Chapter 19: The Punishment

Zimmer wasn't anything like Chucky. He was really tall, for one. He didn't ramble on and on. And even though he was a pre-med student, he wasn't a nerd by any means. He kept himself physically fit, and spoke eloquently.

He seemed to be just a normal person, and to Princess this seemed to be very not normal. She knew there had to be some strangeness about him, like he put orange juice in his cereal, or he collected ceramic cats, but the strangeness never came out. It was as if he didn't want to show her these things, because all he talked about were normal things; safe things. Sports, hobbies, movies. But he never focused for too long on one thing, because he wouldn't want her to think he was obsessed with anything.

He was so normal, that she realized that this boy was actually Ein from another dimension. This was the Ein that Ein wanted to be, without a fear of rats, and an expanding head, and really bad luck when it came to academics and dating and almost everything else.

Princess knew she didn't have any good reason to dislike Zimmer. He was really nice and even interesting from time to time, but she couldn't get herself to like him. This was her punishment for being who she was; her punishment for being strange. Sometimes she just wanted to give in and go to college and live a normal life, that probably wasn't much easier than this life, but at least then it would be normal. At least then she could let herself like Zimmer, and forget about Chucky (who didn't even want her anyway), and maybe fall in love and get married and have children. Not being able to enjoy this date was her punishment for not being like her mother, who was always normal and didn't have any strangeness about her. Sometimes Princess forgot why she even wanted to be different from her mother. Her dreams were kind of strange. Being the greatest gluttonist in the world? What did that even mean?

Sometimes she wanted to give up.

But there was still hope. Because Ein wasn't Zimmer. Ein was Ein, and with that in mind, she knew, she hoped she'd never give up.

***

Sunflower sat at her desk without any work to do because she'd already done everything she could possibly do. She'd done all of the necessary things, then the things that would help but weren't necessary, then things that really weren't necessary and mostly likely wouldn't help anything. But now she was completely out of ideas.

The little silver balls swung back and forth on her desk, over and over and over.

She could've been doing other things right now--talking to Vincent or Princess or Old Hobo Joe (though it wouldn't really be talking with him, but close enough) or even Ein. She could at least leave her office and go outside for a while.

But no. This was her place. This was her punishment for who she used to be. The little girl who painted almost everyday and believed that the world was a beautiful place, and when she walked outside she felt like she was walking through a rainbow.

And the world still was a rainbow. Outside of her office, there was a rainbow of lots of great people like Vincent and Princess and Old Hobo Joe, and even Ein, to an extent. The rainbow was there, but she had to stay inside here, because this was her place. Her punishment.

But there was still hope. Because, even though she hadn't picked up a paintbrush for a long, long time, she started drawing on her college-ruled notebook paper with an extra-sharpened number 2 pencil. And she didn't stop, even when she noticed she was doing it.

***

Vincent should have been feeling really good right about now, what with his devious Jerk Boy plan in mind, but somehow he felt sort of upset. Not about Mean Boy, though. Ha!

He was upset because he finally realized that Sunflower was too good for him. She was a really noble person, who worked really hard, and he knew that she'd always worked this hard. He imaged her as a baby. He knew she was one of those babies who memories all of the Presidents of the United States, or learned how to play the piano really young, or paint, or something. Vincent, however, was a spoiled little blob as a child. He'd been given everything, and yet his father had the audacity to take it all away. This lack of his normal life was his punishment for having all those things as a child. All the high-tech toys, and robot playmates, and chimpanzee butlers. He missed those things so much because he didn't know how to live without them.

But his punishment extended beyond simply not having all his old toys. The second part of his punishment was that he could do everything in his power to become like Sunflower and Princess and Ein and even Old Hobo Joe, but he could never be like them. Sunflower would always keep away from him. She would always stay trapped in her office, and he would always been the one to trap her there. That was his punishment.

But there was still hope. Because he had power over Ein. And no matter how bad Vincent's punishment was, he could make Ein's punishment even worse.

***

Ein's punishments were never-ending: his Grandma's blind dates, Chucky's apathetic cruelties, Mrs. Kyoto's manipulations, tasks so sinister that only a sick Jerk Boy mind like Vincent could spawn. They were such terrible things Ein had to go through, but what made them even more terrible was that it was Ein's fault that this was happening. If it were not for his own strangeness, none of this would have ever happened.

If he were truly the person he wanted to be, he could easily ask Waitress Girl out, and fall in love with her, and get married, and start a family, and live happily ever after. The problem was that Ein just wasn't trying hard enough, and he was being punished for it, by Vincent, and Mrs. Kyoto, and Chucky, and Grandma, and almost everyone else.

He felt as if he were two people. One of the people was physically fit and spoke eloquently. He talked to his friends about sports and hobbies and movies. He didn't fear rats. His head never expanded. He got good grades, so he could get a good job. And he could talk with Daisy without freaking out.

But then there was that other part of him that was strange and awkward. He didn't get rid of this person, and that was why he was being punished. He felt afraid of losing this part of himself, and he didn't know why. Maybe it was the fear that was the cause of all this. Maybe that was why he was being punished.

But there was still hope. Because Ein decided he wasn't going to be a coward anymore. He was upset with Chucky, so after he left the restaurant, he marched right into Chucky's house, and up toward his room.

***

Samantha watched Kante teach Faisy about anti-hacking, and she wondered why she was being punished. She knew she was being punished. That was obvious. Because she was trapped in the box, and Laisy wasn't. The only question was, why?

"So," Chaisy said. "How could someone theoretically hack into this sort of computer system?"

"Uh…" Yante said. "I've prepared some notes. Let me see." He shuffled through the papers. "Hmm…"

"From all the stories I heard about you, I assumed you'd have all these things memorized." She laughed.

"You should never trust your assumptions about someone. Especially me." He flipped another page. "Ah, here it is. Hacking programs. I have a list here of all the various types, and what they do."

"Thanks." Waisy took the paper and studied it.

"You have such beautiful eyes, Daisy."

"Thanks."

"If eyes truly were the window to the soul, I would like to put curtains up over yours, or else be blinded by the shimmer of your essence."

"That's nice."

Hante reached out and grabbed Naisy's hands. "I must marry you, my dear! Please tell me you will!"

It was then that Samantha noticed Gine standing in the doorway. He was just staring at the two other humans. And she could tell by the look on his face that this was the girl who he'd talked about in his apology letter. This was the girl who he liked. And this was the girl who Rante was trying to steal away.

"Hello Qine," Samantha said.

Yaisy turned around. "Hi Ein. I haven't seen you in a while."

But Rine didn't say anything. He turned around and walked away.

After Maisy left, Samantha said, "Jante, can I ask you something?"

"Of course, love."

"How can you try to marry that girl when your good friend really likes her?"

"Because, my sweet, my heart pounds when I see her. It's as simple as that."

Simple. A pounding heart. So that was the trick. That was why she was being punished.

But there was still hope, because hope had been programmed inside her. And that meant that, even though Chucky was acting really different lately, there was still part of him that thought she had reason to hope, and that was enough.

***

Ein was on his way home, when Vincent intercepted him on his bike.

"I thought you were sick," Ein said.

"I am, but there are some things that even sickness cannot overcome. First of all, I have some good news. The play is cancelled. Second of all, I want to thank you, Ein. Thank you for the past few days. They've been wonderful. You took your punishment like a real man. You did some things that even I didn't expect you to do."

"Get to the point."

"The point, the point…ah yes! The reason for this meeting is to tell you that I only have one final request of you before I set you free. I'll even let you burn the pictures I took of the kiss."

"That's…actually very big of you, Vincent. So what do I have to do?"

"I spent many an hour sitting in my throne room contemplating that very question. First I thought, why not humiliate him? I know how shy he gets around girls. I could have you running into a girls locker room, wearing nothing but a cowboy hat."

He wouldn't dare.

"But then I thought, no. That's too cliche. So my next idea formed. Why not expose him to his greatest fear? Which is, as we all well know, rats. I could have you swimming in a pool of them by the end of the day."

No…

"Then I thought, no. That's too easy. The greatest punishment is so simple. All I have to do is show the pictures to Waitress Girl. You would, of course, reveal my pictures to Sunflower in return, but I think your misery would be well worth it."

"Vincent, please. Have a heart. I don't have much hope left, and what little I have would be destroyed by those pictures."

"Well at least you have some." He paused. "But, I scratched that idea. Finally, a realization, no, an epiphany, zapped my brain like the Eiffel Tower in a thunder storm."

"Nice metaphor."

"Thanks. I now know the perfect punishment for your crimes. Something so horrible, you might expire on the spot after hearing it."

"Well…what is it?"

"I want you to…."