Gets

Date/Timing: 25 May 2006
Setting: Geiszler apartment; Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, USA
.
„„Newton! You have mail!““
Newt pauses the lecture, glides his chair to the door, pokes his head into the hall. „What is it?“
Dad strolls up, offers a thick envelope /covered with stamps and ink. „From Berlin.“
Newt's heart does a happy little skip and he grabs it, rips it open, pulls out a handful of papers, each one held together with tape. „Aw, darn,“ he sighs.
„It not what you were hoping for?“
„Not quite. From the wrong brother.“
„Ah, /that's who's writing you from Berlin. Can I see?“
Newt hands the pages over.
Dad reads, giggles. „These're /hilarious.“ Points to Captain Infodump. „This's you?“ 
„Yeah. He kept threatening to do something like this so I dared him to actually, you know, /do it.“
„The littler one did this?“ Dad passes the papers back. 
„Yeah.“ Newt tosses them in the direction of his desk.
„A scientist and an artist ....“ Dad shakes his head. „His dad's almost as lucky as I am.“
„Don't forget the doctor and the engineer while you're at it.“
„How could I forget?“ Dad grins. „All he needs's a lawyer and he'll have the full Jewish family playset.“
Newt rolls his eyes, pushes his chair into a slow spin.
„The older boy's still writing, too?“
„At least one email a day, sometimes more.“ Newt frowns. „Except on Saturdays, but he won't explain why. It's not religious, before you ask. He just won't write me.“
„Maybe he has a family thing.“
Newt swings his feet. „They don't seem all that, uh, 'family-oriented'. Hermann's just—“ Huffs. „He can be a real douche sometimes: stuck up and stuffy and, well, /mean. Like this not-writing-with-no-explanation thing.“
Dad's eyes light up and he gets /that smile. „Newton, do you have a /crush?“
„Maybe? He's—“ Newt chews his lip. „He's the first person my age I think really /gets me. Just as smart and he can actually /focus and get stuff done so he probably gets better grades than me, which's probably why he's full-time at college already. Second semester! Seriously!“
„You'll catch up.“
Newt scoffs, „I'll /pass him.“
Dad makes the 'no offense' gesture. „I'm sure you will.“
Newt sniffs.
A deep breath and Dad says, „It's too bad it didn't work out between his dad and your mom.“
Newt puts his foot down. „Why do you even still care about her?“
„I still love her.“
„She /dumped you. With a /baby.“
He sighs in his 'not again, Newton' way. „I explained how she told me our first date if it came to a choice between a relationship and her career, she'd pick career, right?“
„Yeah, you did.“
„So, Monica did exactly what she said she'd do. I knew what I was getting into from the start.“ Dad shrugs, then grins. „/You were a bit of a surprise, though.“
Newt says—
„The best surprise of my life!“ Dad squashes Newt to his chest.
—squirms, „/Daaaaad!“ 
„Hold still!“ 
„I'm /sixteen!“
„You're /never too old for hugs!“
Newt rolls his eyes, but squeezes back.
Dad /finally lets go, straightens. „I'll let you get back to studying.“
„Cool. This chemistry course is actually kinda interesting.“
„Something /not biology—“
„It's 'dawn of life' chemistry, like, how soup turns into shrimp-things into lizards. That sort of thing.“
Dad shakes his head, 'of course'. „Then, I'll leave you to it. Remember, you're on your own for dinner tonight.“
Newt searches his memory, brightens. „Right! You're playing for that recital-thingie!“
„Just practice tonight. The show is next week.“
„Right!“
„I'll be back late.“
„Cool. Break a leg.“
Dad laughs, heads down the hall for the kitchen.
Newt scoots for the desk, nabbing the kid's comics from the floor on the way.
A sheet covered with writing flutters loose.
He picks it up.
- Newt,
I was going to have these scanned and email them to you, but my father got upset when he saw them, tore them apart, and threw them in the trash. I saved the bits and put them back together and sent them this way.
He /also said I can't write to you anymore. Actually, I can't send email to /anyone anymore.
If you want more comics, tell Hermann and I'll mail them to you when I can smuggle them out.
Later,
Bastien
28 April 2006
Berlin -
"What the /fuck?" He smacks his screensaver off, dives into his email, types.
Stops.
Resets for 'code' and starts again.
/From: Newton Geiszler (ng2505@columbia.edu)
/To: Hermann Gottlieb (hermann.gottlieb@tu-berlin.de)
/Subject: New dinosar found
WTF IS WRONG WITH YOUR DAD?
Ripping up the kid's art? Kicking him off email? Because of something I ASKED HIM TO DO?
That is several jumps BEYOND fucked up.
Like, I wish I could draw HALF as well as Junior.
I'm actually GLAD my mom dumped him now and I don't like my mom very well.
Seriously dude, how have you not killed him already? Or at least run away? Or called CPS? If he was like this with your mom I can TOTALLY see why she offed herself.
Dude is there anything I can do to help you guys? I know Im on the wrong side of an ocean, but still? -
Newt chews his lip.
- I think dealing with that asshole would break me. Seriously Hermann. I don't think I could survive what you have. Jesus Christ dude. -
Newt swallows, taps 'send', hovers his cursor over the lecture video. "Fuck it," he grumbles and heaves himself to his feet and the living room and some piano to decompress.
Category:Ficlet
Category:Brooklyn (setting)
Category:Newt
Category:Newt (ficlet)
Category:Newt's POV
Category:Jakob
Category:Jakob (ficlet)
Category:Bastien (mention)
Category:Hermann (mention)
Category:Conversations via snail mail
Category:Monica (mention)
Category:Lars (mention)
Category:Dietrich (mention)
Category:Karla (mention)
Category:Ficlets with images
Category:Celestial Mechanics
Category:Pages with comments