Follow-on from 'Big Girls Cry' + a rewrite of the ending of 'Library of Souls' to suit
It had been over a month of this quiet, good girl routine, with Joel going to every therapy session with Dr Spanger, doing everything her parents asked and more. Meanwhile, Joel was growing restless, desperate to hear from her peculiar friends, it having been a fortnight since she last heard from them. Her parents had started to look at her with fear again around the same time.
Her next appointment with Dr Spanger was different from the others with the added presence of her parents, sitting uncomfortably on either side of her. Spanger asked her usual questions, but Joel knew that something was up.
"Why are my parents here? And why do they look like they just got back from a funeral?"
The smile fell from Spanger's face as she reached behind her, pulling out a manilla folder. She withdrew three opened envelopes, the very kind used by her peculiar friends, but not ones she had seen. Joel looked between her parents and Dr Spanger.
"You stole my letters."
"We need to talk about these." Spanger replied. Maryanne spoke up.
"We agreed no more secrets." Joel's hands were shaking.
"Those were private and addressed to me, you shouldn't have read them." Joel worried over how much her parents had read, more so over what could have been written in those letters.
"Who is Emma? Who is Millard?" Spanger asked. "Who is Miss Peregrine?"
"You stole my private letters and are now using them to ambush me!"
"Lower your voice!" Franklin shouted. "It's out in the open now, so just be honest, and this will be easier for all of us."
Joel remained silent. Spanger, taking notice of this, decided to switch gears.
"Tell me about your friends, what are they like?"
"I would like my letters."
"I'm afraid I can't give them to you, until you've answered our questions."
"You think I'm crazy!"
"Now Joel we don't use that word in this office. I'd like for you to calm down before we continue."
Joel refused to say another word, knowing that it would only damn her instead.
Her parents and Dr Spanger continued to talk as if she wasn't in the room. Dr Spanger's newest diagnosis was that Joel'd suffered a 'radical break with reality', inventing a new world with these 'peculiars', a delusional construct she'd created. Because of Joel's intelligence, she'd managed to fool everyone into thinking her sane, with the letters being proof to the contrary. Spanger's recommended treatment was to send Joel to an 'in-patient clinic' for 'rehabilitation and monitoring'; Joel knew this was just a psychiatrist's way of saying 'looney-bin'. However, her parents made the arrangements; when a spot opened up at the clinic, Joel' parents and two of her uncles would drive her straight there. A bag was packed and waiting.
There was nothing Joel could do to change their minds.
She decided to try one last effort, writing an email to her peculiar friends explaining what had happened, knowing that it would be quicker than a letter. Once it was sent though, Joel realised that they may not even receive it, their knowledge of modern technology being almost non-existent despite her best efforts to teach them.
Joel received no reply. A couple days later, her parents were notified of a place having opened up in the clinic.
Despite the late hour and the long drive it would take to get to the clinic, Joel was bundled up and sat in the back seat, surrounded by two of her large uncles, while her parents sat in the front. Her dad had just started the engine, opening the electronic garage door; but on the other side was the most strangest thing. The peculiar children stood in the middle of the driveway, with Miss Peregrine in the lead; Joel quickly pinched herself to check that she wasn't dreaming, the sharp pain proving her conscious state.
Joel was happy at seeing her friends again, she almost felt like crying. Her parents had other ideas.
"Oi! Get out of the way!" Franklin yelled.
"I will not." Miss Peregrine answered. Joel's family sat bewildered at the turn of events.
"Who the hell do you think you are?"
"I am Alma LeFay Peregrine, Ymbryne Council leader pro tem, and headmistress to these peculiar children. We've met before, but I expect that you don't remember. Children, say hello."
Franklin's jaw dropped and Maryanne started to hyperventilate, the children's waving becoming a display of some of their peculiarities. Emma's hands became lit with soft tongues of flame; Olive started to lift off the ground; Claire opened her backmouth; and Millard twirled, a suit of clothes without a body.
Miss Peregrine walked up to Franklin's door. "If you would be so kind as to exit the vehicle, please."
"Evening Mr Portman, I'm Millard, we're good friends with your daughter." Millard's voice called out.
"See? I told you they were real!" Joel stated to her parents, slapping her father's arm. Too shocked by everything, Franklin slammed on the gas, the car lurching forward and sending Joel back into her seat.
All of the children quickly jumped out of the way, except for Bronwyn, who planted her feet and stuck out her arms. She caught the front of the car in her hands, the wheels spinning uselessly under her influence.
The car stalled, Maryanne and her brothers howling in terror, while the children surrounded the car.
Joel's uncles passed out, heads slumped forward; Maryanne sat with her head in her hands, screams fading into whimpers; Franklin sat wide-eyed and jumpy, muttering: "this is nuts this is nuts this is totally nuts". Joel tried to reassure her family, but nothing could be done. She sighed, reaching over one of her uncles to open the door, crawling out to greet her friends. Out of the car, she quickly embraced as many of them as she could, twirling with each of her friends.
Slowing to a stop, Joel couldn't hide her disbelief. "What are- how did you-"
"We got your electrical letter!" Emma replied to the unasked question.
"My... email?"
"When we didn't hear from you for awhile, we got worried," Millard said, "then I remembered about the machinated postbox you'd created for us, and found the letter with the information for it."
"We came as soon as we heard." Miss Peregrine finished, shooting a disapproving stare at Joel's parents. "Very disappointing, but not unexpected."
"We came to rescue you!" Olive crowed. "Like you rescued us!"
"And I am so glad to see you!" Exclaimed Joel. "But what about-"
"We made a discovery!" Millard interrupted. "By collapsing the loop in Abaton, our true ages had been reset, our clocks wound back so that our bodies were as old as they looked, instead of how old we really are."
"A side effect of loop collapse," Miss Peregrine intoned. "An extremely dangerous Fountain of Youth."
"So this means you won't age forward?" Joel asked.
"Only as fast as you," Emma answered.
"One day at a time," Millard confirmed.
"This feels like a dream," said Joel.
"I can assure you that is not the case." Miss Peregrine assured the young woman.
Claire bounced over to Joel. "Can we stay with you for a while? You'd said we could!"
"I thought we could make a holiday of it," said Miss Peregrine, "the children know almost nothing of the twenty-first century, and besides, this looks far more comfortable than that drafty old rat-trap of Bentham's. How many bedrooms?"
"Uh, five." Joel answered, slightly overwhelmed.
"Yes, that'll do just nicely."
"Uh, what about my parents? And my uncles?"
"Your uncles can be memory-wiped with ease. As for your parents however, well I suppose the cat is out of the bag I daresay. They'll have to be watched closely, but we should be able to bring them around to our way of thinking. If any two normals could, it would be the parents of the great Jolanta Portman."
"And the son and daughter-in-law of the great Abraham Portman!" Emma added.
Franklin timidly looked at the peculiar group. "You... you knew my father?"
Miss Peregrine looked at the man with nostalgia in her eyes, "I loved him like my own child," a protective gleam shone, "as I do Joel." Franklin cautiously stepped out of the car, wary of the children and their stern headmistress.
"They're going to stay with us for a while, okay?" Joel hoped that her father would say yes.
"I think we'd better..." Franklin started as he turned towards his wife, Maryanne still sitting with her eyes covered. "Let's just head inside."
Franklin led the peculiar group back up to the house, Bronwyn pushing the car back into the garage. Franklin unlocked and opened the door, allowing Miss Peregrine to lead her charges inside.
"Leave your shoes outside children, we're not in Devil's Acre anymore." The children trampled inside, muddy shoes and all. Franklin held Joel back before she went inside.
"Look, Joel, I'll grab your mother and put her to bed; you sort out your, friends, and all of us will talk about everything in the morning, ok?" Joel nodded her head, seeing the stressed look in her father's eyes and tired slump of his shoulders.
Franklin headed out the garage, picking up his wife and carrying her back into the house via the door inside the garage.
Joel headed inside, quickly heading to the kitchen, and grabbed glasses and a pitcher. She filled the pitcher with cold water and grabbed a bottle of soda from the fridge, putting all it onto a sturdy tray, her mother's hostess rules reminding her to not leave her guests dehydrated and hungry. She also filled a bowl with crackers, placing a bowl of dip beside before walking back into the living room, carefully balancing the tray before the tray was taken from her by Millard's invisible hands, setting them on the coffee table.
Miss Peregrine quickly set to pouring a glass of water for everyone, while the children sat cautiously on the different furniture.
"Are your parents not joining us?" Miss Peregrine asked.
"Dad thought it would be best for them to sleep on it for tonight and then talk about this all properly in the morning." Joel readjusted herself on the seat. "One thing I don't understand, how did you get here? And so quickly?" Joel couldn't quite picture the peculiars having gone through the airport.
"We got lucky." Bronwyn answered. "One of Bentham's loops opens up just a hundred miles from here."
"In some appalling swamp," added Miss Peregrine. "What my brother wanted with such a place, I do not know."
"From there, we caught a couple of busses and walked three and one-half miles." Millard explained.
"We're really tired and thirsty." said Olive, her and Claire cuddled up with Bronwyn on the sofa.
"I'll go set up the bedrooms," Joel said, getting up to do so.
Grabbing fresh bedclothes from the linen closet, Joel caught a glimpse of the peculiars' hilarious reactions to trying soda for the first time, the children gasping and giggling at the feel of the bubbles, while Miss Peregrine frowned at her glass.
Joel figured that Bronwyn would want to share a room with Claire and Olive, the older girl being very protective of the two little ones. She put the boys together in one of the larger guest rooms, despite her wanting to put Millard with her and Emma; leaving Miss Peregrine to have the last room to herself.
Going back down to the others, she found that the youngest had already started to fall asleep where they sat. Rousing them gently, Joel led each of them to their rooms, having left them some spare clothes to change into for bed. Wishing them each a goodnight, Joel went back to her bedroom, finding Emma sitting on the spare bed, still in her usual clothes.
"Are you sure that this is alright? That we can stay?" Emma asked, uncertainty glinting in her eyes.
"It'll be difficult with my family, but Miss Peregrine thinks we can work it out." Joel answered.
The door opened and closed. "Millard, what are you doing here?" Joel questioned, wary of what Miss Peregrine would say about this.
"It's alright, the others think that I'm already asleep and they nodded off not long after. Besides, I wanted to spend the night with the two of you." Emma smiled at this.
"Alright, just turn around so we can get changed," said Joel, hoping the invisible boy wouldn't peek at the two while they changed.
The girls quickly changed into a couple of Joel's old baggy shirts and sleeping pants, Millard doing the same for the sake of propriety. The trio then got into the joined bed, the two mattresses having been pushed together to form a larger bed. Emma and Millard rested on either side of Joel, the younger girl needing the comfort and reassurance of her two friends.
Meanwhile, all Joel could think about was what three words she found most beautiful in the English language.
We have time.