Chapter Text
The moment Wednesday enters the store, she is blinded by the bright, white lights illuminating the salesroom. She stops in her tracks, looking around suspiciously. There are multiple rows of different products on display, most of it seeming to be different electronic gadgets. People dressed in blue uniforms are running around importantly, talking to customers while gesturing wildly with their arms, apparently hoping this might help convince the people in front of them to spend an absurdly amount of money on yet another thing they likely do not need.
The room is filled with people of all sizes and ages. Wednesday sees a little girl standing on her tiptoes trying it hit a device with her finger, while her parents are turned the other way, entranced by an abomination commonly known under the name “smartphone”.
All she can do is roll her eyes - what a wonderful way to foster addiction to these things for children, even at such a young age. As if wasn’t bad enough already to have hordes of insecure adolescents glued to those screens 24/7, endlessly scrolling through insipid videos of other people making a fool of themselves, accompanied by horrible snippets of music. Wednesday’s mind immediately goes to her roommate and how she spends hours on her bed, entranced by this type of content, which she can’t even remember a minute later. Thinking of Enid, she remembers why she came here in the first place.
It has been four weeks since she has last seen her friend. After the chaos and destruction of how their school year had ended (you don’t fight a resurrected evil pilgrim or a hyde everyday), they only had another two days together before they packed their bags and said goodbye for the summer.
While Wednesday most certainly didn’t miss school and enjoyed her time in solitude, having a substantial amount of time to dedicate to her next novel, she has been forced to endure an unfamiliar, nagging feeling. She couldn’t exactly pinpoint what it was though. The most logical explanation she has come up with so far is, that in the aftereffect of the Crackstone incident, she still carried some kind of guilt towards her roommate, which is why - and only why - she felt the need to make sure Enid was fine.
So Wednesday had written Enid a letter a few days after returning home. After sealing it, she discretely handed it to Lurch so he could send it off for her. The last thing she wanted was for her parents to know, that she is trying to willingly communicate with another person, let alone a friend. They would never stop pestering her about the details. It had been bad enough already.
What Wednesday hadn’t considered though, was that it would take days to hear back from Enid, if the girl decided to answer at all. She didn’t know if Enid had ever sent a letter before and therefore knew about the neccessary steps to take. It turned out, that Enid did know how to send a letter. Even if the grammar and writing style caused Wednesday to roll her eyes and question her friend’s literacy.
At least, according to her letter, Enid was doing alright. Wednesday had been concerned about Enid’s parents’ reactions to her wolfing out and obtaining an injury in her face from fighting a hyde in order to protect Wednesday. There it was again. That strange, heavy feeling in her gut. Wednesday had never felt like this before, it was a curious thing, really. She must take some notes about this observation once she was back home, collecting data for future research.
A few days later, Wednesday learned of the death of a well known actor, whom she knew Enid liked. Usually the girl didn’t care about those so-called celebrities (and she still doesn’t) but since she heard the news, due to the fact that he was to be burried in one of her grandmothers cemeteries, Wednesday came to the conclusion that it was only rational to let Enid know about it. This would hopefully ensure that she doesn’t have to witness a scene of loud crying, if Enid found out about it once they were back at Nevermore. Sure, there were still another six weeks to go, but maybe she wouldn’t hear about it and then somehow aquire the knowledge once back at school. That in turn could interfere with Wednesday’s sacred writing time. No, the only reasonable thing to do was to tell Enid. So Wednesday sent her another letter.
In the days during which she awaited Enid’s reply, she noticed the unease within herself growing unmercifully. She caught herself lightly bouncing her right foot during mealtimes (a habit she usually scolded Enid for) and witnessed a quickening of her pulse whenever she heard the postman ring their doorbell, delivering the daily mail (which coincidentally aligned with her collection of another cup of black, extra bitter coffee from the kitchen every mid-morning and she therefore happened to be able to take a passing look at the mail in Lurch’s hand, before he was able to forward it to the rest of the family).
She even found her mind wandering towards her friend at random times of the day, asking herself what Enid might be doing in that moment. And sure, she had said in her last letter that she was doing well, but that has been more than a week ago.
What if something happened in the mean time? Was there a werewolf riot that started in San Francisco which she just hadn’t heard about yet? Or maybe there was a killer on the loose who targets rainbow colored, bubbly, beautiful and loud young girls? (Wait - beautiful? No, scratch that. No, actually that’s not right either. Enid is objectively speaking someone who is pleasant to look at and Wednesday guessed she could evoke some kind of attraction in certain people. She might not live an emotional life, but Wednesday sure knows how to admire beauty. So yes, it was only correct to simply state that her friend had a beautiful looking body. Face. And body.)
Eventually Wednesday’s thread of patience snapped and she decided to send Enid another letter, before receiving an answer to the second one.
Wednesday’s hypothesis to her current state was, that the blow to her head with a shovel might actually have caused some kind of brain damage after all and therefore she is cursed with an ever increasing need to protect her best friend - which happens to be the only person whose presence she doesn’t completely detest.
Frustrated by the duration it took to successfully communicate with Enid, she has made up her mind to swallow her bitter tasting pride and do the unimaginable.
Focusing on what is happening infront of her eyes again, Wednesday looks for an employee, who is currently not occupied by interacting with other customers. Her eyes fell upon a lanky teenage boy, who is wearing big glasses and has apparently grown too quickly as of late, since his motions suggest he is not entirely in tune with his limbs. Glaring, she marches over until she stops infront of him.
“I’m in need of some assistance.”
“Oh, hi, welcome”, he says nervously, his hand reaching up to pull on the collar of his blue button-down shirt. “What can I help you with?”
“I intend on purchasing an electronic mobile device,” Wednesday states matter-of-factly.
“Alright”, the sales assistant replies slowly. “What kind would you be interested in?”
“Isn’t it your job to advise me?” Wednesday raises one eyebrow.
“Yeah, sure”, his cheeks faintly turning red. “Do you have any specific wishes? Size, cameras-“. “It needs to be able to send electronic messages to another person’s device instantly.”
When her statement is only met with a blank stare, Wednesday explains, “the more commonly known decription for it would be: sending a text.”
“Yeah, I know what you meant, but like, that’s something all phones can do?”
“Are you telling me or asking me?”, Wednesday was losing her patience with this guy. How can he work here if he is obviously not competent enough to assist her with a simple purchase of a mobile phone?
“Let me show you a few of our most popular models”, the assistant says quickly, hurrying over to the phones on display, hoping no one would notice how he started to sweat profoundly. This customer surely is scary.
“So this is the new iPhone, it’s 6.1 inches large, has a super retina display and a two-camera system.” He holds the phone out to Wednesday for her to take, but the girl just stares at the device from a distance.
“Does it work properly?”, she asks.
“Yeah, of course.”
“There will be no problems with delayed messages or a failure of operation when the device is being turned on?”
The assistant shakes his head, “No, of course not. This is the latest model, it works great.”
Satisfied, Wednesday gives a short nod. “I’ll take it.”
“You don’t want to look at other phones as well?”, the guy questions, surprised by the sudden decision. Customers who didn’t know which gadget to get usually took an average of thirty minutes at the store to make up their mind. Hell, even those who come in here for something specific take longer to actually buy it, than the girl dressed in black.
“If this device fulfills my requirements to send instant messages, I do not see the benefit of spending any additional time discussing other options.”
With that Wednesday turns around and walks straight to the checkout counter. The assistant hurries after her, almost dropping the white box which carries the phone. With a quick swipe of her credit card, Wednesday takes the paperbag with her new purchase before finally being able to leave this living hell.
The moment she sets a foot into her family home, she hears her mother calling out to her from the adjacent room.
“Darling, did you have a good time?” Morticia was under the illusion that Lurch had driven her daughter to the hardware store to pick up a new shovel.
“Yes”, comes Wednesday’s short answer, immediately heading for the stairs in the hopes that her mother would not spot the bag she holds firmly in her hand.
“Dinner will be served in about an hour”, Morticia yells after her.
Wednesday does not bother to reply, instead focusing on getting back to the safety of her tower. Once inside, she places the bag on her bed, before carefully removing the white box from it. Wednesday spends the next half an hour trying to figure out how to set up the device. Previously she believed, that mobile devices simply had to be switched on to work, like a record player. It turns out, using a new phone for the first time required a lot of steps. Wednesday was close to throwing it out of the window a dozen times, but eventually, the set-up seems to be finished.
Feeling close to reaching her goal, she hit the symbol of a green square with a white speech bubble with her finger, assuming this meant “communicate”. She also finds the correct button to start a new conversation. It is then, that she is halted in her tracks.
She, in fact, does not have Enid’s phone number. Cursing herself, she decides to turn towards the internet to conduct a research. She knows which square opens up the internet, having seen Enid do this on her phone thousands of times. A window opens and Wednesday slowly types a question into the searchbar.
I need the phone number of Enid Sinclair, a werewolf living in San Francisco.
She hits the “Go” button, feeling a light tingle in her body. But instead of the expected answers to her questions, she is faced with a message on the screen which reads “Safari cannot open the page because your iPhone is not connected to the Internet”.
Wednesday furrows her eyebrows, her jaw tightenin. What is that supposed to mean? Aren’t these things made for the use of the internet?
Wednesday takes a moment to calculate her options. She could ask Thing for help, seeing as he has been attached to Enid’s hip the last few weeks of term, he surely knows how to operate a mobile phone. But Thing would be just as bad as her parents, she does not even want to think about him knowing that she has gone out to purchase a phone just to talk to Enid. He would never let her live it down. No, this was not an option. And Thing is currently not here anyways, so she couldn’t even ask him if she wanted to. Which she doesn’t.
Lurch doesn’t have a phone either.
Her parents - over her dead, rotting body.
That leaves her with the only other option: Pugsley.
Wednesday is still convinced that evolution failed when her brother was conceived, somehow having ended up with only half of the brain required for life. But he is a bit more open minded to modern technology, even Wednesday knows. She also knows that he is in possession of a phone himself and has had it for a few years now.
Out of other options if she wants to reach Enid tonight, she swallows her pride for the second time today and marches out of her room. Following the scent of teenage sweat and a touch of vulnerability, her feet carry her to her brother’s door. She knocks hard once and throws it open without waiting another second. Pugsley is sitting on the floor in the middle of his room, apparently carrying out another experiment with his newly developed gift of electricity. However, the rat laying in front of him doesn’t seem to have a good chance for being resurrected, Wednesday suspects. The main clue for this is that part of its skin has apparently already been consumed by bugs.
She closes the door sharply, hiding the phone behind her back.
“Hey sis”, Pugsley greets her, surprised to see his sister joining him. She has not come to his room all summer.
“I require your assistance in a endeavor which presented an annoying obstacle”, Wednesday explains stiffly. This must be the first time she has to stoop so low as to ask her little brother for help.
“Okay, what’s up?”, Pugsley smiles at his sister.
Wednesday takes her eyes off Pugsley and sits down on the edge of his bed, her back as straight as ever. It takes her a moment to articulate her request.
“I have found myself in a predicament which resulted in the need to purchase an electronic communication device”, she brings the phone to her front, showing it to Pugsley, who stares at her like she has grown another head.
“Now, I wanted to send a message to…a certain…person, but then realized, I do not have their phone number. I then proceeded with an inquiry in the internet, but somehow it is not working. Seeing as this is the first time I am actively using such a device, I am out of my depths on how to solve this issue.” Wednesday just stares at her phone, not meet her brothers eyes.
What is going on with her today? Why is her heart suddenly beating so hard she can even feel it in her ears? And why is Pugsley’s room so much warmer than the rest of the house?
Pugsley knows his sister well enough to understand, how much it cost her to actually ask him for advice. So he holds back on a teasing comment and instead sits down next to her.
“Ah, well you are not connected to the internet. Weird, I’ve never had an issue with the signal in the house, not even down in the dungeons.”
“What signal?”, Wednesday asks.
“The signal of your phone? I assume you did get a plan which includes internet, right?”, Pugsley questions. His sister remains quiet for a second before saying, “What plan?”
At this point Pugsley can’t hold back a laugh. “Did you not get a sim card with your phone?”
This was enough torture, feeling the heat creeping up her face Wednesday jumps up, clutching the phone tightly in her hand, in an attempt to exit the room swiftly.
“Wait!”, Pugsley holds her arm, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh at you.”
Wednesday stops and stares at Pugsley’s arm on hers for a moment, before sitting back down.
“Having a phone is only one part, but you need to buy a mobile plan, which allows you to actually use your phone for calls and texts and internet.”
“This seems unnecessarily complicated”, mumbles Wednesday.
“Wait a second”, Pugsley grabs his own phone.
“I can buy you an e-sim, this will only take a few minutes. I can set it up for you.”
Wednesday gives another small nod and hands her phone over. They sit in silence for about five minutes, Wednesday watching her brother carefully to make sure he didn’t do anything he wasn’t supposed to be doing. Even if Wednesday isn’t aware of the steps he actually had to do to buy whatever it was that the mobile phone still lacked of.
“Here, all set up!” Her brother smiles excitedly. “I’ll put my number in.”
He does exactly what he said he’d do, then hands the phone back to his sister.
“So, are you going to tell me who the lucky person is?”, Pugsley does an obnoxious movement with his eyebrows which irritates Wednesday immensly.
“No”, is the short answer before she stands up.
“I will come up with an appropriate way to convey my recognition for your aid.”
“A simple thank you would be enough, sis”, Pugsley grins.
“Over my dead body.” Wednesday leaves the room as smoothly and quickly as she had entered it, hurrying back to her own.
Once sat on her own bed, she hits the square that brings her to the internet again. And again, she types in her question. This time it looks like the search worked, as her screen is showing different snippets of text. She clicks on one of the blue headlines.
The screen changes and is now showing a collection of information. Most importantly the name “Enid Sinclair” followed by a phone number. Wednesday hopes that this is the correct Enid Sinclair, not a grey-haired old hag surrounded by cats, sitting in her living room and desperate for some human interaction. But there was no other information to verify the matching identity to her friend. She grabbed a piece of paper and a pen, and writes the number down. Then she proceeds to switch to the conversation square again, and types in the number.
Now all that is left to do is to write an actual message.
“Children!”, Morticia yells, “Dinner is served!”
A frustrated sigh leaves Wednesday and for a moment she contemplates skipping the nightly meal in order to continue with her task. However, she knows that this would be of no use, because it would take approximately two minutes until her mother shows up in her room. This was a risk Wednesday was not willing to take and therefore relents to the fact that she would have to postpone writing a message for another half an hour. At least Lurch has prepared one of her favorite meals - cockroach stew.
Like predicted, she is back in her room half an hour later. The phone already back in her hands, she begins to type her message.
Good evening, Enid.
This is Wednesday Addams. I have found this mobile phone number on the internet and hope that it is, in fact, the correct one.
Please let me know if this message reached you.
Cold regards,
Wednesday F. Addams
She checks the written words once, and then clicks the button “send”. The message appears on her screen, a little check symbol placed underneath it. Wednesday assumes that this means the send-off was successful.
It would probably take some time for Enid to answer her, so what she really should be doing is to put the device on the table and use her time efficiently for her daily writing time. However, she seems to be unable to move or tear her eyes away from the thing in her hands.
Has Enid’s phone received the message by now? The girl was practically addicted to it, but maybe she was out with some friends and wouldn’t see it until tomorrow or maybe even later?
Wednesday is pulled out of her thoughts when the device suddenly gives a loud sound. She focuses in on the screen again, seeing that a new message has appeared.
OMG
No way
Wends?? Is that really you???
The message is followed by multiple little pictures, which Wednesday had learned were called “Emojis”. Wednesday tries to be annoyed by it but somehow she feels like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders for the first time in two weeks. Probably because the torture of purchasing and learning to use a mobile phone has now been successfully completed.
She was just about to start typing in a response, when a new message shows up.
Wait
Ill call u give me a sec
A moment later her phone starts ringing. Startled by that horrific noise she quickly clicks the green button and moves the phone to her ear.
“This is Wednesday Addams speaking.”
“OMG it really is you!”, Enid shrieks into her ear, causing Wednesday to move the device further away. She did not mind pain, but an impairment to her otherwise perfect hearing would be very unhelpful.
“Wends, I FaceTimed you, put the phone infront of your face so I can see you”, her friend explains, hardly able to contain her excitement.
Wednesday does as she is told, surprised to see the image of her roommate on the phone. The scars on her face seem to heal nicely, Wednesday is pleased to confirm that Enid was telling the truth in her previous letter.
“Hi,” Enid grins from ear to ear, her giddiness making herself jump up and down while sitting on her bed.
“Hello.” Wednesday’s eyes soften too. Hopefully visual details are not as noticeable through a mobile screen.
“If you would have told me yesterday that I would see the day, that Wednesday “I-hate-everything-new” Addams falls into the claws of modern technology and calls me on a phone, I would have thought you were loosing your mind!”
“You called me, Enid. I merely sent you an electronic message.”
“Ah, potato tomato”, Enid answers.
“That’s not how the saying goes”, Wednesday mumbles.
“Anyways, what happened? Why do you have a phone now? It is yours, right? Are you okay?”
“I sent you two more letters, but as of today I have not received a reply. I thought the duration it took to correspond was a critical risk, in case of an emergency”, Wednesday offers as an explanation, looking as serious as ever.
“Sure”, says Enid. “Admit it, you missed me already!”
“Like I said, I simply detected a risk which could be easily rectified by relying on the assistance of inventions of modern technology, as much as it pains me.”
“I’ve missed you too Wends”, Enid chuckles happily and lays down on her bed.
“I just can’t believe it, Wednesday Addams got herself a phone just for me, this literally the best day of my life!”
“Enid”, Wednesday threatens without using any additional words.
“Okay, okay. So tell me, how did you get a phone? Did you steal it from a poor kid?”
“I had Lurch drive me to the nearest store in town, which sells all sorts of electronic devices. As expected, the employee was incompetent and asked too many useless questions.”
“Did you threaten him?”, Enid’s grin still hasn’t faltered a bit. She looks genuinely happy, Wednesday thinks. This observation annoyingly caused the little flutter in her abdomen to return.
“No, but I made sure the transaction was completed as fast as possible. The fool failed to let me know that in addition to a device you also need something called a phone plan for it to actually work”, Wednesday grumbles, still angry about the additional challenge.
“Haha, yeah, that’s how it works. So how did you end up with one?”
“I had to ask for some help”, she hopes Enid would not make her explain it any further. But of course this is not how her friend does things.
“Did Thing help you? Oh, is he there with you? Can I say hi?”, the words rushing out of Enids mouth.
“No, Thing is enjoying some time with my Uncle Fester, they are currently doing a roadtrip to enjoy their own version of gambling in Nevada. I do not expect them to return for another week or two.”
“Sounds like something I do not want to know the details of.”
A moment of silence follows, the girl on the other end still waiting for an answer.
“My brother helped me. Pugsley. He is as dim as a bedbug, but admittedly more experienced with technology than I am. He bought the plan so that I can communicate with you now.”
“I’m sure all of this was unwanted torture for you, but I am really glad that you have a phone now Wednesday”, Enid’s voice has gotten quiet. “I’ve missed talking to you. Sometimes I even think I can hear your type writer clacking in my room, but of course I’m imagining it.” She turns around onto her stomach.
“I’ve already sent you a reply, by the way. To the second letter.”
“Good”, Wendesday tries to keep her face neutral. “How are you? How is your summer so far?” Usually Wednesday did not care to learn about the current state of other people, but somehow things were different with Enid. Hence, why she finds herself in this situation in the first place.
“Good! I’m actually having a pretty great time. My parents were pretty happy that I finally wolved out, so Mom is not breathing down my neck as much as before. I’ve spent some time with my brothers and cousins, oh and last week we went to see a hockey match, which was awesome!”
“I’m glad to hear that you are doing well”, Wednesday says truthfully.
“What about you?”, Enid asks in return.
“I have already started my next novel, Viper is currently learning of a new murder case. I’ve continued my research on a pack of coyotes living closeby, which I started before coming to Nevermore. Otherwise I try my best to stay clear from my mother, but she has tried her best to force some time together upon me.”
“Oh, come on Wends, I’m sure she just missed you. Look at me, I have not seen you for four weeks and I would give anything to give you another hug right now.”
“It is only six more weeks until our return to Nevermore”, is all that Wednesday manages to say.
“Six weeks is entirely too long though”, Enid groans.
“Maybe we could arrange a meeting in the mean time”, Wednesday suggests without thinking, her heatbeat quickening instantly again.
“Yes, please!” Enid almost yells. “Could you visit? Or could I come to your house? Or should we meet somewhere in the middle? Maybe I could ask my dad to drive me somewhere, I still don’t have my driver’s licence yet, but I would need to - “ “Enid!” Wednesday interrupts her friends nervous jabber.
“I have to check what the options are”, Wednesday says. “But I will let you know tomorrow.”
“Okay, that sounds perfect!” Enid sighs in relief. She can’t believe that this was real.
Another moment of silence follows, both thinking about the plan of an upcoming reunion. Wednesday hears some voices in the background and sees Enid turning her head to the side.
“Ehm, my Mom is calling me. Guess I have to go”, her voice now clearly thick with disappointment. “Can I call you again tomorrow?”, she asks her friend hopefully.
“Yes”, Wednesday replies. “Same time tomorrow.”
“Awesome”, Enid offers another soft smile. “Good night, Wednesday.”
“Good night, Enid.”
Wednesday puts the mobile phone into the drawer of her night stand. Tomorrow she will contemplate about the best options to put their plans of a meeting into action. For the first time in forever, she is truly looking forward to something.