A New Start For You and I, Part 10

A New Start For You and I, Part 10

Setting: The Penguin Band’s Igloo
Date: March 28th, 2015
Time: 9:40 PM PST
(Point of View: Franky)

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I stared at the ceiling with my flippers behind my head like some little kid looking at the stars.
Except it wasn’t the stars.
It was blocks of ice.
“Hey, guys,” I said, sitting up just slightly.
Stompin’ Bob was sitting on the other end of the couch that I had stationed myself on. Meanwhile, Petey was in the very large and comfortable chair, and Billy was leaning up against the side of that same chair, his head resting against the arm of it.
“What?” they all asked at the same time.
“Unison jinx!” Billy cried, and Stomp rolled his eyes.
“What do you think it’s like?”
Given that my question had come completely out-of-context because two minutes ago, we were talking about writing a new song, they all looked confused. Billy looked to Stomp for an explanation, but he just shrugged, then looked back at me.
“Elaborate,” Petey said after their confused silence had become kind of funny.
“Having a kid, I mean,” I explained, and the confusion disappeared. “What do you think it’s like?”
“Couldn’t tell ya, buddy.” Billy clapped his flippers together. “Never had the experience.”
“Yeah, well, you know other penguins who have.” I paused thoughtfully. “Maybe I should ask Max.” Our producer, who also doubles as the head of our record label, just had his first baby with his wife about a year ago. She’s pregnant again now. Hey… our kids will be in the same class at school and stuff!
“I mean…” Stomp started. “From what I’ve heard, it’s life-changing.”
“Obviously,” Petey added, grinning. “I know you guys are gonna say I’m being too cheesy, but when you think about it… they call it the miracle of life for a reason. It’s literally you and the penguin you love united into a single little… bundle of fluffy feathers and… small things.”
“Petey, you’re so weird,” Billy remarked, but Petey just winked suggestively at him. He made a face and looked back at me.
“What I can say for certain, though,” Stomp continued, just as I realized that he’s the only one who is actually bothering to answer my question. “... is that it’s gonna be a life-changer. You’ll never be the same.”
“I knew that. It just… it doesn’t feel like this all should be happening so soon. I feel like I’m still fourteen!! Where did the time go?”
“Oh, trust me.” Petey grinned. “You’re so innocent that you’ll always be a fourteen-year-old at heart.”
“Twenty-four and clueless,” Billy agreed.
“Thanks, guys,” I said with a sarcastic roll of my eyes.
“I think that this is your step into adulthood,” Stomp decided. “You may be twenty-four, but you didn’t feel like it, did you?”
“Not until this happened.”
“So you’re growing up.”
I smiled. “What if I don’t wanna grow up?”
“I think you’re a little late for that,” he replied.
“I guess so.” I sighed and looked down at my feet.
“Your change in mood has been remarkable,” Petey said.
“Well, Cadence and I had a nice, long talk.”
“Always good to talk things out,” said Billy.
“Yeah, I think so too. Now I’m not really worried anymore. I’m just… apprehending it. Not in a bad way, of course, I’m, like, really excited. But I still have how many months to go? Four or something?”
“Typically, yeah.”
“Fish!! Four months. That sucks.” I pulled on a feather on the side of my head. “Why can’t it just come now?”
“It would die if it just came now,” Billy pointed out.
“Don’t be a jerk.” I crossed my flippers and stuck my tongue out at him, which made him laugh.
“You know what this makes me think of, though?” said Stomp.
“What?”
“When we were all really young and we’d sit out here before bed and talk about how our lives were starting because we were forming a band.” He paused. “And now we’re nine years into it and our lives are actually starting… not our music lives. Our adult lives. And it’s just so weird.”
“Weird isn’t the right word,” Petey said. “It’s… exciting.”
“Different,” I added.
“Strange,” Billy offered.
“Strange means the same thing as weird, Billy.”
“Shut up, Glasses.”
“Stop flirting, you two. Or get a room.”
Petey smirked. “We could get a--”
“No, we couldn’t,” Billy interrupted. “And we won’t.”
“Good choice,” I said.
Silence took over, and I looked at the ceiling again. Petey and Billy had a conversation which mostly consisted of soft bickering, but it was that funny kind of bickering that they do-- the kind that’s entertaining to listen to.
“I’m really glad things are looking up,” I told them, even though I was mostly talking to myself. “I’m glad that I don’t have to worry anymore. To... be paranoid anymore.”
“No use in being paranoid about life,” Billy said. “It’s just gonna pass you by whether you like it or not.”
“You’re right.”
Petey suddenly sat up straight. “Uh-oh.”
“What?” we all asked, and while Billy unison-jinxed us like he always does, Petey explained.
“We have to record tomorrow, don’t we?”
“Yeah,” Stomp said.
“Why?” I asked.
“I might have possibly left my guitar at the Lighthouse today.” He winced. “Oops.”
“Petey.” Stomp rolled his eyes. “You had one job.”
“I’ll go get it, I’ll go get it.” He pulled himself out of the chair and began to waddle across the room.
Stomp and I watched him confusedly, and when he reached the kitchen without showing any sign of stopping, I said, “Right… now?...”
“Right now.” I heard the door being pulled open. “Would anyone like to come with me?”
For some reason, any feelings that I might have been tired or without energy flew out the door and into the night. I stood up, and though wearing flannel pajamas, declared, “I’ll go with you.”
I waddled into the kitchen, and Billy followed me.
“Really?” Petey raised his eyes at us. “I didn’t expect that.”
“Neither did I,” I remarked. “But I wanna go.”
Billy called over his shoulder back into the living-room. “Stomp, are you coming?”
He appeared in the doorway. “Do I really have a choice?”
“No,” Petey answered brightly. “Now come, loved ones, and let’s take a journey!”
He danced out into the night.
“Look at that dork,” Billy remarked, pulling on his jacket. “I’m so glad I love him.”
“We are the weirdest band in the world,” Stomp remarked from behind me.
I beamed.
Because I couldn’t agree more.

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