Mollie + Chester

Chapter Twenty-Five

The lightening flashed,~illuminating the lounge room for a moment before it plunged into darkness again, the only light coming from the TV that flashed over Mollie's face. Chester eyed the window carefully as if waiting to pounce on the next light that jumped through the window.
"It's okay, Chester," Mollie laughed shifting him on her lap so he was facing her instead. Her round coloured eyes were crinkled in the corners and the corners of her mouth were turned up into a smile Chester had not seen for months.
Thunder rolled, echoing through the night and the rain poured so hard it was like a tidal wave was coming down on the house. Mollie jumped, startled at the loud noise, mostly because the movie she was watching was not a cartoon, but something scarier and more realistic.
In the cool breeze coming from the slightly open window, the curtain rustled revealing the water covered pane.~Mollie crossed her fingers, hoping that something would light up behind the window to make the droplets look like diamonds.
"Mol!" Mum called~coming into the lounge room from the kitchen where she had been cleaning. She slid onto the couch next to Mollie who stared at her with wide eyes and an open mouth.
"Who are you, and what have you done to my mother?" Mollie asked trying not to laugh at her own joke.
Her mother tucked a piece of stray hair behind her ear and rose an eyebrow. "What?" She asked.
"Number one," Mollie said, "you didn't sigh before you talked. You always sigh and make a sound like 'oh' before you talked."
"Oh really?" Mrs Mocomile said smirking. "Oh, what else do I always do?"
"Number two; you have never called me 'Mol' in my life. Ever."
"Oh, so-rry," Mrs Mocomile said sarcastically. She tickled her daughter under the chin.
"And, you never brush your hair behind your ear, that is just weird."
Mrs Mocomile brushed her hair purposely behind her ear and grinned. "So why do you, oh wise one, know so much about me?"
"Because," Mollie said nestling her head on her Mum's shoulder.
"Just because?"
"Just because." Mollie looked up at her Mum, tilting her head back to see into her eyes. "Didn't you come in here to ask me something?"
"Oh yes, I just wanted to..." Mrs Mocomile trailed off as another flash of lightening caused darkness to flood into the room, the light no longer coming from the TV or the kitchen. Chester blinked as his eyes slowly adjusted to the sudden darkness and Mollie tighten her grip on him in fear.~
"I'll go find the torches then," Mrs Mocomile said leaving the room. Mollie carried Chester and followed her Mum into the kitchen where the lady rummaged through the drawers noisily. The thunder outside seemed to rumble louder this time, like the sound of the belly of a hungry beast.
"Second draw from the fridge." Mollie turned with Chester in her arms and saw her father standing in the doorway holding a light candle. The flame flickered slightly making the shadows it created on the walls move eerily.
Mrs Mocomile followed her husband's directions and found the torches, flicking three on and handing them out like they were lollies on Halloween. The three of them, the remnants of the Mocomile family stood awkwardly in the kitchen, not knowing what to say.~
Finally, Mollie spoke. "Power's out," she said filling the room with the sound of her voice.~
The parents looked at their daughter with an expression said 'thank you for stating the obvious' but they didn't say anything. Mollie sighed and grabbed both of her parents' hands, holding Chester under one arm.
"Mum can't do the vacuuming, Dad can't work and I can't watch my movie, so let's do something together. Like a family."
They both looked at her as if she was an alien so she sighed~and dragged them both into the lounge room where they squished onto the two seater flowery couch, Chester sprawled on Mollie's lap. The little girl held her torch between her teeth and rifled through the tiny draw in the coffee table, pulling out a red leather book and holding it up with satisfaction.
Sandwiched between her parents, Mollie opened the book to the first page and Chester saw scrawly handwriting that reminded him of Seth's but they all knew it belonged to Mr Mocomile. Now his handwriting was structured and symmetrical, the letters all perfectly formed as if created by a computer, but that had not always been the case.
Mollie turned to the next page and the room seemed to fall silent, save for the pouring rain that fell outside, hitting the thin window panes and roof tiles.
Right in the middle of the page was a photo that had been taken long ago. A smiling young boy, about eight or nine years old sat with crooked white teeth and long, floppy hair. His dimpled cheeks and round eyes matched Seth's. It was if Seth were sitting right there in front of them, smiling back from the past. In his arms was a tiny baby girl dressed in a pink jumpsuit that was too big for her. Her hair was fluffy and blonder than it was now and her hand was stretched out as she tugged on the boy's ear.
It was Mrs Mocomile who finally broke the silence by turning over the page, the rustling seeming loud against the backdrop of soundlessness. This double page spread had a few more pictures on it of a trip to the zoo. Seth and Mollie smiled in every photo, the little girl strapped into a pram with her brother pointing at elephants and giraffes and tigers with a staged amazing expression. Mr and Mrs Mocomile were in one of the photos, the mother holding Mollie on her hip and the father holding Seth's hand, all smiling at the camera being operated by a stranger. They were in front of the monkey enclosure, Seth and Mollie poking their tongues out and their parents laughing.
The lights flickered and turned back on, Mollie's movie beginning to play from the start again and her Dad's computer whirring in the other room as it started up, but nobody cared. The family continued to laugh at a picture of the four of them smiling into the camera from a snowy mountain they visited one winter.
"Look at me!" Mollie shrieked pointing to the little kid in the photo. "I looked like a round and colourful ball!" Her jacket was so big her arms had seemed to disappear and the tiny girl was frozen, mid-run as she tried to go after a skier on the mountain.~"And look, Seth looks like Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer!"
Mrs Mocomile snorted. "That's not as bad as me, I look like a clown!" Chester spotted the Mum and agreed that her loose, curly hair looked like a wig and her brown jacket with fluffy pink pom poms were ridiculous.
"I am wearing pink," Mr Mocomile said simply staring at the image of him wearing a bright pink snow jacket that had belonged to Mollie's Great Aunt Marian.
When they got to the end of the album, Mr Mocomile looked up at the TV. "Why don't we play one of Mollie's video games?" He suggested making Mollie almost fall off the couch in shock.
Even though it was midnight, Mollie scrambled to set up the machine and grabbed controllers for her and her parents. They chose their karts then manoeuvred their way through pixel mountains and roads, not falling off the track into the water as much as Seth did. Mollie did win every race by almost a minute and when her character appeared, standing on the first place block cheering, she stood up and cheered herself, holding Chester above her head like a trophy.
"I am the champion!" She yelled, slumping back onto the couch between her parents with Chester safely on her knees.
"You cheat!" Mr Mocomile said, "You drove through some mud and flew off the edge to get in front of everyone."
Mollie smiled evilly. "It was not cheating, it was tactively driving in order to win."~
"You mean tactfully?" Mrs Mocomile said smiling.
"Whatever, I still won because I am the champion!" Mollie yelled.
The mother and father looked like strangers, Mrs Mocomile's eyes dry, her cheeks empty of a constant stream of tears and Mr Mocomile's eyes crinkled at the corners, and actually looked like eyes instead of round glass.
And both of their mouths had the corners turned up.
Mollie was staring at her parents, having noticed the changes in their appearances.
"What?" Her Dad asked raising an eyebrow but she was still smiling.
"Nothing," she replied giggling.
Mr Mocomile leaned over and held onto his daughter's arms while Mrs Mocomile tickled her under her arms. She shrieked, kicking out her legs as Chester jumped off and watched from the coffee table as the parents laughed with their daughter.
Despite the rain and humidity outside and the fact that the power cut out during their tickle fight, everything was finally perfect.

I sat on the front doorstep watching my parents pulling weeds out of the garden, tossing them into the green bin and laughing when they missed terribly. Toby sat next to me, drawing something in his notebook while I read a story from Seth's about a prince who discovered a dragon and took care of it.~
Crouched in the long grass was Chester, his orange ears and tail poked out from the damp lawn. I watched as he stalked a colourful butterfly resting on a smooth rock in the middle of the garden next to the crumbling old fountain and scattered~yellow moonshine flowers, sprouting in the summer heat.
The sun peeked out from behind a cloud brightening the whole world and bring with it a beautiful rainbow that held more than seven colours. The raindrops that had fallen last night in the storm reflected the sun, creating thousands tiny diamonds.~
Toby nudged me and held up his drawing, grinning so wide that his smile reached both of his ears. The fingers on his right hand were still crossed, forever hoping for things normal people would deem impossible.
Normal people are boring.
In the garden, Chester pounced but the butterfly was too fast, flying overhead through the open shed window. The cat jumped up, trying to get in but couldn't fit through the tiny gap. I jumped off the step, sliding the side door open and letting the cat inside where Toby and I followed, turning on the old light that hung dangerously from the ceiling. The bulb swung, casting moving shadows on the old walls just as Dad's candle light had done the night before.
Chester found the old butterfly waiting patiently on the top of Dad's shovel, waving its wings as if to mock the cat. He jumped up on the old work bench knocking over two empty cans and something I had not seen for years. The butterfly flew out the window as Toby picked up the little pink bike making the dust fly everywhere, coming off in clouds. I sneezed as he brushed off the seat.
Is it your bike? Toby wrote, leaning his notebook on the workbench next to Chester who angrily stalked beneath the window, wishing for the butterfly to come back inside.
I didn't reply, or even shake or nod my head and Toby must have realised. I had told him how I found out about my cancer, how Seth ran behind while I rode my bike down the perfect streets of Tamwood when I started to cough.~
I remembered buying the bike, it had seemed so important that I had one back then. Dad took me into the city so I could pick out a nice one and I begged him for flower and fairy stickers to go with it.
I remembered telling him if my bike didn't have glitter streamers, I would be laughed at by all the other kids so those were thrown onto the counter as well as the shiny new bell.
Now, the streamers were torn and short and the silver bell was dinted and rusty.~The stickers were peeling off with age and the metal frame was rusty near the front wheel and the left pedal.
Toby moved back some of the old, unwanted garage things that had gotten tangled in the bike frame when Chester knocked it over, then wheeled the bike into the centre of the garage and blew on the handlebars making another cloud of dust fly into the air. He rose his eyebrows, asking me if I wanted to ride but I just stared, the pink blurring in front of my eyes. Toby bent down and adjusted the seat, turning the gear so it was up high enough for me to sit on and gestured for me to ride.
I took a deep breath and grabbed Seth's old Superman helmet from the hook, brushing off the spider webs and dust. I fastened the clasp at my neck and took the handle bars from Toby, swinging my leg over the bike and putting one foot on the pedal, ready to ride.
I kicked off, wheeling out the side door and onto the front drive way where Mum and Dad stared as I rocketed past them and I was surprised as they smiled instead of telling me to be careful because I was precious China.
Toby ran beside me, Chester in his arms all the way to the end of the court where he skidded to a halt as I kept going. I turned for a second to glimpse back and caught him holding one of Chester's paws, making the cat wave as I rode off into the distance.~
The wind rustled my hair and flew in my face making my cheeks go red. Perfectville Tamwood flew by, blurring until all the perfect trees and houses and freshly mowed lawns and white picket fences all became colours mixed together around me.
My bike came to the corner of the street and I imagined what would be there, just for a second before remembering the future is never set in stone.
For once, I wasn't worried about the future, I wasn't worried about taking a leap and going around that corner and wasn't afraid of what I would find.
So I crossed my fingers and leapt.