The Attitude

The Place Where Promises Aren’t Kept [Chapter 6]

That weekend was ruined after the events of that Friday night. Saturday morning, my mom threatened to cancel the internet connection if I tried to get on the computer again. Not only did I have to worry about my lost Rune Quest items, but I had to go outside. The summer heat hadn’t even gone away yet. It was like a dragon assaulting our land with its fiery breath endlessly.

My dad saw me sulking in front of the TV on Sunday morning. He decided that he was going to teach me how to mow the lawn. What he really meant was that he was going to force me to do it while he sat and watched.

“It’s a good skill to know,” he explained. “Lots of kids your age learn how to mow lawns. Then they go around the neighborhood, knocking on doors, and seeing if the neighbors’ll pay you to do it for them.”

“I don’t know any of the neighbors,” I said back. “And I don’t really need money that badly.”

“Well, if your mom decides to cancel the internet subscription like she says, you will need that money,” my dad concluded. I didn’t know if he was joking, even if he said it with a laugh. “Now, yank on that cord and rev up the engine.”

I mowed the entire front lawn that afternoon. My dad laughed at the uneven lines I had carved out and tufts of grass left behind. I let out what little breath I had left when he offered to finish up the front and head to the backyard on his own.

I was tired, thirsty, sweaty and probably a little bit sunburned. The roar of the lawn mower’s engines still rang in my ears too, like the hum you hear when you’re really sick and your nose is plugged and your throat is scratchy. All the work almost made me forget about what my mom had said the night before: that Jakey’s bad attitude was rubbing off on me.

I didn’t have time to think about it much. I had homework. After that was dinner, dishes, a shower to wash off the sweat from mowing, and finally some boring TV time with the family. Sunday felt like a completely different day, one that could have been a lot better if my death by goblins hadn’t caused me to shout out.

Jakey and I met back up at the bus stop that Monday morning. We nodded to each other a bit and shared a couple of sighs, both knowing that our adventure had come to an end way too early. While the bus was pulling up to let us inside, we finally exchanged the first words.

“So, can we talk about what happened Friday?” Jakey said, glancing over his shoulder as he marched up the narrow bus aisle.

I shook my head defeatedly. “Apart from me getting slaughtered?”

“That about sums it up,” he said back, settling into one of the seats. I sat across from him as usual, the both of us smudged into the middle of the bus.

“Did you die to the goblins too?” I asked, kind of hoping he had earned the same fate as me. Not to be mean, but so that we could share the same sad tale.

“Nope,” Jakey chirped back. “And I got a lot of your gear. We can trade it back the next time you’re on. I am sorry that I could not protect my companion, though. Were you too dismayed over your defeat to return the entire weekend?”

“Dismayed?” I asked.

“Uh… downtrodden. Upset. Sad.”

I rolled my eyes and huffed. “No. My mom heard me yelling at those… dang armored goblins. I guess I was a little too loud. But if she knew what was going on, she would have understood. You know?”

Jakey held his wide chin in his hand and nodded. “Ah, so you were banished from the online realm for the weekend.”

“Yeah. She doesn’t understand at all!”

“Parents never do,” Jakey said. He crossed his arms and leaned back against the seat, bouncing his leg. “I feel lucky that mine are out of the house often enough so I can do as I please without interruption.”

“How lucky,” I sighed. “If it isn’t my mom or dad, then my sister is home. And she has been bringing over her annoying high school friends, too…”

Jakey’s bouncing leg was rubbing against mine. The rough, stretchy fabric of his pants was making that whooshing sound. I wouldn’t have cared if I didn’t remember my mom’s words again— his bad attitude.

I pressed my backpack harder into my lap and scrunched sideways further into the bus seat. The two others beside me, already pushed up against each other and the window, glared at me. I didn’t dare look at them. Being such a big kid, Jakey barely fit anywhere. The people in his seat were probably already having a tough time making room.

I guess I sometimes noticed Jakey being rude or harsh. He never cussed, that’s for sure. He said his vocabulary was better than that. The things he said were funny sometimes, but I don’t think his attitude was really bad, not like some people. Sometimes he smelled bad, but that wasn’t his fault and I tried to ignore it as best I could. I wondered if he knew when he smelled that way. I don’t think he mowed the lawn enough to get all sweaty and smelly like I had done that weekend.

I wondered what he said and thought when I had died back there against the goblins.

---

Jakey and I met up again on our way to the computer lab that day. He was already ready to talk about the Goblin King.

“After you died, I jumped into the Stronghold just to scout it out. I saw him, just for a second. People were already fighting him. They were getting taken out left and right with that massive hammer of his. I don’t think either of us could have taken him on.”

“We’ll just have to level up some more,” I said hopefully.

“There are plenty of strong goblins to take on the way there,” Jakey added.

Once more, Jakey and I were logging into our computers there in the lab. “Do you think if we only farm goblins, we’ll get really good at taking down all sorts of goblins specifically?”

Jakey shrugged. “I’m not sure there is any system like that in Rune Quest. Perhaps a hidden skill? To the wiki, I say!”

Just as I was finished putting in my password, the entire school was hit with one of those announcements. “Please excuse the interruption. Would Mike Shepherd please come to the office to be picked up? Repeat, Mike Shepherd to the office. Thank you!”

Jakey was looking my way. I glanced at the teacher’s corner and called out to him. “Mr. Tate? What was that?”

Mr. Tate poked his head and eyes over his computer screens. “That’s an announcement. We’ve had plenty this year. Where have you been? And you wouldn’t happen to be the Mike they called for? Shepherd, they said.”

I zipped up my backpack in a rush and slung it over my shoulder. “Uh, yeah, that’s me. Jakey, can you log me off?”

“I shall do that for you, my companion,” he said back. “Best of travels. I wish for your safe return.”

I rushed out the door. I barely had time to readjust to the bright sunlight. For a moment, I didn’t even remember where the office was. The only thing I knew was that it must have been near the front of the school.

All of the buildings around the quad looked the same, all painted white, with dark windows and grey-blue doors matching the school’s colors. Some of the buildings had their names or numbers painted on them. I was too busy looking for the word ‘office’ that I totally missed my mom waving at me from beside the parking lot.

She smiled at me as I came near. Even though something was up, she didn’t even seem upset at all. “Did you forget what I said this morning? Dentist appointment today, kiddo. Just come right up front at lunch, I said. Come on, I’ve already got you signed out at the office.”

I followed my mom to the car and loaded myself in, backpack and all. I think somewhere in the back of my mind I was still too mad at my mom to properly listen that morning. “Sorry,” I said back, not really thinking what I was sorry about. Sorry for yelling while playing Rune Quest? Sorry for not listening to what she was saying that morning? Sorry for… being me?

“I think we will be right on time,” she said brightly as if my apology wasn’t even necessary.

The school disappeared from sight in the side mirror of my mom’s car. I was sad that I wasn’t able to hang out with Jakey, but somewhat glad that I was able to escape at least some of the school day.

“Sorry that we have to do this right at lunchtime,” my mom said, driving as carefully as she always did. “Tell you what, we’ll get something to eat on the way back home. A treat, maybe. But only if the dentist gives you a clean bill of health. Let’s hope all those late-night sodas aren’t destroying your teeth.”

I nodded and looked out the window. I had nothing on my mind to talk about with her. I don’t think I was mad at her anymore, I just didn’t have anything to say. The dentist was downtown. It was a completely different route from the one we took from the elementary school. Somewhere along the route, my mom spoke up again.

“I wanted to say sorry, Mike. About what I said about Jakey. I hope it didn’t change how you see him. And I really hope you didn’t tell him what I said,” she said, ending on what seemed like a joke.

“No…” I said. It was an all-encompassing no, one to respond to all of her comments.

“It’s really nice that you have a friend like Jake. Someone older you can look up to. But when you get to be a big teenager, things change. You know how Jess is, too. You think you’re the coolest person in the world, and nobody can tell you otherwise. People can see that as an attitude. And you know Jake’s parents aren’t around a lot. He probably has to fend for himself sometimes. Your grandpa would maybe call him an ‘old soul.’ Someone who’s already seen and heard it all. But, by all means, I don’t think Jake really has a bad attitude.”

That was one of my mom’s apologies. They always went on for a long time. They were always filled with lots of different ways to say sorry, even if the person she was apologizing to wasn’t even hurt anymore or that bad. Strangely, she sighed and laughed not long after finishing.

“But there is one thing about him. Mike, does he still say some of that weird stuff? Like you being his companion? Like he’s a knight or something? Does that come from that game you play?”

I shrugged and held back my laugh. “I don’t know. Maybe… do you remember that one movie with the ring?”

“The ring? Oh, the groups of hairy guys and their ring! Ugh! I swear, we were in that movie theater for hours! Ah, but there was that handsome guy with the beard.”

“Gandalf?” I asked, halfway joking.

“What? Wait, he was the old, dirty wizard, right? No, the other guy!”

“Aragorn,” I said, remembering my mom’s weird crush on the guy from the movie. He looked nothing like my dad.

“Yeah…” My mom said with a sigh. “I don’t remember, do they talk like that in the movie?”

“Kinda,” I replied.

“There was this book I tried to read in college,” My mom said, nodding. “Called Don Quixote. About some old guy who believed he was a knight. I think he talked and acted funny, too. That’s kind of what I remember. The book was thousands of pages and was kind of boring, too. Never finished it. But the main character could be kind of like Jakey, huh?”

I laughed and nodded. “I guess so. Do you still have that book?”

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