Summoning A Friend

 

Table of Contents

Chapter 1—Parents Just Don’t Understand

Chapter 2—Just Call Me Your New Imaginary Friend

Chapter 3—I’ve Been Meaning To Talk to You

Chapter 4—Now That I’m a Man, I’ve Put Away Childish Things

Epilogue

 

 

Chapter 1—Parents Just Don’t Understand

                Stanley found himself bored once again.   Marvin was out late at Jinko’s, and mama Harmony was out doing goodness knows what in the forest with her bear family, which left Stanley by himself in the house with his action figures.    He didn’t have any friends he could call and most of his classmates found him ‘weird and awkward’ although he tried his utmost to make new friends.     He laid one of his Power Rangers supine while the others tumbled into a tangled dogpile.    He sighed.   Then he remembered that one goth kid at school that sometimes associated with him.   What was his name ?   Sam ?  Dean ?  It didn’t matter.   All he recalled was that he pointed out a book in the restricted part of the library.   Stan had copied the most important page from it, the ‘summoning’ one.    He wasn’t really certain what that meant, exactly, but at this point, he didn’t care about the consequences.  

 

Chapter 2—Just Call Me Your New Imaginary Friend

                Stanley followed the instructions in the summoning to the letter, including the pricking of his index finger.   It was a slight inconvenient pain but nothing more.   He quickly went into the bathroom to put a Spiderman bandage over the tiny cut and returned to his candlelit pentacle.    Then, he said the words and waited for a few moments.   

                Quickly, wind whooshed through Stanely’s windows, causing the shutters to rattle and bang loudly.   All his candles were snuffed out.   Terrified, Stanley grabbed a flashlight and shone it around his bedroom, stumbling to find his light switch.   By the time he turned it on, there was a rather well-dressed skeleton there, who had flames for eyes.   

                The two shrieked when they encountered each other, but then the skeleton realized he was contracted to this little boy.

                ‘Say, did you summon me ?   I’m Mr. Flesh.   Glad to meet ya !’, he said, very flamboyantly, shaking the young boy’s hand exuberantly.    Stanley hadn’t known he had brought a demon to life, but unfortunately, only he could see him and only he could speak to him.   This would lead him into therapy, which helped but nothing would exorcise Mr. Flesh.

 

Chapter 3—I’ve Been Meaning to Talk to You

                It had been a work night and Marvin had been out late.   Harmony had taken excellent care of Stan, and the two had experienced tremendous bonding time together.   Funnily enough, Mr. Flesh had made himself scarce at this time, but he had started bugging him and Stan was beginning to become slightly annoyed at his presence.  

                ‘I know we haven’t been hanging out that much and that I’ve been working overtime.’,  Marvin began as he sat down on the edge of the bed next to Stan.   Stan oddly wasn’t mad, but he asked a question that genuinely surprised him.  

                ‘I’m not upset about that.   You and mom work hard to do all that adult stuff you do.   What I’m wondering is if you two will ever remarry ?’, he stated, frankly.    For a second, Marvin found himself tongue tied, which was uncharacteristic of him.    He and Harmony had been working at handling their issues together and so far, it was working. 

                ‘I don’t know.  Relationships can be tricky at times, but talking everything through is the key to making them work.’, Marvin said, having an epiphany as he spoke to Stanley.   Stanley leaned against his dad and Marvin looped his arm around him.    To think, he had been such a scrawny kid before, and here he was, becoming a teenager right before his eyes.    Even though he didn’t enjoy being outdoors and had numerous allergies he had decided the two of them should go on a fishing trip.

                ‘Only if I can go to the roller rink afterward.’, Stanley added.  It was a reasonable request, so Marvin honored it.  

                After the talk, Marvin kissed Stanley on the forehead and smiled.

                ‘Love ya, kiddo.’,  he said, gently.    Stan grinned and replied he loved him as well before snuggling under his covers and closing his eyes.    Mr. Flesh had wanted to have a heart to heart with him but felt Stan deserved more bonding time with his dad.

 

Chapter 4—Now That I’m a Man, I’ve Put Away Childish Things

                As Stan grew older, he began to see Mr. Flesh less and less.   He completely disappeared when he met Stella, who was exactly like him, only a girl.    The two were now in high school and had remarkable goth friends Tony and Toni who were dating each other.  Most of the time, the four of them were out at the mall, pulling off sick tricks at the skate park, admiring art or learning history from a local museum or simply savoring a picnic at a graveyard in the evening until the stars came out.  

                The close-knit group even attended each other’s weddings when they decided to make their relationships official.   Marvin and Mavin got to see each other once again.   At this point, their friendship was purely that, a friendship.    Their families were so interwoven sometimes it was difficult to see where one ended and the other began, but they definitely weren’t homogeneous.    They were unique and both heads of the respective families kept life interesting.   

                To no one’s surprise, Stella and Stan became the next detectives for Grimsberg.   Both exceeded their parent’s expectations, and both were sharp shooters if and when a situation ever called for it.    They worked together and oddly had a professional enough understanding of their personal boundaries not to allow their work life and romantic tendencies overlap.    They were simply two crazy kids that were head over heels in love with each other and their relationship often inspired Marvin to continue making improvements where he had experienced weaknesses before.

 

Epilogue

                It had been years since Mr. Flesh had made an appearance.    Having been zapped out of hell so quickly had been disorienting and he was back where he belonged with Ms. Flesh.

                ‘Did you expect we would actually befriend our contractors ?’, he asked, idly walking beside her down the stinking corridors of sulfur columns.    Ms. Flesh shrugged.   Matters had been more interesting here, going about business and actually achieving their goals.   Humans were more resilient than they had thought.   Part of the demons missed their humans but the other were glad to be rid of them and doing work that mattered rather than wasting time above ground with mortals.    Those two were never bound to fail and be delivered to hell for eternity, but it had been fun trying to trip them up and be horrible influencers.    All in all, if they were summoned again, they would try harder, but for the moment, the tricksters savored their walk through the caverns of inferno, never tiring of the endeavoring walk or the terrible landscape around them.

 

The End