*Disclaimer* Usual rules apply, but I'll add more: I do not claim ownership of Nintendo, Borders, Gameboy, CNN, the Weather Channel, or Zelda. Thank you.
A/N: I usually hate to poll the studio audience, but I need to know if a sequel would work for this story. I'm thinking it might not. Read on!
Chapter 45- ...Or Was It?
After some more poking and prodding, checking her temperature and listening to her heartbeat, the doctor shuffled out, bent over his clipboard, scribbling with a pen. Another pen was stuck behind his ear, apparently forgotten. Her mother began smoothing her hair, playing with the pillows, generally trying to make her as comfortable as possible. She thought about Rose, with her mother dead and father gone. She reached over and carefully gave her mother a hug.
"I love you, mom." Her mother sounded surprised.
"Why, I love you too, sweetie. What...what was that for?"
"I don't tell you enough. And sometimes people don't know until it's too late. So I thought I'd tell you." Her mother released her, and returned to tucking her in and elevating her head, so she could look around the room better. She wasn't really interested in the room, though.
"What's that?" she asked, making disjointed gestures at a large stack of papers on a table.
"Oh, well, part of that is your school work, and the other part is medical bills." Her mother's face become troubled at that.
"Are they bad? I thought I had student insurance!"
"You do, dear...but you shouldn't be worked up, don't worry about it. It'll be fine."
"Mom, the insurance is $25,000! Shouldn't that be enough? Mom?"
"Honey, the doctor said not to get worked up. Everything will turn out just fine." Delaney sank back into her bed. What a wonderful thing to wake up to; if she hadn't been standing in the middle of the street, her mother wouldn't be facing a medical bill that probably cost more than she made in a year. What were they going to do? She wished for her dream world. There weren't insurance bills there.
By the second day, Delaney thought she could go crazy. At least while she was dead to the world, she had her dream to keep her occupied. But now, she had nothing to do except lie in bed and try to remember the dream that slipped away elusively, like a wisp of smoke on the wind, or flip through the three channels on the T.V. in her room: the Weather Channel, CNN, and Spanish soap operas. Hardly sustaining activity.
"Mom, can you bring my Nintendo? And Zelda? I really need something to do." Her mother nudged the sizeable stack of papers with her elbow.
"How about your homework?" Delaney rolled her eyes.
"There's my idea of a good time. Please, mom? I'm going nuts. If all I have to do is school work, you're going to be negotiating medical bills from the psycho ward. Besides, it's been two months! I need to get my feel for the game back again!" Her mother pursed her lips and frowned.
"Why is this video game more important than your school work?"
"Mom! I've been doing my school work! I'm almost halfway done with world geography! Don't I deserve a break? Please?" Her mother appeared to give in. But only to an extent.
"I'm not hauling those machines to and from the hospital. But I'll see if I can get you some books or games. How's that sound?"
"Gameboy?" she asked hopefully.
"Board games. You're too technology-dependent." She would have argued that point, but her mother wouldn't possibly believe that she had spent almost a year in a society that, if she could scrape this correctly from the dim recesses of her mind, didn't even have pens.
Her mother returned, two and a half hours later, with a huge stack of books. Delaney's eyes widened.
"You won't bring my Nintendo, yet you drag the entire library into here?" Red-faced with exertion, her mother plopped them on the bedside table, which sagged a little bit, it seemed to Delaney.
"Don't you get smart with me," her mother huffed, "Reading is much better for you than staring at the T.V. screen all day. Now. I went down to Borders and asked the clerk there what he would recommend for you if you like that Zelda game so much. He gave me these. You're going to read every single one, do you hear me? For what I spent, you better like them, too." Delaney sighed. Her mother just did not understand the nuances and satifaction a game like Zelda possessed. It was a shame that they didn't even own a lap-top.
She reached for the first book and examined the cover. Then she read the back. Mildly interesting. She placed it aside. She gave all the other books the same treatment until she got to the last, and thickest, volume. This one impressed her. It was red, and leather-bound, with colorful blue, green, and gold foil inlay. Her mother tapped the cover.
"The clerk I asked? This was the first one he recommended. Beautiful, isn't it? Why don't you read this one?" Delaney shrugged. It had no summary on the back, like the other paper-back ones she received had.
"What's it about?"
"I don't know, dear. You know I'm not much of a fantasy person, myself. But he highly recommended it. Highly. You should start with this one." She shrugged again and examined the spine. There, in gold foil (no doubt meant to emulate the gold leaf of an illuminated book), was the title, in elegant script: The Lord of the Rings. She opened to the first page of the prologue: Concerning Hobbits. With those two words, her imagination was ensnared. She continued reading, well into the night.
It was on the fourth day that she hit the chapter: The Council of Elrond. All through this book, something had been gnawing at her. But when she read that, it grew stronger. There was something about this book. Or rather, this trilogy. Her heartbeat quickened, inexplicably, and she read voraciously. This was an important chapter.
Her mother wasn't here. She wouldn't be here until after dinner. There was nothing to stop her from reading until the mystery was settled once and for all, no one to tell her that maybe she should do her homework. Homework paled in comparison to this book, and the secrets it contained.
She stopped dead, and reread the sentence. Reread it several times. And once again, to make sure: -There was also a strange Elf clad in green and brown, Legolas, a messenger from his father, Thranduil, King of the Elves of Northern Mirkwood.-
Her heart thudded, her pulse echoing in her ears. Legolas...Legolas...and it all came crashing back to her in an instant.
A/N: There. Not bad, eh? The next few chapters will be wrapping the story up: how she deals with medical bills and her newly remembered other life, going back to school, etc. It should only be three chapters or so. I'm almost done! This is so cool!
A/N: I usually hate to poll the studio audience, but I need to know if a sequel would work for this story. I'm thinking it might not. Read on!
Chapter 45- ...Or Was It?
After some more poking and prodding, checking her temperature and listening to her heartbeat, the doctor shuffled out, bent over his clipboard, scribbling with a pen. Another pen was stuck behind his ear, apparently forgotten. Her mother began smoothing her hair, playing with the pillows, generally trying to make her as comfortable as possible. She thought about Rose, with her mother dead and father gone. She reached over and carefully gave her mother a hug.
"I love you, mom." Her mother sounded surprised.
"Why, I love you too, sweetie. What...what was that for?"
"I don't tell you enough. And sometimes people don't know until it's too late. So I thought I'd tell you." Her mother released her, and returned to tucking her in and elevating her head, so she could look around the room better. She wasn't really interested in the room, though.
"What's that?" she asked, making disjointed gestures at a large stack of papers on a table.
"Oh, well, part of that is your school work, and the other part is medical bills." Her mother's face become troubled at that.
"Are they bad? I thought I had student insurance!"
"You do, dear...but you shouldn't be worked up, don't worry about it. It'll be fine."
"Mom, the insurance is $25,000! Shouldn't that be enough? Mom?"
"Honey, the doctor said not to get worked up. Everything will turn out just fine." Delaney sank back into her bed. What a wonderful thing to wake up to; if she hadn't been standing in the middle of the street, her mother wouldn't be facing a medical bill that probably cost more than she made in a year. What were they going to do? She wished for her dream world. There weren't insurance bills there.
By the second day, Delaney thought she could go crazy. At least while she was dead to the world, she had her dream to keep her occupied. But now, she had nothing to do except lie in bed and try to remember the dream that slipped away elusively, like a wisp of smoke on the wind, or flip through the three channels on the T.V. in her room: the Weather Channel, CNN, and Spanish soap operas. Hardly sustaining activity.
"Mom, can you bring my Nintendo? And Zelda? I really need something to do." Her mother nudged the sizeable stack of papers with her elbow.
"How about your homework?" Delaney rolled her eyes.
"There's my idea of a good time. Please, mom? I'm going nuts. If all I have to do is school work, you're going to be negotiating medical bills from the psycho ward. Besides, it's been two months! I need to get my feel for the game back again!" Her mother pursed her lips and frowned.
"Why is this video game more important than your school work?"
"Mom! I've been doing my school work! I'm almost halfway done with world geography! Don't I deserve a break? Please?" Her mother appeared to give in. But only to an extent.
"I'm not hauling those machines to and from the hospital. But I'll see if I can get you some books or games. How's that sound?"
"Gameboy?" she asked hopefully.
"Board games. You're too technology-dependent." She would have argued that point, but her mother wouldn't possibly believe that she had spent almost a year in a society that, if she could scrape this correctly from the dim recesses of her mind, didn't even have pens.
Her mother returned, two and a half hours later, with a huge stack of books. Delaney's eyes widened.
"You won't bring my Nintendo, yet you drag the entire library into here?" Red-faced with exertion, her mother plopped them on the bedside table, which sagged a little bit, it seemed to Delaney.
"Don't you get smart with me," her mother huffed, "Reading is much better for you than staring at the T.V. screen all day. Now. I went down to Borders and asked the clerk there what he would recommend for you if you like that Zelda game so much. He gave me these. You're going to read every single one, do you hear me? For what I spent, you better like them, too." Delaney sighed. Her mother just did not understand the nuances and satifaction a game like Zelda possessed. It was a shame that they didn't even own a lap-top.
She reached for the first book and examined the cover. Then she read the back. Mildly interesting. She placed it aside. She gave all the other books the same treatment until she got to the last, and thickest, volume. This one impressed her. It was red, and leather-bound, with colorful blue, green, and gold foil inlay. Her mother tapped the cover.
"The clerk I asked? This was the first one he recommended. Beautiful, isn't it? Why don't you read this one?" Delaney shrugged. It had no summary on the back, like the other paper-back ones she received had.
"What's it about?"
"I don't know, dear. You know I'm not much of a fantasy person, myself. But he highly recommended it. Highly. You should start with this one." She shrugged again and examined the spine. There, in gold foil (no doubt meant to emulate the gold leaf of an illuminated book), was the title, in elegant script: The Lord of the Rings. She opened to the first page of the prologue: Concerning Hobbits. With those two words, her imagination was ensnared. She continued reading, well into the night.
It was on the fourth day that she hit the chapter: The Council of Elrond. All through this book, something had been gnawing at her. But when she read that, it grew stronger. There was something about this book. Or rather, this trilogy. Her heartbeat quickened, inexplicably, and she read voraciously. This was an important chapter.
Her mother wasn't here. She wouldn't be here until after dinner. There was nothing to stop her from reading until the mystery was settled once and for all, no one to tell her that maybe she should do her homework. Homework paled in comparison to this book, and the secrets it contained.
She stopped dead, and reread the sentence. Reread it several times. And once again, to make sure: -There was also a strange Elf clad in green and brown, Legolas, a messenger from his father, Thranduil, King of the Elves of Northern Mirkwood.-
Her heart thudded, her pulse echoing in her ears. Legolas...Legolas...and it all came crashing back to her in an instant.
A/N: There. Not bad, eh? The next few chapters will be wrapping the story up: how she deals with medical bills and her newly remembered other life, going back to school, etc. It should only be three chapters or so. I'm almost done! This is so cool!