Totally Bubbly-Book 2: GummyBear Short Stories

Short Story #1: Silver and Scarlet

GummyBear Book 2;Short Story #1: Silver and Scarlet

By Maya Calderon [wattpad@owlmac]

"He's been waiting for ages. I keep telling him it's not his fault, but he doesn't listen. Even when the nurses tell him he's not allowed in-because he's not blood related-he just sits in that stiff, cold chair, his head hung low and his fingers twitching with anxiety. I visit him every day, although he's not the one who is in the hospital. Technically, yes, he is, but I mean...not like you'd think. He's just there. He doesn't even know her and he's there. He's just sitting there. And he won't even talk to me. I keep trying to put myself in his shoes, to see what he saw, to feel what he felt, but it just doesn't come. I mean, I saw her, you know, lying there and her legs...well the blood...I-I just want to know what he saw before any of that happened."

"Tell me what you remember of the night it did happen."

"What I remember," a snort escaped me, and I heaved a sigh to calm myself down. "It was only a night ago, Officer Spicy-or-something, I remember everything."

"It's Officer Spice, Pumpkin Spice if you will. But please, enlighten me."

I shook my head, an exasperated smirk on my face, recalling the events of that night with clear detail that stung the tips of my mind with all my bewilderment and desperation I'd grasped within the past 28 hours. I looked up at the police officer sitting in front of me, his hands gripping the table with his knuckles white as paper and maybe just as rough as the stucco walls behind him. "Why not?" I mumbled, and began to recite the memories that were burning to get out...to be figured out....

"PIZZA!" A desperate cry rang in my ears, jolting me out of my curled-up position on my cot. I rubbed my eyes and yawned, momentarily forgetting what had woken me up in the first place.

"PIZZA! GET UP! THERE'S A GIRL!"

"Yeah, yeah you fantasize about girls and kiss your pillow. Keep your mouth shut and go to sleep." I grumbled, sinking back under the covers.

"I'M SERIOUS!"

"I know your blushing, Jack."

A fist rammed the side of my leg and I winced with a grunt. Jack was a year younger than me; I had no reason to be afraid or let myself be hurt by him. Besides, his punches were weak.

"What the heck, man! Are you trying to make me mad?"

"YOU IDIOT! I'M BEING DEAD SERIOUS! A GIRL JUST FELL FROM THE SKY!"

"Uh huh, and I was born in Europe, but was secretly smuggled to another country where they cut my limbs and sold them off to labs. That's why I'm in bed here with all my limbs intact. The end, goodnight." But before I could even lay my head on my pillow, another blow came to my stomach. The air was sucked out of me and I got off my cot with a hand rubbing my ribcage. "Dude, what's your problem?"

"I'm not joking, Pizza! Look out the freaking window and tell me if I'm joking!" Jack screamed at me, softer though, as if his energy were suddenly focused on something distant rather than on waking me up.

I stormed over to the window, hoping that there'd be nothing there so I could give Jack a lesson. I peered through the misty, evening fog, looking out into the sky ahead where Jack claimed he'd seen a girl fall from. But there was nothing to be seen except for the low clouds and the faint twinkling of the hidden stars overhead. I clenched my fists and turned around, ready to explode, but Jack just walked up beside me and looked down, his eyes filled with terror and confusion.

For a moment, I didn't know what to do-yell at him, go back to bed, or just talk to him. But then I realized he was looking at something down below. The admonition hit me hard and I gasped, hurriedly peering down at the cold sidewalk two stories below outside of the comfort of our room. My eyes landed on something, no, someone, and my heart began to pound against my chest. I rubbed my face, turning away from the glass with a shaky breath. This had to be a dream or something, these things just didn't happen. I removed my clammy fingers from my forehead and ran back to the window to make sure it was real, only to find the same figure splayed across the cement. I sucked in a breath and began to panic.