Bella Tuna Todd helped me to edit this segment. She sat on my lap watching the digits write out on my iPad, purring the entire time. I guess she likes what I write. Hopefully, your interest in my blog delves a bit deeper than Bella's. For any new readers, to learn who Bella Tuna is, scroll to my very first month of blogging to see her tale. If you're old pros, on to the story!
The Place Between Part 4
"Now Cassie," Martin's tone was warning - Cass long realized that she was in a bit of hot water for coming in so early. "It is imperative that you come back tonight after your parents have gone to sleep, so that we may begin your instructions. I know it'll be late, but tonight will not be terribly long." Martin sighed and said to him self, 'God willing.'
Nodding and clutching his hands together over his chest, Edgar affirmed with his slow, articulate, low tone voice, "Yes, yes. It will not be long. It will be the most substantive lesson though."
"Should I bring a notebook, a pen...or something?" Cassie asked, really not knowing what to prepare for - as far as she knew, this could turn out to be anything from catching frogs to a collegiate prep class.
"No," Martin firmly negated. "Just dress warm. Don't have your cellular telephone on you or any sort of electronic device."
Cassie pondered how he referred to her cell. "Does anyone say that anymore?" It never crossed her mind that the people in the Place Between had no need for cell phones or that the presence of any beyond this room could spell out their doom.
"Dress warm," Edgar advised. Cassie was beginning to think Edgar did voice overs for haunted houses or spooky television show marathons on Halloween. There was nothing spooky or intimidating about him, it was just the way he sounded. "I suspect it will be cold."
Looking to Martin for any sort of explanation, but all she got was an encouraging smile that was less than assuring.
~*~*~
The school day dragged on. Cassie stared at the large, white faced clocks in all of her classes. She knew that she should pay attention in class, but how could she? The excitement that filled her was incomparable to anything she had known before. The anticipation was only relieved (even if only slightly) after school when she was able to jam out to the tunes on her iPod as she helped Marlie to stack books.
"You're sure in a better mood than earlier," Marlie observed of the young teen. "Did you figure a way to express your inner whirlwinds? I have those books for you, by the way. There're in the table back there." Marlie motioned to the little break room for the library staff (which used to be substantially bigger, but had been pruned down to include just her - the sharp knife that made district budget cuts spared almost no branches.)
Playing with the pink earbud that was dangling out from her hoodie, Cassie said, "Thanks, Marlie. No, I haven't figured out what to paint yet, but I'm just, I don't know." She devised a quick thing to say, "I got a good nap in during advisory, so I'm feeling a lot better."
Marlie didn't entirely buy it, but she knew better than to press teens. If they wanted to confide in someone, they would confide in her at the time of their choosing. "Alright, well, if you would rather catch another snooze before the late bus comes, this work will be here for you tomorrow."
Cassie was so grateful to have Marlie. It was nice having an adult ally and friend in high school. She felt terrible for lying to her friend, but knew that for the sake of the mysterious place, this was the only way. "Thanks, Marlie. But I'll just sleep on the bus."
The late bus would not come for another forty minutes, so Cassie decided to make the best of her time, jamming out to Maroon 5 and Phillip Phillips.
The bus ride and her evening at home passed much in the same way. Though plenty exhausted she was not able to catch a wink of sleep. For the first time in her years of riding the bus, passing by the abandoned cattle ranch did not give her chills. It seemed to invigorate her. The hum-drum days of high school were gone. Cassie had the biggest, greatest, most awesome and incredible mystery awaiting her and she was going to find out its secrets TONIGHT. It couldn't get much better for a seventeen year old.
"Jayden!" Cassie's little brother stole her slice of meat lover's right off her plastic plate and began to devour it, animal like. "Mom!"
"Jayden," In one word Cassie's mom quietly yet firmly made the point clear that what the twelve year old had done was unacceptable in their favorite pizzaria. It was the only quasi nice restaurant in town. All the other places specialized in pies and a-typical remote town food. Those places usually became overwhelmed with out of towners from approximately 5pm on every Friday until 6pm Sunday, when the city people would return from their "escapes" and venture back down the mountain. Eddie's Pizzariia was the only option for locals who wanted to eat out without leaving home and he made a killing.
"To be fair, Cass," her dad started, "You weren't touching it. I was about to do the same." His bright smile instantly cleared up the momentary tension at their booth. That was one of the many great qualities of her dad. He could make anything good. Cassie's dad was the hardest working guy most people would ever meet. He was out of the house every day before the sun rose. His construction business was finally beginning to pick up after years of inactivity, coinciding of course with the recession. It was great to start to see him smile and joke around again. Cassie's dad was the king of puns and while their small family had heard every possible combination of any and every pun to ever be thought of, it was great to hear them again. It was an excellent sign that things were picking up again.
Jayden tore into the pizza, mimicking in his mind the zombies in the show that he and his buddies were watching without any of their parents knowing. It was fairly obvious to Cassie just the same. Cassie wanted to rat out her brother for pirating episodes of The Walking Dead, but she would save that treat for later. This wasn't that big a deal comparatively to what other eighth graders were doing these days. Reaching up to the elevated pizza on the table, Cassie grabbed another piece. She knew that eating was a good thing, but she was so excited, that she was not sure if she would be able to keep it down. "Guess I should grab some before this zombie-creeper eats it all," she sent a sharp look to Jayden who knew immediately to give Cassie her space, so that he could continue to watch his epic show.
"On an undead note, anything new and exciting happen at school today guys?" their dad asked his kids. With the exception of the zombie spin, that was the same question the kids had heard every day of their life that they ever attended school. It became a bit annoying at times, particularly on bad days when things did happen, but eventually the brother and sister would come to appreciate how their dad was interested in the happenings of their life.
"We had pizza bagels today at school," Jayden answered first. "It was cool."
"Was that because of the fundraising?" Mrs. Jordon asked. She wasn't particularly thrilled that her son who had no interest in sports or P.E. - like every other kid - would be consuming pizza twice in one day.
With a mouth full of pizza, Jayden mumbled an answer, "Yep. We reached our goal."
"That's great," Mr. Jordon was super excited by this. It meant that he and his wife would only have to pay twenty percent of their son's eighth grade field trip to the east coast. They were still paying off Cassie's trip that they had to pay in full, but these were the experiences that he and his wife would bend over backwards to give their children.
"I'm so proud of you, Jayden," Mrs. Jordon said to her boy. "That was a lot of hard work."
Cassie checked out of the conversation. The pizza that she was now scarfing down was great and she pretended to be focused on that. 'Note to self,' she briefly thought,' Congratulate Jay for his fundraising, 'cause that's freaken awesome.' Their parents really were not sure if they were going to be able to send their boy out without having to take out a third mortgage. This took a lot of pressure off the family. As she popped a pepperoni into her mouth, Cassie happily thought to herself, 'I can't believe how great things are becoming. Talk about a turn around. Thank you gods of 2015!'
Cassie of course would not have had any warning or indication as of yet, that the gods were granting her a calm before the storm. The clouds were building behind the purple mountain, but it would not be long before the crack of the thunder would ring throughout the place above and the Place Between.
Whaaaaaat? Pizza, zombis, mysteries??? You'll just have to come back next week! Tell your friends about the eclectic tales told here at the Weekly Read.
Your humble author,
S. Faxon
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