Post by Invisible on Jul 13, 2011 18:36:20 GMT -5
I am so sorry this is so late!!! I originally stopped posting chapters because I was running out of inspiration, and then it got insanely busy at college, so I kept my focus on that! And now that college has ended, I have all the time in the world (except for when I'm asleep ) so I've been trying new fics and stories out. Anyway, I just started listening to When I Look At You Miley Cyrus (amazing song) and what do you know? I finished Chapter 8, but it's Chapter 5 I'm posting now. So enjoyz.
Over the next couple of weeks, the relationship between the herpetologist and grammar-enthusiast only grew stronger. They were regular visitors each other’s houses – almost twice-weekly. While Jo was at Monty’s, he would spend time with her in his reptile room to help her overcome her fears by forcing her to confront them head-on. Of course he felt bad whenever she got hysterical and upset, but he understood that it would benefit her some time in the near future. And whenever Monty visited Jo, she would be the teacher. She taught him how to organise himself and to complete household chores within a certain space of time without anyone – namely, Kit Snicket – interfering. Similar to how she would scream and howl in terror, Monty was often reluctant to do things on his own, even though he knew he should have learnt how to do these things decades earlier, but over time, both of them started to conquer their personal demons. Yes, their courtship was going at a gentler pace than most, but this was how they preferred it to be; sweet, simple with little chance of any serious heartbreak if they should part company. And they did indeed part company one early October morning.
The loud horn droned throughout the dock in the thick, silvery-grey fog monotonously, setting Monty’s senses on fire. The loudspeaker attached to a tall wooden pole sprung to life.
“ All aboard The Prospero to Peru! May all passengers collect your belongings and board the ship now!” an exasperatingly high-pitched voice called.
Turning his back on the ship, Monty glanced over his shoulder to spy on his assistant, Gustav, biting his lip and trembling, the adrenaline pumping throughout his body. Gustav let out a groan and tapped his wristwatch impatiently with the tip of his index finger. Monty lifted the heavy trunk that was lying beside him and brought it closer to his friend.
“ Jo’s not here yet,” he gasped and cracked his knuckles. The trunk was very heavy indeed! “ She promised she’d be here to see us off. Go and take the trunk in. I’ll wait a little longer,” he ordered in a friendly manner.
Gustav clucked his tongue and rolled his dark brown eyes. “ Couldn’t you have waited until we got back to get caught up in this romance?” he riddled in his thick German accent.
“ OK, I admit it’s bad timing, but I can’t help my feelings, can I?” Monty folded his arms, shooting his companion a good-natured smirk as he walked towards the ship with the trunk slung over his shoulder, and Monty continued to look out for his dearest Josephine.
Two or three minutes later, just after the majority of passengers had boarded, she appeared, the stress of losing yet another loved one visible on her careworn face. When she spotted him, she braved a small, tired smile. Clumsily bringing his left foot forward, Monty’s slow pace quickened into a gentle jog, his round red face lighting up with excitement. When he approached her, he wrapped his arms around her middle, resting his head on her shoulder. They parted and Monty noticed the salty, diamond-shaped tears that were silently trickling down Jo’s cheeks.
“ It’ll be all right,” he reassured her, wiping those little droplets away with his thumbs. “ It’s not like I’m dying! Except maybe my hair,” he joked, trying to get her to laugh or at least smile.
With a gloved hand, Jo caressed Monty’s chest and pencilled an invisible line down to his belly, which made him snigger.
“ I can’t bear the thought of being alone again,” she whispered, sniffing forlornly.
“ I keep telling you to call your mom! Build your relationship up with her again!”
She hung her head and began to sob. “ I’m scared, Monty. I don’t know what I’m going to do while you’re away,” she muttered.
“ Just do what you normally do without me,” he replied, thinking nothing of it.
“ I’m terrified,” she whispered again and she perched her chin on Monty’s shoulder, almost suffocating him in her tight embrace.
“ Aww, Jo, what have ya got to be scared of?” he asked cheerfully to hide his heartbreak of seeing her in distress.
“ If you leave today or any day, I fear my life would be as it was before,” she admitted. “ I like my new life with you! Please don’t leave, Monty! Please don’t!” she begged.
“ I have to! My research, my team!” cried Monty.
“ Please…”
“ The Prospero will leave for Peru in ten minutes! May all the passengers board now!” came the screechy voice from the loudspeaker.
Monty, rubbing his girlfriend’s arm, turned his head and spotted Gustav tapping his watch again with an incredibly annoyed look on his face. He also saw Drs. Smith and Jones wearing equally infuriated expressions. He looked back at Josephine as he tried to figure out what to do. He’d always wanted to go Peru and see its people and animals, and since he was getting older, he might not have another chance. But if he went, there was also a chance of losing the beautiful woman who stood weeping before him. He may never see her again. So he did what he thought was right. He would later think about it, but with no regrets at all because, well, because of reasons that will be revealed soon. He cupped Josephine’s face gently with his hands and she smiled gratefully through her tears. He shot an apologetic look to his colleagues before walking confidently hand in hand with his girlfriend to some secret place that only they knew about. And so, the older couple carried on with their content lives as if nothing had happened at their own slow pace until it was involuntarily kicked up a notch (or two) at the beginning of November.
Josephine and Monty had spent the entire day together. They spent most of it relaxing by Lake Lachrymose, eating a small picnic of egg sandwiches, slices of cheese, fruit salad and an assortment of peanut butter cookies that Monty had recently learnt to bake. Luckily, though, it was too cold to go swimming. But then it started to rain, forcing them to walk back up to Josephine’s house, and they watched television instead. Jo had happily rested her head on Monty’s lap and he stroked her face and hair, making her feel sleepy. Then the programme they were watching was interrupted by an important newsflash.
“ Breaking news,” the boring reporter said in a boring tone of voice. “ Meteorologists have discovered that a severe hurricane will be arriving in the next few days. Residents are advised to have rations stored and a shelter prepared if necessary. Thank you. Enjoy the rest of the programme.”
Slowly, Jo sat up, the fright frozen on her pale face. Hurricanes were common in her neck of the woods, so she and the rest of the village had experienced this phenomena so many times before that it seemed like an everyday occurrence. Watching her closely, Monty knitted his eyebrows together in concern.
“ Jo?” he asked. “ Jo, it’s going to be A-OK!”
“ N-n-n-no! No! I-I-I-I need to get ready a-and-”
Monty interrupted her by sniggering. “ I’m sorry, you’re stuttering worse than me!” he cried through his laughter. Then he calmed down and he muttered, “ Seriously, Jo. It’ll be OK. I’ll be with you. You don’t have to worry while I’m around.”
“ A-are you sure?” she squeaked.
He nodded. “ Yeah. I’ll help you prepare if you like.”
The pair was so busy helping each other out that they acted like colleagues rather than boyfriend and girlfriend. Throughout the week, together they purchased the necessary materials in order to survive a hurricane, such as a lightweight torch with extra batteries for the dark, dreary and scary moments during the storm. While Jo devised a simple yet handy First Aid kit in case anyone gets hurt, Monty tried to show off his manliness by trying to fit shutters on the windows, but his hand slipped, causing the hammer to land on his thumb, which almost took his nail off. At least Josephine could test her medical kit! But during their overhaul, she was given a painful reminder of a sensitive subject.
Monty was clearing out the closet in the guestroom, which was big enough for two adults to sit in while the upcoming storm could rage on outside. He pulled out a heavy box caked in dust that made him cough and splutter. In that brief moment of complete disorientation, he dropped it to the floor with a thump as he tried to regain his balance on the ladder. Josephine – who had heard the commotion from the hallway and had come to investigate – let out a sharp dramatic gasp. She brought her trembling hands to her mouth and fell to her knees, crawling toward the box as if entranced by it. Disappointed that Jo didn’t seem to care that he might’ve gotten harmed, the clumsy old man gingerly climbed down to the ground, where he felt safe and sat cross-legged beside her.
“ What’s wrong, sweetheart?” he asked, his voice low and soft.
Josephine slowly shook her head, tears clouding her pristine azure eyes. “ It’s nothing. It’s just that I haven’t looked in this box for some years,” she whispered and plucked an object from the cardboard container. It was a small, plastic humanoid toy with large staring button eyes and long, flame-retardant blonde hair that had gotten tangled up over the time it had spent in the box in the closet. “ Pretty Penny.”
“ Pretty what?”
“ It – she – was a doll I owned when I was fourteen. I loved her very much and I vowed to keep her to give to my child, if I ever had one. But I never did.” She sighed deeply with regret, cursing the day she and Ike decided not to start a family.
Monty smiled. “ Josephine, you nostalgic old fool!” he boomed, not realising that he could hurt her feelings. “ You don’t have to have a child just so you can play with it again. Why, I still play with my zoo playset occasionally, even though I’ve got a room full of real-life reptiles!”
The woman faked a smile, knowing he had good intentions. “ I suppose so,” she uttered finally and nodded.
The sky that miserable Friday afternoon grew dark and grey as if someone had spilt black ink on a white sheet of paper and didn’t make much effort hard to try and remove it. In the morning, the wind started off very still and calm, but by lunchtime, it had become harsh, bitter; quite frankly, strong enough to knock over an elephant. Rain began to fall from the Heavens, the grey salty drops smacking people in the head because they were so large and sharp like a knife made of water. There was not one doubt in the villagers’ minds that the fearsome Hurricane Herman was not far behind. Josephine started as she awoke from her nap, the wind blowing hard against the wooden shutters, making the most terrible raucous noise. Her mind clouded with fear, she looked around the library, her flittering eyes darting from one bookcase to the next. She whimpered and started to quiver. She was all alone and a storm was arriving. This would have been her worst nightmare, if it hadn’t been for the man who was bounding into the room.
“ Morning, lazybones!” Monty cried, grinning, even though it was past two o’clock in the afternoon. “ You were out like a light. I thought you were going to miss Hurricane Herman!”
“ I wish I did,” she admitted.
“ It should be here in a few hours,” he answered. “ I’ve had the news on all day. They keep saying ‘in a few hours,’ ‘in a few hours.’”
Jo heaved a sigh, picking up her book about the difference between nouns and pronouns from her lap and placing it on the table by her comfy chair. “ I wish it would just hurry up and get it over with,” she muttered, clenching her teeth.
“ Oh, stop,” Monty replied in a somewhat annoyed tone, even though he didn’t mean it come out the way it did. “ You’ve lived through dozens of hurricanes. One more won’t make a difference.”
“ But-”
“ Just because your husband – the most courageous man on Earth – is gone doesn’t mean you have to be afraid of everything. You have me now. No harm will come to you as long as I’m around. I keep telling you this. OK?”
She opened her mouth to say something, but she never got to say it, because she had been interrupted by a violent gust of wind that smashed through the wide window, sending the shards of glass spiralling into every corner of the room. Josephine gave a shriek of horror and Monty let out a cry of surprise, his heart thumping in his chest. Hurricane Herman had, quite literally, stormed in to wreck the Anwhistle home. Soon, the bookshelves and comfortable chairs became soaked with rainwater. Papers flew about wildly as though they were trying to escape Herman’s wrath. Josephine’s face was white as a sheet and her eyes grew wide with fear. She felt a rumbling underneath her feet. Then they both heard the distinct sound of cracking and the splintering of wood. The splits that held up the house were beginning to give up their fight. The floor dipped. Josephine screamed again, her eyes wild and her hands half-covering her face. She had to get out, and fast.
“ Come towards me!” Monty yelled over the sound of the blustering wind as he headed straight to the doorway, sheltering his face.
“ I-I’m scared!” Jo screamed, shaking like a leaf in the cold.
“ It’s OK! It’ll be over soon! Just do as I say!”
She flung out her arms and edged towards her courageous boyfriend as if she were a toddler just learning to walk. Monty shouted encouragements to her, but she couldn’t hear because of the noise. Closer and closer, she got to Monty, the braver she felt with every faltering step. The room shook again, sending more debris falling down to the dark depths of Lake Lachrymose. Josephine was knocked back a few steps, but that made her evermore determined to conquer her fears. The room shook again, but more violently, like a bucking bronco. She was thrown to the floor. Monty gasped, his heart drumming harder than it ever did before. This was his fault. He should have invited her to his house instead. Josephine looked up and started to stand, but the ceiling was beginning to crumbling, and in the middle of the ceiling was a chandelier made of crystal. It was shaking, and ever so slightly, it became loose. Monty saw it as the wires snapped in two and it was about to crush her.
“ Jo!” he cried out. He threw himself forward, grabbed her hands, pulling her out just in time. The chandelier fell and with an ear-splitting crash! it landed right on top of Monty’s head.
Josephine shrieked as he fell unconscious to the ground. Like an umbrella being blown about by the wind, she crept towards him and knelt down to see if he was bleeding. There was a nasty dark red wound near his eyebrow, where blood was slowly trickling down the right side of his face. A few seconds later, he came to. He sat up and with Jo’s help; he stood on a pair of trembling legs.
“ Oh, my goodness, Monty! We have to get out of here as soon as possible!” she cried.
“ Yeah, I might’ve guessed from all this debris!” Monty snidely remarked, wincing as he touched his forehead.
The herpetologist and grammar-enthusiast worked together to reach the door and out of the house. They stood, caged in each other’s arms as they watched the building fall away into the inky black lake. To watch her home be destroyed, Josephine herself was destroyed. The home she’d shared with her late husband was gone. Monty stroked her hair and her face as she wept into his shoulder.
They stood like this for several moments before Josephine turned to him and said, “ Let me see your head.” She stroked the straggly red locks out of the way and looked closely at the wound. The skin around it was dark and bloody and blood was still dribbling out of it. He needed a doctor. “ Oh, you poor thing!” she cried. “ I’m going to take you to the hospital.”
“ Honestly, I’m OK,” he replied, even though it stung.
“ No! I insist!”
“ No! I insist!” he barked. “ You just lost your home. You’re coming home with me.”
Readjusting her messy blonde hair, she turned around to look at the spot where her house once stood. She turned back to him and smiled gratefully. “ Thank you, but really, Monty, you need a doctor.”
He heaved a sigh and smiled in return. “ All right. If it’ll make you happy.”
Monty, his head stitched up and bandaged, whisked his princess away to his cosy and warm castle in the countryside, where she felt the safest. He made her a nice hot meal of pasta with a delicious sauce that he had called ‘puttanesca,’ which she had never tasted before. And when the time came, they changed clothes for bed. Since she didn’t have time to grab any of her belongings, Monty kindly gave Josephine one of his old shirts to wear, and a pair of comfortable shorts, instead of a proper nightgown. When she put them on, she caught his scent in them, and a want for something wild and daring awoke within her. Jo was not keen on sleeping in the guestroom, in which she would be alone in the dark all night without the comfort of her loving and brave boyfriend. That was the only she truly wanted at that moment. So she insisted on sharing Monty’s large double bed. He didn’t mind, of course, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that Josephine was up to something. He could see it her shining eyes and mischievous sideward smile.
Monty was the one who climbed into bed first. He wrapped the duvet around himself, wriggling his body to make himself comfortable, and he heaved a deep sigh of contentment. He removed his glasses and laid them down on the bedside table. He then rolled over on to his back and placed his hands behind his head as he clamped his tired brown eyes shut. The thrill of the hurricane and saving Josephine’s life had taken a lot out of the old fella.
Josephine was still in the bathroom, attending to her nightly routine. After she had obsessively brushed and flossed her teeth – she was afraid of getting gingivitis, even though her teeth were in good condition – she began to comb her hair into place to tie it up in a bun. But as she looked at herself in the mirror, she saw her tailbone-length golden locks cascade down her spine like water trickling down a drain, and her mind was cast back to the day she let Ike brush it and he kept whispering in her ear that she could put Repunzel to shame. She grinned, and even giggled outwardly at this treasured memory. Then it quickly faded. She glanced over her shoulder at the door that was slightly ajar. The light from Monty’s bedroom seeped through the crack under the door. She turned back to her reflection, a determined shine in her eye. Maybe for just one night, she could let her hair down. Smiling, she put the sleeves of Monty’s shirt to her nose and inhaled as deeply as she could. It had a very strong, exotic smell; the smell of a thousand lands. It was warm and comforting, which made her feel beyond secure. Slowly, she unbuttoned the first button, then the second and third, and then the fourth. She did this until there weren’t any more buttons to undo. With a nervous squeak, she slipped it off, a sudden chill hitting her bare torso. Then she unzipped the shorts and she slithered of them. With all the confidence she could muster, she marched down the hallway, passing the four guestrooms, to Monty’s room. The door creaked as it opened, grabbing his attention. He smiled and was ready to kiss his girlfriend goodnight, but instead, received a shock. She strode in, not a stitch of clothing on her with everything on show. Immediately, he sat up, his eyes leaping out of his head as his chin hit the bed. He felt his face go bright scarlet. Josephine stepped towards the bed and climbed on top of it, stretching her long body in a cat-like manner.
“ I just wanted to reward you for saving my life,” she whispered.
Monty didn’t hear. He was too transfixed to her gorgeous pair to even notice a parade of banjo-playing elephants. After a second or ten, he snapped out of it. “ I haven’t…been with a woman in thirty one years,” he admitted hesitantly.
Josephine leant back on her knees, making Monty’s temperature rise to unhealthy level, and shrugged. “ Not tonight.”
There is a certain time in this type of a story, like this one, when the author chooses not to write down what a couple does in bed in the middle of the night after surviving a hurricane and puttanesca sauce. The reader, that’s you, just knows and does not have to be told so. So this is where the curtains lower on this chapter, because you are aware of the reason why Monty and Jo couldn’t wipe the grins off their faces the next day. But I can tell you that it’s not because they played card games all night.
A parade of banjo-playing elephants. I'd like to see THAT! ;D Also, when Gustav said "get caught up in this romance", didn't that remind you of Bad Romance? I vaguely remember I listened to that when I wrote this chapter (especially the last part!) Such an epic song. It's definitely in my top 5 favourite songs of all time. Maybe in the top 3! OK, I'm rambling
Chapter 5 - The Haunting Hurricane
Over the next couple of weeks, the relationship between the herpetologist and grammar-enthusiast only grew stronger. They were regular visitors each other’s houses – almost twice-weekly. While Jo was at Monty’s, he would spend time with her in his reptile room to help her overcome her fears by forcing her to confront them head-on. Of course he felt bad whenever she got hysterical and upset, but he understood that it would benefit her some time in the near future. And whenever Monty visited Jo, she would be the teacher. She taught him how to organise himself and to complete household chores within a certain space of time without anyone – namely, Kit Snicket – interfering. Similar to how she would scream and howl in terror, Monty was often reluctant to do things on his own, even though he knew he should have learnt how to do these things decades earlier, but over time, both of them started to conquer their personal demons. Yes, their courtship was going at a gentler pace than most, but this was how they preferred it to be; sweet, simple with little chance of any serious heartbreak if they should part company. And they did indeed part company one early October morning.
The loud horn droned throughout the dock in the thick, silvery-grey fog monotonously, setting Monty’s senses on fire. The loudspeaker attached to a tall wooden pole sprung to life.
“ All aboard The Prospero to Peru! May all passengers collect your belongings and board the ship now!” an exasperatingly high-pitched voice called.
Turning his back on the ship, Monty glanced over his shoulder to spy on his assistant, Gustav, biting his lip and trembling, the adrenaline pumping throughout his body. Gustav let out a groan and tapped his wristwatch impatiently with the tip of his index finger. Monty lifted the heavy trunk that was lying beside him and brought it closer to his friend.
“ Jo’s not here yet,” he gasped and cracked his knuckles. The trunk was very heavy indeed! “ She promised she’d be here to see us off. Go and take the trunk in. I’ll wait a little longer,” he ordered in a friendly manner.
Gustav clucked his tongue and rolled his dark brown eyes. “ Couldn’t you have waited until we got back to get caught up in this romance?” he riddled in his thick German accent.
“ OK, I admit it’s bad timing, but I can’t help my feelings, can I?” Monty folded his arms, shooting his companion a good-natured smirk as he walked towards the ship with the trunk slung over his shoulder, and Monty continued to look out for his dearest Josephine.
Two or three minutes later, just after the majority of passengers had boarded, she appeared, the stress of losing yet another loved one visible on her careworn face. When she spotted him, she braved a small, tired smile. Clumsily bringing his left foot forward, Monty’s slow pace quickened into a gentle jog, his round red face lighting up with excitement. When he approached her, he wrapped his arms around her middle, resting his head on her shoulder. They parted and Monty noticed the salty, diamond-shaped tears that were silently trickling down Jo’s cheeks.
“ It’ll be all right,” he reassured her, wiping those little droplets away with his thumbs. “ It’s not like I’m dying! Except maybe my hair,” he joked, trying to get her to laugh or at least smile.
With a gloved hand, Jo caressed Monty’s chest and pencilled an invisible line down to his belly, which made him snigger.
“ I can’t bear the thought of being alone again,” she whispered, sniffing forlornly.
“ I keep telling you to call your mom! Build your relationship up with her again!”
She hung her head and began to sob. “ I’m scared, Monty. I don’t know what I’m going to do while you’re away,” she muttered.
“ Just do what you normally do without me,” he replied, thinking nothing of it.
“ I’m terrified,” she whispered again and she perched her chin on Monty’s shoulder, almost suffocating him in her tight embrace.
“ Aww, Jo, what have ya got to be scared of?” he asked cheerfully to hide his heartbreak of seeing her in distress.
“ If you leave today or any day, I fear my life would be as it was before,” she admitted. “ I like my new life with you! Please don’t leave, Monty! Please don’t!” she begged.
“ I have to! My research, my team!” cried Monty.
“ Please…”
“ The Prospero will leave for Peru in ten minutes! May all the passengers board now!” came the screechy voice from the loudspeaker.
Monty, rubbing his girlfriend’s arm, turned his head and spotted Gustav tapping his watch again with an incredibly annoyed look on his face. He also saw Drs. Smith and Jones wearing equally infuriated expressions. He looked back at Josephine as he tried to figure out what to do. He’d always wanted to go Peru and see its people and animals, and since he was getting older, he might not have another chance. But if he went, there was also a chance of losing the beautiful woman who stood weeping before him. He may never see her again. So he did what he thought was right. He would later think about it, but with no regrets at all because, well, because of reasons that will be revealed soon. He cupped Josephine’s face gently with his hands and she smiled gratefully through her tears. He shot an apologetic look to his colleagues before walking confidently hand in hand with his girlfriend to some secret place that only they knew about. And so, the older couple carried on with their content lives as if nothing had happened at their own slow pace until it was involuntarily kicked up a notch (or two) at the beginning of November.
Josephine and Monty had spent the entire day together. They spent most of it relaxing by Lake Lachrymose, eating a small picnic of egg sandwiches, slices of cheese, fruit salad and an assortment of peanut butter cookies that Monty had recently learnt to bake. Luckily, though, it was too cold to go swimming. But then it started to rain, forcing them to walk back up to Josephine’s house, and they watched television instead. Jo had happily rested her head on Monty’s lap and he stroked her face and hair, making her feel sleepy. Then the programme they were watching was interrupted by an important newsflash.
“ Breaking news,” the boring reporter said in a boring tone of voice. “ Meteorologists have discovered that a severe hurricane will be arriving in the next few days. Residents are advised to have rations stored and a shelter prepared if necessary. Thank you. Enjoy the rest of the programme.”
Slowly, Jo sat up, the fright frozen on her pale face. Hurricanes were common in her neck of the woods, so she and the rest of the village had experienced this phenomena so many times before that it seemed like an everyday occurrence. Watching her closely, Monty knitted his eyebrows together in concern.
“ Jo?” he asked. “ Jo, it’s going to be A-OK!”
“ N-n-n-no! No! I-I-I-I need to get ready a-and-”
Monty interrupted her by sniggering. “ I’m sorry, you’re stuttering worse than me!” he cried through his laughter. Then he calmed down and he muttered, “ Seriously, Jo. It’ll be OK. I’ll be with you. You don’t have to worry while I’m around.”
“ A-are you sure?” she squeaked.
He nodded. “ Yeah. I’ll help you prepare if you like.”
The pair was so busy helping each other out that they acted like colleagues rather than boyfriend and girlfriend. Throughout the week, together they purchased the necessary materials in order to survive a hurricane, such as a lightweight torch with extra batteries for the dark, dreary and scary moments during the storm. While Jo devised a simple yet handy First Aid kit in case anyone gets hurt, Monty tried to show off his manliness by trying to fit shutters on the windows, but his hand slipped, causing the hammer to land on his thumb, which almost took his nail off. At least Josephine could test her medical kit! But during their overhaul, she was given a painful reminder of a sensitive subject.
Monty was clearing out the closet in the guestroom, which was big enough for two adults to sit in while the upcoming storm could rage on outside. He pulled out a heavy box caked in dust that made him cough and splutter. In that brief moment of complete disorientation, he dropped it to the floor with a thump as he tried to regain his balance on the ladder. Josephine – who had heard the commotion from the hallway and had come to investigate – let out a sharp dramatic gasp. She brought her trembling hands to her mouth and fell to her knees, crawling toward the box as if entranced by it. Disappointed that Jo didn’t seem to care that he might’ve gotten harmed, the clumsy old man gingerly climbed down to the ground, where he felt safe and sat cross-legged beside her.
“ What’s wrong, sweetheart?” he asked, his voice low and soft.
Josephine slowly shook her head, tears clouding her pristine azure eyes. “ It’s nothing. It’s just that I haven’t looked in this box for some years,” she whispered and plucked an object from the cardboard container. It was a small, plastic humanoid toy with large staring button eyes and long, flame-retardant blonde hair that had gotten tangled up over the time it had spent in the box in the closet. “ Pretty Penny.”
“ Pretty what?”
“ It – she – was a doll I owned when I was fourteen. I loved her very much and I vowed to keep her to give to my child, if I ever had one. But I never did.” She sighed deeply with regret, cursing the day she and Ike decided not to start a family.
Monty smiled. “ Josephine, you nostalgic old fool!” he boomed, not realising that he could hurt her feelings. “ You don’t have to have a child just so you can play with it again. Why, I still play with my zoo playset occasionally, even though I’ve got a room full of real-life reptiles!”
The woman faked a smile, knowing he had good intentions. “ I suppose so,” she uttered finally and nodded.
The sky that miserable Friday afternoon grew dark and grey as if someone had spilt black ink on a white sheet of paper and didn’t make much effort hard to try and remove it. In the morning, the wind started off very still and calm, but by lunchtime, it had become harsh, bitter; quite frankly, strong enough to knock over an elephant. Rain began to fall from the Heavens, the grey salty drops smacking people in the head because they were so large and sharp like a knife made of water. There was not one doubt in the villagers’ minds that the fearsome Hurricane Herman was not far behind. Josephine started as she awoke from her nap, the wind blowing hard against the wooden shutters, making the most terrible raucous noise. Her mind clouded with fear, she looked around the library, her flittering eyes darting from one bookcase to the next. She whimpered and started to quiver. She was all alone and a storm was arriving. This would have been her worst nightmare, if it hadn’t been for the man who was bounding into the room.
“ Morning, lazybones!” Monty cried, grinning, even though it was past two o’clock in the afternoon. “ You were out like a light. I thought you were going to miss Hurricane Herman!”
“ I wish I did,” she admitted.
“ It should be here in a few hours,” he answered. “ I’ve had the news on all day. They keep saying ‘in a few hours,’ ‘in a few hours.’”
Jo heaved a sigh, picking up her book about the difference between nouns and pronouns from her lap and placing it on the table by her comfy chair. “ I wish it would just hurry up and get it over with,” she muttered, clenching her teeth.
“ Oh, stop,” Monty replied in a somewhat annoyed tone, even though he didn’t mean it come out the way it did. “ You’ve lived through dozens of hurricanes. One more won’t make a difference.”
“ But-”
“ Just because your husband – the most courageous man on Earth – is gone doesn’t mean you have to be afraid of everything. You have me now. No harm will come to you as long as I’m around. I keep telling you this. OK?”
She opened her mouth to say something, but she never got to say it, because she had been interrupted by a violent gust of wind that smashed through the wide window, sending the shards of glass spiralling into every corner of the room. Josephine gave a shriek of horror and Monty let out a cry of surprise, his heart thumping in his chest. Hurricane Herman had, quite literally, stormed in to wreck the Anwhistle home. Soon, the bookshelves and comfortable chairs became soaked with rainwater. Papers flew about wildly as though they were trying to escape Herman’s wrath. Josephine’s face was white as a sheet and her eyes grew wide with fear. She felt a rumbling underneath her feet. Then they both heard the distinct sound of cracking and the splintering of wood. The splits that held up the house were beginning to give up their fight. The floor dipped. Josephine screamed again, her eyes wild and her hands half-covering her face. She had to get out, and fast.
“ Come towards me!” Monty yelled over the sound of the blustering wind as he headed straight to the doorway, sheltering his face.
“ I-I’m scared!” Jo screamed, shaking like a leaf in the cold.
“ It’s OK! It’ll be over soon! Just do as I say!”
She flung out her arms and edged towards her courageous boyfriend as if she were a toddler just learning to walk. Monty shouted encouragements to her, but she couldn’t hear because of the noise. Closer and closer, she got to Monty, the braver she felt with every faltering step. The room shook again, sending more debris falling down to the dark depths of Lake Lachrymose. Josephine was knocked back a few steps, but that made her evermore determined to conquer her fears. The room shook again, but more violently, like a bucking bronco. She was thrown to the floor. Monty gasped, his heart drumming harder than it ever did before. This was his fault. He should have invited her to his house instead. Josephine looked up and started to stand, but the ceiling was beginning to crumbling, and in the middle of the ceiling was a chandelier made of crystal. It was shaking, and ever so slightly, it became loose. Monty saw it as the wires snapped in two and it was about to crush her.
“ Jo!” he cried out. He threw himself forward, grabbed her hands, pulling her out just in time. The chandelier fell and with an ear-splitting crash! it landed right on top of Monty’s head.
Josephine shrieked as he fell unconscious to the ground. Like an umbrella being blown about by the wind, she crept towards him and knelt down to see if he was bleeding. There was a nasty dark red wound near his eyebrow, where blood was slowly trickling down the right side of his face. A few seconds later, he came to. He sat up and with Jo’s help; he stood on a pair of trembling legs.
“ Oh, my goodness, Monty! We have to get out of here as soon as possible!” she cried.
“ Yeah, I might’ve guessed from all this debris!” Monty snidely remarked, wincing as he touched his forehead.
The herpetologist and grammar-enthusiast worked together to reach the door and out of the house. They stood, caged in each other’s arms as they watched the building fall away into the inky black lake. To watch her home be destroyed, Josephine herself was destroyed. The home she’d shared with her late husband was gone. Monty stroked her hair and her face as she wept into his shoulder.
They stood like this for several moments before Josephine turned to him and said, “ Let me see your head.” She stroked the straggly red locks out of the way and looked closely at the wound. The skin around it was dark and bloody and blood was still dribbling out of it. He needed a doctor. “ Oh, you poor thing!” she cried. “ I’m going to take you to the hospital.”
“ Honestly, I’m OK,” he replied, even though it stung.
“ No! I insist!”
“ No! I insist!” he barked. “ You just lost your home. You’re coming home with me.”
Readjusting her messy blonde hair, she turned around to look at the spot where her house once stood. She turned back to him and smiled gratefully. “ Thank you, but really, Monty, you need a doctor.”
He heaved a sigh and smiled in return. “ All right. If it’ll make you happy.”
Monty, his head stitched up and bandaged, whisked his princess away to his cosy and warm castle in the countryside, where she felt the safest. He made her a nice hot meal of pasta with a delicious sauce that he had called ‘puttanesca,’ which she had never tasted before. And when the time came, they changed clothes for bed. Since she didn’t have time to grab any of her belongings, Monty kindly gave Josephine one of his old shirts to wear, and a pair of comfortable shorts, instead of a proper nightgown. When she put them on, she caught his scent in them, and a want for something wild and daring awoke within her. Jo was not keen on sleeping in the guestroom, in which she would be alone in the dark all night without the comfort of her loving and brave boyfriend. That was the only she truly wanted at that moment. So she insisted on sharing Monty’s large double bed. He didn’t mind, of course, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that Josephine was up to something. He could see it her shining eyes and mischievous sideward smile.
Monty was the one who climbed into bed first. He wrapped the duvet around himself, wriggling his body to make himself comfortable, and he heaved a deep sigh of contentment. He removed his glasses and laid them down on the bedside table. He then rolled over on to his back and placed his hands behind his head as he clamped his tired brown eyes shut. The thrill of the hurricane and saving Josephine’s life had taken a lot out of the old fella.
Josephine was still in the bathroom, attending to her nightly routine. After she had obsessively brushed and flossed her teeth – she was afraid of getting gingivitis, even though her teeth were in good condition – she began to comb her hair into place to tie it up in a bun. But as she looked at herself in the mirror, she saw her tailbone-length golden locks cascade down her spine like water trickling down a drain, and her mind was cast back to the day she let Ike brush it and he kept whispering in her ear that she could put Repunzel to shame. She grinned, and even giggled outwardly at this treasured memory. Then it quickly faded. She glanced over her shoulder at the door that was slightly ajar. The light from Monty’s bedroom seeped through the crack under the door. She turned back to her reflection, a determined shine in her eye. Maybe for just one night, she could let her hair down. Smiling, she put the sleeves of Monty’s shirt to her nose and inhaled as deeply as she could. It had a very strong, exotic smell; the smell of a thousand lands. It was warm and comforting, which made her feel beyond secure. Slowly, she unbuttoned the first button, then the second and third, and then the fourth. She did this until there weren’t any more buttons to undo. With a nervous squeak, she slipped it off, a sudden chill hitting her bare torso. Then she unzipped the shorts and she slithered of them. With all the confidence she could muster, she marched down the hallway, passing the four guestrooms, to Monty’s room. The door creaked as it opened, grabbing his attention. He smiled and was ready to kiss his girlfriend goodnight, but instead, received a shock. She strode in, not a stitch of clothing on her with everything on show. Immediately, he sat up, his eyes leaping out of his head as his chin hit the bed. He felt his face go bright scarlet. Josephine stepped towards the bed and climbed on top of it, stretching her long body in a cat-like manner.
“ I just wanted to reward you for saving my life,” she whispered.
Monty didn’t hear. He was too transfixed to her gorgeous pair to even notice a parade of banjo-playing elephants. After a second or ten, he snapped out of it. “ I haven’t…been with a woman in thirty one years,” he admitted hesitantly.
Josephine leant back on her knees, making Monty’s temperature rise to unhealthy level, and shrugged. “ Not tonight.”
There is a certain time in this type of a story, like this one, when the author chooses not to write down what a couple does in bed in the middle of the night after surviving a hurricane and puttanesca sauce. The reader, that’s you, just knows and does not have to be told so. So this is where the curtains lower on this chapter, because you are aware of the reason why Monty and Jo couldn’t wipe the grins off their faces the next day. But I can tell you that it’s not because they played card games all night.
A parade of banjo-playing elephants. I'd like to see THAT! ;D Also, when Gustav said "get caught up in this romance", didn't that remind you of Bad Romance? I vaguely remember I listened to that when I wrote this chapter (especially the last part!) Such an epic song. It's definitely in my top 5 favourite songs of all time. Maybe in the top 3! OK, I'm rambling