Screamland part 4

Popee is feeling out of place in this town, in his brightly colored kimono.

He is feeling scratchy and uncomfortable and feels like everyone is looking at him. He looks at the list Kedamono gave him, and he crumbles it up a bit.

“I still gotta clean when I get home. Ugh!” He says to himself. “I still am not even halfway done with my robot.”

Over the course of several months, he had the early plans and layouts drawn for his first robot, but a lot of the mechanical aspects of it were very complicated and he needed many different parts that weren’t easily accessible or cheap. He thinks of the problem of being able to get everything he needs for his robot, but realizes he forgot why he left to go to town in the first place. He is holding the to do list, a half piece of paper, crumbling in his sweaty hand. He begrudgingly looks over the list.

* Fish hooks

* Beads

* Pipe cleaners

* fresh fish & lemons

* cake (not chocolate please!)

Popee frowns. “Is he gonna start up a little circus for the fish? Or a surprise birthday party?”

A woman walking by hears him and gives him a concerned smile.

“It’s for my old circus partner!” Popee yells. “He wants me to run around crazy for fresh fish!”

The woman nods, “Try the market next to the Sapphorro pond. It’s next to the school house.”

Popee nods in appreciation. “Thank you!”

He feels he must overexplain himself to every merchant and thinks about the last few months together with Kedamono.

“Why must I do all the shopping?” He asks one merchant. “Don’t you think it’s unfair?”

The merchant nods politely, bagging up the items quickly, not sure how to respond.

One merchant got snippy with him after Popee had asked him many questions and kept trying to tie in those answers with stories of his past. “Are ya gonna buy anything or not, bud? I don’t have all day to listen to this.”

“I’m sorry. I am so sorry, I was brought up in a circus by a crazy father who didn’t know if he was my mother or my father or both. I didn’t have no fancy upbringing. So again,” Popee puts back the item he originally needs and sticks out his tongue. “So, so, so sorry to waste your time with my stories!”

“Hey, they were interesting!” The shopkeeper yells as Popee leaves. “I just have no time to listen!”

Popee stops by Kedamono’s bar where he works and gets a club soda.

“Hey, this bar isn’t that trashy,” Popee says casually.

“Hey! I take offense, kid!” The owner said.

“Hey, give Keda better shifts. And a raise,” Popee adds to the manager. He only recognizes the manager because Kedamono had described him as a stocky, angry and depressed looking middle aged man who often yelled, with a receding hairline and eyes that looked like he was always looking at you from a sideways glance. He had a sneaky appearance to him. Popee didn’t like the manager. To be fair, the manager didn’t like Popee either.

To be even more fair, the manager didn’t like anyone.

“Who the hell is Keda?”

“Kedamono,” Popee says, rolling his eyes.

“I’m not handing out raises. To anyone. Especially to someone who just daydreams and spills my drinks.”

Popee’s eyes widen and narrow, his cheeks red from a growing dissatisfaction. “Keda is a very hard worker. You should stop yelling at him.”

“Tell him to get a grip!!”

Popee slams his drink a bit on the counter. “You get a grip! Keda is a hard worker and you treat him badly!”

The manager kicks a bar stool, making the other patrons jump. “Get out of my bar you juvenile delinquent!!!”

Popee gets up and starts going toward the front door.

“Fine! Be that way! You ar-”

Popee can’t finish as his words are cut off.

“Your precious Keda doesn’t work here anymore!”

Popee’s eyes widen. “What?! No, no! Please!”

“No! He’s done! Tell him to pick up the last paycheck tomorrow cause that’s it!!”

Popee took in a shaky breath, his eyes starting to be pierced with tears. “Please, don’t do that to him. Don’t punish him for what I did. Please!”

The manager looks at him pitifully. “Look, I don’t even know who you are. What are you, his brother?”

Popee sighs. “No. Listen, he needs to keep this job. Please, don’t fire him.”

“Hmm. Fine. But tell him he’s working double shifts.”

Popee frowns. “That’s—-ugh. Okay.”

“Now get out!”

Popee nods, feeling mentally exhausted and wipes his stray tears angrily. “Good bye!”

Popee makes sure he gets the fresh fish and lemons at the market right before going home. He picks up a sweet looking Angel food cake with whipped cream and strawberries on top at the market as well.

Carrying everything as he heads home, he thinks of his father. Of his father’s intense love for the circus. Of his lackadaisical and carefree (and the opposite side of being too involved and too hard on Popee at times)attitude to be a parent to Popee. He never thought this would be his life.

He always thought he’d be in the circus. To live and die showboating in front of Kedamono and trapezing and juggling and fire breathing. To Popee, the circus died the day everyone left Kedamono. He couldn’t move on past it, the betrayal. Popee had to stay by his friend’s side.

But, here he was, trying to learn how to live in a normal society. To shop and study and learn and socialize. To live in a permanent home and clean and cook and nest and create a real living space.

He realizes he is failing in most of these arenas.

And he blames his father for this, mainly.

All of this to say, Popee realizes he really enjoys the safety of domestic tranquility and peace. And knowing his upbringing, and the immature and crazy way he would act—-how he’d be jealous over anyone being more talented than him, he realizes the real reason he feels so safe. How that safety felt punctured when someone threatened to take away Kedamono’s source of pride and self-respect, that hurt Popee deeply in a way he didn’t expect.

It was because of his long time best friend and companion, Kedamono, that anything made any sense anymore to Popee.

He gets to their building and though he feels a bit rattled from the recent fresh scar of a experience with the owner of Kedamono’s bar and almost getting him fired, he starts singing a song to himself and he feels better. A song he heard on his dad’s record player as a younger child, a “Momma Cass,” album. The song always made him feel rejuvenated and feeling good.

“Make your own kind of music! Even if no one else sings along!!”

****

Kedamono was in a rush to get everything done before Popee got home, putting finishing touches on everything, sweeping and mopping and cleaning their kitchen as well.

He really was happy with the way everything looked now.

He had purchased a sectional sleeper sofa, royal blue. He got a queen sized bed for Popee(he would sleep on the sofa). He got a large coffee table, and new plates for their kitchen.

He got Popee some new outfits. Accessories for his hair.

It wasn’t much.

But he felt proud of it.

He heard Popee yelling, “I’m home Keda!!” As he finished dusting off a new shelf. It didn’t have dust on it, he just wanted to know how to felt to dust real furniture that he owned.

Then he heard a thud.

A bunch of things falling to the floor.

He ran over to his now frigid looking friend, who looked shocked, in awe and a bit in a state of panic.

“Popee, are you okay?” Kedamono asks worriedly.

“I… dropped the cake, Keda. I’m so sorry,” Popee said in a tense voice.

“That’s shopping till you drop, all right,” Kedamono says with a nervous laugh. Popee isn’t moving.

He’s stuck in the same spot.

Kedamono goes over and takes Popee’s hand.

They lock eyes. It feels like a whirlwind of all their memories, their growing trust, pining affection and warmth for each other all tied into one deep look.

And then this: “How can you do this to me?” Popee whispers, and their gaze falls apart.

Kedamono starts wonder what went wrong.

Their hands separate.

It feels like a pang in Kedamono’s heart.