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Todd lay awake in bed, wondering what to do. He had never had a friend before, despite the fact that he had always wanted one, and now the possibilities were endless. They really were endless because now Jesse was going to stay forever and ever, so they had all the time in the world.
Sure, Jesse didn’t always seem to know quite how to be a friend, but maybe Todd didn’t either, and he figured it was something that people could learn, just the same as he had worked very hard to learn Mr. White’s formula and, he gathered, Jesse had too.
So Jesse could learn just the same.
Todd dreamed about rabbits and kittens and the way he would be best friends with Jesse on a bright yellow background.
***
The next morning, Todd went down to the grate and climbed down the ladder, announcing, “Jesse!” with a sunny voice.
Jesse rolled over and stared at him, his eyes blinking. Todd figured that must be because it was kind of bright out right now – that made sense. Maybe he should figure out a way to get down and still leave the tarp up, so it wouldn’t be so bright.
Or maybe he could get Jesse a pair of sunglasses. He would probably like that. People like Jesse always looked cool in sunglasses.
“Jesse!’ Todd announced again.
Jesse’s body shook, and he let out a little sad hum.
“It’s time to work?” he whispered. His chains jingled, and Todd reached back and scratched his neck, looking at him sheepishly.
“Well, not yet,” Todd admitted. “Actually, today we’re shipping to Lydia. So you have the day off. But I was, well I was thinking that maybe today you would want to spend some time with me.”
Jesse cocked his head to the side. He looked confused.
“You know,” Todd continued, “We could hang out. Do whatever you want!”
Jesse gave a long, shuddering breath, and then he looked over at Todd, who waited. Jesse tended to take so very long to answer things, and sometimes Todd felt like he was getting impatient with him. But after all, like Uncle Jack said sometimes, patience could be a virtue and it was always important to give people time to come around.
Todd couldn’t quite remember the context in which Uncle Jack had said that, now that he thought about it, because in most cases Uncle Jack did not have a lot of patience at all.
Except with Todd.
When Todd had come home the first time, well…
But Todd tried not to think about that. It had been kinda blurry and kinda murky and loud and kind of scary.
That had been a weird feeling, to be scared. Todd had never felt it again.
Finally, Jesse looked over at Todd again and gave him an odd look that Todd couldn’t quite read.
“I guess, if you’re going to stay here,” he said finally, “Then we can hang out.”
And Todd was sure that he was truly beaming.
***
He wondered whether he should bring things down to the grate, or bring Jesse up to the clubhouse. He didn’t like having to climb down to the grate all of the time – it made him feel a little lazy if he would get winded on the way back up – but Uncle Jack might be mad if he found out that Todd brought Jesse to the clubhouse.
Although… he hadn’t actually forbidden it.
So that was the answer.
“Jesse,” Todd said, and he led Jesse back up out of the grate. This was the best solution - Uncle Jack wouldn't be back until tonight, anyway. What could go wrong? Then tomorrow they would get up bright and early and Jesse would cook again.
Todd wondered if tomorrow's cook was going to be the one where he was going to get good at it – if he kept at it, the way that Mr. White had told him. Slow and steady would win the race, wouldn’t it?
Todd opened the door and led Jesse into the clubhouse. Jesse hadn’t said much at all – he didn’t seem to say much at all these days, even though back when Todd had first met Jesse, he had felt like Jesse talked all the time. Todd wondered where Jesse came up with all the things to say.
“Well, this is it,” Todd declared. He was very proud of the clubhouse. He could remember the first time he had ever seen it, the way that it had seemed to gleam to him then, and he was very excited to let Jesse have that feeling, too.
“Uh,” Jesse said, “It’s… nice.”
If Uncle Jack had been there, he would have called Jesse’s response one of those words like “underwhelming”, but he wasn’t there. Todd knew he could win him over, one way or another.
“What do you want to do first?”
Jesse blinked at him.
“What do you mean?”
Todd sighed, as if his meaning was absolutely clear and Jesse was more than a little bit dense. And so Todd spoke a little bit louder.
“When I came here for the first time, I remember seeing everything here, and thinking about all of the games I might be able to play, and all of the things that I might be able to do. And I got so excited. You have to feel the same way, Jesse. I know it.”
Jesse looked around and cocked an eyebrow.
“I don’t really want to say anything to, uh, dampen your spirits, Todd, but this is just an old clubhouse with a pool table in it… that smells like smoke. How old were you when you first came here, anyway?”
Todd glowed, just a bit. Jesse wanted to know about him and of course he would tell him. He’d never had anyone to tell about himself before – after all, the only person he really talked to was Uncle Jack, and he knew all of it already. He had even been there.
“I was four. And I remember it very well. Usually, people don’t remember anything until they’re five or six – Uncle Jack told me that once. He told me that his earliest memory was getting in trouble for trying to eat paint chips when he was seven. My grammy was really mad at him because she had to repaint the whole deck. She told me about that too.”
Jesse let out a sigh. He sounded frustrated.
“But you! You were going to tell me about you, Todd! Why did you move in here when you were four, anyway?”
Todd knitted his hands together.
“Well, my mom,” Todd paused and looked over at the side of the clubhouse. He could picture it as it had been eighteen years ago, when he had first step foot there. If he was being honest, it had been a little cleaner back then. Maybe he could convince Uncle Jack to buy a Swiffer. They had a lot of money now, after all. “Uncle Jack said she wasn’t taking care of me. So he came and got me and told her that if she didn’t like it, then he didn’t care and she could come and try to take me back.”
He didn't tell Jesse about the scary parts of it, because that was kinda personal.
Jesse’s eyes widened.
“Well, did she?”
Todd shrugged.
“No,” he replied, “But I got a Christmas card from her when I turned sixteen. ‘Happy birthday, Todd. Please send fifty dollars. Love, Your Mom.’ It said.” He recited it from memory. He didn’t know his mom very well, but it had been nice of her to think of him. He had sent her the fifty dollars, too, and Uncle Jack hadn’t asked a lot about where it went. Todd had heard him mention to Kenny that Todd spent a lot of money on all of the cars he fixed up.
“Oh. So you haven’t seen her since then?”
Todd shook his head.
“I mean, I have everything I need right here. I remember just running around this whole place, and it was great. I came up with all kinds of adventures.”
“But you didn’t have… I mean, you were the only kid, right?”
“Oh, yeah,” Todd replied, “I mean, none of the others are, well, they said, ‘the marrying kind’, and Uncle Jack had a coupla girlfriends but it never worked out. But then when I was like, um, eleven or twelve, I started to do jobs for Uncle Jack, you know. Kinda family business. But simple stuff.”
“Eleven or twelve?” Jesse echoed, and he looked like he was thinking.
“Yeah, I mean, you know. It’s normal. This kid I knew in school, Kang, like, he worked in his family’s restaurant in high school. Same kind of thing.”
Jesse blinked again.
“Anyway, what was I telling you about again?” Todd asked, walking over to one of the shelves in the clubhouse. “I’d have sworn that there’s… hmm… well.” He paused and stuck his hand in between the shelves, rooting around with his face scrunched up, before his fingers settled on cardboard covered in dust. “Here it is…”
Todd lifted his hands in front of him, holding out the battered, dusty box. He blew on the top to reveal the name.
“Uh, Todd?” Jesse inquired, “What’s this?”
Todd wondered sometimes whether Jesse was a little bit stupid.
“It’s Trouble,” Todd explained. “You want to play?”
“With my hands like this?” Jesse inquired, “That might… be a bit of a challenge.”
Todd considered it. To be fair, Jesse did bring up a good point, and having him do anything like try to play with his feet or his mouth might mess up the pieces for the future. So he leaned forward, pulled the keys out of his pocket and unlock Jesse’s chains.
“I know you won’t do any kind of funny stuff, Jesse,” Todd said sunnily, and then began to unfold the game board. He placed it on the table and looked around once more, making sure that he wouldn’t get caught. “I always wanted to play this when I was little. I used to have Don’t Break the Ice, too. Do you remember that one? Oh, and Mr. Bucket.”
Jesse’s face cracked into an odd little smile.
“...Yeah, we had Mr. Bucket,” he said finally, “It wasn’t as much fun as the commercials made it look, though. And, um, I think we had Don’t Break the Ice, too. But I never really played it.”
“I think we've got to still have it,” Todd declared, placing Trouble back on the floor. “Do you want to play Don’t Break the Ice?”
“Uh,” Jesse replied, “I mean, you don’t need to look for it if you don’t want to… Trouble is fine.”
Todd cocked his head to the side.
“We could play them both,” he declared, going over to the shelf again. “There’s so much stuff here.”
He reached behind the shelf and moved a few different boxes out of the way, finally picking up Don’t Break the Ice.
He turned around and found that Jesse was still sitting on the floor, his hands clasped in his lap.
Jesse could be so good, sometimes.
“I used to see the commercial for this,” Todd said, “When I lived with my mom. I always wanted it, and she always said no. That and Discovery Zone.” He nibbled on his lip. “DZ Discovery Zone..."
Jesse stared back at him.
"What, you never wanted to go there?” Todd asked.
“I mean, uh, we went to Chuck E. Cheese. Pizza was good… yo.”
“We went to Chuck E. Cheese once,” Todd said, shaking the box. He loved to hear the sound of the ice pieces rattling around in there. “Me and my mom. I went up in the tube. And when I came home, she wasn’t there.” He paused. “I went and played skeeball with some people, and it was some other kid’s birthday party. They didn’t notice for a while.”
“What happened after that?” Jesse inquired. His voice was flat.
“I don’t remember,” Todd replied. He took the game out of the box.
The little blue table was smashed in two.