Demon

Timothy

Dad’s driving me over to Natalie’s, since Mom is already working at the salon. We’re not talking in the car. That’s fine with me. I think it’s fine with him too. We don’t really usually have much to talk about, especially since he got home from deployment a week or two ago. It has been okay to have him back. I was worried that it would be hard, that he’d try to get me to do stuff I don’t care about, like playing ball or something. But he hasn’t. He’s just been pretty mellow, and hasn’t bothered me at all.

He pulls the car up to the curb in front of Natalie’s Dad’s house. “Do you need me to come in with you?” he asks.

“No, they know I’m coming.”

“Okay, your Mom will pick you up later. I’m going to work.”

I guess I knew that, since he’s wearing his uniform again, for the first time since he got back. “Thank you for the ride,” I tell him. Natalie has reminded me that I should always be as polite as possible with my Dad, since Angel told her that it is important to him.

He nods, and I’m not sure he really heard me. “Bye,” I tell him, and get out of the car and close the car door behind me. He pulls away before I even walk up to the house.

Before I get to the front door Natalie opens it and pokes her head out. “Your Dad dropped you off?” she said.

“Yes. He’s going to work.”

“Oh, okay.” She waits for me to come in the door, then closes it behind me.

Her Mom is in the living room, and she looks up and says, “Hi Timothy. Is your Dad coming in?”

“No, he’s going to work.”

“All right, then. Welcome.”

Natalie’s

Timothy does not seem to have noticed, but his father has been exhibiting signs of significant mental stress ever since he returned from deployment. Guardian and I have both witnessed his sleep disturbances, triggered by nightmares. His Guardian constantly tries to bring him comfort and peace, but Michael’s mind appears wounded by his recent participation in the country’s current war effort. His subconscious mind seems to be trapped in a repeating cycle of memory and imagination. He does not perceive any of the reassurances being transmitted by his Guardian.

As it is apparently not impacting Timothy, and I can think of no constructive action that the Seer could take to alleviate Michael’s distress, I refrain from mentioning it to her. However, Guardian and I will continue to monitor the situation, and I will alert her if necessary.

In the meantime, the children have more pressing concerns. Gabe again joins Natalie in her room once she and Timothy enter. “Hey, Timothy,” he says, swinging over on his crutches to sit on her bed.

“Hello,” Timothy responds, sitting on the floor. Natalie takes a seat at her desk.

Timothy immediately proceeds with the topic on all of their minds. “Did you see Jonathan last night?”

“We did,” Natalie says, “and he definitely is missing Demon. When we went over there we thought we’d be able to play with him, but he didn’t want to do anything. He was just sitting there barely moving, being really quiet. All he was doing was petting his dog.”

Gabe affirms this with a nod, his brow wrinkled with distress.

“Did Angel say whether he could see Demon anywhere?”

“No, he’s still missing. They can’t find him at all.”

Timothy takes his notebook out of his bag and starts writing.

“What’re you doing?” Gabe asks.

Natalie responds. “He’s taking notes. He always takes notes on all our experiments.”

Gabe is taken somewhat aback. He asks, “What? This is just an experiment to you?”

Timothy pauses in his writing and looks up. “Yes, of course. This is all part of the same ongoing experiment.”

Natalie is concerned that her brother is offended. “Gabe, this is the best way to learn. If we are going to find a way to help Jonathan, we should approach it scientifically. Don’t you think?” She looks at him earnestly.

“Um, yeah, I suppose.” In his mind, Gabe thinks that Natalie and her friend truly are very strange little kids, but of course there is no benefit in repeating this to my beloved.

Timothy completes his notations and lays his pencil down. “Well,” he asks Natalie, “what should we do next?”

She wrinkles her nose. “I hoped you would have an idea.”

Timothy nods. “I do, but I wanted to ask you first. Since the Jonathan Project is your experiment.”“Oh, okay,” she says.

Gabe looks back and forth between them as they speak, laughing softly. “Is this always how it is with you two?” They both look at him, and Natalie shrugs.

“Well, Timothy, what’s your idea?” she asks.

“Obviously we need to monitor Jonathan today. Angel, what is he doing now?”

“Jonathan has eaten breakfast and is inside his home watching a cartoon on television. This is the first time that he has been allowed to watch television since the incident at the library last weekend. The privilege had been revoked by his father for a period of one week as a consequence for his actions in fighting.”

Natalie repeats this information to the boys, and the children regard each other in some surprise.

“Huh,” Gabe says, “I didn’t know that he had gotten in trouble.” It bothers Gabe that he has been so distant from Jonathan since the previous weekend. Normally a detail such as this would have been known to him.

Natalie understands Gabe’s concern. “It’s all right, Gabe, you haven’t had any chance at all to talk to him. You both stayed home from school all week and we’ve been over at Mom’s. There’s no way you could have known about it. I think maybe you should go over there and play with him again today?”

Gabe sighs. “I’d like to, but I don’t know what we’d end up doing. I couldn’t really ride bikes or the stuff we usually do with the crutches. And anyway, after seeing how limp and lifeless he was last night, I doubt he’s really going to want to do anything. Maybe only watch t.v.”

Natalie says, “I don’t know if you could get a good sense of how he is doing if you are just watching t.v. together.” She considers a reasonable alternative. “All he wanted to do last night was pet his dog. So probably just going over there and playing with him and the dog would be best, right? Then you can come back and tell us how it went.” She sighs softly, wishing that she was able to go as well, but feeling that she should not while Timothy is here as her guest.

However, Timothy states, “I think we should all go.”

Natalie is startled. He has never before expressed a desire to go to Jonathan’s house.

Timothy explains, “As long as Jonathan doesn’t have his guardian, I think we’re all perfectly safe. If he doesn’t want to do anything but pet his dog, he won’t be able to do anything mean to anyone, right? I’d like to see for myself what is going on.”

Natalie’s face lights up. “Oh yeah! You should be fine with things this way.” Then she laughs, remembering. “I was right after all. You thought I was crazy when I told you that if the Jonathan Project worked you could hang out with us too.”

Timothy snorts. “This isn’t exactly what you meant.”

She giggles. “Doesn’t mean I was wrong.”

Gabe looks at the two of them and shakes his head. Weirdest second-graders I have ever known, he thinks, feeling a mix of humor and affection. Rising from the bed, he takes his crutches and says, “Well, let’s go, I guess.”