Hobbit_Ficathon Challenge - A Hobbit moving into or out of somewhere.

“Frodo’s Room”

Esmeralda Brandybuck watched as her young son struggled with the large, heavy box. Her eight-year-old was pulling and tugging for all he was worth and the box was moving slowly down the hallway.

“Merry,” Esmeralda called out. “Do you need some help with that, dearest?”

Merry straightened up and looked at her, sweat dripping down his face. “No thanks, mum. I have it,” he panted.

She approached him and looked down into the large wooden box. “It looks very heavy and you have a great many things in there,” Esmeralda observed. “Are you sure that you don’t need a bit of help? I could push while you pull.”

He wiped a sleeve across his face and smiled at her. “All right,” he agreed, bending back down and tugging on the box.

She quickly stooped over and began to push. “It was a very good idea to place a sheet underneath the box, Merry. It makes it slide much easier,” she said, knowing that the sheet would be almost impossible to clean after this, but admiring his ingenuity. Merry was a very bright child and he had always been very clever when it came to figuring out how to do things. She supposed that all of the time he had spent with his older cousin, Frodo had been partly responsible for this, but problem solving seemed to come naturally to her Merry.

“I thought it would help a bit and it does,” Merry said, looking at her smiling, his face red with his efforts to move the heavy box.

“Merry, where are we taking this?” Esmeralda asked.

“To my new room,” Merry said and stood up suddenly. He pointed to the open door. “Right here!”

Esmeralda straightened up and peered into the familiar room and then frowned over at Merry. “That is Frodo’s room, Merry,” she said.

Ignoring her, Merry picked up a wooden boat from his box of items and walked into the room. “I will need to move some of this old junk that he left in here, but after that, I will be able to unpack.” He stood looking around the room that he had spent so much time in over the years and frowned. “I hope he emptied the drawers because I have lots of things.”

Sighing, Esmeralda followed him into the room and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Merry, I know that you will miss Frodo very much, but this is still his room,” she said, softly.

“I won’t miss him and if he wants to live at Bag End with Bilbo, then this is my room now,” Merry said, not looking at her. “Let him go there. I don’t care if he does.”

Esmeralda could hear the hurt in her son’s voice. She should have expected something like this to happen. Frodo had been gone for three days now and Merry had been miserable the entire time. Nothing seemed to cheer him. “Darling, you have a lovely room and in fact, it is much bigger than this one,” Esmeralda said.

Merry turned and glared at her. “It’s a baby room and I’m eight now. This room is for an older lad and now that I’m older this should be my room. Frodo doesn’t want it anymore.” He stomped his foot and went over to set the boat on the dresser. “There! My boat looks just fine in here. It looks better than all of Frodo’s old raggedy books and junk,” he declared.

“Merry,” Esmeralda sighed. “I thought we might keep this room as it is, so that when Frodo visits he can sleep in here. He will be coming to visit us often, you know?”

“Then he can sleep in one of the guest rooms,” Merry said. “He doesn’t live here anymore. This is my room now.” Merry went into the hall and got several more toys out of the box and sat them next to the boat on the dresser while Esmeralda watched, trying to figure out the proper thing to say. “Merry, I know that you are angry with Frodo for leaving, but he did try to explain things to you when he said goodbye,” she said. “I thought you understood everything.”

“I understand,” Merry said. “He wants to live with Bilbo and so he left us.” He stalked back into the hall for another load of items.

“Merry, you aren’t being fair about this,” Esmeralda said, gently. “Come over here and sit down next to me.”

Merry piled his load of toys on the floor and joined her, sitting very stiffly as if daring her to touch him. He didn’t want to be babied just now. He was angry.

She respected his wishes and sat still looking at him. “You said that you were older now and that was why you needed to move into this room,” she said. “Well, if you are older then it is time that you try to understand that the folks that we love can’t always be with us. I know that you love Frodo very much.”

Merry looked down at his lap and said, “I don’t love him and he doesn’t love me. If he did love me, then he would have stayed here. We’re his family, not Bilbo.”

“He does love you very much and we are his family, but Bilbo is his family too,” Esmeralda said.

“Then he loves Bilbo more than he loves me,” Merry said, wiping his eyes on his sleeve and trying not to let his mum know that he was crying a little bit.

“Merry, darling, Frodo doesn’t love anyone more than he loves you,” Esmeralda said. “You are the most important hobbit in all of the Shire to Frodo.”

Merry looked at her with tears streaming down his face and asked, “Then why did he leave me?”

She held out her arms and he quickly lunged into them, burying his face in her shoulder and climbing into her lap. “He didn’t leave you, Merry. He left Buckland,” she said, rubbing his back. “He needed to live somewhere different for a while. Sometimes being here makes him sad. He has too many memories of his parents here.”

“It makes me sad for him to be with Bilbo,” Merry sniffled. “I need him here.”

She hugged him tightly. “I know you do, but for now, Frodo needs to be in Hobbiton with Bilbo.”

“Then I need to go to Hobbiton too,” Merry said, raising up and looking at her with red-rimmed eyes. “I need to go live with Frodo. Bilbo won’t mind if I do. He likes me and he says I’m a fine young lad.”

“Well, I suppose that you could do that,” Esmeralda said, slowly. “That might solve your problem and then you could be with Frodo.”

Merry brightened a bit. “I have some of my stuff packed and I could get more boxes and you could help me,” Merry said. “Then you could keep this room for Frodo when he visits and keep mine for me.”

Esmeralda nodded and looked at Merry sadly. “If that is what you want then I suppose we could do that,” she said, looking down.

“Mum? What’s that matter?” Merry asked, hugging her tightly. “You look sad too now.”

“Well, I suppose you know how that feels, don’t you?” Esmeralda said. “I feel sad because you would rather live with Frodo than stay here with your father and me.”

Merry’s eyes widened and he hugged her even tighter. “You could come too!” he said, tears threatening again.

“No, Merry, your father and I have to stay here,” she said. “Your father is the Master of Buckland and he can’t simply leave and go to Hobbiton to live with Bilbo. Besides, Bilbo has room for you, I am sure, but I don’t think he’d have enough room for all of us to move in with him. We have too many things. Your father and I will have to stay behind.” She pulled him back and looked into his serious, grey eyes. “I will miss you very much,” she said.

Merry’s lower lip trembled and he said, “I don’t want to go away if you and papa can’t come too.”

“Well, I know how much you love Frodo and how lonely you’ve been without him,” Esmeralda said. “I want you to be happy, Merry. If you aren’t happy here, then I understand.”

“I wish Frodo would just come back here,” Merry said. “He could bring Bilbo too. We have plenty of room and then we could all be together.”

“Merry, if Frodo could have stayed with us, he would have,” Esmeralda said. “He didn’t leave you behind because he doesn’t love you. He left you behind because he knows that your father and I need you here with us. Frodo needs to be somewhere away from his memories of his parents and to get to know his cousin Bilbo a little better. Frodo knows us and we are his mum’s family, but he doesn’t know many of his Baggins relations very well. Frodo is growing up and he needs to be able to do that without thinking about his parents all of the time. It makes him very sad, Merry. He lost them when he was very young.”

“I know,” Merry said, softly. He put his hand into his mother’s hand and held on tightly. “Do you think Frodo misses me?”

“Of course he does,” Esmeralda said. “He misses you and as soon as he has settled in at Bag End, he wants you to visit him. He told you that. Don’t’ you remember?”

Merry nodded. “It seems so lonely without him here.”

“It will take you some time to get used to it,” Esmeralda said. “Unless of course, you are truly moving to Bag End to be with him.”

Just then, Saradoc came into the room. “Is someone moving? There is a great big box in the hall filled with all of Merry’s things.” He looked over at his wife and son and then said, “Oh, there you are, Merry. These are your things in the hall aren’t they?”

“Yes,” Merry mumbled.

Saradoc looked at his wife and waited. Something was going on and he wasn’t quite sure what it might be.

“Merry was thinking of moving into Frodo’s room, but now, I believe that he has decided to move to Bag End and live with Frodo and Bilbo,” Esmeralda said.

“I see,” Saradoc said, looking down at Merry. “So you’ve decided to leave us too, have you?”

Merry stood up still holding his mother’s hand tightly and said, “No, I changed my mind. Mum needs me here.”

“Well, that’s very true,” Saradoc said, smiling at his son. “And I need you here too, you know. Who am I going to go fishing with if you leave? And who will help with the ponies and the rest of the animals. But most importantly, who will be the next Master of Buckland if you go off to Hobbiton?”

Merry let go of his mother’s hand and rushed over leaping up so that his father had to catch him and pull him into his arms. “I want to stay with you and mum. I’m not like Frodo. I have my parents and I want to stay with you both,” he said, hugging his father tightly.

“Well, we want you to stay with us,” Saradoc said with a smile at Esmeralda who was smiling back.

“It must be awful for Frodo not to have his parents anymore,” Merry said, laying his head on his father’s shoulder.

“I am sure that it is,” Saradoc said.

“That is why he left us,” Merry said, suddenly understanding everything.

“It is indeed,” Saradoc said, giving Merry a hug. “Now, are you moving in here since you aren’t moving to Bag End?’

“I think I will keep my same room and let this one be for Frodo when he comes to visit like mum said,” Merry said.

“That is a good idea,” Saradoc said.

‘Mum thought of it,” Merry said.

“Your mother is a very smart hobbit,” Saradoc said, with a wink at Esmeralda. “And you are a very smart little lad, Merry.”

“There is only this one problem,” Merry said, lifting his head and looking up at his father.

“What might that be,” Saradoc asked.

“Well, I may need some help moving my things back to my room,” Merry said. “I’m kinda tired now and I don’t think that mum and me can move the heavy box anymore.”

Saradoc smiled. “Moving is very hard work. Why don’t you go into the kitchen with your mum and have a snack and I will move your things back into your room for you. After all, you and your mum are the brains in the family and I am the muscle.” He sat Merry down and Esmeralda came over and took her son’s hand.

“Let’s see if there are any strawberry scones left, shall we,” she asked, smiling down at him. He grinned up at her and they left for the kitchen.

The End

G.W. 05/21/2005