I wanted to see my family. “Aunt Emily” I asked, “How do you do that?” “Oh it’s easy, just think of who you want to see and draw a circle.” “That’s it?” “That’s it.” “Huh…” So I did what she said and sure enough, there they were. Mom, Dad, Junior, Andy, Butter, Lock, and Shock. I wanted to cry. They looked so…sad. Mom and Lock looked like they were in a trance, Shock had her arms around Junior—this didn’t surprise me, I knew they had been going out; I hadn’t said anything because I figured they’d tell us when they were ready. Lock; something about him…I felt there was something I was supposed to remember about him. I thought…what was it? We were in Oogie’s lair…I was dying…he said something…What did he say? “Lini, is there something wrong?” That’s when I remembered. That’s when I told Aunt Em everything.
Jr.’s POV:
This was low even for Oogie. Stealing a body, besides being illegal, is in our society is considered the worst thing a person could do. The dead (unanimated dead) should rest in peace. As is written on Shakespeare’s grave:
Good Friend, for Jesus’ sake forbear
To dig the dust enclosed here:
Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones.
Dad was…obsessed. Oogie had really gotten to him and now he had locked himself in his room trying to figure out what Oogie might have done with her. And while Mom was still out of it I was left to do everything. And there was a lot to do, the other Holidays had gotten word of Lini’s death and they had been sending all kinds of gifts expressing their empathy. Valentine’s had sent tons of smelly flowers that I didn’t know what to do with, St. Patrick’s had sent a pot of gold and clovers for luck, Easter had sent candy (I told Lock and Shock they could have it), and Christmas, well, the elves went a little over board as each elf had wanted to send something (the elves had always like Lini as she didn’t scare them like Dad, did not to mention how elf-like she was). Then there were all the people who came by to offer their condolences; I had to talk with them all and I just wanted to scream and tell them to leave us alone. Luckily Lock and Shock helped, Shock watched Butter and Lock did stuff here and there, not any specific job but still he helped. Still it was stressful until Grandma and Grandpa came over.
Grandma took over and I finally got a break. I went to Butter’s room to check on Shock, but found Lock instead getting his nails painted by Butter. His expression read as ‘Help Me’. Any other time and it would have been funny. “Where’s Shock?” I asked. “She said she needed a break and I said I’d watch her.” “Hold still!” said Butter. “Sorry.” He continued “She said she’d be back in a minute. Yeah right, I’ve been here for over ten.” “I said hold still!” I barely heard Lock’s protests as I ran to find Shock. All I was could see in my mind was when I waited for Lini and she never came back. He said she’d been gone for a while what if something happened to her? I frantically looked for her and when I did find her she looked at me like I’d gone crazy. “Shock there you are!” “What’s wrong?” “I…you…where’ve you been?” “I just came out for some fresh air, no offense, but your sister was getting on my nerves. Are you okay?” “I...I...” I didn’t know what to say, but then she seemed to understand without me having to say anything. She put her arms around me. “Junior, relax, I can take care of myself. You need a break.” We stood there silently until an angry Lock came out. “There you are!!” he shouted. “Nice nails.” Said Shock. I looked at his nails and smiled. Butter had painted his nails a turquoise color. Lini would have loved this I thought, but thinking of Lini just made me frown again. “You said you’d be back in a minute, and I had to talk her into blue; she wanted to paint them pink!” He said pink like it was a dirty word. “Why didn’t you just say no?” I asked even though I knew it was almost impossible to say no to Butter. She just had an effect on people. “I don’t know. Anyway, do you have anything that can get this crap off my nails?” “Why?” said Shock in a patronizing tone, “you look so pretty Lock.” Lock looked like he was about to say something nasty but I cut him off saying, “Leave him alone Shock, any man who survived fifteen minutes with Butter deserves a medal.” “Amen.” She said shivering as she recalled her time with my sister. I love my sister, but she’s a brat.
I found a bottle of acetone under the kitchen sink and gave it to Lock. While he tried to get that stuff off I saw Andy leave the room. Weird thing is I didn’t notice him when we came in and I’d actually forgotten he was even here. I felt bad about that and was going to go talk to him when the Mayor burst in. His face was in upset mode. “Junior, where’s your father?! Something’s happened.” Then an angry looking Grandma came in shouting, “Just barge right in! How rude! I don’t care if you are the Mayor…” “What’s going on?” I looked and there was mom. She appeared to have come out of her trance, but still was very tired looking. Grandma’s face softened as she responded saying, “Nothing dear, you need to lie back down,” and while Grandma ushered mom out of the room the mayor continued, “Junior, where’s Jack?!” “What’s going on?” I asked “The town, the town is under attack!” “Attack from what?” “I don’t know, these giant bug things just started appearing everywhere! We need Jack!” “Need I for what?” Dad entered the room slowly. “Jack! Halloween is under attack! We need your help!” “What’s attacking the city?” “These weird bug-things! I don’t know where they came from…” “Did you say bug-creatures!?!” “Yes! They...” Dad, ignoring the Mayor, ran out to see for himself. The Mayor was frantic and I was worried. “Dad?” I called following him. Dad stopped in the doorway. I looked around him- easy to do him being a skeleton and all- and saw them. They were the same creatures from Oogie’s lair. “Dad, what are we going to do?” “Junior; you, Shock and Lock, go grab your weapons. There’s going to be a battle.”
