The Green Goblin

I’ll be here before you know it. Let me know if you are having any more problems. Green Goblin.

A slow smile crept onto Tommy’s face. He deftly folded the note into a perfect triangle and carefully put it in his pocket. This was good news, very good news Tommy thought as he began scribbling on his notepad. A bead of sweat from his brow plopped onto the paper and smudged his sloppy handwriting. It was hot and his legs were itchy from standing in the brambly field grass. He absent mindedly scratched at an itchy spot on his leg and swatted at a curious fly that buzzed around him. It had been hot for over a week now and Tommy was positively roasting in his shorts and t-shirt. He wished he could take the shirt off and just wear the tank top he had on underneath, but he knew if he did the Rovers would magically materialize and wouldn’t leave until they had him lying in a big blubbering pile of chub on the sidewalk. Last time they caught him outside wearing a tank top they grabbed his ample boy boobs and gave him painful titty twisters that left him wearing ugly green and purple bruises for almost two weeks.

Tommy tore out his note, read it to himself, and then folded it into a neat triangle just like the Goblin asked him to. The Goblin liked triangles. He said triangles represented the number three and the number three was powerful because it stood for your past, present, and future. He was always saying things like that and even though Tommy didn’t understand all the Goblins cryptic talk about numbers and symbols he didn’t ask him to explain it. He didn’t really care. The Goblin was one of his only friends so it didn’t matter if he liked triangles and talked in riddles.

It didn’t matter to Tommy that he had never actually seen or talked to the Goblin, and it didn’t matter that Tommy didn’t know how the Goblin found him. The only thing that really mattered was that the Goblin HAD found him when he desperately needed a friend and confidant. The Goblin was Tommy’s secret keeper, the guardian of his deepest and darkest thoughts. He was the only one who knew all of his private business like how he wanted to squish the Rovers for constantly tormenting him about his weight, and how jealous he was of his perfect little sister. The Goblin was the only one that knew Tommy sometimes cried himself to sleep at night because of his parent’s divorce, and on some nights, after a particularly bad day, he prayed that he wouldn’t wake up in the morning.

Tommy looked around the field to be sure that no one was watching him then cautiously lifted up the flat, triangular rock and slid his note underneath. He tapped the top of the smooth stone three times with his index finger like the Goblin instructed him to in one of his early notes, then flipped the small signal rock from yellow to red and placed it in the center so the Goblin would know there was a note underneath. He glanced around again to be sure no one saw what he was doing, walked around the rock three times, then sprinted for home.

Dear Goblin, the rovers haven’t got me this week but is just a matter of time. I saw Mark at the park but I was with my mom and sister so he left me alone. Mom wants to know why I won’t take Amy to the pool but I won’t tell her it’s because I am afraid the rovers will be there. She’s been working a lot and has been really tired and really grumpy. I have to watch Ms. Perfect while she is at work and it sucks. I hate my dad for leaving. I get so mad when at him when I think about it and just want to smash something or someone, like Mark. I hope you get here soon. When you come can we go to the pool? I know the rovers will leave me alone if you are with me.