“But I don wanna play with Jaammmes. He’s weird!” Donny said as he stomped his feet.

“Now now, Donny. James needs someone to play monster trucks with, and I know how much you looove monster trucks. And I also know Donny is very smart, surely he would be best qualified to teach James.” Ms. Susan said in a tone as sweet as honey while kneeling to be eye level with Donny.

Donny crossed his arms, then looked at James sitting in the corner holding a monster truck with his eyes unfocused.

“Well, that’s a shame I would’ve loved to have told your mom about how helpful you were in class today.” Ms. Susan said while getting up.

Donny panicked and said “Okay Ms. Susan! I’ll play with James, just be sure to tell mum that I helped.” Donny knew that if Ms. Susan complimented his behaviour in front of his parents they would definitely take him out for ice cream as a reward. And Donny loved ice cream.

Despite Donny’s desire for ice cream he still dragged his feet. He sat down opposite next to James and picked up a monster truck from the toy box.

“This truck is T-Rex 5000 and yours is Rhino Machine. You can tell by the look of em.” Donny said while pointing at the dinosaur decal then the rhino decal.

James eyes followed Donny’s finger as he pointed.

“Urrrr” James grunted and Donny wasn’t sure what James meant, but Donny just assumed James somewhat understands.

Donny decided to continue since at least James was somewhat following. “You can just push them around to play, but I like to use toy soldiers and crush em.” Donny then fished out some toy soldier figurines from the toy box and lined them up then rammed them with T-Rex 5000, sending them scattering different directions.

“Aaaahhhh” James cried in anguish as he saw the soldiers being scattered and destroyed by the T-Rex 5000.

Donny though James was distressed at the toys being damaged and tried to assure James by saying “it’s fine the toys are strong, they won’t break look!”

Donny proceeded to smash the toy soldiers with the T-Rex 5000. The toy soldiers head and limbs broke apart from the rough housing.

“Ahhhhh ahhh” James panicked and hid in the corner facing away from Donny.

“Uh-oh” Donny said and looked to Ms. Holly for help who was keeping an eye on them.

“Maybe James doesn’t like violent games.” Ms. Holly said in a calming manner as she helped Donny put away the toys and let him rejoin the class in reading time.

Ms. Susan then asked Anna to play house with James and she happily obliged.

Anna then set up the miniature furniture and grabbed some dolls.

“I’ll be the wife who is secretly a spy.” Anna said as she picked up a girl doll who was wearing a white dress. “And you can be the husband who is the president.”

Ms. Holly stopped Anna from giving James the guy doll in a fancy tux and warned Anna that it was better to not let James hold anything he could shove into his mouth.

“Okay, I’ll just put him down for now and you tell me how he acts.” Anna moved the doll into their places. She positioned the president on the couch and moved one of his hands to his ear.

“You are getting an grown up call and I’m trying to listen in for secrets. What secrets are you talking about?”

“Erraahh aaarree rrreee uuhh aaa” James grunted.

Ms. Holly was surprised at the coherence and the engagement James was displaying and she mentally noted down to engage James in more role-playing activities.

Anna starred at James blankly then looked to Ms. Holly.

“Maybe you should try with more simple situations and questions Anna.” Ms. Holly suggested.

Donny suggested playing knight and princess. Anna jumped in fright at Donny who joined the group quietly. Donny shrugged at Anna then went and fished out two knight figurines and a big dragon toy from the toy box.

“Ms. Holly can you be the dragon?” Donny asked.

Ms. Holly nodded.

“You can be the princess Anna. James you can be my squire.” Donny then deftly shoved a knight doll into James hands.

Ms. Holly was too slow to stop it and was prepared to prevent James from trying to eat the toy but James simply held the toy and looked at it with reminisce in his ‘eyes’.

Donny set everything up and put the princess behind the dragon and positioned himself beside James.

“Foul Dragon, we will save the princess!” Donny said.

“Silly knights, you cannot defeat me the all powerful dragon!” Ms. Holly said while moving the dragon around in the air displaying its magnificence.

“Save me brave knights!” Anna said while moving the princess up and down pleading for help.

“Foul dragon, prepare to meet steel! My sword squire!” Donny then looked at James.

“Errr” James said enthusiastically.

“Oh you humans, so boorish and quick to resort to violence!”

“Take that foul dragon!” Donny thrust the knight into the dragon.

“Haha that tickles.” Ms. Holly said in a mocking voice.

Donny looked at the giant dragon toy and then at his and James much smaller knight figurines.

“We need a plan.” Donny said to James in a very serious face.

Anna then whispered to Ms. Holly “I want to be saved by smart knights not sword for brains.”

“Haha puny knights! I will allow you to have your princess if you beat me in three riddles!”

Donny was reluctant as he wanted to slay the dragon.

“Answer the questions sir knights! Smart knights are the knightiest!” Anna said.

“Yes I Donny — err — Sir Donny will solve em.”

Ms. Holly indicated James should help with her eyes to Donny.

“I mean I Sir Donny and my squire James will solve m.”

“Okay! First question! What noise does a raccoon make?”

Donny scratched his head and randomly guess with “coooo”.

“Nope, not cooo. Squire James?” Ms. Holly prompted.

“Errrrr” James replied.

“Correct errr is the noise a raccoon can make! Wow you two are smart even though puny.” Ms. Holly said while clapping the dragon toys hands at the answer.

Anna and Donny looked at Ms. Holly skeptically.

Ms. Holly paid those looks no attention.

“Next question! What only goes up but never goes down?”

Donny scratched his head at the question then looked pleadingly at Anna.

Ms. Holly chuckled and said “Oh sir knights, the princess can’t save herself otherwise I wouldn’t have captured her!”

Donny scrunched his face and tried really hard to think up the answer. If this was a cartoon steam would have came out of his ears.

“Hurry up Sir knights, this dragon is getting huunngry. And the princess is starting to look delicious!”

Donny ruffled his hair in frustration and in desperation looked towards James. Who was keenly eyeing the dragon now.

“My stomach is rumbling.” Ms. Holly teased and moved the dragon towards the princess.

“Aaaaaaggggrrr” James grunted while starting to drool.

“Oh does thee squire have an answer?” Ms. Holly inquired while moving the dragon close the the squire figure.

The dragon just happened to be within James reach. And with one swift motion James ripped the dragon out of Ms. Holly’s hands and bit the dragons head off.

***

Victor was sipping whisky on the rocks in an empty pub with the exception of him and a man behind the bar.

“Can you believe it, a horsemen playing babysitter. What has the world come to.” Victor said while sighing.

“Yes it is pretty unbelievable.” The man behind the bar replied. The man was wearing a neat black suit.

“Haaaa… Why couldn’t old Mort just picked someone competent and we could have just gotten the show on the road.” Victor put his face to the bar feeling the cool counter top on his warm skin. “But maybe you know this could be a blessing. Maybe it is better if things don’t end so quickly.” Victor said while poking his glass of whisky. “Don’t you think so?”

The man in the suit tilted his head at Victor and replied “I suppose it would make things rather dull for a while afterwards.”

“See!” Victor shouted. “We both enjoy our line of work. It would feel rather empty to lose our purpose after a big rush.” Victor then finished his drink, motioning the man to pour him another. The man obliged.

“Sir Victor, if I may offend you with an obligated reprimand.”

“Haaaaa… on with it.”

“Per the rules of …”

Victor paid no attention and used his left hand to make the blah-blah gesture as the man continued.

The man in the suit finished his long winded reprimand and bowed. Then he raised his hand and the soul from a corpse behind the bar went into his hand. The soul was a bright incandescent orb that glowed brightly white.

“Hey! It’s an upward bound one. I mean who wouldn’t want to get to heaven sooner.”

“He had a family.” The man in the suit shook his head.

“Family schmanly. They’ll probably catch up soon anyways.” Victor shrugged.

“I hope you don’t get any ideas sir, per the rules of…” the man the suit started to go on again.

*ring* *ring* *ring*

“Excuse me for a moment.” Victor said as he took out his phone. “Yes, this is he. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. He did what now?! I’ll be right there!”

Victor groaned and was half way out the door when he hastily said “oh I almost forgot.” then turned around and tossed a gold coin with a cross symbol engraved at the man in the suit. The man caught the coin with ease in the air and gave a nod.