Chapter 6:
The one thing that the Grinch doesn't know is that Mercy Grace has been receiving letters from Kyle Ray Maywho for years since she disappeared from Whoville. He was the only friend she had when she was in Who school. The first Christmas away from Whoville was when she saw a card from under the "Buzz Off!" mat. And since then, the Lady in lack has been hiding them from her father. Luckily, he still hasn't seen one yet.
The Grinch opens the larger door for the three of us. Just as she thought, under the mat is a green-colored envelope. She picks it up and places it in her cloak before entering and closing the door. He turns on the light as Mercy Grace sets her bag on the launcher. A poster of the mayor hangs in front of the launcher. The Grinch pulls the level, and they see the bag hitting the mayor right in the face! "Oh! Sweet!" He enjoyed the results.
The machine turns on while the Grinch and Mercy Grace get their cloaks off to feel the warmth from the furnist.
"Be it ever so, "Heinous." There's no place like home!" He lights up the whole cave while raising his arms.
The Who teen yawns before sitting down in her comfy chair. She takes off her boots to show off her pale, bare feet.
"First floor, factory rejects. Those Whos are hard to frazzle, Max, Mercy Grace!" The Grinch tells them while using the lift down to the second level.
"But we did our worst, Daddy," she smiles while going behind the red and green cover close to the dining room to change.
"And that's all that matters, daughter." He goes over to his cover. "At least we scared the bejeebers out of that little girl at the post office. She'll be scarred for life if we're lucky."
"Funny, she didn't rat on us, though," she mumbles. Mercy Grace replaces her Lady in Black dress with her nightgown. "Must be afraid of reprisals." She always wears the nightgown for the night is a simple, long solid black nightgown with a matching robe. So the extra pale skin won't be showing, mostly since she lives with two other males.
She meets up with her father at the heart machine while turning it on.
"I feel bad, daughter," she hears the Grinch says. "Real bad."
"Oh, really?" she smirks and shakes her head.
"Yea, I'm all....dead inside," he snickers. He was never the sympathy or empathy type. He returns for his daily heart check while the cave echoes his enjoyment.
Mercy Grace places the screen over his chest and puts it into focus. The x-ray shows his curvy spine and ribs, small lungs, and some foreign objects, but they focus more on his heart. It's pumping at a steady pace.
"Yes!" exclaimed the Grinch, making her grin. "Down a size and a half! And this time, I'll keep it off."
Her head shakes again while smirking.
"Get the stick, Max," he says to her little brother with a pretend stick. "Get the stick!" he throws it. Max runs after it. "There's no stick!" he snickers. "I'm smarter." The Grinch makes a running start to jump on his springy bed. "Any calls?" he checks the voicemail.
"You have no messages."
"Odd, better check the outgoing."
He presses the button, and his voice on the recording plays, "If you utter so much as one syllable, we'll hunt you down and gut you like a fish!"
"If you'd like to fax us, press the star key," Mercy Grace's voice adds in.
"Oh, well."
The Grinch gets out of his bed and ziplines down towards the sitting area into his chair. "That's more like it," he comments.
His daughter makes sure that Max is comfortable in his little bed before giving him his drink that she found lying around. The Grinch sings to himself while removing his long sock away. They run off on their way.
Then he bites into the glass of the bottle that she gave him and chews it. "Excellent year, Mercy Grace," he mentions when she sits on her bed next to a large curtain on the edge of the mountain with a book in her hands. "I'll tell you, Max and Mercy Grace, I don't know why I ever leave this place. I've got all the company I need right here." One would say he meant Max and Mercy Grace, but he meant the space in the cave. "Hello!" he calls out in the cave that echoes back, "Hello!"
"How are you?"
"How are you?"
"I asked you first."
"I asked you first."
"That's really mature, saying what I say!" he's getting frustrated with the echo.
"Mature...exactly...what I say..."
"I'm an idiot!" he thinks of something.
"You're an idiot!" it echoes back.
"Wow," she chuckles, turning a page.
Father glares at his teen daughter. "Alright, fine," he whispers to the echo. "I'm talking to you anymore. In fact, I'm going to whisper. So that by the time my voice reverberates off the walls and gets back to me, I won't be able to hear it!"
"You're an idiot!" it echoes back.
She begins to lay down under the multi dark-colored blanket she made out of old blankets once she finishes reading for the night. Max joins her on the bed, and she pets him before fully laying down.
"Am I just eating because I'm bored?" she hears her father mumbled.
"I love you, Daddy," Mercy Grace whispers to him, pretending to drift to sleep.
"Yea, yea," he says, then he whispers, "I love you too, Mercy Grace."
After a few minutes, when she knew the Grinch and Max were asleep, Mercy Grace secretly takes out the box of letters from Kyle Ray from under her bed and places it next to her opposite from Max, without waking him up.
Inside the new envelope lays a Christmas card with a scene of a cabin in the forest with snow covering everywhere during the night sky. Her hand opens it, and the card is a mixture of light blue and dark blue.
"Mercy Grace,
Another Christmas has come. You are always on my mind since our last encounters. Now it's here, and I have been thinking about you more. Are you alright? Your mother and I are missing you terribly. Yes, I know you are unable to come down as your true self.
A promise that I need to make is to go up Mount Crumpit without anyone knowing. It's hard to do so, just like your situation. I hope that I can have you once more.
Kyle Ray."
The card message says, "May you know this season how much you mean to me. Without you, there is no joy in my world."
Countless times, Mercy Grace wanted to tell him how he means to her as well, but couldn't. Her father always hated Mayor Maywho and Kyle Ray having the same last name as him; he wouldn't be happy.
Her hand moves the old, worn-out curtain that she patched up to reveal a beautiful view of Whoville. How could such a beautiful, wonderful place be so cruel? Especially to the ones who are different from the rest?
Countless times the thought of returning down there without the Grinch and Max because she needed to see the two people that she also holds dear to her heart - her mother and her first friend. She closes her dark eyes as she remembers them.
"Mercy Grace," her mother, Martha May Whovier, smiles, kneeling in front of the five-year-old girl. "Mercy Grace, sweetie, it's normal to be nervous on the first day of school."
"But what if the other kids won't like me?" she asked nervously, all dressed in the girls' uniform as her long hair is pulled back with two long braids looped up in the back.
"If they don't like you, then they aren't worthy of being your friends, okay?" she assures her young daughter.
"Okay, Mommy," she smiled back, feeling a little better.
Martha drops Mercy Grace off at the school with a goodbye kiss and hug. She walks towards the classroom while gripping on her backpack's strap, nervously.
There were other kids there at the desks and talking to friends they just met. Her head lowers shyly as she walks down a row towards the desk with her name on it. As the little Who girl walks by someone, they will whisper about her with a laugh. Finally, she gets to her desk and sits down.
"Hi," a male whispers from her right.
Mercy Grace turns, and her eyes lock with the most amazing eyes she has ever seen! He was looking deep within the dull brown eyes.
"I'm Kyle Ray," he introduces himself.
"Mercy Grace."
"It's your first day of school as well?" he asked.
She nods her head.
"You're a shy one, huh?"
"I'm sorry, I'm just not used to a lot of new people," she looks down a little, embarrassed.
"Being around new people isn't for me as well," Kyle sighs but then smiles at me. "Well, at least, I get to meet you."
The blush turns from embarrassment to maybe liking him a lot. She smiled back softly when she saw the smile of his.
A sigh escapes through her small, full lips as she sadly closes the curtain.