Chapter 29: Home Again for Real

Throughout the rest of the afternoon, Becca had a grand time on her field trip. She did her best to socialize with her peers, and if anyone bullied her, Becca just ignored them. At the end of the day, she remembered her promise to her book friends back in Libralia. Sure enough, as she and her classmates exited the library with some books, Becca had gathered up five familiar-looking books – one of them was a brown adventure book, another one was a lavender fantasy book, a third one was a blue horror book, the fourth one was a yellow science fiction book, and the fifth one was a green mystery book. There was a big line at the check-out desk to see Mr. Dewey, but then a younger employee waved his hand for the next customers. That employee was a young man in his thirties, and he had blonde hair and blue eyes; he also wore a pair of glasses, a red dress shirt, a pair of dark blue jeans, and brown shoes.

It wasn't long before Becca went up to the desk and saw the young man. He greeted her as she handed him her library card. As he checked out the books, a surprised look came to his eyes. "Hey," he said, "I remember checking out three of these books a long time ago when I was a kid!"
"You did?" asked Becca with interest, "Which ones?"
"The adventure one, the fantasy one, and the horror one," said the man, "My name's Richard, by the way. And you are?"
"Beth- er, I mean, Becca Ridges!" said the girl as she pointed to her name on her card.
"Oh, yeah, I see now!" said Richard as he handed his customer her books. He printed a receipt from the computer, placed into the mystery book, and finished, "Okay, Miss Ridges, these books will be due in three weeks' time. I hope you enjoy your adventures within these stories!"
Becca smiled and said, "Oh, I will! Thank you!"
As the girl headed towards the bus, Mr. Dewey stopped her and said, "Miss, I think this little friend belongs to you, too!" He walked over to her with Sheila the kitten in his hands.
Becca stopped, placed the books down, and then gently placed Sheila into her backpack. "Thank you, Mister," she said, "I had a great time in your library!" Mr. Dewey smiled and winked as he watched Becca take her belongings and catch up with the rest of her classmates.

Sometime later, Becca was walking home with her books in her hands and Sheila sleeping in her backpack. "Okay, Becca," she told herself, "You can do this – you can convince Mom and Dad that you can take care of a kitten. And maybe even the neighbor's dog, too!" When she arrived home, Becca opened the front door and called, "Mom! I'm home!"
Tasha, who was doing some chores upstairs, came down the staircase and greeted her daughter by saying, "Hello, sweetie! How was the field trip?"
Becca smiled and said, "It was great! It was basically the adventure of my life!"
Her mother gave a puzzled look and said, "Gee, I didn't know that learning to be a librarian could be so interesting."
"Well, it is," replied Becca, "Because you get to explore different genres with books, and travel in different worlds. Who knows? You may even become a different person!" She then showed her mother her books and then took off her backpack. She opened it up and pulled out Sheila. "Mom, the librarian there told me that his cat had kittens a few weeks ago," she explained, "He probably said that they're old enough to be on their own, and I really like this one. I named her Sheila. So may I keep her, PLEASE?"
Tasha thought for a moment and said, "I don't know. I thought you said you were afraid of animals."
"But that was before my field trip," pleaded Becca, "Something inside me changed, and now I like animals. In fact, I can even babysit the neighbor's dog sometime if I had to! I swear, Mom, I'll protect and take care of Sheila with all my heart!"
Becca's mother also couldn't resist Sheila's cuteness, and then she grinned, "All right, darling. She's yours. But please promise me that you will feed her and clean up after her every day!"
"I promise, Mom," replied Becca as she hugged her mother.
"In the meantime," continued her mother, "I'll call your father and tell him about your new family member so that he can swing by the store and pick up some cat food and cat litter on the way home!" So Tasha went to telephone Mark while Becca took Sheila and the books upstairs to her room.

Becca spent the rest of the day telling her parents about her day at the library, taking care of Sheila, and her aspirations to become a children's author. "Sounds like my little princess had a busy day!" said Mark with a smile during dinner, "I'm also very glad that you aren't scared of animals anymore. Maybe in a few months, after you get the hang of taking care of Sheila, I might ask the neighbor to see if you can babysit their dog."
"That would be great, Dad!" said Becca, "But let's hope that the dog isn't like Stephen King's Cujo!"
"Oh, no!" laughed Tasha, "This dog is a friendly Great Dane. He's just as lovable as Scooby-Doo!"
Becca just grinned. "I'm also going to do better in school – I promise! I'll stop drawing pictures, and I'll focus more on studying variables and poetry!"
"That's my girl," said Tasha, "I knew you would put your bad memories past, and keep the good ones at all times!"
Becca made a sad smile. She remembered the day Nicole died, but she also thought of the happy times she spent with her friend; she also thought about feeling lost in the morning, but then she replaced that sad memory with a happier memory from her dream when she broke an evil curse, and was reunited with her imaginary family.