Chapter Text
Ten-year old Xavier Thorpe could not stop thinking about the girl from the funeral. I mean, the experience of nearly dying an excruciating and terrifying death certainly made a mark on the boy and his nightmares. But the girl.
She was unlike anyone he’d met in his entire life. Shorter than him, skinny, bone pale, with long black braids and deep dark eyes. Unlike most kids their age, she held still and quiet, more like a porcelain doll than any flesh and blood human. But a scary doll, maybe a cursed one. Her eyes were sharp, judging everything around her and finding it all wanting.
And she had a name unlike anyone else’s, too. Wednesday. When she spoke, her voice sounded grown up and bored. He had introduced himself to her and when he expected her to do the same, she stood in front of him, not moving or speaking until he asked her name. “Wednesday.”
It was his godmother’s funeral and he was sad. Kind of. She smelled like powder and tea rose perfume and would give him butterscotch candies when they visited. His mom was sad and he didn’t like when she cried. But mostly he was uncomfortable in his suit and bored and under threat of losing his PlayStation if he made a spectacle of himself. Father’s words.
Introductions out of the way, he asked if she wanted to play and she nodded once, then she tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re too soft for my usual games. What do you want to play?”
That stung a little. He didn’t know what kind of games she normally played that his pudginess would prevent him from playing. Maybe running games but not at a funeral. “What about hide and seek?” he suggested.
She hid first and took him forever to find him in the undertaker’s office since he wasn’t sure if that was off limits. When it was his turn to hide, he had to outdo her, impress her. And instead she had to come to his rescue. Stupid coffin that you can’t open from the inside. Stupid Xavier blubbering and snorting all over Wednesday when she saved him. Stupid PlayStation that he missed playing.
Without his game console, he had lots more time on his hands. He drew a bunch. It kept him quiet and no matter where his dad toured, there were always pencils and paper around. And he liked how his mom would coo about how proud she was of his budding talent.
He also spent a lot of time daydreaming. If he sat still and let his eyes go unfocused, he looked like he was being an obedient, unembarrassing kid. But in his head he could go on adventures.
In his head, Xavier and Wednesday went to much cooler places than his dad’s tour went. They went to Egypt and battled mummies in the Great Pyramid. They went to the Amazon and found cities made of gold. They went to Alaska and battled yetis to save a village of grateful eskimos. There was nothing the great Thorpe and Addams couldn’t do together.
Tonight, backstage with a nanny so his mom could rest in their hotel room in peace and quiet, Xavier and Wednesday were at it again. Tonight, they were battling pirates.
Wednesday was the captain and Xavier her first mate. They were sailing with a crew whose faces Xavier never really bothered to flesh out with details. She gave orders in that deadpan monotone and the sailors knew not to mess with her. And they knew not to mess with Xavier because he was her first mate.
And then the pirates came. They got close through trickery and Xavier didn’t realize they were under attack until a boarding party climbed over the rail. Wasting no time, Wednesday and Xavier ran into the fray, drawing their cutlasses and rallying the crew with their battle cries and cool moves.
They fought back to back, moving more gracefully than Xavier did in his stupid ballroom dance lessons. They fought so well together some of the pirates stopped fighting just to watch.
In the end, they defeated the pirates and kicked them off their ship. The crew were grateful to be led by such amazing officers.
Wednesday noticed a splash of blood on the shoulder of her black tunic. She ran her finger through it and popped the bloodied digit in her mouth. “These pirates were not worthy opponents for the likes of us,” she said. Not for the first time, Xavier wondered if she were a vampire.
That would be a cool next adventure.