Chapter 18: Continuing Jake's Story

With Jake...

FLASHBACK

Jake's heart was pounding. His eyes were wide with worry, and he knew he couldn't back down now. Tonight was the night to go over to Simon and that beautiful girl hamster's house for dinner. He swallowed hard as he paced around a small living room.

An abnormally short blond and white hamster watched as he sprawled on the couch. A very bulky, dark brown hamster just stood in the doorway watching. These two hamsters seemed to be Jake's closest friends.

"Chad, what do I do?!" Jake inquired as he turned toward the blond and white hamster.

The hamster named Chad shrugged. "I say ask questions and talk a lot, like me!" he remarked in a very obnoxious voice.

The dark brown hamster drooled. He seemed to be very mindless.

Jake nodded. "I guess I could try that," he mumbled.

"Is she really pretty?" Chad asked.

"Oh, she's a beauty queen!"

"Hmm...what time are you going over there?"

"Six."

"Ah. Look nice actually, Jake. You don't wanna scare anyone else."

"You sayin' I'm scary, Chad?"

"No, not at all! People just say that."

"Stupid sons of bitches, they are."

After a while, Chad went home. The dark brown hamster didn't leave since he lived with Jake. Jake was too busy making himself look good to realize Chad had left, but he did notice it was quieter in the house right after he left.

"Oh, Chad left," Jake mumbled as he looked back into the living room.

When it was about fifteen minutes until six, Jake rushed out of the house shouting to the dark brown hamster, "Good bye, big friend! I'm be back later, don't you worry!"

Jake looked back at his house. It was a sane-looking house with a neat lawn. He had spent all of his spare time when he first moved in making the lawn and garden perfect. Jake remembered that after he made his house look nice, hamsters from the street were always walking up to the house and looking in, so he had put a thick canvas over the windows from the inside. He sighed as he raced down the sidewalk beside the road.

When he got to the end of the street with a road sign that said 'Brach Street', Jake raced as fast as he could toward the place where Simon had told him to go the day before. He was beginning to sweat by the time he came to a rich neighborhood, and Jake gulped slowly as he walked to the end of the street.

Jake saw a huge house at the end of the street that was purely indescribable. The walls were stucco and stone, and it had a landscape that was right up next to the house. Jake took a deep breath before he climbed a set of steps and rang the doorbell.

As soon as the door opened, Simon came out of the doorway greeting Jake. "Good to see you, Jake!" Simon greeted. He was in a very fancy suit, and Jake was slightly embarrassed that he hadn't worn anything special.

Jake was led inside quickly with Simon. Simon took him down a long hallway into a large parlor. Jake's eyes widened when he saw the bewitching girl hamster in a long, light pink dress with a necklace made of moonstones sitting delicately on the couch. He watched as she kept on reading the newspaper, not even knowing he nor Simon had entered the room.

The girl hamster glanced up and set down the newspaper. Simon spun around toward her and exclaimed, "Why, you finally finished that article! I'm sorry, Jake, that we had to wait until she finished reading..."

"It's alright," Jake said as he blushed.

Simon nodded slightly as he walked over to the girl hamster. "Jake, I want you to meet my daughter, Stella. Stella, this is Jake."

"Hi," the girl hamster, Stella, said with a frown.

"Hi, Stella," Jake replied as he slightly blushed.

Jake didn't remember much of what happened afterward. He remembered he did finally sit down in a chair and talked to Simon. Jake couldn't even hear what Simon said for the most part. He just kept on staring at Stella, never blinking once...

Jake remembered answering questions and lots of them, too. He talked with such proficiency in his voice, and he was trying to be flawless. Jake remembered following Simon into a dainty dining room and eating, but he didn't remember much else. He just continued watching Stella with his restless eyes.

Simon looked over at Jake with interest in his eyes. "So, you like my daughter, don't you?" he inquired, almost as if he read Jake's mind.

Jake automatically nodded without thinking about what Simon asked. "She's beautiful..."

Stella was glancing around the room with wandering eyes. She seemed not to be listening to anything. Jake was wondering what she was thinking about.

"I'm looking for a suitor for her, you know." Simon's voice broke up Jake's thoughts.

"Oh?" Jake said with interest as he focused his full attention on Simon.

Simon nodded. "Stella is a very fine young lady, you know. She seems to like the confident and brave guys, don't you, Stella?" He glanced over at his daughter.

With distant and impractical eyes, Stella nodded without exactly what she was agreeing to.

Jake cleared his throat and remarked in his most masculine voice, "I'm brave, and I'm confident of myself." He tried not to show that he was actually not that brave or confident.

Simon looked at Jake with interest in his eyes. "Oh, so you are? You would make a grand suitor for Stella. Would you like to, you know, maybe marry her? If so, I'll think on it."

Jake's eyes brightened up, and he exclaimed, "I would LOVE to marry your daughter! Oh, I would be the best husband...we'd have lots of kids...I'd make lots of money...people would stop being mean...and maybe I could become President of the US of A!"

"I doubt that...," Simon muttered.

"Well, maybe I couldn't be President, but the rest of the stuff would happen! And I'd make sure Stella got nowhere near those bad guys running around town! You know, the Bad Hams? Yeah, them. I'd cream that guy's face in if he came near my Stella! Maybe I would kill them...but that doesn't matter unless they come near her. You know, that leader of theirs, along with two other members, robbed that store yesterday. Yeah, we were in it at that time, too. I didn't know it until my friend Chad told me earlier today! Wow, you know what? If I had seen that guy at the store, I would have gone after him! Well, anyhow...what do you think of those Bad Ham dudes?"

"Hmm...Jake, I'm not sure. I heard they were some of the worst criminal masterminds that Hamster City has seen." Simon looked out the window. "I heard their leader has robbed many of the hamsters in this neighborhood, and he's killed a few, too. I knew some of them. They weren't the best rich snobs I met, but they're not the worst either. I'm afraid he might rob me someday...of everything. That's why I'm trying to get Stella to marry so she won't be in trouble anymore. I know, she's a bit young, but she's mature enough! I'm thinking about making you her suitor. By the sound of it, I think you would like that."

Jake nodded eagerly. "Oh, I would! I would love to marry your daughter! That'd be so grand...don't you think? Yes, I do!"

Simon smiled slightly with true happiness.

Jake glanced over at a clock on the wall. He turned pale as it read it was about ten o'clock at night. He turned toward Simon again and remarked, "Oh my, I have gotta go in a few minutes!"

Simon nodded. "I guess," he remarked as he got up from the table. "Come along now!"

Jake got up and followed Simon to the door of the dining room. He turned toward Stella and signaled for her to come. Stella seemed to come back from her thoughts and walked over to them.

After chatting a bit about why Jake had to leave, which was because he had to tend to the dark brown hamster, the three hamsters walked to the door of the house. Simon flashed a smile and remarked, "Well, Jake, it was nice for you to come! Come again, please!"

Jake flashed a confident smile and replied happily, "Of course, I'll come back!" When the door was about to close, he whispered, "Good night, Stella."

Once the door closed, Jake happily floated in the air. He had won the girl of his dreams, or he thought he had. He happily walked all the way home in the darkness of the night, and there was only the moonlight and the streetlights there to help him. Once Jake got to the end of Brach Street where there was the sign, he used the payphone to tell Chad the news. Chad seemed to be happy for him with a bit of jealousy in his voice. When Jake got back to his house, the dark brown hamster was asleep on the dining room table with a box of cereal in his paws. Jake smiled and retreated to his room for the night.

END OF FLASHBACK

Jake lied on the couch as he listened to the rain fall against the roof of his house. He related it to the sound of his heart swelling up and breaking into many pieces. His pain in his heart hadn't ceased since he saw Stella at her father's funeral. Jake knew that he was the one who was supposed to be her suitor, so why didn't she just accept it?

Sigh, maybe Chad's right...hamsters do think I'm pretty weird, Jake thought to himself. I hear that Bad Ham leader is pretty brave and confident, like I said I was, but I'm not like him. It's natural for him to be brave and stand up for what he believes in. It's unnatural for me to fight strongly, but I'm starting to get used to it. I mean, don't I have to fight with Stella? Why doesn't anyone like me?

Jake looked at the window with canvas over it. He glanced at the window sill of it and saw a paint scraper. Jake carefully picked it up slowly and felt all the pain that swelled and had burst in his heart. He held his wrist out and slowly rasped it. Jake kept on cutting his wrist and arm until the dark brown hamster, who was now nicknamed also Jamie, saw him and took the paint scraper from him. Jake screamed at him and reached for it, but the hamster tossed the paint scraper across the room and kept Jake from getting it. He seemed to mouth something, but, of course, he didn't have a larynx, so the only thing that could have been heard was Jake's screaming.

Jake pulled himself away and screamed, "Why doesn't she like me? I love Stella, but she hates me!!! Why, why, WHY?!"

The dark brown hamster watched Jake with a helpless look on his face as Jake threw himself down on the ground. The rain kept on beating on the rooftop, and it seemed to increase every second. Spasmodic tears rolled down Jake's face as he continued to scream at himself. He even tried to get the paint scraper back, but the brown hamster put the paint scraper atop of a high surface. He waited for Jake to get over his fit, and it only took a few minutes until Jake finally calmed down again.

Jake shook his head and sat up. He stared up at the dark brown hamster and stood up. Jake continued to shake his head with his head in his paws as he walked out of the room. The dark brown hamster followed him into the dining room where he sat down. The hamster put bandages on Jake's arms where Jake had scraped himself with the paint scraper and left Jake alone.