Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who reviewed on my last
chapter! To Demented Fan...please don't subject me to cookie torture! My
friends pulled it on me at my birthday party last year, only with a
twinkie, and I went absolutely psycho! Thanks once more to
purplefluffychainsaw (I LOVE YOUR NAME!) and Witch of Darkness, and
obviously Demented Fan.
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Chapter 3: Crazy-Insane or Insane-Crazy?
Tobias lead me along the streets. My office wasn't that far from Kensington Gardens, and for that I was thankful. I wasn't going to spend a long time with this nutcase. Middle Earth? Right in the middle of London? He was doing some heavy duty anti-deppressants, I thought melodramatically as we enterred the park. He was stepping ahead of me, the bag carrying 'Arwen's Tiara' jangling by his side as he stepped almost merrily down the dirt path. It cracked under my black heels, crunching with a certain moist sound you only got from recently rained on parts of soil. I heard thunder rolling off and away, somewhere on the other side of the city. Great, I thought again. Walking in the park, with a madman, while it's thundering and lightning outside? This day was off to a great start wasn't it Lane?
"Right here." He said stopping. I too came to a stop, looking around. The path was still beneath my feet, the grass was still green on either side, and every so often there was a tree dotting the park. I placed my hands on my hips, waiting for something to happen. Tobias looked around nervously. Was this his way of seducing pretty girls? I hoped not. This was definitely not giving him any brownie points from me. He looked at the ground, then back up before closing his eyes. "Trust me it'll happen any second now."
We waited for another moment, me tapping my foot impatiently on the ground and looking at my watch. Tobias was calm and composed, still somehow convinced that we'd be in the forests of Middle Earth at any moment. I finally lost my somewhat cool exterior.
"Well, this has been lovely." I said. "But the magic carpet is obviously not coming and...oh look at the time." I turned on a heel and started to go. Tobias, I had figured, would say something. At least anything to keep me, but my ten minutes, and my ten nerves were up, and my feet were doing the thinking now. "Thank yo..."
I had turned around to say goodbye to him. It was the least I could do, being as he had a one way ticket to the Sanitarium. But when I turned around, for some odd reason, Tobias was no longer standing there. Great, I thought. Now I have to file a missing person's report too. I turned around again, looking everywhere.
"Tobias?" I asked to no one in particular. Where the hell could he have gone too? I wondered as I walked a little ways down the path. The park was almost empty, as far as I could tell. "Hello?" I called again, turning around, looking like a moron. "Okay fine." I said, giving up. "I'll write your bloody article now just get out of where you're hiding!" They were a crunch of my foot hitting the path and then, suddenly, I was knocked to the ground by a heavy force in a hurry.
"I knew it!" He shouted, the big lug, getting off me and helping me back to my feet. "I knew you'd write the article!" He started jumping like a giddy school boy and dancing around the regardless of the family who walked by and eyed us oddly, thinking we were the people who recently escaped the asylum. "Did you see it? Wasn't it magnificent?"
"See what?" I demanded, now feeling very lost. He stopped jumping and his smile faded. I think I just confused him at that moment. He looked directly at me. "I saw you disappear." I added. "That was it. Then I stood here like a moron before you tackled me to the ground."
"But I heard you." He said. "Clear as day, through the woods." I shrugged, dropping my shoulders and looking around. "Are you sure you weren't there?"
"Are you sure you were?" I asked him in return, pulling a pack of gum from my pocket, forgetting I had put it there. "Gum?" He took the piece I offered and we stood there, waiting for something else to happen. "There's only one thing I don't understand."
"What's that?"
"Everything." The bubble he was making popped and I sighed. He looked at the sky. He reminded me so much of a little kid. Insanely nice, jumpy, giddy, confused...It was cute almost, if it wasn't really obnoxious. In the past 2 days this guy had claimed to see-and apparently go to-Middle Earth, where he claims he stole a tiara from Arwen Evenstar.
"So are you really going to write this into an article?" He asked, giving me very well done puppy dog eyes. I sighed again, blowing a bubble with my gum. I finally nodded and he hugged me, grabbing my shoulders in a tight hold and jumped up and down, running up and down the path. "I KNEW IT!"
"YOU'RE INSANE!" I shouted. He jumped up and laughed. I dropped my head, realizing I too was smiling. He ran back to me.
"This is great." He said, his lips were hugely smiling. "I can't believe this! I always knew this place existed! Always!" He shouted it to the place where he had disappeared. I sighed again, heavily this time. "No." He began. "You have no idea how much I wanted this to be true. I love the books. I honour Tolkien. And ORLANDO BLOOM IS SO NOT HOT!" I eyes him confused for that one, while he laughed and hugged me again, spinning off and jumping around in circles. "I knew it!"
"Alright." I said loudly. "Let's get back inside before you hurt yourself." I grabbed his left arm, Tobias still laughing as I dragged him back to my office where I could start writing this article. I had no idea how I was going to write it, but I felt like I needed to do this. Somehow. It was odd how these things happen. One minute you think you're the fittest and most psychologically sound person in the world. Then your father reads you Lord of the Rings as you go to bed, allows you to pretend you're Arwen Evenstar, and then naturally, everything you wanted to be true (ie. SANITY!) all goes out the window and into the trash. Lovely, I thought, simply wonderful. I'm now the reporter for a nutcase who disappears and shows up once more in an instant. And not just any nutcase. A nutcase who reminds me completely of my father.
"It's amazing." He began, and I knew Tobias was not going to stop. "It's beautiful! This is going to be the conquest of our era!" He cried out, the couple who passed us eyeing him oddly, but he must get that a lot since he barely reacted. "Think about it, space, drugs, the ocean, and now Middle Earth!"
"Have I told you that you NEED HELP?!" I asked him. "There is no Middle Earth. This is simply my way of keeping my promises."
"But there is." He said, stopping and pointing a finger at me. "You know it. I know you do. You have that look to you." He said. "You look like a woman who has believed in Middle Earth forever."
"I never believed in Middle Earth." I said. "Ever. I never read the books, I never liked the story and I hate the movies! The only reason I ever watched them was for Orlando Bloom and Viggo Mortensen...and possibly the Hobbits but that's beside the point!" Okay, Lane. I thought to myself, now you've gone too far. You've not only completely lied to him about all of the above (say for the Orlando Bloom part), you've just completely massacred your father's corpse and everything he taught you. I shook off the feeling. The man laughed, his head rolling back and he stopped suddenly.
"You like Orlando Bloom?" He asked suddenly. "No you don't. Now you're really lying to me." I looked at him sincerely. He eyed me strangely. "Do you really?" I nodded, a slight smile on my face. Was this all part of some awkward plan I had? Or was this just a game for me? Leading this gentleman around like a mule with a carrot in front of his nose? Possibly it was a little bit of column A and a little of B. I did like him, I know that now, but I didn't think at the time that what I was saying would actually affect me in the future. Tobias grinned. "No. You couldn't. I can imagine why you hate the movies...quite frankly the Elves at Helm's Deep were enough to piss anyone off, but you? Not like the books? I think you're lying to me."
"Look." I said, cutting to the chase and ending the conversation. "I have to go. I've got work to be done. But I'll type up this article. What should I call it?" I pulled my notepoad out of my pocket. Another thing my father taught me, always be prepared. I guess that's why my boss hired me so young. I'm only 23 you know. "Middle Earth in our Backyard?" He didn't laugh. He was really serious about this.
"Think of a title later." He replied. I jotted it down but he placed a hand on my wrist. "And please don't call it that." I smiled at him. He looked into my eyes, matching wits with what I am told is a powerful stare. My mum used to say that about my father as well, that we both, no matter how different, had these powerful gazes that could bring the most powerful forces to their feet. "Call me. Here's my number." He grabbed my notepad and my pen, jotting down 7 digits and handing it back to me, his name scribbled beneath it. I grinned.
"Then I'll call you later." I said, walking off. He waved.
"See you." He said happily, walking in the opposite direction. I looked after him for a moment as he stopped short in the middle of the path and looked around, before continuing to walk. This time he pulled no disappearing act, just continued to walk into the park. I wanted to call out to him, but decided that I was already wasting my time enough with an article about a portal to Middle Earth. You know, my mind thought, people have ruined their careers with articles like this. I sighed deeply. Yeah. I bet JK Rowling never had to deal with this.
After work I stopped by the bookstore across the street. I'm in a very populated and urbanized section of town, full of shops and stores to peek through. It just so happened that this bookstore had the copy of the book I was looking for. Due to the recent uproar caused by the movies, they had a whole shelf devoted to copies of my father's 'sacred' book. I brushed my brown hair out of my face, tossing it onto my back and looked through the covers, finally finding the Tolkien Biography and picking it up, flipping through the pages a little ways. It was a thick paper back, and I knew that my father probably had a copy of it somewhere, but I decided what the hell. I only live once don't I?
I looked through the other books on the shelf. Naturally there was the trilogy. Each copy of the book was nothing like original books. The books I found were covered in movie images. Had they no idea of the stories behind the titles. The Fellowship, The Two Towers, The Return of the King...it was almost as if these people had seen the movie and never read the works. I felt ashamed to have seen the movie. Granted the first was actually pretty well done. The second I found almost chaotic, almost too far Hollywood that my initial reaction was to leave the Theatre.
But the bookstore was quiet and soothing at that hour, the crowds coming and going. Almost four teenager girls had crowded around the poster of Legolas and stared at the man beneath the blond wig. I though they were insane. Not doing judgement on Orlando's job at the character, I found it very believable. Still, there's more then a blond wig and a nice face. Quite frankly I think Peter Jackson was trying to sell his movie with sex appeal. Liv Tyler? Orlando Bloom? Viggo Mortensen? The whole cast was a list of Hollywood's best looking. Next thing you know, they'll put Halle Berry as 'the real Galadriel' in nothing but a skirt and bra.
I purchased 5 books that evening. The Biography obviously, followed by a book of Tolkien's artwork, and the newest copies of Lord of the Rings. All together I spent over 90 pounds on Tolkien and his work. I suddenly felt like my father. He'd go to the bookstore and come back with copies and copies of books and writing. He even applied to Oxford, just to walk in the libraries. He mentioned to my sisters and I that he eventually snuck in and looked around. At that point we were fascinated with him. He told us they actually had a class devoted to the study of Tolkien's writing. My father died before he could apply.
I always thought I could go back there and do it for him. Just for something to do. Unfortunately, my budget was stretched far enough, and it wasn't like I could just go to Oxford. I had terrible marks in school, and Oxford takes an act of God to be accepted.
Still, the thought still comes to mind. I spoke to my mother about it and she just laughed. I was forced to cut the conversation short, as I usually do with my mother, and just go on with my life. My guess is that mother never respected father. It had to be true. The chances of my mother ever believing my father was certainly far fetched. My mother is a skeptic, my father is a believer. They say opposites attracted, but they were like a fish and a bird. I can see my father as more of the bird. He liked to soar and let his imagination run wild. My mother was most definitely the fish. She like confinement and staying still, a aspect my father hated in people, especially his wife.
He liked me though, and the reasons I'll never know why. His writing, my mother claimed always included a girl like me. Spirited, not afraid, holding a sword. This stunned me. That was the point she gave me the key to his library, mentioning for me to go in sometimes and look over everything. I often wonder if I should. Alas, the door, like my heart and my father's life, remains forever locked.
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Still to come: The "Eagle and Child" Tavern and a look into Oxford's Library.
REMEMBER TO R&R!
Chapter 3: Crazy-Insane or Insane-Crazy?
Tobias lead me along the streets. My office wasn't that far from Kensington Gardens, and for that I was thankful. I wasn't going to spend a long time with this nutcase. Middle Earth? Right in the middle of London? He was doing some heavy duty anti-deppressants, I thought melodramatically as we enterred the park. He was stepping ahead of me, the bag carrying 'Arwen's Tiara' jangling by his side as he stepped almost merrily down the dirt path. It cracked under my black heels, crunching with a certain moist sound you only got from recently rained on parts of soil. I heard thunder rolling off and away, somewhere on the other side of the city. Great, I thought again. Walking in the park, with a madman, while it's thundering and lightning outside? This day was off to a great start wasn't it Lane?
"Right here." He said stopping. I too came to a stop, looking around. The path was still beneath my feet, the grass was still green on either side, and every so often there was a tree dotting the park. I placed my hands on my hips, waiting for something to happen. Tobias looked around nervously. Was this his way of seducing pretty girls? I hoped not. This was definitely not giving him any brownie points from me. He looked at the ground, then back up before closing his eyes. "Trust me it'll happen any second now."
We waited for another moment, me tapping my foot impatiently on the ground and looking at my watch. Tobias was calm and composed, still somehow convinced that we'd be in the forests of Middle Earth at any moment. I finally lost my somewhat cool exterior.
"Well, this has been lovely." I said. "But the magic carpet is obviously not coming and...oh look at the time." I turned on a heel and started to go. Tobias, I had figured, would say something. At least anything to keep me, but my ten minutes, and my ten nerves were up, and my feet were doing the thinking now. "Thank yo..."
I had turned around to say goodbye to him. It was the least I could do, being as he had a one way ticket to the Sanitarium. But when I turned around, for some odd reason, Tobias was no longer standing there. Great, I thought. Now I have to file a missing person's report too. I turned around again, looking everywhere.
"Tobias?" I asked to no one in particular. Where the hell could he have gone too? I wondered as I walked a little ways down the path. The park was almost empty, as far as I could tell. "Hello?" I called again, turning around, looking like a moron. "Okay fine." I said, giving up. "I'll write your bloody article now just get out of where you're hiding!" They were a crunch of my foot hitting the path and then, suddenly, I was knocked to the ground by a heavy force in a hurry.
"I knew it!" He shouted, the big lug, getting off me and helping me back to my feet. "I knew you'd write the article!" He started jumping like a giddy school boy and dancing around the regardless of the family who walked by and eyed us oddly, thinking we were the people who recently escaped the asylum. "Did you see it? Wasn't it magnificent?"
"See what?" I demanded, now feeling very lost. He stopped jumping and his smile faded. I think I just confused him at that moment. He looked directly at me. "I saw you disappear." I added. "That was it. Then I stood here like a moron before you tackled me to the ground."
"But I heard you." He said. "Clear as day, through the woods." I shrugged, dropping my shoulders and looking around. "Are you sure you weren't there?"
"Are you sure you were?" I asked him in return, pulling a pack of gum from my pocket, forgetting I had put it there. "Gum?" He took the piece I offered and we stood there, waiting for something else to happen. "There's only one thing I don't understand."
"What's that?"
"Everything." The bubble he was making popped and I sighed. He looked at the sky. He reminded me so much of a little kid. Insanely nice, jumpy, giddy, confused...It was cute almost, if it wasn't really obnoxious. In the past 2 days this guy had claimed to see-and apparently go to-Middle Earth, where he claims he stole a tiara from Arwen Evenstar.
"So are you really going to write this into an article?" He asked, giving me very well done puppy dog eyes. I sighed again, blowing a bubble with my gum. I finally nodded and he hugged me, grabbing my shoulders in a tight hold and jumped up and down, running up and down the path. "I KNEW IT!"
"YOU'RE INSANE!" I shouted. He jumped up and laughed. I dropped my head, realizing I too was smiling. He ran back to me.
"This is great." He said, his lips were hugely smiling. "I can't believe this! I always knew this place existed! Always!" He shouted it to the place where he had disappeared. I sighed again, heavily this time. "No." He began. "You have no idea how much I wanted this to be true. I love the books. I honour Tolkien. And ORLANDO BLOOM IS SO NOT HOT!" I eyes him confused for that one, while he laughed and hugged me again, spinning off and jumping around in circles. "I knew it!"
"Alright." I said loudly. "Let's get back inside before you hurt yourself." I grabbed his left arm, Tobias still laughing as I dragged him back to my office where I could start writing this article. I had no idea how I was going to write it, but I felt like I needed to do this. Somehow. It was odd how these things happen. One minute you think you're the fittest and most psychologically sound person in the world. Then your father reads you Lord of the Rings as you go to bed, allows you to pretend you're Arwen Evenstar, and then naturally, everything you wanted to be true (ie. SANITY!) all goes out the window and into the trash. Lovely, I thought, simply wonderful. I'm now the reporter for a nutcase who disappears and shows up once more in an instant. And not just any nutcase. A nutcase who reminds me completely of my father.
"It's amazing." He began, and I knew Tobias was not going to stop. "It's beautiful! This is going to be the conquest of our era!" He cried out, the couple who passed us eyeing him oddly, but he must get that a lot since he barely reacted. "Think about it, space, drugs, the ocean, and now Middle Earth!"
"Have I told you that you NEED HELP?!" I asked him. "There is no Middle Earth. This is simply my way of keeping my promises."
"But there is." He said, stopping and pointing a finger at me. "You know it. I know you do. You have that look to you." He said. "You look like a woman who has believed in Middle Earth forever."
"I never believed in Middle Earth." I said. "Ever. I never read the books, I never liked the story and I hate the movies! The only reason I ever watched them was for Orlando Bloom and Viggo Mortensen...and possibly the Hobbits but that's beside the point!" Okay, Lane. I thought to myself, now you've gone too far. You've not only completely lied to him about all of the above (say for the Orlando Bloom part), you've just completely massacred your father's corpse and everything he taught you. I shook off the feeling. The man laughed, his head rolling back and he stopped suddenly.
"You like Orlando Bloom?" He asked suddenly. "No you don't. Now you're really lying to me." I looked at him sincerely. He eyed me strangely. "Do you really?" I nodded, a slight smile on my face. Was this all part of some awkward plan I had? Or was this just a game for me? Leading this gentleman around like a mule with a carrot in front of his nose? Possibly it was a little bit of column A and a little of B. I did like him, I know that now, but I didn't think at the time that what I was saying would actually affect me in the future. Tobias grinned. "No. You couldn't. I can imagine why you hate the movies...quite frankly the Elves at Helm's Deep were enough to piss anyone off, but you? Not like the books? I think you're lying to me."
"Look." I said, cutting to the chase and ending the conversation. "I have to go. I've got work to be done. But I'll type up this article. What should I call it?" I pulled my notepoad out of my pocket. Another thing my father taught me, always be prepared. I guess that's why my boss hired me so young. I'm only 23 you know. "Middle Earth in our Backyard?" He didn't laugh. He was really serious about this.
"Think of a title later." He replied. I jotted it down but he placed a hand on my wrist. "And please don't call it that." I smiled at him. He looked into my eyes, matching wits with what I am told is a powerful stare. My mum used to say that about my father as well, that we both, no matter how different, had these powerful gazes that could bring the most powerful forces to their feet. "Call me. Here's my number." He grabbed my notepad and my pen, jotting down 7 digits and handing it back to me, his name scribbled beneath it. I grinned.
"Then I'll call you later." I said, walking off. He waved.
"See you." He said happily, walking in the opposite direction. I looked after him for a moment as he stopped short in the middle of the path and looked around, before continuing to walk. This time he pulled no disappearing act, just continued to walk into the park. I wanted to call out to him, but decided that I was already wasting my time enough with an article about a portal to Middle Earth. You know, my mind thought, people have ruined their careers with articles like this. I sighed deeply. Yeah. I bet JK Rowling never had to deal with this.
After work I stopped by the bookstore across the street. I'm in a very populated and urbanized section of town, full of shops and stores to peek through. It just so happened that this bookstore had the copy of the book I was looking for. Due to the recent uproar caused by the movies, they had a whole shelf devoted to copies of my father's 'sacred' book. I brushed my brown hair out of my face, tossing it onto my back and looked through the covers, finally finding the Tolkien Biography and picking it up, flipping through the pages a little ways. It was a thick paper back, and I knew that my father probably had a copy of it somewhere, but I decided what the hell. I only live once don't I?
I looked through the other books on the shelf. Naturally there was the trilogy. Each copy of the book was nothing like original books. The books I found were covered in movie images. Had they no idea of the stories behind the titles. The Fellowship, The Two Towers, The Return of the King...it was almost as if these people had seen the movie and never read the works. I felt ashamed to have seen the movie. Granted the first was actually pretty well done. The second I found almost chaotic, almost too far Hollywood that my initial reaction was to leave the Theatre.
But the bookstore was quiet and soothing at that hour, the crowds coming and going. Almost four teenager girls had crowded around the poster of Legolas and stared at the man beneath the blond wig. I though they were insane. Not doing judgement on Orlando's job at the character, I found it very believable. Still, there's more then a blond wig and a nice face. Quite frankly I think Peter Jackson was trying to sell his movie with sex appeal. Liv Tyler? Orlando Bloom? Viggo Mortensen? The whole cast was a list of Hollywood's best looking. Next thing you know, they'll put Halle Berry as 'the real Galadriel' in nothing but a skirt and bra.
I purchased 5 books that evening. The Biography obviously, followed by a book of Tolkien's artwork, and the newest copies of Lord of the Rings. All together I spent over 90 pounds on Tolkien and his work. I suddenly felt like my father. He'd go to the bookstore and come back with copies and copies of books and writing. He even applied to Oxford, just to walk in the libraries. He mentioned to my sisters and I that he eventually snuck in and looked around. At that point we were fascinated with him. He told us they actually had a class devoted to the study of Tolkien's writing. My father died before he could apply.
I always thought I could go back there and do it for him. Just for something to do. Unfortunately, my budget was stretched far enough, and it wasn't like I could just go to Oxford. I had terrible marks in school, and Oxford takes an act of God to be accepted.
Still, the thought still comes to mind. I spoke to my mother about it and she just laughed. I was forced to cut the conversation short, as I usually do with my mother, and just go on with my life. My guess is that mother never respected father. It had to be true. The chances of my mother ever believing my father was certainly far fetched. My mother is a skeptic, my father is a believer. They say opposites attracted, but they were like a fish and a bird. I can see my father as more of the bird. He liked to soar and let his imagination run wild. My mother was most definitely the fish. She like confinement and staying still, a aspect my father hated in people, especially his wife.
He liked me though, and the reasons I'll never know why. His writing, my mother claimed always included a girl like me. Spirited, not afraid, holding a sword. This stunned me. That was the point she gave me the key to his library, mentioning for me to go in sometimes and look over everything. I often wonder if I should. Alas, the door, like my heart and my father's life, remains forever locked.
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Still to come: The "Eagle and Child" Tavern and a look into Oxford's Library.
REMEMBER TO R&R!