The Misadventures of Samantha and Malcolm/Chapter 9 Xmas

It was the first time in Malcolm’s life he could remember being excited to go to the gymnasium. He had always associated the expansive construction with the thousand jeering voices of his classmates at his physical inabilities, never before with the opportunity to apply his technical skill. “Are we ready yet Malcolm?” asked Ms Fesse. “Yes Ma’am,” answered Malcolm, “he’s all connected.” “Alex?” asked Ms. Fesse. “We’re all green,” answered Alex from the main console. On the display in front of him there was a wire model giving a rough approximation of Anthony’s skeleton. “Ready Anthony?” asked Ms. Fesse. Anthony gave the thumbs up sign. Over his school uniform, he was wearing special boots, knee pads, elbow pads, shoulder pads, gloves, belt and helmet. “Okay, cue the music,” ordered the teacher. Alex played a recording of a jazzy piano. “Okay, Anthony,” Ms. Fesse directed the boy’s movements: “You poke your head over, you like the tune, you’re tapping your feet, keep in rhythm, you get up on the step, you’re jumping and waving your hands in the air, you’re kicking up your feet, you’re having the time of your life, the music stops, you look to the right you look to the left, they’re glaring at you, you stop dancing, you’ve never been so embarrassed in your life, you slink down and you crawl away in shame and CUT! Okay how was that?” “Perfect,” said Alex. “Okay let’s do it two more times,” said the teacher. The three boys rolled their eyes. After five more takes and Ms. Fesse deciding the first one was the best, Natalie approached the gymnasium work station. “Um excuse me,” said Natalie, “I’ve got the last set designs for the tree farm and Snoopy’s decorations.” She handed a tablet to her teacher and Ms. Fesse uploaded it to the display console. The rest of the cast was filing in through the doors. The integrated holographic overlays in the entire gymnasium allowed school plays to be a bit more ambitious with set designs. The school graphics engine allowed teachers to turn their student’s artwork into two dimensional sets and props. Natalie was the natural choice to draw the sets, not so much that she was the best artist in the school, but that her stroke work was the closest to the endearing simplicity of the source work. As Ms. Fesse went over her new drawings, Natalie was nervous. Her teacher had instructed her to do over most of her concept drawings over because they were too colorful. “Good, good,” said Ms. Fesse. “A nice explosion of color to contrast the rest of the production. That’s just what we needed. Thank you Natalie.” “You’re welcome Ms. Fesse,” answered an elated Natalie. “Do me a favor,” said Ms. Fesse. “Go and get Steven and tell him we need to do his scenes with Snoopy.” The girl was off. “Boys,” she addressed Alex and Malcolm, “Can you have this ready by the twenty-third?” she handed Alex the tablet. “We can have this ready by tonight,” answered Alex. “I still don’t know what I’m going to get her,” said Malcolm. The footage they just shot was rendering and all the boys were gathered around the console. “Hey Anthony, what are you getting Rinni?” “I wanted to get her this collection of an old series that I thought she would like called ‘Haunted Junction,’ but it was too far out of my price range. I had to settle for four episodes of another series out of the bargain bin.” “What’s it called?” asked Stephen. “‘Loveless,’ I really hope she likes it,” said Anthony. “Well let’s see,” said Alex, “how about a commbrace? You’d have trouble finding a girl on Paradiso who didn’t have one,” he was referring to a popular toy amongst Kindern children that was a combination of communications device, data storage, digital pet/assistant, and other purchasable applications. “We can show them the culture they missed out on.” “That’s kind of expensive...” said Malcolm. “How much money do you have?” asked Alex. Malcolm quoted him the figure his father had given him. “That limits the field considerably,” said Alex. “It has to be something special, then,” said Steven “Hey, what about that fabrication shop you apprenticed at?” asked Alex. “With that much, you could probably make her something nice.” “Oh man,” said Malcolm. “I forgot about that.” He started adding up costing formulas in his head. The holographic image of Snoopy licked Jaydee’s face. “OH! I’ve been kissed by a dog!” exclaimed Jaydee. “Get hot water, get some disinfectant, get some iodine!” “Jaydee,” addressed Ms. Fesse. “Yes, Ma’am?” Jaydee froze on the spot waiting for instructions. “I need more,” said the teacher. “I need more screaming and running around, I want you running around like someone just dropped an eel down your shirt. Can you try that?” “I’ll see what I can do,” said Jaydee. “Excuse me Ma’am,” said Malcolm as he appeared at Ms. Fesse’s side, “I’m ready over here.” “Okay, I’ll be right over. Jaydee, work on being crazy,” said Ms. Fesse. It was a tremendous effort on Jaydee’s part to not say something sarcastic. “So,” said Samantha, who was sitting down close by, “what do you want for Christmas?” “A star-ship home,” said Jaydee. they both laughed. “Seriously, though, I’m not used to doing a big Christmas thing. Back in Hong Kong we have the Chinese New Year holiday. “Really, what’s that like?” asked Samantha. “Oh, it’s our big thing,” said Jaydee. “Big parades, fireworks. We visit our family members and have big feasts. The adults distribute new clothes and toys to children along with red envelopes full of money and good luck.” “Sounds like the opposite of a red file,” remarked Samantha. “You know,” said Jaydee, “I never made the correlation, but yeah that’s basically the opposite of a red file. There was that first Christmas I spent with my uncle. He took me to his agency's holiday party. Picture three spec ops guys trying to convince an eleven year old Chinese girl that Santa Claus is real. Looking back it was pretty funny.” “Okay, watch,” said Malcolm as he demonstrated his modifications to the stage’s force field generator. A series of three very tall ‘steps’ with a texture map similar to a wooden stage floor rose up. “You see, in the original shot of the dance scene, the camera had a very high perspective,” said Malcolm. “If we place ourselves on these steps, we can simulate that perspective as we dance.” he grinned. He was sure that it was a very good idea. “Um, Malcolm,” said Ms Fesse, “That top step there rises over fifteen feet off the ground.” “Yeah,” confirmed Malcolm. “What if someone falls off?” said Ms. Fesse. “Oh,” Malcolm hadn’t thought of that, “I hadn’t thought of that.” “I mean it would be a good idea, if everyone here had steady feet,” said Ms. Fesse, “But, given that some members of our cast are still getting used to their child legs...” “Yes, Ma’am, I see. Safety trumps creativity,” resigned Malcolm. “Exactly,” said Ms. Fesse. “Do you have your big speech memorized yet?” “Um,” said Malcolm. “Well you better go work on that,” said Ms. Fesse. Malcolm reset the stage to the standard configuration and picked up his script. He walked as he went over the lines. “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field...” he made his way back to the hologram console where Samantha and Rinni were doing a scene as Alex monitored the readouts. “You’re an absolute mess, just look at yourself,” Rinni recited her line and handed the mirror to Samantha. “Actually, I didn’t think I looked that good,” said Samantha amid a holographic cloud of dirt. Originally Natalie had drawn the roll of Pig Pen, but Samantha had been all too happy to trade the role of Sally to her (Samantha would grab any excuse to wear pants). “Okay,” said Alex, “it works.” They had been testing their set up for Pig-Pen’s trademark cloud of dust. Malcolm had rigged up a tracer that Samantha would wear on a string around her neck. The hologram generators would move the cloud wherever the tracer went. “...and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid...” said Maloclm, Rinni tapped him on his shoulder. “Hey, you dropped this. What’s this anyway?” asked Rinni. She was holding up a crumpled piece of paper with some technical diagrams that Malcolm guessed must have fallen out of his pocket when he took out his speech. “What? Oh. It’s a failed prototype,” said Malcolm. “I was trying to design a home-made commbrace for Natalie. It was gonna have this secret trick that would show her name if you twisted the clasp and folded it over, but i couldn’t make it fit into the costing formulas and...” “Malcolm, who is she going to call on her commbrace?” asked Rinni. “You know those are only given to volunteras and kindern and we don’t know any of those.” “I know,” sighed Malcolm. “Besides, how were you going to sneak it past the parents?” asked Rinni. “They’ll take one look and say ‘I don’t think so.’” “I know,” sighed Malcolm. “But, she’s wonderful, she’s creative, she’s nice, she’s funny, she’s pretty...What’s the perfect gift to give her?” “Perfect?” asked Rinni. “Malcolm, is Natalie the type of girl who will break up with you over a Christmas present?” “What? No!” said Malcolm. “Well, then you probably don’t need to worry about absolute perfection,” assured Rinni. “That’s just gonna put pressure on you you don’t need. I mean if you put your heart into it and consider what she likes, she’ll love it all the same. Obsessing over perfection is just going to give you stress you don’t need.” Consider what she likes... thought Malcolm. What was that she said once she’s most happy when she’s wearing five separate colors...oh, five colors...five letters... “THAT’S IT!” the boy exclaimed. Rinni jumped back. The holiday season was no less busy for Morten Cayden’s Fabrication Station than for any other retail shop. It was a quaint little place nestled between a hot dog restaurant and a shoe store. Alison opened the door and held it open for her son. Inside Malcolm saw the same set up he had greeted every afternoon for several years: four adult grade consoles on the east, two child grade consoles on the west and the cost counter to the north, behind which sat Mr. Cayden, Malcolm’s old boss, staring at a desk mounted screen. All of the consoles had clear supply lines from their manufacturing platforms to the back wall. Alison approached him. “Pardon me?” she said. Morten Cayden was a man in his late sixties with a balding head and a large nose full of ruptured capillaries. He looked up and was clearly pleased to find a well proportioned red head woman. “Oh, hello there,” he smiled. “How may I help you.” “It’s my little boy here who wants something,” she indicated Malcolm. “Hello, Mr. Cayden,” said Malcolm shyly. “Hello young...Bless my soul! Is that you Brandon?” said Mr. Cayden. “It’s Malcolm now, sir,” admitted Malcolm. “I heard you got sent down! Oh!” he turned back to Alison, “You don’t have a work study program do you cause I could use his-” “We don’t,” she said. “You’ll just have to wait until he’s completas.” “Oh, dang,” said Mr Cayden. “Well, what are you here for then?” “I’m well I...uh...” Malcolm stammered. “He wants to make a gift for his girlfriend,” announced Alison. Malcolm blushed. “Oooooh, you devil,” said Mr. Cayden. “You little devil. What’d you have in mind?” Malcolm fished his sketches out of this pocket and offered them to Mr. Cayden. He looked them over. “This is it?” he asked. “I thought you’d come to me with a challenge, boy.” “Well, it will be special...to her,” said Malcolm. “Alright!” said Mr. Cayden. “Let’s get cracking.” “Yes sir,” said Malcolm. He walked over to one of the kid stations. “What are you doing boy?” asked Mr. Cayden. “I was just gonna...” Malcolm gestured to the child level computer. “You get back here and get in front of the forge where you belong,” Mr. Cayden gestured to the door leading to the back of the store. “Mitzi! Mind the front, I’ve got work to do in back.” The FRG-888 (or ‘the forge’ as Mr. Cayden called it) was the shop’s professional grade fabrication platform. A chair and console were directly integrated to the automated workbench, which itself was connected to the shop’s material supplies. “Where’s the manual?” asked Malcolm. “YOU need a manual?” asked Mr. Cayden. “Yeah,” said Malcolm. “I need a boost when I sit down.” Malcolm’s lost muscle memory was something of a detriment, but he carried on inputting his parameters into the computer. His mother hovered over him to make sure he didn’t create anything inappropriate for a penny, but soon it became boring and she began to wish that he would try something sneaky just to make things more interesting. “You sure that’s the color scheme you want?” asked Mr. Cayden. “Yes,” said Malcolm. “throw the switch.” Mr. Crayden threw the switch(just for theatrics, Morten had replaced the start button with and early twentieth century style circuit breaker). Safety walls rose out of the sides from the table and mechanical manufacturing arms descended form the ceiling. Alison was soon enthralled as the automatons carved the individual pieces of the gift out of the raw materials delivered by the clear supply tubes. “Wow,” she said. “I love the smell of servo grease in the morning,” said Malcolm. “There you are,” said Mr. Cayden as he handed the finished gift to Malcolm after he had placed it in a white box with a red ribbon wrapped around it. “Now you be sure and call me to tell me if she likes it.” “I will sir,” said Malcolm. “So, how much do I owe you?” asked Alison. “Oh, this one is one the house,” said Mr. Cayden. “Oh, really because I-” said Alison. “Listen,” interrupted Mr. Cayden, “this was so paltry and Malcolm was such a good employee, I would be embarrassed to take any money over this.” He opened the door for mother and child. “Oh, thank you so much,” said Alison as she lead Malcolm out the door into the front of the shop. “Say ‘thank you,’ Malcolm.” “Oh, thank you again sir.” said Malcolm. “You’re perfectly welcome,” said Mr. Cayden, “and Happy Holidays!” “Happy holidays,” they called back as they approached the door. “You know,” said Malcolm, “I’m just now wondering what the best time to give this to NATALIE!” “MALCOLM!” exclaimed Natalie. Before Alison and Malcolm, having just entered the door, were “Aunt Jen” and Natalie. Natalie’s right hand was occupied with a piece of paper. Malcolm shoved the box behind his back as Natalie shoved her document behind her back. “So,” said Malcolm. “Small world,” said Natalie as she took a step to her left. “Yeah, really small,” Malcolm took a step to his left. “I mean, imagine meeting you here,” she took a step to her left and a little towards the front desk. “I used to work here,” he said as he took a step to his left and a little towards the door. “Really, imagine that,” by now she had her back to the kid consoles. “Yeah, had to pay the tuition for grad school somehow,” his back was to the adult consoles. “I understand that,” she said as she took two big steps and ended up in front of the counter. “Yeah, WHELP things to do!” he took two big steps and had his back to the door outside. “Me too,” said Natalie. Malcolm tried to open the door, but found his strength lacking. Alison stepped over to help him through her giggles. “Well, see you around,” he said. He stepped out the door. “Yes see you,” she said. the door closed. “Come along Malcolm,” said Alison. “Yes Ma’am,” he took one last look at Natalie through the window as he took his mother’s hand. All of the parents and a few visiting relatives filled the folding chairs in front of the physical curtain that divided the room in half on the night of the twenty third. A common trick on hologram and force field enhanced stages was to turn the whole set into a “conveyor belt” for walking scenes. The actors would walk stage left while the floor below them would move stage right. The walking actors moved from one set to another while the standing actors were conveyed off with the old scene. Steven, in a redcoat and a brown cap with a pair of skates slung over his should, was followed by Malcolm in an orange coat with a brown hat with a blue blanket trailing behind him. “I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus,” said Steven. “Christmas is coming, but I'm not happy. I don't feel the way I'm supposed to feel. I just don't understand Christmas, I guess. I like getting presents and sending Christmas cards and decorating trees and all that, but I'm still not happy. I always end up feeling depressed.” “Charlie Brown,” said Malcolm, “you're the only person I know who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem. Maybe Lucy's right. Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you're the Charlie Browniest.” “Every Christmas it’s the same,” said Anthony as he was conveyed stage left. “I always end up playing a shepherd.” He jumped off the set after he vanished behind the curtain and ducked behind the set. “And that’s all I get,” said Anthony. He marched to the back of the room, out of the way of the hustle and bustle of the production. There he, Raven, and Elizabeth had rearranged the step aerobics platforms and gym mats into crude chairs and beds. He laid himself down on a mat and relaxed. “Candy cane?” offered Raven. “Yes, thank you.” Anthony accepted. He made a bit of a show out of pretending the candy cane was a cigar. “Look at us girls, he whispered to Raven and Elizabeth. “Barely six lines to spread amongst us, but look out at that,” he gestured to the other kids running to and fro from the stage between their entrances and exits, “and you know that we have it the easiest.” “Yeah,” watching Elizabeth, “hey, five stickers says Malcolm messes up the big speech.” She gestured to Malcolm, clearly still having trouble with the script. “Cut me off a slice of that action,” said Raven. “Ladies, wake me when we need to laugh at the tree,” Anthony reclined and closed his eyes, soon enough however... “ANTHONY!” whispered Ms. Fesse as she hauled him up by his arm. “I’m Sorry!” he whispered. “You’re not in trouble, the production is!” whispered his teacher as she led him over to a hastily assembled motion capture platform that Alex was monitoring. “The file for Snoopy’s supper dish dance was corrupted!” she continued. “It was an accident, these things happen, but the show must go on!” She was dressing him in the mo-cap boots. “So now we don’t have time to shoot and convert another, so you need to do it live!” she had gotten him into his knee pads and belt and he had put on the gloves and shoulder pads himself. “Okay,” she said as Anthony put on the helmet, she turned to Alex. “Are we ready?” “Yeah all I have to do is-” he paused. “Oh NO!” he whispered. I forgot to get something to use as the reference for the supper dish!” “WHAT DO YOU NEED!” whispered Ms. Fesse. “Something he could bounce on his knee and foot!” whispered Alex. “Like a hackey sack?” asked Ms. Fesse. “SOCCER BALL!” whispered Anthony as he pointed at a soccer ball in a bin of gym equipment. Ms Fesse ran to and from the bin (surprisingly fast for a woman in a pencil skirt and high heels) and presented Anthony with the black and white ball. “Hold it still!” instructed Alex as he programed the camera on his computer to follow the ball. “HURRY UP!” whispered Ms. Fesse. “Lunch Break, Lunch Break,” called out Jaydee from the stage. “GO!” whispered Alex. If Anthony had not been working out stress by playing with a soccer ball in his back yard for the past four months they would have been in a humdinger of a bind. But Anthony bounced the ball back and forth between his limbs with fluid motions that made it look easy. He finished with it balanced on his head and the crowd whooped in reverence. Ms. Fesse collapsed to her knees and whispered prayers of thanks to Thalia, Muse of Comedy. Malcolm and Steven were on stage walking to their tree shopping scene. As soon as Jaydee, dressed in an adorable blue dress and black saddle shoes, jumped back stage Samantha, dressed in brown overalls with a lot of dirt thrown on and her hair pulled back into a low ponytail, took her by the hand. “I got your gift!” she whispered as she pulled her friend over to the pile of book bags. She quickly rummaged through her own bag. Jaydee reached into her own bag for her gift (the Cummings and the Martins had agreed to exchange gifts on this night rather than Christmas so as to avoid associating their presents with the usual penny activities on that particular day). Jaydee turned and found Samantha holding in her hands what was clearly a well intended but bungled attempt to turn a sheet of red wrapping paper into a red envelope. She smirked. “I-I was trying to-” whispered Samantha. “I know,” interrupted Jaydee, “and thank you,” she offered Samantha a small green box with a bow on it, “and thanks, it does mean something.” She took her present and Samantha took hers. Hm feels like a necklace, thought Jaydee as she opened the paper. She exhumed a hoop of black string upon which was a black octagon pendant with a yin-yang symbol surrounded by the eight trigrams. “I asked the lady at the counter for something Chinese and I thought this looked like...you’d like it and all...” ''Yeah, they had them all over America, thought Jaydee, so many yin-yang tattoos a girl could get sick of them. First time I’ve seen one of these since...oh...wow...this is actually the closest thing to China that I have seen in months...'' “Samantha...thank you...” she said. She hastily pulled it over her head. “Now open yours” Samantha obeyed, harvesting a harmonica. “A Harmonica!” she clearly loved it. “Aw Kicks Rocks!” she raised it to her lips, but Jaydee raised her hands in fear and Samantha remembered that she had to be quite backstage. “Thank you again,” Jaydee hugged Samantha. “I’m up,” She took her place stage right. Samantha gave her a thumbs up sign. The curtain closed, Steven and Malcolm dashed back stage as the set changed from an aluminum tree farm to the school stage. Alex and Jaydee took their places and the curtain rose. Malcolm grabbed his script and went over his speech one more time. After going over it twice again... “Malcolm,” said Natalie. “I have your gift.” She had a small white box with a green ribbon. Malcolm took Natalie’s gift out of his own bag. They exchanged. “You open yours first,” said Malcolm. “No, you go first,” said Natalie. “Okay,” He opened the box. Inside was a necklace. It was a blood red band of synthecord around which dangled stainless steel baubles of different shapes, the largest bauble in the center had upon it, engraved in black, crossed hammers over an anvil within a gear. It was the symbol of Malcolm’s favorite political faction from Age of Legends. “An Artificer’s Guild necklace? Cool,” he said. “Now open yours” he said as he fumbled with the knot.” Natalie opened her box. “Ooo, colors,” she said as she removed a bracelet the had red and orange twirled string holding five rectangular beveled beads of different colors. “Yeah I picked out the colors myself,” said Malcolm as he took out a piece of paper and pencil. “They are,” he wrote them down: Pink Ultra-Violet Night sky Key Lime Yellow “Oh, cool,” said Natalie. Malcolm grinned, and he placed his hand on the paper covering all but the first letters, so the paper read: P U N K Y Natalie’s eyes lit up. He had made her a secret real name bracelet! “Malcolm THANK YOU!” she said in her loudest whisper and hugged him tight. Malcolm hugged her back. She withdrew a bit and moved her face close to his. Oh my God does she want to kiss, thought Malcolm, I think she wants to- Natalie kissed Malcolm on the lips. He closed his eye and kissed back. “Malcolm, we’re on!” whispered Steven as he entered stage right. Natalie yanked Malcolm away from her moved him in to position and shoved him on the stage. He stumbled on and just stood there next to Alex sitting at the toy piano with a dumbfounded smile on his face. “Your blanket!” whispered Natalie as she threw it to him. It landed over his head and he made no effort to remove it. Alex, reached up from where he was sitting on stage and pulled it off but Malcolm just still stood there all throughout the other cast members belittling Steven’s choice of tree, and through their accompanying laughter. He didn’t seem aware even as Steven was saying his lines. “Isn’t there anyone who can tell me what Christmas is all about!” called out Steven. Malcolm snapped out of it. “Sure Charlie Brown I can tell you what Christmas is all about.” He took center stage. “Lights please,” the lights fell dark but for a single spotlight upon Malcolm. “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.’” The lights became bright again and Malcolm picked up his blanket and walked up to Steven. “And that’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.” He started sucking his thumb. The Children gathered round the tree and shouted at Steven: “MERRY CHRISTMAS CHARLIE BROWN!” They all joined in a triumphant chorus of ‘Hark the Herald’ and behind them, upon the back drop appeared the words: With Gratitude and Apologies to Charles M. Schultz.