The Artist's Touch

by: | Story In Progress | Last updated Jul 3, 2007


Chapter 4
Derek's Descent


Chapter Description: Derek slowly acts his age more and more, while Heather has a life choice to make; if the pencil lets her . . . .


“Ahh! Home, sweet home!” Heather said as she stretched out on her couch after throwing her books and Derek’s picnic basket onto the ground. Derek, now eight years old, sat down on a loveseat with a pout on his you then face.

“Derek, don’t be so grumpy!” Heather’s tone was that of an adult speaking to a child, she stretched the word grumpy and Derek had the distinct impression that she would have pinched his cheeks if he was in range.

“Stop treating me like a little kid!” Derek pouted again.

“But you are a little kid, honey.”

“Why couldn’t you have just changed what I looked like as an adult? I wouldn’t be pouting if I could legally drive a car or drink wine!”

“Well, what then? With a different face you wouldn’t be allowed to live in your apartment, and you wouldn’t have a college degree. You’d be flipping burgers until the police was off your tail. At least this way I could still help you.” Heather didn’t raise her voice once during her speech, and to Derek it made her seem like the maternity figure she was pretending to be. During most of the speech, Derek eyed his feet as he drew imaginary circles in the carpet with then, knowing that she was right.

“I guess your right, Heather.”

“Aunty Heather?”

“Aunty Heather,” Derek agreed.

“Perfect, then we’ll get your room set up. The guest room is down the hallway. Will you make my guest room into a room for Derek, please?” The pencil once again burst into life at the command issued at it, it quickly began to sketch a child’s room on the next page.

“Hmm, better make it as convincing as possible. Add stuff that a modern kid would like please.” Derek walked away with a tinge of disgust in his mouth. He was almost worried about what Heather and the pencil had in mind for his new quarters. When he peeked into the room, he saw that it was painting itself in a light, baby boy blue; a color that frighten Derek and convinced him to check his body to make sure that he wasn’t rejuvenating. Convinced that he was still eight, he watched as a stripe of electric yellow in a zigzag pattern reminiscent of a lightning bolt appear on the wall. The bed shrank as light blue sheets appeared on them. The pillowcases shrunk to match his new, tiny body, and like the rest of the bed they took the light blue shade. However, once the comforter and the pillowcases spawned the image of Pikachu, a popular cartoon character that Disney managers had often complained about due to his popularity with children, he realized that there wasn’t a lot the magic pencil wasn’t capable of conjuring.

Once the bed was in place, a light brown desk with a lamp decorated like Pikachu’s lightning bolt tail took the place of Heather’s normal computer desk. Like the bed, it was smaller then its original form, and Derek groaned at the prospect of how much more kid’s stuff could fit into the room because of its size. An old fashioned toy box also appeared in the room, as did a bookshelf that Derek suspected to hold classic children tales. An entertainment system also appeared, with a small television shaped like Pikachu, who was apparently supposed to be his new favorite hero. After a few more minutes, the changes stopped and he knew that the pencil was down for now when Heather walked up next to him in the doorway.

“Isn’t it great?” She asked Derek with enthusiasm.

“Super.”

“Aw, don’t be so grumpy! You’re going to have to go to school again to keep up your alias anyway, so you might as well get used to what the kids are into anyway. Apparently Pokemon is it!

“How can you ask me to give up nearly twenty years of my life?” Derek shouted at Heather as he ran into his childish room and slammed the door shut, making sure to lock it tight.

* * * * *

“I could easily open the door with the book,” Heather thought to herself as she sat back down on the couch with the sketchpad and pencil on her lap. “But I’d better leave him alone. Man, I wish he could just embrace the idea of being a kid for a little while, most people would kill for that chance.” Heather was up off the couch and went into the laundry room to finish up her chores while anger fueled her resolve. Little did she know that the pencil heard her loud and clear . . . .

* * * * *

“Man, this is going to be impossible,” Derek sighed as he looked through all of his new cloths in the closet. There was a balance of clothes that he considered acceptable and down right childish. Closing the closet, he walked over to his dresser, where he found his underwear drawer.

“Ugh, briefs? I haven’t worn those since I was an elementary school kid the first time around!” He put them back into the drawer as he opened another one. This drawer had his pajamas, and like his room many of them were decorated in assorted Pokemon prints. This particular one featured Pikachu.

“I am going to be so sick of this rat when I’m my old self.” Derek whined as he picked up the pajamas, apparently made of cotton. Although he despised them with his entire eight year old being, he felt the strange urge to put them on. After all, they were extremely soft and plushy.

“What am I thinking?” Derek said aloud as he thrust the Pokemon jammies back into their drawer. Derek threw himself down onto his bed, and was rewarded with a large bounce upward, which made him giggle uncontrollably. When he finally stopped bouncing, he was panting from all the giggling he had done, and looking around his room, he had wondered why he had disliked it so much a few minutes ago. After all, the walls didn’t have Pikachu on them, the walls were light blue and yellow, both nice colors to look at. And Pikachu wasn’t that bad, he was kind of cute. Derek got up off his bed and decided to look inside of his toy box.

“Oh wow!” Derek exclaimed when he looked inside and saw a Nintendo DS and a Pikachu plush doll that was so big, he couldn’t even wrap his arm around it. Turning the game system on, he found that it too contained Pokemon. At first he felt a little annoyed, but then the opening music began to play, and it sounded so cool!

“Well, it wouldn’t hurt to play the game,” Derek reasoned with himself. “If its dumb, I can just turn it off.”

* * * * *

Click. The digital clock in Heather’s den read five thirty. That was the time Heather usually began to make dinner, but she didn’t really feel like making it, so she opened her phone book and called the local pizza shop, only five blocks down from her apartment.

“Hey, Rodger. It’s me, Heather. Yeah, I need two large pizzas please, one with my regular and the other, um, hold on a second. I don’t know what Derek wants. Derek? Oh, no. He’s not my boyfriend. He’s my brother’s kid. I never told you I had a brother? Must have slipped my mind. He and his honey are going away to, um, Europe for a business transaction or something. He wanted his kid to stay Stateside, so I offered to enroll him in school her. Well, I guess if you pop over and deliver yourself you can meet him. No, I’m not gonna give you a bigger tip, Rodger, your ?bigger tip’ is to meet my nephew! Hmm, oh, right. I’ll ask him. Derek! What do you want on your pizza?”

“Extra cheese!” Expecting him to not answer, Heather was surprised at Derek’s quick response.

“Anything else? Do ya take peppers or onions or pepperoni?”

“Eww! Veggies on pizza? Gross! I like pepperoni though.”

“Pepperoni and extra cheese, Rodger. Okay, great. I’ll see you in an hour.” Heather hung up the phone and went to see what had caused Derek’s sudden change in attitude. Heather walked down the hallway to his room, but found that it was still stuck.

“Derek, let me in. I want to talk to you.”

“Am I in trouble for locking you out, Aunty Heather?”

“No, but I’m glad to hear that you’re finally going to call me Aunty.”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“You didn’t want to before, what changed your mind?” Derek finally opened the door at this point, Heather’s heart melted at the sight of what a cute boy Derek was. She noticed that his hair was a little lighter then before, probably a cause of Derek’s wish to have some of Heather’s DNA.

“I dunno.” Derek said as he sat back down at his video game, holding the Pikachu doll close as he played.

“It looks like you’ve taken a liking to Pokemon after all, huh?”

“Pikachu is my favorite,” Derek said as he tightened his grip on the doll. “But I also like Chimchar. He’s a monkey, see.” Derel held up his game, and Heather saw a little red monkey on the screen.

“Is his butt on fire?”

“Uh huh.” Derek snickered after the use of the word ?butt’.

“Okay, well, pizza will be here in thirty minutes, okay.”

“Okay Aunt Heather.” Heather left the room with a puzzled look on her face, not noticing that on her couch was a drawing of a little boy playing a DS.

* * * * *

“Here’s your pizza, now let me see the little guy!” Rodger said as he opened the door. Rodger was well-built, slim and strong, with bronzed skin from staying out in the Florida sun all day long. Pizza-making, although not glamorous, was all he lived for, seeing as he owned the restaurant. Rodger had successfully put major chains such as Pizzashack and Mimi’s out of business; his pizza was just better. The success of his restaurant left him as a relatively well-set bachelor, a fact that Heather didn’t often think about. She had been friends with Rodger from the beginning, and had the honor of being on of his first customers. She could still remember when she met Rodger when she first moved into town.

“Welcome to Rodger’s, how can I help you?”

“Oh, I was just looking for a place to have lunch.”

“Well, you’re standing in a pizza shop, how about pizza?”

“Well, okay I guess.”

His pizza was really good and she did enjoy talking with him, so much then to this day she went to Rodger’s every day for her lunch break. Rodger also credited her for making word spread about his restaurant, since she ended up bringing the staff some pizza after being questioned as to why Heather went there every day.

“Derek, come on out! Aunt Heather’s friend would like to meet you!”

“Okay!” Derek came rushing out with all the engery and enthusiasm of an eight year old, something Heather greatly appreciated. Rodger worked with children all day, being in the pizza business, and Heather was sure that he would be able to tell the slightest flaw in Derek’s behavior.

“Hi! My name is Derek!” Derek eagerly stated as he looked at Rodger with big, brown eyes. Rodger chuckled and messed with his hair.

“He’s cute.” Rodger laughed.

“You have our pizza? You’re friends with a pizza man Aunt Heather?” Rodger laughed again, while Heather looked slightly embarrassed.

“Uh huh, your Aunt Heather is friends with the best pizza man in town!”

“Really?”

“Uh huh, are you from around here?”

“No, papa lives far away.”

“Ah, and I heard he’s in Europe right now?”

“I guess so.”

“Well, if you’re not from around here, you’ve never had the best pizza in the world!”

“Are you gonna have some too? Aunty Heather said that you’re her friend. I’d let my friends eat my pizza.”

“Well Aunty Heather, how about it? Dinner’s on me if you have me over?”

“Well, I guess I can’t argue with that deal, and a large pie might be too big for Derek over here.”

“Not uh! I can eat it!”

“If you say so, little man.”

* * * * *

“Mhmm, that was good.” Derek said as he patted his noticeably rounder tummy. He had barely gotten through two slices.

“Full already?” Rodger asked Derek.

“Mmhmm.”

“And what did you think?”

“That was the best pizza ever!”

“Good.” Rodger chuckled, “I’m glad you liked it.”

“I liked it a lot, can we have Rodger’s pizza again, Aunt Heather?”

“We’ll see, you need some healthy food too, Derek.”

“No veggies!” Rodger laughed again.

“Well, why don’t you go pick out your pajamas and you can take your bath before going to bed.”

“But Aunt Heather! There are a lot of special Pokemon that are only out at night! How am I gonna catch’em all if I’m sleeping?”

“Alright, you can stay up for a little but, but bath first. You were playing in the park today, remember?”

“Yeah.” Derek marched off to his room to get his pajamas. When he was out of earshot, Rodger spoke.

“He’s a cute kid.”

“Yeah, it’s going to be nice to have someone else in this house.”

“You could have someone else in your house. I asked you last month and you never answered me.”

“I know, its just I don’t know if I’m ready for something like marriage.”

“Do you love me?”

“I don’t know.” Rodger looked at Heather longingly. Heather looked at the floor, away from Rodger. Rodger, not feeling completely discouraged, whisked up Heather’s hands in his, and spoke again to her.

“I love you, and I love you enough to wait for your answer.”

“Thank you.”

“I should head back now.”

“Thank you so much for coming.”

“See ya kid! Take care, Heather.”

“Bye Rodger! Thanks for the pizza!”

“Any time, buddy!” After Rodger left, Heather sat at the table for a few minutes and cried. She knew she loved Rodger, but part of her loved Derek too.

“If only I could have them both.”

“Aunt Heather! I’m ready!”

“Okay, I’m coming.” Heather got up and pulled herself together, not wanting Derek to see her in disarray. She found Derek in the bathroom with his clothes on.

“You can’t take a bath with your clothes on.”

“I don’t wanna be naked in front of you! You’re a girl.”

“I’m your Aunt, you can.” Slowly but surely, Derek disrobed for Heather when he was done, Heather marveled at how small his body had become, and how child like Derek had recently been acting.

“Derek, do you remember being grown-up?” Heeather curiously asked as she turned on the water for Derek’s bath.

“Ahuh,” Derek said as he looked at the water that slowly filled the tub.

“You’ve been acting really young lately, though.” Heather pointed out.

“Well, its fun.” Derek bluntly said.

“Do you like being bigger or little better?”

“I dunno. I miss driving, but its fun to be little. Pokemon is a lot of fun.”

“Sure seems like it. I have some left over bubble bath here, want some?”

“Yeah!” Derek clapped excitely as bubbled filled his tub.

* * * * *

“And that’s the book.” Heather said as she shut one of the books that was on Derek’s new book self that night. It was only nine, but Derek was showing signs of tiring so Heather got him ready for bed.

“It was a nice book.” Derek yawned, wearing his soft and cozy Pikachu pajamas. He was barely conscious as the warmness of the blankets, his jammies, and from being so close to Heather.

“Alrightie then, its time for lights out.”

“Okay Aunt Heather.” Derek snuggled up a little closer to her on his twin-sized bed. Heater noted that he was still a while away from having his feet touch the edge of the mattress. In a matter of minutes, both Heather and Derek were sound asleep, contently dreaming. However, unknown to them. The pencil stood up on its own and began to draw . . . .

TO BE CONTINUED

 


 

End Chapter 4

The Artist's Touch

by: Anonymous | Story In Progress | Last updated Jul 3, 2007

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