Chapter 25: Treasures

Ein felt lighter somehow--freer. He hovered over to his desk and lowered himself beside Princess. The words flowed from his mouth, without any restraint.

"What do you mean you're friends again?" Princess said.

"It turns out Chucky was possessed by a ghost." Ein couldn't believe how easy this was to say. "Me and my Grandma exorcised him, so Chucky's back to normal--if you can call that normal."

"You know, Ein, I thought I was the weird one."

"Well I wasn't the one who had a crush on a ghost."

"Good, I'm still winning then." She stared at him. "Are you feeling alright? You look…different."

"I'm fine. Oh, and before I forget, do you want to come with me to Chucky's after class? We'll still have a while before we have to get to the restaurant. I told Chucky about what Dante did, and he kind of wants to apologize."

"I suppose I could handle seeing him again."

Professor Apple stepped inside, and the class went on like normal.

Ein thought he was going to have a very good day, until Mrs. Apple asked to see him after class.

He stood by her desk with his face ballooned.

Mrs. Apple held up a paper with red ink all over it. "Do you know what this is, Mr. Masters?"

He studied it for a second. "My test."

"And do you see what grade you got?"

"A D minus."

"And you're not surprised at this?"

He shook his head.

"I am." She set the paper down. "Mr. Masters, I see you watching me during class. I see you nodding. I think you understand more than these test scores are telling me. For instance, what is it called when a government advertises its agenda to the public?"

"Propaganda."

"Correct. Are you aware that for this question, your answer on the test was, 'Fresh Catnip'?"

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Apple. I'll try to do better next time."

"That's not the point, Mr. Masters. The point is this." She ripped up Ein's test and threw it in the trashcan beside her desk. "I don't trust tests, not in every case. Sometimes tests act as a kind of communication device between student and teacher, but sometimes the device malfunctions and the carrier becomes a barrier. I'm not going to allow something as stupid as a piece of paper to come between us. What kind of teacher would I be if I did?"

Ein wanted to say, "Every teacher I've ever had," but he didn't.

"From now on," she said, "we're going to communicate this way. We'll meet after class on test days and you can tell me what you know. That is, unless you'd like to stay with the paper method."

"No!" He calmed himself. "No, this sounds great. I…no one's ever done anything like this for me before. I don't know what to say, except…thank you."

Mrs. Apple smiled. "Now that that's settled, why don't we get you an A on that first test."

***

Princess decided not to be scared, so she went to Chucky's house without waiting for Ein. What was there to be afraid of anyway? The ghost was gone, and that meant her feelings could disappear like a ghost too.

She stood in his doorway and watched him for a while.

Chucky was in the middle of rebuilding his room. He was taking down stone and candle, and replacing them with alien posters and action figures and photos of bigfoot.

"Hey Chucky."

Chucky spun around. "Hey, Princess, it's good to see you again, I haven't seen you since the grand opening, I was possessed for a long time, but I'm all better now, thanks to Ein, but he already told you about all this, didn't he, but anyway I want to say I'm sorry about what happened, and--"

"You don't have to apologize. It's not your fault."

"In a way, it was my fault, because I was the one who was looking around for ghosts, and I found one, so I accept the consequences, but I want you to know that I would never do anything like that, and--"

"Thank you, Chucky. I appreciate it." She realized she was eating a giant cookie that she'd stowed in her backpack. "Do you want some?"

"I would, but I usually don't eat in front of anybody, because it grosses them out, because I always talk with my mouth full, because I really can't help but talking, and--"

"Don't worry, food never grosses me out."

"Oh yeah, I should have realized that, since Ein told me you're going to be in that Eating Contest, he says you're really good, the Contest sounds like a lot of fun, the--"

"You should come, if you like that sort of thing."

"You mean you wouldn't mind, even after what happened between us, or I should say between you and the ghost, but--"

"I wouldn't mind." She chewed. "Hey, do you want some help fixing your room back?"

"Yeah, that'd be great, I really--"

***

Ein received his first A.

The A stood for Affirmation, because he knew now that he wasn't a D- student, no matter how many of them he had tucked away under his bed. He was an A student trapped in a D- student's body.

He floated all the way to Chucky's house. Right as he reached for the door, the door opened. "Hey Princess, how did it go?"

"Fine."

"So you're not upset at him?"

She shook her head. "Ein, I…I think…I'm pretty sure…"

"What is it?"

"I think…it wasn't the ghost Chucky that I liked. Not the cool guy. I like the rambling, nerdy guy."

"You do?" Ein hadn't really considered that.

"You do?"--said another voice--"I mean, I wasn't trying to spy on you, I just came downstairs to return your cookie, you left it in my room, and anyway I couldn't hear you very clearly, so maybe I didn't hear what I think I heard, but if I did hear what I heard, I want you to know that ever since I met you in the kitchen at the restaurant, I thought you were--"

***

Princess had never had a boyfriend before. She'd never felt like this. And she'd always thought that relationships would be scary. There were barriers between people, she knew that. Barriers that prevented people from telling each other how they felt. But these barriers seemed very weak and frail to Princess now--or even delicious. She ate the awkwardness; ate the fear. And Chucky was the same way. He talked through the awkwardness; talked through the fear. They told each other how they felt, and that was that.

Therefore, Chucky went with her and Ein to the restaurant. Chucky helped out with some of the tasks that Vincent usually handled.

When it was break time, they sat together in the kitchen and ate. Well, she did, anyway. Chucky had a difficult time getting food to his mouth.

"So tell me about yourself, Chucky," Princess said.

"Ok, well, I like strange things, things like aliens and bigfoots and ghosts, well, you know I like ghosts, that's rather obvious by now, although I'm beginning to rethink my stance on ghost investigation, since it's rather dangerous, and it can hurt people, but anyway, I've never really been able to keep friends very well, because I think I talk a little too much, and I can't keep my thoughts inside me, and a lot of times people feel uncomfortable being around someone who lets their thoughts out, and I'm not afraid of my strangeness, and I guess that makes people feel uncomfortable too, so I had an imaginary friend for a long time, his name was Pop, and he never felt uncomfortable around me, but then he started fading away, and I needed someone, so I built and programmed Samantha, she's my artificial intelligence friend, although I don't really like calling it artificial intelligence, because she's not only intelligent, she has feelings too, and I think feelings are just as important as intelligence, and--"

Princess felt her eyes closing. She tried to fight it, but--

"Sorry I'm boring you so much, I can understand if you don't like me anymore, and--"

"Chucky, it's not that." She thought about how she could explain it. "It's just that your voice, it's like…music to me. Like a lullaby."

"Really, that's really nice for you to say, I've never had anyone say that before, but I don't want to keep putting you to sleep, so maybe I need to stop talking so much, and--"

"Can you really stop talking without someone interrupting you?"

"Well, I don't really remember a time when that happened, but I'm going to try to do it, because I really like you, and if I can do this, then I will, so I'm going to stop talking right now, now, now, you know this is harder than I thought, so if you don't mind, could you interrupt me right now, I don't think I can--"

"Good try, Chucky. You keep practicing. But right now, why don't we both keep quiet and eat?"

Chucky nodded.

***

Ein thought about all those times when his head puffed out. He always thought of his dreams during these puffy moments. Maybe it was his dreams that were expanding his head, trying to escape into the real world; to become a reality.

Right now, he let his mind spill out onto the paper. This advertising project was so easy. All he had to do was solidify what he already knew. He knew what he wanted. He knew what ordinary, normal people like him wanted. He knew about the treasures.

He wanted a wife and children. He wanted a home. He wanted a good job that he could be proud of. He wanted to go home during holidays and tell his parents things that they would be proud of. He wanted people who he didn't know to look at him and see that he had a good life. He wanted to be in control of his life. He wanted his face never to puff out again.

These were the things that most people wanted, (perhaps not the puffyness), and with these things in mind, he could sell anybody almost anything.

So he created his advertisement about a humane rat trap. The trap was ordinary, just as good as every other trap, so it needed to represent something.

Ein's trap wasn't there because the person in the ad hated rats. That was obvious by the man's expression. The trap was just something that needed to be set down. In the background, the man's wife was standing on a table, frightened. The table was set, elegant and delicious. They were obviously about to have dinner together when the rat showed up. Ein started to draw the rat on the ground, but decided against it, and erased it. The rat didn't need to be seen. In fact, Ein didn't want it to. He wanted the people who were looking at the ad, to look where the rat should be, and see what was bothering them. It didn't have to be a rat. It probably wasn't. But everyone had problems they wanted to get rid of.

"Don't let them ruin it," he wrote. He wrote "it" because he wasn't just referring to a dinner between a husband and wife. "It" was everything. "It" was his room, corrupted by clown sheets and baby duck posters. "It" was his face, ruined by puffing out. "It" was his life, and how certain things kept him from accomplishing his goals. But right now he felt closer to "it" than he ever had before, because when he closed his eyes, he saw Daisy in the ad. All he had to do was gather enough strength, take control, and make things right.

"Ein's Rat Traps."

***

The Ninja's cloaked fingers pecked at the keyboard in the dark. With every tap of the Ninja, the computer blocked, protecting its secrets. But the Ninja was determined. This inner power would not consider failure as an option. The Ninja wanted to change the world, no matter how small these changes happened to be.

There was a noise outside. Someone was here early.

The Ninja typed, jabbed and parried, faster and faster.

Finally the computer gave up, and the treasures spilled out.

These were horrible treasures.

Wall's plan was unspeakable, and the Ninja would do anything to prevent it.