Learning to Care

Chapter 5

It was now 12 o'clock noon on Sunday. Jim, Claire, and Toby had spent the whole weekend searching for the book they needed without luck. The issue was that nobody knew Blinky's organizational system, so they had to sort through every single section. Blinky had slept a little during this; trolls didn't need very much sleep, but since he was little he needed more than adult Blinky would need. The rest of the time he played with Aargh, who had him in Jim's basement until the humans came back from Troll Market. It was pretty safe because Jim's mom was working until late every day. Aargh was getting much better at managing his little friend and was increasingly competent in the little kid department. If Blinky was still a baby on Monday, it was agreed that he and Aargh would stay in Jim's basement. Jim was hoping to avoid taking Blinky to Troll Market until he was himself again so that he could avoid Vendel's irritation. The Trollhunting team decided to wait a week, and if they couldn't find a fix, and if Blinky didn't return to normal on his own, then they would go to Vendel.

That night back at Claire's, Jim, Claire, and Aargh were amusing themselves by giving Blinky different foods to try. So far the toddler had loved eggs, Doritos, apples, baby food, lettuce, the tin cans from the recycling can, and lemons. He started crying when the tomato was "too squishy" but it otherwise went surprisingly well. Later that night, Toby pulled his backpack onto the couch and dug through it, pulling out a large pair of headphones with a small ipod.

"I finally found some that would work for you!" Toby said, grinning. Blinky looked nervous, but allowed the headphones to be adjusted and lowered onto his head. Toby shuffled through the playlists, selected one at random, then stuck the ipod in one of Blinky's little pants pockets. The tiny troll stared at Toby for a minute, then pulled his hand out of his mouth and making a little "Oooh" noise. Then he hugged Toby with a squeak of, "knath ke!"* and started jumping excitedly, half-running half-skipping out of the room. Jim could hear shouted trollish from the kitchen, then the deep rumble of Aargh's laughter. Claire thought it was adorable, but she couldn't help but wonder what music Toby had given their little friend. He was trying to sing to it while jumping on the couch in her living room, then running up and down the stairs until he slipped and crashed into the couch, collapsing in a giggling heap on the carpet. Claire asked Toby, "So, what playlist did you pick? He seems pretty into it." Claire eyed the giggling troll, who was now unsuccessfully trying to throw a blanket over Aargh, screaming gleefully, "Hef por ke! Ke os froid wes!" Toby shrugged and opened some chips, crunching loudly before replying, "Either Mozart or Fall Out Boy, the names are mixed up."

Judging by the manic energy radiating from the young troll, Claire would guess at the second option. She tried to take it away from him so he could focus on his dinner, but he looked at her with big sad eyes... needless to say, Blinky got to keep the music.

After dinner, Blinky got his friends to dance, toddling around and jumping excitedly, all the while laughing at everyone else. "Geez, baby trolls have tons of energy don't they?" Toby said. Aargh smiled at his wingman, replying in his deep voice, "Yes, lots."

*"Thank you!"

"This for you! You are cold here!"