed the bag of Goldfish. George knew what that meant and waddled over eagerly. I began to feed him the crackers one by one until he got full and flew up to my head and rested.
"I guess I should be going now. Mom will be looking for me." Lauren lifted her backpack to her shoulder and made her way over to me. "I might visit tomorrow. We could go for a walk with George."
"Sounds good. He needs some people time."
"Hopefully you'll be well enough to go to the dance."
"Ya."
Lauren kissed my cheek (the one that wasn't swollen) and made for the door.
"Bye Arnold, bye George" A few moments later I heard the front door close.
I was still frozen. Lauren Rivera kissed me. I will cherish my right cheek for the rest of my life. I looked up at George and saw he was staring at me. Looking closer I saw he was smiling.
"What?" I asked.
"AAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWW!"
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