Chapter 57: Hopping Mall

I've been thinking a lot about Mom lately.

It was easier in Wartwood. I was around familiar faces every day. They didn't start out that way, but eventually I got so used to seeing them that I started to feel like Wartwood was something like a second home of sorts. But now, after a month and a half away, here in this big unfamiliar city, I've become acutely aware of just how far away from my mom I am.

Infinity. I am infinity away from Mom.

I mean, it wasn't like we had the smoothest of relationships. She got on my case a lot for my mediocre grades, for not doing chores, for always getting myself in trouble…

But I also remember her teaching me how to cook, watching Thai romcoms together (I could barely understand what was going on most of the time, but bonding was bonding), spending holidays together…

Basically you don't know what it is you have until you've been missing it for a while.

So that's the frame of mind I've been in going into today. It's a couple of days before we meet with the king, after which we'll be going back to Wartwood, so HP figured out now would be a good time to shop for souvenirs.

We're at Newtopia's outdoor mall. I am at last in my element.

I know what you're thinking, shopping spree in Newtopia on the King's dime! Nope. HP took the credit card and limited us to a budget of two coppers each. In Newtopia. You can't even get a candy bar for that much! Well, the good news is that in Newtopia haggling is a thing, which would've been really nice that time I tried to convince the store clerk at Mango Principality that I deserved a discount for them not having something in my size.

So as I said, I've been thinking a lot about Mom lately, so I decided that I was going to find the perfect souvenir for her. But it had to be something perfect. Something that reflected who she was.

What were her favorite things? Well, she was really into going up to the Sonoma valley… not for the wine, but for the antiques. And she loved to go to the botanical gardens and take pictures of all the exotic butterflies. And we used to take tea on Sundays back when I was little…

After a bunch of false leads, I finally stumbled onto the perfect gift at this small antique shop on Aldrich Drive. It was this beautiful antique teapot decorated with butterflies.

[drawing of teapot]

It was like someone had read my mind and then traveled back in time to craft the perfect gift! I was ready to pay anything, up to and including Wally's soul (we'd negotiate when it came time to pay), but it wasn't for sale. The only way I could hope to get it was to win some kind of shopping cart derby.

Cowabunga it was.

The idea is pretty simple; a bunch of contestants run around a track pushing their partners in a cart and trying to knock down all the other contestants. Seemed reasonable enough. After finding a suitable cart, Sprig and I decided to scope out the competish. Nobody seemed all that impressive. Sure there were some big bruiser types, but we'd dealt with worse in our time. There was one exception, though… this one contestant named Priscilla "the Killa" Paddock, who'd been the derby champ for several years running. She was big, sure… like, the most jacked newt I've ever seen… but you could also tell she had a sharp mind, the kind of person that could overpower you not only with strength but strategy.

So, inevitably, it was time for the competition. As you'd expect, in the end it all came down to us vs. Priscilla and her little girl Pearl. Pearl was tiny and adorable, which I know for a fact can be deceptive, since I live with the perfect example of "beware the cute ones". Between the two of us teams, we'd taken out every other contestant, and now it was time to face off against them one-on-one. And for a while, it looked like we were evenly matched, until we broke out of the course's boundaries and wound up in the mall itself (you'd think that would be an immediate disqualification, but apparently not? Show's what I know).

Now, while all this was going on, Polly had somehow managed to turn two coppers into her own solid gold bucket with wheels and her own personal tiny snail chauffer to pull it. Which is why she had suddenly driven directly into our path. I managed to jump our cart over her, but Priscilla was too heavy to pull it off. She only narrowly managed to keep from hitting Polly by grabbing a lamppost with her tail… which was just enough distraction for us to take her out! All's fair in love and cart derby, after all.

We'd won, and to her credit, Priscilla was a good sport about it and came over to congratulate us. While she was, I noticed that she talked about the teapot's creator like she was familiar with her… like she missed her. I definitely knew the feeling. Maybe I was jumping to conclusions, but based on how she was acting, they seemed like pretty reasonable ones.

So I asked up front: was the teapot made by her mom? And it turns out I was right on the money. No wonder she was so eager to win the teapot. It was was the perfect gift for my mom, sure, but it was all that Priscilla had to remember hers. So I made an impulse decision. It may have been mine by right, but she deserved it more. I'd find something else to give Mom.

Turns out I didn't have to wait long, because Pear was so moved by my gift that she gave me this beautiful crystal butterfly brooch that she'd made herself. It was somehow even more perfect than the perfect gift.

[drawing of brooch]

She's going to love this.

Can't sleep. It's like 2 in the morning. I've been up all night, trying to make sense of a lot of things.. We don't really have anything planned until tomorrow night's sleepover at the castle, so maybe I should just sleep in to make up for it. If I can get to sleep, anyway. It's mostly something I was talking to Sprig about.

It was right before we were supposed to go to bed. We were talking about what Mom would thing of my gift, and then Sprig asked about what Mom was like. Which sort of just degenerated into me getting all teary about how much I missed her. And he just remarked about how lucky I was that I got to know my mom.

I had never really thought about it. I knew that I never had seen a mom or dad in the Plantar household, and I should knew, intellectually, that they weren't in the picture, but I never really made the connection that something could have happened to them. It's not like Sprig or Polly ever talk about them, so it's something that just… never came to mind.

I miss my parents, but Sprig and Polly never even got to really know theirs… heck, I don't think Polly had even hatched at that point. What's worse, having something and missing it, or not being able to miss something because you never really even knew you had it.

I guess you never really appreciate what you're missing until you realize that, if not for a twist of fate, you could have never had it to begin with.

[Drawing of Anne's Mom]

BE HOME SOON.

A.N.: Sorry this chapter took so long. I've just been lazy lately.

Guest: I think Anne knows better than to drink the LA tap water.

Gregorian: Thanks!

Jose: Principal? You think too small.

Ashley: Just channeling her inner Kar-Anne.

Next: The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers