This next chapter is when the story begins to resemble Jumanji, with the discovery of the board in the river. It's rather short; sorry 'bout that. By the way, why are there so few stories in the Jumanji archive? It's golden FF material, so I can only assume that not a lot of people know about it. I guess after a while all the stories would be the same.
Disclaimer: I still haven't been trampled by a rhinoceros stampede, so it would appear that I do not own Jumanji or MBS. (;
Chapter Two: The Regrettable Episode at the River (an imaginary 50000 dollars to anyone who can tell me where I got the inspiration for this chapter's name!)
Rhonda was completely and utterly wrong.
The shoe factory was uninteresting, and the discount store (called "Sir Sav-A-Lot") had no more interesting merchandise than any local supermarket. The only thing the children really liked about Brantford was the river – which wasn't exactly a roller coaster ride.
Towards the end of their "vacation," Mr. and Mrs. Washington were low on some foodstuffs. Reynie volunteered to go pick up groceries, just to have something to do, and dragged Constance along. Groceries were among the items provided at Sir-Sav-A-Lot, so that was where Reynie walked with Constance. Meanwhile, Sticky was curled up with a book at his grandparents' house. His parents were chatting amiably with his grandparents. Kate and Milligan, also for the sole purpose of having something to actually do, went down to the park.
"So, tell me about your spectacular fall," Milligan said wryly.
"Ha ha," said Kate. "My sides are splitting."
"Seriously! What caused you to get thrown off balance?"
"I don't think it was anything except lack of practice," Kate admitted. "I need to find time to exercise."
"You and me both, kiddo," said Milligan. "Ever since I retired from secret agent work, I've been feeling restless. You know," he said, his expression brightening. "I still haven't taught you better knot-tying."
It took a moment for Kate to realize what he was talking about. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "You mean when Curtain escaped my rope at the Institute?"
Milligan nodded. "Come to think of it, that'd be a useful skill as well."
"What would?"
"Freeing yourself from bonds, of course," Milligan replied. "Goodness gracious, I'm going to need to give you full ropework classes, aren't I?"
Kate grinned.
"God, this place is like a maze!" complained Constance, as they passed the same red-and-yellow canoe for the fourth time.
"Don't worry, I know exactly where we're going," said Reynie.
"Liar," said Constance.
"Ugh, fine," Reynie said submissively. "I'll ask for directions."
A woman in an adjacent aisle told him how to get to the checkout lines and he paid, using the money Sticky's grandmother had given him. He pocketed the change and began to push the cart into the parking lot. Constance moaned with boredom.
Reynie stopped. He'd just had an idea. "How bored are you, Constance?" he said.
"I spent the afternoon shopping," said Constance by way of reply.
"Well, then," said Reynie, suddenly lifting Constance in amongst the groceries. "We'll have to make shopping interesting."
He began to push, faster and faster until he was running and Constance couldn't help but laugh. "Is this what a roller coaster feels like?" she yelled.
"It's as close as you're going to get for a few years!" laughed Reynie.
They had shot off the asphalt of the parking lot now, and were rocketing down a slope towards the park. They saw Kate and Milligan standing by the river, and Reynie yelled to them. They didn't here them. He tried to slow down, but then he realized that the cart was out of his control – and it was heading straight for the Wetheralls, straight for the river.
Milligan tied a rope tightly around Kate's wrists. "Now, pay attention," he said. "To get it off, twist your hand like so." He showed her, and she managed it with some difficulty.
"Now," said Milligan, "You can work your fingers around the knot…"
Neither of them noticed the out-of-control shopping cart hurtling towards them until it was too late. When Reynie's and Constance's screams reached their ears, they were standing at the very edge of the water; Milligan shouted and ducked, but Kate was impaired by her bound hands.
The cart struck her with the force of a bull, and sent her flying into the river. The last things she heard were the yells of her friends and father, before the cold water engulfed her completely. She sank like a stone for several feet, before she stopped moving. She tried to swim up, but her hands were bound and her ankle was twisted. Amidst the pressing silence all around her, she heard quite clearly the frantic beating of her own heart, as loud as drums in her ears.
But wait… it was a drumbeat. The sounds were not coming from inside her, but from some invisible external source. She opened her eyes, curious.
Lying at the very bottom of the river, just a few feet below, was a strange box, tied with ancient ropes to a couple of bricks. The incessant drumming was coming from somewhere inside the box. She drifted down and put her wrists to the corner of one of the bricks. She sawed for several seconds, until she thought her lungs might burst, and then the ropes were cut. She grabbed the bundle and swam with some difficulty to the surface. She inhaled hugely as her head bobbed out of the water.
Milligan was staring out over the water at her, with a look of mingled relief and fury. Constance was whimpering on the ground, and Reynie was running back towards the bank from the direction of the Washingtons' house. He was carrying a bundle of towels. Kate was fussed over and laden with several towels. While Milligan yelled at Constance and Reynie, Kate took the opportunity to steal a glance at the box. It was entirely made of wood but for metal hinges. The cover was taken up completely by a highly decorated carved-out word: Jumanji.
She opened the box, and caught her breath. Inside was a beautiful little platform with a smooth, round black stone set in the center of it. Her eyes were drawn by this stone, which seemed to have endless depths even though the box was only an inch or two thick. Around it, a strange pattern that she could make neither head nor tail of wound its way over the wooden surface. There was printing on the inside of the panels that opened and closed, but she did not get a chance to read it, because the others were walking back towards her now. She closed the box and hid it in her towels, telling herself that she'd look at it later.
After they had said their goodbyes to Sticky's grandparents and packed everything away, Kate had a chance to examine the mysterious box she'd found at the bottom of the river more closely. It appeared to be brand new—the well-polished wood was flawless and the paint unfaded—which made no sense considering the age of the ropes around it and how it had been buried at the bottom of the river. It was obviously hand-crafted, and whoever had made it had done so with great care; the word "Jumanji" was surrounded by intricately detailed carvings of elephants and monkeys and other thematic jungle animals. There was a backdrop of wild ferns and a smoking volcano on a savanna and a white spear cut through the word "Jumanji," also marking the slit where case opened. She opened it and was once again mesmerized by the deep black stone in the middle. Gazing at the winding pattern on the board, she noticed something she hadn't before: there was print on the inside of the wings. She squinted at the red and black letters on one of the wings. It said, Jumanji: A game for those who seek to find a way to leave their world behind. You roll the dice to move your token, doubles gets another turn, and the first player to reach the end wins.
So it's a board game, thought Kate. This, if anything, made her more impressed and mystified by the quality and attention to detail on a thing that most people just slapped some colors onto a cardboard slab to make a couple of bucks. She looked for the tokens and the dice, but there appeared to be none.
"What's that you've got?" said Milligan from the front seat, glancing at Jumanji in the rear-view mirror.
Kate hastily closed Jumanji and tucked it away under her seat. "Just an old board game I brought with me."
The game was such a treasure, such a prize, that she did not want to share it with anyone just yet. It had, after all, been she who'd found it in the river. When she did show it to someone else, it would be the other members of the Mysterious Benedict Society. After all, what interest did adults ever have in board games anyway? It'd just be wasting Milligan's time. She'd surprise Reynie, Constance and Sticky with it at the next Society meeting, and then maybe they'd play it.
