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Patty loved it when Thomas went to public places like the mall. It meant that he was around a bunch of people, and Patty loved people. Patty also loved people watching, and he got to do a whole lot of that when Thomas went to places like the mall.
People are just so interesting. Everyone is so different, and it shows up in the way they walk and talk and do everything they had to do. Patty wanted to know as much as he could about people and how they worked. He wanted to know what motivated people, how people coped with emotions, how they dealt with their problems. If there was something to know about people, Patty wanted to know about it.
Of course, Patty is only six, so he didn’t completely understand what he wanted to know or what it meant, he just knew that he wanted to know it. He decided to look through all the books Thomas had read to see if he could find anything that would help answer his questions. That search got him nowhere because most first graders don’t read the kind of books Patty was looking for, but he knew that Logie had some books Thomas hadn’t read yet, so he asked him for one. Logie was nice for once and let Patty read one of his books, so Patty went out to the living room to read.
Patty had been settled down for about ten minutes when Thomas decided to do something scary. Whenever Thomas did something scary, Fears popped up where Patty was to try and get Thomas to stop doing the scary thing.
Fears ran over to Patty and jumped onto the couch.
“Thomas is climbing a tree!” Fears exclaimed.
Patty looked up from his book. “He likes climbing trees.”
“Yeah, but what if he falls? What if he goes too high? What if his brothers leave him up in the tree all alone and he’s stuck there? So many things could happen!” Fears said, getting himself even more freaked out than when he first popped up.
“I don’t think that’s gonna happen, Fears. It didn’t happen the last time Thomas climbed a tree,” Patty replied.
“I guess, but anything can happen. High places are scary!” Fears stated.
“Yeah. Maybe Thomas should get down soon,” Patty said.
Fears nodded his head vigorously. “Yes, yes, yes!”
“Okay, I think Logie will get him down. He was having so much fun though,” Patty said, looking up at Fears.
“Fun things are scary things, I told you that so many times,” Fears replied.
“I know,” Patty responded sadly, focusing back on his book. He thought that Fears would feel better and go away, but Thomas hadn’t climbed down the tree, so he was still there.
Fears looked at the book Patty was reading. “What’s that all about?”
“It’s about how people work! Logie let me read his book so I can learn more. I want to know all about people, they’re just so cool,” Patty explained.
“People are scary though,” Fears replied.
“I don’t think so,” Patty said.
“You don’t know them like I do. They can do bad things to Thomas. I don’t want bad things to happen to Thomas,” Fears explained.
“Yeah, but people can be super nice and fun! I want Thomas to meet lots of nice people so he can have lots of friends. I think Thomas should have lots of friends, don’t you?” Patty asked.
“There’s still lots of scary people. Don’t you remember the stranger danger guy who came to school last week?” Fears replied.
“People can still be nice and fun,” Patty said.
“People can still be scary,” Fears stated.
“Whatever. I’m gonna read my book. You can stay if you want. I don’t care,” Patty replied, going back to his book and shutting Fears out.
Fears was a bit confused. Out of all the Sides that lived in this part of Thomas’s mind, Patty was always the nicest to him and he would always talk to him. He guessed that Patty did talk to him, but it wasn’t like it normally was. Fears decided it wasn’t his problem and went back to where he lived with Lies and Remus. He had to make sure Thomas got down from that tree.
Patty felt Fears leave. He really didn’t like him. Fears just didn’t understand how fun life could be and he always wanted to stop Thomas from doing things he liked. Fears is scared of everything and he’s the reason Thomas is scared of a lot of things, but Patty didn’t understand why Thomas needed to be scared of anything.
One thing Patty did think is that maybe he should have been nicer to Fears. Maybe if he was nice to Fears, he wouldn’t be so scary and make Thomas scared of things. That would be a good thing. Patty decided he was going to try and remember to do that. After all, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.