Tina Chan - imperfect

The branches overhead rustled in response. It turned out to be only two squirrels bickering.

“Maybe he’s not here,” Finn said.

“There’s no reason why he would leave this place.” Chelsa shaded her eyes, swinging her head from side to side. “Stevey! Are you around?”

“Yes.”

They jumped at Stevey’s voice. Stevey came lurching out from his cabin. I guess he was in his cabin the whole time after all , Kristi thought.

He had cleaned up a bit since she last saw him. At least his plaid shirt didn’t have any mysterious stains on it this time. His hair, however, was as untamed as ever.

“Stevey has visitors!” he slurred happily.

He stumbled toward them in an alarming manner. Kristi suspected he had been drinking from his uncoordinated walk. Her suspicions were confirmed when he came closer and the odor of alcohol wafted off him.

“We should probably sober him up a bit,” she said. “I highly doubt he’s in any condition to answer any questions we have for him.”

Stevey tripped over a rock and stayed on the ground. He attempted to push himself up, but must have decided the effort was too much because he hazily looked at Kristi through bloodshot eyes.

“Troop, can you help me carry Stevey inside his cabin?” Kristi asked.

“Sure.”

Troop grabbed Stevey from underneath one armpit and Kristi the other. Together, they half carried, half hauled Stevey inside. Meanwhile, Chelsa got a fire going in the fireplace and turned on the dim lights. Finn held the door open for Troop and Kristi dragging Stevey up the ramshackle stairs and onto the threadbare couch.

“How much did you drink?” Kristi demanded.

“Stevey didn’t drink,” he garbled.

He had hardly finished his sentence when he spewed up some vomit. Luckily, Chelsa was prepared for this and had a bucket on hand. Stevey let out a groan and lay back down. Threads of spittle trailed down his cheeks.

“Finn, can you go find if there’s a first aid kit somewhere? There might be some detoxification pills,” Chelsa said.

“Onto it.”

“You better hope Dr. Hanson isn’t watching this,” Kristi said, forgetting Stevey probably didn’t know there were cameras installed in his cabin for his own safety.

Stevey let out a giggle, “Dr. Hanson doesn’t know. Dr. Hanson doesn’t know many things. You don’t know many things. Did you know cats sleep for two thirds of the day? Did you know 98% of your body’s atoms are replaced annually? Did you—” His stream of facts was cut off as he heaved up another bout of vomit.

Kristi opened some of the windows to get rid of the revolting smell and tried to coax the ceiling fan to life in vain.

“Found some detoxification pills,” Finn said, holdinga small white container.

Troop took the container from Finn and read the label. “These expired last year. Do you think we should still use them?”

“Normally, I would say no ,” Chelsa said. “But I think we can make an exception in this case. We’re rather short on time and the faster Stevey flushes the alcohol out of his body the faster we can be on our way.”

Troop unscrewed the cap and dumped a small, red pill into his palm and knelt down beside Stevey’s head. “Stevey, can you do us a favor and swallow this? You’ll feel much better later on if you do.”

Stevey squinted at the detoxification pill. Then he threw up some more, causing Troop to jump back and Chelsa to leap forward with the bucket.

“Promise Stevey will feel better?” he asked.

“Promise,” Troop said. Then under his breath he mumbled, “Though you probably won’t feel so great when all that liquor is leaving your body at once.”

“Give me the pill,” Stevey ordered. He held out his hand for the pill. Troop gave it to him and Stevey swallowed the pill dry.

Within five minutes, Stevey was chucking up like heck. Stevey must’ve drunk a huge amount of alcohol at the rate he was retching. Finn managed to get the ancient fan working reluctantly; unfortunately, the fan did little to disperse the smell of puke. The smell turned Kristi’s stomach into a queasy mess and she feared she would start barfing herself if she didn’t get out of here soon.

“Excuse me,” Kristi said, pushing past Chelsa and Troop. “I think I’ll go outside for some fresh air, if you don’t mind.”

“Go on,” Troop said. “If anyone else wants to go outside, feel free to. I think I have this situation under control.”

Ghost padded after Kristi outside. She could only imagine how awful the stench must have been for Ghost, whose nose was hundreds of times more sensitive than hers.

The sky grew dark within minutes and Kristi had a feeling they wouldn’t be getting any answers from Stevey that day. The questions would have to wait until the next day. She set up the tent something she was proud she could now accomplish) and waited for everyone else to come out.

Ten, fifteen, then twenty minutes passed and Kristi decided she was too tired to stay up any longer; before she knew it, she was fast asleep.

Some sort of creature snuffling outside the tent woke Troop up. He peeked outside and spotted a deer bounding out of sight. Kristi, Finn and Chelsa were still fast asleep; Ghost raised his head and met Troop’s eyes.

“I won’t wake them up,” he whispered. Then he felt foolish for talking to a cat.

Ghost twitched his whiskers and lay back down, deeming him unworthy of his attention. Troop crawled outside and started preparing some breakfast foods, waiting for the others to wake up. The smell of hot chocolate must’ve been pretty delicious since Finn and Chelsa emerged from the tent in a few minutes.

“Kristi still sleeping?” Troop asked.

“Yeah,” said Chelsa. “She’s so tired I wouldn’t be surprised if she slept through a devil-dog attack.”

“I would not!” came Kristi’s voice from inside the tent.

Troop grinned to himself, imagining her forehead creased with indignation.

“How was Stevey doing after I left?” Kristi joined them outside, her hair slightly tousled and looking sleepy.

“Better,” he said. “He purged heavily for a good fifteen minutes. We got him cleaned up a bit and left him sleeping on the couch.”

The sound of a body falling onto a hard surface interrupted their conversation. Troop looked up in time to see Stevey picking himself up from the front steps of his cabin.

“Good morning, Stevey,” Troop said.

“Good morning,” Stevey replied, massaging his temples. “Stevey made a bad mistake yesterday.”

“What did you think you were doing, polishing off seven bottles of beer?” Finn asked.

“How did you know about Stevey’s secret?” Stevey’s eyes widened in surprise.

“We found empty bottles near your cabin.”

“Are you feeling better?” Chelsa asked.

“Yes. Do you have food?”

Chelsa handed Stevey a slice of bread and some hot chocolate. Stevey wolfed down the food and let out a belch. After draining the last dregs of hot chocolate, he asked, “Why are you here?” Stevey handed the empty cup back to Chelsa and scanned their faces. “I remember you and you,” he said, pointing to Chelsa and Kristi. “You guys are bad. You make Stevey say things Stevey cannot say.”

Troop noticed Kristi cringe.

She leaned over and whispered to him, “Stevey’s memory is better than I anticipated. Hopefully he won’t hold a grudge against Chelsa and me; however, if necessary Chelsa and I will leave if Stevey refuses to answer any questions in our presence.”

“Stevey doesn’t know you and you.” Stevey pointed to Troop and Finn.

They briefly introduced themselves to Stevey then got down to business.