Toasting Marshmallows, Marshmellows, Marshmollows?

Chapter 12

Fire Light

The wind blew hard and I held onto my thin jacket, trying to keep the warmth in.

"Just a moment miss!" The old man yelled to me. He was suprisingly polite. His little camp consisted of a tarp tent and a old cotton cand machine in which he stored stolen watches.

"Here we ah!!" He gasped as he heaved a log onto the non existent fire. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he started the flame. He looked up at me, "Er, You know why I took yeh, right gal?"

"Well actually no." I stated looking at the stars, they formed the big ladel tonight. I know everyone says its a dipper. But it isnt. Trust me, I know greek mythology.

"You remind me of a woman I once knew!! She lives off in Denmark now!!!!!!" He yelled to the wind. Then he howled like a wolf.

"Oh! What was her name?" I asked politely, hoping if I distracted him enough I could sneak off into the wood.

"AR! It were, Regina Gibson!!" He yelped as though somone had stolen his last jar of honeysuckle jam.

Then it hit me. That name, Regina. The memory came back, her short brown hair and spunky attitude, the day I stole her journal. The day I pushed her in the river. The day she married Rock Westorndale. I realized with a start, this was who I was looking for. She owned the journal. Maybe she would have a clue to the locket! I got so excited I jumped up and down in a circle and thanked the old man. I ran into the forest and right into Monty.

"Mel! Where the ------ did you run off to?" He yelled looking frantic. He looked especially scruffy right then and it looked like he fell in some mud.

"Oh Monty bear! I found it! I did!!! To Denmark! AWAY!!!!" I yelled and skipped off toward the circus. Before I skip off I hear Monty say,"Monty bear? Who does she think she is?" Well, I'll show him. I'll show them all! I'm Mel and I have a secret!!!

A Web Of Truth

Chapter 11

Stockholm Syndrome

I looked out the window into the darkness, my breath fogging the window. I sit back and close my eyes thinking of where I am. I look at Monty trying to keep his eyes open as he drives.

"Maybe, we should stop somewhere for the night? Or if you'll let me i'll drive." I say to him. It was like my words had gotten eaten by the silence right after I said them. I started to wonder if I had actually said it. Then he turned his head to me and nodded. Well, as you can assume that wasn't a lot of information.

"Monty? Would you like me to drive?" I ask again cautiously. He stops the car, looks at me and says, "Blazes no! Mel! We'll stop somewhere." So I nod and look down at my hands. Then threw my peripheral vision I see different colored lights. So I turn my full attention to what I think im seeing, and there it is. A huge circus tent and eerie carnival music is in front of us. I'm so absorbed in this sight that I don't notice that Monty has stopped the car. So I look at him and he says to me with a little grin on his face,

"Pop use ta take me to the circus! I was just a lad!", and he smiles at the whole sight and then opens the door. It takes me a moment of watching Monty walk towards the sight to realize I should go with him. So out of the car I hop! I slip though and get my jeans wet on the dirt road. I run after Monty, and follow him silently till he turns and grabs my hand and starts running. Flustered I stumble along behind him in a daze. He stops at the large tent and then goes to the ticket booth and gets us tickets to see the show! Once we are inside I can tell Monty is somewhere else. We watch the ring master and the lions, zebras, horses, elephants, trapeze artists, and juggling clowns.

When the show is over we walk outside and are greeted by a small homeless man. Well at least, he looked homeless. But you know what they say! Don't judge a book by its cover! I did anyway.

"Are yeh travelin' alone miz?" He asked with a greedy smile. I noticed that he had very few teeth.

"Well no actually! I'm with-" When I turned to point at Monty, he was gone. And I was alone.

"Are yeh? Seems like a nice feller!" He taunted with a drunken laugh! He grabbed my hand and dragged me away. So naturally I started to scream. Louder and louder but it was like my words were being swallowed by the silence once again. No one was watching, people who were wouldn't do anything to help. They all started in silence as this man was pulling me towards the jungle of trees.

"Monty!" I cried one last time as I looked back at the circus.

Golfing With A Candy Cane

Chapter 10

up, up and away

The car jerks as we turn a corner and our boxes and bags in the back of the car slide with us.

"Just want to make a quick stop!" Monty practically yells over the soft music. I look at his him as we pull into the parking area, and all at once I realize, Monty is my best friend! I'm so overwhelmed with happiness I start laughing uncontrollably and have a hard time getting out of the car. While walking into the building I still am smiling. I look over to my right and Monty is giving me an odd look but smiling too! We walk in and there it is. A convience store! Of course! It should have been obvious to me from the very begining. We head strait over to the isle with cereal. I have noticed in the last day or so that monty is in love with cereal. As we talked about our journey he was eating a bowl of cereal the whole time!

"How do you feel about this my dear?" Monty asks me as he holds up a box of Froot Loops.

"Oh my darling I think it is a splendid idea" I say with a coy smile, to which he responds by putting his arms around me and hugging me, right there in the middle of the isle!

"Mel! We need to be movin out o' here pretty fast. Will you put the Froot Loops down please?" Monty says, snapping me out of my little fantasy. 'What an odd thing,' I think to myself 'to have such a thought about Monty! Perposterous!' I am once again hit with a fit of giggles as I follow Monty down the isle.

"Mel! I'm going to teach you how to make the perfect sandwich!" Monty says. To which he promptly leads me around the store choosing certain items! I wrote them down too! Heres a list!

1. Bread (Of the fluffy good kind)

2. Meat (and lots of it!)

3. Lettuce (not as much as the meat)

4. Cheese (Depending on you perfence ik cuobl...)

5. Mustard (I hate mustard)

6. Kettle Chips (spoiecy oaeruc! quouchiyy! alriufuog!)

7. Lemoanabe (Cralyco! fater oul thatou mood!)

It got a little smudged at the end. I hope we have a picnic! Me and Monty having a picnic! Can you see it? I can we would sit on a little red and white checked blanket and eat our sandwiches and chips and lemoanabe.. whatever that is! All the while be serenaded by a french man! Oh alright maybe thats a little too drastic.

It's been raining while we were in the store and I hop over the puddles as we head back to the Jeep. I sit next to Monty in the car and feel tired. I close my eyes but I dont fall to sleep because Monty turns up the music much to loud.

I love these girls more than life itself. If it weren't for them, I would be dead. Last night, I had a dream that a dinosaur was attacking me from under the covers! I couldn't breath because I wanted to scream but I realized that I left my voicebox in the bathroom.

Here's the deal. Abi came in to steal one of my shirts, and she saw the dinosaur and kicked it in the shins.

So, the dinosaur left.

Crying.

Thanks Ab.

And speaking of Madeline, which I wasn't, but I just realized that she's way cool too. And I just wanted all of you to know that when she sings, I feel like dancing and I always have to join her. Because I like being the center of attention. I hope nobody is offended by this. It's just that, I'm a star, I was born this way.

Ooh la la ga ga.

Take that blogging world. You wish you knew me.

Actually, you wish you knew my sisters. Because they are cooler than me.

K. Bye.

An Uncompleted Jig-Saw Puzzle

Chapter 9

Why so inatimate?

August 23,

"Dear journal, I am an eclectic arrangement of emotions at the moment. You see journal, I went in to continue my seemingly average life at my very average job with the plainly average people I worked with. It seemed to be a fairly normal day, same morning hot chocolate, same "Hello Mate!" as I passed Pauly, the same answering my phone over and over and telling people very average advice. It was at the end of the day that I realized I was the office outcast. I walked out followed by my co-workers, as we got in the elevator and went down to the lobby, our conversations were very average. When we hit the lobby one of my favorite songs started playing, louder than normal I realized, much louder. Thats when I turned around to see my office having a flash mob! Without me! The nerve. I pulled my boss out of the dance and abruptly quit. I am tired of having this happen to me journal."

Dotting The Unimpressive "I"

Chapter 8

Carrying Yellow Umbrellas

"Lovely!" I thought as I packed my last jar of jam into the suitcases that had been hiding so delicately underneath my bed for the past week. I had the unfortunate pleasure of arguing with Monty over weather I could pack the bread. In the end I lost that battle and was vaguely deppressed for a moment. I would not let him catch onto that though.

After we returned to the Ambrose after the day at the lake, Monty had informed me that I would not be making my journey alone and he was to escort me. I was not pleased, I argued but he ignored everything I had prepared in argument and told me to pack my things, we would be leaving in the morning. Which is when the argument of the bread came across my mind, you see once you take a bite of this bread, Oh there is nothing like it! I have no way of explaining, I had the nicest dream the other night that I entered into the little bakery and tried every flavor of bread (and pastry!) with each jam! What a dream! I thought that would be me in the next moment but according to Monty I was not allowed to leave my room. I sat there and waited for the morning eventually falling asleep.

"WAKE UP! Get up! It's time to get up now!" yelled an angry voice. I groggily rolled over on my pillow to notice a face right by mine!

"ah! Monty! You- what are you doing in my room!? Its still dark....!" I put my face in my pillow and screamed. I did not want to be up at this hour! What was he thinking! I looked at the clock 14:03. Huh, 14:03 thats odd. I did not rember the clock going up to 14 hours. I looked at the ceiling, an arrangement of blue butterflies were dancing around my room!

"Oh Monty, look! What an odd sight, don't you agree?" I looked at monty and saw that he was nothing more than a whicker chair.

I woke up with a jump. I looked at the ceiling, no blue butterflies, no whicker chair. there was my suitcase all packed and ready to go. I then realized, I did not have that same usual dream. I suddenly felt an empty sullen feeling.

Editing the Willow Tree

Chapter 7

Re-used writing utensels

I clamored up the hill behind Monty, pausing at the top to catch my breath. I didnt know why he had insisted on taking me this far away. It reminded me of a passage I read in the journal.

July 18,

"Dear journal, I have something very important to tell you before I forget again and remember in the middle of a conference call and have to leave because I cannot control my tears. My boss yelled at me. Anyways, once a long time ago, I was in the fourth grade, so I guess not that long ago... Anyways. My darling new friends told me to come with them and that they had a suprise for me, as a welcome to the group. I followed them out past the school field then into the forest and along a lazy little creek. They told me 'Stay here. We'll be right back, its just around the corner dont worry.' So I beileved them. I waited and waited until it got dark outside and Henry came and found me. they had left me journal. The next day I walked into class and heard devious little giggles. It was humiliating. That is it journal."

I worried that monty would lead me to a small abandoned cottage and that he would tie me to a chair with some moldy rope he happened to find underneath the rusted sink. He would laugh and as he left he would put a sign around my neck labeled "Dunce". This was not to be though. My thoughts were almost entirely wrong. He led me out to a small stone ruin of what looked like to be an old inn of some sort. He sat me down and looked me square in the eye

"Who are you." he asked with determination. "Now that we are far away I demand you tell me, for your own good."

"My name is Melinda Evercrouft. That is all I will tell you. I assume you should know why. It is quite obvious after all and I cannot risk you knowing until i've gotten to know you better." I replied.

"Well then, Mel. I've got one more place to take you." he said with a smile. He grabbed my hand and still holding onto it ran into the wood of to the side of the ruin and into a small clearing. Feeling overjoyed I ran out into the clearing leaving Monty behind me. I span in circles laughing and dancing! I yelled for Moty to join me. Together we ran into the center of the clearing where a small lake was waiting with a little dock, just for us. We ran to the very edge of the dock. I bent down to look into the water at the fish and the next thing I know, My head is being shoved into the water! I cant breath, I cant think. He lifts me out. Brings my face eye level to his and says,

"You'd better tell me the rest Melly. Im not letting you off with just a warning my dear." Not sure what he meant I gave him my best puppy dog look and started to explain. His eyes softened as he started to understand.