Keeping an Eye on You

1.1K 39 14
                                    

     Pacifica and Mabel scream at the sight of me. I'm terrified myself of what I think I look like. Blood is running down the side of my face: the side where I have the abnormal eye. I can't see out of it, and taking the place of my sight is pain. I touch the side of my face and my hand comes back sticky with blood.
     My entire body feels weak, sore, and underwhelmed. I can hardly stay upright from my kneeling position. Stan and Ford rush to my side, Ford mumbling many medical terms. He inspects my face and says to his brother, "There's no way I can fix this myself. I can't perform enucleation surgery."
     "What does that mean?" Stan asks.
     "Eye removal," I whisper. "Is it that bad?"
     "Yes..." Ford contemplates something. "Can we really consider hospitalization? He doesn't have legal papers or anyth-"
     "Brother, I've got this all under control. I'm a master at lying and forgeries! Leave it all to me."
     Dipper and Mabel approach me as well. "Is he okay?" Mabel asks warily.
     "He will be soon," responds Ford.
     "So... we did it?" Dipper asks. "That's it?"
     "That's it," Stanford replies.
     "That's it," I copy, relieved. Following that, I pass out from exhaustion.
:::::::::::::::::::::::
Groggily, I open my eyes to a white, pristine room. Oh, I said eyes, didn't I? I meant eye. I believe I'm recovering from an enucleation surgery. Oh my stars, how much money does that cost? Five hundred dollars maybe? I guess I'll have to find a job soon now that I'm-
Oh. I'm alive. I'm okay. Everything's done. I... I can live a normal life! A sense of peace washes over me. I'm fine. Everything's fine, everything's alright!
"Ah, good. You're awake." A doctor steps into the room, followed by the Pines family. "That was some nasty dog attack you suffered from, huh?"
Dog attack? "Um, ac-" Stan frantically waves at me from behind the doctor, winking repeatedly, and making the cutting motion on his throat. Ohhh. "Oh, yeah, hehe," I reply. "Yeah, that was some dog."
"We'll be keeping an eye on you for- oh, ha ha!" The doctor suddenly laughs. "Keeping an eye on you! I didn't even mean to make that pun! Get it? We'll give you a prosth-"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it." I hate this guy already.
     "Well, we'll keep you here for only a few days, and then we'll let you go! Don't worry, your dad and your uncle and cousins can still visit as much as you want, as long as it's within visitation hours." The doctor marks something on his clipboard and leaves the room.
     I scowl and give a detestable glare to Stan. "Dad? Are you kidding me!"
     "Relax, relax!" Stan exclaims. "They're all forgeries. Technically, nothing I've given them is legal!"
     "I sure hope you paid. And not in Stanbucks this time?" Ford asks his brother.
     "Don't worry. That's the real stuff. Kid can pay me back later," Stan says stingily.
     "Are you feeling alright?" Mabel asks me.
     "Yeah. And guess what I still have." I pull the eye patch she gave me close to when I first arrived out of my pocket.
     "You still have it?"
     "Of course! It's the first gift I've ever gotten. Um, it's gotten a big raggedy after all we've been through, though."
     "That's okay." She takes it out of my hands. "I can patch it up. And soon, you'll be spick and span too!"
     "I guess I'll finally get some use out of it, huh?"
     "Aren't you going to use the prosthetic?" Dipper asks me. "You know, eighty percent of patients who have enucleation surgeries look in the mirror and can't even tell they're wearing a glass eye."
     "I could, but I think having one eye just suits me better. I feel more like myself." Everyone gets a startled look on their face. "Don't worry. Your zodiac thing worked fine. That's not chaos talking. It's just me. Just Bill." I grin.
     Mabel hugs me. "Good," she says. "Just Bill is good. I'm happy you're here. I'm glad you're okay."
     I wrap my arms around her as well. "Thank you."
     Stanford and Stanley exchange a confused, slightly disgusted look. Dipper quickly explains what's going on for them.
     "So... about what everyone said back there... can I really stay with you guys? I've probably caused you enough trouble."
     "Eh, trouble's what we live for," Stanley replies.
     "Besides, you can't legally go off on your own for another couple years," Stanford explains.
     "That's dumb," I say. "I'm over a trillion years old."
     "Ha! Don't worry about it, kid," Stan tells me. "Huh... there is one problem, though."
     "What's that?" The younger twins ask in unison.
     "Ford and I don't live in the Mystery Shack anymore. In fact, we don't really have a home. We've been traveling the arctic, searching for anomalies until you arrived. The Shack belongs to Soos now. And we can't just throw everything on him right now..."
     "I'm sure someone else would be willing to help," Mabel says.
     "I can pay. I'll stay anywhere. I'll get a job. I'll pay you back for all this," I gesture to the hospital room I'm in.
     "Take your time, kid. We'll get you situated just fine."
     "Thanks," I answer. I can't believe it! Im so excited! I'm getting a real home for the first time ever! There are people in this town who actually care for me.
     Who would've thought?

My Name is Bill CipherWhere stories live. Discover now