This is the wordy chapter, mainly because it both serves as exposition and is told from the perspective of Salma. (Once I thought I'd nailed her voice, I ran with it—and I actually had to cut a bunch out from this because of how dry it was XD).

Prenderghast Puzzle

Stuk 1: Intro to a Puzzle-Solver

January 4th, 2014

There is something satisfying about having the justifiable means to heckle one's elders, she thought, gingerly sidestepping a crack in the suburban concrete sidewalk.

Salma Ramsay, strolling along the side of the road in a somewhat rundown neighborhood, was a girl that had long since accepted the overall innocence of the legendary Blithe Hollow Alleged Witch. But as with many truths, not everyone had, and now that the topic of the truth was brought up by the events of the tercentennial celebration slightly over one year ago, Salma was determined to make her mark on the debate.

Despite the fact that Norman Babcock—now a resident celebrity, not that he hadn't already been one—claimed the alleged witch hadn't been an antagonist, or that there was no evidence at all to suggest the popular concept of witchcraft the town promoted was ever real, many people still clung to the idea that the Witch was an evil creature who had malignantly harassed the people of Blithe Hollow until they had cut her down (1). This concept was something that was hard to change; in the words of Winston Churchill, "History is written by the victors." And their early founders were hardly going to leave behind documents singing praises of the girl they had publicly lynched out of fear and prejudice; that kind of thing had the tendency to make victors look bad, after all.

Salma had a new edge over the common historian, though.

Ringing the Babcocks' front door bell, Salma idly gazed around the yard. A hockey mask and two sticks were lying by the fence—a clear sign of Neil's presence, and a problem with cleaning up after himself. Nearby, an empty lawn chair had seven thoroughly worn copies of Dream Teen Magazine on its seat, a copy of the Blithe Hollow Bugle crisply folded and untouched nearby. Norman seemed to have left his zombie action figures in the yard again, and a stray cat was currently enjoying smacking them around between its two front paws as it sprawled lazily on the grass.

The door opened, but it wasn't Norman.

Courtney stared at her. "Norman hasn't been missing homework again or something, has he?"

Salma shook her head. "I've got something I thought he should look at. Well, Coraline thought he should look at. Do you know where he is?"

"On a Saturday? No clue. He could be, like, anywhere; weekends are his busy days, you know."

Salma knew that quite well. Norman was used to being avoided, but ever since his ability had been proven genuine the dead and the living alike never seemed to stop having questions, messages, or jobs for him to do. Norman's 'adoring public,' as Neil had so affectionately put it, had been told off by the older Babcocks for distracting Norman when he should be doing his school work (well, the living had been, Salma wasn't quite sure about the mechanics behind telling off something one couldn't see). Nowadays most waited until Saturday and Sunday, for fear that cheerleading maneuvers and poor driving skills could be creatively used as a kind of weapon of mass destruction.

"Like, what'd you want to show him, anyways?" Courtney asked.

Salma looked at her, unibrow shrinking together in thought. "Well, I guess you are related." She looked through the archway into the living room. "May I sit down? I feel this is going to be a rather long talk."

Slightly alarmed (because the only other time she'd heard someone use that phrase in real life, her grandmother had died), Courtney walked into the living room and sat down on the couch while Salma took the armchair.

"So…?"

Salma cleared her throat. "One week ago, at the end of the winter vacation, I was given this book by Coraline Jones." Salma lifted up the leather book, showing it to Courtney. The poor girl looked utterly confused, but took the book nonetheless. She didn't open it, instead waiting for Salma to go on. "I've already preformed a considerably extensive background check on her—"

"Whoa, what?"

Salma blinked. "I ran a background check after receiving this diary. I couldn't understand how it came to be in her possession. I still can't, actually. Other than a few… descriptive resemblances, there seems to be no connection between her and this book."

"…"

"What's wrong?"

Courtney shook her head and massaged her temples. "…nothing. Keep going?"

"Gladly," Salma stiffened up. "The reason why it is strange for Coraline to have had this journal is because she is not at all related with Blithe Hollow, and from what I can tell, neither is her family. Yet the writer of this diary lived here, in this town, and was born here more than three hundred years ago."

There. Salma knew that bit of information would get the blonde's attention. Ever since the tercentennial, 'three hundred years ago' was the key term to getting some very interesting reactions from anyone with the last name Babcock. And Courtney was blonde, not stupid.

"So I'm guessing there's more to it than just a simple diary." Courtney stated, with all the airs of someone searching for mines. She pulled the ends of her long, blonde ponytail over her shoulder and began toying with them unconsciously with her index finger.

"Actually, it is, but that does not exclude it from being important. This diary was written by the daughter of the Honorable Judge Jonathan Hopkins between the dates of September 29th, 1711 and October 3rd, 1712, after which it looks like many pages were torn out. Though she didn't mention where she found it—" Salma said with glaringly obvious annoyance, "—Coraline left in a note and explanation that, along with the book, she found a bunch of rough drafts for letters that looked as though they had been written on the same material as the diary pages. She didn't bring them here with her because they're in England, apparently, and so fragile they couldn't be brought over at the time. After Norman reads the diary, I plan on asking her to find a way to send them over next time she visits the country."

Courtney seemed to have frozen. Well, Salma admitted wryly, that was often the reaction she got when she talked for long durations; Norman's moniker for her wasn't completely inaccurate. She certainly was "a Brain." Unfortunately, this often set others on edge.

"So what's in the diary?" Courtney said finally, eyes narrowed. The name 'Hopkins' still probably brought up unpleasant memories of a rotting corpse riding in the middle passenger's seat.

Salma smiled. "Only a near-complete account of the events that lead to the Blithe Hollow Witch Trials, and, of course, the Trials themselves. But that isn't the reason why it's a big deal."

"It's not?" Courtney asked. She may have never spent much time reading anything besides text messages, but even she knew that entire diaries devoted to important historical events didn't just fall out of the sky.

"No, there are plenty accounts of the Trials," Salma said, and for the first time she couldn't keep the victorious smirk off her face. "For one, this diary is a highly detailed account of the village devolving into madness, not conquering its dangers. It includes accounts of three complete trials and mentions sixteen others—including the one that ended in execution!(2)" Salma couldn't keep the satisfaction off her face. Before the Tercentennial, she'd been mocked for her rather prickly attitude on the subject of the witch trials, given that nobody wanted to be told the town's opinion was incorrect. Her opinion was slightly more accepted now, but it was good to know there was proof of this injustice, and proof that—unlike the girl's ghost—they could actually see.

Salma composed herself again. Best not get too hasty.

"But the main factor that makes this account extraordinary is that it focuses on the victim's lives—most contemporary sources go out of their way to discourage thinking of the victims as human." She sighed. "As you may imagine, then, this diary discusses your family quite a lot—well, your maternal family, anyways. I was concerned that Norman might not want this information being disclosed, which is why I want him to look through it."

"What?" Courtney asked. "Of course he would! He's always visiting her grave and stuff. Like, I think he would be happy if someone could actually show the town she wasn't evil."

"I don't think you understand the contents of this diary," Salma said, sending a meaningful, stern look at the blonde. The only look she got back was more of her constant confusion. "This diary contains extensive insight into the lives of specific individuals in your extended family, and while I personally would love to shove this book into a few local tourist agencies' faces," Salma's voice took on that particularly passionate tone again, before reigning herself in, "it occurred to me that your family may not want all that out in the open. Particularly since your brother seems to have inherited far more in the ways of that specific branch of the family than you."

She got a sort of glazed stare in return. "What."

Perhaps Salma was being too subtle? The blonde still looked lost.

Fine then. No more beating around the bush.

"This diary contains a lot of information about the Prenderghast family's more eccentric talents." She said forcefully, holding the book into the air with a jerk and waiting for Courtney to take it. "Specifically, talents similar to, oh, seeing spirits."

The implications seemed to dawn on the cheerleader at last. "So, like… this has information about people like my brother in it?"

Salma nodded.

"But I thought… how… like, if she's, like, the judge's daughter, what's she doing knowing all about the witch?" At Salma's glare, Courtney quickly backtracked. "Not that she, like, was a witch, but everyone kinda thought she was at the time, right? So, like, how's the Judge's daughter supposed to know anything?"

"I brought it over for Norman to read and find out. It's a very… enlightening read, and the author was an unusual type of person. You could read it, if you like. It's still your family, even if it might not hit as close to home for you as it does for Norman."

"Nah," Courtney said. She glanced at the book in her hands, and noticed that it was slightly open. Curly, ornate handwriting could be seen through the cracks. "If it's stuff on my little brother, I'll wait till he's around. We can read it together." She opened the book a little and stared at the writing. "Well, we'll decode it together," she corrected, looking down at the squiggly words.

"Admirable," Salma commented lightly. "May I have a drink before I go, please?"

"You're not going to stick around and tell Norman about the book? Isn't that why you, like, came? And drinks are in the fridge, inside of the door. Sorry, Norman says you're into, like, vitamin water and stuff, but all we've got is soda and juice."

"I can make do." Salma got up from the armchair, left the living room, and walked down the hall to the kitchen.

Courtney went to put the book down when a single phrase caught her eye. It was near the end of the book, close to where a group of pages were ripped out and even closer to where the writer had stopped writing, and was far more legible than the earlier loops. It read:

"The people of this village would hang the sun, if they could figure out how to reach it. Clearly it burns over them with such unnatural power—flying literally into the face of God."

Courtney wasn't the best at school. She had better things to do, like getting pedicures and picking up guys and putting her basketball tosses on YouTube. She'd never done particularly well with any of her subjects, and English was her worst... but she was pretty sure the author was just a tad bitter about something.

Unusual author indeed.

AN: Haha, Salma's so wordy. Mastering the "Insufferable Genius" voice wasn't too hard, though, as I'm naturally wordy myself (as you might have realized). On the other hand, it was pretty funny to switch from 'snobby well-educated Salma perspective' to 'cheerleader valley-girl Courtney Babcock voice' during their conversation. I didn't intend for the contrast, but it sounds funny when read through, especially if you accentuate all the 'likes.'

(1): Yes, the townsfolk of Blithe Hollow saw the ghosts at the end of the movie. But a rampant miscommunication between movie and fandom seems to be over the town's state of belief at the end of the movie. Simply seeing someone doesn't tell you which one of them was in the wrong; if sight could tell us that, we wouldn't need a court system. All the citizens of Blithe Hollow did see the zombies, and later their ghosts (briefly), but all they could know from that is that the spirit of the convicted witch from 300 years ago raised the dead and terrorized the town for a whole night until Norman could stop it. That's not exactly going to endear them to the reality that she's not an actual witch or that she was ever a good person, and it is definitely not going to stop their tourist-craving tendencies. While Norman did try to tell the mob that they were repeating what happened, he wasn't very specific, was he? "They did something awful and were cursed for it" is really, really vague—especially considering exactly how many awful things someone can do in the world, particularly in the Puritan era. Plus, without clarity or further knowledge, the statement reveals nothing about Aggie being innocent.

(2): When I finally got around to reading the novelization of ParaNorman, it came to my attention that there were many, many more people put on trial than were noted in the movie; however, the town only makes a big deal about Aggie. In my headcanon, this is because the others managed to escape by only getting sentences in prison (something that occurred if a "witch" admitted and repented for his/her crime and was more affluent than the norm) or by running off into the woods, as Aggie clearly attempted but failed.

Historical Notes & Extras:

This is the place that will be filled with all sorts of extra information to add to the world if you wish to know more. Depending on whose story we're following in the chapter, this may have information on this story's version of Blithe Hollow (for Salma's and Norman's chapters), like other important graves in the graveyard or notes on what happened to minor characters after the movie; or on Puritan Blithe Hollow (for Julia's and Aggie's chapters), like the floor plan of the Hopkins House or the Prenderghasts' home; or on Louvé Manor (for Coraline's chapters), which will be introduced in the next "Extra Content" section.

The Extra for this chapter is character info! Many key things have been kept out, though, to avoid spoilers.

Extra Content: Julia Hopkins

Born August 1st, 1698, Julia was the second out of three children in the Hopkins family. Before "everything went wrong," her eldest brother Ezekiel was being raised to become a judge like her father and her younger sister Abigail was an adorable menace to the human race.

Julia was born with two physical abnormalities—a strange "disfigurement" (as her father put it) and a disorder which affects her sense of smell. Because of these things, her father never let her out of the house for fear she would be seen by the rest of the village, and when he did she always wore a veil. His excuse was that she was a sickly child—and indeed she was, though he often over-dramatized it—so no one questioned it. Until the spring of 1712, she was only ever seen by the village at family funerals, when it would be considered improper to leave her at home.

Julia was extremely well-read, given that she spent almost all her time in her room with nothing to do. Though it was uncommon for a woman to be educated at that time, her mother was insistent on all her children becoming learned individuals and, when her husband refused to provide Julia with a tutor, gave her eldest daughter lessons herself. These only stopped when her mother was no longer considered fit to give them.

But enough of my rambling! Next is Coraline's turn!