Prunella the Bodyguard Chapter 2: A Change in the Winds
It seemed as if time was passing very slowly, but after what many of the kids felt was a long and dull winter, spring had finally arrived in Elwood City. Cool and cloudy days gave way to warmer sunny days, which meant more getting out and enjoying all the favorite activities, such as baseball, soccer, kite-flying, hanging out at the tree house, and other pursuits of happiness. The best was yet to come, however. Spring break. A week off from school, and even more time for all of the joys of the outdoors. Or, so one would think...
"I can't believe all the homework Ratburn gave us to do over spring break!" Arthur said, as he and Buster trudged down the corridor after school dismissed that Friday afternoon.
"I know," Buster agreed, "it's like he doesn't even understand what the concept of a break is!"
"Yeah, remember all the homework he gave us over Christmas break?" Arthur asked.
Buster began to mimick their teacher, almost perfectly, "Class," he said, in his best Ratburn voice, "I want you all to write a three page essay on holiday festivities you and your family participate in, and as always, spelling counts!"
Arthur chuckled. "I just hope D.W. doesn't suddenly want me to help her construct another one of those Mary Moo Cow Cookie Castles, or play a hundred games of Virtual Goose again... that's always embarrassing to write about."
"You can always come over to my house," Buster suggested, "we always find fun stuff to do together!"
"You mean like a..." Arthur began.
"Dark Bunny video game smackdown!" they exclaimed together.
"It's a deal!" Arthur said.
"Great!" Buster said. "I gotta warn you though, buddy, I've been practicing a little... I may just make it past the Doctopus boss before you!"
"We'll see!" Arthur said.
At the Deegan house, Prunella was having fun trying out the various different accessibilities on the family computer. It had taken her awhile, but she eventually figured out how to enable the onscreen narrator and voice recognition. While she may have had fun with it, Rubella was growing increasingly irritated, especially when Prunella would play around with the computer while she tried to watch TV.
"Pruny," Rubella spoke up, "can't you turn all that nonsense off? I'm trying to hear if Tilly will take Jake back after he dumped her."
"I read on the internet that even though Tilly still has trouble getting over her love for Jake, she refuses to get back together with him, knowing that he would probably dump her again next chance he gets." Prunella said.
Rubella grumbled as she stormed out of the room, "thanks for the spoiler alert!"
Prunella chuckled as she checked out her online horoscope, listening to the onscreen narrator.
"A change is in the winds. Prepare to face the challenges ahead, and always make sure to have your friend's back."
"Hmm, that's interesting," Prunella thought. She continued to surf the web for awhile, and in doing so, she came across the news that J.R. Ticklepenny's 'Economy Elves' was finally due to hit the shelves Monday.
After calling Marina and informing her of the news, bright and early Monday afternoon, the two girls went over to the library, where Miss Turner was training her newer assistant on how the basic procedure for checking out books work.
"Hi, Miss Turner!" Prunella and Marina greeted the librarian.
"Hello, girls!" Miss Turner responded, "I'm just training one of our assistant librarians, this is Charlie."
"Hello!" The tall, thin, bespectacled bear man introduced himself.
"Charlie's going to be stepping up and taking charge around here while I take a week's vacation." Miss Turner said.
"How nice!" Prunella said, a little envious, wishing she and her family would go on a vacation someday.
"Shall I help these lovely ladies for you, Paige?" Charlie asked.
"Oh, that's okay, Charlie," Miss Turner said, "they're here for J.R. Ticklepenny's new book, I'll be right back."
Miss Turner stepped away from the counter to go check and see if the new book had arrived yet.
"Going to see how Ticklepenny's latest work will compare to 'Henry Skreever', I see?" Charlie asked.
"We sure are!" Prunella said.
"We're a little unsure of how it will stand up to the 'Henry Skreever' series," Marina added, "but we both are great admirers of Ticklepenny's work that we want to at least give it a chance."
Charlie took notice of Marina's blank stare, and her walking stick. "Do you also like mysteries?"
"Excuse me?" Marina asked.
"We just got a new shipment of audio mysteries," Charlie pointed out, "I have a cousin who's legally blind, and she just devours them."
"Thanks," Marina said, "but I'm pretty much a strict fantasy freak."
At that moment, Miss Turner returned to the counter with only one copy of 'Economy Elves'. "I'm sorry girls, we've only gotten this one print copy so far, I'm afraid."
"That's okay," Prunella said, "I can check it out, and I'll just read it to Marina."
"Yeah, I just love it when Prunella reads to me," Marina said, placing her hand on Prunella's shoulder, "she always adds such gusto to the way she reads that really brings out the feeling of the book for me."
"Very well then," Miss Turner said, as Prunella handed her library card to her, "since this is a new release, and there's already a waiting list after you, it'll be due back this Saturday."
"Good thing Prunella's a speed reader," Marina said, "if I tried to read a whole book in under a week, I'd be picking callisses off my fingers for days!"
"Well, enjoy the book, girls." Miss Turner said, as she handed Prunella the book and her card.
"Thanks, Miss Turner." Prunella and Marina said, as they exited the library. Once out the door, the two began to work on a schedule for them to get the most reading they can during the week.
"We could probably get through the first chapter," Marina said, "I have soccer practice this afternoon, but I could stop by for another chapter afterward."
"If you want, you could join us for dinner, and then we can read as much as we can till it's time for you to go home." Prunella suggested.
"I'll ask my mom and let you know." Marina said.
"WATCH YOUR STEP!" a loud voice shrieked, startling the girls. So much so that Marina tripped down a couple of steps. Penelope burst into loud guffaws of laughter as she passed them by, "Have a nice trip?"
Prunella was fuming as the watched the cat girl, in more ways than one, from Mighty Mountain casually walk away. She bent down to help Marina back up to her feet. "Are you alright, Marina?"
Marina rubbed her elbow, "Yeah, I'm okay... I think I'm probably going to bruise, though."
"I'm seriously considering putting a curse on that girl." Prunella said, as she continued to watch Penelope walking, chuckling as she went.
"Don't waste your energy on that wasted space, Prunella," Marina said, as Prunella handed her her walking stick, "besides, I may just have to get myself a voodoo doll, then Penelope will really be on pins and needles."
The two girls laughed as they went along their way. Immediately after they got to Prunella's house, they sat in the living room, whilst Prunella read aloud to Marina, both so far feeling that while the story seems to have an interesting premise, was off to a slow start. After completing the first chapter, Marina left for soccer practice, but as scheduled, and with the approval from both mothers, Marina had dinner with the Deegans.
"That was a delicious dinner, Mrs. Deegan." Marina complemented Prunella's mother.
"Thank you, Marina," Mrs. Deegan said, as she cleared the table, "we were happy to have you join us tonight."
"Now that that's over with," Prunella said, extending her elbow, "shall we continue where we left off?"
Marina took hold of Prunella's arm, "that sounds like a plan to me."
Later still, the two girls sat atop Prunella's bed, as she finished reading the third chapter of the book.
"Hmm, what do you think so far?" Marina asked.
"I can kind of see where this would be aimed at younger children," Prunella said, as she flipped through previously read pages, "what do you think of this elf, Deldrach?"
Marina shrugged, "he's okay, I guess... it's kind of clear that his friend, Jonas, is quite the goofy second banana."
"What about the plot so far?" Prunella asked. "This one elf trying to seize control of the entire elven economy by flooding the market with his own counterfeit currency?"
"Saevel?" Marina asked, "what exactly is his motive again?"
"Well, it says he was down on his luck, began working odd jobs, then once he started earning shillings, he began to outsourcing his own work to other elves, but raking in most of their profits for himself to copy." Prunella reminded her.
"I'm not sure if this really has the same spark that 'Henry Skreever' had," Marina said.
"Me either, but I kind of think it's a little interesting nonetheless." Prunella said, setting the book aside.
"It's interesting," Marina agreed, "but it just kinda lacks the thrills and excitement that 'Henry Skreever' had. What time is it?"
"7:15." Prunella said, looking at her clock.
"I better be getting home," Marina said, as she slid off Prunella's bed, and grabbed her walking stick, "shall we do this again tomorrow?"
"I'll call you," Prunella said, "I have to go to the dentist for cleaning, I don't know how long that'll take."
"Okay then, I'll just wait to here from you!" Marina said.
"Watch your step." Prunella said, as Marina worked her way down the stairs.
"I will." Marina said.
The next afternoon, Marina decided to kill a little time while Prunella was at the dentist's office having her teeth cleaned, so she headed over to the library to run her fingers through a brail copy of one of the 'Sunset' books. Prunella wasn't a fan of the 'Sunset' series, finding the concept of a dull and boring teenage girl attracted to a handsome and sparkling vampire to be hokey. Marina, on the other hand, while she wasn't diehard into the 'Sunset' series, she still found them somewhat interesting, and decided to re-read a copy of one of the books, little knowing that someone peering over the books on one of the shelves was taking pictures of her with a cellphone. Meanwhile at the dentist's office, Dr. Sozio had just finished cleaning Prunella's teeth.
"Very nice, Prunella," Dr. Sozio said, "I'm proud of you for sticking with crunchy fruits and vegetables for snacking."
"Well, I kinda had to," Prunella said, as she finished rinsing and spitting, "my mom was saying I was eating too much candy."
"We had to do something about your sweet tooth." Mrs. Deegan said.
"Don't forget your new goodies," Dr. Sozio said, as he handed Prunella a small zipperbag with a new toothbrush, new tube of toothpaste, and a new pack of floss, "and I'll see you in another six months."
Prunella and her mother thanked Dr. Sozio as they left his office. Once home, Prunella called up Marina's house, but was puzzled that nobody was answering. Mrs. Datillo was most likely still at work, but why wasn't Marina answering. Perhaps Marina got caught up in some other activity, so Prunella left a message.
"Hey Marina, it's me Prunella," Prunella said, "just letting you know I'm home from the dentist whenever you're ready to come over and continue reading the book. See ya!"
The day passed, and Prunella waited, either for Marina to return the call, or for her to come over but neither happened. By the time Prunella went to bed, she wondered what had happened to Marina, perhaps she had simply forgotten about their schedule, but they could probably make up for lost time tomorrow. Tomorrow came, and after the Deegans finished their breakfast, Prunella called up the Datillo house again, but like yesterday, there was no answer. This was most peculiar to Prunella, as she left yet another message.
"Marina? Are you there?" Prunella asked, "I'm ready to continue the book whenever you are."
Prunella hung up the phone, and like the day before, the day passed with no answer from Marina one way or another. This was most perplexing. The following day, Prunella decided to try something different, so she got onto the computer, and dictated an e-mail to Marina.
"Dear Marina, are you okay? I've been trying to reach you, but I've yet to hear from you. I hope there is nothing wrong, please respond as soon as you can. Prunella. Send."
The e-mail was sent to Marina's e-mail address, and Prunella waited for a response. All day long. Nothing. Prunella was so confused. Where is Marina? Why isn't she responding to any of her messages? Did a wizard cast a spell on her and make her disappear from the face of the earth? Whatever the case was, Prunella began to since that something wasn't right, and was determined to find out what has happened to Marina.