Voodootown

Chapter 55

Chapter 55

Twister

Twister sat on the dashboard of the car, propped against a pile of folded napkins.  The old car was crowded and the center of the dashboard was the only clear place.  Pop cans, bags of chips and pizza boxes were scattered everywhere.  They had cleared extra room beside Twister and Ribbon sat next to her, blindfold still firmly in place.

Ash looked at a stain on the front seat he shared with Bambi, Danica and their dolls.  "My dad's gonna kill me for this," he said.

"Your dad's gonna kill you for whacking him with a club," Bambi said.  Her arm was in a splint and she was still pale but after taking several aspirin she had eaten some pizza and had even laughed with everyone over dinner.

Eun Kyung had insisted that they drop her off at the big grocery store down the road and Twister had watched the girl walk inside.  By the time she went through the front door, she was shuffling like the zombi people.  Fifteen tense minutes had gone by, then Eun Kyung had shuffled out with a grocery cart filled with medical supplies, drinks, snacks and five hot pizzas.

Everyone had applauded her performance and the teenagers had devoured the food.

Twister smiled at the group and turned to Janey, who was listening to the boys talk horror and science fiction movies.  Janey smiled and nodded along, but Twister knew that her human didn't like scary movies at all.  Still, it was good to see her human laughing.

The first few minutes after they had gotten out of Voodootown and been picked up by Ash had been tense.  Sticks had been angry that she hadn't been there when Bambi learned that she had a doll, and madder still that she hadn't been there to protect the girl.  She had cooled down after a while and had talked with Flow about ways to help heal Bambi more quickly.

When Ash had introduced James to Squat, the doll had mostly ignored his human and gone off to rest.  James had sat quietly alone until Ribbon suggested that James talk about sports with Squat.  Things had gone better after that.

Ju Ju's meeting with Danica had been subdued, and still was.  The two of them sat quietly side by side in the passenger seat.  Twister suspected that there were a lot of secrets Ju Ju was keeping from her human and that Danica was catching on to it.

On the way out of Voodootown, Blink had given Twister a short version of what happened to everyone on the surface, including Curtis' skepticism.  But by the time Curtis and Flow met, that had disappeared.  Within minutes the human and doll were talking about books, movies, all sorts of boy stuff.

Twister's first minutes with Janey had been very strained.  Twister still couldn't move when they got to the car and Ash had found a safe place to park while the other dolls began to patch her up.  Flow had exhausted himself even more making patch charm after patch charm.  He had been kind and made them all plain gray unlike the flowered ones that spotted Squat's back.

The charms on her back had been the most painful.  Blink and Camo had pushed her stuffing back in and held the skin together while Root laid the patches down.  All the while, Janey had been watching, her eyes catching everything as she said nothing.  The girl had moved stiffly and Twister knew that her human had been sharing some of the pain from the injuries.

When Twister had been nearly covered with patches, Janey had reached a hand forward and touched her on the shoulder.  Twister had regained some movement in her right arm by then and had touched Janey's hand.  But they hadn't said a word to each other, still hadn't.

Next to Janey, James slapped a piece of pizza down into the box.  "That was some incredibly lifeless pizza."

Eun Kyung burped and threw a corn chip at him.  "Didn't stop you from eating a whole one by yourself."