Snerol was afraid of everything. He was tall, but he had those eyes that always looked as though they were peering up at you. He was a people watcher, not out of curiosity so much, mostly he just wanted to know which of the people nearby should be avoided. He liked to make lists, always good to have his priorities straight. He could never quite tell whether he should be grateful or not that Nodnarb had decided to befriend him. 

That little switch we all have that tells us to say when something unjust happens, have you ever had it switch and waited long enough out of fear to allow the solution to resolve and realised that the perceived unjustice was simply a misunderstanding? Nodnarb was the speediest of us all when that switch flips. He knew it too. It drove him mad. He would walk around just hoping that nothing would happen to make it go off. 
It was worse for Nodnarb because he’d get all big when the switch flipped. His whole neck and belly would swell huge when it happened. He knew that Snerol hated it. That was the worst of it. All told, Snerol was desperate for two things, to be hidden and known. Nodnarb helped with the second part, but not the first.

Nodnarb would always walk around in front of Snerol and people would stare at him because of all the times he’d got all big and occassionally try to provoke him. But he did his breaths and kept that neck down. It was worse for Snerol because he was taller than Nodnarb, and so when people looked at him, Snerol was the next thing to look at. Like anyone, Snerol did his best people-watching when people weren’t watching, so he couldn’t make his lists. I say lists, it’s a ledger. Its the safe/not safe ledger. You can put someone on the safe side only once you have observed them without them knowing they have been observed. That’s why science is so hard. 

Even if you were fortunate enough to not need a safe ledger, everyone would still keep Rednaz at the top of the not safe side. He did his work with words. He could never have matched Snerol physically, but he knew just the words to throw. More importantly, he knew that the words themselves didn’t matter, it was the attention. A couple words about Snerol’s awkward gait was like hurling 50 eyeballs his way, a fistful of hot marbles. He had no problem with how he walked, he had a problem with people watching him walk.

Right on cue, Rednaz thought, Nodnarb will make everything worse.

“There’s nothing wrong with how he wa-a-a-l-k-ks!” Of course his neck started. He’d stopped it once but had never figured out how, it was bulging now. The stomach was going too. Snerol moved aside, he was really flaring up this time. His neck looked big and sore. Snerol always thought how painful it looked when this happened. His eyes in particular, they’d fill and only the thrust of his neck holding his head back kept them from streaming. Nodnarb didn’t mind being looked at except when he was like this. Rednaz was already long gone, he’d seen this show a hundred times, but he knew the pair of them would still have an audience.

Nodnarb and Snerol moved through to Mrs Greene’s room. The room was usually free and typically the best spot to bring that neck down. It took ten minutes and a cup of Rooibos tea before the two of them were sitting face to face properly again. 

“Why do you always do that?” asked Snerol.
“Don’t ask me things you know I don’t have answers for.”
“Well I wish you wouldn’t.”
“You and me both, Snerol.”

Nodnarb was top of Snerol’s safe list, but that didn’t make life with him easy. 

“Does it hurt?”
“The neck?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”