“Quincy And That Unusual Friend Of His”
By Brian Roberson
Chapter 7
Carol pulled in front of the
community center where Quincy was waiting to be picked up. He waved good bye to
Timothy as he hopped into the car.
"Hi, Quincy. Did you have fun today?" Carol asked as they pulled away.
"Yeah, it was cool. "Quincy said as he waved to Timothy one more time before
they pulled out into the street. "Hey, Mom? Is it Ok if I go over to Timothy's
house after camp tomorrow? He invited me over just now."
"Sure, just call me and let me know where it is as soon as you get there. I'm
glad to see that you finally made friends with someone."
"Yeah, Timothy seems OK, I guess." Quincy said as he pulled his I-Pod out of his
backpack and started plugging the head phones in.
"Quincy, before you start listening to your music, I have a question. Have you
experienced anything strange since we moved into that house?"
"Strange? How?"
"Well...you might remember that one of the movers said he saw a ghost, and the
next day those books fell off that shelf..."
Quincy stared straight ahead, trying to act nonchalant.” But Mom, that was just
a crazy Hispanic guy and a weak book shelf...right?"
"I thought so too, but something happened today right before I picked you up..."
"Oh God, what did Erik do?" Quincy thought.
"Oh really? What?" Quincy said.
"Well, it might have been my imagination, but I swear that I saw something in
the kitchen today. Some kind of weird, moving shadow. I'm also still worried
about that bite mark that you had on your shoulder."
Quincy just stared straight ahead. "No, I haven't seen anything like a shadow or
nothing like that. That bite was from a kid that I was playing football with."
"Yes, yes I know it was a bite from a kid you were playing football with." Carol
said with a frustrated tone.
They rode home the rest of the way in silence. Quincy went in to the house
through the garage door and went up the stairs to his room. When he entered he
saw Erik sitting on the bed and waiting for him.
"Hi Quincy!"
"Hey, Erik" Quincy smiled. He put his back pack down and sat on the chair across
from Erik, who sat beaming at him. "Erik, Mom said in the car that she saw you
in the kitchen today. Dude, you gotta be more careful, she'll freak out if she
knows about you. I'm just starting to like it here and I don't want to move."
"I didn't go into the kitchen. I stay in here, and if one of them comes in I go
into the attic." Erik said defensively.
"OK. Cool. I guess she probably saw her own shadow and got scared. You see how
nervous she gets." Quincy said with relief.
"I DID go into the other bedroom to watch her pull out of the driveway, but I
know she didn't see me." Erik said sheepishly.
"I know, I'm sorry I mentioned it." Quincy smiled.
Erik and Quincy went down to the creek and then to the preserve and stayed out
until dinner time. As Quincy expected, there was no trace of the bullies there
although the tied together shoes, burnt picture phone, and shattered wine bottle
were still there, much to his amusement. Erik loved hearing about Quincy's camp
activities and made him give detailed synopses of whatever activities occurred
that day. Quincy loved hearing Erik's unique laugh when he told his stories, and
Erik would always push Quincy for more details, or make jokes about what was
said that would send Quincy into paroxysms of laughter. He also discovered that
Erik had been reading his Harry Potter books while he was out at camp, and that
he had become a big fan of the series. Erik peppered Quincy with questions about
Harry Potter and JK Rowling, and Hogwarts, and he raved about the characters and
the story and about how cool he thought the books were so far (he was already up
to the third one). Quincy decided that Erik was the most fun kid to hang out
with ever. He also loved how happy and nice he always was.
Later that evening, Quincy and Erik played a game of Hide And Seek in the house.
Carol had left in the car to pick up Steve at the Capitol, and said they would
bring back some supper with them. Quincy couldn't understand why they didn't
just buy a second car, but his parents had both always hated to spend money.
Erik, as one would expect, was actually a formidable opponent in Hide And Seek,
and no part of the house was off limits. Quincy would have to look in places
that humans wouldn't usually go into, like air conditioning vents and inside the
chimney and such. Quincy once found him in the kitchen trash compactor. Another
time he was in the plumbing behind the washing machine.
Quincy was searching for Erik in the kitchen and dining room, looking inside of
cabinets and under tables. As he entered the kitchen, he saw a faint, black
shadow with a human shape suddenly go through the door down to the basement.
Quincy figured that he had found Erik, so he opened the basement door and peered
in. He looked down into the blackness of the basement. He saw nothing, but he
noticed an odd smell, like a wet dog and rotting meat combined. It lasted for
only a second, and was then replaced by the musty, earthy smell of the
completely unfinished basement.
"Erik! Erik, I found you!" He yelled. There was no response. "Come out come out
wherever you are!" Still no response, "Come on, don't make me come down there
and get you!" Quincy meant that. He hated that basement, and thought that it was
incredibly scary. It was damp, had a dirt floor, brick walls, and no light or
anything to turn on. He figured that Erik was being a dick and was trying to
make him go down into the basement so that he could do something to scare him.
Rules are rules though, and in Hide And Seek you have to tag the other person,
so he went into the laundry room, got a flashlight, took a deep breath, and
entered the inky blackness of the basement.
Quincy went cautiously down the narrow stairs until he felt his feet hit the
dirt floor. He turned on the flashlight and began moving the beam of the
flashlight around the room. The light revealed a brick wall and a dirt floor.
Plumbing and wiring were visible along the wall and various items were strewn
about the floor. Quincy saw an old sink sitting on the ground, a tire propped up
against a wall, a few old glass bottles, and a stack of old newspapers. He
turned with his back to the steps as he slowly ran the flashlight along the
wall. Just then a black shape suddenly moved in front of the flash light beam
and was gone. Quincy gasped and almost dropped the flashlight to the ground. He
then smelled that weird, wet dog- rotten meat smell again. He suddenly felt a
hand grab his right shoulder. He gasped and quickly turned around with the
flashlight beam illuminating the space under the steps, but saw nothing. The odd
smell then disappeared.
"Very funny, Erik!" Quincy said with his voice trembling. "Consider yourself
caught!" He then quickly ran up the steps and closed the basement door behind
him. Quincy returned the flashlight to the laundry room and went back upstairs.
He checked all the rooms to see if Erik was in them. When he got to the guest
room that was on the opposite side of the hallway from his bedroom, he felt the
cold spot. He smiled to himself and tip toed into the room. As soon as he
entered Erik suddenly leaped up on his back with a playful yell. Quincy
collapsed to the ground giggling and the two of them began wrestling on the
floor by the bed. Erik put Quincy in a head lock, who then flipped Erik over and
pinned him down. Erik vanished and rematerialized behind him, putting him into
another head lock.
"Hey that's not fair!" Quincy laughed as he banged on the floor. Erik let go and
Quincy immediately grabbed him and pinned him back down . This process repeated
itself several times, and Quincy was red faced and sweaty. Both boys were
laughing and yelling as they wrestled. Quincy had Erik pinned down again. He
then started tickling him on the chest.
"You know I'm not ticklish, Quincy." Erik grinned.
"You have to be ticklish somewhere!" Quincy said as he tickled Erik's bare chest
and armpits. Erik did a big fake yawn with his hand over his mouth while Quincy
probed for a ticklish spot. Erik then grabbed Quincy's arms with a grin and the
two of them vigorously wrestled some more until Quincy finally said he gave and
sat up against the base of the bed while still sitting on the floor, panting and
sweating. Erik sat up and crossed his arms over his knees.
"Hey, Quincy?" Erik said softly after a minute or so. "Could you maybe,
please...touch me a little?"
"Erik, I thought we agreed we weren't going to do that kind of stuff again."
Quincy said.
"I don't mean like the other night..." Erik said. "I mean...just touch me a
little bit. I really like being touched. I forgot what it was like to have
someone touch me until you moved in. It's been really lonely in this house this
whole time. Please? It makes me feel alive."
Quincy scooted over next to Erik, put his right hand on the back of his neck,
and started lightly rubbing his fingertips down Erik's neck, past his shoulders,
and down his back. Erik closed his eyes and put his head down while Quincy swept
his fingertips down Erik's back. He could feel the skin and Erik's vertebrae
beneath his fingers. Goose bumps were popping up on Erik's flesh. He got down to
Erik's tailbone and felt it with his forefinger. He rubbed Erik's butt cheeks
and thighs and then started running his hand up Erik's left leg. He could feel
the little downy hairs and the smooth skin as he rubbed his way up to Erik's
knee, rubbed his hand over Erik's arm and back, and then continued down Erik's
leg to his ankle. He then shifted his position and rubbed his hand over Erik's
foot. He rubbed the ankle, felt each toe individually and propped the foot up on
his leg so that he could rub Erik's sole. He moved his way back up the leg,
shifted back to his original position, briefly felt Erik's scrotum and penis,
worked his way up to Erik's outie navel, felt it, and brushed his hand up Erik's
chest. He felt each rib individually and lightly brushed both of Erik's nipples
with his forefinger.
"This feels so good." Erik sighed, with his head still down and his eyes still
closed.
Quincy began rubbing his hand through Erik's surprisingly course blond hair, and
then repeated the process down the other side of Erik's body.
"I love you, Quincy." Erik said softly.
Quincy was a little taken aback when Erik said that, and he wasn't sure how to
react. He then heard the front door open and his parents talking as they came
in. "Quincy. We're home! We brought dinner!" Carol yelled from the base of the
stairs.
"I guess I have to go have dinner now."
"Thanks, Quincy." Erik smiled right before he vanished.
Quincy got up off the floor and went downstairs to join his family at dinner.
They said a prayer and then Quincy tucked into the Chinese food that his parents
had brought home. His dad spent dinner talking about his day in Congress, almost
none of which made any sense to Quincy. Carol mentioned to Steve that Quincy had
made a friend at day camp, and that he would be visiting that boys house
afterwards tomorrow. Steve was really glad to hear about that, but not glad
enough to stop with all the boring stories about his day on Capitol Hill.
After a couple of helpings of moo goo gai pan and sweet and sour shrimp, Quincy
asked to be excused, and took his plate over to the trash compactor to dump the
leftover rice into. When he opened up the compactor, he saw the paperwork from
Dr. Singh that Carol had thrown out. He saw the picture on top of Erik's grave
stone. He looked down in interest when he noticed the birth date. He glanced
over at his parents, who were engrossed in their conversation, quietly pulled
the photograph out of the trash, dumped in his rice, and hurried back upstairs
with the picture in his hand. He sat at his desk and looked at the photograph.
It had to be Erik's gravestone:
ERIK WESTERGAARD
SEPTEMBER 2 1967-AUGUST 31 1978
REST ALONGSIDE THE ANGELS O PRECIOUS CHILD
Quincy immediately began to wonder why this was in his parents trash, and he was
also curious about what the rest of that paperwork that this was with was all
about. He went back to the top of the stairs and he could hear his mother doing
the dishes while she and his dad continued to discuss whatever his dad had been
doing all day. He returned to the room and was startled to see Erik standing by
the desk and staring at the photograph. He turned to Quincy with a hurt and
angry look when Quincy entered the room.
"Where did you get this?!" Erik said crossly.
"Uhhh...it was in the trash downstairs. I thought maybe you might have put that
there..." Quincy stammered.
Erik angrily grabbed the photo and ripped it up into several pieces before
vanishing, the pieces all drifting to the floor as he disappeared.
Quincy silently cursed himself for upsetting Erik, picked up the pieces of the
photograph, and put them in the trash.
"Erik? Erik!" Quincy said, but he didn't appear. He figured that Erik must have
been sulking up in the attic.
Quincy went out into the hallway, made sure his parents were still chatting
downstairs, jumped up and down until several times until he grabbed the pull
cord to the attic entrance, and pulled down the folding steps. He went up the
steps and peered into the dark and stuffy space in front of him.
"Erik!" Quincy whispered.
"Go away!" He heard Erik mutter from the far side of the room.
Quincy entered the attic and pulled on the light cord for the hanging bulb in
the middle of the room, which reluctantly flickered on. Quincy found the cool
spot and used it to guide him to several cardboard boxes on the rear left hand
side of the attic above his bedroom, where he found Erik sitting.
"Come on, Erik. Don't be mad. I found that picture in the trash after dinner. I
didn't know about it." Erik just sat and moped. "Come on, I got my fortune
cookie. Let's go back to the room and open it and see what it says." Erik still
said nothing. "Come on, Erik. Please?"
Erik looked up at him and smiled. "OK, Quince." He said.
Quincy helped Erik up and they went down the steps into the room. Quincy had to
get a chair out of one of the spare bedrooms so that he could close up the attic
entrance. He returned to the room and saw Erik sitting and smiling at him on the
bed. Quincy sat next to him, held up his hand, and wiggled his fingers. "I don't
believe we were finished yet." Quincy grinned.
Erik smiled and leaned his head down on Quincy's shoulder. Quincy put his arm
around him and caressed him with his fingertips for most of the rest of the
evening. As it got late, Quincy and Erik stayed up and shared their deepest
feelings, joked around, planned for things to do for the last days of Quincy's
summer vacation, and both silently wondered how they got so lucky as to have
found such a wonderful best friend. Meanwhile, down in the basement, behind the
hot water heater, a pair of yellow eyes briefly appeared, and then flickered out
of sight.