Chapter Text
"What do you think, Josh?"
Joshua stared up at the old house, mouth agape. It seemed to stare back down at him.
"It's big!" He signed, commenting on the first thing to come to mind. Gordon laughed, hefting a box out of their U-Haul van.
"Yeah, it's a lot bigger than our old apartment, huh? The backyard looked huge in the pictures." Gordon shifted his grip on the box to fish the new keys out of his pocket. "You wanna grab your suitcase and check out the inside? I'll let you pick your room."
Joshua grabbed his little Toy Story suitcase and bolted inside the moment his dad opened the door, thundering up the stairs. There seemed to only be two rooms upstairs, in addition to the bathroom, so he picked the room on the right, excited by the large windows on two of the three walls. He set his suitcase on the ground, immediately fishing out his toy horse so it could survey the new environment, and then went to one of the windows to peer outside. His dad was right — the yard was huge! This was going to be the perfect environment for cowboys twenty-
A soft thunk startled him out of his cowboy thoughts. He turned around to find his horse had fallen over. Huh. He picked it up and set it on its feet again, then checked out the other window. This one overlooked their new neighbor's yard. Right as he pressed his nose to the window, an enormous golden retriever came bounding out the back door, jumping into play position. Its owner was obscured by the shape of the house, but Joshua could see a ball fly off the porch, the dog taking off after it.
Thunk.
Joshua turned around. His horse had fallen over again. He picked it up, set it firmly on its feet, then stood back and watched. It stood there, as motionless as one would expect from a toy horse. Then, without warning, it tipped over in the opposite direction. Joshua frowned.
"Josh!" His dad's voice rang out up the stairs. "Lunch time!"
Joshua cast one more suspicious look at the horse laying innocently on its side, then went downstairs. He found his dad in the kitchen, going through a small box.
"Hey, kiddo." Gordon grinned up at him, pulling out jars of peanut butter and grape jelly. "You like your room?"
Deciding not to mention the horse incident, Joshua nodded.
"Good, I'm glad." Gordon started assembling PB&Js for the two of them. "Tonight is probably gonna be a sleeping bag night, but we'll get your bed set up tomorrow, okay? We'll also get groceries so we're not eating peanut butter and jellies for the rest of the week."
Joshua went to make his TTS start counting sandwiches but realized he didn't have his tablet on him. "Tablet?" he signed quizzically at his dad.
Gordon gestured in the direction of the adjacent living room. "I think it's still in your backpack."
Joshua found his backpack propped up by the front door. When he reached in and pulled out his tablet, he got the distinct feeling of being watched. He looked over his shoulder but found nothing, his dad out of sight and humming as he assembled sandwiches. He clutched his tablet to his chest and narrowed his eyes at the barren room. The stacks of boxes gave him no indication of caring.
Gordon handed him a paper plate with a sandwich on it when he returned, crusts cut off just the way he liked. The deliciousness of a PB&J after a long day of traveling was enough to distract him from his unease. He sat against the wall and chowed down while his dad leaned against the counter with his own plate of food, looking around the kitchen.
“This place looks old, huh? I bet all these appliances are what came with the house originally.” Gordon fiddled with the dials on the stovetop before switching them off and turning his attention to the microwave. Joshua didn’t pay him much attention, more than used to his dad’s fidgeting, but when Gordon yelped and let out a sharp “fuck!” he looked up. Gordon was clutching his right hand to his chest, glaring at the outlet on the wall.
“Daddy dying?” Joshua quickly typed out on his tablet. “Daddy dead and killed?”
“What? No, Josh, I’m fine.” Gordon laughed and shook his head, inspecting his hand for injury. “Just shocked myself trying to plug the microwave in. You be careful with these outlets, okay? The wiring is just as old as the rest of this place.” He trailed off, muttering to himself as he looked around the room, nose scrunched up in thought. “Might need to hire an electrician… Christ, this place needs a lot of work.”
Joshua watched his father’s pensive face for a moment, then glanced over at the microwave sitting innocently in the corner. Both Freemans were startled out of their thoughts by a ring of the doorbell followed by a knock on the door in quick succession. Gordon shook his head like a dog shaking off water and went to the front door. Joshua leaned forward to watch, but the stairwell and his dad’s back obscured his view of the doorway from his vantage point on the kitchen floor. “Hello?” he heard his dad ask.
“Hi!” came a chipper response. “I saw your moving van, so I thought I should… thought I should come be neighborly!”
“Oh! Uh, yeah, hi! I’m Gordon Freeman, my son and I just moved in.”
Joshua set his plate and tablet aside and crept through the living room to get a better look at their new neighbor. He found a tall Asian man on the other side of the door, wearing a bright yellow sweater over a button-down. He was rocking back and forth absently on his feet and didn’t seem to have noticed Joshua yet.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Freeman!” He said, shaking Gordon's hand firmly. “I’m Tommy Coolatta, I live, uh, live just next door.” He gestured in the direction Joshua’s window faced, and both Freemans perked up, albeit for different reasons.
“Coolatta?” Gordon asked, struggling to keep a laugh out of his voice. “That’s, uh… That’s a unique name.”
“Yep! Picked it myself!” Tommy said with a grin. “So far I haven’t gotten any liti- um, haven’t been sued by Dunkin, so…”
“Right on, man!” Gordon said, laughing in earnest now. “Damn, now you’re making me wish I’d been more creative with my name.”
Joshua sidled up to his dad and tugged on his shirt, signing up at him once he got his attention. “Ask if he has a dog.”
“Ah!” Tommy surprised him by immediately lighting up and flapping his hands. “Yes, I do! She’s- her name is Sunkist! You guys should come meet her sometime!”
“You know ASL?” Gordon asked, voicing his and Joshua’s shared surprise.
“Yeah! I taught it to myself… ages ago. I’m a little rusty signing, but! I can still read it!”
“That’s great! It’ll be nice having a neighbor Joshua can talk to without needing his tablet.” Gordon ruffled Joshua’s hair playfully, and Josh grinned, swatting him away.
Tommy calmed his fluttering hands and signed, “It’s nice to meet you, Joshua,” carefully fingerspelling his name. Joshua smiled wider and stomped his feet in excitement. Tommy giggled a little, and Joshua immediately decided he liked this guy. “I, um, I should probably let you get back to… unpacking and stuff. Here’s my number if you need anything,” he said, handing Gordon a folded piece of paper. “Maybe once you’re settled, we can- you two can come over for dinner! And meet Sunkist,” He added with a knowing nod in Joshua’s direction.
“Yeah, sure thing, man! Thank you!” Gordon waved as Tommy walked down their front steps, heading back over to his house. Once he was out of sight, he put the paper in his pocket and closed the door, turning to Joshua. “Alright, kiddo. Let’s start unpacking.”
By the time they’d finished unpacking for the night, Joshua was too tired to mind the sleeping bag in the slightest. They’d taken a brief break to order pizza for dinner, but otherwise they’d worn themselves out attempting to make the place look like a home. Gordon had brought in boxes of furniture to assemble, along with items picked up at Habitat for Humanity or from their previous apartment. That gave Joshua an opportunity to scope out the rest of the house, discovering another bedroom and bathroom downstairs that his dad claimed, along with a small office area and a huge basement currently functioning as a laundry room. Gordon wouldn’t let him climb the steep steps unsupervised, but he tossed around ideas about turning the area into a game room, which Joshua found exciting. Now, after unpacking countless knick-knacks in his new bedroom, Joshua was ready to crash. He curled up in his sleeping bag, asleep almost immediately upon hitting the pillow. Something, however, stirred him awake not too long later.
He opened bleary eyes, struggling to get his bearings in the new room for a moment, then focused his sight on what stood directly in front of him. His horse toy, previously tossed in the opposite corner of the room, was standing upright mere inches from his face, as if staring him down. Joshua squinted at it, still half asleep. The horse did not move. Joshua wiggled an arm out of his sleeping back and knocked the toy over, then rolled over and promptly fell back asleep.
Distantly, at the edge of consciousness, he heard someone laugh. But at that point, he was already asleep.