The Mick – The Fire

By starrymag | January 28, 2017

By: Colton Newman

 

It’s early in the morning and Sabrina (Sofia Black-D’Elia) is reading the newspaper and smoking in the kitchen. Mackenzie (Kaitlin Olson) joins her in the kitchen and moves to pour herself a cup of coffee when she notices the pot is empty. She already knows Sabrina is to blame for drinking her coffee. Sabrina’s only excuse is, “I like coffee when I smoke.” To this Mackenzie states, “So do I, so does everyone!” Annoyed, she quickly thinks up a plan to get back at Sabrina. Mackenzie reaches over and grabs Sabrina’s cup of coffee and chugs it down, holding back tears from how hot it was yet she confidently looks at Sabrina as if she’s proved her point. Just then the front door rings and Mackenzie rushes off.

 

At the front door is Ben (Jack Stanton) being escorted by their neighbor Liz (Susan Park). Mackenzie is a little less than thrilled by her visit. Liz blurts out that Ben was video taping her in the shower. Ben says Omicron (Kevin Will) made him do it. Everyone looks a bit concerned at this response, but Mackenzie blows it off as Ben’s imaginary friend. Once Ben is inside, Mackenzie more or less slams the door in Liz’s face.   Sabrina and Mackenzie look down to Ben and ask if he would like to spend time with real people and not Omicron. Ben ignores the question and Mackenzie says to go up stairs to his room. Ben turns to leave and they see him holding a pack of cigarettes. Mackenzie stops him and asks what they are for? Ben says he’s giving them to Omicron. Shocked at this, Mackenzie takes them away and sends Ben to his room.

 

Later that night, Chip (Thomas Barbusca) and Alba (Carla Jimenez) have sat Mackenzie and Sabrina down for an intervention. Chip talks down to Sabrina and Mackenzie and explains that he is disgusted that they are both smoking. As the conversation turns toward Ben’s strange behavior, Chip states that he is going to have to stand up and be a positive roll model for Ben because no one else is. Mackenzie is getting a bit anxious so she gets up to go smoke outside with Sabrina. Alba steps in front of them and says they have a problem. They ignore her and say that she doesn’t know what they’re going through, to this Alba pulls down her shirt a bit to reveal a nicotine patch. Shocked, Sabrina asks if Alba smoked. Alba, for a minute reliving her childhood, tells them that she has smoked since she was four years old. This takes Sabrina and Mackenzie aback and they agree to try the nicotine patches for Ben’s sake.

 

Upstairs in Ben’s room he is coloring when Sabrina and Mackenzie come in to talk to him. Realizing that they haven’t been putting on the best example for him they explain all the bad things that will happen to your life and your body if you smoke. Ben seems to understand what they are saying and as Sabrina and Mackenzie are leaving, Ben asks if he can still be friends with Omicron. Mackenzie, seeing no problem with Ben having an imaginary friend, says sure.

 

After leaving Ben’s room, Sabrina and Mackenzie both agree that they’ve been looking for a reason to quit smoking and this is it. They part at their bedrooms with a hopeful look at their future. It doesn’t last the night though because only a few hours later Mackenzie finds Sabrina smoking outside. She calls her out for being weak just when Sabrina points out that Mackenzie is also outside to smoke. They agree that they are outside to have just one last one. An hour or so passes and Mackenzie and Sabrina are still outside smoking and gossiping like a few line cooks on a smoke break. Mackenzie is telling a story about being drunk on cat morphine that she got from her sister (Sabrina’s mom). Just when Sabrina and Mackenzie are starting to get along they run out of cigarettes and head off to bed.

 

The next day Chip is getting ready to teach Ben how to ride a bike. Ben seems a bit uninterested as he asks when he can go back to be with Omicron. Chip says he already chatted with Omicron and he says that it’s ok for Ben to stay. Ben points out that it’s weird for him to say that because Omicron hates Chip. Chip, strangely offended by an imaginary friend not liking him, goes on to describe what he would do if he met Omicron, such as slapping him. Chip goes back to teaching Ben to ride a bike and sends him off down a road. Ben seems to be doing fine until he hits a gate and is flown into the air where lands like crash test dummy on the pavement. Chip begins to panic as he thinks he’s just killed his brother.

 

Mackenzie and Sabrina are on a jog back home when they come across a few fire trucks outside of Liz’s home. They approach a firefighter and ask what happened. He explains that the guesthouse caught fire. Mackenzie and Sabrina realize that they caused the fire by flicking cigarette butts over in to their neighbor’s yard. They try to casually walk away when Liz catches sight of them. She says that she knows Ben was the one who started the fire, and that he’s going down for it.

 

Back home now, Chip is putting bandages on Ben’s cuts. Chip has used all the bandages in Alba’s first aid kit. Ben looks dazed, but says he’s feeling better already.

 

Finished with their jog, Sabrina and Mackenzie are arguing about how they are getting more and more stressed. Sabrina realizes it’s because she hasn’t had a cigarette in awhile. Alba breaks up the conversation when she comes up to let them know a fire investigator (Rodney J. Hobbs) is there to talk to Ben. Sabrina and Mackenzie lead the fire investigator upstairs to talk to Ben. Mackenzie opens Bens door to find him sitting on a bed watching a static TV (Yes, like a horror movie!). Mackenzie turns on his room lights and Ben turns toward her. The fire investigator sees the bloody scrapes all over his face and Ben says he got them from riding his bike. The fire investigator steps forward to introduce himself as a fire investigator to Ben. Ben, happy, jumps up to this and moves closer saying “Cool, I love fire!” Mackenzie already knows this is not going well. Ben explains that the neighbor lady messed up Ben’s plans to see Omicron. The fire investigator probes into this Omicron guy a bit more when things take a dark turn. Ben says in a demonic voice that Omicron won’t be happy and that he will “…tear the heart out of that woman if she messes with Ben!” The fire investigator has seen enough. He gets up to leave as Mackenzie follows after trying to save what’s left of Ben’s innocence. Outside of Ben’s room, the fire investigator stops Mackenzie and confesses to her that he is without a doubt positive that Ben started the fire in the neighbors guesthouse.

 

Mackenzie and Sabrina rush into the bathroom together in a frantic panic. They turn on the shower, open the window, put on robes and cover the door edges in towels. They each light up a cigarette and try and figure out who should take the fall for the fire, Mackenzie or Sabrina? Mackenzie states it was probably Sabrina’s cigarette that started the fire because she throws away full cherries where Mackenzie smokes her down to the filter like an American! As both of them have had a drag from their cigarettes they appear calmer now. Mackenzie has the idea “why not let Ben take the fall for it?” Sabrina, calmer now, agrees with Mackenzie about letting Ben take the fall. Just as they come to that conclusion, Alba busts open the door to find them both smoking. Alba asks why aren’t they using the patches and to Alba’s shock both Mackenzie and Sabrina are wearing them and smoking!

 

Downstairs Chip finds Ben getting ready to leave to go be with Omicron in the woods. Ben is acting strange (stranger than normal). Ben walks by Chip with a bag of stuff and a hammer, Chip is concerned.

 

Back in the bathroom Alba has given in and is now smoking with Mackenzie and Sabrina. Chip comes in and is disgusted to find that they are all smoking. He moves past that to let them know that they need to help Ben because he is losing his mind. They all get ready to go help Ben, except Alba she stays in the tub smoking.

 

Chip, Mackenzie and Sabrina are now out in the woods trying to find Ben. They come across his tree house and climb up the ladder to find Ben sitting on the floor hitting a stuffed unicorn with a hammer. Mackenzie asks what Ben is doing and he responds that he is hanging out with Omicron. Mackenzie says that’s why they’re there they need to talk about this Omicron guy. To this, an old man rushes out from behind some sheets that were hanging up and scares everyone but Ben.

 

As everyone has calmed down, Mackenzie and the gang are sitting across from the old man named Chester Omicron. He has a hole in his throat and has to uses an electro larynx to speak. This is why Ben says he sounds like a robot. Chip points out that he is wearing one of his dad’s coats. This is where Ben has been bringing all the stuff he’s been taking from the house. Chester explains that he came to the wood to smoke himself to death after he found out he had lung cancer. This is where Ben found him and made friends with him. Chester points out that Ben has been neglected; he pulls a nicotine patch off of Ben’s leg to make a point. These were the “Band-Aids” out of Albas first aid bag, now they know why Ben has been acting weird lately. Chester says Ben saved his life and that he would do anything to repay him. Mackenzie gets an idea.

 

Mackenzie and the kids pull up to Liz’s house with Chester in the passenger seat. He says his farewells to Ben and lights up a cigarette as he leaves the car. Chester walks up to Liz’s front door and goes inside. Mackenzie is letting him take the fall for starting the fire in Liz’s guesthouse. Mackenzie and Sabrina have seen what they could become if they keep smoking and they probably won’t smoke again. But the jury’s still out on Alba though.