The Only Game In Town [Adventure]

Theo was not quite sure what to make of his living situation. Every person has crashed on a friend's couch at one point, and most have even crashed on their friend's parents' couches before. But there was something distinctly gross about being abandoned at your friend's parents' house.

Theo never wanted to be a moocher, and he never wanted to have to stay with Joy's parents for an unreasonable amount of time. Furthermore, he had never wanted to stay with Joy's parents after Joy had already left.

There was an awkward tension in the air, since neither party knew how to address it.

Theo didn't really want to impose on these people in this fashion, but Joy had really left him no choice. The insufferable man had stumbled into his parent's home long enough for the local healer to come by and fix him then rushed back out the door, forcing his parents to take care of his two friends for him while he was gone.

It was laughably irresponsible.

Yet, for some unknowable reason, his parents did it. The few days Theo had spent in their home were warm and kind. The food was filling. Maybe the conversation could use some improvement, but they were taking care of him and Lillian, which was more than he could have hoped for.

Theo itched though.

He found himself idle. There was nothing to do and nowhere to go.

Theo lamented the loss of Vena Cava. He was a city boy at heart, and he missed walking through the ragged streets. Or paying someone to fly him over the sprawling fields on the inner layers of the city. The village that Joy's parents resided in was quaint and boring in comparison.

Not that Theo could enjoy the sprawling sights of Vena Cava anymore. He found it was the small things he missed most. He missed seeing Lillian's face. He missed seeing the sunset. He missed seeing the wonderful wispy shapes of clouds. It was all gone, replaced by this endless nothing.

In a fit of pure desperation, Theo decided to leave the relative safety of Joy's family home to try and explore the village a little. Theo's arms shook in nervousness as he whipped his stick in front of him, trying to gauge the next step he would take.

Theo walked slowly through the village, trying to enjoy some of the last rays of sunlight he could feel on his skin, but also trying to ignore the whispers that surrounded him.

The village was so small that anything exciting happening was always the talk of the town. And the young Joy returning home just to dump his two broken friends off was the hot topic currently.

But no one seemed willing to broach the topic with him personally. These people were content to just talk about him behind his back, not actually confront him and his story.

Theo felt that maybe he would be okay. It seemed to be a nice day, and he could feel the sunshine warm his skin. He let out a small smile, a small ray of happiness in the cloud of unhappiness of his life.

Then a small stone collided with his head. Theo flailed out wildly, in the air. The small pain of the pebble was exaggerated by his wild flailing, but Theo was worried. He hadn't been hit in a while, and it had disturbed his sense of peace.

Theo cocked his head in the direction the pebble had come from. He listened as carefully as he possibly could, trying to discern what his eyes could no longer see.

Snickering came from the general area where the pebbles had come from. There was a hushing of children trying to get other children to be quieter.

Theo was angry. How could these children face him with such hatred? Why did they do this to him? Was he just some toy for them to play with as they pleased?

He screamed at the top of his lungs and ran as fast as he could at the place where he could hear the laughing. He flailed his stick, striking at his invisible foes. He prayed he could hit a single one of the sniveling brats and show them their actions had consequences.

Instead, he heard delighted squealing as a pack of children started running about him. They grabbed at his clothes, they pushed his knees, and they grabbed at his stick. They laughed and laughed as they toyed with Theo.

Finally, after Theo sat still for long enough that the children stopped having fun tormenting him, one child spoke quietly, "thanks for playing with us, mister. I hope you want to do it again."

It was the final straw on Theo's camel back. These kids didn't even think what they were doing was wrong, they were just playing a game with him. Maybe that was the worst part is that he had been trying to hurt them, but they were just playing around with him.

Even with all his training and skill from before, he couldn't even match these kids in the field of combat.

A weariness settled into Theo's bones as he started wandering back to Joy's family house. What could he do? Theo couldn't hide inside all day. Could he?

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As he closed the door to the house, Joy's parents walked over to him and asked about his mussed-up hair and clothes. He didn't respond, he simply walked into the room they had given him and lay down on the bed.

A deep sleep took over Theo's mind and he dreamt of being able to see again. He saw colors more vividly. He saw shapes with more edges than he could imagine. It was beautiful inside his mind for that moment before he remembered that he couldn't see those things anymore.

The next morning Theo didn't get out of bed. Nor the morning after that.

It slowly turned into a week of languishing in this bed. Every day it became a little easier to not get up. The parts of his body that wanted so badly to move and be free were being silenced by the parts of his mind that could feel the stares and the children's rocks that were just waiting for him to leave this room.

One day in this eternity someone knocked on his door. This was a new development since Joy's parents simply barged in whenever they wanted. Who would have the decency to knock on the blind man's door?

Someone shuffled into Theo's room and quietly closed the door behind them. Theo didn't react to them. He hoped they would go away and leave him to his important business.

"Hello. My name is Terry, short for Theresa." Terry had a quiet and feminine voice. They spoke without overenunciating their consonants, letting them blend soothingly.

"What do you want? What are you doing here? When will you leave?" Theo tried to make it very clear how little he wanted to be having this interaction. Hopefully, the other person would leave if he was rude enough.

"I want to talk to you a little. You are in this room and seem to never leave it. And I will leave whenever you wish me to." Terry spoke quietly, but they made no attempts at subtlety. Theo was intrigued, but mostly annoyed.

"Please leave then." Theo rolled over in his bed, turning his back to the newcomer.

"Alright then." Theo listened intently as Terry stood up from the chair and started walking towards the exit. There seemed to be no trick, this person seemed to have left as quickly as they arrived. Theo congratulated himself for defending his territory and not letting anyone disturb his peace.

An unknowable amount of time passed again. Theo felt the air cool on his face as the day turned to night, then it heated up again as the sun rose and a new day began.

Theo was preparing himself for yet another day of peaceful silence when a polite knock came at his door again.

"Come in." Theo called out angrily. His irritation was plain, and he could already guess what this was.

"Good morning, Theo. I am back." Terry spoke to Theo in the same calming voice that they had used the day before.

"Why are you back?"

"Because I want to talk to you. I am hoping my persistence will grow on you."

"It won't."

"It will."

"It won't"

"It already has."

Theo thought for a moment. Had this inane idea already worked? Terry seemed to respect his wishes, but she was still being irritating and ruining his peace.

"Get out." Theo said with finality and turned away from Terry again.

"Of course. I will talk to you tomorrow then." Terry hummed quietly as she quietly shuffled away, closing the door behind them softly.

Time erodes everything. Theo's curmudgeonly nature battled with Terry's quiet companionship over the next few days. The two of them were in a deadly dance where neither could accept defeat. Theo would never relinquish this strange power he felt in his interactions with this woman, and Terry seemed unwilling to just give up and leave him alone.

Finally, one day during their cyclic battle Theo asked, "why are you here?"

Theo could hear the smile twitching on the woman's face, he could smell her smugness. She thought that she had won because he had asked about her purpose. Theo stifled his anger that she thought she could best him, he would plan his revenge to be sweet.

"I am here because I teach the children around the village. I am their teacher, and I heard how they treated you. I originally came to apologize for their actions, now I am simply here because I think you would be a wonderful teacher for them as well."

Theo started at that. Terry and never mentioned children or teaching before, and Theo had no experience with anything even close to teaching. Why would he even consider it?

"Why would I be a good teacher?" Theo questioned Terry, preparing to end their little conversation after her response.

"Because children need to learn that there are people different than them everywhere. They need to see a deaf man who can speak. They need to see a blind man who can fight. They need to see a foolish man learn. Otherwise, they might believe they can do nothing in their lives other than what they already can."

Theo politely asked Terry to leave after she dropped this bomb on him. He wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

Did Terry want him as a teacher or a lesson for these kids? What lesson could he even teach, restricted as he was?

Unfortunately, Theo's mind was made up for him.

One day, Joy's mother walked into Theo's room without knocking. She treated this room as if she were the queen of its domain, which in some sense she was. She owned the whole place.

She began talking at him without a care for his personal loneliness. "I never cared for the way that Joy wants to live his life. But by the gods he lives it. You, on the other hand, are sitting in your own filth feeling sorry for yourself."

"But…" Theo tried to interject but was immediately shut down by the forceful woman.

"The very kind Ms. Theresa has offered you a job and you are going to take it. You have been living under my roof and eating my bread for a while now and I refuse to see such a bright youth squandered in my guest room. Either get to work or get out of my house." Joy's mother breathed heavily through her nostrils. Obviously, this had been something weighing on her mind and she was relieved to have finally let it out.

Theo found himself being moved from the bed by a kind but firm pair of hands. The hands forced him to take a bath and get dressed.

Theo was dressed and fed and shoved out the door with only his walking stick. He had no clue where the school was, or where Terry would be. But suddenly he was walking there, being pushed along by the same hands.

Soon Theo could smell the dirt in the air and could hear the squeals of children. They reeked, but he now had a new appreciation for the fact that he had reeked more than they did only a few hours prior.

"Ms. Theresa, I brought you Theo." Joy's mother dropped him off as if he were a child going to the school rather than a full-blown adult.

"I'm so glad you decided to come Theo. We are excited to have you start."

Something new was in the air, and Theo had been forced into it. He longed for his bed and the comfort of the room he knew so well. But his feet were dragged along by some invisible force.

Theo was going to be a teacher.