The Gallant Return of Kathryn and Tobin: Part Four

      We were ready to set out early the next morning, looking forward to giving the glass bottom boat tours a try... well, all of us but Tobin. He complained about how boring it was going to be all throughout breakfast.

      “Who wants to look at underwater architecture anyway? It's the exact same thing as looking at houses on dry land!”

      “Aw c'mon Tobe,” I wheedled, pulling another pancake from the stack in the middle of the table, “It'll be great, just think, you'll get to meet all kinds of fun people!”

      Tobin scowled, pushing his grape jelly-smattered plate away. “I hate meeting people,” he snapped, “They're never fun, they always want to talk about boring things like the weather and where they live, and I always say the wrong thing!”

      I sighed, trying to think of what else might convince him.

      “You know,” David interjected from the other end of the table, “You might get to see some pretty cool underwater petpets.”

      Tobin's ears twitched at that as if his interest had been piqued. “You might be right,” he said slowly, “Unioctos, waleins and catamaras have been known to live in freshwater lakes.” Suddenly his eyes widened and he gasped as if remembering something important. Scrambling out of his chair, he rushed into the living room where Mom was organising the things we'd need for the day. “Mom!” he cried, “We have to go to the petpet shop before we go on the boat tours!”

      “Why?” Mom asked, bewildered at his sudden burst of energy.

      “Because I need to get some negg flakes!” Tobin cried, flapping his forepaws in obvious great excitement. “Catamaras love them, and if I sprinkle them into the water, they'll come right up to the surface! C'mon let's go!” he tugged on her sleeve impatiently.

      “Hold on a minute,” Mom said, trying to process my brother's lightning-quick explanation, “How do you even know you'll see any catamaras? It seems like a long trip to make just to get food for a petpet that might not even show.”

      “But they might be there!” Tobin cried, his desperation mounting as he saw his plan being put in jeopardy. “You wouldn't want to miss seeing a pod of catamaras up close, it's amazing! Please?!” he pleaded, sitting back on his haunches as he resumed flapping with anxious anticipation.

      Mom glanced from Tobin to David to me, then, seeing that this was the only way to get Tobin out of the house in one piece, she relented.

      “Alright,” she said, “But you have to buy them and we have to be quick about it, the next boat tour leaves in an hour, and if we miss it, we won't be able to try again until midday when the crowds come and it gets too hot.”

      Tobin had disappeared before she finished, galloping full-tilt down the corridor to his room and emerging moments later with his sack of neopoints swinging from his mouth. “Hurry up let's go!” he said urgently through the cloth as he pawed at the front door with impatience.

      David and I couldn't help but smile at each other; one mention of petpets was all it took to make the difference between a boring outing and the best one ever as far as my brother was concerned.

      We walked along the lake shore toward the small shops in town, with Tobin's relentless demands that we speed things up as he continually ran ahead of us, then sprinted back when he saw we weren't following.

      Finally we made it to the petpet shop and Tobin darted inside, heading immediately for the marine petpets aisle.

      I stood around somewhat aimlessly, examining a rack of rubber bone-shaped chew toys that were obviously meant for puppyblews, when I heard a voice a few feet away.

      “Aw Mom, do we have to? The glass-bottom boat rides are soooo boring!”

      I peered round the rack and spotted the owner of the voice; a green Xweetok about my age sat at the feet of a tall woman, her tail curled tightly over her forepaws as she looked pleadingly at her mother.

      “It won't be so bad Daisy,” the woman said, “I'm sure there are lots of interesting things to see, now come on, let's hurry up and find Terrence's food, we don't want to be late.”

      Daisy flattened her ears in irritation and scowled at the floor as her mother walked away.

      Curious, I moved out from behind the rack and approached her. Putting on my best smile, I said, “Hi, my name's Kathryn.”

      Daisy looked at me uncertainly. “Um, hi,” she said, not sure why I was talking to her.

      “I couldn't help but overhear you're going on the glass-bottom boat tours,” I said, trying to open the conversation.

      Daisy rolled her eyes and huffed angrily. “Yeah,” she said, “My mom's making me go, she says it'll be a “good experience”, but I think it's totally boring. We're here on vacation, and we're leaving next week. I don't want to have to waste any of it looking at a bunch of dumb houses.”

      “I'm here on vacation too,” I said, “As a matter of fact, we're about to go on the same tour, maybe we can keep each other company.”

      Daisy seemed to brighten at that. “Really?” she asked, “Gee, that'd be great, it won't be nearly as boring if I have someone to talk to. My name's Dasiy by the way,” she smiled.

      I smiled back, then suddenly heard her mother's voice by the register, “Come on Daisy, I found what we need, let's go.”

      I turned and spotted Tobin lining up right behind her with a plastic can of negg flakes in his mouth.

      “That's my brother Tobin,” I said, gesturing to him. I immediately wished I hadn't.

      Tobin looked at the heavy bag of kadoatie kibble Daisy's mother was holding and put his can down, “You know, that food isn't very good for kadoaties.”

      Daisy's mother turned around and looked at Tobin, surprised.

      He continued, “It has vegetable extract in it, and kadoaties are purely carnivorous. Feeding them anything with vegetable matter in it can make them very sick. I can show you something better if you like.”

      “Really? Why thank you young man,” Daisy's mother smiled, clearly pleased as she followed my brother down the aisle.

      Daisy looked at me, “That's your brother?” she asked, “He's sure... different, isn't he?”

      I sighed, “Yeah, you might say that.”

      Tobin and Daisy's mother reappeared moments later with a new bag of kibble, and my brother spotted me, “Hello Kathryn,” he said, and made to move off again without introducing me to the woman standing behind him.

      “Tobin wait,” I said quickly. Turning to her, I smiled, “Hi, my name's Kathryn, this is my brother, Tobin. I met Daisy and we were just talking about the glass-bottom boat tours. I'm going too, so we thought we'd keep each other company.”

      Daisy's mother smiled warmly. “Well hello Kathryn,” she said, “My name is Denise, your brother was just helping me find some healthier food for our kadoatie, Terrence, he certainly seems to know a lot about them.”

      I grit my teeth and nodded, “He knows a lot about petpets in general,” I admitted.

      Behind me I heard Mom call, “Hurry up Tobin, did you find your negg flakes?”

      Daisy turned to me, “Oh that's sweet, do you have a catamara?”

      Grinding my teeth harder, I shook my head. “No, Tobin is kind of obsessed with petpets, he wants to see if he can attract some catamaras to the boat while we're on the tour,” I said, acutely aware of how weird that sounded.

      Daisy studied me curiously for a moment, “Oh,” she said, sounding a little confused.

      Tobin and Denise both made their way to the checkout, and I hurriedly made introductions to Mom and David.

      Mom smiled, “Well how nice,” she said, “I'm glad you found a friend Kathryn, it's very nice to meet both of you,” she glanced from Daisy to Denise, who both smiled in return.

      Tobin returned from the register with his negg flakes in his mouth and stared at Daisy, then looked at Mom. “Why are you talking to them?” he asked, slipping the can into the sack of neopoints around his neck, “I thought you said we were going to be late?”

      Mom flushed, embarrassed. “I'm sorry,” she said, “My son Tobin, well, he... doesn't pick up on social cues very well, he doesn't mean to be rude, he's just a little... abrupt,” she glared at my brother meaningfully, who scowled with confusion, not understanding what he'd done.

      Denise chuckled and brushed it aside. “Oh it's fine,” she said, “Tobin was very helpful, he helped me with my kadoatie food,” she hoisted the heavy bag of kibble higher in her arms.

      David laughed, “Oh yes, he'll tell you everything you ever wanted to know about petpets, and a lot of things you probably didn't as well, he's our resident expert on the subject.”

      Tobin puffed out his chest proudly, and I was acutely aware of Daisy's uncertain gaze flitting from him to me.

      Eager to draw the subject away from my crazy brother, I said, “Come on then, we don't want to miss the boat,” I practically pushed Mom and David out the door, and Daisy and her mom followed.

      We parted ways halfway down the beach and agreed to meet back at the dock when we had everything we needed, and when Denise was no longer lugging around thirty pounds of kadoatie food.

      As we made our way back to the cabin, I tried to instruct my brother on how not to embarrass me in front of my potential new friend.

      “Try not to talk about petpets too much,” I said, “Daisy doesn't like them as much as you do and she'll find it boring.”

      “Well then what do I talk about?” Tobin asked, seeming for the first time in his life to be paying attention to my social lesson.

      “You could talk about lots of things,” I said, “Ask her where she's from, or if she has any siblings, or what hobbies she has, or you could ask her what her favourite school subject is, you know, simple things like that.”

      Tobin sighed, “But all that stuff is boring,” he said, “I don't care where she's from or what she likes to do.”

      “Yeah, but sometimes you have to pretend,” I explained, “It makes people feel important and like you think they matter.”

      “But I don't,” Tobin replied bluntly.

      I slapped a palm to my face and murmured, “Yes, but you don't say that because it'll hurt her feelings. Please,” I begged, “Just say the stuff I told you and leave it at that.”

      Tobin sighed heavily, “Fine,” he murmured, looking displeased.

      We met Daisy and Denise where we said we would, now laden down with towels, hats, sunscreen and cameras. The boat pulled into the harbour just as we arrived, and we all piled in, sitting along the wide wooden planks.

      I looked at the glass floor beneath me, and found it a little unnerving to be staring directly into the clear depths of the lake.

      Beside me, I heard Tobin say Daisy's name, and looked up quickly.

      Daisy turned to him, and Tobin took a deep breath, “Where are you from? Do you have any siblings? Do you have any hobbies? What's your favourite school subject?”

      For the second time I smacked my palm into my forehead. Too humiliated to be discreet, I said, “You don't ask her all at once! Just do one at a time!”

      For some reason, everyone seemed to find this funny and they laughed, all except Tobin, who looked bewildered, but he did as I said.

      “What's your favourite school subject?” he asked.

      Of course. Of all the options I'd given him, he picked the geeky throwaway one. Still, I had no one but myself to blame for this one.

      Daisy wrinkled her nose, “I don't have a favourite school subject,” she said disdainfully, “School is really boring, except recess, I like recess, I get to play tag with my friends.”

      Tobin stared at her, “But how can you not like school?” he asked as if it were the most unbelievable thing he'd ever heard. “School is really fun! You can learn all sorts of interesting things like – ”

      “Next question,” I hissed.

      “Do you have any siblings?” Tobin asked abruptly, not bothering to finish his previous sentence or give any kind of segue.

      I mentally kicked myself; I should have just told my brother not to say anything at all.

      Once Tobin had painstakingly gone through every one of the questions I had suggested to him and made my new potential friend thoroughly ill at ease and decidedly less potential, we sat in relative silence, listening to the tour guide at the front of the boat describe the architecture of the buildings below us as Tobin peered over the side looking for petpets.

      Eventually Daisy asked me, “How come your brother is wearing that rain hat? It's not raining.”

      I sighed, “He wears that stupid thing everywhere, he never takes it off, regardless of the weather. I have no idea why he's so attached to it, I keep trying to tell him it looks weird, but he doesn't listen.”

      “Gee,” Daisy said, “I'm sure glad I don't have any brothers, especially brothers like that.”

      Embarrassed of Tobin as I was, I couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of protectiveness over him when she said that. I quickly buried it however, when I remembered how many times he'd made me want to crawl under a rock and disappear just this morning.

      Suddenly Tobin gasped and leapt up, rocking the boat. “Catamaras!” he cried, causing all of the boat's other occupants to turn and stare at us, “Look! Down there, above that pile of rock, three of them!” Eagerly he pulled out his can of negg flakes and unscrewed the lid, shaking it over the water.

      “Excuse me young man,” our guide said, clearly rebuffed, “But that “pile of rock” is an antique home that has been standing for – ” but another patron quickly interrupted him.

      “Look!” the man said, pointing at something over the side of the boat.

      Daisy and I craned our necks to see what he and everyone else were staring at, and there, bobbing on the surface of the water, were three little white faces; the catamaras had surfaced and were gobbling up Tobin's food.

      As I heard the growing murmurs of awe around me, I couldn't decide if I felt proud of my brother for his remarkable way with petpets, or even more embarrassed than before because he was attracting attention by doing something so ridiculously far down on the 'cool meter'.

      “Are petpets all he ever talks about?” Daisy murmured to me as the catamaras splashed about, looking for more food.

      “Pretty much,” I replied, pushing any pride I'd felt away: Daisy was right, petpets were definitely a geeky thing to be obsessed by.

      The rest of the tour was effectively a bust, because Tobin kept tipping his negg flakes into the water, and the catamaras followed us the entire way, distracting everyone to the point that no one was listening to what the guide was saying anymore.

      “Awww, aren't they sweet?”

      “Look at that, they just keep following us!”

      “That little boy seems to know what he's doing, look they love him!”

      The tour guide kept trying to regain his authority, “People, please, if you'll look down below you a minute... perhaps if you... you're missing....” Eventually the tired blumaroo sighed and gave up, sitting with a thump on the plank at the front of the boat, watching all his patrons croon over the petpets.

      The catamaras followed us the rest of the way around the lake, and when we reached the dock again, they bobbed expectantly in the water as we disembarked.

      “That was amazing!” Tobin cried, snapping his ten thousanth picture of them as he tipped the rest of his flakes into the lake. “You were right Kathryn, this tour was fun!”

      I sighed heavily and shot Daisy an exasperated look. “That's great Tobe,” I murmured.

      As we walked along the beach toward our cabins, Daisy suddenly cried, “I have a great idea Kathryn! Why don't you come to my place to sleep over! Or I could go to yours, it'd be so much fun!”

      “That sounds like a wonderful idea,” Mom smiled, “We'd be very happy to have you over, what do you think Denise?”

      Daisy's mother looked at the pair of us, and we gave her our best adorable puppyblew eyes. She chuckled, “Alright I don't see why – ”

      “No!” Tobin interjected loudly in the voice I'd come to recognise as the beginning of a meltdown.

      “Why not Tobin?” David asked calmly, evidently as aware as I was of the implications of Tobin's tone.

      “Because, we haven't thought this through, it's too sudden; where will she sleep? What will she eat? If she doesn't like our food, will I have to share my emergency macaroni and cheese? What if she and Kathryn are up all night laughing and talking and I don't get any sleep? What if she's really a robber in disguise and steals our stuff? This is a terrible idea! We can't do it, we can't!” Tobin was trembling, whipping his tail back and forth in a state of mounting agitation as his eyes filled with tears.

      My mind flashed back to that morning at the marketplace when Tobin's petpet shop had been closed, and I cringed at the thought of Daisy or her mother seeing my ten-year-old brother hit full-blown tantrum mode right here on the beach.

      Mom evidently felt the same way, because she planted herself between Tobin and the rest of us, blocking our view, and crouched down to his level slowly. “Calm down Tobin,” she said, fighting the impulse I knew she felt to hold him, “Just relax, look, if we talk about this and you know what to expect, then is it alright if Daisy stays?”

      Tobin peered quickly over Mom's shoulder at my friend, his eyes still wide and brimming with tears of anxiety. He nodded briefly and whimpered.

      “Okay, well, when Daisy stays over, she'll sleep on the floor in Kathryn's room; we'll drag sofa cushions in from the living room and blankets from the closet and make a makeshift bed. She'll eat the same thing we do, and if she doesn't like it, we'll make her something else, but no, you don't have to share your macaroni and cheese; that's there to make sure you feel safe knowing you still have something to eat if you find yourself in a situation where there's nothing else you like. Daisy and Kathryn might stay up later than usual, but they'll make sure to be very quiet so they don't disturb any of us; you won't even know they're there, and as for Daisy being a robber, I think you and I both know that's not true; she's just a little girl, like Kathryn, she's not going to hurt any of us, and you know that, you're just scared because things seem unfamiliar right now.” Mom paused and studied my brother, who had stopped trembling for the most part, and now looked more tired than frightened. “Is there anything else you want to know before Daisy comes over?”

      Tobin scowled and put on his trademark thinking expression. Eventually he looked up ad shook his head. “No,” he said almost inaudibly.

      “Okay,” Mom said, slowly standing back up, “Let me know if you think of anything.”

      Tobin nodded as Mom turned around and smiled at us, “Okay, now that that's settled, Daisy, why don't you go home and get the things you'll need, and we'll see you at three o'clock?”

      Daisy nodded without speaking, her eyes fixed on my brother. “What on earth was that?” she asked, sounding both skeptical and alarmed by Tobin's panic.

      “Oh,” I said wearily, “He really doesn't handle change well, he has to know what to expect or he gets really upset; it was a chore just convincing him to come on vacation with us.”

      Daisy didn't respond, but continued watching Tobin as if expecting him to spontaneously combust or jump up and fly away.

      Ahead of us, I could hear Denise murmuring to David and Mom, “Is Tobin alright?”

      Mom lowered her voice so I could barely hear it and said, “He's fine, he just... doesn't do very well with change. As long as he knows what to expect, he's usually alright, but sudden changes in his routine definitely make him anxious.”

      “I'm sorry,” Denise said quietly, “It sounds hard.”

      David shrugged, “Sometimes it is, but Tobin is fairly predictable in his unpredictability, once you know something's going to set him off, it's pretty simple to calm him down.”

      I snorted with derision. Easy for him to say; it was almost always me who did it.

      To be continued...