Taralynn’s Desk

* - * Ten minutes before Eli calls Robynne * - *

Cory leaned over and hit the power button. “So where is Dale then? Typically he hangs around here on Friday nights.”

Eli cracked open a Dr. Pepper. “That’s only because Robynne typically comes here on Friday nights. When he found out Robynne is hanging out with the rest of the girls for the night, I think he decided to go jam with the rest of the Ad-Rock Network. What about the guys in the Gaming Club? They doing anything?”

Cory shrugged. “I tried calling Jimmy and Eddie but nobody picked up. They must be busy or somethin’.”

Eli groaned and plopped onto the couch. “No chicks to hang with and no dudes to game with.”

“Hey, given our recent history, I’ll take a quiet night.”

Eli laughed and grabbed a controller. “Hehe, yeah. Let’s see, since the end of August my arcade got demolished by a monster, we found out my sister was a magical girl, discovered that the school counselor is a wallaby, our roommate turned into a woman, happened upon an ice cream monster, were interviewed by a minion of the big bad Platicore, and got tagged as damsels in distress. How many other freshman can claim such an eventful first year in high school?”

Cory nodded. “And we’re only about halfway through our first semester. I hope it doesn’t get too much more eventful. I just don’t think I could handle it.”

Eli shrugged. “How much more eventful could it get? I mean, since we’ve got here the Spirit Guard have already fought four monsters. I’m already starting to get desensitized to it. What else could really happen to throw us for a loop?”

Cory closed one eye and looked upwards, thinking of an answer. “We could find out our roommate is the mysterious Tremolo Bass?”

“A possibility but one of our roommates already turned into a magical girl. By comparison, our roommate being a magical boy seems pretty tame to me.”

“Fair point. Well, um, maybe we could be kidnapped by Platicore?”

“Why would Platicore kidnap us?”

“Because we know stuff?”

“But he doesn’t know we know stuff.”

“He apparently knows we were at the Polygal attack.”

“I think at this point he’d be pretty convinced we don’t know anything of use to him.”

Cory shook his head and pushed Call of Duty 4 into the CD tray. “Your overconfidence is your weakness.”

“Your faith in your villains is yours.”

Cory sat next to Eli and grabbed his own controller. “So you worked on your costume at all?”

“Nah. But it’s not as if I need anything complicated. Just got to get to a thrift store and get some clothing that matches something from Keitaro.”

“Ah, so you decided on Keitaro over Kyon?”

“Yeah, I feel more like Keitaro than Kyon. Being the snarky character is more your personality.”

Cory smirked. “Well don’t look for me to do something as simple as a Kyon costume. I’m going to do something grand!”

“Dude, you’re not going to top the Cloud sword you heard about.”

“I’m going to prove you wrong! You’ll see.” A knock sounded on their door. Cory glanced at Eli. “Do you want odds or evens?”

“Give me odds.”

“All right then.”

Both boys put their right hands behind their back and counted down in unison. “Three, two, one, shoot!”

Eli held out one finger. Cory held out four. “I win. You have to answer the door.”

Cory sighed. “I preferred our old system of just arguing.”

“Quit whining. You agreed to the new system.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” He pushed himself off the couch and approached the door. He hoped someone from the Gaming Club was behind the door. He wanted to do something besides just play video games tonight. He pressed his eye to the peephole and was disturbed to see a middle-aged man with brown hair at the door.

He turned around and whispered across the room. “Eli, it’s an adult at the door.”

Eli raised an eyebrow. “Why are you whispering like that? It’s the same volume if you say it across the room or whisper across the room.”

Cory sighed and talked normal, moving away from the door hoping the man on the other side couldn’t hear him. “You’re missing the point. Why is an adult at our door at five o’clock on a Friday night? The last adult at our door was that purple haired chick who started asking questions about Rob.”

“Well we can’t not answer it now. He probably heard us. It’d be even more suspicious if we didn’t open up and he knows we’re here.”

Cory scratched the back of his head nervously. “I sure hope it’s just someone from the school.” He returned to the door, took a big breath, and opened the door. “Hello?”

The man smiled and looked down on Cory. He was sure tall, at least 6’ 3”. “Hello. Is Robert here?”

Cory winced. This wasn’t going to go well. “Uh, no, he’s not. May I ask who is asking?”

“Oh, how rude of me. I didn’t even introduce myself.” He extended his hand to shake Cory’s. “My name is Taylor Dirken. I’m Robert’s uncle.”

Cory’s eyes widened in terror. Eli, who had been sipping on his Dr Pepper, spit it out. This was ten times worse than any minion of Platicore. “R—R—Rob’s uncle?”

Taylor raised an eyebrow, obviously not expecting the reaction he received. “Yeaaaaah.”

“Wow, uh, hey Eli! Did you hear that? Rob’s uncle is right here at our very door.”

Eli nodded his head overenthusiastically. “Y—yeah. I—I heard him say that… wow.”

“Yeah, wow! Uh—you’re certainly a long way from home, Mr. Dirken. Was Rob expecting you by any chance?”

Taylor’s eyes narrowed on the pair. Robert’s roommates were acting very odd. “No he isn’t. I decided to surprise him by showing up over the break and spend some time with him. So if he isn’t here, where is he?”

Cory wrung his hands nervously. “Where is Rob? Wow, what an interesting question. Um, you know, I’m not exactly sure where Rob is tonight. Uh, hey Eli, do you know where Rob is?”

Eli stood up and lamented spraying soda all over himself. “Um, you know what Cory; I’m not exactly sure either. You know what sounds like a great idea? I think I’ll just go into my room, grab my phone, and call Rob to ask him the answer to that very question!”

Cory nodded his head. “Oh yeah! That does sound like an excellent plan!”

Eli leaped off the couch and practically bolted to his bedroom. He shut left his door open a crack so that he could hear the conversation between Cory and Rob’s uncle.

“Well, uh, why don’t you come in Mr. Dirken? Uh, w—w–want a can of Dr Pepper… or something?”

“No thank you. I don’t drink soda. So your name is Cory?”

“Uh, yeah, it is.”

“Robert talked about you and your other friend in his text messages. Seems like you three get along well.”

Cory nodded his head and nervously rocked back and forth on his feet. “Yeah. Uh, Robynne, I mean Rob in this apartment is a good thing.”

Taylor cocked his head to the side. “Yyyes. I hope so. So which room is Robert’s?”

Cory reluctantly pointed to Dale’s room. “That one, but Rob’s roomie locks the door when he’s not there so you can’t go in.”

“Uh, I wasn’t really planning to. I wouldn’t go into Robert’s room without him knowing.”

“Oh, well then, I guess it isn’t a problem. Ahehehe.”

Taylor blinked. “Yeah… so Robert doesn’t talk about his other roommate at all.”

Cory took a few deep breaths. He had to calm down before Rob’s uncle thought he was hopped up on something. “I wouldn’t really suspect he would. Rob really doesn’t care for Dale.” At least he didn’t have to twist that truth.

“Wh—what do you mean he’s in your apartment, Eli.”

“I mean exactly what I just said. He’s in our apartment. He’s in the kitchen and Cory is stalling him.”

Sweat was building up on Robynne’s brow. “I… is Dale there?”

“No, thank goodness. This is already awkward enough.”

That news did little to relieve Robynne. “Why is he in your apartment, Eli?”

“He said he came into town to give you a surprise visit over the fall break.”

“Well he certainly succeeded! This is bad. This is very bad! I’m not ready for this, Eli.”

All of the girls were very concerned. None of them had ever seen Robynne overcome with true panic before. Kara put a hand on her shoulder. “Robynne, what is it? What’s wrong?”

Robynne sighed and put the phone down. “My uncle’s in Cory and Eli’s apartment. He’s looking for me. Or more accurately, he’s looking for Robert.”

Silence flooded the room. After a few moments, Mallory broke the deluge of quiet: “Well this isn’t good.”

Eli cleared his throat. “Robynne, what do you want us to do? We can’t stall him forever.”

“I know you can’t stall him forever! Just let me think!”

Eli almost dropped his phone. He had never heard his friend yell, not even when he was losing control of his life because of the designs of Fate. The sound of her yelling was so alien that he just had no idea how to respond to it. “I… I’m sorry?”

Robynne winced and sighed. “No Eli, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. It’s not your fault. It’s just—I thought I’d have more time. I knew I’d have to face my uncle at some point… I just thought I could put it off until the Christmas break. This is too soon.”

Silence hung over the line.

“What do you want us to do, Robynne? We’ll do whatever you need.”

“I don’t know. I guess… tell him… I’ll meet him in… I dunno… Adrian Park.”

“You sure about this?”

Robynne shook her head. “If he doesn’t get answers he’ll start thinking you two are hiding something. At some point he’ll go to the school and they’ll have to investigate or something. It can’t be helped.”

“All right. Cory and I will get him there. Just… see you there.”

Eli hung up the phone and Robynne did the same. Robynne buried her face in her hands. During the entire ordeal she had been frustrated, angry, annoyed, and confused at more points than she was every comfortable to admit. This was the first time she had ever felt overwhelmed.

Kara rubbed Robynne’s back supportively while Mary asked, “So what do we do?”

When nobody offered a suggestion, Angela stood up. “Well, let’s take care of the obvious things first. We need to all get dressed. Mary, give Ms. Kuna a call and let her know what’s going on. I’m sure at some point Mr. Dirken is going to want an explanation from an adult. Mallory, after you get dressed go and get your car started. You’re going to have to drive Robynne to Adrian Park.” The blonde tapped her finger on her chin, glancing at Robynne momentarily. “Take Kara with you. Noriko…” Angela looked around but couldn’t find the ninja-girl anywhere. “Noriko?”

A soft, unassuming voice snaked in behind the leader of the Spirit Guard. “Yes, Angela?”

“Agh!” Angela jumped into the air and turned around. Noriko was standing behind her in full ninja-garb. “I… how did you change so… never mind. Can you go follow Cory, Eli, and Mr. Dirken? We need to make sure that…”

“It will be done swiftly and silently.” With a snap of her wrist, Noriko threw a small metallic ball on the ground. It exploded with a giant puff of smoke that engulfed the room that left all the girls coughing.

By the time Mallory opened up the window, Noriko was already gone. “I wish she’d stop doing that.”

Mary and Kara retreated to their bedroom to get changed. Mallory fanned the smoke out of the room. Robynne coughed, but otherwise remained motionless. Angela grimaced and scratched her elbow nervously. “Uh, Robynne?”

“What the honey am I going to say?”

“I… I don’t know. Your situation is… unique.”

“It blows.”

“Not the words I would have used but I can’t disagree.”

“Why didn’t he tell me he was coming? I could have at least prepared.”

Angela bit down on her bottom lip hard. “Well, uh, the situation is… it’s like when you’re questing and a mob respawns right on top of you, Robynne. You panic at first but… but it doesn’t get rid of the mob. You… you just accept that there is nothing you could do about it and you face it with boldness.”

Robynne’s shoulders slumped and she glanced up at Angela. “Are you trying to make me feel better?”

Angela’s shoulders slumped along with Robynne’s. “I thought maybe a metaphor using World of Warcraft might be helpful. Metaphors about duty never seem to work.”

Robynne shuffled towards her room. The slightest of smiles cracked her face. “Thanks Angela.”

Mary bounced out of her room fully clothed. “Angela, we have a problem. I called Ms. Kuna and her phone didn’t even ring.”

Angela nodded. “Means she’s somewhere that cell phones can’t reach. She’s probably in the Grove. We’ll have to inform her personally. Mary, let’s transform and get ourselves to the Grove. Between Mallory, Kara, Elijah and,” she sighed, “Cory, I think Robynne will be well taken care of.”

Mary shrugged. “I could handle that on my own if you want to stay here and…”

Angela shook her head. “This is a delicate situation. If there is anything being around Robynne has taught me is that I have a tendency to stick my foot in my mouth at the worst times.”

“Heyyy! You are learning!”

Angela groaned, “I suggest we transform and get ourselves moving. Timing could be important.”

Taylor kicked a rock and glanced around Adrian Park. “You sure this is where we’re supposed to meet Robert?”

Cory and Eli scanned the park, more eager to find Taylor’s nephew than he was. “That’s what Rob said, sir. Though he was a little vague as to where in the park. Still, this table here should give us a good view so whichever way Robert shows up, we should be able to see him.”

Taylor sighed and plopped down on a bench. “Yeah. Sounds like a plan.” He observed some kids on the other side of the park just hanging, tossing a frisbee around. “You guys come to this park often?”

“Uh, not really. No.”

Eli, not wanting to sound like a complete shut-in, spoke up, “Yeah, but we have come here to play Horse a few times.”

Cory glanced up at the sky with a smile. “Yeah, horse.”

The wind blew in from the north, the autumn air sending a chill across the park. Taylor turned and faced the wind, noticing an old decaying building hiding behind the large trees that ran along the stream next to the park. “What’s that building over there? Looks old.”

Cory shivered, wishing he had worn a long sleeve shirt. “That’s the old Puerto Calleras Examiner building. It was a newspaper that was popular until… I think it died out shortly after World War II. People say the building is haunted.”

Taylor raised an eyebrow. “Haunted?”

“Yeah, I heard there was woman who worked there and she got killed when one of those giant rolls of paper fell down and crushed her or something.” Cory cleared his throat and turned on a dramatic flare. “Some of the kids at school say they that if you stay in the park late at night, you can hear a typewriter working into the night, a scream, followed by… silence.”

Eli rolled his eyes. “Nice creepy acting, Vincent Price. I feel myself quaking in my boots. You’re making that crap up.”

“Am not.”

“Oh come on! Typewriter in the middle of the night? Soooo cliché.”

“Cliché? How is that a cliché? When have you ever heard of phantom typewriters going off in the night?”

“Not the typewriter specifically. The idea of a ghost going about its daily life as if it were still alive. Totally cliché.”

Taylor tried to ignore the duo. He rubbed his eyes and surveyed the park once more, hoping to spot Robert amongst the groups of teenagers scattered about. He mumbled under his breath, “Robert, what’s going on with you?”

45 minutes later…

“Finally here.”

Robynne sighed. “Sorry I took so long to get ready.”

Kara tried to put Robynne at ease with a smile. “It’s all right. This isn’t exactly the easiest situation. It’s not too hard to understand why you’re so tense.”

Mallory scanned the park. “Well, there are the two bozos. That your uncle sitting with’em, Red?”

Robynne peaked out from behind the driver’s seat. She swallowed a huge lump in her throat. “Yeah, that’s my Uncle.”

Mallory rounded the corner and parked her old Nissan Sentra behind the picnic tables. Turning the key, the engine puttered to a stop. Taylor turned around and glanced at the red car. Robynne ducked behind the Mallory’s seat. Upon seeing that Robert wasn’t in the car, Mallory sighed and turned around. “Robynne, why are you hiding?”

“I don’t want him to see me like this.”

“He won’t know it’s you until you tell him it’s you.”

Robynne leaned her head against the back of driver’s seat. “I know that. I just… I’m trying to figure out what to say.”

Kara reached back from the passenger’s seat and put a hand on Robynne’s leg. “Just tell him the truth.”

“Kara, the truth is the least believable thing right now. ‘Hey Uncle Taylor. Oh, who am I? I’m your nephew Robert. You know, that kid you raised? I have boobs now.’ Sounds like a great explanation.”

Mallory smirked. “Maybe there’s a way to improve on the phrase ‘I have boobs now.’ I’m sure you can find something that would be better than that.”

Robynne’s phone rang. She looked down and saw Eli was calling her. “Hello Eli.”

“Uh… hi. Roby… er, Robert. How’s it going?”

She winced, not wanting to leave the car. “Swimmingly. We’re right behind you in your sister’s car… but I’m not ready to come out yet.”

Eli groaned. Robynne knew he was struggling. “Not ready yet? Well, when will you be here then?”

Robynne’s gave an uncharacteristic whine. “I don’t know! I have no clue what to say to him. I’ve been trying to think of something to say to him for the past few months but—I just have a big bag of nothing.”

She glanced out of the window and could see her uncle watching Eli like a hawk. She could also see that neither Eli nor Cory looked comfortable at all. “Look, I understand, but it’s been like an hour and half since your uncle got here.” Eli lowered his voice and whispered into the receiver. “I think he’s getting impatient. We can’t keep him here indefinitely.”

Robynne watched her uncle stand up. “Look, just give me a few more minutes to come up with something. I’m sorry to put you guys through this but…” Robynne trailed off as she saw her uncle loom over Eli.

Taylor’s normally even-keeled voice had an edge to it that Robynne had rarely heard. “Let me talk to him.”

Eli clenched his teeth and even from a distance Robynne could see he had no idea what to do. He pushed a giant lump down his throat. “He uh, said he’d be here really soon.” He hung up.

Robynne kept her eyes glued to her uncle’s face. Taylor licked his lips, shook his head, stared at the sky, and chuckled. “Oh, this isn’t going to be good. Mallory—crack the windows.”

Robynne had never known Uncle Taylor to lose his cool or yell much. The only time she could remember him truly blowing up at someone was when a guy kept calling and insisting that Taylor owed him money. For the first few weeks her uncle had just calmly insisted the man had the wrong guy. But the weeks became a month and finally her uncle snapped and told the man if he kept calling he was going to get a lawyer and sue this guy for harassment, except that he used language that if Robynne tried to repeat it would sound like a menu to an ice cream parlor.

As the window rolled down, Robynne heard Uncle Taylor lose his cool for the second time in her life. “…been more than patient with this whole situation. When he arrived, Robert gave me a few calls. Then one day the phone calls stopped.” Taylor’s eyebrows furrows. He sighed, his frustration obvious. “I give him a few calls and he didn’t return them. I call him some more. I only get texts back. This wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t for the fact that it’s been over a month and he still won’t return my phone calls.”

“Now, you two are just dumb teenagers so you wouldn’t know what a parent goes through in situations like this. Let me enlighten you. A parent starts worrying about what could possibly be going on that would make their child not even want to speak to them. The way I see it, something has happened to him that’s so embarrassing that he doesn’t want to talk about it. Or maybe he did something he’s ashamed over. Or maybe something bad happened to him and he’s too scared to talk about it. But none of those things sound anything like the Robert I know.”

Robynne felt a pang in her heart. She had similar sensations when a monster was near, but she knew with crystal clarity that there was no monster. Monsters seemed to emanate negative sensations that shook her soul. But the source of the pain wasn’t outward.
Through the entire ordeal Robynne had been worried about her new life, losing her old one, moving into her new apartment, her new roommates, her double identity, dealing with the plate of crap that Fate had laid out in front of her, how she would explain this to her uncle and… that was the thing. It had been all about how she would face her uncle, never thinking about how much anxiety she had put her uncle through.

She had heard Uncle Taylor’s messages. She had read his texts. She knew that he wanted to talk to her. To help her. She had tried to hide it but Taylor had just known something was wrong from her lack of communication. It wasn’t like Robert to hid things from him. He had been worrying about his nephew. How could he not worry about his nephew? Robynne knew how much he had sacrificed for her. Single parent raising his brother’s child like it was his own. It wasn’t like that love was going to stop when he moved out of the house. How many hours had he been sitting alone in their small home worrying about him? Was he lonely without someone there to talk to? Was he scared his nephew wouldn’t be able to handle the stress of being away from home? Was he frustrated that Robert had seemingly shut him out of his life?

Robynne smacked her head against the back of Mallory’s seat. “Gumdrops, why am I such an idiot?”

“So I show up here to figure what’s going on with Robert and I run into you two twits. I’ve respected your right to privacy but I’m done playing this game with you. You’ve acted sketchy since the moment I knocked on your door. I know you two are hiding something from me. Now whether it’s because you two have done something or my nephew has done something, I don’t give a damn. I am going to be told where Robert is and what is going on right now. If not, things are going to get very ugly for you. I’ll go to the school, your teachers, your families, and to anyone else that may know what’s happening. And if I find out that…”

This wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair to Cory and Eli, forcing them to cover for her like this. It wasn’t fair to the girls, forcing them to deal with a problem that she had created through her own idiocy. And it especially wasn’t fair to her uncle, putting him through all of this.

Robynne took a deep breath. What was she going to say? Nothing came to her.

She opened the door anyway. Facing Day LaMode by herself didn’t require nearly the amount of strength that it took to pull herself out of the safety of Mallory’s Sentra. The park’s lights were warming up as the sun set, setting a strange orange glow about the parking lot. Robynne shut the door and pressed towards the park bench.

Taylor didn’t react to the sound of the shutting car door. What he reacted to was the relief that overcame Cory’s and Eli’s faces as they saw their redheaded friend approach. “What are you two looki…”

Taylor turned around and caught glimpse of his niece for the first time. He shook his head twice and looked again. He gasped as if punched in the stomach. “C—Cassandra?”

Robynne bit on her lip. She knew she looked a lot like her mother but she hadn’t expected Taylor to think he was looking at his deceased sister-in-law. “No, uncle. It’s me.”

Taylor took a perplexed step backward. “It’s you?”

The young woman scratched at her left elbow nervously. “Yeah, uncle. It’s me.” She inhaled deeply, needing all the breath she could muster for her next sentence. “Uncle, I—am—Robert.”

Wow… this took a long time. Mostly because of how busy life has been for me but also because how difficult this last part was. Guilt is a new topic for me to write about. It took me a week to get the last page and a half written. I just had to get it right. I’m finally able to look at this chapter and feel good about how it turned out. I hope you agree.

When writing a story, there are some scenes you have in mind when you start the story. This is one of the scenes I’ve mulled over a thousand times. I knew when I started this story that I wanted to have these chapters. Too many times in anime and comics we try to sweep real life under the rug. This is especially true in TG fiction. Now, if sweeping is necessary to the story that’s fine. Sweeping isn’t always bad but I felt I had to deal with this. To me this is part of the theme of Magical Girl Policy. If I didn’t deal with this, I’d just be ignoring the ridiculousness of magical girl policy (which is kind of a theme of the story).

The hardest thing in writing about guilt is trying to get you to feel the shame of the guilt-ridden party. To get you to understand why they are feeling guilty. I reached back to a lot of moments in my teenage years when you realize you’ve been an idiot and caused a lot of problems for others. Once I got a feel for that, writing became so much easier.

Sorry for the very long delay. I don’t like the long delays as it interrupts the flow of the story. But it’s here now and I think things should go a little smoother now. There will not be an update next week (thanksgiving) but there should be one the week after that. Getting this chapter done has reenergized me and I want to get through this.

Let’s get ready to rumble,
Taralynn Andrews