Hi, everyone!
I'm writing this for a very special occasion. Happy birthday to my wonderful little sister! The story is for her, and her alone.
Quick summary: during one of his many adventures, Tintin meets a girl named Gracie, a quick-witted, imaginative vegetarian with a passion for all things involving black cats. How will the two work together to save the royal family, and will they see each other again afterwards? Join Tintin, Snowy, Gracie, and Gracie's cat, Jezebel on their first adventure together!
Be sure to let me know how you feel about Gracie! I love reviews, as you know... :)
Allons-y!
Far, far away, on the opposite side of the world of where Tintin was working on his latest case, a very skinny, pale girl who called herself Gracie was pondering the meaning of life.
And she "pondered" by climbing into a tall oak tree, twisting her scrawny legs around a branch that not many would dare to sit on, and hang upside down and let her brown hair tumble down.
Below, her ever-faithful cat, Jezebel, mewed softly. Gracie smiled sweetly, and went back to pondering life. Jezebel lost her patience, and joined her human friend up in the oak tree.
"Jez, you know I can't scratch your ears right now," Gracie said gently. Jezebel mewed in response. Giggling, Gracie pulled herself into a sitting position on the frail branch and let Jezebel walk calmly into her lap. She stroked her feline friend gently, all the while looking at the stars.
At the same time, a boy who called himself Tintin was stroking his white dog, Snowy, on the opposite side of the world, while he pondered what could possibly motivate Rastapopolos to do such nasty things.
He, like most people he knew, "pondered" by sitting in a comfy chair near a window and looked out at the sunny day, all the while running a hand through his shark-fin red hair almost compulsively, making it appear even more like a shark fin.
"Snowy, why are people bad?" he asked his dog, who yapped something like, Ask them! Snowy had long since given up on Tintin understanding a word he barked, but you couldn't blame him for trying.
Tintin smiled at his ever-faithful dog, and handed him a small bone, all the while imagining what the stars would be like without the city lights.
Gracie, after a time, sighed. "Well, back to the old grind, Jez."
She untwisted her pretzel-like legs, let Jezebel sit on her shoulder, and slowly made her way down the tree and toward the only building she knew and loved like a home.
Not to her parent's house; Gracie didn't have any parents anymore. Not to the orphanage; every adult in the area knew better than to try and force Gracie to go there. No, Gracie was heading to the library.
"Hey, Gracie," said a quavering, happy voice that belonged to Mr. Williams, the elderly caretaker of the library that often let Gracie spend the night there. He was a wonderful man with a rather odd fascination with seals, particularly European ones. He called it sigillography; Gracie called it madness.
"Hello, Mr. Williams," said Gracie in her usual formal way. "Got any stories for me today?"
That was Gracie's job, sort of. Mr. Williams took requests for stories from children that frequented the library, and Gracie would spin some sort of story from them. She did this nearly every day, and was constantly amazed at the amount of imagination children had.
"As a matter of fact, I do," Mr. Williams said. "The Watson twins wanted to hear about your little adventure with Al Capone."
Gracie smiled. Ever since it had gotten out that it was she who had recaptured the famous gangster after he escaped from prison, she had become a minor celebrity in her small town in the Upper Peninsula (now, Gracie wasn't American; she was actually French; but we'll come to that later, for that isn't really important except for the fact that must be noted: Gracie had a very strong French accent).
Gracie thought of the Watson twins, Jeremy and Sadie. They were adorable seven-year-olds whose parents often left them at the library. Gracie had met them long ago. She considered them her friends, but they were almost seven years younger than her, so she wasn't really sure if that was close friendship.
She wouldn't even have to write her story down. She remembered going after Capone like it was yesterday, when it had in fact been half a year. Al Capone had originally been brought to justice by a reporter about Gracie's age from Europe, but Capone had escaped a few months after the reporter in question, Tintin, left for Itsanbul and went off on another crazy adventure. Gracie had decided to visit Chicago with the Watson twins and their family, and had soon found herself busy fighting one of the greatest American criminals Gracie had ever heard of.
She supposed that should make her extraordinary to most people, but she was just Gracie. There wasn't much special about her, except that she had the brains, the guts, and the skills to capture a criminal at age thirteen (for this had happened only last year), with Jezebel at her side.
Gracie curled up in her favorite chair near the window, and fell asleep after Mr. Williams turned out the lights.
Tintin had been gone a long time. A pile of newspapers was sitting near his desk; he supposed Mrs. Finch had brought them here.
He started with one from about six months ago, and raised his eyebrows in shock. Apparently, Al Capone had escaped, only to be caught by a young girl about a year younger than Tintin named Gracie. She was an orphan with no last name to speak of, and lived in a library with her black cat, Jezebel.
Tintin had to smile. It looked like he and this girl were opposites. He had a white dog; she had a black cat. He was a boy in Europe; she was a girl in America, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, of all places!
There was a picture of her in the paper. She looked rather skinny, all elbows and knees, and her feet was so tiny that Tintin wondered if she bandaged them like some people did in China. In her arms were three books. By her feet was a small black cat with eyes that seemed to glow.
Tintin read the article again and again. Finally, he decided to take a walk and think about what he had seen.
So he went to the park for a nice, peaceful walk, with Snowy bounding near his feet.
And found a briefcase just sitting there on a park bench.
Gracie woke up the next morning a little too early for her taste. Mr. Williams was shaking her shoulder rapidly. After muttering a bad word in French under her breath, she slowly sat up. "What's going on?"
"Gracie, look at this!" Mr. Williams said.
"What?"
Mr. Williams showed her a picture of a strange-looking seal with a pelican on it.
"A man named Professor Alembick sent this to me," Mr. Williams said. "This is the seal of Ottokar IV, from Syldavia. It's one of the only ones from the region."
"Huh," Gracie looked at it. "I like the bird," she said with a smile.
"Professor Alembick sent this with a letter inviting me to Europe to go with him into Syldavia to find more seals. He said I could bring a friend along, since he's bringing a young secretary. Would you like to-"
"Oh my goodness! Yes!" Gracie said with glee. "How long until the trip?"
"We'll leave for Spain from New York in a week's time, and we'll arrive at Professor Alembick's home by next Thursday."
"It sounds amazing!" Gracie said excitedly. "Allons-y!" she cried happily as she ran for her private corner of the library, where she had made a nest for herself out of enormous encyclopedias, atlases, desks, and anything else she found. Quickly packing for about three weeks, she slammed her suitcase shut and ran to Mr. Williams.
"Who's Professor Alembick?" Gracie asked.
"A boy I knew in school," Mr. Williams said. "He had a twin brother, too. They looked almost exactly alike. Funny man, Professor Alembick, but we still keep in touch."
"He sounds nice," Gracie said. "Who's traveling with him?"
"A young man named Tintin."
"We'll be meeting a friend of mine in a ten days' time," Professor Alembick said as he explained the significance of a seal from Borduria from the early 1800s. "His name is Hamilton Williams. He's bringing a young girl to study with him, apparently. About your age, too."
"Who is she?" Tintin asked curiously.
"I believe her name was..." Professor Alembick struggled to remember. "Gracie!" he said finally. "That's it! Gracie! Why, Tintin," he said as Tintin realized who the girl was, "are you quite all right?"
Well, there you go. Hope you like it so far! Let me know if you want the story to continue!
Love you all!
-carrie