Jailbird || Stranger Things

sixty-three ➵ the world spins

On the other side of town, the July 4th celebrations were very much underway, with almost the whole town in attendance. With the cruising in of a bright yellow convertible, the guests in attendance went up by four.

"Stay here, go over the plans with Smirnoff," Jim grumbled at Murray before he could get out.

"I can help look—"

"No, you'll scare the children," Jim slammed the driver's side door as Joyce hurried off.

"Jim, if this is about earlier—"

"Stay put, Freud!" Jim cut him off again, "You hear me? Stay put!" and with that, he rushed off to catch up with Joyce, leaving a huffing Murray and Alexei behind.

Walking through the loud fair games and flashing lights, Joyce and Jim muttered to themselves as they looked for any signs of their kids. "You know, say what you will about Kline, he certainly knows how to throw a party," Jim tried, but noticing that Joyce wasn't really paying attention, he changed tactics. "I'm sorry about him, by the way."

"Who, Larry?"

"No, Murray," Jim corrected, "He's a sick individual who likes to get under people's skin. So, let's not let him, you know, get under our skin."

"I'm not, I haven't!"

"I just—you seem a little more quiet than usual," he tried.

"I just wanna find the kids," she replied, temper short.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Jim mumbled, unaware that they were passing by Larry Kline, in the middle of his publicity activities. As he leaned down to take a photograph, he spotted the two parents walking away from him. Immediately, as the flashing ceased, he excused himself from the Hawkins locals and rushed across the fairground to grab a phone and call his contacts.

"Come on, come on, come on! Pick up, pick up, pick up, you commie bastards!"

──────

El had been listening in for quite a few minutes by that point. Amidst bickering over the possibility of a reinvention or reboot being better than an original, the boys continued to bicker. All the while, El was having more and more trouble concentrating on their curly haired friend, with even less luck in finding her sister.

Suddenly, she had enough.

"Hey!" she yanked the cloth from her eyes, glaring at Lucas and Mike who had been the source of her distraction. After some whispered, ashamed apologies, Mike turned back to her.

"Did you find him?"

She didn't know if she was right, but it was the best lead they had.

"The movies? Dustin's so freaked out about the gate, he decides to go watch a movie?" Lucas asked, pushing the trolley of fireworks through the aisles. "Yeah, makes total sense."

"You're positive he said 'gate' and not 'great'?" Max turned back to look at El.

"Yeah, like, 'This movie I'm watching is great,'" Will added.

"Sounded like 'gate'," El replied, helped out of Best Buy by Mike, with Nancy and Jonathan bringing up the rear.

"Which would explain how the Mind Flayer's still alive," Mike agreed.

"Yeah, we just have to shut it again."

"Then the monster dies."

"But if not," Max strained as she lifted the front of the trolley across the door, "we always have Lucas' fireworks."