Tma Pre-s5 - Tumblr Posts

Everyone remember episode 54 where Jon just??? Breaks into???? Gertrude’s flat???? And doesn’t get caught! Waits till he hears the damn sirens before he bails and still! No one noticed him! Where did ol’ Jon learn to do this? Sure, he says getting through the window was difficult but he still broke in through a window. And. Did. Not. Get. Caught. I’m picturing him hauling ass as fast as he can, blind luck getting him away without anyone seeing him, the Eye laughing its eldritch ass off watching him. Elias, high, munching on popcorn and nearly dying choking on the popcorn when Jon tries to hop a fence.

Also picturing little Jon who accidentally got locked out of his grandmother’s. Or maybe it was on purpose. He wouldn’t blame her. And this little Jon learning to climb the wall, pop open the window, and shimmy inside. He can’t hold a pipe for long as an adult but muscle memory carries him through that damn window. Sometimes he wouldn’t even try knocking and he’d climb through the window to find his grandmother home. He’d never ask but he’d wonder if she’d hope he’d just go away if he couldn’t get in.

Ight so remember when I made a post saying Jon’s grandmother might have tried to lock him out? Yeah I still think she probably did but after re-listening to A Guest for Mr. Spider, I have fleshed the idea out more. And it made me sad!

Jon said, “By the time I was eight, the police had had to return me from my explorations at least three times, and my grandmother swore that if it happened again she would begin locking me inside the house. And I fully believed her.”

Well, for one, it doesn’t sound like she went looking for him. Or called the cops herself. I believe they found little Jon, so curious, with more questions than he had room in his body, trespassing where he shouldn’t, searching for answers. Grandmother Sims probably didn’t notice whenever Jon disappeared, most of the time. So yes, sometimes he was locked out by accident. She wouldn’t have checked his room, when he was quiet he wasn’t making trouble so why would she risk breaking that silence by peeking in on him? The first time she had to let him in from locking him out, she was furious. Threatened to lock him in his room. The next time, she did lock him in his room. For a whole day, which drove him almost insane.

So he learned to come in through the window, at first, to make sure he didn’t get caught. After the first time the cops brought him home though, he decided to stop doing that. Jon became quite vigilant about keeping his grandmother informed when he went out. Sometimes he still snuck out, because she’d say no and that wasn’t the answer he wanted, but for the most part he knew she knew when he was out.

Which made finding the door locked a surprise. He knocked but his grandmother didn’t come. He climbed in the window. Grandma Sims was there but he didn’t say a word, chalking it up to her forgetting he’d left and not wanting to risk getting in trouble. Jon just made sure to tell her multiple times the next time he went out.

But it happened again. And again. Twice more after he was brought home by the police again. It didn’t stop until the third time he was brought home. This time, a “neighbor” (they lived on the other side of town) had called the cops because he’d wandered into her yard. Jon’s grandmother threatened to lock him inside. Jon stopped being brought home by the cops. He didn’t entirely stop exploring but he learned not to get caught. And the door was never locked again.

Jon doesn’t think about his grandmother often. He tries not to, not that he’d admit to that. But whenever he does, a part of him wonders. Just as little Jon, a child less than eight, had wondered. Did she lock him out on purpose? And when the door stopped getting locked, by accident or by design, was it because she finally accepted she had to raise him? Was he such a burden that she hoped he would just go away if he couldn’t get in?

But Jon doesn’t think about his grandmother often. So he doesn’t think about that. Or what could have happened to him if he hadn’t learned to climb through the windows, and remembered to keep his bedroom window unlocked.