Just Like Him
As Kimberly Lansing awoke from her slumber, she walked out into the hallway of her home to find her two young sons watching television in the living room. Bradley who was the eldest by a year, was playing along with his younger brother William, who was pretending to be one of his favorite superheroes.
“Mommy, Mommy, Chester Squirrel is on!” cried William excitedly.
“That’s good Willy,” Kimberly said, still feeling the fatigue after rising from bed. “Keep watching I’ll be out to fix breakfast in a moment.”
The children had no problem obeying their mother, as Chester Squirrel returned to help the use their imagination after a few commercials. Kimberly shut the door and turned on the faucet. Looking into the mirror to examine her face, Kimberly was pleased to see that her youthful looks were still present in her age of thirty-nine. After brushing her bright red hair and washing her face, Kimberly was out of the bathroom and into the kitchen to fix her sons bacon and eggs. As the sounds of her sons cheering on their favorite character came from the living room she smiled, remembering how she and her brothers cheered on their favorites when they were young, and it pleased her to see that her children were sharing some of the same experiences she had as a child.
“Mommy, come watch with us!” one of them said.
“I’m almost done,” Kimberly said with a chuckle. Once the breakfast had finished cooking Kimberly fixed everyone their plates before walking into the living room. She sat between the boys just as their favorite show, Chester Squirrel, was came back on. As they enjoyed the educational adventures Chester embarked on, the boys ate the food cooked by their mother. They wasted no time in woofing it down so that they could follow along with what he was saying without talking with mouths fill of food.
“Boys,” Kimberly began sternly, “I thought I taught you not to pack your mouths full of food.”
Instantly the boys began eating slower, fearing another of their mother’s punishments. When the show finally ended, a news anchor appeared on screen and told viewers that an interview with the show’s creator was next to appear. Kimberly looked forward to seeing the person that played a part in helping her sons use their imagination for education purposes.
“Hello parents and children. We hope you liked this episode of Chester Squirrel and the adventures he takes you every time you tune in. Today I’m here with the creator of Chester Squirrel, Joshua Hughes.”
Incredulously Kimberly looked at the television as the man behind her children’s favorite show happily walked out to greet the TV show host, shaking his hand strongly before sitting down in the chair across from him.
“Glad to have you here Josh,” the host said.
“Glad to be here,” Josh said. As the interview began, Kimberly remembered a time when she had known Joshua. She hadn’t seen him since they had graduated high school eight years ago and to see him on television now, brought memories of him flooding back.
They had two classes together and at that time he was not the most well-liked because of how Joshua indulged himself in things that weren’t “cool”. Things such as Monster Capture, Rebecca the Dinosaur, and that wretched Bolt the Porcupine. Often times when the teachers had to step out, she would join the crowd in bullying him, making fun of his hobbies and his looks.
“Hey freakaziod,” Kimberly would say as she often started the whole affair. “I don’t know how you’re ever going to get a girl with all that retarded stuff you do!”
The class would laugh before each would chime in about their mistreatment of him as if they had achieved a great feat. Kimberly had never liked being ignored and when Joshua ignored her, she’d get up from her seat and hit him hard across his head, forcing him to duck his head and use his book to deflect any hits he fear were coming.
“We all know you’re not going to hit a girl, your fucking daddy taught you better didn’t he!?”
As she predicted Joshua didn’t defend himself, except for telling the teacher, who did nothing when it was all said and done. Joshua wasn’t much of a fighter and people knew it. Most of his time was spent writing, creating stories and sometimes he could be heard making weird noises. It wasn’t her fault this made him an easy target.
“And now you’ve got a new project in the works yes?” the host asked.
“I do yes. I’ve written a novel for young adults called The Dragon Princess a few months ago,” Joshua said. Kimberly had remembered someone at her work talk about how her teenagers were excited that the novel was going to be made into a film based upon it. Joshua was going to be a stupid rich man if he wasn’t already.
“And also, Chester Squirrel will be getting a third season.”
“Much to my daughter’s delight,” replied the host with a smile. Kimberly felt a bit feint, as if she had stepped into some other world. This couldn’t be the same man she delighted in causing misery to in their youth. That Joshua was small, timid and kept to himself.This Joshua looked fit, clean shaven, and…handsome compared to the kid she knew in high school.
“Mommy wow! More Chester Squirrel!” the boys said excitedly. She slowly nodded her head and allowed a small smile to form on her lips. She never did like him before and years after graduating she found that she didn’t understand why she hated him then. Perhaps it was because it was cool to hate those of lesser status. Such acts were considered praise worthy in her younger days, but now that she was older, such actions were now foolish.
At the announcement of a third season of Chester Squirrel educating, or rather, Joshua educating her children, a feeling a pride came to her by the fact that the person she tormented is stimulating her children’s urge to learn.
“Mommy! I wanna be just like him when I grow up!” cried her youngest son. And then the eldest; “Me too!”
“Well,” began Kimberly reluctantly, “I’m sure…you can when you grow up.”
She wanted to say she was looking forward to seeing her sons become men like the idol they adored, but remembering the pain she had wrought upon her children’s hero and educator through Chester Squirrel, she kept silent. If becoming like Joshua meant having to be bullied, mocked, and beaten, she wanted her children to pick a different path towards their future.
“You boys eat I have to do something right quick.”
“Okay!” they chirped excitedly as their mother rose from her spot and left them to their idol. When she walked into her room Kimberly approached her closet and opened the double doors. There was a small wooden shelf on the bottom of the closet that held books and other things she had accumulated over time. There was one item that held one of her irreplaceable treasures. Her high school year book. She opened the book and turned to Joshua’s senior picture.
“Definitely different from the man I once knew,” she mused to herself.
“Mommy,” from the living room the voice of her eldest. “Come back, Chester’s coming on again!”
“Alright,” Kimberly called back. Turning her attention back to the year book, she leered at the picture and remembered. As if the book itself were a time machine, she was taken back to when she and a group of her friends had cornered the poor boy in the hallway. He was holding his backpack full of his works when she and two other people stopped him. As usual Kimberly was the pack leader.
“So what is the rumor I’m hearing about you liking a friend of mine?!”
“Huh? What rumor?”
“Desiree!” sneered one of the group members. “I don’t think she’d want to get together to talk about Mega Turtles or whatever nerdy shit you do!”
“Why the fuck would anyone?” cried Kimberly. She then quickly snatched his backpack, much to the protest of Joshua, and flung it into a mop bucket filled with water. It was well known that the janitor often forget to empty it after he was finished cleaning the hallways. Then he was slapped hard across his face, causing him to yell and gather a small crowd, hoping to see a fight.
“If you’ve got any plans on asking my friend out you’d better forget them! I’m fixing her up with a guy better than your ugly self! He doesn’t talk or do the stupid shit you do and he dresses and acts better!”
With these words the group walked away, leaving Joshua to fend for himself.
“Mommy!”
The sound of her son brought her back to the present, but there was another voice that she had hoped not to hear today. The children’s father. He had simply let himself in and was in the process of getting the children ready to spend time with him. She didn’t realize she was still holding her yearbook in her hand when she walked into the living room. The man gray eyes spied her and he rose in full height, about 5’9 and ran a hand through his brown hair and sighed as though it was a chore to even speak, let alone look at her.
“I’m taking the boys to the toy store and then back to my house,” he said. “They want the latest Chester Squirrel book and we’re going to get it aren’t we?”
“Yes!”
“Then hurry up and finish dressing. We’ve lots to do today.”
The boys quickly went to their rooms to finish getting ready. Kimberly had wanted to wait a bit longer for the boys to get any toys for awhile, but their father always indulged them whenever she put her foot down. The last thing Kimberly needed was another fight.
“Alright, fine,” she said, holding a hand defensively. “Just make sure you save some money so I can buy food for the boys please.”
“Hey, newsflash Kim, the only person that tells me what to do with my money is me, alright? And why the hell do you need my help you’ve plenty of money to buy food. You make more than I do.”
A scoff escaped her as she resisted the urge to drop her yearbook and slap the shit of out him. But she determined to shield her boys from the horrors of violence so instead responded with words.
“Oh I’m sorry I forgot, it’s only convenient to help when you’re getting something in return.”
“You keep giving it up and I’ll keep coming back. Besides you can’t say I’m a bad father, anything they want I give. Like an education for example. I’m proud about the fact my sons want to learn because Chester told them to learn and as you may or may not know, the new Talking Chester Squirrel came out two days ago and we’re going to get him.” The boys came back into the room, dressed and ready to vacate to get their new Chester Squrriel books. The Man then said; “And the creator, the man responsible for my sons urge to learn, is coming to the city for a meet and greet in a few weeks and we’re going to meet him aren’t we boys?”
“We are! Oh wow please take us daddy! Please take us!”
The news stunned Kimberly momentarily.
“Josh…Josh will be in town?”
“In Denver yes,” the man responded, catching her hesitation. “You sound like you know him or something.”
“I went to school with him. He…he’s a good guy.”
“If he’s stimulating my children’s imagination through learning, then yes he is. Let me see your yearbook, I wanna see what he looked like back then.”
Before Kimberly could object the book was in the man’s hand. When he found his picture, he made a face of surprise when he saw the scribbles there including the words, ‘ugly freakazoid’ and ‘fucking retard’, above his picture.
“Wow, looks like you hated this guy,” the man said laughing to himself. “Why?”
“Don’t wanna talk about it,” Kim said turning her back to him. The man shrugged.
“Fine. Boys you ready?”
“Yes daddy!” they chirped. Then from the youngest; “Daddy, can we be just like him when we grow up?”
“Nothing would make me prouder than to see my boys grow up to be the person they admire on TV. You know mommy went to school with him. Did you know that?”
Young, wide eyes now looked to their mother in amazement.
“Mommy wow, you went to school with him!?”
The sinking feeling caused Kimberly’s reluctance to answer, remembering the crimes she had committed against her children’s idol. When she didn’t answer, the man told the children that they had to leave.
“Your mother will tell you about it later, but right now we have to go.”
After leading the boys outside, the man turned back to Kimberly who quickly asked; “When will you be back?”
“I don’t know,” the man said. “But it’ll be before night. See you later.”
The man left closing the door behind him. Sighing, Kimberly sat on the couch, watching the interview that the children had been watching before their departure. She listened as Joshua explained how to create ideas for children and how he went about to create his nationally acclaimed Chester Squirrel character. Not wanting to feel anymore guilt, Kimberly turned off the television, ventured into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of wine. Wine always helped her stem negative feelings away. Unfortunately, it was powerless to drive away the fact that her children, when they grew up, wanted to be just like him, the very man she had tormented during her youth.
“I’m sorry Joshua, I really am, Kimberly said tearfully.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
