Chapter 3 Meet Germaine!
It was now the next day in Arizona and Loveheart and Joaquin had just a hitched a ride from a kind person named Johnny in a cowboy hat. Afte he dropped in them near the orphanage a few blocks away, Loveheart and Joaquin talked casually.
"So, I think we head this way to the orphanage to that street." Joaquin pointed out.
"Sounds about right, I just hope we can get in to see the raccoon today, " he said
After they got there, they met a man that was about five feet tall and three inches in tall with lanky black hair. "May I help you? He inquired. "Yes, can we see that raccoon that. The one's who is about to be handed over to the state?" Joaquin asked politely. "Afraid not." He interjected back. "Unless your related to her, you can't see her." The man turned away as they walked out of the orphanage disappointed. "I guess that ends that." Joaquin said shrugging his shoulder looking to Loveheart to see what he wanted to do now.
"That doesn't end that!" Love Heart said, "we're going to just have to find another way to see her." He thought for a minute then said, "he only really glanced at you, don't think he got a good look at me, maybe I could convince him to at least let me talk to her, let me try myself," he said, turning back. Love Heart walked up to the admissions counter and tapped it to get attention, "Excuse me, I was wondering if I could see the raccoon who is staying here at the moment and you're about to turn over to the state."
The man looked a bit stunned to see a three foot bear standing by him. "I'm sorry, we can't let you do that. Not unless your related by blood." he man said a bit harsh. "So if you don't mind, I need to get back to work." He said as he now walked away from him:
Love Heart narrowed his eyes, "Hey, how do you know we're not related, I came here when I saw her image because I thought she might be related to me, I've never seen another animal like myself before and I Wanted to see if she might have known me in the past.
"I see," Said the man turning to Loveheart. "Let me see what I can do." He said as he walked to the back of the room. After a few moments, he returned and gave Loveheart permission to enter. "But you only have five minutes!" He yelled to Loveheart as he walked her over to her room. "Germaine! You have a visitor!"
Joaquin waited outside of the orphanage as he saw Loveheart go with the man inside the orphanage.
After they entered Germaine heard the man call her, she looked up and almost dropped her book to see a green bear who looked much like herself approaching her. The blue raccoon set the book aside, took off her reading glasses, and stood up to meet him, she was shy, but she carefully reached forward to shake his hand and spoke in a soft voice, "Yes that's my name, and, you're the first person like myself I've seen as well."
"Oh, I guess you don't know any more about us than I do then," Love Heart was a bit disappointed but he brightened up, "I heard you're about to be turned over to the state, would you like to come with us instead?"
"Us?" the raccoon was confused.
"Myself, and Joaquin," Love Heart said, deciding not to mention Kero for the moment,
"We're on a journey and would welcome someone else to join us."
"Well, I don't know. I don't want to belong to the state, but, I'm not good around other people," she confessed.
"That's alright, I can help you adjust," at that moment he heard the person from the desk coming over, "I have to go now, but maybe we'll see each other tomorrow," he turned and left without bothering to be talked to as Germaine went back to sit down and read.
"How did it go?" Joaquin inquired.
"Well she's like me that's for sure and she doesn't seem to like it here. She said she doesn't want to belong to the state so if we can swing it with the orphanage we might be able to get her to come with us. She's really shy and you might like her, I think," Love Heart said.
"I don't think we should have a problem with that." Joaquin stated plainly. "So should we go get a bite to eat? Maybe at a nearby gas station? I'm hungry."
"Yeah, I'd like to get some food, though at a restaurant would be better, I have a sudden craving for a hamburger," he said.
"Okay, theirs a Mcdonalds around the corner. Should we go there to eat?" He stated plainly.
"Why not, as long as we don't make a habit of it," he said.
"Well, your the one that wanted a burger." Joaquin stated chuckling as they made there way to the restaurant.
"Yeah, I know," he said as they entered. Fast food wasn't Love Heart's favorite but he usually ate very healthy so this would be all right for now.
"Well, I don't know about you but I'm having two Mcdoubles." He stated plainly as he entered in with him as they approached they counter. "What kind of burger are you having?" He asked Loveheart.
"Just a quarter pounder with cheese and regular fries," he said, as they stepped up to order
After they ordered and got there food, they sat down together and ate. But one boy looked at Loveheart with fear.
"Hey your that same bear who." He stated as Loveheart shot him a look also recognizing him. "Please don't hurt me! I only want to eat in peace." He said now shaking nervously hoping Loveheart would leave him alone.
"What are you talking about?" Love Heart asked.
"You don't remember? You beat me up with that weird sword thing of yours and I had the ax." He stated quaking in fear. Joaquin also recognized him and said.
"Hey, Loveheart is not a bully," He said standing up for his friend. "Your the one who started in on us remember?" Joaquin said a bit testily. "But now you know how afraid I was every time I went to school dealing with people like you!" He said as he sat down with Loveheart but still had his eye on the bully.
"Huh, didn't expect to see him again," Love Heart said as he continued to eat
They continued to eat peaceably till they finished there meal and headed out the door.
"Boy what are the chances of that?" Joaquin said to Loveheart. "Running into that same bully."
Love Heart nodded, "yeah, so now what?" he asked.
"Well, your the leader," Joaquin said. "Should we find a place to camp somewhere while we try to convince them to let Germaine come with us?" He inquired.
"That sounds good, we can probably just go outside of town and camp out there," Love Heart said as they left,
As they headed out of town, there was some forest on the west side out side of town with only a few visible homes.
"This looks good," Joaquin said. "What do you think?" He said pointing at a clearing with a few surrounding pine and juniper trees.
Yeah, it should be good," Love Heart said, approaching the area and setting his backpack down.
Joaquin also put his back pack down setting up for camp as he turned to Loveheart bear. "Where's Kero?" He asked.
Love Heart opened his backpack and picked up the slumbering guardian beast by his tail, "He's here, asleep," he said, bluntly.
"Ah well, let him sleep then." Joaquin said as he grabbed some a can of ravioli that they had opened it, and began to eat it with a knife and fork. "So, what are we going to do about about Germaine Loveheart?" He inquired curiously.
"I will, as for Germaine, I'm not sure," he said unrolling his sleeping bag, "we may have to do something drastic. "We'll see about what's going on tomorrow."
"Alright then." He said as he finished his last bit drank some water from a canteen and put it away. He got his sleeping bag ready as well as he unraveled it and headed to bed. "Goodnight Loveheart." He said to him as he got in his bag and went to sleep.
Love Heart lay awake for a while, thinking om the days events. He wasn't sure what they would do but he knew they had to get Germaine out of the orphanage soon, so she wouldn't be made a ward of the state, which he was sure she didn't' want. He sighed, rolled on his side, and fell asleep.
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The very next day, Joaquin was the first one up and went out to explore a bit for while Loveheart remained sound asleep. As he sneaked away from the camp, he wondered into the woods. But unfortunately, he didn't pay attention to where he was going and soon got lost within the hour. He almost began to panic but remained where he was at.
"I shouldn't of wondered this far out." He said to himself seeing nothing but trees in every direction. "LOVEHEART!" He shouted as he looked around. At first there was no sound then heheard something in the bushes. He turned around in alarm. "Loveheart?" He inquired. But to his fear, it wasn't Loveheart as a male mountain lion came forth slowly eying Joaquin as if he was a meal. "LOVEHEART!" He shouted as he began to run in panic with the mountain lion hot on his train.
Love Heart was awakened as he heard his friend's cries for help. He bolted out of bed and took off to where Joaquin was. Once he saw what was going on the first thing he did was to charge the lion, pulling out one of his o-fuda scrolls and threw it at the lion saying the command "lightning, once again sending enough of a current through the lion to knock it out wihtout killing it. Joaquin turned and rested against a tree as he recovered his breath. He knew heshouldn't of wondered off, but it was too late for that now as he saw Loveheart approaching him toface the music.
"Please don't be mad with me Loveheart." He pleaded. "I was just wondering outon my own for a bit." He said a bit fearfully not knowing what to expect from his new guardian that took under his wing.
"I'm not mad, I just wish you'd be a bit more cautious when we're in the wilderness," Love Heart replied. Joaquin breathed a sigh of relief as he was glad his friend wasn't mad at him.
"So shall we head back to camp?" He said quickly trying to change the subject hoping that Loveheart would just forget about the whole thing and not get punished for this.
"Shall we go get some breakfast from Mcdonalds? I hear there sausage biscuits are pretty good." Joaquin said rubbing his stomach as they just got back to the camp site.
"Might as well," Love Heart said, packing everything up. Kero had been awake during the night so he was asleep again. Love Heart rolled his eyes at the beast as he dumped him into his backpack after packing up. After they walked a mile to get to the restaurant, they waited in line on the front counter.
"Man, there busy here today." Joaquin stated as they were behind a long line. Loveheart bear nodded. But after a few minutes past, they ordreed together with Joaquin going first.
"May I help you?" Said a guy named Jake behind the counter.
"Um yes I'll take a dollar sausage biscuit and one breakfast burrito." He replied. He nodded as he rung in the food with food beeping in the back ground. "Also, my friend here needs to order also." Jake looked up and saw a green bear.
"Who or what are you?" He said in surprise.
"My name is Lloyd Terada, as to what I am, I'm not really sure, I'll just have a breakfast sandwich with sausage now," he said.
"What kind of sandwich would you like. We have the sausage biscuit, sausage with muffin, and a sausage mcgriddle." Jake said a little annoyed as he got these type of customers quiet often.
"The mcgriddle then," Love Heart said, also a bit annoyed. He rung it in and said, that'll be 5.54."Is that for here to go?" He looked over to Loveheart for it was his decision to make.
Loveheart paid the man and said, "to go please." After waiting for a few minutes and getting there order, they soon left Mcdonalds.
"So what's the plan Loveheart?" He inquired.
Love Heart sighed, "Honestly I don't know, I know we need to figure out a way to get Germaine to leave with us and let the ophanage allow that, but beyond that, I have no idea how to get to that point. Do you have any ideas, Joaquin?"
"The only thing that comes to mind is for us to re-visit Germaine and hope we can convince her to join us. Otherwise, there is no point in convincing the orphanage of anything." Joaquin replied as he ate his sausage biscuit.
"That's true, she's almost old enough that whatever decision she makes, the orphanage will have to let her, and if she says she wants to go with us, I think they'll let her. You know," he turned to look Joaquin up and and down, "you and her might get along really well. I think if we're nice enought and you two meet, you could convince her of that."
"I don't know about that." Joaquin said unsure of himself. "You should comvince her. Your older and more experienced." He said reasoning as he scarfed down his sandwich as they walked back into town.
"That may be true, but you two have lives that are more similar to the other, you both grew up in a place you were unhappy with and sometimes wished you could leave," Love Heart pointed out, "whereas I had an overall free life so I think at the very least we should both go and see her and not just one of us.
"Fine," Joaquin replied. "But I'm not going to do much talking since your leading this." He replied.
"At the very least, introduce yourself to her and tell her about your self," Love Heart said. At this point they were at the orphanage again, "so are you ready?" he asked his friend.
"As ready as I'll ever be." He grumbled feeling a bit nervous as they entered. They were greeted by the same guy but this time he was glad they were here.
"I'm so glad your hear!" He replied. "Germaine just ran away!" Shimmeringstar looked over to Loveheart now for his leadership.
"What?!" Love Heart was shocked, "when did that happen and did she say anything before she ran away?" he asked.
"All she left was this note." Handing it over to Loveheart. Love Heart took the note and read it. It read,"To the orphanage, although you guys mean well, this isn't for me anymore. Now I took off to find my own way in life. So please don't look for me I can look out for myself. I need to start my own life. Farewell. Truly yours, Germaine. Joaquin showed a sign of worry. "That poor girl. We have to find her Loveheart!" He begged the green bear. "We have to! Please!"
"This can't be good," Love Heart said, "where should be check first?" he asked the man.
"Try the library, she likes reading books and she may have gone there to look some stuff up first," he said. Love Heart nodded and took Joaquin's hand, "then let's go shall we?" he asked. Joaquin held his chin deep in thought. "If she said she ws off to start a new life, I'll bet you she's at the grey hound bus station. She would be in a place where she would be so easily caught." Joaquin proposed. "And I know exactly where the bus station is at. What do you say Loveheart?" He asked.
"That's a good point," Love Heart agreed, they were now outside the orphanage, "how far is it, we may have to fly to get there in time."
"Its three miles due west behind the Jack'n'the Box." Joaquin said informing Loveheart.
"Then you'd better be ready to fly again," Love Heart said, pulling out and extending the staff while grabbing the Fly Card from the book. He summoned the card causing his staff to grow wings and got on, "well then, this is the only way we'll make it, cause we don't know when the next bus she's on will leave."
"Then I'm afraid your on your own," Joaquin stated. "You know my fear of heights." He said backing away from Loveheart.
"I know you're scared, but I'll need your help to talk to her, and if you don't face your fear you'll never get over it. I've been scared of things before but I always remembered that only the willingness to face your fear will ever let you get over it." He said looking at him. "Besides, you do want to be with me right?" Joaquin looked up to him briefly but muttered,
"More than anything Loveheart." He said.
"Then come with me. I won't ever let anything bad happen to you I promise!" Loveheart reached out with his paw and Joaquin took it as Loveheart announced,""Just hold on tight, and here we go!" he kicked off heading just high enough to avoid hitting trees and roofs, "now point out which way to go." But the boy was too busy hanging for dear life. "Joaquin, you must point me in the right direction." He instructed. "Trust me, you won't fall! I've got you." He assured him. Joaquin managed to over come his fear and pointed him due southwest.
"Thanks, now hold on," Love Heart got the staff to speed off in the directino Joaquing had indicated and they flew through the sky. They slowed down just as they came across the bus station and Love Heart landed, "now that wasn't so bad was it?" he asked. Joaquin got up shaking still clinging onto Loveheart. After Joaquin realized that they had landed, he thanked God in a silent prayer till...
"Germaine?" He said as he saw a blue raccoon sitting outside on a bench reading a brown book.
Germaine looked up, surprised to see Love Heart there and someone she had never met, "Love Heart, what are you doing here?" she asked, "and who are you?" she asked Joaquin.
"I'm Joaquin," Replied the boy. "I'm Loveheart's friend." He said proudly.
"Well then I'm happy to meet you, but why are you here?" she asked.
"We're here because we got your message you left at the Orphanage and we would like you to come with us instead of going on your own," Love Heart said.
"Please come with us Germaine." Joaquin said almost begging. "I know what's it like to be alone and lonely. Its no fun! Nobody should have to go through that! So please don't go out on your own. You need friends just like us." He said pointedly.
"You want to be my friend," Germaine asked, looking at Joaquin.
"Yes," Said Joaquin looking directly at her into her eyes. "I don't have too many friends and I don't want you to be alone." He stated plainly. "If you'll permit me that is." He said. Love Heart stood back for the moment, he wanted to see how this played out. Germaine blushed slightly and stood up.
"I, I will," she said. She wasn't sure what to do, never having been hugged before, so she just stood there waiting for something to happen.
"So that means you'll join us?" He said excitedly.
Germaine thought about it before saying, "Yes I will, it's not like I have anywhere else to go and you're the only two peope who have ever tried to reach out to me."
"Alright!" Said Joaquin out loud as he grabbed Germaine and hugged her tightly. "You won't regret this I promise." He said still squeezing her.
Germaine blushed and Love Heart chuckled, "Welcome to the group," Love Heart said, "and get used to being hugged like that, it's how Joaquin likes to show his appreciation for things. Joaquin let go but held her paw in his hand.
"So where do we head off to now Loveheart?" The boy inquired.
"Well, once we get out of town, I'll use the Lazin Board, it's how I usually choose where to go, now let's get moving, We have a lot to tell you Germaine," Love Heart said. As they turned to Leave, Kero poked his head out of Love Heart's back pack and looked at Joaquin and Germaine.
"What's going on here, and why are you holding hands with that raccoon kid?" Kero asked.
"Because she's my friend that's why." He said a bit defensively. "Why do you ask? Do I have to have a reason for everything I say and do?"
"Hey, I just like to keep on top of things," Kero said as Joaquin eyed him closely, "besides you never know what could happen."
"Expect the Unexpected," Love Heart said, saying the Clow Card Credo, "but lets' keep moving, and get your head back in there before someone sees you Kero." Kero obeyed pulling his head into the backpack.
Germaine was a bit surprised, "What was that?" she asked.
"That's Kero, you'll get to know him more later," Love Heart said.
