How you knew that you were loved but... (youareloved) wrote in dis_ducibus, @ 2010-09-16 23:53:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2010/07/01, hal, ~solo |
Who: Hal, Fredrick [NPC], Matty [NPC]
Where: Fredrick and Sons' Chocolate Shop
When: Thursday July 1, one pm
What: Hal finds out what his mother has been up to all of these years.
“Hal!” Fredrick called from the front of the store. “Hal, you might want to get up here.” He sounded worried, like something was going on and he didn’t know what to do, but Fredrick always knew what to do! For an older man, he had a lot of ideas, a lot of plans, and he had seen a lot as well. He knew how to diffuse arguments, keep kids from crying, stop crying kids with just a smile, and still he had this way about him that was still slightly grumpy even when he was being cheerful. There was no real way to describe the man, other than the fact that he never sounded like that.
Were the cops there? Oh God he hoped not. Why would they be there? One had shown up before the whole zombie thing. Maybe they were showing up because of the zombie thing? Their store had been broken into, but Hal didn’t see what that had to do with him. “Uh...just a second.” He called back out to Fredrick as he finished up the chocolate he was working on. He’d have to start the process all over again if he left the chocolate now, it would cool down too much to be workable, but it sounded like Fredrick really needed him, so up to the front he went, taking off his apron on the way. He still had chocolate on his arms and a bit on his face, but for the most part, he didn’t look so bad.
“Ah here he is.” Fredrick said, looking quite relieved. He put his hands on Hal’s shoulders and thrusted him forwardd. “We had a customer request you specifically, young man.” Fredrick seemed nervous about that, but pleased none the less. Hal was looking back at Fredrick this whole time, so when he finally turned to face a small curly haired boy who couldn’t have been older than seven or eight, he shook his head.
“This has to be some kind of mistake.” Hal spoke up. “I don’t know this kid.”
“Well he asked for you.” Fredrick said with a shrug.
“You’re Hal right?” The boy asked, looking him over, leaning up against the counter. “Hallelujah Patton?”
Hal winced at his full first name. “It’s Hal, yes.”
“Hallelujah Nathaniel Patton?” The boy asked once again, wanting to make certain that this was the right person.
“Yes, it’s me, okay. Who are you? How do you know my name?” Hal crossed his arms, growing impatient as Fredrick eyed the two of them nervously. It was clear to Hal Fredrick had his suspicions about what was going on, which was driving him crazy. “Hold on. Fredrick can you give me a minute? Can I just go outside with this kid for a second?” Fredrick gave him a silent nod and he made his way around the counter.
Hal led the two of them out of the chocolate shop and over to a nearby bench down the street. As they walked, Hal looked back to make sure Fredrick wasn’t going to the door to listen to all of this. He was still watching the two of them, but he wasn’t opening the door, he wasn’t following after them like he very clearly wanted to. Turning his attention back to the boy, Hal let out a sigh. “So who are you? Why are you coming to my workplace asking for me?”
The boy kicked his legs back and forth, clearly happy to just be sitting there with Hal. It took him a couple of seconds to respond. “I’m Matty.”
“Okay, Matty...I really don’t know what you’re doing here.” Hal stated rather bluntly. He really didn’t want to play babysitter for some little kid that he didn’t even know.
“Mom says hi.” Matty told him, looking him in the eye.
“What did you just say to me?” Hal asked, hoping he had heard him wrong.
“Mom says hi. She said that I was going to come live with you for a while, get to know you, because I’ve only heard about you at this point.” Matty told him quite easily. “She loves you, you know, she said that she missed you and that she knew that we’d get along. That it was time for us to meet. So we could really be brothers together.”
Hal’s head was absolutely spinning at this point. All he could really think of was that this kid had to be lying. He couldn’t have a brother. How could he have a brother? Well, at best he could only be a half brother but how was it that now he was figuring out about it? “How old are you?” Hal asked, looking over at him.
“Seven.” Matty replied, holding up seven fingers proudly.
Well, that was why she left...in addition to being a liar and a thief, she was pregnant. Going to jail meant giving up two kids and apparently she cared about at least one of them. “How did you find me?”
“Mom put me on a bus and told me where to find you. So I walked here from the bus stop. She said that you would be okay with all of this...” Matty wasn’t as stupid as it seemed, the kid was picking up that he wasn’t really wanted there.
“...She told you about me?” Hal asked nervously, half afraid of the answer Matty was going to give him.
“Of course. She loves you, you know.” Matty replied with a small smile.
“No she doesn’t. Don’t talk about what you don’t know. She left me kid, and she left you too. She’s not coming back for you, don’t you realize that? She’s abandoning you just like she abandoned me. Because right about now she was figuring out that she couldn’t take care of me when I was your age. Except, she didn’t tell anyone, she didn’t hand me off to anyone, she just pretended that she could. She’s not coming back.”
Matty looked at him with a blank expression. “She isn’t?”
Hal shook his head. “Sorry, bub, but she wont.”
Matty shook his head and covered his face. “Why not?”
Realizing his mistake, Hal patted the boy’s shoulder. “Look, I’m sorry, let’s...let’s just worry about this later. I need to go talk to my boss okay? And then we’ll go back to my place.” Matty nodded as Hal got up. “Just stay right there okay?”
Hal took shaky steps back to Fredrick and Sons’ where Fredrick was anxiously waiting for him behind the counter. “So...is that your boy?”
Hal instantly made a face. “What? No. God no. Fredrick I’m - ” Okay, he was not admitting to Fredrick that he never even had a girlfriend, never even went further than kissing a girl. His boss didn’t need to know that about him. “Fredrick, he’s my brother.”