Searching

Prompt: Use the photo for inspiration. http://www.flashfictionfriday.com/

Genre: Open
Word Count: 1000 words
Deadline: Thursday, July 21, 2011, 8:30 pm EST

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Searching

Through the rattles and clacks. Through the squeaking brakes and the mis-matched points. Through the relentless kerchings and chikkas of the lady’s stupidly loud i-pod that was kicking out far too much bass.

Through all of this, he heard it.

Over there, yes absolutely, just under that seat.

Can he see it? No, not yet but the sound was unmistakeable.

It had been 18 long, hopeless years since Arnold. P. Ratzenflower had heard that noise, but the tune played into his ears like a Stradivarius in the hands of Vivaldi. Oh how he had longed to hear that noise again.

All those years of searching.

All the pain, as those around him had distanced themselves. They never understood his need; never accepted the truth.

It was 12 years since his wife left him, and 10 since the courts decreed that he could no longer see his boy.

A thin smile tried to creep across his face as he remembered the last time he had seen his son, the happiness in his heart at having that last cuddle on the land train. Then, the sadness of what followed that fateful visit to the zoo, removed the remnants of the smile, replacing them once more with the painful grimace that the truth of his life has forged.

But still he searched.

It was all he had left.

And now, here, just under that seat.

Surely – surely this time? Had he really found it? The sound was there, the distinctive shuffle mixed with a snigger.

18 years after that trip to Devon had changed his life, with all his family now gone and his savings spent, was it really the end of the hunt?

He could show them.

He could show them all. His wife, his boy, everyone. Once they saw it they would know. They would understand. They would come back.

The slightest flicker of a smile came back as Arnold remembered that first time in Devon.

They were on their first holiday as a family. Little Jimmy was one, and after a full year of parenthood they had been so ready for that trip.

Balancing work and fatherhood had been so surprisingly stressful. Giving up work and turning into a Mother had been so hard for Julie. They needed that break.

They needed something to remind them who they were.

And boy had Arnold found it.

In an attempt to recapture their student days together, Arnold had popped out into some woods to collect mushrooms. He knew exactly what he was looking for. One little trip for old time’s sake and the pressures and the cares of their new responsible lives would fade away, even if only for a while.

It was while he was sampling his collection, on the walk back to the caravan that he had found and met with the Smurfs.

The amazing, mystical creatures had picked him up when he tripped and mended his aching ankle. The sheer beauty of Smurfette had blown him away. Their speech was so poetic, so tuneful. Their little blue noses were the cutest thing he had ever seen. And there was that sound, the shuffling sniggering sound. It had played and played the whole time they were talking, and they had said so much.

Their knowledge was astounding as they spoke of how to stop war and end poverty. Arnold knew these guys could fix his broken planet. With the Smurfs in charge the whole world would become one.

Arnold had told them to pack their bags, he would come back with something to carry them in and he would take them to Downing Street. The world needed the Smurfs. Together, they would save the Earth.

But Arnold never found them again.

His wife had laughed at first, and then cried until finally the crying stopped and her resolve hardened.

The search could not stop though. It was too important.

Humanity’s survival depended on Arnold finding those Smurfs, and that was far more important that one man’s family.

Arnold kept looking.

But nothing was under the chair.