Date: Sat, 4 Aug 2012 08:41:53 -0700 (PDT)
From: rtbrno65@yahoo.com
Subject: Quincy and that unusual friend of his chapter 13

All caveats apply. Story is completely fictional in every way.


		  "Quincy And That Unusual Friend Of His"

				Chapter 13

Quincy was herded into the school's small "auditorium" (which was also the
cafeteria) for orientation. He looked around and saw Timothy sitting a few
spaces away from him, but Timothy either didn't notice Quincy or was trying
to ignore him. After a few boring speeches by the Principal, Assistant
Principal, and a couple of the teachers, the kids were all herded right
back out to find their respective classrooms. Classes were limited to
twenty students per class, and with one class per academic year, Quincy's
class would turn out to just have fifteen students in it.

He soon found the classroom and entered along with several other kids. The
teacher was yelling for everyone to find a desk, and that the desk they
chose would be their desk for the entire year. Quincy saw Timothy sitting
in the third desk from the front, in the row furthest to the left and next
to the windows. The closest desk to Timothy that wasn't taken yet was the
desk in the very back of the row, so Quincy took that one. He said hi to
Timothy as he passed him, but Timothy didn't respond and only stared
straight ahead. Apparently he had lost Timothy's confidence even worse than
he thought he had.

Class started with math. Quincy's teacher was Mrs. Robbins. She was a
young, blond, freckled woman with a creamy skin tone and freckles on her
nose. She kept her hair in a pair of long braids, and Quincy actually found
her to be quite beautiful. As a matter of fact, he couldn't keep his eyes
of of her.

Halfway through the math lesson, Quincy was in the middle of an exercise in
which everyone had to do five problems involving the multiplication of
fractions. As Quincy worked on the problems, he heard a familiar giggling
behind him and to the right. He quickly turned around, and to his surprise,
he saw Erik sitting naked and indian style on top of a large cabinet in the
rear corner of the room. Erik grinned, gave a quick wave, and immediately
vanished. Quincy stared in shocked dread at the spot where Erik had been,
and nervously returned to his math problems. Just then, the American flag
hanging in the room by the chalkboard began waving around as though a
strong wind were blowing through the room.

"Mrs. Robbins?" A little girl in the front row said.

"Yes?"

The girl then pointed at the flag, but as soon as the teacher turned, it
had stopped moving.

"What?" Mrs. Robbins said.

"The flag was moving." The girl said.

"It was, Mrs. Robbins. I saw it." A red headed boy in the middle of the
second row said.

"I saw it too." A third boy said.

"I think that you're supposed to be paying attention to your math problems,
and not to the flag." The teacher said.

"But Mrs. Robbins, it was moving..." The girl said.

"You need to focus on your work, instead of on the flag, all of you."
Mrs. Robbins said firmly. Quincy returned to his problems with a mortified
look on his face. He had seen what Erik was capable of doing, and he was
dreading what might happen.

After a couple of minutes, one of the open windows loudly shut, startling
everyone in the room. Quincy felt a tap on his shoulder, wheeled around,
and saw Erik standing by his desk. Erik gave him a nasty smile, waved, and
disappeared again. Mrs. Robbins went over to the window. "What on Earth?"
She muttered as she opened the window back up. Quincy went back to his
math, his eyes wide open in fear. It was then that the lights in the room
started flickering on and off. It started off slowly, but then crescendoed
into a strobe like effect. Kids all over the room were throwing down their
pencils and wondering aloud what was going on.

"Class! Class! Keep on working on your math problems. It's just an
electrical issue." The teacher said.

Erik then materialized behind Timothy. He grabbed the pen off of Timothy's
desk and threw it right at the teacher just before he vanished. It landed
right next to her.

"Timothy! Timothy O'Neil!  Did you just throw a pen at me?"

"No! I..." Timothy said in horror as he then reached down for the pen,
which to his shock, wasn't there.

"I want to see you at my desk right after class!" She said angrily.

Just then a pen from another kids desk flew at her, and then another from
another desk.

"Hey! My pen!" The girl who's desk the third pen flew from exclaimed.

"Class! This behavior is totally unacceptable, and I won't have it!"
Mrs. Robbins exclaimed. Erik then materialized in back of her, and started
making faces and noises while she spoke. "If we are to have a productive
academic environment, then I must have your respect!" Erik threw his hands
up over his head in what looked like a referee signal for a football
safety, and started rocking his head from side to side. Quincy was
desperately trying not to laugh. "I am the teacher! You are the students!
We must recognize these boundaries! Am I making myself understood?" Erik
then put his hands over his mouth and made a loud flatulent noise with his
cheeks puffed out right before he vanished. Quincy couldn't hold it in
anymore. He burst into laughter while silently cursing Erik. The lights in
the room continued to shut on and off.

"Quincy Lenhardt! You come right up here this instant!" The teacher
exclaimed.

Quincy pointed to himself with a "who me?" expression. He then slowly got
up. As he did, a textbook from a chubby kid's desk who was sitting near him
suddenly flew off of the desk and was hurled right at the teacher, who had
to duck out of the way. Erik then materialized behind the kids desk.

"Charles Harris! You too! Come right up here this instant!"

"But Mrs. Robbins! I didn't do anything!" Charles protested. Erik burst
into laughter and vanished.

"I suppose that your math textbook just flew off of your desk by itself!?"
Mrs. Robbins yelled.

"Yes, actually it did!" Charles yelled back. Quincy heard Erik laughing
again and saw him back on top of the cabinet, this time with his legs
dangling over the side.

"Don't you talk back to me!" Mrs. Robbins said.

Just then the school fire alarm went off. The light began flickering off
and on madly as the class all got up as one to exit the building.

"I knew it was an electrical problem! There's probably a fire! Class! Line
up and follow me outside!" Mrs. Robbins said as the class lined up at the
door.

Quincy got up to join the class. Just then Erik materialized behind him and
slapped him hard on his back.

"How ya doin', old pal?" Erik said with a bitter smile.

"Erik, you are SO dead..." Quincy whispered angrily.

Erik laughed as he vanished into thin air.

Quincy and the rest of his class filed out of the buidling and onto the
lawn in front of the school, along with the rest of the student
body. Quincy was absolutely red faced with rage. As soon as he gets home
today, Erik is gone from the house, period. It didn't matter if it was a
priest, a medium, or a bug exterminator who did it. Erik had to go. While
he stood there, Timothy came up next to him.

"Hey Quincy." Timothy said shyly.

"Hey Timothy. Interesting first day of school, isn't it?"

Erik then materialized next to Quincy. "Oh, HIM again..." Erik said. Quincy
then gave Erik a big swat on the arm.

"OW! Hey!" A girl next to Quincy cried out. It turned out Erik had
materialized around her and Quincy wound up swatting her arm instead.

"Sorry." Quincy said with his eyes squeezed tight in frustration. Erik
burst into laughter and disappeared. Just then, Timothy's pants fell down
to his knees, exposing a light blue pair of boxers to anyone who happened
to be nearby. Several kids started laughing as Timothy pulled his pants
back up and retreated away in humiliation. Erik materialized next to Quincy
again, doubled over in laughter. Quincy turned his back to everyone as much
as possible. He then put his hand over his mouth like he was scratching an
itch.

"Erik! Stop! I'm serious!" Quincy mumbled almost inaudibly.

Just then, the sirens of the fire trucks could be heard in the
distance. They soon began pulling into the front entrance.

"Erik, I'm serious! Please stop! I'm sorry I got mad at you! Just stop
this!" Quincy said again, this time a little bit louder due to all the kids
around him being enthralled by the fire engines. He turned to Erik, who
stuck his tongue out at him and disappeared.

Erik did not show up for the rest of the day. Quincy, the other students,
and the faculty all stood outside in the 90 degree heat for over an hour
while the fire fighters checked out the building. After they found nothing
wrong and let everyone back into class, Quincy spent the rest of the day
thinking of a way that he could drive Erik out of the house forever, but he
could come up with nothing. All Quincy figured that he could do is hope
that Erik didn't pull any similar stunts at home with his parents in the
house and wait until after the end of August for Erik to stop showing up,
like Mr. Williams said he would.

Quincy suddenly felt a pain in his chest. He had not really given it that
much thought. Erik was going to go away soon and not come back for a
year. He realized that despite all the issues he had with him, despite how
angry he still was about all the shenanigans Erik had unleashed, Erik
really was his friend, and that he liked him a lot. He did a complete turn
around and started trying to think of ways to get Erik to stay around for
the whole year, but he still didn't even know why Erik was still around at
all. He decided to apologize to Erik for real when he got home and then ask
him some very direct questions.

Carol came and picked him up at the end of the school day. On the short
drive home, she peppered him with questions about how the first day
went. Quincy told her there had been a fire drill and a bunch of lessons
and that was about all. Quincy also told her that he wanted to ride his
bike to school tomorrow and she said that was fine.

Quincy went up to his room, threw his backpack onto the bed, and closed the
door.

"Erik! Erik! Come on! I know you're here! Erik!" There was no
response. Quincy then changed out of his school clothes into a t-shirt and
pair of shorts.

Just then, Erik materialized on top of the dresser and burst out into
laughter. Quincy gave him a dirty look, crinkled up his face, and then
burst into laughter himself. He sat on the bed and leaned backwards onto
his back pack as he laughed at the days events, which now seemed much more
amusing than they had while they were actually occuring. The two of them
laughed for a couple of minutes, with tears pouring out of their eyes as
they gasped for breath.

"Erik! Don't ever do that again!" Quincy laughed as he sat back up while
wiping tears away. He looked over at Erik who was still laughing, and he
realized how much he had missed his buddy over the last day or so. "I'm
sorry I got so mad at you. Please don't make me mad at you again."

Erik got his composure back. "I missed you too, Quince. I felt all empty
inside while we were mad at each other."

"So where were you all day yesterday?"

"I was either in the crawl space over the garage or in the pipes under the
house."

"I didn't even know that there's a crawl space in the garage."

"I followed your mom into the car and rode to school in the trunk so that
you wouldn't sense me. I attached myself to the mailman and got home that
way today."

"Yeah, I was kind of wondering about that."

"It was kind of boring having to be there while he did all his
deliveries. I was really glad once he finally got to the house."

"Well...I think it's probably best that you don't follow me to school
anymore."

"Don't worry, I won't. Besides, I start school myself in a few days. What
is today's date anyway?"

"It's August 29."

"Yep, it's coming right up."

"So, is that when you... go away?"

"Go away? Of course not! Why would I go away when I have school to go to?"

"Hey Erik? I'm kind of wondering..."

That was all Quincy was able to get out. Erik let out a happy battle cry,
jumped off the dresser and tackled Quincy on the bed. The two of them began
giggling and wrestling in a pile of headlocks, moves, countermoves,
laughter, and flailing bodies. Quincy finally had Erik pinned down by
stradling his midsection. Erik was giggling as Quincy slapped the bed next
to him.

"One...Two...Three...The Winner! We have a new world champion! The crowd
goes wild!" Quincy proclaimed. He then made a crowd noise, but stopped cold
when he looked up and saw his mother standing in the doorway.

"Quincy, what are you doing?" She asked with a perplexed look on her face.

Quincy could feel Erik's body vibrating beneath him as he burst into a
paroxym of laughter. "Uhhh...nothing Mom. Just playing."

"Playing...ok. Quincy, Timothy is on the phone for you." She said. Erik
then grabbed Quincy's dick through his pants, which made Quincy squeal and
jerk backwards.

"Ok, Mom...thanks." Quincy giggled.

She gave him another strange look as she walked out into the hall. Quincy
climbed off of Erik, who was in hysterics on the bed.

"Dude! I can't believe you goosed me with my mom right there!" Quincy
whispered with a grin. He then reached down and grabbed Erik's dick too,
which made him laugh even harder. He then got up and walked out of the
room, disheveled and sweaty, and took Timothy's call in his parents
bedroom.

"Hey Timothy." Quincy said.

"Hey Quincy." Timothy said on the other end of the line. "Hey I was
thinking, my parents and me are going to this Renaissance Fair thing in
Maryland on Saturday. Do you, like maybe, want to go with us? They said
they'll pay for everything."

"Let me ask my mom." Quincy said. Quincy then went out of the bedroom and
to the top of the stairs. "Mom? Timothy's inviting me to go with him to a
Renaissance Fair on Saturday! Can I go?"

"It's OK with me!" She replied from downstairs. "Do you have Father's new
cell phone number?" Quincy's dad had to deactivate his old cell phone and
get a new one due to Dr. Singh running off with his old one the other
night.

"Yeah I do!"

"OK! Make sure you have that with you when you go, as well as the house
number! I'll make sure it's OK with him when I go pick him up from his
office in a bit!"

"OK! Thanks!"

Quincy returned to the phone. "Yeah, it's cool, Timothy."

"Cool. I was also wondering if you wanted to come by my house after school
tomorrow? My mom will drive us."

"Sure. I'll make sure it's OK with my folks. I'm sure it will be."

"Cool. I guess I'll see you in class tomorrow!"

"OK, Bye!"

Quincy hung up the phone and returned to the bedroom. He didn't see Erik in
there, and he sat back down on the bed. Erik then materialized behind him
and put Quincy into an arm lock with a yell. Quincy didn't resist,
though. Instead he put his hands on top of Erik's. Erik then leaned his
head down onto Quincy's shoulder, and the wrestling move became an
affectionate embrace. Quincy sat there and wondered how he was going to
cope for a year without the best friend he had ever had by his side. His
mom eventually hollered up the stairs to say that she would be leaving to
pick Steve up, and that Quincy had better have his homework at least
halfway finished up by the time she got back. Quincy and Erik then
reluctantly pried themselves apart and Quincy sat at his desk to do his
homework.

That night, as Quincy finished putting on his pajamas, he looked over at
Erik, who was sitting on the desk and smiling at him. Quincy smiled back at
him and climbed into bed.

"Hey Erik?" Quincy asked.

"Yeah?"

"I was going to ask you this earlier, but we started
wrestling. Mr. Williams said that you go away every year at the beginning
of September, and that you're only around in August. Why is that?"

"That's not true, I'm always here."

"So do you just become invisible or something?"

"No silly!" Erik laughed. "I'm right here all the time!"

"So are you going to be here after next week?"

Erik all of a sudden looked puzzled and troubled. "I don't know." Erik
said. "I might not be, actually. I hope I am." He said.

"How can you not know that?"

"There's a lot of things I don't understand, and there's nobody who can
explain them to me." Erik said.

"So what about every other year? What happened then?"

"Every other year? What every other year?"

"Erik, it's not 1978 now, it's 2011. I told you that before."

"That's your date, not mine." Erik said flatly. It was then that Quincy
realized that Erik either didn't know that he had died, or couldn't accept
it.

The conversation was interupted by a single knock on the door, and Steve
came into the bedroom. "Hey Kiddo, just coming to say goodnight." Steve
then sat on the bed and began rubbing Quincy's forehead."Son, I was
thinking...ever since last year, when I started running for office, we've
not really spent too much time together."

"I know we haven't." Quincy said.

"Well, I want to apologize for that. I've been so busy...and I haven't made
any time for the most important thing in my life, which is you. I was
thinking that maybe this Sunday, we could go to Harper's Ferry. Just you
and me. The Appalachian Trail goes through there. We'll make a whole day of
it. Just the two of us. Just like we used to. OK?"

Quincy grinned. "Sure Dad! That would be awesome!" Quincy and his dad used
to hike the Appalachian Trail quite frequently back in Pennsylvania, back
before politics took over all their lives.

Steve leaned down and kissed Quincy on his forehead. "I love you so much,
Son." He said quietly. Steve then knealt on the floor and took Quincy's
hands into his for a prayer. As Steve was praying, Quincy glanced over at
Erik on the desk. Erik had his eyes closed and his hands folded in front of
him. Steve concluded the prayer, kissed Quincy on the head, and left the
room. Quincy looked over at Erik on the desk.

"So do you believe in God?" Quincy asked.

"Of course I do. Why wouldn't I believe in God?" Erik smiled.

"I don't know. Some people say He doesn't exist."

"That's because they don't know how to look for Him. Sometimes people can't
see something that's right there in front of them."

"Erik..." Quincy said after a deep breath. "You know that you were killed
when the car hit you, right?"

Erik silently got up, walked over to Quincy, and put his hand on his
head. Quincy immediately fell asleep. Erik turned the light off and got
back onto the desk.

"No Quincy, I DON'T know that!" Erik said angrily as he sat back down on
the desk.


			     End of chapter 13