And If That Diamond Ring Turns Brass (Tinseltown)

[RedPiggy]

“Really? Discharged?”

MM stared at Foster, laughing briefly to herself as his face grew a tiny bit pale. “You seem rather anxious to keep me here.

Foster flicked some hair out of his eyes, staring at the ground. “You don’t even know who you are, yet. How could they let you go?”

MM patted him on the shoulder. “You’ve got a lot to learn about being professional, Foster. It’s rather unethical to be hitting on me.” She couldn’t help but smile.

Foster looked up at her finally. “I’m not hitting on you! I’m … uh … just … wondering where you’d go, that’s all.” He frowned. “I mean, living on the streets and stuff is kinda hardcore for someone just getting out of the hospital. You could get hurt.”

MM sighed and looked up at the ceiling of her room. “Did you hear what happened last night?”

Foster followed her gaze. “Uh, no.”

MM laughed. “I guess it’s not a breaking news story.” She pointed at the sprinklers on the ceiling. “Around midnight, I remember having another dream … those bad ones I told you about. I woke up and the room was drenched.” She glanced at him, bemused. “They said it was a sprinkler malfunction.” She kept smiling. “What do you think?”

Foster looked around. “I think they dried out your room kinda quick.”

MM leaned back on her bed as Foster sat beside her. “Do you think there’s more to life than what we got?”

Foster glanced at her. “What do you mean?”

MM glanced back at him, her smile fading. “I feel like something’s missing.”

Foster chuckled. “Dude, your mind got wiped. What’s not missing?”

MM groaned.

“It was a joke.”

MM smiled. “I know. It was just in incredibly bad taste.”

Foster lowered his head. “Sorry.”

MM waved at him dismissively. “Forget it. I can’t help feeling,” she sighed, “like there’s someone I was supposed to meet before all this happened.”

“Like a friend or something?”

“Yeah.” MM stared at the boy. “What’s the best way to locate someone if you don’t know who it is?”

Foster stroked his chin. “Well, that makes it kinda tough, actually.” He looked at her. “What all do you know?”

“She graduated in 1980.”

“High school or college?”

“High school.”

“Do you know where?”

“No, but she was valedictorian.”

“I guess I can look her up.”

MM had a flash of recognition. “She’s from New York.”

Foster smiled. “Yeah, that’ll narrow it down, some.” He patted her bed. “I’ll get some results for you tomorrow.” He frowned. “Uh, are you even going to be here tomorrow?”

“I hear the housing market isn’t what it should be.”

“Do you have any money? Has social services talked to you, yet?”

“There’s someone lurking around here I can talk to.”

Foster nodded and stood up. “Yeah. Go talk. I’ll meet you out front at the hospital tomorrow morning at eight, ‘kay?”

“Right.” Foster started to leave. “Foster?”

He stopped and turned. Yes, he thought to himself. She’s so totally into me. “Yeah?”

MM leaned forward and smirked. “I can’t thank you enough for your help. You’re such a nice young man. Don’t lose that quality, okay?”

He smirked back. “Sure.”

“And Foster?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m so glad you’re not the kind of man to make every interaction an invitation to a date. You wouldn’t believe how much that goes on here.”

Foster gulped barely. “Uh, yeah. That’s totally not me.”

She grinned widely. “I’m glad.”

He left just as the dark-skinned nurse from the courtyard walked in. “So, how are you today?” she asked cheerfully.

MM sighed and averted her eyes. “Foster’s a good kid. He’s going to help me find that young woman I remembered.”

The nurse chuckled. “Well, she won’t be so young anymore.” The nurse looked around. “Your room dried up rather well.”

“I can see that.”

The nurse glanced towards the door. “What’s the deal with the kid?”

“He was sent here to New York because some political thing in California forced him out.”

“Really?” the nurse asked thoughtfully. “Poor kid.”

“He lives his with biological mother, but he really wants to go back to his adoptive parents.”

“Hmm.” The nurse shook her head, stroking her chin, and turned back to MM. “Why doesn’t he just go back? He’s not a minor, right?”

“Nope,” MM replied. “The problem, so far as I can tell, is that I’m the problem.”

The nurse smiled knowingly. “Men who don’t know what they really want can be such a trial.” She sighed. “They wemble so badly when a fair maiden passes within their range of view.”

MM glanced at the nurse quizzically. “They what?”

The nurse laughed. “I’m sorry. Just a term I’ve heard here and there. I just meant men become so terribly indecisive when it comes to women.”

MM sighed and stared at her window, where bright sunshine streamed in. “He reminds me of the child.”

“What child?”

MM shrugged. “I dunno, actually. Kid’s personality just seems kinda familiar, that’s all.”

The nurse laughed again. “Men his age all act alike, in my view. It’s not like his type is rare.”

MM chuckled. “No, I guess not.”

 

[Beauregard]

Still reading, still reading. Was disturbed, as we all are, by Muppet animals being kept in stalls and referring to meat...but that is what makes this more real than most of the other fanfics I've read.

I'm glad to see that MM is going out into the world, but will be sad if that means she cannot see Foster so much anymore.

Can't wait for more updates.

 

[RedPiggy]

Still reading, still reading. Was disturbed, as we all are, by Muppet animals being kept in stalls and referring to meat...but that is what makes this more real than most of the other fanfics I've read.

I'm glad to see that MM is going out into the world, but will be sad if that means she cannot see Foster so much anymore.

Can't wait for more updates.

Well, the Fort Worth Stock Show (and here is where I betray where I am, roughly) recently wrapped up, so it was fresh on my mind (I haven't been yet, but I read about it in the newspaper). But it goes along with Bobby's fear he tells Piggy, where his slippery-slope argument is basically, if humans are willing to go against themselves, sentient animals/plants/whatevers are most likely next in line.

MM won't be able to know her true potential until she at least meets who she needs to meet, but we're getting clues that her true identity is ramping back up ... it wasn't the sprinklers that drenched her room.

And I want Foster to be with her some more. He totally has a thing for MM. He is the key to get her where she needs to be. Now, when he realizes where her heart truly lies....

 

[Beauregard]

Exactly. I can totally see that he may be what she needs to move on to her full potential, and similarly she will help him get back where he belongs.

 

[RedPiggy]

Well, in my fic-verse, a repeated theme is that "everything thrown away can be found again". Both Foster and MM feel "thrown away". So, in my fic-verse, that brings in a character obsessed with repurposing anything thrown away.

 

[Beauregard]

Sounds very Cantus-y, that. Do you do Fraggle Rock fanfics? (Having not been a fulltime MCer lately, this I think is the first of your stories I've read. I must get to your Labyrinth one sometime.)

 

[RedPiggy]

Oh, yeah. My main Fraggle fic, available on The Count's index, is The Elder Clan Chronicles. I don't see you as a reviewer on my original Comeback King fic, so I don't know if you've read it or not.

The Comeback King Saga Youtube Summary

That provides a general overview. There are two ways to read my fics:

Start at the beginning with The Comeback King Saga. All of my fics, whether they reference this story or not, are all written to fit into this universe. That makes it easy for me, as the author, since I don't have to keep re-inventing the universe each time. The order of the others aren't really dependent on each other.

Start with the chronology of the universe:

The Mighty Megalosaurus (a prequel to the Dinosaurs series)
The Mammals and the Cook
Fridge Day
The Elder Clan Chronicles
The Baby Fraggle (I think that's the name of it)
The Comeback King Saga
Fraggle Rock: The Weapon
The Wedding
And If That Diamond Ring Turns Brass

 

[RedPiggy]

Jenny yawned and approached the door to her apartment, which had been knocking for several minutes now. “I’m coming! I’m coming!” she belted out. It was getting late, and she had meetings to go to tomorrow.

She opened the door and gasped. “Samson?”

He barreled past her, looking around her living room, tapping his feet. “You could have called, Jen.”

“Now, Sammy,” a thin Caucasian woman said as she entered slowly.

Jenny turned to see her and smiled briefly. “Hi, Lena.”

“I mean it, Jen,” Samson continued, his voice filled with frustration. “I mean, I know Foster doesn’t want to talk to us, but you could have called.”

Jenny stared at him like he had completely lost his mind. “What are you talking about?”

Lena shifted her weight uncomfortably. “Sammy, hold on --.”

“No, Lena!” he shouted. “I want to know why we weren’t called!”

“Time!” Jenny barked, making the “time out” gesture. “I don’t have the slightest idea what anyone’s talking about, so let’s handle this one step at a time. Why doesn’t Foster want to talk to you, Samson?”

“He an’ Bobby are having a zing,” Lena whispered.

“For the eight-hundredth time, we are not having a thing!”

Jenny rubbed her forehead. It was too late at night to be dealing with this level of yelling. “Alright, step two: why would I need to call you?”

Samson gawked at her. “You don’t think I love Foster enough to care that he’s been mugged?”

Jenny flashed a look of puzzlement to Lena. “Mugged? When did this happen?”

“You don’t even know?” Samson demanded in an accusatory tone.

Lena stepped between them and stretched out her arms. “Everyone, calm down.”

“I will not calm --.”

“It didn’t happen, Sammy!” Lena blurted out in a panic. “Nothing is wrong with Foster!”

Samson glared at his ex-wife. “What?” he grumbled after a few moments of stunned silence.

Lena sighed and turned to Jenny. “I am so sorry, Jenny. I told ‘im Foster was mugged because I was tired of seeing him wallow in his own self-pity at ‘ome.”

Samson sat down on the couch, breathless. “I was … I was not --.”

“Yes, you were!” Lena shot back. “Everyone has been trying to make a diff’rence, except you. Zis is not the one I married, Sammy. My Sammy would have left ze ‘ouse and not act like nothing was ‘appening.”

Samson stared at the floor. His voice was almost emotionless. “What do you want me to do, Lena? Hold the governor ransom until that asinine proposition gets repealed? Move the entire family to a more suitable country?” His voice began to waiver. “You’re confusing me with Bobby, again.”

Lena moved closer to speak, but Jenny stopped her and sat down beside Samson, speaking in a tender voice. “Samson, you don’t have to do something melodramatic. Just be a family.”

Samson chuckled. “I can’t.”

Jenny shook her head. “There are countless families in this country who aren’t legal for one reason or another. Either they’re illegal immigrants, they’re polygamists, or … or they’re gay. But they still exist. They take the risk because their families are worth more than anything.”

Samson looked at her, pleadingly. “And you think I don’t feel that way?”

Jenny smiled sadly. “I know you feel that way, Samson,” she replied. “I feel that way too – but Foster has rejected me. Totally. Nothing I do makes him happy. Despite everything I’ve done, I know you can sympathize with the hurt I feel to be denied a chance at family. It doesn’t only apply to people in your situation.” She paused, pointing at herself. “I’ve lost my entire family: father, husband, and child. I have absolutely no one left. Only my friends can keep me company.” She chuckled, tears welling up in her eyes. “And now with everyone’s success, I don’t even see them as often as I used to.”

Lena, horrified, sat near Jenny on the floor, caressing Jenny’s thigh. “I am so sorry, Jenny,” she said. “Is zere anything we can do?”

Jenny shook her head and shrugged. “I’m afraid I’m giving up, Lena.” She sniffled. “I’m just getting tired of the whole thing,” she added softly.

Samson stared at Jenny in silence for a long time. No one else spoke, either. Finally, he asked quietly, putting an arm around Jenny, “Why didn’t you call us?”

Jenny placed one hand on his arm and smiled. “You two have too much going on. I didn’t want to add on to it.”

“Jenny --.”

“I’ve been thinking of moving, retiring from the rat race,” Jenny said, interrupting Samson. She wiped the tears from her eyes. “I was … going to let Foster keep the apartment as soon as he found a paying job. He’s a bright kid. I’m sure he can keep it up.” She paused. “I am empty, Samson.” She glanced at Lena. “Everything that ever brought me joy has just been … nothing … lately.”

“What about zerapy?” Lena asked, realizing that things were darker for Jenny than they thought.

Jenny shook her head. “I’m going to group, but everyone seems to be learning some trick to make things better. Foster refuses any of my suggestions. It’s just not working. Even Rachel realizes it.”

“Rachel?” Samson and Lena ask together.

Jenny nodded. “She’s the owner of Bitterman Bank here in Manhattan. It got caught up in the real estate fiasco and we’ve butted heads more than a few times. I think she likes what’s happening to me. She thinks it’s justice.”

Lena crossed her arms in indignation. “Sounds like she is a bitter ol’ hag.”

They heard keys fumbling outside the door. Jenny quickly wiped her eyes. She whispered desperately, “I don’t want this conversation reaching Foster.”

Foster entered and nearly gagged when he saw Samson and Lena in the living room. “Uh, what are you guys doing here?”

Lena, trying to push the conversation with Jenny out of her mind, smiled and leapt over to Foster, hugging and kissing him. “Oh, we just wanted to stop by an’ say ‘allo.”

Foster chuckled and pushed her away playfully. “Right. You guys were just in the neighborhood, right?”

“Yeah,” Samson replied slowly. “We wanted to see how things were going, son.”

Foster shrugged sheepishly and smiled. “She totally digs me, Samson,” he replied proudly. “I know I’m so the guy to fix all her problems.”

Jenny cocked her head to the side in confusion. “Who?”

He told her, “She only knows her initials. Anyway, I gotta look up someone for her. She’s looking for a friend of hers from the Class of 1980 here in New York. I guess she’ll hang with her or something until she can get her own place.” He pulled out his cellphone. “I’ve been web searching, and the only valedictorian I could find was some chick named Kinderman.”

Jenny had a flash of recognition. “I know that name. It’s Rachel’s maiden name.” She stood up. “Rachel brags about her high honors all the time.”

 

[RedPiggy]

The little girl with black hair, tied up in two pigtails, stared up at the waterfall installed in the hallway. An older woman looked back at her, with long black hair, dangling past her shoulders.

“My love, I thought I said to leave your sister alone today,” a woman’s voice said from behind.

The toddler turned around. She was so pretty, she thought. Such flowing white hair, such ornate silky white dresses … she loved playing dress-up with her mother’s clothes. She pointed at the waterfall with a happy expression. “Look, Mama!”

The woman glanced up and saw the image in the water. She bent down and placed a hand warmly on the girl’s shoulder. She smiled. “Do you know who that is?”

The toddler nodded. “Me.”

The woman’s face flashed with concern. “You know that? Hmmm.” She dismissed her thoughts from her mind and smiled again. “My dear, you can’t play with your sister like that. You could have hurt her.”

“Her skin got big,” informed the little girl, who twirled hair from one of her pigtails in her fingers.

“Yes, and I must punish you if you do it again.”

The toddler looked back at the waterfall. “Can I play with someone else?”

The mother laughed. “You can’t play with those images.”

“No,” the girl replied, shaking her head. “Someone real.”

The mother embraced her daughter. “Whatever makes you content, my love.”

MM sat on a bench close to the street in front of the hospital. The nurse with whom she had come to interact frequently sat down beside her, smiling.

“Does your supervisor know you barely stay on the floor?”

The nurse laughed. “I’m only PRN. I come when needed.” She slapped her own thigh. “So – have you found a place, yet?”

“The boy is meeting me today. I’m thinking that the woman I saw will help me.”

The nurse frowned. “Don’t you think it could be a shock to just show up and request shelter?”

MM turned to the nurse and smirked. “Why wouldn’t she help me? I’m the one who can’t remember her.”

<><><><><><>

Rachel sat outside the small café, sipping some coffee.

She called and called, but no one answered. All she got was a voicemail from her personal assistant. She bit her fingernails. What had she done wrong? She thought it was her personality that endeared her to the only one who seemed to enjoy her company.

But she was brushed off.

She had been the one constant positive thing in her entire life. She had only married that senile Bitterman to get the bank, and now he was dead. And the bank was in trouble. Donald Trump, as much as she cringed to admit it, she was not.

A dark-skinned woman in a dark green business suit walked up and sat down, cradling her chin in her hands, smiling. “Hi.”

Rachel put down her cup. “This is a bad time to be flirting with me.”

The woman laughed and leaned back. “No, I think you misunderstood. I apologize. I wanted to ask you some things about your bank.” She stopped smiling. “You are Ms. Bitterman, am I correct?”

Rachel nodded and smirked. “Are you willing to buy?”

The woman sighed. “Well, I am an investor. However, I don’t have a real need for a financial services institution. I work more in environmental management.”

Rachel looked up and down at the woman’s suit. “You haven’t given me your name, and from the look of you, I’d say you’re a member of Greenpeace. I hate to tell you this, but I find them detestable.”

The woman smiled. “My name is Eshe Adedoja. It means Life-Bringer and Crown Having Worth.”

Rachel smirked. “I’m so pleased for you.”

Eshe smiled, though she couldn’t hide her irritation. “As I said, I’m in environmental management. However, I am interested in offering you other opportunities.”

“Such as?”

Eshe leaned forward, resting her chin on her hands, staring at Rachel. “Relocation. If you could just start over, and work in administration for a rather powerful government, would you?”

Rachel laughed. “Are you serious?”

“Quite, actually.”

Rachel stopped laughing and glared at her. “Look: I’m a useless bank owner and a nobody. I don’t have any qualities whatsoever that would make me worth your time.”

Eshe smiled. “I’m not in the position to bring you to that new job, Ms. Bitterman. I can only tell you it’s available. There will come a time where fate will open the door for you – and it will be your choice and yours alone to determine just happy you are here.” Eshe stood and put her chair back into its rightful place. “Consider the offer, Ms. Bitterman. I like to provide career rehabilitation on the side. It’s the ‘nobodies’ who need help, not the ‘somebodies’.”

“And how much do you want for your services?” Rachel asked. “My therapist charges $200 an hour.”

“It’s pro bono,” Eshe replied casually. “I enjoy tinkering with people here and there.”

“So, what you’re saying is, you stick your nose into other people’s business.”

Eshe laughed as she turned to leave. “Ridicule me if you like, Ms. Bitterman – but even the biggest storms clear eventually. Yours will too, if you let it.”

 

[The Count]

*Luffles this dearly. Clear it is that Esh doesn't play by Lord Oberon's rules. And why should she? She's got her own games to play. Please, post more when possible. <333