Friday, December 22, 2006

   Cream Filling & Nougat: Half-Julkalender (Chapter IX)
[Translation Note #2: "vezel" is Dutch for "fiber", which is something that makes you lose stuff - whether it's the right version of fiber or not, I couldn't say. "Selleri" is Swedish for "celery", which gives/loses fiber. "Hidrato de carbono" is Portuguese for "carbohydrates", which are good for you even though everyone has a bad impression of it these days.
And Cream's major in college was Biology, although he had Philosophy as an elective.]


As Nougat pulled up to an empty space along the curb, Cream was again ready to leap from the moving car.
"Whip', hold your ass!" Nougat commanded, intentionally braking hard to wreck the other man's timing. "Let's . . . just take this slow. She's by herself, she's not going anywhere, and you can outrun her if she does." Flopped back in his seat, Cream grinned and shook his head.
"Yeah," he said, "yeah, you're right . . . so park already so we can get over there . . ."

Cream and Nougat looked around once they left the car. As expected, the park was practically empty save for the odd jogger going along the lit path. The path itself was also fairly close to the edge of the park where it bordered the few shops and restaurants still open across the street. The two of them headed directly for the small girl, stepping through the snowy grass and Cream finding his socks slowly getting damp. Still, there she was: purple coat, shoulder-length red hair, about three and a half feet tall. It had to be her.

"Vezel?" Nougat asked as they walked closer to the young girl leaning against one of the two squat snowmen between which she was sitting. She looked up but remained silent, even backing herself up behind the one snowman to her left. "Vezel, if it's you you need to tell us . . ." The girl remained silent, staring at the detectives with cold, detached eyes.

Cream stopped walking any further and motioned for Nougat to do the same.
"We'll work from here," he said quietly under his breath. "We already interrogated her mom in her own house, broke into her dad's house . . . let's not threaten the girl herself." Nougat agreed with a nod.
"Alright Whip', your ball," he replied.

Cream squatted down into the thin snow on the opposite side of the concrete path and looked to the girl.
"Hi," he said softly, "my name's Cream. I'm . . . we're . . . friends of 'Mel's. You know 'Mel, right?" The girl remained silent, hugging closer to her snowman.

"Okay," Cream responded, "you're not talking to strangers, that's smart . . ." Cream looked up and around them as he trailed off. "You've been pretty smart here, too. I mean, parks aren't really safe at night, but you knew to keep close to a trail, under a well lit area not too far away from those restaurants across the street . . . wouldn't you agree, Noug'?"
"Absolutely," Nougat replied. The girl seemed to take the comments to heart, but kept her defenses up.
"Alright . . . you know about safe strangers, right? Like police officers? I'm sure you do . . ." With that, Cream took out his wallet and showed his badge. When he still had no major response from her, he tossed his wallet towards her. "If you think it's fake, take a look . . ." While still cautious, the girl slowly leaned forward and picked up the wallet, running her mitted hand over the shield. Neither Cream nor Nougat could tell whether she was satisfied by the evidence, but nevertheless she finally responded. Getting up, she took the wallet and placed it on the trail halfway between herself and the other two before returning to her snowmen. Cream smiled and stepped forward to pick up his wallet. "Thank you . . ."

Cream rubbed his hands together briskly.
"Let's try something new," he said. "Now I've been told a lot of things about Vezel, and she seems like a pretty neat girl. If you're Vezel, you'll know all these same things I now know . . . if I'm wrong, you can . . ." Cream looked around the area again, thinking. ". . . Oh! You can throw a snowball at me . . . I won't even dodge or anything." The girl smirked a little, but quickly hid it away again. "If you don't throw anything at me . . . oh, Nougat here will hold me in place so I can't dodge either . . ." Looking over his shoulder, he motioned for Nougat to follow through. "So if you don't thro- . . . ack!" Nougat laughed quietly as he cinched his younger partner in a full-nelson lock. Again, the girl smiled briefly.

"Like I was saying," Cream said, "if you don't throw anything at me, I'll take it that I'm right even if it's not . . . so you have to keep me honest, okay?" The girl remained silent, but she did not go away either. "Alright, let's play . . ."

"Vezel Carbono's mother's name is Selleri." The girl gathered and packed snow for a snowball but did not throw it. "Vezel's dad's name is Hidrato . . . no snow, good . . . um . . ." Cream paused, pretending to think far back into his memory for facts he was already running through his mind. "Vezel is a bright girl, does well in school, and loves to draw . . ." Cream froze for a moment when he thought she was about to throw the snowball and struggled against Nougat's arms behind his neck. Instead, she lowered her throwing arm and looked away unimpressed.

"How about this one," Cream attempted. "Vezel has been pretty upset for the past six months ever since her parents divorced." Immediately, he saw something shiver in the girl's eyes and she again withdrew closer to her snowman. "She misses having her mom and dad and herself all together like before . . . and she's always thinking about this, even when she's out playing in the snow having fun." The girl dropped the snowball and hugged the short snowman next to her as best she could with her short arms without crushing it. Nougat just rubbed his chin as he watched Cream go through all the theories he himself had more or less worked out as well by that point.

"Next . . ." Cream began, restraining his own personal excitement at making progress. ". . . Vezel knows that though she won't be able to change the divorce, she would still like everyone to be together for Christmas." Because he was talking so much, Cream couldn't help but feel a little concern over the amount of his own breath he could see floating in front of him; he pulled his coat tighter around himself. "Since she wanted everyone together, Vezel figured the first step would be to go see her dad . . . but since he or her mom didn't have the time to take her over there, Vezel figured she had to get there by herself . . . and that she would take the bus . . ."

Nougat continued staring at the curious little girl as she started responding more and more to what his partner was saying. He himself was quite excited since Cream was getting to what he felt was the good parts.
"So," Cream said, "Vezel grabbed as much change as she might have needed to pay for the bus trip and she headed out to a bus stop she knew was nearby. She remembered seeing a bus that had a route description that looked like it would go to her dad, Hidrato . . ." The girl immediately looked away, down at her hands. ". . . but Vezel read the sign wrong, didn't she? It didn't go to Hidrato. It went to Hiopat Train Station." The girl continued looking down, her red hair shining in the lamp light. "After that, Vezel got lost . . . and she got scared . . . and that's why she's now here, in this park, pretending that she's here with her family and that they'll protect her . . ."

The girl kept her head down, though now she was fidgeting with her gloves more and more. That, and the telltale shaking of her body, was more than enough information as to how she was feeling. Cream got Nougat to release the full-nelson and pulled out his cell phone, shivering slightly himself as he dialed.
"So much for not upsetting her, I guess," Nougat commented as Cream listened for an answer.

"Hello?" Cream said once someone on the other end picked up. "'Mel? Hey, it's me . . . yeah, fine . . . is Selleri over there? I need her on the phone right now . . ."

After a quiet pause with nothing but the distant traffic disturbing the air, Cream spoke quickly on the phone; soon after, he crossed the park pathway and squatted down in front of the girl.
"Vezel," he said, holding the phone out "there's someone you should talk to right now." With a nod that exposed the two lines of tears down her cheeks, Vezel stood up, clumsily took the phone in her mitts and finally spoke for the first time since the detectives had arrived.

"Hello?" Vezel said shakily before faltering backwards, knocking the top half off the snowman behind her - by now the tears were freely flowing and her voice drew softer. "Hi mommy . . . yes . . . yes, I'm okay . . ."


[I love exposition. Anyways, I'm not gonna do any more trivia here on in. Let's just wrap this girl up . . .]
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