15 – Brilliant Ideas (1)

Sebastian sighed as he fumbled through the garage, in search of the measuring tape. Someone left a comment on one of Tibby’s pictures, asking how many inches tall the dog was. Sebastian was curious himself. But where was the measuring tape?

Sebastian opened a cupboard under the work bench. No measuring tape. Just a bunch of old sporting equipment Waylon had bought for Sebastian, in hopes of getting him into one. Basketball. Baseball. Football. Hockey. Sebastian hated all of them.

A skateboard caught his eye. He had forgotten about skateboarding. It was the one physical activity he did enjoy. But did he remember how? Sebastian pulled it out, wiping off cobwebs and dust. He tried getting on it.

At first, he nearly lost his balance. But after a few laps around the garage, it came back to him.

Tibby entered the garage. Sebastian hadn’t bothered closing the door behind him, because he didn’t expect the measuring tape to be so hard to find. But he didn’t care about measuring tape anymore. He wanted to go out and skateboard, like old times.

Sebastian noticed Tibby had his leash hanging out of his mouth. “You wanna go for a walk?”

Tibby wagged his tail in response. Sebastian now had to make a difficult decision. Should he walk Tibby? Or should he skateboard? Being a responsible dog owner, he should walk Tibby. But he was starting to remember why he liked skateboarding.

If only he could do both...

Sebastian smiled as a brilliant idea formed in his mind.

Why couldn’t he do both?

~~~~~

Luke sat on the couch, watching a show on TV, when a large crash came from the kitchen. He jumped. His eyes darted towards the floor, where Skye had been playing minutes before. She was gone.

"Oh my God!" Clay's voice shouted.

Luke ran to the kitchen, and froze at the scene. Skye sat on the counter, surrounded by broken plates. The cupboard above her head was wide open.

Clay was already in the kitchen. “What did you do?!”

Skye flinched. Luke rushed over to make sure she wasn’t hurt. She looked fine. He picked her up, and set her on the floor. “What happened?”

She ignored the question.

“Answer us!” Clay demanded. “Jesus Christ.”

“Whatever you did, we’ll be more mad if you don’t answer,” Luke said, as he set out to clean up the mess.

“I accidentally breaked the plates.”

“We can see that,” Clay said. “Why were you on the counter?”

Luke grabbed pieces of the plates, and threw them in the garbage bin, aware of Skye’s eyes on him.

“Well?”

“If you don’t answer Grandpa, I’m taking your toys away.” Luke kneeled on the floor to wipe up more shards.

“I was looking for the cookies,” Skye mumbled.

“The cookies I told you you couldn’t have until after lunch?” Clay asked in a stern voice.

She nodded.

“Well, now you’re not having them at all.”

“That’s not fair!” she cried.

“Sounds fair to me,” Luke said. “Maybe you’ll finally learn to listen.”

Skye let out an ear-piercing scream, and stormed out of the room. Luke winced. He’d never seen this side of her, and it stung. “Do you think we were too hard on her?”

“I don’t think we’ve been hard enough. If your kid never gets mad at you, then you’re doing something wrong.”

Luke nodded, but he couldn’t shake off a sense of foreboding.

~~~~~

Sebastian stood on his skateboard, Tibby’s leash in hand. He urged Tibby to walk ahead of him, so that Tibby would be pulling him like some sort of giant sled dog. It would probably be easier and safer if Sebastian sat on the board instead. But that wasn’t as fun. Besides, he had a helmet on. He’d be fine.

Sebastian flicked the leash, and Tibby picked up speed. They meandered around the neighborhood. Up and down various side streets filled with large houses like Sebastian’s. The current street was one Sebastian rarely ventured in. He had forgotten it eventually reached a downhill.

“Tibby!” Sebastian yanked on the leash to stop him, so he could stop the skateboard before the downward shift. “Stop!”

But Tibby didn’t stop in time. The skateboard picked up speed. It almost outpaced Tibby. Tibby ran ahead of the skateboard. So fast, he was back to pulling the skateboard. But the skateboard was moving too fast for Sebastian to keep balance, much less control it.

All he could do was scream.

He careened into a tree, and tumbled off of his board, face into the sidewalk. A sharp pain pierced his knee.

“Holy shit!” a voice shouted.

Somebody saw that? Sebastian winced. Something wet tickled his cheek. Tibby, licking his face. Sebastian pushed him away.

“Are you okay?” another voice said. A voice Sebastian would recognize anywhere. He bolted upright to see Axel standing in front of him. Oh God. Axel saw that?

“Sebastian? What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same.” Sebastian hadn’t a clue where Axel lived, but he strongly doubted it was a rich neighborhood.

“I’m visiting Jake.” Axel nodded off to the side where Jake stood with a snarky grin on his face. “Are you hurt?”

“No.” Sebastian moved his right leg, to stand up, and was hit with a wave of pain. He swore loudly, clutching his knee. If his jeans weren’t so tight, he’d roll the leg of it up to inspect it.

“That doesn’t sound like a no,” Axel said, as Jake walked over.

“Can you get up?” Jake asked. “Or do I need to call an ambulance?”

“There’s no need for an ambulance,” Axel said. “If we need to, we can drive him to a doctor.”

“If it’s broken we shouldn’t move him. We need paramedics-”

“He bumped into a tree,” Axel raised his voice. “It’s not like he’s having a stroke.”

“We don’t know that.”

Axel looked at Sebastian. “Do you want us to call you an ambulance?”

Even with insurance, that would cost Sebastian’s family thousands upon thousands of ameros. They had the money, but Waylon would yell about it. “I’m good.”

Axel nodded as though he had expected that answer. “Can you get up at all?”

Sebastian moved his leg again and hissed. “It hurts too much to move it.”

“Yeah, we need an ambulance,” Jake said.

“We don’t need an ambulance,” Axel snapped at him. He held his hand out towards Sebastian, and Sebastian took it.

Getting onto his good leg took a bit of effort and more pain, but finally, Sebastian was able to hop on one foot. Axel wrapped his arm around Sebastian to steady him. Normally, Sebastian would be thrilled- and ashamed. But now? The pain in his knee made him forget he even liked Axel that way.

“You can’t even walk.” Axel sighed. “Maybe we should take you to a doctor.”

“Maybe?” Jake's eyes widened at Axel. “Maybe?”

Axel returned his stare. “This isn’t California. Here, doctors cost money.”

“Sebastian’s father is the mayor. They can afford it.”

“Just because they can, doesn’t mean they’d be happy about it. How would your father react if you hurt your knee, went to a doctor, it turned out being nothing, then got hit with a bill for 25,000 ameros?”

Jake laughed. “Doctors aren’t 25,000 ameros.”

“You’d be surprised,” Axel muttered.

Sebastian tried putting weight on his leg. The pain was enough to make him swear. He looked at Axel. “Do you think it’s broken?”

“I don’t know. I can’t see it.”

“Even if you could, you won’t know,” Jake said. “Only a doctor can answer that question. What if you think it’s a sprain, but it’s actually broken, and you didn’t get it taken care of? You’d never walk Tibby again.”

Tibby whined and bumped his head against Sebastian’s waist. Sebastian pet him as he considered that possibility.

“Yeah, you could have Tibby pull you in a wheel chair instead.” Axel grinned.

“Ha ha.” Sebastian straightened against Axel’s side. Pain shot through his knee again. He winced. “Maybe I should see a doctor. But what about Tibby?”

“I can keep him in my backyard until we come back.” Jake picked up Tibby’s leash.

“Can you leave him a bowl of water?” Sebastian took off his helmet, and spotted his skateboard on the front lawn. “What about my skateboard?”

“I’ll put it in the back with him.” Jake took Sebastian’s helmet, and grabbed the skateboard off the lawn on his way to his house. Axel led Sebastian to his van.

Sebastian had never actually been inside Axel’s van. He stared at the small mattress on the floor near the back, up against the side. Sheets and blankets were piled on it. “You have a bed in here?”

“Um. Yeah.” Axel let out a strange sort of laugh. “I like taking naps during my lunch breaks.”

“Okay...” That sounded weird, but Sebastian never had a job. What would he know? He laid on it, the musky scent of Axel relaxing him.

Axel sat next to him. “You should call your doctor. See if they can even squeeze you in.”

“I don’t think I have a doctor.” Not counting the one at Camp Hope, Sebastian couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen one. He had a feeling a doctor would only direct him to urgent care anyway, especially on a weekend. “I was thinking I’d have to go to some urgent care place.”

“I’d hate to see that bill. You got an insurance card?”

Sebastian pulled it up on his phone, and showed it to Axel.

Axel pulled out his own phone. He scrolled and tapped at it. “Looks like the nearest one that accepts your insurance is in Redding.”

“Everything’s in Redding.”

Jake popped his head in. “Tibby’s happy. You ready?”

“We’ll have to go to Redding,” Axel said, climbing into the front of the van.

“There’s no doctors or hospitals here?”

Jake had to be one of the most naive people Sebastian had ever met. Sebastian met his gaze. “We’re lucky to have a Pieway here.”