The Anniversary Present (Short Story)
Based on “The Wedding Present” by Neil Gaiman
Turbo was just about ready to hit the sack. His first Reset Day — or, the first anniversary of the day he’d been reset — had been hectic, but fun. He was now comfortably tired out from the party, all filled up with chips and cake, and there was just one thing left to do before he called it a night: open up his presents.
Vanellope had volunteered “out of the goodness of her heart” to help him with this task — really, he was sure that she just wanted to tear the wrapping paper off of some gifts, even if they weren’t hers. But he had to admit, it was nice to have someone sorting things out and tossing paper into the garbage bag. With double the hands, they got through the pile quickly, until there was just one more present left…
"Looks like some cheapskate just gotcha a card, Pajama Boy," snorted Vanellope.
"It’s a pretty big card, then," countered Turbo, picking up a large manilla envelope. It was flat; there were no discriminately shaped bulges that could have helped him figure out what was inside. He shook it, and heard only the whisk of a piece of paper sliding back and forth.
"Open it!" prompted Vanellope, and he did just that, unfastening the clasp at the top.
With some disappointment, he discovered that it really was just a sheet of paper — plain letter-sized paper, with some neat black typing in a plain font printed on the front. He scanned over the words quickly.
After defeating the malware, Turbo finally got the chance to enter his first Random Roster Race. He was very excited about it. It was challenging, but he managed to come in first place, getting a spot on the roster for the next day…
He was aware of Vanellope hanging over his shoulder, but she probably couldn’t read the paper — she had confided in him that she really was dyslexic, and the words were very small and close together. Sure enough, she asked him after a minute or so, “What’s it say?”
"It’s just about…what’s happened to me since my reset, I guess," he replied with disinterest. It really was just a brief summary, describing the key events that had occurred over the past year, starting with that first Random Roster Race. "Not much of a gift…"
Then he turned the paper over, and his breath caught in his throat.
The very last paragraph read:
Turbo’s friends and family gave him an anniversary party. He had a lot of fun, but he was nervous the whole time. Just a few weeks earlier, he had learned that the malware was still alive…
"…something wrong, Bo?" asked Vanellope, slightly concerned when she spotted the way he was staring at the writing.
Turbo blinked several times. The story had been accurate up until that point — he had most certainly not learned that the malware was still alive a few weeks ago! It had been dead for over a year, and that was just the way things should have been!
"…I think…maybe it’s someone’s idea of a bad joke…" he said cautiously. After checking to ensure that there were no grown-ups in the vicinity, he read her the offending sentences.
She was disgusted. “That’s really mean! Who would say something like that?”
"I don’t know." Turbo retrieved the envelope again, turning it around in his hands. "There’s no name."
"Hmmph! Good thing, too. If I knew who thought it was funny to give that to you, I’d execute ‘em!" But her certainty flickered as she added, "Turbo, you didn’t really find out that the malware’s still alive…did you?"
"Of course not!" he assured her. "I promise.”
That satisfied her. They finished cleaning up and hauled the presents back to his room. The sheet of paper ended up back in its envelope, stuffed into the bottom drawer of his dresser.
But it persisted in his thoughts. If it was supposed to be a prank, then it was not only cruel, but it was bizarre. Or…what if it was a warning? But then, why did it say that Turbo had discovered that the malware was alive shortly before his anniversary party, when clearly no such thing had happened?
He started to wonder if he had just misread the last paragraph. Even so, it was a few weeks before he worked up the courage to retrieve the envelope from its hiding spot.
When he opened it, a nasty surprise awaited him. Two sheets of paper fell out into his lap. But there had only been one on the day of the party — he was sure of it!
He stomped off towards Vanellope’s room.
She scurried into the hall, making sure to roll her eyes at him for disturbing…whatever it was she’d been doing. “Whaaaaaat?”
"Did you put something else in here?!" Turbo demanded, thrusting the envelope and the papers in her direction.
Her brow furrowed, and she shook her head in the negative, sending her ponytail flying. “Of course not. Why would I touch that creepy thing?”
"Then who put this other paper in there?!"
She blinked, noticing the addition for the first time.
They stared at each other in silence for a moment.
"…maybe one of the grownups…?" she suggested feebly.
"I didn’t tell the grownups. Did you?"
"And none of them have mentioned it…"
Of course, there were words printed on the new sheet of paper, neatly lining both sides. Once again, Turbo ascertained that they were alone before he began to read aloud.
“The malware had threatened that if Turbo told anyone about its survival, he’d kill them. But Turbo was getting desperate. He had to tell somebody! In the end, it was the most unlikely person who got the truth out of him — Ralph. And because of that, soon Ralph was the only one Turbo felt he could turn to. They started to grow very close. As the malware struck again and again, Turbo began to think of Ralph as a father figure, even calling him ‘Papa’ in private…”
Vanellope couldn’t help but snort derisively. “Really? You and Stinkbrain?”
One day, the malware temporarily broke the mortality link between it and Turbo. It planned to kill the boy over and over again, until the respawn system broke. But Turbo escaped from the torture session and dragged himself back home…”
Vanellope gasped, and the blush drained out of her cheeks. “That’s sick! That’s really sick!” she cried. “Who would write something like that?!”
Turbo felt a bit ill himself. “I have no idea. If this is someone’s idea of a joke…it ain’t funny.”
He went on to read about how after the ordeal, he had begun suffering from PTSD, and was too uncomfortable to race or even leave Ralph’s side. The account cut off abruptly.
Neither he nor Vanellope knew what to make of it.
"Let’s keep this between us," he finally said. "Okay? It’ll be our secret."
She nodded vigorously. “Right. Our secret.”
Turbo and Vanellope had not always been happy children with happy lives, but they were now, and it was hard to remember a time when things had ever been different. Each day, they would wait on the roster to be selected by gamers, before finishing off with the Random Roster Race just after the arcade closed. Then they’d go home and spend time with the grown-ups and each other. Their family had become a very close-knit one, although Vanellope still shared a special bond with Ralph, while Turbo was growing closer to Sergeant Calhoun.
There were occasional upsets, of course. He and Vanellope would have a spat, then make up the next day; Felix and Calhoun would get in a brief argument, and the kids would hunker down in their rooms nervously; or one of those inevitable bad days would strike. But those were just part of life, and merely small blemishes in an otherwise happy existence.
The worst thing that happened was probably in the winter, when a minor virus went around. First Vanellope got sick, then Turbo got sick and remained sick for days, and when he fainted on his way to the bathroom, he was quickly rushed to Game Central General Hospital — it turned out that he had pneumonia, and he was given some antibiotics and released within the day. It was scary and nerve-wracking, but at least it was over quickly.
A few nights after that, Turbo and Vanellope were laying in Turbo’s bed together. Turbo was still slightly sick, but his cough was fading quickly, and in another day or two, he’d be racing again. Vanellope had long since recovered from her illness. He was starting to doze off when she spoke up cautiously. “‘Bo? I’ve been thinkin’ about…the thing…”
"What thing?" he asked groggily.
"You know…that paper that you got for your reset day…"
And just like that, he was fully alert again.
"…maybe we should see what it says?"
A part of him didn’t want to, but he was admittedly curious. He told Vanellope that it was in the bottom drawer of his dresser, and she retrieved it, bringing it back over to the bed. When she unfastened the clasp, three sheets of paper fell out.
He picked up the new piece and read aloud. According to the story, he had gone to the hospital…but not because he had pneumonia. Instead, Ralph had gone to visit Felix and Calhoun in Hero’s Duty one night after the arcade closed, and it had ended disastrously. He’d nearly been killed by a Cy-Bug, and for three days, the entire family had thought that he was dead. Eventually he’d returned home, having been found and patched up by Felix, but by then Turbo was so sick with grief that he’d needed medical attention. Someone named Dr. Scott had diagnosed the boy with not only PTSD, but also separation anxiety disorder centered around Ralph, who was now all but officially Turbo’s father. Turbo hadn’t raced in several months, and it didn’t look like he would be racing again anytime soon…
The true Turbo exchanged a glance with Vanellope.
"This is all wrong," she mumbled, and he nodded in agreement. So far, everything in the paper’s narrative had, thankfully, remained fictitious. The malware was still dead, he wasn’t clinging to Ralph, and no one had gone through anything more grueling than a moderately bad illness.
Vanellope hesitated. “…so…if it’s not predicting the future, then…what is it?”
Turbo mulled over her question.
"I think…" he started slowly. "I think that maybe it’s exactly what we think it is. It’s an anniversary present."
"But where did it come from? What’s the point of it all? I mean, it’s like a different version of our lives where everything that could possibly go wrong after your reset, did go wrong!”
"I think maybe that’s the point," he realized aloud.
"It’s just that…a different version of our lives. An alternate version of our lives. All the bad stuff that’s not happening to us is happening on the paper.”
She hesitated for a long moment, visibly trying to wrap her mind around that. “So…it’s magic?”
Turbo could only shrug. “It’s an anniversary present. And…I think maybe we better keep it safe.”
And Turbo did just that when he put the envelope back in the bottom drawer before rejoining Vanellope in bed. He fell asleep quickly, still exhausted from his illness. Not too long after, both of them went back to work, and the memories of the papers were pushed to the back of their minds.
Time kept marching onwards.
One afternoon, Turbo and Vanellope came home from the Random Roster Race to find all three grown-ups in the kitchen, waiting for them. At first they feared the worst, but soon the adults’ serious faces gave way to huge smiles, and they revealed that they had now officially adopted Vanellope and Turbo — officially making them a real family. There were hugs and laughter and even some happy tears, and they all went out for dinner at Burger Time to celebrate.
Shortly after that, Ralph began dating one of his friends from Bad-Anon, a blue-skinned elven vampire named Sorceress. Although their relationship started out slowly and slightly awkwardly, they clearly thought highly of one another, and Sorceress got along well with the rest of the family. Everyone remained happy.
And throughout all of this, Turbo and Vanellope never breathed a word about the anniversary present…although occasionally, they would get out the envelope and see what was happening to their other selves.
Each time they underwent this ritual, there would be exactly one new page waiting for them, with words typed crisply along the front and back. They read about how Turbo felt so wracked with guilt about how much trouble he’d caused that he’d begun to bite his knuckles until they bled, and he’d been subsequently sent to therapy; they read about how Ralph was developing his own anxiety issues; they read about how Vanellope was drifting further and further apart from both Ralph and Turbo, instead spending more time with Felix; and they read about how Fix-It Felix Jr. had been plugged back in temporarily, then carted away for repairs with everyone inside, leaving Turbo broken and alone. Some good things had happened — just like in real life, the kids had been adopted, Ralph and Sorceress were dating, and Sorceress had at least managed to stop Turbo from committing suicide and taken him in after Ralph was gone — but on the whole, things looked bleak.
And when they read, Turbo and Vanellope would look at each other for long periods of time, wondering what it would be like if they weren’t together. Sure, Turbo and Ralph got on just fine, but Turbo couldn’t ever imagine seeing him as a father figure. And while Vanellope was fond of Felix, she thought she’d go crazy if she spent too much time with him, what with his overprotective nature. It was funny how the story inside the anniversary present had started out so much like their own, but with just a few tweaks here and there, it had turned out so different…
Turbo felt sorry for everyone in the anniversary present. He would cheer on their little victories and moments of happiness, but he couldn’t help but be glad that none of their sorrows were happening to him or his family.
Time just kept marching onwards…
Ralph and Sorceress’s relationship was starting to get more serious. They spent more and more time together. Sometimes Vanellope felt a little left out, but Ralph seemed to pick up on this, and would go out of his way to play with her any time she got too sad.
Eventually, Fix-It Felix Jr. was returned to the arcade, but it was another week before the characters got their memories back. Ralph and Turbo had an emotional reunion, and Ralph and Sorceress confessed their love for one another. Then Ralph took Turbo home to his little shack. They stayed there for a week, and Vanellope missed her brother…
Turbo was still racing almost every day. He made friends inside Sugar Rush, and even a few outside. But Vanellope always remained his very best friend, as well as his little sister.
After a while, Turbo decided that he wanted to race again, but it didn’t work out so well. He still stayed home most of the time. One day, Vanellope asked him if he wanted to race, and he agreed, since they barely ever spent time together now. But that race ended badly, and it led to a fight. The two kids didn’t speak to each other again for weeks. Even after they made up, things were never quite the same again…
The time for the annual Sugar Rush Grand Prix arrived, and when it came time to divide into pairs, Turbo and Vanellope automatically chose each other. Their team was called Team Crown, but when Taffyta muttered that it should really be called Team Glitch, the two siblings looked at one another and grinned. From then on, they referred to themselves as Team Glitch, even after the Grand Prix was over.
Vanellope was kidnapped by the malware and tortured…soon she had PTSD, as well…Turbo had a mental breakdown…he ended up in the hospital and was diagnosed with schizophrenia…everyone was devastated…
Turbo was surprised when summertime ended and it became fall again. The arcade was emptier during the day now that the kids were back in school. Still, he couldn’t have been happier…
All of his relationships were strained…he was codependent on Ralph to the point of unhealthiness…he overdosed on his schizophrenia medication…he tried to commit suicide…
It was funny how many more parties there were in the latter half of the year. First there was a great Halloween party in Sugar Rush; then a party to commemorate what would have been the thirty-third anniversary of Fix-It Felix Jr., and the third year since Ralph had first left his game to make a name for himself. That also happened to be the day that Ralph and Sorceress announced that they were now engaged to be married. Turbo was happy for them, but he couldn’t help but think about how in the envelope tucked away in his drawer, Ralph and Sorceress were already married…and the wedding hadn’t gone especially well…
One night, he was laying in bed and tracing patterns in the ceiling as he tried to fall asleep, when he realized with some shock that tomorrow would be his reset day. It had been a full year since he’d first been given the anniversary present. A good, happy year…but had his happiness come at a price? Was his theory about the pages in the envelope really true?
His bedroom door creaked open, leaking a sliver of light from the hallway, and he glitched in shock.
"Sorry, Bo…" A familiar silhouette padded in cautiously. "It’s just me."
He breathed out shakily. “Vanny…?”
Vanellope approached his bed nervously, her slippers and long nightgown whisking against the floor. In her arms, he spotted the lumpy form of Licarizzle, a doll that he’d made her as an impromptu gift. Although she claimed that she was way too old for dolls, she still slept with it every night, and sometimes carried it around when she got nervous.
"What’s wrong?" he asked softly.
She chewed at her lower lip fretfully. “Well…tomorrow is your reset day, and I was just thinkin’ about…your anniversary present.”
“I was, too,” he admitted.
“I feel like maybe somethin’ bad is happening to them…the people on the paper…maybe we could take a look?”
Turbo sighed. “Vanellope…even if something bad is happening to them, what’s the point in looking? It’s not like we could help them. And even if we did, the bad stuff would just happen to us!”
“Please, Turbo? I gotta know…”
And her eyes were so huge and pleading that, of course, he dragged himself over to the dresser and retrieved the envelope.
It was a little worn out around the edges, now, as were some of the pages inside. He had taken to dog-earing the sheets of paper they’d already read, so that he always knew which one was new. He observed that tonight, they had gotten all the way up to their tenth page. Ten pages…one full year…of happiness for him, and of misery for them…
Vanellope settled down beside him, and he began to read.
“Vanellope couldn’t take it anymore. Now that she’d learned that everyone had lied to her about Turbo’s overdose, she felt like she couldn’t trust anyone. But without Felix, her daddy, to help her through things, and without Ralph or Felix to turn to, the terror became more than she could bear.
So she made a deal with the malware. And in the dead of night, she snuck out of the castle, leaving a note for her family to find in the morning. The malware sent one of its watchdogs – the commander of its new army – to take care of her. And she knew it would all be over soon…”
Her breath hitched, and he knew that he was done for tonight.
Sometimes Turbo was afraid that what he knew as reality was really a fabrication. Maybe it was the horrible portrait of his life written down in the anniversary present that was true, and his happiness was just a story composed to make a suicidal, schizophrenic version of himself even slightly happy again. Or maybe both versions of him were real in their own way. Even so, he had always suspected that the parallel universe typed up in the pages was more than just a good luck incantation. The bad things weren’t happening to him…so they had to be happening to somebody.
Turbo looped his arm around his baby sister and held her close, and he didn’t let go of her until morning came and found them safe and sound.
