This chapter is the introduction to the wildest ride any ten year old will face -- yes, Lizzie Jane turns ten years old in this chapter.

The wild ride is yet to come, but events in this chapter will shed light on events in the next chapter. Without this knowledge, a lot of people will not understand the exploits of our Lizzie Jane

Healing Cousin George

Part 2 - Living With George

Shirley and Christie stood frozen in fear as they watched the giant gorilla, with Lizzie Jane in its grasp, make threatening noises and gestures. The question uppermost in their minds was the same that was frightening to Lizzie Jane -- Did a giant 18-foot gorilla eat humans?

One foot in front of the other……. One foot in front of the other. Swing your hips….. smile, like you’re enjoying it……. one foot in front of the other.
 

Proud of his accomplishment so far, the pilot turned to speak to the passengers when he saw something through a window. He screamed, “Let’s get the door open and run like the blazes!”

I froze, with a piece of toast most of the way to my mouth. Oh Gods…tonight was the formal. I sighed and put down the toast and rubbed my eyes. I had the dress, shoes, everything but in the chaos of everything else I had forgotten to call Paul and I was supposed to have a date for tonight. It wasn’t mandatory but expected. What the hell was I going to do?

College Girl
By poetheather
Chap 20

In this, the final installment of our story, Dave and Jenny share their thoughts on the children as well as their relationship...

Dave and Jenny both find themselves "lost in thoughts" of Gaby and their roles in her being...

“Good afternoon Columbine girls.” A friendly voice sang from the door to the cabin. In stepped a young woman with copper hair, twisted up and clipped to the back of her head. Her fair skin was dotted with freckles and her green eyes were warm and sparkling with merriment. She was wearing shorts, flip-flops and a lavender Camp Kumoniwanalaya T-shirt that clashed with her warm coloring and orange hair.

“Is everyone here?” She asked looking around taking a head count. She nodded to herself and plopped down on the bed next to the door. “My name is Phoenix and I’ll be your counselor for the next two months.”

The girls all greeted her with smiles and a murmur.

“I hope you like this cabin, I had to fight to get it, it’s further away from the boys, and close enough to the showers that we don’t have to hike to them, yet far enough that we won’t hear them every morning and night.” Phoenix smiled. “As my name is Phoenix, I like to give my cabin-mates the opportunity to ‘burn’ their past and be ‘re-born’. So shed who you were before you got on that bus this morning. Toss it aside and think of the next few weeks as a time of change so that you can emerge a new person."

In more ways than one... Erika thought to herself.

“Tell us, Mr. Bond, have you any children?”

“No! Wait! This is all just a mistake!” he shouts as he is taken through the door.

Eric did as instructed and waved to his mother as she drove out of the parking lot. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the elastic and pulled his hair up into a ponytail.

Erika was greeted on the bus by polite grins and shy girls who all looked curiously at the new member of their ride to Camp Kumoni.

“Erika,” Samantha called from the back of the bus. “I saved you a seat.” She waved.

Erika smiled back and joined the beautiful blonde in the back seat of the bus.

“I got here early, like a geek, so that I could get us a good seat.” She greeted Erika with a smile. “So how did it go last night?”

“I thought my mom caught wind of what was going on.” Erika explained in low tones. “When I got back from getting my swimsuit, I joined her for pizza. Right in the middle of swallowing, she asked me if I had found my swimsuit. I choked on the pizza. But then I played it off.”

Samantha giggled.

“Its not funny.” Erika looked sternly at her new friend. “What if someone from school is up here at camp?”

“Like they could recognize you.” Samantha looked to the front of the bus. The driver just stepped on and was taking her seat, while a counselor stood at the front flipping through a clipboard. “There is such a difference between Eric the plague and the alluring Erika. Especially once we get you made over.”

After reading the story “The boy who wasn’t seen, and the Girl who couldn’t speak” by Rankan, I got to thinking about that storyline and decided to try out my own ideas. I hope that is okay.
 
 
“Here, lets get this sized for you.” Samantha held out a bra.

“What?” Eric’s face went white.

“You’re going to have to wear one at camp. Try it on.” Samantha’s soft voice took on an edge.

Eric put his arms through the holes while Samantha fastened it in the back and adjusted the shoulder straps so that it fit properly. Well kind of. It was in the right place, it just didn’t have anything to fill it out properly.

“I don’t think this is going to work.” Eric said showing her the deflated cups.

“I’ve got it covered.” Samantha reached into the box and pulled out two flesh colored things. “These are breast forms.” She explained to Eric. “When a girl doesn’t have enough chest, she cheats and uses these.” She tucked them into the bra, filling them out.

Eric looked down and couldn’t believe his eyes. It looked like he had breasts.

“Here try this on.” Samantha handed him a purple cotton top. He pulled it over his head and looked in the mirror. His jaw went slack. He could hardly recognize himself. There might be a chance yet.

After reading the story “The boy who wasn’t seen, and the Girl who couldn’t speak” by Rankan, I got to thinking about that storyline and decided to try out my own ideas. I hope that is okay.
 
“Why?” he looked into her incredible brown eyes. “Why are you doing this… Going to a summer camp with a guy from school who is considered the plague?”

“Because I owe you so much, Eric. You have been such a friend to me and helped me in so many ways.”

Now Eric was really confused. It must have been written all over his face, because Samantha continued.

“Do you remember my sister, Summer.”

Of course he did. Summer and he were in art class together and shared an interest in comic art. Summer committed suicide a year and a half ago. The whole school had to go through group counseling. Eric nodded.

“After Summer left us, I went through her stuff.” Samantha explained. “I found her diary and sketch pad. She wrote a lot about you and how talented you are. How you made her bad days a little bit better. How your drawings and your sense of humor helped her make it through each day. After I got closer to Summer through her stuff, I found you on line. I started reading your comics, and admiring your art. That is when I started to email you. I wanted to get to know you better. To see everything my sister saw in you. I just couldn’t do it at school, I’m not strong enough to deal with all the cliques and pressures. Anyway, I thought by spending the summer with you, I could get to know you better, like my sister did. Maybe through you, I can understand her better. Besides, it sounded like you needed a friend, and I felt it was the least I could do to help you out.”

“Who–who are you?” asked Lizzie Jane in a frightened voice.

“Oh, just a traveling partner,” the voice answered. “I ride the rails often. How about you? Are you a run-away?”

“No — no — I was just trying to get in out of the rain.” Lizzie Jane replied, still with a nervous voice.

“Rain? The sun is shining, hon.”

“Well, it was raining.”

The man smiled. Lizzie Jane adjusted her eyes to the light. The man had on tattered clothing, a short beard and two front teeth missing. “You must be from North Alabama. I understand that it was raining cats and dogs up there.”

“I am from Carter’s Bend”, replied Lizzie Jane.

“Yep, know right where it’s at”, answered the man. “You are in South Alabama — a fer piece from Carter’s Bend. My name is George.”

“I am Elizabeth Jane, but my friends call me Lizzie.”

“Well, can I be your friend — Lizzie?”

“Well — I guess so,” was the young girl’s reply.

The Bonds were shown into the doctor’s office by his nurse, who told them, “You can wait in here for the doctor to see you. He shouldn’t be more than a few minutes.”

“Thanks,” both Dave and Jenny said at the same time, then as the nurse left the room they looked at each other and smiled. They each took a chair facing the doctor’s desk, and had barely settled into them when the door opened and the doctor arrived.

“Good to see the two of you.”

“Thank you,” replied Dave.

The doctor shook each of their hands, then circled around his desk and took a seat. “I imagine you’re anxious to find out the latest?”

“You could say that,” Jen blurted out, making no effort to disguise her anxiety...

The consultation with the doctor that afternoon was short and to the point. When Jen asked what options she had besides surgery the doctor was blunt. “I’m afraid surgery is our only option,” the doctor told her as she sat with Dave in his office.

“So when do we do this?” Jen asked.

“As soon as possible. If you’re ready, we could do it in the morning.”

“So, are the chances good?” Dave tentatively ventured.

“I’d say it’s maybe 50/50, but that’s better odds than if we don’t try.”

I’m not sure I’m ready for this, sending my children away to America for six weeks? It sounded like it would be such a great learning experience for them, but that was before everything with their mum came to pass. I know the kids sense it as well, but there’s something about this morning that can’t help but feel like the last time Drew and Jules will ever see their mum alive. God, it hurts just thinking about it. Yes, it’s early, and they’re barely awake, but I can see it in their eyes. Even as we all tell ourselves that she’s a fighter, and will never give up, there’s a cloud hanging over all of us casting an ominous shadow over everything. That cloud keeps reminding us that the prognosis given to her by the specialist said to expect six weeks. Ironic how she’s been given exactly the amount of time the kids will be away.
 

Well, this has been a right strange Christmas, to say the least, what with Jen being gone, and the kid’s lack of enthusiasm for the holiday…I never thought I’d see the day when my children weren’t up at the crack of dawn to open presents. No, this year, I even slept in a bit and was still first up. I guess it’s safe to say Jen’s absence has been the main reason for the strangeness. Thank God she’s finally coming home. I can only hope she’s going to drop this charade and tell me what’s really going on. I have to say I hope I’m not correct, frankly, but I think I have a fair idea what’s coming. We shall see…

“Wish I'd been there” Mad mentioned
“Well you can see it tomorrow, I'm sure Gran'll put it on, eh Dad?”
“Sure she will” Dave mentioned from up front as they skirted Uttoxeter on their way over to the kid’s Gran's near Nantwich.
 

Reintroducing our cast of characters. Donnie/Donna, Jerry, Donnie's best friend. Martin and Janet, Donnie's parents. Fred and Annie, Jerry's parents. Claire, Jerry's younger sister. Debbie, Donnie's girlfriend. Cindy, Jerry's girlfriend. Paul, a private eye. And introducing two new characters, P.I.'s Terry and Pete, Paul's friends/associates. Dr. Fine. Inventer/reverse engineer of the suits.

PART THREE In which we get some answers, finally, and our heroes(ines) come to a parting of the ways? By the way, I placed some movie quotes in this part. the first one to find them all gets a slightly used, but in great condition, no-prize!

Here we go!

This story is a fanfic based on Maddy Bell's Gaby series and has been available on Maddy's website for a while now, but I haven't really been able to get a feel for what readers thought of it. So I've decided to post it here and hopefully there will be a few souls willing to share their opinions. I'll be posting the subsequent parts daily until it's done. Thanks.

Acidalia XI-A
By Amanda D

San Francisco Monday August 7. 9:22pm

The testing center was packed full of perspective patients waiting as patiently as could be expected for their turn to be poked and prodded. Their faces, for the most part, were plastered with looks of a combination for boredom and anxiety. If one listened closely enough you could almost hear the hum of frayed nerves behind the constant onslaught of crying and coughing.