Indiana Jones and Short Round - The Tale of an Unlikely Friendship

The Night-time Adventure

When Indiana returned to America, he took Shorty to see his apartment.

"Well, you're gonna be staying here with me now. This is my bedroom, this is where you'll be sleeping, that's the bathroom..."

"What's thewe?" Shorty asked while pointing in the direction of the only room that wasn't mentioned.

"That, Shorty, is my study."

"What's that?"

"Study is a place where I work. Please don't go inside, there are things of great importance to me that need to stay safe and undamaged," Indiana explained to his young friend.

"What things?"

"Nothing for children... don't worry about it, kid."

The child nodded but kept thinking about the contents of the study.

You see, Indiana had a wonderful career and, without a doubt, a brilliant mind. However, he didn't have any previous experience with children, apart from playing with his friend Sallah's sons and daughters a couple of times. Had he known anything about children, he would have brought Shorty inside his study to show him the "things of great importance" under his supervision instead of presenting it as a forbidden place full of mysterious items. He didn't think of that though, so Shorty was left with a growing sense of curiosity which would soon overwhelm him.

Later that day

It was late in the evening and Short Round would normally be fast asleep. Yet this time, he couldn't convince his mind to calm down and stop thinking about the super-secret room in which his big friend Indy was working. Shorty was grateful that the man had chosen to take care of him and didn't want to violate his rules. He was still a 5-year-old though. So, when he heard Indiana leaving his study and going to bed, the boy got up to explore.

When Shorty opened the door, he felt a mix of thrill and trepidation. The study was dark and the only bit of light he could see was from a streetlamp outside. The boy looked around the room. He could see huge shelves full of books, a few archaic looking statuettes, maps on the walls and many other objects which he had never seen before. His attention was then caught by a desk situated by the window. On the desk, there were pieces of paper with notes and sketches. Shorty didn't know how to read yet, so he started to look through the drawings when he came across an illustration that startled him. Objectively, it wasn't particularly scary – had Shorty been a few years older he would have dismissed it as a few skulls and skeletons on a paper. But at his age, it frightened him enough to squeal loudly and accidentally push a few things off the desk. Then he heard steps in the hallway.

The door opened. It was Indiana, with a somewhat confused and irritated expression on his face.

"Hey, what's going on?! Short Round, what are you doing here?"

The boy didn't say anything. He was just standing there with a mixture of embarrassment and panic in his eyes, trying to contain tears that were beginning to flow. Indiana noticed that instantly and walked towards the child. He crouched down to his level and said with a much softer voice:

"Hey, come on now, no need to cry. What happened?"

"I-I-I sowwy. I wanted s-see the s-s-secwet woom and I see scawy p-p-pictuwe and and and...," Shorty tried to explain while pointing at the stuff on the floor and sobbing uncontrollably. "I'-I-I sowwy, please n-not make Showty g-go away."

Despite being a little annoyed after finding the child in his study in the middle of the night Indiana couldn't be angry with him any longer. Did this kid really believe he would be kicked out of the apartment because of this? That almost broke the man's heart.

"Come here, sweetheart," Indiana said as he slowly stood back up and scooped Shorty in his arms. "I'm not gonna make you leave, okay? I'd never do that," he added whilst rubbing the child's back. The boy hugged him tightly and after a while, he finally calmed down.

"I sowwy I was bad," Shorty whispered in the man's ear while clutching on his shirt.

"It's alright, Shorty, I'm not angry. You weren't bad, just curious. That's natural for a child, I probably should've expected it," Indiana chuckled and ruffled they boy's dark hair.

"Showty make this wight, Indy," Short Round pointed to the floor where some of Indiana's notes and stationery were lying after they had fallen from the desk.

"Yeah, let's just put it back up so that nothing gets lost, hm?"

Indiana placed the child back on the ground and they collected the things together, especially the pieces of paper that happened to lie all around the study. Shorty collected every piece of paper around him except for one at which he was staring in a distrustful manner.

"What's wrong, kid?"

"Scawy pictuwe," the boy pointed at it.

"Oh, is that the thing that startled you before?"

The child nodded.

"It's just a drawing, Shorty, it's not gonna bite you. Can you hand it to me?"

"Hmm... Indy get it," the little boy responded after thinking about it for a moment. He walked over to Indiana, took his hand and led him to where the drawing was. Indiana chuckled.

"Okay then. See – nothing to worry about," the man said after placing the 'scary picture' back on the desk. "Now, let's get you back to bed."

Shorty yawned and let his guardian lead him to his room.

"Good night, kid. And no more night-time adventures, alright?"

"Alwight, good night," the boy said while letting go of Indiana's fingers which he was previously holding onto. "Love you, Indy."

"Love you too, kid."