Skipper and Dusty's Father-Son Relationship Stories (All Humanized)

Chapter 12: Father and Son Reunited at Christmas

    As the December days rolled on, everyone in town were now starting to decorate their shops for the happy holiday. Soon, the town was filled with the beautiful, glowing colors of lights strung on the buildings and on people's houses as well. Even Skipper Riley's house was decorated for the occasion, it's blue and white lights lit up the outside of it so beautifully, some folks would stare at the colors. Dusty Crophopper's house was decorated on the outside as well, it's orange, white, and blue lights lighting up every corner and crevice of it. Event in town was feeling jolly this time of year-well, everyone except Dusty. And that was for one reason-he never told anyone what happened to his family. He still remembered everything, but he didn't want to tell anyone about it yet. He was always lonely. If there was one thing he wanted for Christmas, it was for someone to spend it with. He was always a sad person-which bothered Skipper, who finally decided to find out who his family was.
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    One day before Christmas Eve, Dusty was sitting on his bed, looking very glum as he started at a picture of him and his family. The sad and haunted memories flooded through his head to the point where he was hallucinating. He stumbled out of his room, but continued to hallucinate up to the point where he finally fell down the stairs-just as Skipper arrived. He wasn't expecting it, so the war veteran was pretty surprised to see Dusty like this-especially at Christmastime. When he approached him, he heard the young man mumble unintelligiblely and roll around on the floor. Gently but firmly, Skipper tried to quiet him down, but was unprepared for a scream as Dusty's eyes shot open. Wanting to calm him down, Skipper decided to try and coax him. "Dusty, it's alright. It's just me," he said gently, helping him up.

    Dusty just sat there, looking at Skipper with frightened eyes. He was shaking hard as if the cold was in the house. Horrible memories replayed in his head until they were too much for him to take. A dizzy feeling came over the 19-year old as he soon stumbled around, feeling dizzy all over again. Even though he tried to keep himself together, he fainted in fear and collapsed into Skipper's arms.
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    Hours later, Dusty woke up to Skipper running his hand through his hair, looking at him with sympathy. That look caused him to be sad all over again as he tried to hold back the tears which now ran down his face. Sushing him gently, Skipper could understand what his friend was gong through. "Shh, shh, shh. Don't worry, Dusty. It's alright," he said in a soft whisper.

    Calming down, Dusty looked into his mentor's eyes, sadness and fear evident in them. Skipper just stayed as a silent comforter, keeping the young racer close to him. After a while, the war veteran decided to ask Dusty something. "Dusty, what happened to your family? You seem sad every Christmas."

    For a while, Dusty didn't respond to the question. He seemed to shake as he recalled all the horrifying memories that happened. Skipper just put an arm around Dusty to make him feel better. "Don't worry, Dusty," he said gently. "I'll stay with you until we work this out."

    "W-Well," he finally said after some hesitation, "my mother used to be a racer herself until a bad crash in 1942 put her out of it permanently. As for my father, he was in the military, serving the Navy. Although they really didn't have enough time for me and my younger siblings, Andy, Olivia, and Lily, we still got along like family. We were almost unseprable from each other. Then, one day, my mother, who then worked at a grocery store to pay for our needs, was then put out of a job because of something she didn't do."

    "What was that 'something' ?" Skipper asked.

    "F-For killing someone she hardly knew," Dusty replied as tears were starting to show in his eyes. "After that, we had to be careful to not go into debt. We couldn't even go anywhere fun. But the real bad news came when we heard that Dad got shot down over Glendal Canal during WW2. Everything seemed to go downhill pretty fast after that."