Sometimes I feel like this story will never end…but here's another link in the never-ceasing chain! Enjoy and gawk at the awkward Marlin-Nami conversation!
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Let Me be Close
When Kate came to her senses for the second time that day, she felt the wooden table under her body, smelled the smell of antiseptics in the air and heard the noise of someone breathing nearby. She slowly began raising herself to a sitting position and shook away the light feeling in her skull. "Katrina, are you alright?"
Kate twisted her head to locate the source of the question. It had come from a boy with blond hair and a red shirt. "Who are you and where am I?!" She demanded bossily.
"What are you talking about? We've already met. I'm Hugh, remember? We raced to Cody's trailer and you won…"
If this is a trap…it's a clever one. This kid might be some shrimpy hit man sent by the Poobah Jones. She began searching her skin until she found a needle topped with a blinking green light embedded in her arm. She pulled it out gingerly, inspecting her surroundings as she did so. "Where am I?"
Hugh was eyeing her nervously. "You're at Doctor Hardy's house. He wasn't home but I brought you anyway. Are you sure you're alright? Should I call your parents?"
"Do hush, please. If the Poobah Jones sent you, you can tell him that I still have his tortoise and it's safe apart from the third eye. If you are, by chance, telling the truth about the alleged race to the alleged trailer…then I have been outsmarted and duped by the mystical divinity beneath the Goddess Pond. Retaliatory measures mush be taken." Hugh stared at his friend with a blank expression. Kate sighed and said, "I can see that you didn't understand me. I have a deal for you. You may not be aware of this, but I have graduated with a quadruple major from best school on this planet. I am a genius and I occupy my time by trying to enslave mythical creatures and spying on the locals for Daryl. I propose that you join my cause and become my partner in crime-that-isn't-crime. What say you?" She felt proud of the moment. It wasn't everyday that one acquired a not-too-sharp partner to be one's puppet and assistant in one's plans for personal gain.
Perhaps Hugh was smarter than he looked, however. "What's in it for me?"
"What's in it for you?" Kate was amazed at his audacity. "If you join me, I won't take you to court, how about that? After all, I'm a sweet, innocent girl who just woke up on a table in an empty house with a strange boy and now I have strange clothes on. That could be detrimental to future plans--a charge of assault might put a damper on your life."
"Er…yeah…I'm all for the whole 'partner' deal." Maybe Hugh wasn't as smart as he looked, after all. He was more awed and petrified than anything else at the moment. What had he gotten himself into?
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Nami had followed Jack back to his house. "Hey, Jack, wait." He stopped and turned around, cheeks still retaining the flush from earlier. "Listen…forget whatever Marlin said. You have to tell me where Lumina is. I just looked around in her house and it's completely abandoned."
"Oh, they're dead. I mean, Romana and Sebastian are." He hastily made himself clear when Nami paled. "No, Lumina went to live with her brother, Clifford, in Mineral Town. She left last night before you arrived."
"Sh-she did?" Nami shoved her hands in her pockets, cursing herself for not returning earlier. "Did she…leave a message for me?"
"I don't remember. I don't think so, though."
"Oh." I bet she was mad a me for leaving. "I guess I'd better go get my room back at the Inn."
Jack opened and closed his mouth before speaking again. "Would you like me to go with you?"
"No." She called over her shoulder as she left his farm emotionlessly. He watched her go and wished, just for a moment, that he had such complete mastery over his own emotions.
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Never again, Muffy decided, never again will I go to Daryl's house after dark. One could certainly discover interesting facts when one paid a visit to the local mad scientist ho lived near the swamp of lower Forget-Me-Not Valley. She had knocked on his door and asked if she could use his computer. "Heh, heh. Certainly. Come in!" Daryl had sniveled greasily. She allowed herself to be conducted into his strange house that was cluttered with textbooks, test tubes, crumpled papers and cast-off cans of energy drink. The blonde gaped at the what seemed to be millions of pictures papering the walls. When examined closer, they were all candid shots of Flora at work, walking around the town, petting her pet Chihuahua and talking to the archaeologist, Carter, whom she lived with. In every picture, Carter's face was covered in scribbles and doodles of mustaches and devil horns. Slightly disturbed by the total insane obsession surrounding the strawberry blonde Flora, Muffy hurried over to the laptop on a desk. She typed in the request for modeling agencies and the search agencies began pulling in pages. Daryl watched her as she worked.
Three applications later, a knock came at the door. Daryl ceased his unblinking surveillance of the blonde bombshell and scuttled to the door. Kate was the knocker. Muffy twisted her head to examine the teenager whom she had never seen before. The girl had brought Hugh to the small house as well. "Good evening, Daryl. I'd like you to examine this boy if you would. If he's clean, he is to become my new partner."
Daryl grinned with a distasteful glee. "Yes! Oh, I have another assignment for you. Your partner can help." He pushed Hugh into another room, followed by the girl who appraised Muffy before closing the door behind herself. Muffy listened curiously to the sounds coming from inside the room--zaps and buzzing noises. Once every few minutes Hugh would protest or yelp loudly. The waitress finished processing her applications and stood up just in time to be graced with the sight of Hugh being led out of the room, tugging his shirt down. Kate had a smug look on her face. Her curiosity peaked, Muffy gathered her purse slowly, but the threesome said not a word until the visitor was on her way back to the Blue Bar for the night.
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There isn't a strong enough word in the whole dictionary to describe how displeased Ruby was when Nami strode into the Inn and requested a room. The stout cook was utterly and wholly appalled at the reappearance of her least favorite person on earth. There was something different about the redhead this time. Normally she would have demanded a room. Today, however, she asked politely and had wiped her feet on the welcome mat. Still, this did nothing to quell Ruby's great anger that boiled her very soul.
"Hello, Ruby. May I have my room back, please?" Nami inquired.
Ruby gaped. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!?"
"I'm looking for a room. Um…are you alright?"
"No." Ruby cast about the room for a sharp stick, but there were none to be had. "I-I…no! Out of my Inn!"
Nami looked confused and said soothingly, "What? Calm down…"
"No! Oh, heavens…WHY? BACK FROM WHENCE THEE CAME, FELL BEAST! I WILL NOT SURRENDER! AH!" Ruby grew increasingly possessed-looking until she picked up the same mop that she had vented her anger on her radio with. Droning Hindi curses deliriously, Ruby chased her victim out of the Inn. "CHORRO MUJHE! TUM BARII SHAITAAN HO! MAR JAA O!" (A translation for you: Leave me alone! Go drown yourself in the flood! Die!)
Terrified, Nami loped back to Jack's house. Night had fallen and the farmhouse was dark when she knocked on it's door. Jack opened it warily, but was relieved to see the girl. "Nami, what's the matter? You're all sweaty."
"Jack! Ruby's gone insane! She's yelling in some crazy language and trying to kill me with a mop!"
"Whoa, girl," Jack put his hands on her shoulders comfortingly. "calm down. Do you not have a room?"
"No! She was yelling at me in a different language and trying to beat me with a mop. What about that don't you get?"
"So what do you want me to do?"
Nami hadn't thought of that yet. What did she want him to do? "Can I stay in your barn?"
"Rock will be with you out there, but you're welcome to it."
"Scratch that idea. I will not room with Mr. Lovely. I guess I'll…go…sleep by the springs. Thanks…anyway…bye." Nami didn't favor the idea of sleeping on the ground, but she just couldn't bring herself to ask…
Jack felt guilty as his friend began slumping away towards the springs. She was a lady, after all. Ladies shouldn't sleep on the grass that was wet with dew. "Hey--HEY! Nami!" The girl returned to him eagerly. "Er…don't take this the wrong way...but you're welcome to stay with me if you'd--"
"Really? Thanks so much!" Nami had given him a kiss on the cheek and was lying on the rug before Jack could respond.
Putting a finger to his searing-hot face, Jack grinned sheepishly and stepped over Nami to get to his bed. "Good night." He mumbled.
"'Night. Thanks." Nami curled up like a cat on the rug and closed her eyes. Right. I just half-kissed the farmer boy. What is wrong with me? She felt like she was changing. She was like a caterpillar crawling into a cocoon and feeling the physical and emotional weathering take place. Ever since her return to the valley last night, something had changed. The air was different and it inspired good feelings where she had been so numb before. Why now did she feel guilt and the urge to say thank you? Why now did she not take things for granted? Why did she want, deep down in the very pit of her heart, to stay with him tonight? Who was he to deserve her? Who was she to deserve him? Every caterpillar that spins a chrysalis emerges a butterfly…right?
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The next morning both Chris and Samantha woke up and began making breakfast as usual--not bothering to check on their kids. That's a good thing, though, because if they had bothered to, they would have noticed that the teenagers weren't in bed. Both Kate and Hugh had been awake and out of the house since five o'clock that morning. After a series of embarrassing and invasive tests performed last night, Daryl pronounced Kate's new partner to be free of anything unusual and possibly threatening. Satisfied, she informed Hugh of the many assignments that they would be completing in the next few days.
Hugh never thought that he would ever be skulking around the windows of Jack's house. The poor farmer didn't even know that he was being watched. Only after furious argument did Kate agree to turn her head as Jack changed his clothes. "You can't watch him dress. It's just wrong."
"But what if he does something important while changing? We could miss it and then we'll never be able to borrow Daryl's DNAS."
"You told me that we were only supposed to watch how he talks to the red headed girl. Why would she be in the house while he's dressing? As a matter of fact, why are we watching him now, anyway? Nami can't be in his house now--it's early morning. She wouldn't be at his house this early." Hugh couldn't resist glancing through the window slyly.
Kate smirked. "No? Who's that, then?"
The two observed a familiar face and head of messy red hair come through the kitchen door into the living room that served as Jack's bedroom. "Ah! She is there! Why?"
"Wouldn't you like to know, you perv?" Kate was enjoying herself immensely with her new partner. She actually used a slang word--perv--that wasn't a real word. Her college professors would have been ashamed.
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Sure, Muffy was a pretty girl. In fact, she was drop dead beautiful. Despite this, she never thought she'd get a call from an agency two days later. Only two days had passed since she witnessed the strange scene in Daryl's house. Two short days and there was a call for her from the leading agency in the city. Griffin was as pale as death when he came to his faux daughter holding the telephone receiver between two fingers as if it were a rabid animal. The old-fashioned bartender had never gotten the hang of using the telephone and didn't like Muffy using it either. "It's a call for you. Here…take it." He thrust the receiver at her quickly and hurried away.
"Hello?" Muffy asked tentatively.
"Hello? Is this Muffy Bayner?"
"Yes, that's me."
"Ah. Good. My name is Hunter Carr and I'm with Bevel Modeling. You sent us an application, is that correct?"
Muffy tensed, nervous as to the nature of the call. "Yes…I did…"
"Well I must say that your photographs were some of the best amateur photos we have ever received. We don't normally do this, but you're accepted already! I see no reason to set up any interviews…so…would it be alright for you to join us down here in Wyssh City? I'll send a courtesy limo to pick you up."
"A…a…a limo? A limo? Wow! Sure! When will you be here?"
"I can have a ride there in two days. Is that okay? You'll need to bring enough clothes and necessities for a few weeks at a time. You can come back home every two weeks or so."
"Two days…oh…that's soon." Muffy tilted her head and ran her hand through her curls to comfort herself.
"I'm sorry, but that's the only time slot available. Do you want the job?"
Muffy closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Ooh…yes. Two days is fine. I'll be ready. Thank you!"
Hunter sounded relieved. "No, ma'am, thank you." Muffy returned the receiver to it's dock and stood still for a few seconds. Two days. She'd better start packing. She'd also better tell Griffin, Celia, Jack and…Rock, too. Selfishly Muffy looked forward to the shocked expressions on their faces. It would be nice to be missed.
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Nami was too preoccupied with her thoughts about Jack to notice Kate and Hugh huddled beside his house. She was thinking about the sleepless night spent of the floor of the farmhouse and how Jack smiled when he slept. Someone once wrote a book about how the sleeping person's expressions tell a lot about their personality. A big dopey grin suited Jack just fine. What expression do I wear?
She was so preoccupied, in fact, that she didn't even notice when she bumped into Gustafa on her way to…nowhere. She was just walking aimlessly. "I'm sorry, friend!" Gustafa said cheerfully when they collided.
"No, no, it was my fault, Galen." Nami mumbled. She was surprised to find herself at Vesta's farm. Marlin was working purposefully in the crop beds. Nami wandered up to him. "Hi. How are you?"
"I'm fine. How are you? It's nice to see you back in town. How long have you been back?"
"Oh…three or four days, I'd say. So, tell me, have you and Celia been enjoying yourselves?" Nami smirked.
Marlin squirmed and faked a smile. "What do you mean, pray tell? There's nothing going on between Celia and I."
"At the risk of sounding clichéd…" Nami almost giggled. "make sure you wipe the lipstick off of your face before lying blatantly. Have a nice day." She turned and left Marlin furiously scrubbing at his blushing face. Well, if there was nothing left to do, she might as well go bother Jack while he worked in his farm.
And that was precisely what she did.
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One day I'll get somewhere with this story. One day. Review, please! I love everyone who reviews!