I hope you all are enjoying the story so far! Do you guys love it, dislike certain things, want to talk about it and apply it to your love for orange peel/slicer combination tools? I'd love to hear from you guys in the comments. I'm reeeally curious! =D Thanks again for reading my story, and enjoy this chapter.
Chapter 3: Hungry for Dreams
Even though today was a new day, the problem I faced was even living through the sunrise. For who should be standing behind the front door, at six o'clock in the morning ready for work, but my fuming mother and disappointed adult-friend ready to see my mother off.
"HOPE ROSALINE TOADINGTON! YOU ARE IN SOOO MUCH TROUBLE YOUNG LADY!"
In retrospect, I shouldn't have been all too surprised that her yell would scare off birds or wake up the neighbors on the block. I shouldn't even have been shocked at the volume she yelled at.
Looking back now, could you blame her?
"You have no idea how worried she's been," Mr. Broque said with a wink.
"I lost sleep waiting for you all night. Not even one phone call to tell me where you were or…" She sighed one of those 'I'm disappointed in you' sighs. "And you were grounded, that's what gets me the most. You deliberately left when I told you no!"
"Look, mom, I'm—"
"No," she snapped. "No, no I'm not gonna do this anymore. You have got to learn to be a little more responsible! How can I trust you if you can't even be that?"
"Mrs. T, she is responsible." I'm really glad Kory stood up for me, but not even he could change my mom.
"Look, I don't have time to argue about this, I'm now late for work. We'll talk about this later." She turned to Mr. Broque. "Can you watch over her please?"
"Sorry, madame, but you remember that today was the day I was going shopping for you."
I do believe my luck started changing then, I really do.
"Well, who is gonna patrol this ungrateful—"
"Pardon me, madam." I spun my head around and saw something I hoped not to reveal until after my mom calmed down. Yes, Toadsworth was speaking to my mother. "I hear that you're in desperate need of a babysitter?"
He shoved his way in front of me, proving his existence. My mother's face was redder than Fawful's when he's high on fury. Oh my Grambi, if I recorded this it would have turned into a meme, I kid you not!
"Who the Underwhere are you? ! Has my kid tangled you up in this mess?"
"Absolutely not, madam. I found them on my own free will."
"And you said you could babysit?" Slowly, I saw my mother's rage disappear… or it morphed into approval.
"Oh, yes! I've had many years looking after—"
"That's great. You're hired. I've gotta go. Bye." And with that, she stormed off to her 10-coin-an-hour job.
"Ah, oui, I as well. Au revoir! And do try to have fun."
"Bye, Mr. Broque!" Kory shouted back.
"Oh, Kory! I almost forgot! Your parents called our house and left a message for you! It's on ze island!"
Kory confirmed he heard Mr. Broque's message as our threesome headed inside to find out what we were going to do.
"Well, kids, this fine lady's mother put me in charge. So, what to do now?"
I walked into the den and plopped on the couch face-first. I was beat! Oh, yeah, really after such a long night out and about… end sarcasm. But seriously, all I wanted to do was sleep. I didn't care about anything. I didn't care about chores, I didn't care about the fact it was Saturday, I didn't care about that field trip I wasn't even going on anymore, I didn't care about my mom's seething rage. Nothing.
To quote very wise words, 'Dear Diary, Mood: Apathetic.'
"I don't care," I mumbled through the couch cushion.
"Well," started Toadsworth, "How about we pay Old Peach's Castle a visit?"
That I cared about. Why? Ask yourself this. Would you, after a number of years and given the fact that everything you know is now a lie, waltz up to a demonic ruler's castle and barge right in for a spot of tea and to catch up on the 'state of things'? Okay how about another question: Are you out of your mind?!
Don't answer that.
Luckily, Kory stood up to the idea instead of me.
"How come?" Yes, his only offense was two words.
"We seem to be lacking anything better to do. I could make you work around the house…" Yes, please! "But there's the matter of me not knowing what needs to be done around here."
"We could visit my parents?" Kory innocently suggested. Another bad idea to add to the list. They just kept going on and on about what to do… it was as if neither of them were tired a teensy bit! I don't understand men sometimes. Or humans, but I told you about that already.
Soon I felt the pleasures of sleep take me away from my body. I wasn't fully asleep yet, I could still hear those two arguing about what to go do. I never had any interest in their conversation… I kept drifting off.
"Let us ask what Hope wants to do." Toadsworth finally asked. But by the time they asked me, I was more asleep than Tubba Blubba.
~*-Beyond-*~
The sun.
A cloudless blue sky.
A cool summer's breeze blowing through a luscious green meadow.
This is where my dream started off. I ran with a giant grin on my face. I had no care in the world. I was free.
Kory was there, too. He had to catch up to me, though; being tall and all, he caught up to me lickety split. He was as happy as I was.
The air was clear; clearer than it's ever been here in Toad Town.
Up ahead, Toadsworth was sitting on a picnic blanket with food prepared for all of us under the shade of a large Goomnut tree. We talked, laughed, and simply enjoyed each other's company.
A flash.
I floated in a black void alone. I tried to speak, but my echo garbled up my speech. Suddenly, four apparitions appeared in front of me. They seemed so familiar… as if I had another dream with them before. Except this time I could partially see what they look like.
"Hope, you must save the kingdom," the woman dressed in a pink dressed said. I could see the expression on her face was pure sincerity.
The other three men – two mustachioed humans and a large, red-haired Koopa – agreed with a wholehearted nod.
Another flash.
Kory and I stood in some weird other dimension. The walls, and even the floor, were glowing an eerie iridescent glow. The room even felt it was giving off a pulse.
What was more disturbing was what stood in front of us: the embodiment of the Dark Star. It looked like a giant black bug with three legs, arms, and an antenna with the Dark Star's purple star insignia on it. Even stranger was that Fawful's goofy grin and swirly glasses stared right at us.
In the blink of the eye, the colour changing walls and floor turned black-and-white and the bug-like villain created the largest arrow I ever saw. Carefully, it took aim at Kory…
And fired.
Kory's eyes were wide open, mouth agape. Death faced him head on and he couldn't move. He lost the strength to move out of the way.
And there I was on the sidelines watching him… also frozen.
Impact.
~*-Beyond-*~
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" I screamed as I jolted upright, still on the couch. Kory and Toadsworth were at the kitchen island now, sitting on barstools, and I saw that Kory almost fell out of his because I probably startled him so much; it's actually funny because Toadsworth looked unfazed.
Outside, I could hear birds screeching and flapping their wings as they flew out of the trees they likely sat in (I saw them through one of the windows). I felt bad for them since this wasn't the first time today that this happened.
"Is everything all right, Ms. Hope?" Toadsworth asked calmly. I breathed for a few seconds to calm myself down before answering him.
"Yeah… yeah. Just… Just a bad dream, that's all."
"Well, I'm glad you're awake, Hope." I recognized that Kory was trying to be nice, but I could tell that even he knew he was failing. "Oh, and we've decided what we're going to go do this afternoon!"
"Afternoon? But isn't that hours away?" I asked.
"My dear, you were sound asleep in your 'nap' as it were for a good seven hours. It's now one o'clock."
Yikes, I remember thinking. One o'clock in the afternoon? And my dream felt really short, too. However, I didn't linger on that thought for too much longer because that's when my stomach rumbled.
"Sounds like someone's hungry," Kory teased. "Since Mr. Toadsworth hasn't been around here for quite some time, why don't we eat out? Maybe something on the way to our destination?"
"Quite a splendid idea, Kory!" he exclaimed in his cute accent. "Although, before we go, you may want to clean yourself up Hope."
"Yeah, you were sweatin' up a storm while you were napping!"
That's exactly what I wanted to hear from my best guy friend. Rolling my eyes and with an annoyed sigh, I trudged upstairs to take a shower. When I got upstairs, I found I couldn't really argue with them because, well… they were right. I felt my forehead and it was dripping with sweat! It must have been a cold sweat, because I didn't feel feverish.
I was in and out of the shower faster than I knew it, and then I quickly changed into my casual wear blue with silver lining vest on top of my purple sweater. Now, when I turned to leave my room I stopped for a moment to look back at it. I had this strange feeling that this was the last time I would ever see my room. I don't know what brought up that thought, but I'm so glad that I did stop and stare.
Even to this day, I cannot say whether what I saw was real or if I doublethinked it. I saw two younger versions of Kory and me from the day that we met. I know that only because that was the day I accidentally knocked him over into my dresser after trying to give him a hug. My young self giggled despite the fact I gave him a 3-second concussion. Young Kory got up and plopped himself on my bed, backside down and started laughing too.
We were so carefree back then… We were too young to know what Dark Bowser and Fawful were doing to the land. And then we grew up; school got harder and politics entered our lives. But I'll never forget all the other fun times and all the kart races we had in that room.
Getting over my premonition and wave of nostalgia, I rejoined my friends downstairs. Not without first instinctively running to my Lil' Oink bank and collecting all the coins in it. It was all part of that weird feeling I had that I still can't explain. In total, it ended up to be around 150 coins. I was in a hurry, so I didn't really take my time to count every coin.
"So, where are we going to eat? I'm starving!" I exclaimed, bounding down the stairs.
"I thought we'd go over to Mihn T's place, if that's okay with you Hope."
"Of course it is!"
"Pardon my intrusion, but who is Mihn T. and what happened to Tayce?"
"Oh, that's right. You haven't heard yet…" Kory started. "Well, Mihn took on apprenticeship when we were really young and Tayce was out shopping the day of the bombing. She didn't make it, and ever since then, Mihn has been the town's local go-to cook."
"But she's very good!" I defended immediately. "She's actually just as good as Ms. Tayce T, I must say!"
"Well, Grambi rest her poor soul, I suppose," Toadsworth muttered. "At least she's back with her husband and making cakes for him again."
Kory and I looked at each other for a second, confused at his statement. Nevertheless, we were out and about in no time! On our way, I actually panicked for a second, and asked Toadsworth what if my mom came home. He reassured me saying that he left a note on the refrigerator that told her everything she might want to know.
To get to her house, we had to walk east a few blocks and then turn left north. It was quite an easy walk seeing as she's the house on the corner where we turn north. It was also convenient that it was Tayce's old house.
The bell on her door chimed as we walked in. Instantly, we were hit with the wafting smell of something she was already cooking. She always liked to experiment with old recipes and she loved to make her own. It was always a surprise if she used an old, unaltered recipe of Tayce's. Sadly, she could never perfect her world-famous cake recipe…
"Hello! I'll be right down!" She also loved to multitask, so seeing her at the oven cooking a meal all the way through was another rarity.
She came running down the stairs putting on her black-rimmed glasses, which really brought out the green in her cap. She was also wearing an orange lace apron with nothing but a pocket in the centre, her usual and favourite accessory.
"Oh, Hope and Kory, what a surprise!" she squealed on the middle of the stairs. "And who is your elderly friend, if I may ask? He looks like he could use a good cup of Koopa's Tea."
"Astounding that she knows my favourite beverage…"
"This is our friend, Toadsworth. He's new and we thought we'd show him around." At the best of times, Kory's a great actor. I just hope one day he doesn't take it too far.
"Ah, well, welcome to Toad Town, Mr. Toadsworth. So sorry you could enjoy it only in its worst hours. Tell me, since you have much wisdom and have obviously traveled far and wide, do you remember a time when Toad Town wasn't so… purple and, er, hazy?"
"I'm afraid that we don't have time for idle chit-chat today, Mihn," Kory said. "We just came in for some Yoshi Cookies or some other sweet."
"I think I have a spare Melon or two around here somewhere. Yes… You, Hope?"
"I'd like Fresh Juice and Spicy Pasta, please," I said with a smile.
"And you, Toadsworth?" Mihn asked.
"Oh, Overthere, it's been so long since I've had any quality food. Er… do you know the recipe for Fried Shroom?"
"Sure, any Mushroom. But they're hard to come by these days… how about some Spicy Soup? I have plenty of Fire Flowers in case I can't start my oven or some rogue tries to break in at night."
"That sounds marvelous."
"And how would you like your tea: Turtley Leaf or Koopa Leaf?"
"Koopa, please."
"Lovely," she smiled. "Now, since this is your first time here, you get your food for free! How awesome is that?"
"Perfect because I left my money at home… huff!"
I stifled a giggle and I could tell Kory was trying to as well.
"And-and since we're with him—"
"Oh, no Kory. You've tried this before and the answer is still no." She walked over to her oven and started prepping our food.
"Do make yourselves at home! I may be a while, so don't feel bad to take a mint out of the candy dish."
Her mints are simply divine… though even they don't compare to Monsieur Broque's foreign candies. Her mints are homemade – actually it was her first successful recipe independent of Tayce's help. Of course she's never told anyone because of it, and I respect her for it.
"'In case some rogue tries to break in'? What on earth does she mean?" Toadsworth asked as we sat on the couch in the other room. "Toad Town has always been a peaceful Mecca for all who come to live here!"
"Well, that was before the whole Dark Bowser and Fawful incident I told you about last night."
"That's fair, but how about the Mushroom shortage? Why on earth is the Mushroom Kingdom out of Mushrooms?"
He took a moment to stop and think about the possible reasons why there would be no Mushrooms while we're under half the rule of a Beanish dictator.
"It's that Fawful fellow, isn't it?" He finally concluded.
"Yeah…"
"Truth be told, this is not the first time we have had trouble with the little guy."
"I think I remember reading about that in the library," I quipped. "Wasn't he with some evil lady named Guffawlette or something?"
"No, no. Her name was Cackletta. Admirable attempt, I must say."
Wow, why did I get that wrong? Ever since I decided to attend college at WooHoo University, I had spent lots of my spare time to researching the history and culture of the BeanBean Kingdom. And I hadn't told anyone this… ever, but those coins I was saving up were going to go toward a tour package. It would have included airline fare (round-trip!), hotel fees, food, and everything else.
I hope one day I get to go.
"…and that's when we discovered Fawful was insane. In that one moment, I have never seen anyone else—"
Mihn interrupted Toadsworth's story by telling us that our food was ready.
"Thank you, Mihn!" I cheered. As we reentered the kitchen, I noticed that she turned on the radio.
"I hope you don't mind that I turned the radio on. It's just that NPR is covering the president's visit to the castle and I wanted to hear what the president does."
"President?" Toadsworth asked innocently.
"The President of Isle Delfino. He randomly decided the other day that he should visit our leaders. He hasn't said why—actually, he hasn't spoken to anyone since then."
"Have they said anything about it yet? Y'know… the radio?"
"Not yet… it's just commercials so far because I just turned it on. Anyway, please! Chow down or else the food will get cold and spoil into Mistakes."
And chow we did. This was definitely a treat and we all enjoyed it. Like I said before, her cooking definitely comes up to Tayce's quality of food. My pasta was seasoned the perfect amount of spicy and the juice tasted so fresh like a hand squeezed glass of ripened lemonade. I could tell that she made Toadsworth's tea the perfect drinking temperature and his soup wasn't too spicy for his delicate taste buds. And Kory… well, he was finished before all of us.
"Welcome back, and for those joining us we're currently discussing the political suicide that Isle Delfino's president—mind you, the only free leader left in the world—is making by trying to talk with Dark Bowser. By now, everyone should also know that Fawful is away on official business in Rogueport doing his official 'duties' and whatever those entail."
"Oh, it sounds like they'll be talking soon," Mihn said, trying to shush our slurping and munching.
"That's right, Bill, and I fear that his suicide goes even deeper as he hasn't even touched down on the tarmac yet!"
"Wait, you're saying that the guy who wanted this whole arrangement in the first place doesn't even have the decency to arrive on time?"
"Who's to say it's his fault—hold on! One of our newscasters on the scene is confirming that the plane just landed and is being taxied to the gate. It may be only a few more minutes before we all finally learn just what this is about."
"Well, I guess with all the excitement and preparations, we'll go to a commercial break."
"Augh!" Mihn groaned. "Not another one!"
"Goodness! Had I known about all of this excitement occurring at Peach's castle today I would have suggested that we order our food to go!"
I stared at Toadsworth in disbelief of what I heard him say. Peach's castle, hurry up, food to go? It's almost as if he was implying that that's where we were headed. If that was the case, then we'd have the awkward experience of bumping into Mrs. Goomley and the rest of our class after she specifically told me and Kory not to bother showing up.
Quickly, and carefully, I started building up a valid argument that would work, wouldn't be too blunt, and one he couldn't argue.
"You can't just go waltzing into the castle!" I blurted out. As they all stared at me like I was crazy, I felt I had, regrettably, been too strong.
"Why not? I've lived there for my whole life. I feel I have a right to be let back in."
"And besides, if he can't, then we can always regroup with our class, right?"
I didn't think it was possible, but they deflated my argument faster than a punctured beach ball. Yes, I've been told that that's a lame analogy, but it works!
"So you guys are leaving soon? Well, you'll have to pay for the two meals…" Mihn frowned when she said that. She never liked collecting money for her gift, but ever since a mandate that said that all persons providing anything to residents of Toad Town had to charge for it (and most of those proceeds went directly to Dark Bowser and Fawful), she reluctantly did. This is also why she gives out a meal free to newcomers: Because they're not residents yet!
If there's anything she loves to do aside from cooking and creating, it's finding loopholes.
"But I can't, I haven't any coins…"
"That's okay, Kory. I knew this would come in handy." I fished out however many coins she asked for. Then we said our good-byes and thank yous and we were out back into the chaos known as our world.
"I believe we keep heading north provided they haven't moved the castle during my absence, correct?"
"Absolutely."
On our way north, we passed by the Post Office. Toadsworth made a comment about some old postal worker that delivered all the mail and wondered whether or not he'd recognize him.
"You mean Parakarry? I doubt it now," Kory said matter-of-factly.
"And why do you say that?"
"Well, a few years ago, DB and Fawful got awful tired of having their mail lost so they arrested him for tampering with the mail ironically enough."
"How horrid!" he exclaimed.
"What's worse is that they locked him up in the same cell of their dungeon where they keep all the dangerous murderers and vandals."
"That's even more absurd! The castle doesn't have dungeons! Sewers, sure! But not a dungeon!" He stopped in the middle of his tracks and I turned back to look at him. "My Grambi, Hope. I can't believe what they've already done to this fair land. I pray that they haven't ruined any other part of my world…"
To be perfectly frank, I completely forgot they did that and wondered how in the world Kory remembered. And I can't say I could sympathize with him; I never felt what if feels like to leave for a while and come back to have everything changed—Underwhere, I haven't even been outside of Toad Town! I don't even know what it's like to travel!
What I could do, however, was hold him up as we continued our walk to the castle gates. As we made it through, I could see our class at the foot of the steps to the front door, the motorcade that drove the Delphinian President to the castle, and Dark Bowser addressing both parties.