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Oh, and he didn't think this would result in a Tangent?
 (From Todd and Penguin. Click on image to see full-sized image.)
There comes a time and day when we have to move away. Friends are not friends forever, no matter what we might hope or dream as children. Todd and Penguin has already done this before, when Sally moved away with her family, leaving Penguin without his best friend... but still with his other friends in the area.
Recently, though, Todd has found out he has to move. He can't afford to live in town anymore, and his fiancée is reluctant to move in with him until they're married. (Nor does she want to rush the wedding, which makes a certain sense. After all, this is the most important day of her life (to date), and no doubt she wants it to be perfect. Not just rushed or some such.)
This is affecting both Penguin and Jessika, who sort of became the friend that Sally had been before now. It would be too much to ask that when Todd moves, that they end up near where Sally is, even if we miss her. *wry smile* But Penguin, our eternal child... is affected even more this time. He's leaving all of his friends behind.
This includes Jessika, who's not a nice person. She's manipulative, she can be cruel, and she just caused a teacher to quit by writing a sarcastic essay about what teaching often becomes. (Oh, like you didn't think I'd tangent this puppy, David? I am studying to be a teacher after all! *grin*) And look at that little smile in the final panel. I mean, she seems happy that she got a teacher to quit.
Do they truly become so cynical so quickly? *sigh*
I wonder if Penguin might not be better off away from Jessika. Think of it... no parent wants their child to associate with bullies or cruel people. They're afraid of how that child will treat theirs... or worse, that their child might start to become cruel and manipulative in mimicry of their friend. Yet Penguin has a special innocence to him that seems beyond such pettiness. Sure, he's gotten into prank-wars with his owner Todd... but he seems entirely too nice to start mimicking Jessika's cruelty.
And Jessika... she knows that Penguin is her only friend. (What has turned her against so many people? We've not seen her parents... all we really know is that her parents had a nasty divorce.) We also can guess that Jessika doesn't think highly of herself. She's even confrontational around her peers, children who might be friends if she just tried.
Perhaps... we hope that some of Penguin will rub off on Jessika. That maybe she can regain her childhood, her happiness. I don't know. But there's something sad about that happy little smile on Jessika's face, knowing that another teacher quit. Teaching is often an aspiration, a dream. We don't do it for the money. If you think of all the education it takes to become a teacher these days... no, it's definitely not for the money.
Another dream lost. And a little girl smiles because of it. And we, along with Penguin, lean back and look at her and wonder "why" (well, either that or Penguin is thinking "does she have another cookie as well?" but that's because he likes cookies *grin*).
Robert A. Howard
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