Talking Forever
Judy sat down on the end of her bed. It was past eleven and her hair and shoulders were still wet from the rain. She sighed with some relief as she began to take off her heels. It had been a long evening. She looked up at the sound of footsteps in the hall and a familiar half-sung half-hummed tune going by.

“What could be hmmhmm than a bag of hmmhmm..”

“Reggie? Is that you?”

The mess of ginger hair poked into the slightly ajar doorway. “Yeah, it’s just me mom.

“What’re you doing up so late dear?”

Reggie pushed the door fully open “Oh, the storm woke me up. And then I was kinda hungry so I thought I’d go grab a midnight snack.”

“Not more of those spicy butter flakes?”

“They’re Cajun spice. And they’re delicious this time of night.”

“You know you shouldn’t eat those this late. They give you nightmares.”

Reggie’s response was brave and proud. “I like the nightmares. It’s like a free horror movie.”

Judy rolled her eyes with a warm smile then continued with taking off her uncomfortable shoes.

Reggie shuffled awkwardly for a moment in the silence. “Uhmm, how was your date tonight?”

They were both a little surprised by the question. Reggie didn’t normally ask about her mother’s dates. “It was… ok.”

“Just ok?” Reggie made her way closer and sat on the bed.

“Yeah. I mean, it wasn’t horrible.. but it wasn’t that great either..” Judy half smiled but her voice fell a little on the last words.

Reggie looked down as she kicked her feet a little on the edge of the bed. “Well, why not? Did he not like you or something? Because you’re totally likable.”

“Thank you honey, but it wasn’t that. He liked me plenty. It’s just.. It’s just complicated is all.”

“Was he mean to you? Because I can beat him up for you if you want.” Reggie gave her mother a vengeful stare and punched her palm.

Judy chuckled at the brashness of her daughter. She placed a hand on Reggie’s shoulder. “No no, it’s nothing like that either. Look, it’s just that sometimes.. sometimes you might think you know what someone is like, but then they turn out to be completely different than you expected.”

Reggie went back to looking at her feet. Her voice was softer. “..You mean like dad?”

“No, not at all. I knew who your dad was through and through from the beginning. He didn’t hide any part of himself from me.” Judy leaned back on her palms as she thought of better times.

Reggie looked back at her mother. “So what was wrong with this guy then?”

Judy struggled to find the right words, her eyes darted side to side as she leaned forward. “The night started out nice enough. When I met him he was sweet and kind. Holding doors open for me, pulling out my chair, all that kinda stuff.”

“Blegh!” Reggie spat her tongue out at all the mushy romance, somewhat regretting asking about the date in the first place.

“But by the end of the night he was different. He was much more.. let’s call him bossy.” Judy tried to be nonchalant about the whole ordeal.

“Well that’s not cool.. Bossy like how? Did he make you pay for dinner?”

Judy was visibly uncomfortable now, trying to think of a way to frame the conversation without going into any real detail. “Has there ever been a time when your friends really wanted to do something, and you didn’t, but they kept insisting and pestering you to?”

Reggie thought on it for a moment. “Yeah.. I guess so. But what did he want to do?”

Judy let out a sigh and a groan at the same time. “Maybe you’ll understand better when you’re older. So for now let’s hold off on that discussion. At least till the morning. Ok?”

Reggie rolled her eyes at the non-answer. “Alright. It just seems kinda dumb to even bother if some jerk is gonna be mean to you though.”

“Well, dating isn’t all perfect picnics and romance. But sometimes you have to take a chance. You make a leap of faith. And sometimes the landing isn’t so soft. But if you aren’t willing to jump, you’re just gonna end up standing alone.”

“I dunno.. It sounds like it’d be better to just stick with what you already have. I mean, Todd and Esther are great. Why would I wanna ruin what we have by bringing in someone else?”

Judy sighed heavily. “Well, even if it’s just a friend it can be good to take that leap and try to get to know them. That’s what you did with Esther, and that turned out great didn’t it?”

“Yeah..” Reggie sheepishly admitted.

“Right. So don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. Who knows you might even find someone you really like.” Judy nudged Reggie with her elbow.

“If you say so Mom.”

“Now, get to bed. It’s a school night.”


The next day at school was like any other. Classes, lunch with Todd and Esther, more classes. The only thing different today was a slight change in routine. In order to get to her fifth period classroom, Reggie had to walk past Conelly’s locker. Normally that was no big deal, she’d just zip past, actively trying not to look at it. But not today. As she rounded the corner she saw that Conelly was at her locker with her two friends, shoving a box into it. Once it was fully stowed away she waved the two of them off.

“Alright I’ll see you guys after school! Thanks for bringing in the props Shaun!”

“No problem Conelly.” Reggie’s eye’s widened as Shaun moved toward Conelly and embraced her. It seemed like an hour before they finally parted and he walked off in the other direction. Conelly closed her locker and began to turn down the hall.

Reggie dove back around the corner, plastering herself against the wall and began to hyperventilate. Her eyes quickly scanned left and right, threatening to jump right out of her head as she tried to find an exit, a way to avoid going down that hallway. She dared to peek around the corner to see if the eighth grader was still there. She was. And this time she definitely saw Reggie.

“I thought that was you I saw. You spying on me now?” she jokingly teased with giggle and a playful furrow of her brow.

“WHAT?” Reggie’s volume knob was on the fritz. “I’d never wanna look at you. Uh, I mean uh, I didn’t see you there? I should see you later. I mean, I’ve gotta be somewhere later. I mean, I’m uh, late for class.” Reggie took off down the hall at a full sprint, nearly tripping over her own shoes along the way. Conelly shrugged off Reggie’s hasty retreat but couldn’t help laughing a little to herself watching her go.

Later on Endless, several islanders watched on and cheered as Reggie smashed her way through several boulders. She picked the last one up and chucked it into a nearby mountainside with the force of a comet. “rrrrrrRRRRRRRRRAAAAHHHHHHHH!” It exploded in a blinding flash which only Doctor Champion stared at directly. “I just. Don’t. GET IT!” Reggie was huffing with frustration. She began to pace around the beach. “Why can’t I just talk to her? I’ve done it before. I know I’m not a loser. I’m not locked out of Endless. So what gives!?” She kicked another boulder into dust. “Ugh! That felt good. Hey guys, I gotta get going. I’ll catch ya later.” With a scowl she pulled out her key and was off.


“Oh my! What in the world is that heavenly aroma?” The Butt Witch rolled her head back, nose pointed to the ceiling. “I haven’t smelled something so decadent, so luscious in ages!”

Big Deal meekly answered her, holding up a small bottle. “It could be the sheets Ma’am. I started using a new detergent. It’s called bayside blossom.”

“No you nitwit. This is something.. extraordinary.” Her eyes gleamed, toothy smile stretching from ear to ear. “It’s an olfactory orchestra! A smorgasbord for the senses. Doubt. Fear. The unmistakable piquant tang of anxiety. And is it? Yes, yes I do believe it’s that oh so familiar peppering of confusion. So pungent. Sooo aacrid. Ooooh Big Deal. I’m going to go mad if I don’t find where this is coming from. Come! We’ve got to move quickly if we’re going to find the source.” She was already on all fours and rapidly crawling her way to the exit, tongue darting to and fro as she went.

“W-wait for me Ma’am!” Big Deal flapped after her as best he could.


Back in her room, Reggie landed with a flop on her bed. She laid face down in her pillow and let out a frustrated groan. Lifting herself up and flipping over, she stared determinedly at the ceiling. She tried to psych herself up. “Ok Reggie, tomorrow is a new day. You can do this. You had no problem talking to Todd when you first met him. You had no problem talking to Esther. You can even talk to Gwen! Conelly shouldn’t be any different.”

The next day Reggie sat through class after class. In each one she whispered to herself the words she would say. She practiced and honed them. “Just keep it simple Reggie. Hi there Conelly. No that’s dumb. Heyyy girl! What’s shakin’? Ugh, lame. Hey Conelly. How’s it going? Yeah yeah that’ll work.”    As the hours ticked by nervousness crept its way through Reggie’s mind. She watched the clock adamantly. Class was almost over. The hour of reckoning was soon upon her.

The bell rang and Reggie was up in a flash. Her body stiff and awkward as she pushed on through the halls to her fate. “Hey Conelly. How’s it going? Hey Conelly. How’s it going? Hey Conelly. How’s it going?” She repeated her rehearsed speech over and over again. She was at the last corner now. She crept up to it’s edge, heart thudding away like a race horse. Her gaze broke over the horizon that was the wall of lockers and peered down the hallway. It was empty. She squinted in confusion. She sighed with both relief that she wouldn’t have to go through with her speech, but also sadness at the lost opportunity.

“Boo!”

Reggie nearly hit the ceiling as two hands landed on her shoulders. She clutched at her chest, trying desperately to catch her panicked breath. She turned around to see that familiar beanie topped face laughing mere inches from her own. That breath was gone for good.

She still smiled, but Conelly’s eyes became much more apologetic. “Sorry!  I didn’t know I’d scare you that bad. You ok Regina?”

“A-ARE YOU OK? Heh heh” So much for the plan.

The eighth grader just snickered. “I figured I might find you here, miss super spy.” She playfully ran her hand behind her ear, causing her hair to flick about.

Reggie took notice a little too immediately. “You smell!” Her eyes bugged out. “I-I mean I like you’re coconuts. Er, you smell like coconuts and I like it?” Every syllable was a stammering wreck and Reggie was fully aware of it.

Conelly didn’t seem to notice the dumpster fire in front of her though. “Oh, thanks! Yeah I just got a new shampoo. I like to switch it up every now and then. Y’know?”

“Totally! Y-yeah. I love switching things up. I do it, uh, all the time. Yep, the old switcheroo. Ha ha ha” Reggie didn’t know she could sweat this much.

“Hey so, do you wanna maybe hang with me and my friends after school today. We’re gonna be work shopping the new script and I’d love your input.”

“I can hang!?” Reggie’s instant exclamation was neither question nor statement, yet somehow both. “Uh, that’d be super chill yeah.” She put her arm out to lean on a locker casually. Her hand missed by a mile and her face made acquaintances with the cold steel. She quickly tried to right herself. “A-actually I can’t today. I gotta chill. I-I’m cold I mean. It’s freezing in here. I’ve gotta go buy a new jacket later. Bye!” She turned to run but was stopped almost instantly.

“Wait, Regina!”

Reggie turned to see Conelly had her by the hand. Her eyes grew wide, her mouth fell open but no air dared to enter or leave. Time itself seemed to crawl nearly to a halt as Conelly pulled her closer. She pulled a pen from her bag and began to write something on Reggie’s palm. The smooth ball point skated across her skin. Her eyes moved up to watch as Conelly’s lips continued to move, but it took all her concentration before the pace of the universe returned to normal and she could even begin to hear the words coming from them.

“..re’s my number. I’m usually by the phone after dinner. Oh and be careful not to wash that off before you write it down, this pen can be kinda smudgy even after it’s dry.” She drew a little smiley face off to the side of the number and blew on Reggie’s palm to speed up the process. She then wiped her finger tip across it, causing the smile to smear into an inky mess across Reggie’s skin. “See?”

Reggie was paralyzed. She just stared at the digits on her hand, at her hand in Conelly’s hand, unblinking, unmoving.

“Regina? Did you hear me?”

“I NEVER WASH MY HANDS!” She stole her hand back and guarded it close to her chest. Conelly was actually taken aback a bit this time. “I mean I w-won’t wash it off. I’ll keep it safe!” Reggie inhaled sharply several times, body stiff as a board.

“Alright, cool cool. I’ll talk to you later then Regina.” She waved as she turned to head in the opposite direction. Reggie held her hand wide open and outstretched as she tore down the hall the other way.

Later at home Reggie slammed her door shut and fell to the floor. “uuugggGGGGHHHHAAAAA AAHHH! What is wrong with me. It was just five words. FIVE. WORDS. That’s all I had to say. And I couldn’t even do that!” Reggie banged her fist on the floor. “And now I have to call her?! She’s gonna be expecting that. She’s probably waiting by the phone for me to call right now. How dare she call me a spy. She was the one sneaking up on me!” Reggie looked at the numbers on her hand. She stood up with resolution on her face. She threw her bedroom door open and marched down the stairs. She nearly ripped the phone off its cord and began to dial from memory.

“Hello?”

“Todd. Call Esther, tell her to me us on Endless.”

“Why, what’s going o..” the line went dead.

Esther arrived just after Todd in a yellow flash. “Oh my gosh, Todd what happened around here??” The beach was littered with rubble and ruin. Chunks of rock, broken trees and branches, and several half demolish sand castles made a path of destruction leading away from the landing pad and down the shoreline.

“I don’t know. It looks like a tornado came through here. Does Endless even get those?” Todd was scratching his head in disbelief.

“I don’t think Endless has any real weather phenomena.. Should we investigate maybe? Like, look for clues as to what caused all this?”

“Should we wait for Reggie first? Where is she anyway?” Todd soon had his answer. Reggie came bursting from the forest up ahead with a gargantuan boulder held high above her head.

“AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” She tossed the mighty rock out into the sea. It splashed down just before the horizon a moment later. She slumped her shoulders and took several labored breaths. “That felt good.”

“Reggie! Hey Reggie!” Todd and Esther came running down the beach towards her, being careful to dodge the destruction as they went.

“Oh, hey guys! I was wondering where you were.” Reggie was back to her happy-go-lucky self.

“Reggie, did you do all this?” Esther motioned to the travesty that was the beach behind them.

She looked down the beach, the wake of devastation stretching its entire length. Her smile faded. “Oh, yeah. I guess I got a bit carried away there.. I just really needed to blow off some steam.”

“Why though? This looks a lot more intense than when you’re usually fired up.”

Reggie shuffled awkwardly. “I don’t know. It’s just weird and hard to explain. Just forget it. It’s nothing.”


Just beyond the treeline nearby, the Butt Witch had stopped her search. She peered out from the bushes at the three children talking on the shore.

“I should have know that the stench of pubescent worry would lead me right to Twelve and those brats.”

“Maybe we should go back home Ma’am. You shouldn’t be over working yourself like this..”

“Quiet you! It seems that Twelve doesn’t like to talk about her feelings. Well perhaps we can oblige her in that a little.” She pulled a strip of black ribbon from her hair and affixed a small stone from the ground to the center of it. She then gave the stone a little kiss, causing it to glow a sickly green. “This ought to shut that insolent child up once and for all.”


Back on the beach Esther was trying to coax more information out of Reggie. “We’re your friends Reggie. You know you can tell us anything.” She placed her hand on Reggie’s shoulder and looked her square in the eyes.

Reggie pouted and let out a heavy sigh. “It’s just that… huh?”

There was a rustling in the forest nearby. The foliage parted and out crawled the Butt Witch with a nervous Big Deal in tow.

“The Butt Witch! What the heck do you think you’re doing here?” Reggie was more than eager for a fight and more importantly a change of subject.

The Butt Witch stood up with flourish. “Now, now, you brutish child, I’m only here to give you a little gift.” She tossed the stone-clad ribbon into the air. It snaked and twirled its way across the gap and towards Reggie, chasing her as she backed away. She swatted at it but it dodged every swipe before finally wrapping around her throat, the green stone landing right in the middle. It began to tighten around her neck as she clawed to get it off. “Maybe that’ll put a stopper on that loquacious nonsense you call conversation. Ah ha ha ha! Let’s go Big Deal, they won’t be bothering us anymore.”

“Ah! What ... this ...ing?? Huh? ...at’s …ing? ….an’t I ….?” Reggie’s mouth continued to move but no words came out. Panic grew in her eyes as she clutched at the necklace.

“Oh my gosh is she choking??” Esther rushed to Reggie’s aid. She grabbed at the necklace but it was unyielding. Reggie’s head wobbled back and forth as Esther tugged at the cloth, her mouth screaming silent commands to stop.

She finally pushed Esther’s assault off and began tugging at the binding cloth herself. She yelled at it with all her might but couldn’t make so much as a peep.

Todd had transformed into his large whale with buff arms form and turned to face the Butt Witch.  “What did you do to her?”

The Butt Witch had already climbed aboard Big Deal though, who was now flapping high above them. “All I’ve done is gave her what she wanted. Maybe now I’ll be able to get a little beauty sleep. Take me home Big Deal.”

“Yes Ma’am.” He huffed and puffed as he carried her off over the tree tops.

Todd was about to chase after them when Esther called out to him. “Todd! I could use a little help with this!” He transformed back and ran back over to Reggie and Esther. “Any luck with that thing yet?”

“Aarrrrrg...It won’t.. rrrugh budge!” Esther was prying at the stone from every angle she could. Reggie made several gestures to the necklace, her mouth, a motion that looked like she was starting up a lawnmower, several bombs landing, twirled her fingers around each other, then shrugged at her friends with a smile.

“Yeah.. we still can’t understand you at all.” Todd turned his attention to Esther while Reggie continued her charades. “Do you think she’s just stuck like this?”

Esther’s face was weathered with worry. “I don’t know. I guess you could learn to use sign language. But there’s just got to be a way to get this thing off of you.

Reggie’s face flashed with anger, sadness, fear, and more as she seemed to contemplate her fate. Suddenly her eyes shot wide open as if she just remembered something. Then they faded to guilt. She stared down at her gloved hand for a moment.

“What is it Reggie?” Esther placed a hand on Reggie’s shoulder.

Reggie pulled the glove off revealing a string of numbers.

Todd pointed a confused finger at her hand. “Was that always there? It looks like a phone number.”

“Reggie, whose number is that?”

Reggie didn’t look up at their prodding questions. Her mouth was moving a mile a minute, but what she was saying was lost to Todd and Esther. She then reached up with her number-clad hand and grabbed the necklace by the stone ornament. She closed her eyes and with a slight quiver of her lip tore it off her neck. For the next few seconds Todd and Esther were the ones to be speechless.

“No way! You did it! Way to go Reggie!”

“Yeah but, how did you do that Reggie? You barely pulled at all that time.”

Reggie stared down at the necklace in her hand. She dropped it to reveal an inky smudge across her palm. None of the numbers were remotely legible anymore. She dropped her hand and pulled out her key. “Thanks for your help guys. There’s just one more thing I have to do real quick. I’ll talk to you later, ok?”

“Reggie wait, can’t you at least tell us what’s going on?”

She smiled at her friends. “Sometimes you just make the leap.” With those hasty parting words she raised her key high and teleported out in a whirlwind of pink.

Back in her room, Reggie continued to look at the smear across her hand. With determination she stood up and marched down the stairs towards the phone. She picked it up and once again dialed from memory alone. A familiar voice came through the receiver after just one ring. “Hello?”

Reggie hesitated. Her arm twitched just slightly towards hanging up the phone. She swallowed hard, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “H-Hey Conelly. I-It’s Reggie...”