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toxic_cornSeries: When I Was A Boy
Title: Let's Hear it for the Boy (5/12)
Author: Toxic Corn
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Firefly and all its characters belong to Joss Whedon. The kids are all mine.
Notes: The sequel series to Songs From a Firefly. You can catch up on earlier chapters of this series here. I use another Beatles tune in this story so when you come across it... I didn't write it, obviously.
Let’s Hear It For the Boy
“Here they come, get ready!” Gramma Cobb hobbled as fast as she could to the piano and practically leapt onto the bench, where she started to pound out notes.
Ma and Pop walked in the door, hand in hand. “What-”
“Good day, sunshine,” Jamey and Nettie sang together. “I need to laugh, and when the sun is out, I’ve got something I can laugh about. I feel good, in a special way, I’m in love and it’s a sunny day, Good day sunshine!”
Normally, Nettie was the one with the musical gift. Jamey could play guitar some and he sang in choir but whenever he sang with Nettie, everyone else would stop what they were doing to listen. Shepherd Book said that their kind of harmony was possible because they were blood relations. All he knew was that whenever he and Nettie sang together, their parents would melt right before their eyes.
So this song was the perfect anniversary gift for them.
“Good day, sunshine,” they continued and watched as Ma pressed her head to Pop’s shoulder, a dreamy smile on her face.
“AROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Gramma Cobb’s piano-playing came to a halt.
“AROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” Andy Cobb came tearing into the room, panting, a grin on his stupid face. “Didja hear that? Somethin’s got all the dogs nearby howlin’! Wonder what it could be.”
Nettie scowled. “You’re ruining our song!”
“Ya did that yerself, Wettie Nettie.” Andy stuck out his tongue.
“You shut up!” Nettie balled up her fists but Jamey quickly grabbed her arm.
“Happy Anniversary,” he said to Ma and Pop. They stopped glaring at Andy themselves and came forward to give him and Nettie hugs, ignoring Andy as he made loud gagging noises.
~*~
“I wish David and Nova could’ve come with us,” Nettie said, tossing a horseshoe. It missed its mark and landed with a muffled THUNK as it hit the ground. “Then we could team up and ignore Andy.”
“You and me can team up to ignore Andy,” Jamey pointed out, tossing his own horseshoe. It hit the metal peg in the ground with a clang. “Besides, if they were here, Nova would go questioning him when he starts to gettin’ all know-it-all-y and David’s too nice to let us ignore him.”
“Okay, then how about Lady, Vee, and Ben?”
“Vee would kill him.”
“That’s my point.”
Jamey laughed. “Well, we’re doin’ fine so far. It’s been, what, fifteen minutes since we last saw him?”
“Gramma says you have to let me play!”
Nettie groaned. “Oh, great.”
Andy Cobb marched over, jaw set aggressively, clearly looking for a fight. Jamey could never really understand why his cousin was so antagonistic. When he was littler, he’d asked his parents why. Pop said it was because Andy had been dropped on his head as a baby and Ma said that Andy didn’t like competition for Gramma Cobb’s attention, since he and his sister Helen and Uncle Mattie and Aunt Cora lived closer to her house and got to see her more often than Jamey and Nettie.
“We were just finishing up,” Nettie said. “We don’t wanna play anymore.”
“Huh uh! You just came out here, you ain’t done yet!” Andy loomed closer to Nettie, nostrils flaring. “I’m gonna tell Gramma if you don’t let me play.”
Nettie tossed her head, narrowing her eyes. “We’re not keeping you from playing. We’re just not gonna play with you.”
“You’re an ugly little bitch,” Andy snarled.
Jamey had been watching the two with amusement but stepped forward, using his considerable height to intimidate his cousin. “You don’t wanna be sayin’ anything like that again.”
For a second Andy looked frightened, then he smirked. “You do anything ‘n I’ll tell Gramma.”
“Why do ya need an eighty year old lady t’ fight yer battles for ya, Andrew?” Jamey said. “Besides, all I said was you don’t wanna be callin’ my sister a bitch again.”
“Why dontcha just call my sister a bitch back?” Andy snapped.
“Three reasons,” Jamey said and started counting them off. “One; cuz she ain’t though I bet you call her one every damn day, two; if I did, you’d just go run off and tattle like our four year old cousin does and three, I’m nowhere near as dumb as you are and know that’s a stupid comeback.”
Andy turned bright red. “Yeah, well, you shouldn’t even be here!”
“You’re tellin’ us,” Nettie said, rolling her eyes. “We wanted to go with our Tam cousins but Daddy said-”
“I didn’t mean that,” Andy said, snidely. “I mean you and your stupid brother shouldn’t even exist.
This was new. Jamey and Nettie shared a surprised look.
“Back in the day,” Andy began, “my ma was your pa’s girl. But she didn’t want him any cuz he’s a fink and she chose my pa instead.” He smiled meanly. “Your pa doesn’t even really love your ma. She’s just a replacement.”
Jamey frowned. Aunt Cora was pretty and everything, all blonde and blue-eyed but she wasn’t very bright. He couldn’t imagine Pop with the likes of her. But he had to admit that Ma sort of acted strange around Aunt Cora so maybe there was just a bit of truth to Andy’s story? Not that Pop didn’t love Ma, that was a pile of go se right there but maybe he and Aunt Cora…
“Daddy loves Mommy more than anything in the ‘verse!” Nettie shouted.
“More than you?” Andy asked, raising his eyebrows. “Well, since he don’t love your ma at all then he must really not have any love for you t-”
Before Andy could finish his sentence and before Jamey could even blink, Nettie socked Andy right in the mouth. They all gaped at each other in surprised silence before Nettie and Andy burst into tears simultaneously and took off in different directions.
“Nettie!” Jamey ran after his little sister, leaving his cousin to take care of himself. He was eleven, only a year younger than Jamey. He could deal with himself, hypothetically. If he wasn’t a total mama’s boy, that is.
“Leave me alone!” Nettie shouted after her shoulder. “Gramma’s gonna whoop me and I want my cries out first!”
Jamey slowed down and watched Nettie duck through the trees. She was right; Gramma didn’t hold with fighting and she had a strict punishment for it when it did happen.
So he turned and went back to the house, something niggling at his mind. He couldn’t think what it was and just let it slide, figuring it was just his dread over all the trouble that was gonna come later.
~*~
“Nettie normally doesn’t hit,” Ma was saying, looking troubled. “Are you sure you did nothing at all?”
“My Andy doesn’t lie!” Aunt Cora exclaimed, wrapping an arm around Andy’s shoulders. The little slug sniveled and held his ice pack a little tighter to his mouth.
Pop scowled. “My ass he doesn’t.”
Uncle Mattie looked doubtful himself. “Andrew, what happened out there?”
“I told Jamey and Nettie that I wanted to play horseshoes too and they wouldn’t let me. When I said that it wasn’t fair for ‘em to gang up on me, Nettie punched me.”
“Bullsh-”
“Jayne!” Ma put a hand on Pop’s arm, silencing him. “Andy, Nettie is a very sweet girl, she would never hurt anyone on purpose.”
“River, hon, I know you think you know your daughter best,” Aunt Cora said, and Jamey cringed at her condescending tone, “but children act different around their own than they do their parents.”
Jamey chose that instant to walk in the door. “So how about you listen to what I got t’ say about Andy?”
Everyone jumped in surprise and to Jamey’s grim satisfaction, he saw Andy start looking a little nervous.
“Well, someone tell us what happened,” Gramma Cobb snapped. “I got a bleeding grandson and a granddaughter that done run off.”
Jamey cleared his throat uncomfortably. He knew that this wasn’t tattling but it felt really close. He looked around and caught Pop’s eye, saw that he understood Jamey’s problem, and that gave him a bit more courage.
“Andy was spoutin’ off about Pop not really lovin’ Ma. We knew that that was g- uh, not true so it didn’t bother us much. Until he said that Pop didn’t love me ‘n Nettie at all. That upset Nettie somethin’ fierce and she ran off t-”
The little worry he had suddenly grew. She’d run off into the woods. The woods on the side of the house that led to the swamp. The swamp where somebody disappeared every year, sometimes a child, sometimes a drunk, or sometimes a hunting dog that got caught up in the chase.
“Oh god!” Jamey exclaimed, startling everyone in the room, and tore out the door.
~*~
“NETTIE!” Jamey tromped along, mucking up his boots and pants but not really caring. “NETTIE!!”
It was starting to get dark. Maybe he shouldn’t have taken off like he did. Maybe he should’ve grabbed a flashlight. Or gee, I don’t know, told Pop what was going on?!
Cursing his foolishness, Jamey knew he couldn’t stop now. He was too far in and he couldn’t just leave his baby sister, no matter what a little idiot she was running off in here. Of course, he hadn’t been too bright himself. They’d been gone for two years but they’d both managed to forget that this stretch of woods was forbidden to them.
God damn Andy.
“Nettie!!” Jamey lost his footing and fell into the nasty water, getting some in his mouth. He started gagging it out and scrambled back to his feet. Which way had he been walking? Which way was further in and which way led him out?
Great. If he ever found Nettie, he’d at least have company when they both died out in the woods. They’d be like Hansel and Gretel, without the breadcrumbs. Or the gingerbread house. Or the wicked stepmother.
Okay, so they wouldn’t be like Hansel and Gretel at all.
Grumbling, Jamey continued on his way, once in awhile calling out to Nettie. It had been so long, he’d stopped waiting for a response so it took him a few minutes to realize someone was faintly calling back to him. He stopped.
“Nettie?”
“I’M OVER HERE!”
Jamey veered off to the right and crashed through the bushes before finding his little sister huddled in a frightened heap on one of the muddy islands.
“Well, come on, stupid,” Jamey said, exasperated.
Nettie’s face was dirty except for the spots where her tears had washed her face clean. “I tried to find my way out but I couldn’t.”
“Well, that’s cuz you don’t got the sense of a dishcloth. Now come on so we can go.” Jamey held out a hand, irritated with her.
“Do you know the way out?” Nettie asked suspiciously as she waded through the water to get to him, making a face all the while.
“’Course,” he bluffed.
~*~
“I don’t think you really know the way out,” Nettie said flatly about twenty minutes later.
“Sure I do. It’s just this way.”
“Jamey, we’re going in circles!”
“How the hell do you know?!”
“Because that rock over there looks like a witch and we passed it twice now!” Nearby, an owl hooted and she jumped and grabbed Jamey’s hand. “Please get us out of here!”
Jamey scowled. “Well, it ain’t easy. It’s all dark and stuff.”
“We’re gonna die.”
“Shut up!”
“We’re gonna die and the crocs are gonna eat us!”
“No they won’t.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“Because crocs don’t live in this swamp. If anything’s gonna eat us, it’s the alligators.”
“Oh, that makes me feel so much better!”
They crabbed at each other a little longer before they heard, “Jamey? Nettie?”
“Pop?”
“Daddy?”
“Follow my voice!” Pop called. “When I get my hands on you two, I’m gonna twist your heads off your necks! Do you know how much you had us worried? Gramma called the lawman, that’s how worried we all were! Wait ‘til I get my hands on you!”
Jamey smiled weakly at Nettie. “Maybe we should stay and take our chances with the gators.”
“Maybe.”
But once they were out of the swamp, Pop swept them up into his arms and didn’t let them go for hours. Of course, that didn’t let up the steady stream of threats he issued but as long as he wasn’t gonna carry any of ‘em out, that was fine with Jamey.
~*~
In the end, everyone believed Jamey and Nettie’s story, even Aunt Cora. Andy had to cut firewood for three weeks, his most hated chore, and he had to buy Jamey and Nettie candy with his allowance.
Nettie didn’t get punished for fighting. Everyone involved figured that wandering around in a swamp for four hours was punishment enough.
Jamey was treated like a hero for the rest of the visit, which never really sat right with him. The way he saw it, his little sister was his responsibility and he hadn’t had a choice but to follow her in. Still, it felt pretty nice to have Nettie grabbing extra rolls at supper time and putting them on his plate, smiling at him like he was Captain Galaxy or someone.
May as well enjoy it while it lasts.
END
Previous < Blue Christmas : Next > Momentary Thing
Title: Let's Hear it for the Boy (5/12)
Author: Toxic Corn
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Firefly and all its characters belong to Joss Whedon. The kids are all mine.
Notes: The sequel series to Songs From a Firefly. You can catch up on earlier chapters of this series here. I use another Beatles tune in this story so when you come across it... I didn't write it, obviously.
Let’s Hear It For the Boy
“Here they come, get ready!” Gramma Cobb hobbled as fast as she could to the piano and practically leapt onto the bench, where she started to pound out notes.
Ma and Pop walked in the door, hand in hand. “What-”
“Good day, sunshine,” Jamey and Nettie sang together. “I need to laugh, and when the sun is out, I’ve got something I can laugh about. I feel good, in a special way, I’m in love and it’s a sunny day, Good day sunshine!”
Normally, Nettie was the one with the musical gift. Jamey could play guitar some and he sang in choir but whenever he sang with Nettie, everyone else would stop what they were doing to listen. Shepherd Book said that their kind of harmony was possible because they were blood relations. All he knew was that whenever he and Nettie sang together, their parents would melt right before their eyes.
So this song was the perfect anniversary gift for them.
“Good day, sunshine,” they continued and watched as Ma pressed her head to Pop’s shoulder, a dreamy smile on her face.
“AROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Gramma Cobb’s piano-playing came to a halt.
“AROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” Andy Cobb came tearing into the room, panting, a grin on his stupid face. “Didja hear that? Somethin’s got all the dogs nearby howlin’! Wonder what it could be.”
Nettie scowled. “You’re ruining our song!”
“Ya did that yerself, Wettie Nettie.” Andy stuck out his tongue.
“You shut up!” Nettie balled up her fists but Jamey quickly grabbed her arm.
“Happy Anniversary,” he said to Ma and Pop. They stopped glaring at Andy themselves and came forward to give him and Nettie hugs, ignoring Andy as he made loud gagging noises.
“I wish David and Nova could’ve come with us,” Nettie said, tossing a horseshoe. It missed its mark and landed with a muffled THUNK as it hit the ground. “Then we could team up and ignore Andy.”
“You and me can team up to ignore Andy,” Jamey pointed out, tossing his own horseshoe. It hit the metal peg in the ground with a clang. “Besides, if they were here, Nova would go questioning him when he starts to gettin’ all know-it-all-y and David’s too nice to let us ignore him.”
“Okay, then how about Lady, Vee, and Ben?”
“Vee would kill him.”
“That’s my point.”
Jamey laughed. “Well, we’re doin’ fine so far. It’s been, what, fifteen minutes since we last saw him?”
“Gramma says you have to let me play!”
Nettie groaned. “Oh, great.”
Andy Cobb marched over, jaw set aggressively, clearly looking for a fight. Jamey could never really understand why his cousin was so antagonistic. When he was littler, he’d asked his parents why. Pop said it was because Andy had been dropped on his head as a baby and Ma said that Andy didn’t like competition for Gramma Cobb’s attention, since he and his sister Helen and Uncle Mattie and Aunt Cora lived closer to her house and got to see her more often than Jamey and Nettie.
“We were just finishing up,” Nettie said. “We don’t wanna play anymore.”
“Huh uh! You just came out here, you ain’t done yet!” Andy loomed closer to Nettie, nostrils flaring. “I’m gonna tell Gramma if you don’t let me play.”
Nettie tossed her head, narrowing her eyes. “We’re not keeping you from playing. We’re just not gonna play with you.”
“You’re an ugly little bitch,” Andy snarled.
Jamey had been watching the two with amusement but stepped forward, using his considerable height to intimidate his cousin. “You don’t wanna be sayin’ anything like that again.”
For a second Andy looked frightened, then he smirked. “You do anything ‘n I’ll tell Gramma.”
“Why do ya need an eighty year old lady t’ fight yer battles for ya, Andrew?” Jamey said. “Besides, all I said was you don’t wanna be callin’ my sister a bitch again.”
“Why dontcha just call my sister a bitch back?” Andy snapped.
“Three reasons,” Jamey said and started counting them off. “One; cuz she ain’t though I bet you call her one every damn day, two; if I did, you’d just go run off and tattle like our four year old cousin does and three, I’m nowhere near as dumb as you are and know that’s a stupid comeback.”
Andy turned bright red. “Yeah, well, you shouldn’t even be here!”
“You’re tellin’ us,” Nettie said, rolling her eyes. “We wanted to go with our Tam cousins but Daddy said-”
“I didn’t mean that,” Andy said, snidely. “I mean you and your stupid brother shouldn’t even exist.
This was new. Jamey and Nettie shared a surprised look.
“Back in the day,” Andy began, “my ma was your pa’s girl. But she didn’t want him any cuz he’s a fink and she chose my pa instead.” He smiled meanly. “Your pa doesn’t even really love your ma. She’s just a replacement.”
Jamey frowned. Aunt Cora was pretty and everything, all blonde and blue-eyed but she wasn’t very bright. He couldn’t imagine Pop with the likes of her. But he had to admit that Ma sort of acted strange around Aunt Cora so maybe there was just a bit of truth to Andy’s story? Not that Pop didn’t love Ma, that was a pile of go se right there but maybe he and Aunt Cora…
“Daddy loves Mommy more than anything in the ‘verse!” Nettie shouted.
“More than you?” Andy asked, raising his eyebrows. “Well, since he don’t love your ma at all then he must really not have any love for you t-”
Before Andy could finish his sentence and before Jamey could even blink, Nettie socked Andy right in the mouth. They all gaped at each other in surprised silence before Nettie and Andy burst into tears simultaneously and took off in different directions.
“Nettie!” Jamey ran after his little sister, leaving his cousin to take care of himself. He was eleven, only a year younger than Jamey. He could deal with himself, hypothetically. If he wasn’t a total mama’s boy, that is.
“Leave me alone!” Nettie shouted after her shoulder. “Gramma’s gonna whoop me and I want my cries out first!”
Jamey slowed down and watched Nettie duck through the trees. She was right; Gramma didn’t hold with fighting and she had a strict punishment for it when it did happen.
So he turned and went back to the house, something niggling at his mind. He couldn’t think what it was and just let it slide, figuring it was just his dread over all the trouble that was gonna come later.
“Nettie normally doesn’t hit,” Ma was saying, looking troubled. “Are you sure you did nothing at all?”
“My Andy doesn’t lie!” Aunt Cora exclaimed, wrapping an arm around Andy’s shoulders. The little slug sniveled and held his ice pack a little tighter to his mouth.
Pop scowled. “My ass he doesn’t.”
Uncle Mattie looked doubtful himself. “Andrew, what happened out there?”
“I told Jamey and Nettie that I wanted to play horseshoes too and they wouldn’t let me. When I said that it wasn’t fair for ‘em to gang up on me, Nettie punched me.”
“Bullsh-”
“Jayne!” Ma put a hand on Pop’s arm, silencing him. “Andy, Nettie is a very sweet girl, she would never hurt anyone on purpose.”
“River, hon, I know you think you know your daughter best,” Aunt Cora said, and Jamey cringed at her condescending tone, “but children act different around their own than they do their parents.”
Jamey chose that instant to walk in the door. “So how about you listen to what I got t’ say about Andy?”
Everyone jumped in surprise and to Jamey’s grim satisfaction, he saw Andy start looking a little nervous.
“Well, someone tell us what happened,” Gramma Cobb snapped. “I got a bleeding grandson and a granddaughter that done run off.”
Jamey cleared his throat uncomfortably. He knew that this wasn’t tattling but it felt really close. He looked around and caught Pop’s eye, saw that he understood Jamey’s problem, and that gave him a bit more courage.
“Andy was spoutin’ off about Pop not really lovin’ Ma. We knew that that was g- uh, not true so it didn’t bother us much. Until he said that Pop didn’t love me ‘n Nettie at all. That upset Nettie somethin’ fierce and she ran off t-”
The little worry he had suddenly grew. She’d run off into the woods. The woods on the side of the house that led to the swamp. The swamp where somebody disappeared every year, sometimes a child, sometimes a drunk, or sometimes a hunting dog that got caught up in the chase.
“Oh god!” Jamey exclaimed, startling everyone in the room, and tore out the door.
“NETTIE!” Jamey tromped along, mucking up his boots and pants but not really caring. “NETTIE!!”
It was starting to get dark. Maybe he shouldn’t have taken off like he did. Maybe he should’ve grabbed a flashlight. Or gee, I don’t know, told Pop what was going on?!
Cursing his foolishness, Jamey knew he couldn’t stop now. He was too far in and he couldn’t just leave his baby sister, no matter what a little idiot she was running off in here. Of course, he hadn’t been too bright himself. They’d been gone for two years but they’d both managed to forget that this stretch of woods was forbidden to them.
God damn Andy.
“Nettie!!” Jamey lost his footing and fell into the nasty water, getting some in his mouth. He started gagging it out and scrambled back to his feet. Which way had he been walking? Which way was further in and which way led him out?
Great. If he ever found Nettie, he’d at least have company when they both died out in the woods. They’d be like Hansel and Gretel, without the breadcrumbs. Or the gingerbread house. Or the wicked stepmother.
Okay, so they wouldn’t be like Hansel and Gretel at all.
Grumbling, Jamey continued on his way, once in awhile calling out to Nettie. It had been so long, he’d stopped waiting for a response so it took him a few minutes to realize someone was faintly calling back to him. He stopped.
“Nettie?”
“I’M OVER HERE!”
Jamey veered off to the right and crashed through the bushes before finding his little sister huddled in a frightened heap on one of the muddy islands.
“Well, come on, stupid,” Jamey said, exasperated.
Nettie’s face was dirty except for the spots where her tears had washed her face clean. “I tried to find my way out but I couldn’t.”
“Well, that’s cuz you don’t got the sense of a dishcloth. Now come on so we can go.” Jamey held out a hand, irritated with her.
“Do you know the way out?” Nettie asked suspiciously as she waded through the water to get to him, making a face all the while.
“’Course,” he bluffed.
“I don’t think you really know the way out,” Nettie said flatly about twenty minutes later.
“Sure I do. It’s just this way.”
“Jamey, we’re going in circles!”
“How the hell do you know?!”
“Because that rock over there looks like a witch and we passed it twice now!” Nearby, an owl hooted and she jumped and grabbed Jamey’s hand. “Please get us out of here!”
Jamey scowled. “Well, it ain’t easy. It’s all dark and stuff.”
“We’re gonna die.”
“Shut up!”
“We’re gonna die and the crocs are gonna eat us!”
“No they won’t.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“Because crocs don’t live in this swamp. If anything’s gonna eat us, it’s the alligators.”
“Oh, that makes me feel so much better!”
They crabbed at each other a little longer before they heard, “Jamey? Nettie?”
“Pop?”
“Daddy?”
“Follow my voice!” Pop called. “When I get my hands on you two, I’m gonna twist your heads off your necks! Do you know how much you had us worried? Gramma called the lawman, that’s how worried we all were! Wait ‘til I get my hands on you!”
Jamey smiled weakly at Nettie. “Maybe we should stay and take our chances with the gators.”
“Maybe.”
But once they were out of the swamp, Pop swept them up into his arms and didn’t let them go for hours. Of course, that didn’t let up the steady stream of threats he issued but as long as he wasn’t gonna carry any of ‘em out, that was fine with Jamey.
In the end, everyone believed Jamey and Nettie’s story, even Aunt Cora. Andy had to cut firewood for three weeks, his most hated chore, and he had to buy Jamey and Nettie candy with his allowance.
Nettie didn’t get punished for fighting. Everyone involved figured that wandering around in a swamp for four hours was punishment enough.
Jamey was treated like a hero for the rest of the visit, which never really sat right with him. The way he saw it, his little sister was his responsibility and he hadn’t had a choice but to follow her in. Still, it felt pretty nice to have Nettie grabbing extra rolls at supper time and putting them on his plate, smiling at him like he was Captain Galaxy or someone.
May as well enjoy it while it lasts.
END
Previous < Blue Christmas : Next > Momentary Thing
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-10-31 12:20 am (UTC)That kid sounds like a terror. I'd hate to see her during puberty once all those hormones kick in. Your family should invest in crash helmets.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-31 12:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-31 12:30 am (UTC)Yeah, that just made me shudder.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-31 12:32 am (UTC)I love my uncle, but he doesn't believe his grandkids can do wrong.