Disclaimer: It's Myers, not mine, I give….

Authors Note: To everyone about to embark on this Alice/Jasper tale I would like you to take note….

This story has basically become my little baby. I love it dearly, and I hope you will too. I tried to fit as many original characters into the story as possible, you'll meet them later on. Sorry for putting people in that ya'll don't know of, I hate to do that but, bare with me. I'm going to be switching between POV's, so you can get the full idea of what's going on here.

Genre: Hurt/Comfort and Romance (Tee-hee-hee)

Note: No single character will do all the hurting nor will one do all the comforting, I hate it when that happens! Sometimes you just need to switch roles. (same goes for the Romancing)

History:

I'm writing this story because when I was young I practically grew up (at lease in the summer) in a little place on the outskirts of Wilkes-Barre. Later on we moved, and I haven't gone back since, but there were so many thing that I love about that place. And these daydreams going there kept cropping up. And, of course, I had to throw Alice into my day dreaming somewhere, and where there's an Alice there's a Jasper!!!! )I chose the second place to be in Philly, because I love that city, and it's awesome.)

Happy Reading!!!

APOV:

In the late days of June when the sun was the hottest, and streams bubbled over their shores, the letter came. It was a letter that tore my life apart and rebuilt it in the same rough, but strangely comforting stroke; it brought me closer to them, and him, and my future family. But it lost me so much too.

~****~

I lived on the southern end of Nanticoke, by the fifth fire engine station just off of Mary-Ann Street. I was the twenty-fourth house on Elis, the only one on the block with lime green shutters, in fact, we were the only ones to ever have lime shutters in Nanticoke, period.

If you were to ask some one from the area who lived there, or how many kids the parents had, or their jobs, or education, anyone could tell you. It wasn't because I lived in a big fancy house, or we had a lot of money (because we definitely didn't), or the neighbors were really nosy, or anything of that sort; it was just because they knew. Everyone knew everyone else and everyone liked everyone else; or a least they tried to. We all just had to stick together, times could be though, and, to be honest, it wasn't much of a town to start with but we held strong, glued together with familiarity and Ms. Hemper's seasonal fruitcake.

When I was young, I was involved in a terrible horseback riding accident. The horse had a rare condition, heart problems I think. It had keeled over dead, and pinned me to the ground underneath it during a ride. I have no memories of the incident or any memories prior to the date. The head trauma left me def and blind for some time afterwards, too. It stole every thing my mind had saved, wiping my head blank of anything and everything. Though, it is getting better, bits and pieces fall into place every now and then, and I have relearned to read and write. But I still can't make much out of all the memories.

My mother and father, from what I can gather, took me back to our home after I was allowed to leave the hospital and kept me there for a few days. I have no idea what possessed them to do it, but after less than two weeks, and repeated exorcisms by the local priest, I was sent to the Mercy Medical Hospital, located just outside Wilkes-Barre. They placed me in the psychiatric ward, and left town. I never heard from them again.

My memories of those times have faded, but of the shattered thoughts that still remain in my consciousness, they were horrific. The stagnant lights of the fluorescents in my room along with the strong sent of piss and bleach slowly stole my mind from me. To pass the time I would sit atop the radiator by my small cracked window and try my best to predict the weather. I became quite good at it.

At first the nurses and even some of the doctors would sit with me and try to talk, but it scared me. These people I had never seen before in my life, talking at me, holding me captive in this plastered cell…I wanted nothing to do with them. After a few weeks they caught the jist and stopped coming unless I needed food, or my sheets changed.

There were times when my mind lapsed and I was no longer in the hospital, no longer in my cell. I could not wonder in these 'dreams', I guess that's what they were, I couldn't leave the hospital literally and go where I wanted, see what I wanted to see. But I could watch, and that's all I really needed. I could watch people, their families and friends, the doctors, the nurses, all at random and at any time, there was never a pattern and I was never able to control when they came or stopped. In time this became more interesting to me than the T.V. that hung from the ceiling in my room. It was all I really had to personally entertain me.

Some time later, when the days became too numerous to count, an old woman by the name of Mim came into the center and identified me as her great-granddaughter. By now most of my sight had returned as with my hearing, but I was still hard of both. She explained to me that she had adopted me and I would be moving back with her in Nanticoke.

When I was in the hospital no one had used my name. I was a number, a barcode for the doctors and nurses, over time I lost my name; I still do not know what I was called before that time in the hospital.

When Mim had asked me for the first time what I liked to be called, I was confused, and told her the room number I stayed in. She had shaken her head and repeated the question. I then gave my bed number, and my ID number too, but to no avail. A nurse was called, and my files brought up, because they too, had forgotten my name.

When my name was read, it sounded odd, out of place for me. When I repeated the word the nurse smiled in a fake way and Mim nodded vigorously. But I shook my head and scrunched my nose up like I did when I had the hospital's morning oatmeal. I said it again and shook my head. Mim was obviously confused for she said something else to the nurse, who interne shook her head again, and read out my name, this time it was longer and something in it caught my attention. I said the one part of the word slowly, then repeated it again, and again, and again, by the time I was done the word was echoing through the small room in loud, strong, high pitched tones.

"Al-ice"…"Alice"…"Alice"…"Alice!"

The crinkled, toothy smile on Mim's face was one I saw every day from that point on.

~****~

Her house was old, and fairytale-like, with three stories and a set of the brightest lime green shutters I've ever seen on every window. There was a short black rod iron fence that had to be at least a century old, which encircled the property. A large Rhododendron sat contently to the left of the white porch steps, its buds were the color of a dark plumb. From what I could see the porch seemed to wrap around the whole house, and there were three wicker rocking chairs placed in the front. A small off-white coffee table accompanied them.

The concrete slabs which laid out a short path to the porch stairs were skewed, and cracked with tree roots fighting for dominance over the familiar walking route.

"Watch you step now, dear." I heard the old woman murmur, as she carefully lifted the hem of her skirt to see were she was going.

The porch steps creaked under our weight, as did the porch itself. When she opened the door an overwhelming smell of peppermint assailed my nose and a sudden feeling hit me, an overpowering emotion that I had never known from my days at Mercy. It was like I should know something, something very important. But nothing came…why was that?

"Alice, dear, why don't you step in?" Mim was already in the house, holding the door open for me and motioning me to enter with her other hand.

I heard the porch whine once more before I crossed the carpeted threshold and Mim shut the door.

The living room ran the horizontal length of the house; straight beyond and to the right was a pale green tiled kitchen and breakfast nook. Large windows on the far end of the wall allowed me to see out onto the patchy grass lawn. On the right side of the house was a small room, in which nothing more than a stand-up piano and a pinstriped, overstuffed chair could fit. To the far right of the living room there was a carpeted staircase which Mim was already ascending, as I followed her in found that these too spoke in high pitched squeals when stepped upon. I couldn't help but giggle, it's like the house was talking to me…

All sorts or pictures lined the walls of the staircase and second floor walls; they ranged from small to large, black to white, photos to paintings. All scattered about on the walls that still smelled of Peppermint.

The room was the first on the left, where it faced out towards the main street, from there I could see the 'Russian Pizza' sign hanging haphazardly on the building a cross the street, an old pink neon sign stood in the window flickering every now and then proclaiming that the pizzeria was open.

Mim set my small pack of clothing on the floor by the door and said something that I couldn't catch. I was far too transfixed on small pink room.

It ran length of the lower living room with a small sliding-door closet to the left where the staircase was low enough to allow it. I flicked on the cream colored light switch and couldn't help trace my hand over the dark, hard wood switch cover. The alternating pink and white wallpaper around the room peeled in some corners, but it was nothing a little wood glue couldn't fix.

I kept my hand firmly pressed to the wall and felt the small hard bumps run under my hand as I walked over to the pink clad bead sitting in the far right corner. When I sat, to no surprise, the bed let out a metallic squeal and I cracked a smile.

I drew in a big breath and exhaled in a gust letting my shoulders sag.

Outside the previously blue sky was now died a deep purple with the murky grey night lagging just around the edges. Across the street the bell attached to the Pizzeria's door rang as a couple walked in, the woman ducking under the man's arm to escape the oncoming night.

I felt the ends of my mouth turn up. What courtesy he had, or at least that's what I thought it to be, he had let the woman go ahead, that was supposed to be good right?

Perhaps one day a man will hold the door open for me and I could duck under his arm. It wouldn't be too hard considering how short I was.

No, no, no. Silly Alice, who would want to open a door and be polite to a psychotic little girl like you? I felt my high mood fade a bit.

But Mim was polite to me, and she even opened a door for me too. Maybe someone else could as well. I felt a joy rising in my chest.

No, once again, it couldn't happen. Mim was a woman, and it's different when a woman opens the door verse a man… isn't it? I was starting to feel confused.

I let my back relax and I felt myself fall backward onto the pillows behind me. They smelled like peppermint too, but this time there was a faint smell of moth balls underneath it all.

I smiled a little, I don't think this was my home, my true home, but right now it sure felt good.

I spent God knows how long staring at the rainbow-patterned plaster and the bowl shaped light on the ceiling before my vision started to blur.

This for me could mean one of two things; either A: I was tiered and I just needed to sleep, or B: the visions were coming again.

Please let it not be that, I just started living a semi-normal life, I didn't want it to stop. I wanted Mim to like me, not think I was some freak like everyone else did. I didn't want to go back to the hospital, not now, not ever.

Blinking furiously I willed myself to wake up, shake off the oncoming sleep, or that's at least what I lied and told myself it was.

But no matter how hard I tried and no matter how many times I blinked the room faded away and my head spun.

When I opened my eyes I knew I would no longer be in my room. It was, though, a surprise to find myself just one story lower, standing in the living room of Mim's house.

The sun outside illuminated all the small specks of dust floating in the air and from somewhere behind me there was a soft hissing sound. By the time I turned around I saw me walking out of the kitchen arch way and over to the front door.

When the door was pulled open a greasy long-haired boy stepped in and kicked off his wel- loved hiking boots. He wore a knee-length pair of jeans and an oil stained t-shirt. His hair was pulled back at the nape of his neck in a green rubber band and some leaves and twigs were logged between the greased strands.

His eyes were green and his mud smeared face had the biggest, toothiest grin I've ever seen. It even out did Mims, and that was hard to do.

Then the picture froze mid-frame while he extended his grimy hand for me to shake.

First to fade was the living room, then the fringes of his body. His arms, legs, torso, until all that could be seen of him was his Irish-green eyes and toothy smile while the hissing and crackling continued.

Just before the dim-out line of the pink wallpaper in my room came back into focus I heard a Koo-Koo-Clock sound nine times...

When I knew I was no longer in my vision I rolled over on my bed so I could see the green glow of the digital alarm clock saying it was a little after two in the morning. The lights were off in my room, I didn't recall getting up to do that, or maybe Mim turned them off.

I got up and felt my way over to my duffle bag and rummaged through it until I found my sweat pants and PJ top.

My first night at Mim's, so far so good… at least she hasn't thrown me out yet.

We would just have to see how long that lasted…

~****~

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