Child Soap Opera

CHAPTER XIII- la notte de spettacolo di Nixon un (The Night of the Nixon Show I)

   Cornia walked over the the second basement closet and opened it only for two bodies to fall out. And gasped again.

"And now, all that is left are the poor friends of Pupil. In short, you, Jona, Duffy, CJ, Pyrus, and Walter. I tried to get the Tamber's Funeral,  but you were all so stubborn that you were able to escape. Except you, Andi. And once I got ahold of you, I figured I might use you before I kill you. "

  Cornia laughed a deep and vicious laugh, sending a chill down Andi's back. Though part of that may have been because Andi was sitting on the air conditioner.

"So tonight, at the premiere of Richard Nixon the Musical, I will use you as bait. Once I say I have you in my clutches, everybody will run to save you. But they'll be too late. And then, I will finally have the life I was meant to live. And there will be nobody left to stop me!"

  And And knew she was right. Who would stop her? And then Andi realized something.

  "Wait. Pupil. What about the kids with the old people names?"

Cornia stopped walking and turned around. "What are you talking about?"

"All those other kids who are dying. Mabel, Ethel, Abraham, and all those other kids! Everybody's heard about it. I mean, they even put Walter in jail because of it! That wasn't you?"

Cornia marched back to Andi. "I've only been killing people with effects on Pupil's life. I had no part in any of the murders of the names you just listed."

  And then Andi put it together. How could she have been so stupid? It all made sense now. Of course Cornia didn't know about those murders. Because she didn't commit them.

   There wasn't one murderer. There were two of them.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

  "Walter, it's so good to see you again!" Jona hugged Walter. He hadn't seen him in person since last month. Walter was also happy. He had actually peed his pants earlier that day, and nobody had noticed!

"But wait." Jona stopped hugging Walter. "Why aren't you in prison?"

Walter gulped as he felt thirty sets of confused eyes hit his face. The spotlight was on him.

"Oh, sorry. I forgot to turn off the spotlight," said Marty. He clicked it off.

"Well, Johnny Law knew how much this show mattered to me, so he put me on parole for this one day so I could help out in person. This buff man behind me is Sürgé, my Parole Officer. Up high, Sürgé!" The two high fived. It was a touching moment between prisoner and officer, and everybody clapped.

"Well, it's great to see you again Walter," said Jona. "Now everybody, let's get to work! The audience is going to be here in 10 minutes!"

  Everybody quickly scurried to their places. Marty got behind his spotlight, Tommee and Pyrus placed themselves center-stage in the darkness. Walter and Sürgé got by the curtains. Jona got by the light box, but he didn't see CJ anywhere. Where was he?

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

CJ was backstage looking for his stylish $12 sport coat, which he left back there the pervious day. Finally, after a couple minutes of searching, he found it. He went to pick it up, but heard something that changed his mind. He turned around to see Tommee and Pyrus. The two were laughing.

And holding hands.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

  The audience started to pile in as Jona searched through the crowd for CJ. The show was starting- where was he? He went to go ask Walter, but first felt somebody bump into him and slip him something. It felt like a note. He turned around to see who the person was, but they had already disappeared. He ran back to his light board to hold the note under the blacklight. Written on it were only two words.

  DON'T LEAVE.

Jona scanned the audience. Who could that have been? And then he saw CJ running towards him.
"CJ, look at this!" He said, shoving the note towards his friend. But CJ wasn't looking at the note. And Jona soon saw the tears in his eyes.
"CJ, what's wrong?" He asked. But CJ didn't hear this. The fact that Pyrus, the love of his life, could've done something like that made him want to die. But... maybe Pyrus just wasn't for him? Maybe his love belonged to somebody else and he just didn't realize it. Maybe he really loved...
"Wow!" cried Jona. "People can hear your thoughts when you think as well! Who knew? But wait, what did Pyrus do to you?"
And then CJ kissed Jona.
Jona quickly pulled away. "CJ I don't- I love Walter."
But Walter had just seen this kiss. And Jona saw Walter. And CJ saw Jona. And the three stared at each other. Jona started at Walter out of love. CJ started at Jona because he realized he truly didn't love Jona- he loved Pyrus, no matter what he did. And Walter stared at Jona because he thought Jona was having an affair with CJ.

And if things couldn't get any more tense, suddenly the lights went out and a voice came over the loudspeaker.

"I'm very sorry, Richard Nixon the Musical is experiencing a slight delay. Everybody is about to die."

And that was when the poopy hit the fan.