Cherry Darling was cross eyed with frustration.  She'd been staring at a blank piece of paper for hours and had done nothing more than type a single word on the page.  "Boxing."  With a fatalistic sigh she ripped the sheet out of the rollers and crumpled it.  After an agonizing throw and a miss she got up and scooped up the wadded ball and tossed it into the dust bin.  She heaved a heavy sigh and poured herself a fresh cup of coffee.  It tasted disgusting. She frowned and decided to call her best friend CharlieCrickets to ask her to pick up some fresh grounds when she heard pounding on her door.  She dropped the receiver and dashed to her desk, frantically digging through her top drawer for her derringer.  Before she could find it the door splintered off the hinges and Cherry grabbed her heavy typewriter and threw it without looking. 

"Bitch!" came a growling voice.  

Cherry was now under her desk, still without a weapon.  She knew her shotgun was leaning against the wall near the window, but she didn't know if she could get it in time.  She heard heavy footsteps approaching her, but was baffled when they stopped.  Whoever had come in was either blind or screwing with her.  

"I only want one thing Cherry.  Ham gave it to you before he died.  Give it up and we'll be square. Got it?" 

Cherry chose not to respond, mostly because she couldn't possibly imagine what Ham could have given her that would be sought after like this.  She inched forward trying to disentangle herself from the desk chair, hoping to reach anything she could use as a weapon when she heard another, much more familiar voice.

“Yoo-hoo!”

Charlie shook the bag of sugared donuts she’d bought at her favorite cafe, hoping to lure Cherry out. Girl hadn’t responded when she’d knocked on the front door so of course Charlie had used the spare key to come in. Her cheerful greeting was stopped short by the site of the back door flung open and a rather intimidating man towering over her friends desk. 
 

“S’cuse me, I didn’t mean to interrupt this lovely moment but uh, that’s no way to open a door.”

Bold as ever she put the donuts on the edge of the desk and worked her way in between the hulking man and the desk without batting an eye. The thug was taken aback and growled, his hand reaching into his coat for his gun. Charlie was faster however and her revolver was out in a flash with the hammer already cocked and ready to go. 
 

“Easy fella, why don’t you put some distance between lucky and me before you find out why he’s called that.”

"Great" Cherry muttered to herself. She took the opportunity Charlie had provided her and stood up, lunging for her shotgun. Her best friend didn't even flinch, keeping her eyes, and her gun on the man before them.  He hesitated, then grabbed at Charlie, aiming for her gun.  Cherry used her shotgun as a bludgeon and nearly knocked the thug's head off.  Charlie kicked him in both knees on the way down, then turned to her friend. 

"Is it time to move again?"  

Cherry nodded and grabbed the bag of donuts. "It's past time to move.  Now find the phone, I knocked it off of the desk, and call Charles. He'll help us with this guy." 

"Is he dead?"  Charlie found both parts of the phone and set it back on the desk. 

"Unfortunately no, which means Charles is going to have to take care of him.  I don't mind moving a body, but I'm not taking care of a fully grown man who's merely had the sense knocked out of him, besides, Charles might get some information from him.  Like why this is the third time this has happened, and what they're all talking about?" 

Charlie made a call while Cherry packed a few essentials into a wicker basket and placed her beloved teddy bear on the top.  

"Can't forget Henri!" She said.  Charlie laughed and snuggled the bear for a minute. 

"I remember when Ham gave you Henri.  You were so excited and you wanted to name him something sophisticated!"  She grinned and placed the bear back in the basket. 

"Henri was a gift to Hamish from his long time pen pal Naomi!  They wrote letters for years before she died.  Ham never really got over her death, I think he gave me Henri because it hurt too much.  But I was young and had no idea!"  She smiled wistfully and looked at Charlie.

"All right," Charlie said. "Charles is on his way, you're packed and I have the donuts.  Let's get out of here!" 

Charles, the short, round, and slightly stuffy chauffeur and bodyguard arrived in an older model Bentley. He thumbed the girls over to the car, reaching into his pocket to check his weapon before heading off towards Cherry’s flat. A few moments later he returned and slid into the front seat of his car, turning over the engine so that it purred to life. He said nothing but motioned for a donut, and drove away.

a few weeks later, Charlie sniffer, wiping her nose from the blood clot that had formed after Elaine had sucker punched her at lunch. Of course she’d been blamed for the fight and suspended for a day so after school she’d caught up to Elaine and given her a black eye. Might as well make the suspension worth it. She wasn’t ready to go home yet as her older brother was in town trying to act like he had t just come off 18 months in jail for tax evasion. He’d made the house unbearable and even her dad was getting sick of him. She knocked on Cherry’s door at her new flat and waited for her cousin to answer. She could hear Cherry’s cat peeping at her and a soft scuffle and “SHOO!” Later, Cherry answered. Charlie sidestepped in and went straight to the kitchen to fix herself a cup of coffee before pulling down in a chair.

”You got a wet rag? I gotta clean my nose off. Also why does it smell like Petey was here? Ugh his hair oil is so offensive, it’s not a good look! Did he stop by to bother you for money again? Pops said no cause he’s fresh outta the big house and thinks he’s all that. Give him a couple weeks and he’ll be singing the jailhouse blues again. Anyway, Elaine is such a spoiled brat! She punched me cause her boyfriend of five weeks is my lab partner and thought we were makin out. No he’s just too stupid to understand how to stain an onion skin slide. Anyway where’s Henri I wanna give him a hug. He always makes me feel better.”

Cherry got Charlie a wet wash rag and laughed a little at her cousin's trouble.  

"Listen, as much of a gas as it is hearin' about your escapades I have to nag you a little you know, as the older cousin.  You can't just go around punching people.  Even if they decked you first!"  She frowned at the mention of Pete.  "What an ass!" She said aloud.  Charlie cocked her head and Cherry clarified.  "Oh, that idiot older brother of yours has always had it in his head that I owed him for all of the times he got me out of trouble.  Except it was him who got me into the trouble in the first place!  I'll tell you what, I haven't seen him, but if he comes around I'll- I'll- Well! I'll punch him!"  She mimed giving a fierce uppercut and Charlie exploded into a peel of laughter, tipping her coffee cup in the process. 

"Wait, what did you just say to me?"  Cherry stuck her tongue out at her younger cousin and bent to wipe up the spill.  "Now, can I hug Henri or not?"  Cherry shook her head and poured herself a cup of coffee.  

"After I get a few sips of the joe myself, then Henri is all yours."  She stirred in some milk and took a big swallow of the hot beverage, wincing as she did.  "Actually, did you know Henri was named Hans when I got him?  I thought it sounded too much like 'hands' and it kind of creeped me out, so pop said I could rename him and that's how he got his name!"  She polished off her cup in one final gulp and bellowed in a mix of pain and bravado. "That was good!  Ok, you tidy up the cups and I'll get Henri." 

Cherry was only gone a few minutes but when she returned she looked perturbed. 

"Charlie, is this a joke?"  Charlie looked up from the dishes and frowned.  

"Is what a joke?"  Cherry shrugged and left the kitchen, returning after another couple of minutes. 

"I'm serious Charls. Are you playing a game?"  Charlie set the last teacup down with a clatter and glared at Cherry. 

"Now you're just winding me up for no reason!  I'm not playing any kind of game, whatever are you talking about?"  

Cherry sighed and began to look worried. 

"It's Henri.  Henri is missing!" 

"Missing? What do you mean missing he was here just the other day!" 

Charlie got up and looked around for the familiar stuffed bear. He was scratchy and harder than a rock half the time but he was lovable and comforting and always present. The two girls began their search in earnest, turning out the obvious places first before looking in the more obscure places. An hour of fruitless searching had failed to produce the bear and the uneasy feeling that Charlie had about her brother was becoming more plausible. 

Across town, her redheaded cad of an older brother was plucking apart the stiff threads of the many repairs done by his mother years previous. The bear had been sewn up, restuffed, and repaired many times since he had come to Ham and their father, Honey. The thing was a testament to indomitable will and expert sewing but if his hunch was correct, the mohair bear held onto more than sawdust and compacted cotton fluff. 

Back at Cherry's apartment, both girls were holding back a mix of anger and hysterics over a missing bear. Tears formed in Charlie's eyes and Cherry's face was red with frustration as she stabbed her counter with a butter knife. She gritted her teeth before turning to her cousin. 

"We gotta get him back Charlie. If you're right and Petey has him, he's a dead man."

After the girls cooled down Cherry pulled out a notepad and began scrawling. She ripped off the note and crammed it in an envelope.  

"Listen, if Petey's in on this I'm gonna feel really weird beating the shit out of my own cousin." She frowned.  "I'm going to ask for help outside the family.  Afterall, blood is thicker than water and he's your brother and all."  She shrugged on her jacket and grabbed the note.  "If Petey found out where I live, so will those thugs that've been chasing me for..." She stopped dead in her tracks. She felt cold prickles run the length of her body, her forehead and face a tingling mask of disbelief. 

"Henri.  They want Henri.  That's the only physical thing Ham gave me before he died.  Sure I inherited a lot after he was killed, but Henri is the only..." She trailed off.  "We need to get of of town.  Now." 

"Where are we gonna go?"

Charlie hopped off the counter where she'd perched and grabbed for her coat. The look on Cherry's face meant business and she wasn't sure if she'd even have time to grab anything besides the clothes she was wearing. 

"Do I have time to go home or is this a get the hell outta town right now sort of thing? What about school? What about my dad?"

There really wasn't time for a satisfactory answer as the girls loaded what little they had into Cherry's car and left. After more than an hour on the road they finally pulled into a small rest stop to get some coffee and pie at a diner. They sat down and stared at each other in bewildered silence much like their terse car ride. Once the hot pie arrived, topped with melting vanilla ice cream, Charlie finally broke the silence. 

"So what are we gonna do? Are we gonna try to go after Petey? Are we gonna get Da' involved? I mean he WAS Ham's brother." 

She trailed off and took a long sip of coffee, awaiting Cherry's reply.