Chapter #75Self-Sibling Rivalries by: Seuzz   It's only when you start thinking about how to handle another switch that you decide to make it with Casey Sennik. You've no idea how to get close to Traci Small, but you've already got a good notion of how to trap Casey.
"How many comic books am I supposed to be giving away," Eric complains when you call him later that night. "Sweetie, not now."
"Why are you calling me 'sweetie'?" you ask.
"Not you, dude, I'm talking to Cindy. Can I put her on the phone, you tell her I've got a headache or something?"
You snicker. "She wouldn't recognize my voice. Be careful what you wish for, right? But you didn't give me anything like two hundred bucks of comic books tonight. So call this guy--last name is S-E-N-N-I-K, find his number online, his first name is Casey, tell him he won a drawing."
"I don't have drawings!"
"He doesn't know that. Tell him if he's there tomorrow at, uh, five o'clock, you'll give him a hundred dollars worth of comics and shit."
"Can't we do it later, closer to closing time?"
"Okay, how about eight? I'll set it up on my end."
A minute later you rap on Will's door, and press your ear to it. You blink at this instinctive act of eavesdropping: Little twerp does this all the time. At the sound of footsteps you pull back.
The door opens, and Will glares darkly down at you. "What do you want?"
"Spend some big brother-little brother time with me tomorrow?" you breathlessly ask.
"Stuff yourself." He shuts the door, but you wedge it open with your foot. "Get out, I'm talking to--"
"How's Tilley? Does he still have amnesia?"
His eyes pop. "Shit. How did you know about?"
"Because I'm really you. I had to switch with Robert today at the comic book shop. You weren't paying attention, 'cos you never do. But I need to move and you need to help me. And you'll want to help me because--"
"Maybe I don't!" He yanks you inside by the neck and throws you on the bed. Then he kicks the door shut and jumps on you. "Got you where I want you now!" he shouts, and pounds at your chest.
"Ow! Quit it!"
"And what'll you do? Tell mom and dad you're beating yourself up?"
"You want me outta your hair!"
"I want you right here! I can't do this to the real--"
"Dad!" you holler. "Mom! Will's--!"
He stifles you. "You don't shut up I'm gonna punch you in the nuts. Hell, I'll do that anyway."
But at the sound of approaching footsteps he leaps off you. You scramble up, breathing heavily. The door flies open and your dad comes in.
"Dad, Will was--!"
"Robert's being a dickw--!"
Your dad raises a hand, and you both fall silent. "Is this something I really need to hear?"
"I just wanted to ask Will if we could do something together tomorrow, just the two of us, like brothers!" you whine.
Will turns very red as your dad turns to him. "That sounds like a great idea, Will," he says.
"Tomorrow night, we could see a movie, get something to eat?" you suggest.
Your dad jerks his head, indicating you should leave. You hop from the room, but not so fast you can't hear your dad's words to your big brother. "I'll pay for it too. As long as Robert comes home happy," he adds in a low growl.
Might be a problem if Robert comes back with a 24-hour blank spot. But that'll be golem-you's problem.
* * * * *
You pass an anxious Saturday morning and afternoon doing chores in preparation for Thanksgiving, which is coming on Thursday; you occupy it with a half-assed job cleaning your bedroom, helping with laundry, dusting, washing windows. You get it light, for your "older brother" has to help your dad with the gutters and the lawn.
You're done by mid-afternoon, though, and jerk off online with Shawn and Jeff. They're pretty good guys, you suppose. Smart, well-mannered, pretty responsible. A lot more responsible than you and your friends were at that age, and you're a little disconcerted to see how much better Robert is at school work than you were. You try telling yourself that you can get his homework done more quickly because you already know it all, but Robert's memories tell you he'd be almost as fast as you anyway. He'd be the fair-haired boy with your dad if he wasn't always getting in trouble by getting into your stuff.
Speaking of which, you make sure that Will catches you at least once pawing through his chest of drawers. He kicks your ass and sends you howling back to your room.
At around seven, though, he knocks on your door. "Ready to head out," he mutely asks.
He's also fairly mute on the drive out to Eric's, but accepts your instructions. "Robert's not gonna remember anything of the last twenty-four hours," you tell him. "But we're going to do the switch back at the comic shop, so he shouldn't notice any kind of space jump. Take him straight to a movie afterward, and don't push him around if he starts asking how come it's Saturday instead of Friday."
"Little dork probably doesn't know any better anyway," Will grumbles.
"Do I really hate him that much?" you ask. It's bothered you more than a little to be on the receiving end of what you've so often dished out to your kid brother.
"No," he says after a pause that was just a little too long. "Just, you know, brother stuff." He shrugs.
You fold your arms and slouch. Despite returning to your family in a different way, it felt good to be home, and already you're missing it again. You're going to miss Robert, too, after being so vividly close to him. You blink and think of Frank and Joe. Why couldn't you and Robert have been as close as them?
For once, there are extra customers in Eric's shop, and for once Christian and his friends aren't there. You wander around for a bit, killing time, but wind up at the front with Eric. "What's with you and the kiddos?" he asks as he leans in close.
"Bob's idea. You know anything about him?" Eric shakes his head, and makes a face. "Well, I'm supposed to do something with them."
"Kinda squicky," he says. "But that's Fane's business."
Not for the first time, you wonder how much worse Fane will turn out to be than Patterson as a boss.
And then you think: What if Patterson, who will also be working for Fane, winds up being your boss?
* * * * *
A few minutes before eight, when the shop has otherwise emptied, the door opens and Casey Sennik comes in, in the company of a stylishly dressed woman. His mother, presumably.
Every fiber in your body flinches. Casey is his nemesis, like The Molester and Patterson and David Kirkham were yours at Westside, and all rolled into one. He's small, smaller than Robert or his friends, but struts with his chin up and out. But he's not just physically tough. He's a master of psychological abuse. You tense as his eyes light on you.
Thank goodness his mother is there, for he ignores you and goes up to talk to Eric. The shop owner shakes his hands and tells him to look around, pick out whatever he wants. He wanders off to a distant shelf while his mom stands patiently at the front, close to Eric.
Gonna be tricky with her around. Luckily, Eric is on it. He quietly takes out the disabler; you duck behind a shelf and close your eyes. When you look out again, she is swaying lightly on her feet, looking dazed. Eric swiftly moves over to Casey, laying a hand on his shoulder. Again, you squeeze your eyes shut. "Will," Eric calls.
You hurry over, as does your big brother, responding to his name, and the two of you bundle Casey into the "interrogation room." "Can you keep his mom quiet?" you call back to Eric.
"I just gotta keep flashing this at her," he says as he slips on some sunglasses. He also locks the front door.
Inside the steel-lined room you put a blank mask onto Casey, then struggle out of your clothes while ordering Will out of his. He makes a face as you order him into Robert's clothes. You pull Casey's clothes off him: baggy trousers and three layers of baggy shirts and baggy jacket. Heavy shoes (good for kicking, as Robert knows too well), fingerless gloves, and a cap he likes to wear backwards. As the mask comes out of him, you order Will onto the ground and pull his mask from Robert. You put it on Casey, and order your shifted golem to dress. "Hurry," you hiss as you scoop up Casey's mask and clothes. "Gotta get Robert into the shop before he wakes up!"
You hurry into the bathroom, lock the door, and spread out the loot associated with your next disguise.
* * * * *
"So are you happy with what you got," your mom asks on the way back home.
"Yeah," you impatiently reply, and twist down lower in the passenger-side seat of the SUV.
"We were there quite awhile. It didn't feel that long."
"No." You twist at your cap and gaze distractedly out the window at the passing neon lights of the business district.
"It was also very nice of the owner to stay open for us. When did you put your name in for that drawing?"
"I don't know. I didn't. Andrew must have put my name in."
"Maybe you should share them with Andrew then."
"Yeah."
Finally, you think when she says nothing more. Thanks for finally shutting up.
But then you have to fill the silence. "Can I get an afterschool job?"
She turns. "Doing what?"
"I dunno. Just something." You twist around some more. "It's nice getting lots of stuff."
"That it is," she says guardedly.  You have the following choice: 1. Continue |
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