My Best Friend

I woke up to Jack gently shaking my shoulder.1

“Come on, Jimmy,” Jack said. “It’s a beautiful day. It’s warm, the sun is shining, and conditions are perfect for an adventure.”2

I rubbed my eyes, still groggy from not enough sleep. Jack had kept me up late talking the night before. He never seemed to understand my need for eight hours of sleep, because he took long naps during the day. This left him with plenty of free time at night.3

“So,” Jack said, climbing slowly off the bed, inching his way to the mirror to groom himself. “What should we do today? Go to the park? There are always plenty of things to do there.”4

“Maybe,” I yawned, pushing myself out of bed. “I thought about seeing what Ryan was doing today.”5

Jack greeted this with silence. He didn’t care for Ryan.6

“Oh,” Jack said, falling into a frosty silence as he groomed his long fur.7

Wait, I forgot to mention that Jack isn’t my brother. He’s my stuffed three-toed sloth. Sorry if that was confusing.8

“Well, it’s just that I haven’t seen him in a while, and he wants me to check out his new video game,” I said, trying to make peace. Jack turned to me, an incredulous look on his face. Most people wouldn’t recognize incredulousness from the sewed-on mouth of a three-toed sloth, but we’ve been best friends since I learned how to talk.9

“You want to play video games on a day like this?” he shouted. “Video games that rot the mind and cause an increase in aggressive tendencies, especially in males between the ages of six and eighteen?” Jack had been watching a lot of television in between his frequent naps, due to the bad weather that had plagued our little town.10

“Well,” I didn’t know what to say. The prospect sounded pretty nice to me. “Probably not all day…”11

“Fine, go to your stupid friend’s house and play stupid games. You probably won’t even take me with you! You’ll just leave me here to lounge around with nothing to do.”12

Oh, boy. Things had been strained between us for a while, because I wasn’t taking Jack with me to school anymore.13

“Look, Jack, it’s not that I don’t want to take you with me. It’s just that it looks kind of weird. No one else knows that you’re alive, and people start to talk when a sixteen year old carries around a stuffed animal.”14

“Oh,” he shrieked. “So it’s not that you don’t enjoy my company, you’re just embarrassed to be seen with me!”15

Despite his anger, and his attempt to run toward me, he had only moved a couple of feet from his previous perch on the curtain rod.16

“Jimmy, are you awake?” my mom called from the kitchen down the hall.17

“Yeah, Mom,” I shouted through the door. “I’ll be out in a minute.”18

“Hurry up, sweetheart, your breakfast is ready.”19

Jack stared at the door, then turned back to me. He didn’t care for Mom.20

“It’s probably a REALLY nutritious breakfast full of grease and cholesterol,” he mumbled. “I think she might be trying to kill you.”21

“Don’t be stupid,” I said. “Mom’s a great cook.”22

“I wouldn’t know. She never makes anything for me.”23

“That’s because you’re full of cotton. Your mouth doesn’t even open.”24

“She used to make me food,” Jack plowed on as though he hadn’t heard my admittedly hurtful comment. “When you were little, she would make two sandwiches for us at snack times, and I always had my own bowl of cereal.”25

I left Jack to brood on the past and went to the kitchen, sitting at the place already set for me. Just as Jack had predicted, my plate was full of bacon, eggs, and pancakes drenched in butter and syrup. It was delicious.26

“So, what do you have planned for today?” Mom asked as she sat down beside me with her grapefruit half. She never ate the things she cooked in the morning.27

“Well, I think I’m going over to Ryan’s.”28

“Alright, but make sure you call first. I don’t want you just showing up at their door anymore.”29

“Sure, Mom.”30

After breakfast, I showered and went back to my room. Jack was sitting sullenly on the bed.31

“So, how was breakfast? Can you feel your veins tightening as your heart struggles in vain to pump blood through your choked arteries?”32

I sighed as I pulled on a relatively fresh shirt from the floor of my closet.33

“Look, we’ll spend some time together tonight. I promise. I just haven’t seen Ryan in a long time.”34

“Don’t go out of your way just to spend a little time with your best friend at the end of the day,” he mumbled, moving slowly to the closet.35

I rolled my eyes and pulled my cell phone from its charger on my dresser. I dialed Ryan’s home number first. It rang three times before a woman answered.36

“Henry residence,” Ryan’s mom answered in her lilting voice.37

“Hi, Mrs. Henry, it’s Jimmy.”38

“Oh, hello Jimmy, how are you?”39

“I’m fine, Mrs. Henry. Is Ryan there?”40

“Well, I’m afraid Ryan isn’t feeling very well right now. He has some kind of cold that’s keeping him in bed.”41

I was disappointed. Ryan had been trying to get me to come over for two weeks, and now he was sick with a stupid cold. I ended the conversation quickly and closed my phone.42

“That’s too bad,” came Jack’s voice from his pile of clothes. He did a terrible job of hiding his joy, but that was hardly his fault. His mouth was sewn on in a smile.43

I frowned and sat on the edge of my bed. I stared at the phone, wondering if there was anyone else I could call. I didn’t have many friends, though, and no ideas came to me.44

Jack sidled up to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulder.45

“Come on, Jimmy,” he said, turning his head to look up into my eyes. Despite his selfishness sometimes, he was good at making me feel better when I needed cheering up.46

“Ryan doesn’t seem like a very good friend anyway. He’s been bugging you for so long and now he can’t be bothered with you just because of a little virus.”47

I shrugged.48

“It’s not like he can help getting sick. We’ll just have to find something else to do.”49

“That’s the spirit,” Jack said, clapping his hands together, as perky as an incredibly slow stuffed animal can be. “There are all kinds of things that we can do.”50

“Like what,” I said, still feeling let down.51

Jack turned to me, just staring with those glass eyes for a moment, before his smile broadened.52

“Well, since you were so excited about seeing Ryan, we could start by making him some soup.”53

It was my turn to look incredulous. Jack never wanted to spend time with other people, let alone do something nice for a person that he didn’t even like.54

“Why do you want to make soup for Ryan?”55

“What?” he raised his hands, doing his best to appear innocent. “He’s your friend. I just want to help. We can take him some soup, then head over to the park to get some sun.”56

I knew I shouldn’t buy it so easily, but a day sprawled in the sun, watching girls lying out on towels was incredibly appealing.57

“Alright,” I agreed, a smile coming to my face. It could be a good day.58

The soup didn’t take long to make, and Mom helped a great deal. She was impressed by my thoughtfulness. Jack watched to make sure it didn’t burn while I tried to get my hair to do something that could be considered somewhat attractive. After ten minutes, though, I gave up on it. Even if I drew the attention of an attractive young lady, I would not have known what to do after that.59

Jack was giving the pot one final stir when I came back into the kitchen. I put him in my backpack after pouring some of the soup into a thermos. I slung the pack onto my shoulder, grabbed my keys, and shouted a goodbye to Mom.60

Four minutes later, Mrs. Henry also said how touching my thoughtfulness was as I delivered the thermos. I made an escape as quickly as possible, driving to the park. I found a quiet corner of the grassy area, far from the swings and screaming children, before pulling Jack from my backpack.61

Both of us stretched out in the grass, just enjoying the weather. We talked about random things; school, girls, and the shape of clouds going by. He pointed out a few lovely ladies lounging beneath a tree to my right, and we laughed at his crude jokes.62

“See how much more fun this is than being cramped up inside with that doofus?”63

“You’re right,” I admitted. “This is nice. Ryan never wants to go outside. He says he ha allergies.”64

Jack gave a derisive snort. “Allergies, colds, why do you hang out with him? He sounds weak. Surely you can do better.”65

I shrugged. “We’ve been friends for a long time, and he’s funny. Besides, it’s not like I have a lot of other friends to choose from.”66

He patted me gently on the shoulder.67

“You’ll always have me, Jimmy.”68

After a few hours of sun, I had developed a respectable tan, and decided to head home before I burned. Jack went back into the pack without complaint. I had promised to sneak him some popcorn later.69

I drove home, my backpack tucked safely in the passenger seat. I took him inside, planning on turning on a movie in my room before making popcorn and grabbing a soda.70

Mom stopped me in the kitchen, though.71

“Well, it looks like you got quite a bit of sun today. Did you remember sunscreen?”72

“Yes, Mom.”73

“Did you take that soup over to your friend?”74

“Yeah. He was asleep when we got there, but Mrs. Henry said she’d give it to him when he woke up.”75

I tried again to sneak out of the kitchen and get to my bedroom.76

“Oh, James, I almost forgot. Did you see a mouse somewhere?”77

“No. Why?”78

“Well, I saw the rat poison on the counter, and I didn’t know if you or your father had seen anything in the garage or something.”79

A tingling at the back of my mind told me that something may have gone wrong.80

“It must have been Dad,” I said, turning for my room. I hurried inside and shut the door before ripping Jack from the pack.81

“What did you do, Jack?”82

He tried to look innocent again, but I wasn’t falling for it. He rolled his eyes and shrugged.83

“From what you said, I was doing the poor kid a favor. In the old days, he would have died as an infant. I just spared him the trouble of years of respiratory problems before dying a slow, agonizing death.”84

I threw him down on the bed, grabbing large handfuls of my hair and pacing quickly around the room. “Jack, you can’t just kill someone because you’re jealous that I’m spending time with them instead of you!”85

“Hey, I was protecting you. Look at the day you had. You had a great time, and I even noticed some of those girls sneaking glances over at you.”86

It’s amazing what can take your mind off of a friend that may have been poisoned by the soup that you gave him.87

I shook my head to clear my thoughts.88

“No, Jack, you can’t justify this!”89

“He was a terrible friend. He had to stay locked up in that stuffy, dark house of his, and he wanted you to be stuck there with him. Of course, he booted you at the first sign of inconvenience to him.”90

Jack was starting to make sense, but I couldn’t help feeling bad, not to mention a little nervous. Jack was just trying to protect me, though, and no matter how much I wanted to, I couldn’t stay mad at him.91

“I appreciate you looking out for me, Jack, but you can’t just go around poisoning people to help me out.”92

He nodded reluctantly.93

“You’re right. I got a little crazy. It won’t happen again.”94

“You swear?”95

“I swear.”96

We shook hands, and I sat beside him on the bed. He perked up again.97

“Oh, I almost forgot. You should throw away the other half of that grapefruit in the refrigerator. It might not be as healthy as your mom thinks it is.”98