Beautiful Dreamer

Chapter 4

While your husband was out looking for a job, you decided to watch the 4th episode of Welcome Home. You put the tape in the VHS player like you did the others and sat on the couch, you had some apples, so you decided to cut one into slices and brought that for a snack while you watched. The colorful words appeared on the screen, and you smiled while you dipped an apple slice in peanut butter, when Wally appeared on screen he was painting while in front of his house. He looked at the camera then his face lit up, smiling a bit brighter.

"Ah!.. Welcome back, Neighbor!.. I've missed you.. Today, we're painting a picture of the colorful forest that surrounds our lovely neighborhood.. Doesn't that sound so calming and relaxing?.." He asked.

"It really does, Wally.." you replied and smiled.

"Painting has always been my favorite thing to do.. besides spending time with my friends, of course.. Ha.. Ha.. Ha.." he said, "What's your favorite hobby, Neighbor?"

"That's a good question.. I never really thought about it.. Well.. I like to read when I'm alone.. and sometimes I draw.."

"What a wonderful hobby! I'm sure you're very good at it, Neighbor.." 

You smile, you knew he was just a puppet, but he was a better person in comparison to your husband. 'Hah.. Imagine.. Being married to a puppet.. Only 12 apples tall.. Yet.. Still a gentleman and.. Kind of attractive..' you thought, then shook your head. 'What am I thinking?.. I can't fall in love with a puppet from a show.. He doesn't exist..' you reminded yourself.

You sigh, "Kinda wish my husband was as kind as you, Wally.. I'm tired of being beaten and bruised just because he needs to let out some anger.." you thoughtlessly say to the puppet in the TV, then you see Wally's head turn to look at the camera.

'Huh.. That's.. Weird.. He can't hear me.. Can he?..' you asked yourself internally. You then jumped when you heard a ring coming from the attic again, the same rotary phone you heard before you found your old tapes. You looked back at the TV and Wally was gone, then you got a bit nervous as you head upstairs and up the ladder to the attic. You looked around in the area you found your tapes, then you find a little toy phone that looks like it came from the show. You pick it up and bring it back down to the living room, before picking it up and holding the phone to your ear.

"Uhm.. H-Hello?.." You asked into the phone.

Nothing came from the phone; it was just static. You were so confused as to why this little toy phone was in your attic, you look at the TV and see Wally in the window of his house. He had the phone to his ear, and he was talking into it, while staring at the camera, staring at you. You couldn't hear anything he was saying, not in the TV or if he was calling you on the toy phone. Soon he put the phone back on its holder and you heard the toy phone hang up, confused and a bit scared you set it down and hide it under the couch. 

 The TV cut back to Wally painting, so you decided to push it aside and not think about it. You finished up your apple slices, then took care of the plate before coming back and continuing to watch. When the episode ended, you waved like usual then put the tape back after it came out from the VHS player. You went up to your room and into the closet before grabbing out a notebook and pencil, then going back down to the living room and starting to sketch. You didn't know what you were sketching, but it would probably be nice when it was done.

When finishing the sketch, you looked at it and tilted your head when you saw that you drew Wally, you smiled a little then got out some markers and pencils before coloring it in, shading and everything. You didn't know why, but you put a little white spiral in his black eyes to make it seem like he had pupils. It kind of gave him a good feature, and you kind of liked it. You then heard the front door open as you put your art supplies away and turned to look at your husband, he looked annoyed which wasn't new, but he also looked tired.

"Is everything alright?.." you asked.

"Yeah.. I found a new job, but the manager wanted to see if I was qualified so he made me do some hands-on learning.." He replied.

"I see.. would you like a nice shower and then dinner?.."

"Yeah.. Don't disturb me until dinner is finished, and I've decided that we're watching another one of those corny episodes of that puppet show again.. I choose the episode.. understood?.."

"I understand.."

"Good.."

You watched as your husband went upstairs and not long after you heard the shower run, you started making dinner and hoped he would calm down enough to not hit you tonight.