Chapter 3: Meetings and Nightshade and Jack
*GONG GONG GONG!* "TOWN MEETING! TOWN MEETING! TOWN MEETING TONIGHT!" Shouted the Mayor over his megaphone. When his hearse left the town square, every citizen of the town began to travel out of their homes and poured into the meeting hall. However, before Sally could even make it to the door, she felt a grip clasp her wrist. "No, you are not ready for this yet Sally! You have only been alive for a few months, and you're not ready for this kind of interaction yet." Sally pushed at the Doctor's grip protesting, "Yes I am! I've been out before." His grip only tightened. "But not at this level. If you are in that meeting, I know very well that your naiveté will humiliate us in front of the entire town, including the Pumpkin King himself. The last two words made Sally relax her resistance. "He's right, if I do something embarrassing, Jack could never love me back." Then she stepped away from the door. "Good, now since I am needed at the meeting, I request that you make me some tea before I go first."
Without a word, Sally stumbled on the metal floor towards the kitchen and grabbed a dented and slightly-rusty tin kettle. After filling and putting it on the stove, she scurried through the cabin and touched a jar labeled, "deadly nightshade." "Wait a minute, I think I remember reading about this. Anybody who consumes it, even a small amount is supposed to be poisoned to sleep for hours." Before she pushed it aside, she grabbed it out and placed it on the counter next to the chipped and stained tea pot along with the tea leaves. "I swore to myself I would get to know Jack, I just need to find a way to get this deadly nightshade into the tea without the Doctor noticing it."
When the kettle began to steam, Sally started spooning in the tea leaves to the pot, and streamed the boiling water over the leaves. When the leaves were drenched in the water, she took a tiny pinch of the nightshade and began to sprinkle the flecks of tarry leaves into the steaming water and steeping leaves. "I may be taking a risk, but if it means seeing Jack I'll do it." A couple of moments later, Sally brought up the pot with a stained and chipped tea cup on the side filled with the finished liquid. "Your tea is here." After putting it down on the metal table next to him, the doctor instantly grabbed the cup and slowly sipped down the concoction. "Ah, very refreshing my dear. I've never had a tea like this before." After putting the cup down, the Doctor's hands began to fumble, then his brain rattled in his head, and then his eyelids dropped like lead in a lake. It wasn't long until he lulled into dreamland.
"It actually worked." The rag doll began to walk out the front door with a small grin on her face and traveled towards the town hall. After approaching the queue of every citizen in town, she remained silent amongst the new monsters she hadn't met yet and quietly took a seat in the hall. Minutes later, Jack walked out on stage and uttered, "Listen everyone." The whole crowd fell completely silent and all eyes were on him. "With Halloween coming up in a few months I am in need of consulting the general opinion of our plans. I am going to need everyone's take on what we can use, and what we shouldn't. Now everyone please stand in line and..." Sally could barely hear what he was saying and could only look at him with a rosy aura surrounding him. As he faced her area calling on citizens, her heart began to thump and a crooked grin and heavy eyes started to slowly form on her face, but were broken when there was a BONK on her head and she saw black.
Minutes later, Sally awoke to see Jack's eye sockets looking directly at her. "Sally? Sally, are you alright?" Her heart began to go into a frenzy as he was inches away from her face, for two straight minutes she was silent until Jack waved his bony hand in front of her face calling her name. "Sally?!" Rapidly shaking her head for a brief second, she was knocked back to reality, "J-Jack? What happened?" Asked the rag doll. "Well, in the middle of the meeting, the Mayor stepped on a loose plank and it fell and landed on your head. Afterwards, you were knocked out for a few minutes, so I had to end the meeting early." Sally, buried her face into her knees and hid her extremely red face while sobbing, "I'm sorry. I'm very sorry!" Jack stroked her head and claimed, "No, Sally. It's okay, it was all an accident, they happen. It wasn't your fault." She slowly lifted her head, "Really? But it's just so embarrassing. I bet everyone in town laughed at me and now they hate me for ending the meeting." The skeleton shook his head. "No, they didn't, I assure you. I'll tell you what actually happened."
After Sally got hit by the plank, the hanging tree spotted her body completely lying on the floor with no movement. Amongst the crowd starting to queue, he shouted, "JACK! I THINK SOMEONE GOT HURT!" "Huh? Everyone stop lining up now!" The crowd paused, then turned to where the body was. "Oh no! Everyone give the poor dear some space." Cried the corpse mom. The entire crowd then began to flow away from Sally like a wave made by a drop of water. Then Jack came into the middle with an ice pack and gently placed it on her head. The Mayor then waddled into the area and removed his hat as he switched to his sad face. "Jack, I'm so sorry. It was entirely my fault. There was a loose plank." "Mayor, it was just an accident. What matters now is that she's safe." One of the vampire brothers then came out and asked, "Do you think we should end the meeting for tonight?" "If everyone else agrees, then yes. We'll hold it next week." The entire crowd chatted agreement amongst each other and everyone except for Jack went home.
"And that's what really happened. Nobody laughed at you Sally, they were all worried about you. In fact, I was worried about you. I thought I would lose a new friend." Sally's tears completely stopped and she slowly got up while holding on to the king's hand. "T-thank you Jack." After getting up entirely, Jack guided her out of the building and stated, "Come on Sally, let's get you home." As he was escorting her, Sally's heart was beating with every single step he took with her. "I can't believe he's walking me home." When they got to Dr. Finklestien's lab, he gently released her and proclaimed. "I'll see you later Sally, goodnight." Sally gently smiled and waved at him, "Goodnight Jack."
When he was gone from her sight, Sally felt like she was floating on air. Just remembering him holding her hand, walking with her, touching her head, it was like heaven. But all of that broke when she touched the metal door of the lab. Just thinking about the doctor's anger on the other side was enough to scare anyone, even the Pumpkin King himself. But as she slowly creaked the door open, he was still resting his head. Sally then sighed with her heart coming back up from the depths and quietly sneaked to her room. Before she could reach her diary, she heard the Doctor's yawn, and swiftly shut her door.
"Guhhh, what happened to me?" Asked the Doctor. "Must have been something with that tea, regardless. I mustn't.." He looked at the face of the clock. "Oh dear, I slept through the entire meeting. I better check on Sally." The Doctor began to wheel up to the rag doll's room and opened her metal door. "Sally? Are you here?" Upon catching sight of the doll, his question was answered. "Oh good, you're here. I'm sorry I couldn't go to the meeting, something in the tea must have put me to sleep. I wonder what it was." Sally simply played dumb and stated, "I have no idea doctor." "All right then, have a good night Sally." SLAM! Went the door.
Sally grabbed her diary out and began to scribble down,
"Dear Diary,
Today I got to know Jack and the entire town more for the first time and it was amazing. They were very considerate about me and I can only say that the Doctor was wrong about everyone laughing at my actions, including Jack. He was such as perfect gentleman tonight, he helped me recover from that bonk on my head, and he walked me home. Also, he called me his friend, I think he likes me. If he likes me, then I need to be able to talk to him more often. If I do, maybe I can confess to him. Or maybe not, it really depends, I mean it's a huge risk to take. I'm just a peasant compared to him. Also, who knows if he's engaged to some other woman I have never heard of. No, I can't jump to conclusions like that. I mean this is a small town and there are not too many residents here. Regardless, of that I still want to know him and see what he thinks about me.
Your friend,
Sally."
