Missing Larry (fanfic)

[tdr]

(This is another of my re-edited old fanfics-- this one much shorter and a very different kind.)

Missing Larry

Nar.: His name is Larry Mondello. He moved with his family to New Jersey about 6 months ago. He has had a hard time making new friends. He has hardly seen his father at all since the move, and his mother only makes him miserable with her complaining about Larry and his older sister, and sometimes with her slapping and pushing him. Larry has become so confused he can't even remember where it was that he moved to New Jersey from. He vaguely wishes he were back there-- wherever it is-- yet he also fears what he can't remember; perhaps it's worse than what he knows now. But for the last few months he has found a weekly diversion. On Saturday nights he shuts himself up into his room and turns on his television. There is a half-hour show which gives him an unexplained feeling... a feeling of belonging, a feeling of acceptance, a feeling of good times that he wonders whether he himself has ever had.


[Larry watches his television, and the 2 characters he finds likable appear on his favorite weekly show... Wally and Beaver Cleaver in their room.]

Wally: Boy, Beaver, did Dad really give it to you this morning for being so dumb last night as to climb that billboard and fall in the soup cup?

Beaver: No, he didn't really yell at me this time. He just wanted me to tell him how it happened. I did, and then he told me one of those lessons you might expect teachers to read from those old books.

Wally: Yeah, I know how it is. But Beaver you gotta quit letting the other guys talk you into doing stupid things. Whitey, Gilbert, and Richard all seem to do that to you. It seems to me you were better off when Larry Mondello was still your best friend.

[Larry stares at his small television and a cold fear trickles down his spine.
On the screen, Wally and Beaver both get a strange look on their faces.]

Beaver: Gee Wally, it happened again. It's Saturday night, and for some reason we brought up Larry Mondello, and it gives us a real creepy feeling.

Wally: Yeah. I can't seem to figure it out, but it's happened every Saturday night for 3 or 4 months. But we never found out what happened to Larry. He just disappeared a couple of months before this started.

Beaver: Gee Wally, you don't think Larry was really a spirit or something, and he keeps haunting us every Saturday night so we won't forget him?

Wally: [unconvincingly] Aw heck no, Beaver! We're not watching One Step Beyond or anything.

Beaver: Well, I wish this would stop. I don't like going to bed with a real spooky feeling about Larry every Saturday night.

Wally: Okay, Beaver, let's make an agreement that next Saturday neither of us mention Larry Mondello for any reason-- not for any reason at all. Maybe if we break this for just one week we'll forget it.

Beaver: Okay, Wally.

[Larry takes all this in clasping his hands tightly and his spine still tingling.]

Larry: I can't believe it! I must be from Mayfield and I used to be Beaver Cleaver's best friend! I always thought I had some friend somewhere! Now he doesn't know what happened to me, and I just found out what happened to me before we moved here. I must not belong where I am now; that's why I don't have any friends here! But Mom and Dad won't even talk about where we used to live and why I can't remember it. [He pauses in thought]. But Beaver's just a TV show! How could I be from there?

Beaver: You know Wally-- it does feel kind o' different about Larry now...I guess 'cause I think this is gonna be the last night we feel like he's here, or he's watching us, or whatever it is.

Wally: Yeah, I know what you mean. But I think we better stick with it and remember not to mention him next Saturday.

Larry: No Wally!-- Hey Beaver! Don't quit talking about me! If you do I probably won't see you every week on this show any more!

[Wally and Beaver both cringe.]

Beaver: Ooh-- now I feel REAL spooky for some reason-- like Larry don't want us to quit saying his name.

Wally: Yeah; I felt that too. It sure is weird!

Larry: Beaver!--how do I get back there with you? I don't like it here where I am!

Beaver: You know, Wally, I sure wish Larry never went away to-- wherever he went. Then we wouldn't have to worry about feeling so spooky. And besides, I'd have probably spent the night at his house last night, instead of Whitey's, while you had your party, and I don't think I'd have climbed that billboard if it was Larry that gave me the business-- because I always expected Larry to give me the business.

Larry: That's right, Beaver! I wouldn't make you climb a billboard! But please let me come back!

[Larry's mother enters his room.]

Mrs. Mondello: Larry! What in the world is going on in here? Who are you shouting at? [She sees his television on and looks at her watch.] Oh, Larry! Don't tell me you're watching that same television program again that you take much too seriously every Saturday night!

Larry: Sure I am, Mom! And tonight it's even better! [He stops, because he doesn't think he could make his mother understand his interest in what he had just heard.]

Mrs. Mondello: Alright, Larry-- you're turning that machine off and you're coming downstairs right now with your sister and me!

Larry: No Mom! Please! I want to see the rest of this show! It's real important tonight!

Mrs. Mondello: Important!? Oh, come now! It's nothing but a television show! Your life doesn't depend on it!

Larry: [Under his breath] I think it does.

Mrs. Mondello: [Gives Larry a nudge] Alright, you're coming down stairs this minute!

Larry: Bye Beaver!

Mrs. Mondello: "Beaver?" What on earth are you talking about, Larry? Is that show you're so obsessed with about rodents?

[Wally and Beaver are now in their pajamas and getting into bed. They feel more "spooky" and confused than ever. To their relief Ward and June give 3 knocks and then come into their room. Their parents have confused, worried faces, which is unusual for them, thought the boys-- at least it's unusual for when they come to say "Goodnight."]

Wally: Mom, Dad-- is anything wrong?

June: Yes. We just saw a television show which rather startled us.

Beaver: A TV show startled you? Which one?

Ward: It was that new show, The Twilight Zone. We turned it on a few minutes after the show started, and tonight it was about a boy who had moved away from his friends and felt miserable in his new home. That boy looked just like your old friend, Larry Mondello. And the boy's mother came into his room and she even looked a lot like Mrs. Mondello.

[Wally and Beaver are incredulous.]

Beaver: Gee, Dad, it was Larry? Where was he?

Ward: Well, he was somewhere in New Jersey, they said.

June: Yes boys. But about halfway through the show we just couldn't stand it any more. That boy looked so much like Larry it was unreal. But then your father happened to remember a phone number Mr. Mondello gave him not long before they disappeared without telling us they were moving.

Wally: Wow, Dad, is it the Mondello's new telephone number? I mean, Beaver's been kind of wanting to find Larry again.

Ward: Well, I thought that's what it was. And that show, uh-- agitated us so much that I decided to call that number to check.

Beaver: [Excitedly] Was it the Mondello's number?

Ward: No, Beaver-- I'm sorry. It was answered by the Missing Person's Bureau. And since it was, we asked them, and they say there is no one with the last name "Mondello" on record.

[The Cleavers all look eerily shaken. Finally, without another word, they all slowly look upward and it appears they can see through the roof into the dark night, and there are many more stars out than they can normally see.]


Nar.: True friendships never really die-- even if they're *true* only in a person's mind. The friends invovled, be they real or imaginary, will always meet again... some time...somehow...somewhere in the Twilight Zone.

[stevea]

Very interesting. This would make Rod Serling proud.

[PhoenixAcres]

Great fanfic! I never pictured LITB in a sci-fi setting but it works well.