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Arcade After Dark
Chapter #9
by Tom Zjaba
Chapter Nine
Leaving the Arcade
At the end of every day, Mike heads over to Bi-Plane Battle and Clown Around and
pulls the money out. He counts it and puts the total on a sheet. He then tallies
the total for the month. Some days the total is low. Only $10.00 on a Monday.
But then he gets a surprise and ends up with a $70.00 day. The month is half-way
through and already he is already surpassed $300.00. "I will break the $500.00
mark with no problem." he gloats to Danny. "It is just the kids playing a new
game. Now that the newness has worn off, look for those numbers to drop big
time." Danny is trying to not show that he is worried. He underestimated the
games and knows that they should easily break the mark. He hates being wrong
more than the money he is going to lose. But he still contends that if they put
in a few new games, they would have made allot more money. Jungle Drums is
consistently pulling in $50.00 on a weekday and over $100.00 on Saturday and
Sunday. He has been down to the arcade at the mall and seen how crowded the new
games are. He just doesn't want his boss filling the arcade with relics and
watching business dry up. Right now he has the advantage of location, but that
could change. There are a few vacant stores on the street and if another arcade
opened up, they could get killed.
That night, the gang gets together for another night of visiting. Toyboy and
Toygirl love hearing the stories about the old days of the arcades and
especially about the warehouse where Billy returned from. They love hearing
about other arcade games and wonders what other Toyboy and Toygirl games are
like. Do they also come out of their machines at night? Do they get along with
the other games? These are the kind of questions that they pester Billy the
Block with each night.
As the night goes on, the usual pairing happens. As happens every night,
Roadkill Bill and the Jumpy the Clown head off to cause trouble. They love
pulling practical jokes on Captain Moon Man and Ace. And tonight is no
different. Billy the Block usually sits by himself and watches as the events
unfold. He is more to himself since returning from the warehouse. The only time
he talks is when he is prodded by Toyboy who keeps asking him about this
warehouse. Having been here at the arcade all his life, Toyboy is interested in
seeing other places. He longs to see more machines and see what other places
look like. Tonight, he decides that he is going to leave the arcade.
As the rest of the gang watches Roadkill Bill and Jumpy tease Captain Moon Man,
Toyboy disappears into his machine. He goes into his resting place and begins to
pack a bag. He looks around at his modest room and smiles at the poster on the
wall of Toygirl. She has not been to his room yet to see he has a poster of her
up. It is a copy of a promotional poster for her game. Roadkill Bill gave it to
him as a joke when they she first arrived. He does not know where he got it
from, but he likes it. He pulls the poster down and rolls it up and puts it in
his bag. He has a change of clothes, which are identical to the ones he is
wearing. With the bag packed, he heads out of his machine and towards the front
door. While the others do not notice him, Toygirl does. She finds it odd that he
is walking away from the group with a bag. So odd in fact that she decides to
investigate. She runs after him, yelling out "Toyboy, wait up." He ignores her
and keeps walking. He would ask her to come but he is afraid she will tell the
others. He is intent on going and does not want to be stopped.
"Wait up!" Toygirl says as she catches up to him. He just ignores her and keeps
walking. "What's with the cold treatment? What did I do?" she yells at him. This
gets his attention and he turns to her and says "It's just that I am leaving the
arcade and I don't want you to try and stop me." This takes Toygirl completely
by surprise. "You're leaving? But where are you going?" He stops walking and
turns around "I want to see other arcades. I want to see the world. I have never
been anywhere but this arcade." She starts laughing "You can't just leave. What
will happen tomorrow when the kids try to play Toyboy?" Her laughter upsets him
and it is visibly noticeable in his face. "Guess they will just have to play
Toygirl, the newer and better maze game." This upsets her and she thinks she
knows what is bothering him "Is this about you being jealous of me? I thought we
had this figured out." This stuns him as he did not mean that. Sure, he is
jealous of all the attention her game gets, but he never wanted to hurt her.
"No, it's not that. It's just that hearing Billy the Block talk about the
warehouse made me want to see other places. I want to see what other games are
out there. You know, meet the other Toyboys." She then walks over to him and
says "And you weren't going to even say goodbye?" As she comes closer, he can
see the tears in her eyes. Now he really feels bad. "If you want, you could come
with me." She smiles at this and says "Thanks for the offer, but the arcade is
my home." He smiles at her and they hug. She then gives him a kiss on the cheek
and says "Good luck. I'm not sure if you can send a letter or anything, but if
you can let me know if you are all right, please do." He lets of her and says "I
will. Say goodbye to the others for me." He then walks up to the door and looks
at it. "Wonder how I will get out of here? That door is really big." Toygirl
starts laughing "You are planning on leaving and you don't know how to get out?"
He then looks at the small gap under the door. "Maybe I can fit under here."
As Toyboy tries to fit under the door, Billy the Block sees the two of them and
starts walking over. "What are you looking for, Toyboy?" he says as he heads
over. "He's not looking for anything. He is leaving." Toygirl says. Toyboy is
halfway under the door and slowly squeezing through. As he gets through, he
reaches for his bag, which gets stuck and breaks open. The contents spill out on
the floor. Toygirl reaches over and picks up the poster. She looks at it and
sees herself on the poster. She giggles to herself and the rolls it back up. An
arm then reaches under the door and Toyboy says "Can you hand me my stuff,
please." Toygirl hands him the poster and then the other stuff. "Thanks!" he
says as he slowly pulls them under the door. "Think he will be all right out
there?" she asks Billy, who is now next to her. "He's not going anywhere." he
says in his gruff voice. She looks at him and says "What do you mean? He is
leaving. You saw him leave." Billy smiles at her and he says "Trust me, he will
be back. He has no choice."
Outside, Toyboy gathers his stuff. He is right outside the door and he is
starting to feel a little funny. He then steps onto the sidewalk and something
strange happens. As he steps away from the building, he begins to disappear. His
leg and arm just disappear as they go away from the door. "What's wrong?" he
says to himself. He pulls his arm and leg back and they become visible again. He
gets a sick feeling in his stomach. He then tries to step out with his other
foot, but he gets the same results. As soon as he leaves the doorway, his body
start to fade away. "This is so weird." he says. He then decides to jump out and
see what happens. As he jumps out, his whole body starts to fade. He looks at
himself as he is slowly fading away and freaks out. He quickly jumps back and he
becomes whole again. "I better go back." he says as he starts to shimmy under
the door again.
Billy and Toygirl watch as Toyboy slowly appears under the door. Billy smiles at
her and says "I told you he would be back." She smiles back at him. As he pulls
himself through, Toygirl offers him a hand. He reaches out and she pulls him up.
He then dusts himself off and looks at them "It was so weird out there." Billy
then interrupts him "I know, you started to disappear." Toyboy is surprised. He
looks at the door to see if they could see through it. "How did you know?" he
asks. Billy laughs and says "You are not the first video game character to try
and run away." Billy looks at him with an odd look "I'm not?" Billy smiles and
says "I did the very same thing when I was a young." Toyboy and Toygirl look at
each other with shocked looks on their faces. "Don't be so surprised. You try
getting hit back and forth all day long. It's enough to make anyone want to run
away." Billy is shocked to hear this. He would never have suspected that Billy
would have tried this. "Why can't we leave? Why do we disappear?" Billy goes
over and puts his arm around him and they start walking back towards the gang.
Toygirl stays behind and collects up Toyboy's stuff. Billy then says "I really
don't know. My only guess is we are somehow linked to our machine." Billy is
walking along. Toygirl runs to catch up with them and now at his other side with
his bag in her hand. Billy then asks "But if we are linked to our machine, how
can we leave it?" Billy thinks for a second and then says "I am not completely
sure, but I think as long as we are within a certain range of our machine, we
are all right. It's my theory. I was able to leave the arcade when I was sick,
but I was in my machine. So it's not the arcade." It is starting to make sense
to Toyboy. It seems very odd, but he cannot think of a better theory. As they
near their machines, Toyboy speaks up "Well, I am going to bed early. I still
feel weird from my trip." Billy laughs as he says "I know what you feel like. It
took me two days to feel like myself again. Toyboy then waves as he leaves.
Inside his machine, Toyboy goes back into his room. He pulls out his clothes and
puts them away. He then takes out his poster and looks for the spot on the wall
to hang it. He looks over and sees the empty spot on his wall and walks over. He
unrolls the poster and prepares to hang it up. Before he does, he notices
something odd on the poster. At the bottom of the poster is a message. "Toyboy,
I hope you never leave. I cannot image the arcade without you. Love Toygirl. He
is smiling as he reads it. He then hangs the poster back up and smiles at it.
Maybe it isn't so bad being stuck here at the arcade.
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