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Every day Naib would stand at the gate, shooing his mother off while saying he was fine and could wait for Norton alone. He was a big boy now, something he often had to remind his mother while she laughed. A mockery to the mighty man of four.
Naib would wait at the gate, until he saw the familiar mop of dark bushy hair rolling in with his own mother. Running up to the other boy, a mighty man of five, and giving him a greeting hug.
This was always the start of their daily routine. But today as Naib waited, and waited, he noticed how grey the skies looked that day, and no mop of black, messy hair was to be seen. When the kindergarten teacher told Naib it was time to go inside, Naib could only look defeated towards the now closed gate. Hoping today was a different day, a day where Norton arrived before him.
Running into the playroom, Naib looked excitedly around for his best friend. His eyes scanned the room multiple times, hopeful to find Norton.
“Naib!”
“No!”
Eli blinked once, taken aback by the blunt response. Even Aesop looked up in confusion. Where was the kind greeting and happy boy they were usually met with?
“No?”
“I’m looking for Norton, you’re not Norton.”
“Oh.. well, Norton isn’t here yet. Maybe he’s late?”
“No, he’s never late- aside from being later than me. I’m faster.”
Eli nodded in understanding, finger leaned up against his chin while he thought. Eli was one of the six year olds, which practically made him an adult. At least Naib was convinced of this, Eli acted like a grandpa at times.
“How about we ask the teacher where he is? I’ll accompany you.”
The little kid gave it a thought, taking into deep consideration whether to trust Eli with such an important task as a companion. “Hm.. okay.”
The two, along with a silent Aesop, walked together on the quest to find one of the teachers. A quest that was over quick with Eli’s superpowers, managing to tell them exactly where the teacher was (nothing to do with it being close to lunch and one teacher was always in the kitchen then, nope.) Standing all together the three kids stared up at Lady Michiko, waiting for her to notice them. It took a while, but after creeping the teacher out enough she finally seemed to notice the three glaring her down.
“My- Is something wrong? Why aren’t you kids playing in the playroom?”
“Norton isn’t here” Naib announced, clear in tone that Norton being gone wasn’t right.
“Right, his mother called and said he was sick.”
“Sick?”
“Yes, he caught the flu.”
“No.”
“No?”
“He didn’t tell me he’s sick. He’s not sick”
“Well of course he couldn’t tell you when he’s sick. He’s staying home today.”
Upset, Naib pushed his bottom lip up. Looking at Michiko with resentment as she clearly made Norton sick (hate the messenger, why don’t he). “He has to come. He promised to always play with me”
“You can play with Eli and Aesop today, and maybe Norton will be back soon”
“No!”
“No?”
“No.” Crossing his arms, Naib made it clear. His decision was final, he wasn’t playing with anyone if he couldn’t play with Norton. Making it though for Michiko to find solutions to please the child.
“Do you want to play with Brooke Rose then Naib?” Eli chummed in, not taking to heart Naib’s clear favouritism of Norton.
“Your teddy?”
“My owl.”
“The teddy”
“The owl”
“That isn’t Norton”
“Right you are”
“…. I wanna go home… but.. I can take the teddy.. for today.”
“Great! I’m sure she, the owl would love to play with you!”
All three kids returned to the playroom, leaving Michiko alone about her lies of Norton’s health. In reality it was all a cruel coup the facility was pulling on Naib, and some evil boss had taken Norton from him. The four year old had squeezed the stuffed toy too harshly when the realisation of evil plans struck, causing Eli to take Brooke Rose out for a walk to calm the ‘bird’. But with Eli gone it left more room for Naib to map out said evil plans now that the voice of reason was gone.
“They’ve taken him to a throw away castle”
“No, he’s sick.”
“That’s their decoy- I know when lady Michiko is lying”
“...”
“The castle is always deep in the forest, but since we’re all trapped within fences… I have to wait for ama to return”
Aesop lost interest in Naib and his knightly plans rather quickly, going back to his drawing block, drabbling angels and tombs instead.
“Can you drive a car?”
“Only on game devices.”
“Can’t all adults drive cars?”
“Think so.”
“Then why can’t you??”
“I’m 6.”
The day went on, and there was no sight of Norton- and Eli became more hesitant on letting Naib handle Brooke Rose throughout the day. Every became an hour, every hour a day, and the day became a year. On multiple occasions had the Nepali broken into tears, even sniffling into and snotting up the pants of mister Joseph, to which the kindergarten teacher responded in disgust (why he worked at a kindergarten was a question Naib would probably ponder upon when older and realisation with memories from his youth struck hard). By the end of the day Naib was cuddled upon Michiko’s lap, crying meekly into curled up fists. The kinder-than-certain-frenchmen teacher stroked Naib’s back in a foul attempt to calm him before his mother picked him up. Once his mother came to pick him up as usual, Michiko felt it needed to be explained why Naib was crying when returning to his mother, including the accusations of kidnapping and attempting to hinder Norton and Naib’s promise in spending everyday together. Thanking Michiko, Naib’s mother picked the boy up and let him finish crying into the fabrics on her shoulder. Assuring her son no Nortons were kidnapped, nor murdered, that day.
“hicc... He’s been gone all day.. Ama..”
“I know, I know. That’s what it’s like being sick. You were sick and had to stay home a while back too, dont you remember?”
“‘is different.. Norton didn’t come meet me.. he- he promised..”
“And he will see you again when he gets better.”
Curling his fists into the fabrics of his mother’s shirt, Naib pushed himself back to look with teary eyes into his Ama’s eyes. “Did you make him soup?”
“I’m sure his mother already has.”
“Nu-uh,” shaking his head, Naib wiped some tears away with his sleeve. “Ama makes healing soup- Norton needs healing.”
“And how would I get that soup to him?”
“We visit him!.. Norton needs healing so.. I.. I’ll help take care of him!.. If he’s dying.. someone has to be by his side”
“Now now, he’s not dying.”
“He may! Grandpa got sick and went bye- So if Norton is sick I have to see him, Ama…”
With a voice threatening to break into new spilt tears, Naib’s mother could do nothing but bring her son back close. Patting his back while gently shushing the boy. Hopefully he would calm down soon enough. “Alright alright, how about I call his mother, and we see if they would like a visit for the evening”
“Mhm.. Night.. Sleepover.”
“Naib, we do not have sleepovers when someone is sick.”
“He’s all alone…I have to watch over him..”
His mother let out a faint sigh, feeling defeated albeit smiling. She was certainly raising a selfless boy, she could already tell. “We will see what we can make out of it.”
Once they got home his mother stayed true to her words and called Norton’s mother to discuss the situation at hand while Naib stayed close and listened intently. He didn’t catch all the details, something about Norton’s father, ‘bad’ and no visits was all he caught, which made the child’s heart feel like a mudcake- mudcakes were heavy little things in small hands. So when the mothers hung up and he was ready to go cry in his room, Naib was shocked when his Ama told him to clean his room, saying they were getting a visit. Too happy to question anything else, Naib ran straight to his room to stack his mess into messy shelves while his mother made the soup for Norton that Naib had demanded for his friend.
When Norton and his mother finally came by, Norton was cradled into blankets and held close to his mother, he was awfully small for someone supposed to be 5 years old Naib thought, as he, who was 4, was taller! Sniffing and snotting for completely different reasons than Naib previously had, Norton looked over his shoulder when they got in. Brows raising in the slightest hint of joy to see Naib, the rest of his face looking as dying as he was (Naib knew it, he was dying!!)
Taking Norton to Naib’s room, the sick child was tucked under even more blankets in Naib’s bed, some blankets sponsored by mama Subedar. Naib went straight to nursing Norton, bothering him every ten second with various questions on how he was doing and how he felt. There wasn’t much response coming from Norton, seeing how tired he was with his current health. Good thing both mothers were there to assist Naib in his upcoming nursing career. Once again Naib heard the women talk about things that passed his head, which sounded like serious grown-up talk, which meant it was unimportant to him and Norton. Whatever they discussed affected Naib in no way, as long as he could take care of Norton.
Eventually night rolled by, and Norton had by long fallen asleep, his body demanding a lot of rest. Naib wondered if he had gotten any previous rest from the day, didn't seem like it how early he slept that day. Naib had been told to go to sleep as well, a mattress on the floor laid out for him to take, but Naib didn’t like the thought of sleeping when Norton was asleep and vulnerable (vulnerable to kidnapping- he had seen how the mario games went). And perhaps Norton would get cold throughout the night? If he get cold that wouldn’t help his state, so in a brilliant plan that fixed both issues Naib got into the bed along with Norton. Cuddling up to the older, holding him like a teddy. That way he could protect Norton, sleep and keep him warm. It was a brilliant idea.
At least Naib thought it was brilliant back then. After a night of the two of them switching on who played teddy bear, they were both now coughing and sniffing, side by side tucked up under warm duvet covers. Naib felt like he was dying, and he despised this feeling of being sick, but… at least he had Norton by his side.
~25 years later~
Tapping his foot in impatience, Naib found himself glancing back and forth between his wristwatch and the old grandpa clock against the wall. Ceremony was soon to begin, and they had agreed to walk up together- Where was the second groom??
“Naib!”
“No!… Ah, sorry- I thought you were Norton.”
“Strangely enough I have yet to become him, even after all these years.”
Scrunching his nose, Naib took the face of a puzzled hamster. “You know, I’m getting Deja vu”
“I wonder why- The groom is still having nerves struggling with his brooch”
“He’s panicking.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s go.”
Both men rushed off to find the panicking groom. It was far from a smooth ceremony, but if they were to spend all their days together through sickness and health, what was a rough ceremony against anything else?