More Like Clem

Help You Be Stronger

 "Almost done..." AJ thought to himself as he continued to scrub the small knife with the damp cloth. He was standing in front of the nightstand by the window. The golden glow of the sun lent a helping hand to illuminate his work-space. He had been in that spot cleaning the small weapon for the last 20 minutes trying his best to scrub off as much of dirt and rust as he could. He wanted it to look perfect, or at the very least, as perfect as he could get with some water and an old cloth.

After about five more minutes of scrubbing, he held the knife up to the light and rotated it around to get a good look at it from every angle. The sunlight gently reflected off the blade. He had replaced the old cloth on the handle with a newer one with less holes and stains on it.

He smiled.

"Looks even better than the day I made it." he observed.

He then pocketed the knife and ran off to find his friend.

-

It wasn't too hard to find Tenn. He was sitting on the picnic bench drawing in a notebook with Rosie laying down across from him. She was both accompanying him and being his model. AJ smiled as he spotted his second first real friend and made his way over to the table.

"Hey, Tenn." He greeted as he approached the two. The older boy turned and smiled while Rosie lifted her head up and looked at him with what AJ would guess as being a dog's version of a smile. He bent down to give her an affectionate scratch on the head.

"Hey there, Rosie."

Satisfied with the attention, she laid her head back down to rest.

"Hey, AJ." Tenn replied.

"Whatcha drawin'?" AJ asked as he sat across from him.

"Well," he looked over at Rosie.

"I was drawing some flowers that were on the ground, but then Rosie laid on top of them. So, now I'm drawing her instead." He replied as he added a few more sketches to his notebook.

"Oh, cool. Good job on being inn...inno...uh..." he struggled slightly as he tried to remember the new word Clem taught him.

"Innovative?"

"Yeah! that."

Tenn chuckled softly as he put his pencil down to give AJ his full attention.

"What're you up to?"

AJ smiled.

"Well...I actually wanted to give you something."

"Really?" Tenn asked, eyebrows raising slightly.

"Uh-huh!" AJ reached into his back pocket and pulled out the knife. He held it in the palm of his hand as he offered it to Tenn, who looked down at it with a slightly confused gaze.

"You...wanted to give me this?" he questioned as he took the weapon by the handle and observed it.

"Mm-hmm." AJ replied with a nod.

"Oh...ok. Thanks, but why?"

"It's to help you be strong."

Tenn cocked his head to the side, still confused.

AJ focused on the table as he tried to get his thoughts together.

"When I made this knife, I wasn't sure why I was making it. I just felt like I really had to. I didn't know it would, but that knife ended up helping Clem escape from the prison on the boat." He looked back up at Tenn. "A while ago I realized that's why I made the knife: to help Clem."

"Oh, ok...." Tenn replied slowly while looking over the small weapon.

"But, how did you know to make the knife? I know you said you got a feeling, but how'd you get the feeling?"

"Clem says she gets feelings like that too. Like, she can tell when something's about to happen. The feeling to make this knife was kinda like the feeling Clem gets. So, I realized that getting this feeling means that I'm getting stronger and smarter like Clem." AJ said. It was kind of a hard thing to explain.

"Oh, that's great," Tenn said with a small smile, "but, I still don't understand why you're giving it to me."

"I made this knife because I was becoming stronger, so I thought that if I gave it to you, it might help you become stronger too." AJ explained

Tenn continued to look at AJ, then down at the knife, a thoughtful; expression masking his features.

"I cleaned it before I gave it to you too." AJ blurted out.

Tenn looked at AJ once more.

"Really?"

"Yeah." AJ smiled. "I wanted it to look nice for you."

Tenn continued to look down at the small weapon in his hands. He kept silent as he continued to observe it. His silence was starting to get to AJ.

"Does he not like it?" he thought, worry pinching at his features. He directed his gaze towards the table once more. "Maybe I didn't clean it good enough."

"Thank you."

AJ snapped his head up to look at Tenn. He was smiling.

"So, you do like it?" AJ questioned as a smile of his own spread across his face.

"Yeah," Tenn assured. "I know I need to be stronger if I want to survive. I've made a lot of mistakes. Mistakes that other people had to suffer from ..." he trailed off as guilt started to cloud his mind. Sensing this, AJ got up and stood beside Tenn. He reached out to put a comforting hand on Tenn's shoulder.

"Don't feel bad, Tenn. I mean, yeah, you made some mistakes. You can't change them, but you're gonna learn from them and get stronger from them."

Tenn nodded his head in agreement.

"And I know you don't like the gun too much," AJ continued, "so I thought maybe the knife will be a little better for you."

Tenn smiled again. "Thank you, AJ." He leaned over to give AJ a hug which the smaller boy returned gratefully. Tenn sat up straight and looked at the weapon once more.

"I'm not use to having my own weapon. Will you show me how to use it?"

"Of course. C'mon let's go practice on the dummy." AJ suggested.

"Ok." Tenn agreed.

The two (plus Rosie) made their way over to the practicing area. Tenn smiled to himself as they not only got closer to their destination, but as he got closer to becoming a stronger person.