Toby: Part 1
Toby was a good kid. He never made much trouble for his mom or dad. He was always in bed on time and rarely stole chocolate ice cream bars from his neighbor’s house.
Toby was an exceptional athlete. He was the best at one man tennis, amazing at one man baseball, and a remarkable one man tag player.
He was a boy who needed a brother, but 60-hour work weeks for his parents stopped those dreams dead in their tracks.
His mother and father noticed his lack of friends. His teacher noticed it too. They all said Toby was more “mature” than the other boys, but that wasn’t true. Toby loved farts as much as the other children, he just didn’t have anybody to share his with.
He was a little bit smaller than the other boys. His name was usually picked last during recess football. He wasn’t chased by the girls anymore ever since he told on them.
Toby loved the indoors. He also loved the outdoors. He loved bugs, bones, and trees. He LOVED chocolate ice cream bars.
Toby was scared of deodorant ever since his mother told him about the boy who died due to a deodorant overdose.
Toby’s life was fine. Not great. Then, he met John.
—-
It was the first day of summer and Toby was searching his front yard for mushrooms for a secret potion he was making. The potion required a six wild mushrooms, two squished ants, a bundle of green leaves, and that smelly thing Toby found underneath his back porch. Potion making is more of an art than a science and Toby knew that. As he searched through his yard, he noticed a large moving truck in the driveway of the home across the street. His neighbor’s house went up for sale after the family was murdered by a crazed convict a few weeks prior. At least that’s what Toby suspected was the cause. Luckily, the potion he was creating was good at keeping his house free of murderers. If only his parents knew of the importance of his mission, they would let him play outside until 8 instead of 7 each night.
Anyway, Toby noticed a young boy sitting on the porch across the street. The boy looked around Toby’s age, maybe a year younger. He had a small head, weird ears, big eyes, messy hair, but other than that was pretty normal looking. The boy waved at Toby and began to walk in his direction. Toby immediately sprung up and ran into his backyard.
An hour later, Toby’s mother came out to find Toby deep at work in his sandbox. Toby was currently working on a new castle design that would increase efficiency and decrease cost in the world of Sandtopia. Toby was an amazing architect. The sand, consisting mostly of stray cat’s poop, had a thicker consistency than usual which was exactly what Toby needed for his new creation. Unfortunately, before he could complete his work of art he was rudely interrupted.
“Toby, there’s someone at the front door for you!” Yelled Toby’s mom through their kitchen screendoor.
“I’m busy, Mom. Tell them to come back tomorrow!”
“Toby. Go to the front yard. Now!”
“Fine!”
Toby was upset, but realized that the people at the door were probably CIA or FBI in need of a special potion or something. He didn’t want the entire country to suffer just because he was a little busy with another project. He made his way to the front yard thinking about an appropriate amount of money he should ask from the government for his services. He decided on two thousand dollars, but he would take one thousand if they were really low on money. If they were really, really low on money he would take one hundred dollars. If they were COMPLETELY broke, he would take a few ice cream bars…
