Blueberry and Jimmy (Part 2) - Right action when it counts (author: Carpdime)
Story by Carpdime
Continued from Part 1
Jimmy worked a solid and consistent schedule as a warehouse worker at a distribution center half an hour away. On the days he worked, his fluffy Blueberry was placed in the care of Jimmy’s younger brother Elliot who seemed to have all the time in the world as a college student. The arrangement suited Jimmy immensely. Fluffy daycare was too expensive for his modest income.
Blueberry dreaded those days, much in the same way he had dreaded being left alone by Jimmy when he was doing his chores and errands. The blue fluffy had learned to count the days between each visit to Jimmy’s brother. Each night before the loathsome visit, Blueberry would act extra clingy in an attempt to break the cycle, in the off chance that his daddy would change his mind and spend the next day with him.
It never worked. Blueberry would inevitably be told to grow up, followed by a series of angry words that the fluffy could never understand.
–
“It’s going to be a quiet day inside for us.” Elliot said as he took Blueberry out of Jimmy’s hands. Blueberry was slightly buoyed by the promise of a quiet day but he still put up some token resistance as Elliot took possession of him.
“That’s good, nothing too exciting for him please. Blueberry is a little more on edge than usual these last few days. He got really sick and I had to take him to the clinic.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know, even the doctor didn’t know. I think he must have eaten a bug or something.”
Jimmy was about to leave but he remembered something, “Hey Blueberry, here are your play blocks.” Jimmy handed a small duffel bag to Elliot. The fluffy pawed pathetically at the bag, it was his last connection to everything that felt safe. It was his best distraction to help him through the terrible day ahead.
–
The door slammed shut as Jimmy departed Blueberry’s world. Elliot carried the fluffy to the living room where a large playpen was set up. On the mat there was already a large array of fluffy toys. Blueberry never played with Elliot’s toys. He didn’t trust it. He’d seen how the other strange fluffies that would sometimes appear some of the days played with those toys. Those fluffies would scream at him sometimes but he didn’t really remember what they said because he had already shut out everything around him.
Blueberry never saw the same fluffies again, they were always replaced with another group of new fluffies some visits later.
He sat quietly with his back against the wall stacking his own blocks. It kept his mind off the loneliness he felt and it stopped him from thinking about losing his daddy forever.
“I’ve got my hands full at the moment. You’ll have to do it yourself.” Elliot spoke on his cell phone. He saw Blueberry looking at him so he shuffled into the room next door.
Blueberry didn’t mind Elliot as a human. Sure, Elliot didn’t feel as safe as daddy, but he also didn’t yell at him like daddy does sometimes. Elliot would only sometimes shout at the cell phone that was constantly ringing all through the day. Most importantly, Elliot would never hurt him.
After a short while, the talking had stopped. The nervous silence was broken a short while later by a sudden banging at the door. The banging continued, stopping and restarting each time with more vigor.
Blueberry looked with concern towards the direction of the banging. He could not see beyond the tall walls of his playpen. He weighed up whether to call for help. On one hand he felt distracted enough playing with his blocks. He could easily ignore everything around him if he tried….
BANG BANG BANG
The whole house felt like it was crashing down around him. The blocks in front of Blueberry fell over in a heap.
“Ewwiot!!!” Blueberry finally succumbed, "Bwuebeewy am scawed!!!”
From the room next door, Elliot charged through the living room to answer the door.
Opening the door, a woman with long dark hair stood looking unimpressed.
“What in the hell are you doing here!” Elliot yelled at the woman who was now forcing her way into the house.
“Don’t you dare ignore me.” She snapped.
“I didn’t ignore you. I told you I couldn’t step out to help you.” Elliot tried to reason.
The woman shoved Elliot aside, barged into the living room and kicked over the playpen where Blueberry sat in a stunned silence.
“You were too busy dealing with this stupid ass thing?” the woman hissed at Blueberry, “Your brother’s chickenshit fluffy?”
Blueberry could recognize the lady, she would sometimes visit Elliot and drop off those terrible fluffies that terrorized his stay. The angry lady scared Blueberry immensely.
“Leave him alone Lily. It’s not his fault.”
Elliot ran up to Blueberry and stood between them.
“You know what? Fine, I get it. You’re your brother’s little bitch. But don’t forget what you owe me. The jobs I give you pays the rent for this place.”
Lily took out her phone and showed Elliot a picture of a well presented, bubble gum pink fluffy with a dashing purple mane.
Elliot looked at the picture and said nothing. The frown on his face betrayed his deep apprehension.
“I came across this fluffy at a cafe yesterday. It’s a pretty good match for a bounty that is worth $8000.” Lily flicked through to another photo of the same pink fluffy with her blonde lady owner, “The owner goes to the same college as you. I think with your college ID card, you can get close enough to boost the fluffy.”
“I don’t like to do the taking myself. That’s why I prefer to just babysit the fluffys before the buyers pick them up.” Elliot said meekly.
“If you do the actual boosting for this job, I’ll give you 30% instead of the usual 10%.” Lily proposed.
Elliot took a moment to consider it. He felt like he was getting shafted, but even then, $2400 is a lot of money for a broke student like himself.
“This is something straight outta Ocean’s 11.” Elliot said.
“Hell yeah! You should take the chickenshit with you. He may come in handy.”
Elliot looked at Blueberry apologetically. The look of confusion in the fluffy’s eyes troubled him somewhat. Elliot sighed. He wondered why he kept getting himself into situations like this.
–
Parking his hatchback a safe distance from the campus entrance, Elliot walked Blueberry and Lily to the college gates.
“If this thing goes wrong, I’m going to get in a lot of trouble.” Elliot mumbled.
“Do you do anything else but moan on about everything? Grow some balls.” Lily said.
She led them the rest of the way to the club hall where a small group of fluffies and their owners were milling about outside.
“You take it from here.” Lily handed Elliot a heavy duty training collar.
Elliot sighed heavily. He picked up Blueberry who immediately grabbed onto his arm and buried his head into Elliot’s armpits.
“Don’t be scared boy, it’s going to be all right…” Elliot whispered.
He casually walked up to the group who were happily chatting between themselves.
“Hey guys.” Elliot said, “So uh, is this the fluffy social club?”
The group paused their banter and turned to greet him warmly.
“Sure is friend! We are all so glad to meet you. Why don’t you go see our club captain over there to sign up?” A pleasant young man responded. He pointed at a young blonde woman dressed in a pink, off shoulder top.
Elliot groaned inwardly, he recognized the young woman as the owner of the pink fluffy that Lily showed him earlier.
Blueberry looked with mixed interest and anxiety at the other fluffies that were hugging and play wrestling on the grassy lawn. His eyes stayed glued at the mingling fluffies as he was taken away from the group towards the blonde woman who was tapping away at a tablet.
“I’m here to sign up to the fluffy social club.” Elliot said nervously.
The young woman looked up from the screen immediately and smiled with practiced decorum.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Amy Hastings. Do you mind if I ask you your name?”
“Ah yes of course, Elliot Lewis. I’m a student here.” He reached clumsily into his pockets for his student ID card. In the same motion he lost control of Blueberry who dropped from his arms. Luckily, the startled fluffy managed to land on his feet onto the soft lawn.
“It’s all right there Elliot, we won’t need your ID card to register you with the club.” Amy reached down to check on Blueberry, “Oh my, your fluffy here has very good breeding.” Amy said as she ran her hands through Blueberry’s fluff, checking his condition.
“Does he? Right of course he does.” Elliot also knelt down to check on Blueberry.
“What’s his name?” Amy asked.
“His name’s Blueberry.”
“Beautiful…” She placed her hands on the side of Blueberry’s neck and gently massaged him.
Blueberry’s look of nervousness slowly dissipated. The touch was so gentle and soothing, he unconsciously began nuzzling Amy’s arm with his fluffy cheeks.
Amy deftly tapped their names into her tablet, “What’s his birthday?” she asked.
Elliot panicked. He quickly counted the years that have passed since his brother had first shown him Blueberry as a tiny foal.
“He’s two years old.” He replied speedily.
“Any particular date he was born?” Amy asked hopefully.
“The breeder I got him from unfortunately messed up the paperwork. I’ve just got a birth year unfortunately.” Elliot laughed nervously.
“Lets just go with January 1st then.” Amy smiled. She stood up and gestured for the two to follow, “Come, let’s introduce you to the club.”
–
Lily paced impatiently outside the club hall. She had watched Elliot approach the pink fluffy’s owner promisingly, but now Elliot had disappeared out of sight with the blonde woman and Blueberry. Worse still, she had not even spotted the pink fluffy itself who was the target of the day. She wanted to call Elliot and chastise him. Elliot must have lost what little resolve he had.
Lily stormed back to the car and grabbed her large carrier bag. Once again, she had to get her hands dirty to get things done properly.
–
The afternoon walk with the group of fluffies and their owners had completely distracted Elliot from his nefarious task. He had enjoyed meeting the eclectic group of students who were all surprisingly friendly and down to earth.
Elliot noticed that Blueberry was not his usual self. The blue fluffy was actually daring enough to follow the group of fluffies instead of Elliot, albeit at a safe distance behind the group and always within visual contact with Elliot.
“Elliot! Come over here with Blueberry.” Amy called back from the head of the group.
Standing beside Amy was the most gorgeous fluffy that Elliot had ever seen. A most noble and healthy fluffy with pink fluff that rippled in the gentle breeze. Up close, Elliot could see the light mauve spots on its fluff that almost glimmered like gems. No wonder the bounty on this fluffy was $8000 on the black market. From a registered breeder she would have fetched over $20,000.
“Elliot, Blueberry. Meet Princess Pinky, my dearest sweetheart.”
Blueberry immediately blushed at the sight of Pinky and ran behind Elliot’s legs. Elliot’s heart was racing at the gravity of what he was tasked to do. He laughed nervously again and made too much of an effort to remain distant from the pink fluffy.
Amy’s heart sunk a little at seeing Elliot and Blueberry’s underwhelming response to the introduction. She had always received and had expected a shower of enthusiastic praise and fawning over her little princess.
Their walk continued through the campus gardens until they reached the chain coffeehouse store. The social meet was coming to an end. At this point, the group of tired club members started rolling into the store to get their fill of caffeine refreshments to finish up the event.
“So Elliot.” Amy said, “Would you like an iced coffee?” She flicked a lock of hair away from her eyes.
Elliot looked at his watch, time was running out.
“I would love to but I’m kind of on a diet.”
Amy stared at him with confused disappointment. She looked at her friends who were passing by her to get their drinks.
“Look, why don’t you go ahead and grab yourself a drink. I’ll stay out here and help you look after Princess Pinky.” Elliot suggested.
“You sure you don’t want anything?” She asked again.
“Just go!” Elliot urged.
Amy turned to her pink fluffy, “Ok Pinky, be a good girl and listen to Elliot while mummah gets a coffee.”
Pinky sat down obediently next to Elliot and nodded, “Otay mummah! Pinky am be bestest fwuffy an wisten to Ewwiot!”
“Good girl! I’m gonna get you a sweet treat if you behave.”
“Oh tank yu mummah!” Pinky exclaimed with pure delight.
As Amy disappeared into the store, the urgency of this brief window spurred Elliot to action. He took out the training leash from his pocket and he started to fit it around Pinky’s neck.
“Wha Ewwiot doing?” Pinky asked innocently.
Elliot didn’t say anything.
Pinky didn’t like that Elliot was putting on such an ugly leash on her. Her mummah had already given her a pretty white collar with a golden heart.
Blueberry watched on and could sense the distress that was starting to come over Pinky’s face. He too started feeling distressed, he didn’t know why but he hated seeing another fluffy being ignored. It reminded him of how he had felt so many times before.
“Ewwiot, pwease nu huwt Pinky…” Blueberry pleaded softly.
Elliot looked at Blueberry, “Don’t be scared boy, everything is going to be all right.” He turned back to Pinky, “Don’t you dare cry Pinky, your mummah told you to listen to me. Don’t you dare disobey your mummah.” Elliot felt terrible inside.
Pinky’s mouth quivered, she was holding back a torrent of tears, drawing upon the training that was impressed upon her from an early age.
“It took you long enough!” Lily suddenly appeared. She took the leash from Elliot’s hands and roughly grabbed at Pinky’s leash, jerking the fluffy’s head in a violent motion.
“What the hell are you doing here.” Elliot said.
“Just shut up and let’s get the hell out of here!” She started pulling on the leash but Pinky resisted with all her strength. Pinky was a much stronger fluffy than what Lily had expected. Lily bent down and lifted Pinky off the ground using her collar with the intention of stuffing Pinky into her carrier bag.
Blueberry had seen enough. He knew it was wrong, he knew that Lily was a bad person.
“Ewwiot!..Bwuebewwy nu wike Wiwy! Wiwy am big meanie! Make Pinky hav bad upsies!” Blueberry spoke as loud as his weak voice allowed. He confronted Lily head on with cheeks as puffed up as he could manage.
“Shut up you little chickenshit!” Lily stepped towards Blueberry and kicked him in the front legs.
“Leave him alone!” Elliot shouted. This drew the attention of the club members that remained outside. They started walking towards the source of the commotion with curiosity.
Lily shot a death glare at Elliot and she tried to pull Pinky away. Time froze momentarily for Elliot as he saw the confused faces of the club members around him. A feeling of extreme guilt washed over him and the only action that he would allow himself to take suddenly became as clear as day.
He threw a punch at Lily’s head but it missed and it hit her on her arm instead. It was enough to dislodge her grip on Pinky’s collar which allowed the fluffy to scurry away from the kidnapper. In another moment, time unfroze and Elliot saw Lily disappear around the corner and out of his life.
Responding to the commotion, Amy had run back outside and was greeted by the distressed but relatively unharmed pink fluffy.
Elliot immediately ran to the aid of Blueberry who was collapsed on the ground, clutching his front left leg with his right. Blueberry could feel the worst pain he had ever felt in his life but he did not cry. He didn’t even feel scared for himself. His first thoughts were of Pinky and he wished that she was unharmed. Perhaps this is what his daddy had meant when he told him to grow up.
–
Continues in Part 3