Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2012 01:12:03 -0700 (PDT) From: rtbrno65@yahoo.com Subject: Quincy And His Unusual Friend chapter 7 As always, don't read if under 18 etc. Story is complete fiction. "Quincy And That Unusual Friend Of His" Chapter 7 Carol pulled in front of the community center where Quincy was waiting to be picked up. He waved good bye to Timothy as he hopped into the car. "Hi, Quincy. Did you have fun today?" Carol asked as they pulled away. "Yeah, it was cool. "Quincy said as he waved to Timothy one more time before they pulled out into the street. "Hey, Mom? Is it Ok if I go over to Timothy's house after camp tomorrow? He invited me over just now." "Sure, just call me and let me know where it is as soon as you get there. I'm glad to see that you finally made friends with someone here." "Yeah, Timothy seems OK, I guess." Quincy said as he pulled his I-Pod out of his backpack and started plugging the head phones in. "Quincy, before you start listening to your music, I have a question. Have you experienced anything strange since we moved into that house?" "Strange? How?" "Well...you might remember that one of the movers said he saw a ghost, and the next day those books fell off that shelf..." Quincy stared straight ahead, trying to act nonchalant."But Mom, that was just a crazy Hispanic guy and a weak book shelf...right?" "I thought so too, but something happened today right before I picked you up..." "Oh God, what did Erik do?" Quincy thought. "Oh really? What?" Quincy said. "Well, it might have been my imagination, but I swear that I saw something in the kitchen today. Some kind of weird, moving shadow. I'm also still worried about that bite mark that you had on your shoulder." Quincy just stared straight ahead. "No, I haven't seen anything like a shadow or nothing like that. That bite was from a kid that I was playing football with." "Yes, yes I know it was a bite from a kid you were playing football with." Carol said with a frustrated tone. They rode home the rest of the way in silence. Quincy went in to the house through the garage door and went up the stairs to his room. When he entered he saw Erik sitting on the bed and waiting for him. "Hi Quincy!" "Hey, Erik" Quincy smiled. He put his back pack down and sat on the chair across from Erik, who sat beeming at him. "Erik, Mom said in the car that she saw you in the kitchen today. Dude, you gotta be more careful, she'll freak out if she knows about you. I'm just starting to like it here and I don't want to move." "I didn't go into the kitchen. I stay in here, and if one of them comes in I go into the attic." Erik said defensively. "OK. Cool. I guess she probably saw her own shadow and got scared. You see how nervous she gets." Quincy said with relief. "I DID go into the other bedroom to watch her pull out of the driveway, but I know she didn't see me." Erik said sheepishly. "I know, I'm sorry I mentioned it." Quincy smiled. Erik and Quincy went down to the creek and then to the preserve and stayed out until dinner time. As Quincy expected, there was no trace of the bullies there although the tied together shoes, burnt picture phone, and shattered wine bottle were still there, much to his amusement. Erik loved hearing about Quincy's camp activities and made him give detailed synopses of whatever activities occured that day. Quincy loved hearing Erik's unique laugh when he told his stories, and Erik would always push Quincy for more details, or make jokes about what was said that would send Quincy into paroxyms of laughter. He also discovered that Erik had been reading his Harry Potter books while he was out at camp, and that he had become a big fan of the series. Erik peppered Quincy with questions about Harry Potter and JK Rowling and Hogwarts, and raved about the characters and the story and about how cool he thought the books were so far (he was already up to the third one). Quincy decided that Erik was the most fun kid to hang out with ever. Later that evening, Quincy and Erik played a game of hide and seek in the house. Carol had left in the car to pick up Steve at the Capital, and said they would bring back some supper with them. Quincy couldn't understand why they didn't just buy a second car, but his parents had both always hated to spend money. Erik, as one would expect, was actually a formidable opponent in hide and seek, and no part of the house was off limits. Quincy would have to look in places that humans wouldn't usually go into, like air conditioning vents and inside the chimney and such. Quincy once found him in the kitchen trash compactor. Another time he was in the plumbing behind the washing machine. Quincy was searching for Erik in the kitchen and dining room, looking inside of cabinets and under tables. As he entered the kitchen, he saw a faint, black shadow with a human shape suddenly go through the door down to the basement. Quincy figured that he had found Erik, so he opened the basement door and peered in. He looked down into the blackness of the basement. He saw nothing, but he noticed an odd smell, like a wet dog and rotting meat combined. It lasted for only a second, and was then replaced by the musty, earthy smell of the completely unfinished basement. "Erik! Erik, I found you!" He yelled. There was no response. "Come out come out wherever you are!" Still no response, "Come on, don't make me come down there and get you!" Quincy meant that. He hated that basement, and thought that it was incredibly scary. It was damp, had a dirt floor, brick walls, and no light or anything to turn on. He figured that Erik was being a dick and was trying to make him go down into the basement so that he could do something to scare him. Rules are rules though, and in hide and seek you have to tag the other person, so he went into the laundry room, got a flashlight, took a deep breath, and entered the inky blackness of the basement. Quincy went cautiously down the narrow stairs unti he felt his feet hit the dirt floor. He turned on the flashlight and began moving the beam of the flashlight around the room. The light revealed a brick wall and a dirt floor. Plumbing and wiring were visible along the wall and various items were strewn about the floor. Quincy saw an old sink sitting on the ground, a tire propped up against a wall, a few old glass bottles, and a stack of old newspapers. He turned with his back to the steps as he slowly ran the flashlight along the wall. Just then a black shape suddenly moved in front of the flash light beam and was gone. Quincy gasped and almost dropped the flashlight to the ground. He then smelled that weird, wet dog- rotten meat smell again. He suddenly felt a hand grab his right shoulder. He gasped and quickly turned around with the flashlight beam illuminating the space under the steps, but saw nothing. The odd smell then disappeared. "Very funny, Erik!" Quincy said with his voice trembling. "Consider yourself caught!" He then quickly ran up the steps and closed the basement door behind him. Quincy returned the flashlight to the laundry room and went back upstairs. He checked all the rooms to see if Erik was in them. When he got to the guest room that was on the opposite side of the hallway from his bedroom, he felt the cold spot. He smiled to himself and tip toed into the room. As soon as he entered Erik suddenly leaped up on his back with a playful yell. Quincy collapsed to the ground giggling and the two of them began wrestling on the floor by the bed. Erik put Quincy in a head lock, who then flipped Erik over and pinned him down. Erik vanished and rematerialized behind him, putting him into another head lock. "Hey that's not fair!" Quincy laughed who then banged on the floor. Erik let go and Quincy immediately grabbed him and pinned him back down . This process repeated itself several times, and Quincy was red faced and sweaty. Both boys were laughing and yelling as they wrestled. Quincy had Erik pinned down again. He then started tickling him on the chest. "You know I'm not ticklish, Quincy." Erik grinned. "You have to be ticklish somewhere!" Quincy said as he tickled Erik's bare chest and armpits. Erik did a big fake yawn with his hand over his mouth while Quincy probed for a ticklish spot. Erik then grabbed Quincy's arms with a grin and the two of them vigorously wrestled some more until Quincy finally said he gave and sat up against the base of the bed while still sitting on the floor, panting and sweating. Erik sat up and crossed his arms over his knees. "Hey, Quincy?" Erik said softly. "Could you maybe, please...touch me a little?" "Erik, I thought we agreed we weren't going to do that kind of stuff again." Quincy said. "I don't mean like the other night..." Erik said. "I mean...just touch me a little bit. I really like being touched. I forgot what it was like to have someone touch me until you moved in. It's been really lonely in this house this whole time. Please? It makes me feel alive." Quincy scooted over next to Erik, put his right hand on the back of his neck, and started lightly rubbing his fingertips down Erik's neck, past his shoulders, and down his back. Erik closed his eyes and put his head down while Quincy swept his fingertips down Erik's back. He could feel the skin and Erik's vertebrae beneath his fingers. Goose bumps were popping up on Erik's flesh. He got down to Erik's tailbone and felt it with his forefinger. He rubbed Erik's buttcheeks and thighs and then started running his hand up Erik's left leg. He could feel the little downy hairs and the smooth skin as he rubbed his way up to Erik's knee, rubbed his hand over Erik's arm and back, and then continued down Erik's leg to his ankle. He then shifted his position and rubbed his hand over Erik's foot. He rubbed the ankle, felt each toe individually and propped the foot up on his leg so that he could rub Erik's sole. He moved his way back up the leg, shifted back to his original position, briefly felt Erik's scrotum and penis, worked his way up to Erik's outie navel, felt it, and brushed his hand up Erik's chest. He felt each rib individually and lightly brushed both of Erik's nipples with his forefinger. "This feels so good." Erik sighed, with his head still down and his eyes still closed. Quincy began rubbing his hand through Erik's surprisingly coarse blond hair, and then repeated the process down the other side of Erik's body. "I love you, Quincy." Erik said softly. Quincy was a little taken aback when Erik said that, and he wasn't sure how to react. He then heard the front door open and his parents talking as they came in. "Quincy. We're home! We brought dinner!" Carol yelled from the base of the stairs. "I guess I have to go have dinner now." "Thanks, Quincy." Erik smiled right before he vanished. Quincy got up off the floor and went downstairs to join his family at dinner. They said a prayer and then Quincy tucked into the Chinese food that his parents had brought home. His dad spent dinner talking about his day in Congress, almost none of which made any sense to Quincy. Carol mentioned to Steve that Quincy had made a friend at day camp, and that he would be visting that boys house afterwords tomorrow. Steve was really glad to hear about that, but not glad enough to stop with all the boring stories about his day on Capital Hill. After a couple of helpings of moo goo gai pan and sweet and sour shrimp, Quincy asked to be excused, and took his plate over to the trash compactor to dump the leftover rice into. When he opened up the compactor, he saw the paperwork from Dr. Singh that Carol had thrown out. He saw the picture on top of Erik's grave stone. He looked down in interest when he noticed the birth date. He glanced over at his parents, who were engrossed in their conversation, quietly pulled the photograph out of the trash, dumped in his rice, and hurried back upstairs with the picture in his hand. He sat at his desk and looked at the photograph. It had to be Erik's gravestone: ERIK WESTERGAARD SEPTEMBER 2 1967-AUGUST 31 1978 REST ALONG WITH THE ANGELS O PRECIOUS CHILD Quincy immediately began to wonder why this was in his parents trash, and he was also curious about what the rest of that paperwork that this was with was all about. He went back to the top of the stairs and he could hear his mother doing the dishes while she and his dad continued to discuss whatever his dad had been doing all day. He returned to the room and was startled to see Erik standing by the desk and staring at the photograph. He turned to Quincy with a hurt and angry look when Quincy entered the room. "Where did you get this?!" Erik said crossly. "Uhhh...it was in the trash downstairs. I thought maybe you might have put that there..." Quincy stammered. Erik angrily grabbed the photo and ripped it up into several pieces before vanishing, the pieces all drifting to the floor as he disappeared. Quincy silently cursed himself for upsetting Erik, picked up the pieces of the photograph, and put them in the trash. "Erik? Erik!" Quincy said, but he didn't appear. He figured that Erik must have been sulking up in the attic. Quincy went out into the hallway, made sure his parents were still chatting downstairs, jumped up and down until several times until he grabbed the pullcord to the attic entrance, and pulled down the folding steps. He went up the steps and peered into the dark and stuffy space in front of him. "Erik!" Quincy whispered. "Go away!" He heard Erik mutter from the far side of the room. Quincy entered the attic and pulled on the light cord for the hanging bulb in the middle of the room, which reluctantly flickered on. Quincy found the cool spot and used it to guide him to several cardboard boxes on the rear left hand side of the attic above his bedroom, where he found Erik sitting. "Come on, Erik. Don't be mad. I found that picture in the trash after dinner. I didn't know about it." Erik just sat and moped. "Come on, I got my fortune cookie. Let's go back to the room and open it and see what it says." Erik still said nothing. "Come on, Erik. Please?" Erik looked up at him and smiled. "OK, Quince." He said. Quincy helped Erik up and they went down the steps into the room. Quincy had to get a chair out of one of the spare bedrooms so that he could close up the attic entrance. He returned to the room and saw Erik sitting and smiling at him on the bed. Quincy sat next to him, held up his hand, and wiggled his fingers. "I don't believe we were finished yet." Quincy grinned. Erik smiled and leaned his head down on Quincy's shoulder. Quincy put his arm around him and caressed him with his fingertips for most of the rest of the evening. As it got late, Quincy and Erik stayed up and shared their deepest feelings, joked around, planned for things to do for the last days of Quincy's summer vacation, and both silently wondered how they got so lucky as to have found such a wonderful best friend. Meanwhile, down in the basement, behind the hot water heater, a pair of yellow eyes briefly appeared, and then flickered out of sight. End of chapter 7