Dr. Maddox stared at the booklet Arnold had turned in, which looked as if it had been mauled, before she looked back up at her feline friend concerned. “Did you try to eat this?”
“Sort of,” Arnold confessed. Last week he had been trying to figure out a way to explain why Emerson was his friend. After about three hours of that he had started screaming, ripping pages, and chewing on the book.
The doctor sighed and shook her head, and then found the page for his assignment. She looked up even more unsatisfied, “You have a lot more friends than this Arnold, I’m sure of it.”
“You wanted friends that were ‘important’ to me,” he countered and set himself onto the couch. “So it had to be someone who’s saved, changed, or affected my life in some way.”
Dr. Maddox looked over his answers unsatisfied. They were only about a sentence long usually…even Mr. Harvey was only listed because he took a bullet for her. What was most infuriating to her was that Emerson Lighthouse got the longest entry! Or at least it had been until she reached Njal Edwyn’s name.
She frowned and set the book aside, and picked up her notebook, “If this is all you’re going to write, then for your next assignment I want you to write in your journal everyday and to bring it to me to read. And no ripping anything out.” Arnold grit his teeth lightly, but he nodded.
“Now, we have a lot of work to do. Last week you told me, with some vehemence, that you never wanted to leave again. Also, after your return you were telling everyone you made a mistake…that you no longer hated Babbage. What changed your mind?”
Arnold frowned silently at the doctor for a few moments. He wasn’t reluctant to tell her, but he was having a problem settling on only one answer. She pressed him again and he sighed, “For a long time I wandered through empty realms…alone. But when I finally reached realms that did have some people…or…things…most of them made me miss Babbagers.”
“They reminded you of home?”
“No.” Arnold sucked in a breath and then replied, “They made me miss Babbagers common sense.” Dr. Maddox laughed, and even sat forward even more eager to listen. “But I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.” Arnold stood up and walked to the three windows on the side of the building…windows which they would begin to tear down next week as the renovating began early Monday morning.
“The first place with people I encountered were not people. They were fae of some kind. And they were not friendly.”
Arnold’s answers:
Dr. Maddox and Heliotrope Lionheart: Family. And I’m not here to stroke your ego so that’s all you’re getting.
Scald – Helped us find our way here.
Blackberry Harvey – Took a bullet for us.
Gilhooly Skute – Come to see him as a younger brother.
Emerson Lighthouse – My experiences with Emerson have been strained to say the least. From our very first hello we did not see eye to eye. At all. I knew from the start you couldn’t believe anything he said…I should have never agreed to work for him. It forced us into a rivalry at a time when I had actually been trying to be more friendly towards him. However, he wouldn’t have been on this list if that had never happened because it let him prove to me that he is, at heart, a good man.
Don’t ever tell him I said that though. Ever.
Tepic – Found me in that game of ‘hide and seek’ in December.
Lo – Convinced me to start writing in a journal again.
Njal Edwyn – You’re going to have to try a lot harder Dr.
*Maddox sighed and closed the book* You’re really very secretive… but I cannot wait to hear your story. Please, do continue. Also, remember that anything you omit because you don’t feel it has importance, may actually be of importance to our session, so try not to leave anything out.
Poor Arnold…