An Unus Annus Fanfic: But it Gets Increasingly More Frustrating to Read

Chapter 5

"I'm surprised you're so on board with this." Mark said as Ethan started the car.

They hadn't told me yet where we were going, but I didn't mind. They were right. It was time I let the channel go. I hadn't realized it but a part of me had still been holding on to it. It's not that I've become indifferent to the channel now, or that I'll never talk about it or joke about it again. It's just that I've come to realize I had subconsciously been clinging to it instead of moving on to new things. I think I'm ready now though to move past it. There are certainly reasons why I've been holding on to Unus Annus... But it was time.

"I think I'm ready."

Mark and Ethan began to rant about something to each other but I didn't really pay attention to them. From the backseat I opened the music box to watch the built in video one last time. There were a lot of good times had. If I was lucky, even better were to come.

"We're here!" Ethan announced pulling into a parking lot.

With a quick look around me, I realized we were at the side-by-side beaches just outside of town. Because of a long dramatic turf war between the two states that the beach resided on, it had been divided down the middle. East Point Beach and West Point Beach became the result of an ongoing dispute between the two states, over who owned what land. There was still a lot of rivalry about which beach was better but honestly I never really took a side.

"Are you trying to tell me this beach, out of everywhere in the world, is the only place strong enough to contain the Dance of Italy?" I  questioned.

"Well not really, but we weren't about to fly you out to the middle of Europe or anything. This is good enough," Mark replied.

As we got out of the car I realized the day had gotten warmer and they were standing in direct sunlight wearing full on suits. They quickly realized this too and ditched their jackets. They tossed them back into the car and started rolling up their sleeves.

"The sun is brutal," Ethan complained, squinting at a nearby post with flyers about the beach.

"Yeah. Too bad you don't have anything to block it from your eyes," Mark goaded.

Since when was he wearing the white top hat Amy got for him? I had been with them this whole time. Where on earth did he get that? Oh well, I suppose stranger things have happened thus far.

"Let's go to the gift shop!" Ethan pointed to one of the flyers.

"We have a more important task at hand!" Mark argued.

"But its so hot. We could get swim trunks!"

Mark glared at him, "Fine. But I'm not going in the ocean again!"

They ran off to the gift shop. I was about to follow them until a large van pulled in next to my car. The side door opened and a wheelchair ramp started descending. It descended right into the side of my car.

"Hey! Stop!" I cried out, running over to the side.

I had no idea how to stop it because it was an automatic ramp. At the sight of the line of spikes on the end of it crushing in the side of my car this seemed like it was a common occurrence for this van. The spike flap flipped over last minute so that the wheelchair wouldn't run over them. A short, older man emerged and rolled himself down the ramp.

"You crushed my car!"

"You're car is in my way!"

He attempted to work his way off the ramp despite the fact my car was still very much in the way.

"I hope you're intending to pay for that." I was bewildered at this man's audacity.

"I wouldn't talk to me like that if I were you sweetheart."

"And why's that?"

"Ha! As if you don't recognize me!"

I stared blankly at him. Even though I knew who he was that didn't change the fact my car was wrecked.

"I'm Danny DeVito!"

"Yeah, I know who you are. You still caused a boatload of money in damage to my car though."

"Trixie!" He shouted.

A tired looking woman walked out from the other side of the car. From her outfit and the lanyard around her neck she seemed to be some kind of caregiver of sorts.

"Get me a pen and paper," Danny demanded. "Here, hold this, kid."

He handed me a vial that looked like it was filled with pee. With his now free hands he signed the paper and threw it at me like he was doing me a favor. I looked down at his scrawled signature with a huff.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" I asked annoyed.

"Sell it!"

He started wheeling away before I could hand him back his pee vial, so I begrudgingly shoved the items into my pocket with the plan to throw it away later and followed after him. Trixie grabbed a wagon with a cloth tarp over the top of it and followed after Mr. DeVito.

"Give me that," He grumbled, grabbing the wagon handle from her.

Despite his determination, he struggled to wheel himself while also tugging along the wagon, eventually tipping it over. With a sigh a bent down to help pick it up. Who could stay mad at Danny DeVito anyway?

"Don't touch my stuff," He yelled, "I'll get it myself. What you think I'm old or something?"

I glanced at his white hair and said nothing. He stood from his wheelchair and-... Wait... He stood from his wheelchair?!

"You... You're walking."

"Uh, yeah, I got legs don't I?"

"But then why do you have a-"

"Listen kid, when you're a filthy rich celebrity like me you can afford the luxury of not needing to walk."

This man was something else. Despite his initial refusal, I continued to help him put his things back in the wagon. He seemed to appreciate my help. For some reason his wagon was full of strange metal discs.

"Hey, if you don't mind me asking Mr. Devito, what are these?"

"Ya know, you seem like a good kid. I like you, so I'm going to tell you. Their landmines," He said matter-of-factly.

"Right, haha landmines."

"Yeah. And if you tell anyone, I'll kill you."

With that I helped push him down to East Point Beach. I waved goodbye to Danny and Trixie and headed back to the parking lot to find Mark and Ethan. Before I could get very far Ethan came running over to me in a panic. He was sweating and out of breath. He looked scared.

"There you are!"

"Ethan? What's wrong?"

"I've been looking everywhere for you! It's Mark... Something happened."