IMPORTANT! CONTINUATION of MONIQUE'S MISADVENTURE can be found IN MY PROFILE PAGE.

ALSO IMPORTANT! Hi everyone. I would like to thank you for all the continued support! :D Since the last time I posted there have just been so many reviews and subs that I unfortunately can't respond to all of them here. I WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU ALL for the REVIEWS, SUBS, and FAVES! There were a few profound comments that I would like to address. :)

Wolfess: Thank you so much for the encouraging words! I'm sorry I've delayed in posting for so long. I thought I'd do more over the summer, but I actually spent the majority of my time with my family. Thanks for everything! By the way, would you mind checking out my YouTube page? I'd be ever so grateful! :D If unable, I totally understand. ^^ The link can be found in my profile, and my username is xXSSNightingaleXx. :) Your comments are always so fun to read. :)

Emilie: Thanks for all the beautiful comments! Yes, Monique is based on my friend Rosalie. A lot of the zany conversations taking place between Mo and Kay are based on our own. :) By the way, would you mind visiting my YouTube page and offering feedback? I always enjoy hearing from you! I'd appreciate it ever so much. :D If not, I totally understand. ^^ The link can be found in my profile, and my username is xXSSNightingaleXx. :)

SPECIAL THANKS to whomever it was who requested using Doctor Doppler! (I believe this was Wolfess but I'm unsure; I apologize for that.) I had a lot of fun with this. :D

Chapter Nineteen: Christmas Shopping with a Doctor

The entrance door of Sarah's Café pushed open and the bell jingled as Jim Pleiades Hawkins entered the New England style restaurant. His work clothes were folded under his arm as he made his way to the "changing room." Just then, Sarah Hawkins, with her signature impeccable timing, popped up from under a table. "Hi, dear!" She stood up and brushed off her skirt, and while doing so caught sight of something on the floor. She bent down, picked up a crumb, and pocketed it. "Table of six. Five kids. Quite the mess." She shook her head. "That poor mother. One of them spilled a glass of milk under the table." She chuckled. "It's been a while since I've had to get on my hands and knees and scrub."

Jim hesitated, not sure what to say. He never knew what to tell his mother. He took another step forward.

"I can't even imagine what that woman goes through during the holidays."

He stepped forward a few more paces and then stopped short. The holidays. That got him thinking. Wasn't there something important approaching within the month? His eyebrows shot up. Christmas was less than a month away. Normally he wouldn't get too excited over it. A typical Hawkins Christmas involved a single gift exchange and a strained and painful dinner with his mother's dearest friend Doctor Delbert Doppler. Jim cringed. Every year he'd have to take Doctor Doppler shopping for the perfect gift because, well, Doctor Doppler had a tendency for being distracted and the uncanny inability to make decisions on the little things. "Imagine the possibilities," he would always say, as if the concept completely astounded him.

Jim resumed his sluggish pace. As he walked on he wondered what kind of gift Doctor Doppler would want to buy Sarah this year. Another useless book she would never get around to reading? Earplugs? The world's most hideous sweater?

What would he get Kayley? Jim asked himself. Would she like it? Or would she pretend to adore it and throw it in the garbage the minute he was out of sight, just like he had witnessed his mother do with so many of the doctor's gifts. It had to be good. Kayley was the kind who appreciated the little things—as long as they were thoughtful. He could buy her the Little Women novel. "No you idiot," he told himself, "She already has that. How else could she have read it twelve times?" Perhaps a brand new plaid shirt? Maybe that wouldn't show how much he cared. He wanted it to be really special. Something pricked at his mind, a sharp needle that wasn't hitting the right spot. There was something she had mentioned before when they first started dating, but he was having difficulty seeing through the haze as to exactly what that was.

"Now, Jim, I know what you're thinking," Sarah said, intruding on his thoughts. "Another shopping expedition with Delbert isn't my idea of a grand time either, but he really appreciates it." She hesitated, letting a small, impish smile play across her lips. "And it keeps him out of my hair for a while."

He sighed. "Do you even have any idea where he wants to go?" he asked, sounding defeated.

His mother nodded. "Yeah, to Barnes & Noble." She cringed. "Let's hope he skips over the 'PMS for Dummies' guide and just buys me one of the Women's Murder Club novels this time." Sarah winked at her son. "Advise him."

That prickling feeling was back. The perfect gift was right at the back of his mind. It just wouldn't come into focus. Maybe it would come to him while he was out scavenger hunting with Delbert.

O~o~O

"Hmmm…I feel this will be a winner, Jim," Delbert said enthusiastically as he quickly began advancing down the thirteenth aisle of the bookstore. Jim followed behind, eyes narrowing as he slowly exhaled his breath. Not only had Delbert completely scoured twelve book aisles and not come up with one good book, but neither had Jim. How could Christmas shopping for a girlfriend be so difficult?

"Ahh, here we go," Delbert sang, pushing his glasses up his nose. He grabbed a black and yellow book from the shelf and read the title. "Parenting for the Single Mother." He flipped the book over and his eyes roved over the back cover. "'A simple guide to parenting for even the most ignorant, pathetic, desperate single mothers; guaranteed to bring improvement within six weeks.'" He beamed. "Perfect!"

The book was snatched from his hands and stuffed back into its place on the shelf.

"Hey!" Delbert exclaimed, a bewildered expression plastered on his face.

"Believe me, that's not the perfect gift."

The doctor sniffed as he readjusted his spectacles. "Well," he huffed indignantly, "perhaps you could be so kind as to offer some suggestions, then."

Before Jim could answer, Doctor Doppler was already off in search. "Maybe Sarah would be interested in analogy—er, anatomy…astronomy," he stammered, stumbling over his words.

Jim rolled his eyes. Doctor Delbert Doppler just didn't have a clue. "Women's Murder Club," Jim suggested.

The man stopped short. "What?"

Jim backed up a few steps and then disappeared down an aisle, only to reemerge with the latest addition to the Women's Murder Club series in his hand. He waved it slightly. "Here."

Delbert arched his eyebrow as he took the book and opened it up to read the inside panel. His face knotted up and he shot a dubious glance at the boy. "This?" he asked, pointing at the story description.

He nodded. "That's the one."

Stunned, he had to read the panel once more, wondering if he missed something. "This is so…grotesque. And full of misguided morals."

Jim patted the man on the back. "Exactly." He took the book from the doctor and walked it over to the cashier. Shaking his head, Delbert began digging in his coat pockets for his wallet. Upon finding it, he opened it up and peeked in the flap…but there was no money inside. He slapped his palm against his face, smashing his wire-rimmed spectacles into his skull. "Oww."

"What?"

"Well," Delbert answered sheepishly, "it seems I forgot my money."

Jim stared at him. "Seriously? How do you forget that?"

Doppler folded his arms. "Well, Jim, you see, I carry around an empty wallet so that when brutish…uh, brutes attempt to steal my money, they'll take the wallet, thinking it's containing bills. But I really hide the money inside my, uh, my boot. But I had a momentary lapse and believed it was in my wallet, when it in fact wasn't."

They stared at each other.

"Then why don't you just check the boot?" Jim asked slowly, enunciating each word.

"I already know it's not there. I forgot to put it in my boot because I never transferred it from my other wallet I hide in the…" The man looked around cautiously and lowered his voice to a whisper. "…secret compartment of my sock drawer."

He was near his breaking point. "Then how are you going to pay for it?" Each word was strained.

"Credit card," Delbert announced, producing his pocketbook with a flourish.

"So you keep your credit card with you in your pocketbook but you leave your cash in the sock drawer?"

"It's a complicated system, Jim."

Tensing, Jim growled, "I hate complications," and stalked off, needing to cool down. "Stupid old man," he hissed under his breath. Doctor Doppler could just be so…infuriating sometimes. And thinking about how infuriating he was just made him all the more furious. He stomped past piles of literary classics stacked upon a table. Then he spun around, picked one up, and began flipping through it, hoping to come across something distracting within its pages. After quickly skimming over a couple of the pages, he finally took the time to examine the title. King Lear. "Ewww," he said, dropping it back onto the table. It fell next to a burgundy, leather-bound, gold-leaf work by the author Jane Austen. The pages within actually proved to be a little more entertaining and less disturbing. And the best thing about it was he felt some kind of vague connection to it. Turning it over and over in his hands, he found himself back at the counter.

"What do you have there, Jim?" the doctor asked, eying the book. A preoccupied Jim did not answer.

"Here you go, sir," the cashier said as she forked over the receipt.

"Wait a minute." Delbert turned to Jim. "Are you getting that?"

"What?" Jim asked, finally reconnecting with reality.

"Ah, Pride and Prejudice," the cashier voiced with a nod at the leather-bound novel. "A literary classic."

"Most certainly," echoed the doctor. "Though I must admit that I've never gotten around to reading it, myself."

The boy's eyebrows shot up. "That's it!" he cried, nearly dropping the book in his excitement. He threw it into the doctor's hands and began fumbling for his wallet.