Ch. 57 - I Ain't Gettin' Any Younger

Roderick had managed to bring Kimberly back to life via the body of Aiyana. Most of his kids were off at college, and the rest were growing like weeds. He had officially signed the deed to Ridgeway Estates over to Christopher, who had let his father and family stay there for as long as they wanted. Of course there was that one stipulation that he had to stop having kids in order to make room for the children that Christopher & Willow wanted to have. Although Roderick thought it was a silly thing to ask (there was more than enough room), he agreed. Life seemed to be good for Roderick except for one thing ... Roderick was bored. He started doing things like standing over the gardener pointing out spots on the bushes that needed tending to, and cleaning the same spot on the counters over and over again.


Christopher decided that his father needed a new hobby, and bought him a new workbench thinking his dad could build things like birdhouses and things like that. Instead, Roderick started building robots. So far, they're only little toy robots, but we'll see how fast this Mad Scientist can come up with some new strange type of robot to scare the dickens out of some kid with.

One day, while tinkering with his new robot designs, a thought hit Roderick like a ton of bricks. He was an old man. Certainly he wouldn't be around much longer. Once he crossed over, he'd be right back where he was before - without Kimberly. He had to make a plan so that when he crossed over, Kimberly would come back with him. But ... how?

Roderick decided the best course of action to take was to tell Christopher everything, then teach him how to reverse the RADG machine to send Kimberly's soul back to the afterlife, and Aiyana's back into her body. It was his only shot. He sat down and explained the whole thing to a very shocked Christopher.

"You mean that woman is really ... Mom?", asked Christopher.

"Well. In a nutshell. Yep" answered Roderick.

"Pop," asked Christopher, "are you on any medication I should know about?"

"Very funny, boy. Come upstairs & I'll show you" said Roderick.

Roderick took his son upstairs, and started teaching him the process of soul switching.

"Ok boy, you simply put the thingy in the thingymajigger. Then turn the discombobulator on, but make sure first that the whatsahoozit is turned all the way up. Otherwise the popalopajop will blow a gasket and it'll all be downhill from there", instructed Roderick.

"Pop. These instructions make no sense. There is no such thing as a popalopajop. Are you sure you're not on some kind of dope or something?" enquired Christopher.

"I'll have you know that these are very real terms. I got them out of the Mad Scientist Handbook. Just concentrate on what you're doing boy."

"Once you're done" continues Roderick "a vial of blue liquid will appear in the whozamajigger window. That will be Aiyana - well sort of. Walk her very carefully over to the RADG Part 2 machine, and insert her into the little window marked "Put Souls Here". Then have your mom stand VERY STILL and flip the switch. Ignore the smell of burning hair, it doesn't last long and leaves no mark on the vict...uh...volunteer."

"You mean like this Pop?" says Christopher as he flips the switch.



Roderick lights up like a Christmas Tree. When it was all over and done...


Roderick was not happy.
"NOT ME YOU MORON!" yelled Roderick.
Christopher couldn't help but laugh. "Pop, I think you lost a little hair on that one", he said as he continued to chuckle.


Later as the father and son enjoyed a game together, Christopher asked, "So Pop, how ya feeling?"

"Not funny boy" replied Roderick.

Then he added "One day, I'm going to be dead and I'll make sure that you're the first person I haunt, you little brat."

It felt good for Christopher to have something in his life to laugh about...

<- RODERICK GETS HIS GROOVE ON / WILLOW IS A SLOB ->