Frankenweenie II

Chapter Two: Noses Meet

The next morning, Victor awoke to a face full of slobber as Sparky happily licked his boy awake. After getting dressed, Victor waited on his front steps for Sparky to grab the newspaper. It was one of their rituals. Sparky would wait for the paperboy to fling the news, run and grab it with his mouth, and trot it right back to Victor.

The moving truck had left, was the first thing everyone had noticed. Boxes large and small could be seen in the house's garage. Victor's focus, however, was on the ashes of the town's windmill. There was some kind-of charity happening currently to raise money to rebuild the town's landmark and, according to Elsa, the whole thing was becoming a pain in the mayor's-

Bark!

Sparky jumped up and down next to the mailbox with the paper in his jaws. Victor approached and retrieved the paper before petting his beloved dog. The Terrier then looked somewhat intimidated, much to Victor's confusion, only to share the same feeling himself, as a gruff voice cleared its throat.

Victor turned around and found Mr. Burgermeister  staring straight at him from his hedge. A crooked smile that practically reeked of anxiousness formed on the boy's face who swallowed a large lump in his throat. "Good morning, Mr. Burgermeister."

The mayor's ice-cold glare remained as he held out one of his chubby hands, motioning his fingers towards him. "I believe you have something of mine."

Victor felt glued to the spot in confusion. Upon examining the situation, he realised that his own paper had landed in one of his pushes, and that Mr. Burgermeister's was no where to be found. The boy chuckled nervously as he approached the mayor and handed him his paper. "Sorry for the inconvenience, sir."

Mr. Burgermeister tucked his paper under his arm and looked down at Victor with yet another intimidating glare. "Let me make something very clear..."

He sternly held up a fat finger in-front of Victor's face.

"Dutch Day is coming up and I don't need any trouble." Mr. Burgermeister glared at Sparky, who hid behind Victor's legs with a whimper. "Let us not have any incidents like last year... am I clear?"

"Y-Yes, sir." Victor confirmed.

"Good." He huffed, as he began to unfold his paper. "Off you go then."

As Victor retreated back into his house with Sparky in tow, Elsa was trying her best to quietly leave the house without gaining the attention of her already grumpy uncle.

But, of course, it wasn't that easy.

"Where is that dog?" He demanded.

Elsa sighed; she knew there was no compromising with him over Persephone. He clearly hated her dog.... or any animal for that matter. "She's not in the house and she's away from your tulips."

"Good." The mayor exclaimed as he turned to face his niece.

"I need to get to school." Elsa told her uncle. The large man raised an eyebrow. The girl tried her very best not to groan. She cut her uncle off before he could go on to list her daily chores. "I made my bed, and my lunch, I cleaned up the kitchen and I folded the towels."

Mr. Burgermeister approached her. "Well," he began, his voice softening a touch. "I appreciate your tidiness — unlike your parents, digging a bunch of holes in the desert."

"It's called archeology." Elsa pointed out.

Mr. Burgermeister shrugged. "Whatever. It's pointless, really. And filthy. Everything worth anything is new, isn't it?" He said. "You don't go into a store and say 'I'd like an old pot, please. And if you'd break it for me, that'd be even better."

Satisfied his point had been made, he gestured to the road. "Off you go."

"Yes, sir." Elsa said, quickly walking down the path and away from the house. That conversation had been too long for her. Next time she'd have to hope Victor could distract her uncle a few minutes longer. Then she could get out without having to deal with that again. If only Victor weren't as shy as he was. Then she could ask him to help her by inventing some way to make her invisible or something... if he would just talk to her.