This work is copyright Andrew Tripp, aka BlueNinja. While Albert is slightly like me in high school, everyone else is a figment of my imagination, and any relation to people I knew in real life is simply coincidence. Several locations, which I shall endevour not to name, are based on real locations. This story is part of a larger storyline, which at the moment in my head is called Deep Down. Obviously, this is part two. Part one is here.
If you want to contact me with feedback about this story, or you found spelling mistakes, etc, drop a line to the_blue_ninja@yahoo.com.
The rest of the week seemed to pass amazingly calmly. After the first day, Patrick moved to the back of the bus and left Albert and Ralph alone. Most of the time, the fox sat with Michelle, the shy cat girl. She never talked much, and almost never smiled, but she seemed grateful for the company. Mr. Brand seemed to treat Ralph just like every other student – that is to say, like dirt.
Friday afternoon, they pushed through the crowd of students up to the orchestra storage room to collect their instruments. “Hey Albert, what’re you doing this weekend, anyway?”
He shrugged. “Music lessons this afternoon. And I work this weekend.”
The fox snickered. “The whole weekend?”
Albert rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean. Afternoons, the only time the library is open. Why?”
Ralph hesitated, grunting as he picked up his cello. “I was wondering if I could come over to your house or something. You know, just hang out.” Albert just stared at him for several moments, his face unreadable. Ralph fidgeted for a moment, then shrugged angrily. “Fine, forget it then.”
Albert dropped into a chair, laughing. Ralph stopped at the door, looking at him. “Are you kidding? Of course you can come over. Geez, you’re the first friend I’ve had since the third grade who wanted to come over and hang out. I have no clue how I’m going to explain it to my mom, but hell yeah. Meet me at work Saturday, we’ll walk back to my house.”
Grinning, the two of them headed out front of the school, finding their respective parents and driving off. As they headed to his violin tutoring, Albert’s mom asked, almost timidly, “Who was that fox you were talking to?”
He shrugged. “Just someone I know from orchestra class.” Please, mom, don’t ask me questions. I don’t want to talk about it. Not with you. How would you understand?
As they pulled up to a stoplight, she looked at him from the corner of her eye. “You’re not worried about your friends making fun of you for talking to him?”
He shrugged. What friends? Haven’t you noticed that I haven’t had a friend since we moved across town? Have you ever, even once, heard me talk about someone from school? “It doesn’t bother me much, I suppose.” Why should it matter to you, anyway? He’s the only person in school who wants to even talk to me.
“You know, Albert, when I was going to UC Berkeley, the whole furry rights thing was a really big deal. I knew a couple of girls around campus who gave birth to furries instead of humans. Of course, it wasn’t like places in the South, all the girls there kept them.” His mom fidgeted with the wheel. “I’m glad to see that you’re so more … open-minded than some other kids your age.”
Albert stared out the window, unsure what, if anything, to say. “Thanks mom.” I think. Why should it matter, anyway? I wonder if this is going to turn out like our old neighborhood, where I’ll get beat up for making friends with someone who looks different.
They pulled up in front of the apartment complex, and Albert picked up his violin and music folder. “Thanks mom, we’ll be done in an hour.” He submitted to a quick hug, before jumping out of the car and vaulting the three flights of stairs to the top. He could hear violin music from inside the door, probably one of the younger kids that Wilma taught. He banged on the door.
Wilma opened the door and waved him inside as her other student, barely ten years old, kept playing. Albert wasn’t sure what kept the grandmotherly woman going, but he’d never seen her looking tired. Wilma looked like the kind of grandmother that got up in the morning, did pushups, ran three miles, then came back home to run the grandkids around. He tuned as quietly as he could, watching the boy fumble a fingering and stop. “I can’t get this!” he said in disgust.
Wilma admonished him. “Of course you can. It’s just like every other song you’ve played before. Practice, practice, practice! Start slow, until you get it right. Then speed up, until you can do it at tempo. Practice!” She shooed him off, folding up the boy’s music while she closed the music book he was learning from.
Albert smiled slightly as he raised the music stand to a more comfortable height. After the boy had left, heading next door to his apartment, Albert shook his head. “Have I mentioned I hate Christmas carols?”
Wilma grinned, and kissed his cheek. “Ah, buck up lad. It’s a wonderful season, even in this barren city. Now, which piece did you want to work on first?”
He smiled a little more widely, and pulled out a few loose sheets of paper. “Brandenburg’s Third, second movement.” At her raised eyebrow, he blushed slightly. “I swiped it from Mrs. Oralski at the end of class. It doesn’t look that hard.” Wilma put the music back on the stand, and listened to him start the first few bars.
“You’ve got the notes right, but you’re way too slow. Like this,” she picked up her own violin, repeating the same few bars, but almost twice as fast. The hour passed with the usual speed, often Albert playing while Wilma stood back and made suggestions or corrections. When the next student arrived, several minutes late, they finally stopped playing. “Alright, another excellent week. Don’t forget, you have to shift up for the fingering in these last two measures! Write it in there, it’s why God invented pencils.”
Albert packed up his violin again, but hesitated at the door. “Wilma, do you know any good violin-cello duets? There’s a new kid at school, and frankly he’s the only kid who knows which end of an instrument to hold.”
She clucked, and looked at the bookcase that took up an entire wall of her living room. “I might have a few. He’s as good as you, I take it?”
Albert shrugged. “Yeah, we’re about the same. The Solo and Ensemble festival is in March, so if we’re going to compete, we need a piece to start practicing now.”
She nodded. “I’ll have something for you next week. If he doesn’t have a private cello teacher, let me know as well, and I can make some suggestions.”
With a last grin, he dashed out, closing the door behind him as he vaulted down the stairs. His mom was waiting in the parking lot. “Did you have a good lesson, Albert?”
He shrugged again. “Not too bad. Same as usual.” They drove home in silence. Albert found himself smiling out the window.
At five minutes to closing, Albert walked through all the stacks, making sure the last few people had at least headed for the front desk, even if they hadn’t left. He already had an armful of books that had been left lying out on tables. He passed Angela, turning off the computers, on his way to the sorting room, tossing all the books onto the shelves back there. One of the other shelvers, a college kid names Justin, walked in from the kids area. He sat down on a stool and took off the foam kneepads he usually wore.
“God, I don’t know why I took this job,” he groaned, rubbing his legs. “Most of the shelves don’t even come up to my waist.”
Albert smiled silently, putting down the last book and walking back out to the front. He was about to lock the front door, when Ralph came running up. He let the fox in, while pacifying his boss. “It’s ok, Angela, he was supposed to meet me at the end of shift.”
Ralph stopped in the entryway, gulping in air as they chained the door shut. Just after it was closed securely, a group of other kids walked into view. Albert recognized Patrick at the front of the group, and flipped him off. One of them banged on the locked door, but Justin flipped him off as well. Since Justin was built like a linebacker, the bullies outside backed off, walking away.
Ralph clapped Albert on the back. “Sorry about that. I tried to go around them, but I got lost, and then had to run the last three blocks to get away from them.”
Albert shrugged. “No problem. It’s almost time to clock out anyway.” They waited a moment while the lights were shut off, and everyone filed back to the employee lounge to swipe their badges. Albert and Ralph were almost the first ones out the door, but fortunately there was no sign of Patrick and the others. “Come on, let’s get back to my house.”
“What did you tell your mom?” Ralph asked, kicking a small rock back into the landscaping.
Albert shrugged. “I didn’t, actually. I wasn’t sure what to tell her, so I didn’t say anything.” They walked along for a few minutes in silence. “I don’t think she’ll make a big deal out of it. She saw us talking yesterday after school and didn’t seem to care.”
Ralph shrugged too. “I just don’t want to get you in trouble or anything like that.”
Albert snorted in laughter. “Yeah, right. The last time my mom grounded me, I was in second grade.”
The walk back to Albert’s house was almost perfect, until they got to about the last block. That’s when they heard, from behind them, “There’s the furry bastard!” They glanced over their shoulders, seeing Patrick and his gang running up behind them.
Sprinting, they managed to make it to Albert’s house. He fumbled the key into the lock, and they made it inside and locked it before they caught up. Leaning against the door, both of them gasped for breath. “Sorry about this man,” Ralph said.
Albert shook his head. “Wouldn’t be the first time Patrick tried to beat me up. Except now he knows where I live.” He coughed for a minute, then risked looking out the living room window. “I think they left though.”
Albert’s mother came out of her work room. “Albert, what’s going on? I thought I heard the front door slam.” By the time she’d finished the sentence, she was far enough into the living room to see Ralph, still leaning against the door. “Why didn’t you tell me you were bringing someone over?” She sounded vaguely suspicious.
Albert tried to shrug it off. “Just slipped my mind with my lesson yesterday, that’s all.” Please, mother, just go back to your work and leave us alone! I don’t want to deal with your damn questions right now!
Ralph smiled, waving. “I’m Ralph. We’re in orchestra together. And we’re on the same bus stop.”
His mom nodded, and started to ask a question, but the phone rang. “Oh shoot, work calls.” She dashed back to her work room, while Albert breathed a sigh of relief.
“There’s not a whole lot to do. We could drag the tv into my room, or I’ve got a couple of computer games.” He shrugged. “Or a lot of board games, but nothing real interesting.”
They wandered into his room, and Ralph caught sight of the several dozen boxes holding legos, sitting on the shelves in Albert’s closet. “Holy cow! Where did you get all these legos?” He pulled out one piece. “Geez, how old are these?”
Bewildered, Albert shrugged. “Heck if I know. My dad had them as a kid, though. Still in pretty good shape.”
Ralph was grinning like crazy. “Dude, this is cool! I haven’t played with legos since I was, like, five. Let’s build something.”
Albert laughed. “Like what? There’s so many different sets in there, I don’t think we can put together something coherent.”
“So what?” He pulled a couple of boxes down, and sat on the floor, sorting through them. Starting to get into the spirit, Albert grabbed another box, and plopped down next to his friend.
Later that evening, his mom stopped in the hallway. The two teens were oblivious, working almost nose to nose on something that resembled a giant bug. About the time she left, Ralph looked up at the clock. “Oh, crap! I was supposed to be home half an hour ago!”
Albert got up, sitting on his bed and digging the phone out from behind the computer. “Here, call your dad and see if you can stay later.” He waited while the fox got on the phone, pleading with his father for more time. Finally, he set the phone aside. “Well?”
Ralph grinned slyly. “Well, my dad says, if it’s alright with your mom, I can stay the night. Otherwise, I have to come home now.”
Inwardly, Albert groaned, but he crossed the house to his mom’s converted office. He tapped on the door, and she looked up from the paperwork. “Ralph’s dad is on line one, he wants to talk to you.” His mom nodded, and Albert stood there listening while the two parents talked. Finally, his mom hung up the phone. “So is Ralph staying?”
His mom turned around to look at him. “I really wish you’d told me beforehand. But yes, I said he can stay.”
Unable to repress a smile, Albert just blurted out a quick, “Thanks mom!” before dashing back to his room. Somewhere around midnight, they finally finished the bizarre creature. By this point, it looked something like a cross between a spider and a snake. Grinning, Albert found a couple of heads from Lego people, and put them across the “face” of the creature.
Ralph snickered. “That thing just looks weird.” Albert grinned back, trying to stifle a yawn. Ralph tried to fight off a yawn of his own. “Damn! What time is it, anyway?”
His friend pulled down the alarm clock. “About two minutes to midnight.” He yawned again. “Time for bed. Right next to here is the spare bedroom.” He pointed a thumb at the wall. “Make yourself comfy, wake up whenever you feel like.”
Ralph nodded, carefully stepping over their creation. Albert shut the door behind him, undressing and climbing into bed. Just as he pulled the covers up, someone tapped at his door. “Come in,” he groaned sleepily.
Ralph cracked the door open a little and peaked in, wearing only his boxers. “I just wanted to say thanks, Albert. You’re the first real friend I’ve had in a long time.”
Smiling, he gave a thumbs up in return, and the smile turned into another big yawn. “Likewise, Ralph. Now go to bed, damnit. I’m sleepy and don’t want to stay up all night talking." The fox laughed and closed the door.