Once upon a time there was a girl. Her name was Clara. She
lived in Idaho near a lake. She absolutely loved it there. She loved cooking as well, and she loved her
dog, Gandalf. One day she was biking around said lake with Gandalf when she
noticed that there was a new family moving in. She peered around the cabin
(Because around that lake you slept in cabins all year round.) to see how large
the family was. “Let’s see Gandalf, one, three, five. Five of them! Three kids
and two grownups! Oh look, Gandalf, one of them looks like she’s my age. I
would say she’s about ten, just like me. And that must be her older brother and
younger sister. Well, we might as well go meet them.”
Clara rode over to the
front of the family’s lawn and parked her bike in the driveway. “Stay,
Gandalf.” She ordered the big sheepdog. Gandalf sat down obediently. Clara
smiled lovingly at him, then she walked over to the family.
“Hi!” she said. The
older boy looked at her.
“Who are you?” he asked. Clara raised an eyebrow at him.
“Depends who’s asking, who are you?” she replied.
The boy laughed. “I’m
Jordan Newsbearer. Now will you tell me who you are?” he asked.
“I am Clara Rebecca
Forthing the second!” she declared.
“Whoa! Hey, Jamie and
Jill, come here, there’s someone here.” He yelled through the garage.
The two girls came
bounding down. “Jordan, Mom said you shouldn’t yell up the house. Oh, hello.”
The older girl whose name was Jamie said to Clara whom she had just noticed.
Clara waved at her but
then she heard a yelp come from her bicycle. She spun around to see the younger
girl named Jill trying to pet her dog.
“Jill, ask first.”
Jordan said.
Jill ran to him.
“Sorry, Jordie.” She said
. Jordan rolled his eyes. “Jill says my name is too difficult
for her to say, so she made me the most mind-grating nickname in the history of
the world!” Jordan explained.
All the time Jill was
nodding her head in satisfaction. Jamie picked Jill up.
“Hi, I’m Clara Rebecca
Forthing the second.” Clara said to Jamie.
Jamie grinned a wide
and wonderful grin. “I’m Jasmine Virginia Newsbearer the first, and this is
Jillian-“but she was cut off by her little sister.
“Jillian Emily
Newsbearer the first!” she recited.
Clara grinned at the
little blond girl. “So, Jordan, what’s your middle name? We’ve all said ours,
what’s yours?” Clara asked.
Jill and Jamie
practically exploded into fits of laughter. Jordan blushed. “Never mind!” he
said.
“Come on, Jordan!”
Jamie said.
Jordan bit his lip. He
mumbled something that was almost inaudible. Clara leaned in. “What?” she said.
Jordan looked at her.
“States.” Clara’s eyebrows went up. “States?!” she repeated. Jordan nodded. “Is
that even a name?” she asked.
Jordan shrugged. “I
don’t know. I was named States because my Grandpa traveled across the country
five times. I don’t know, it’s weird, huh?” Jordan said.
Clara smiled. “Well, it
could be worse. You could have a middle name like pickle or something.” she
laughed.
Jordan shrugged. “Jordan!!!” his name was heard from up top
the stairs. “Didn’t she just—oh never mind. Coming Mom!” he answered her, then
he ran up.
“He’s fast, isn’t he?”
Clara said. Jamie nodded.
“He used to do track.”
she said.
“Ah.” Clara said. “Well, I had better go because I think
Gandalf has to go, you know what I mean?” Clara said.
Jamie nodded. “Hey, can
I see you tomorrow?” she yelled to her as she rode away. “Sure!” Clara shouted
in reply.
Gandalf walked faithfully beside his Mistress’ side.
“Gandalf,” Clara began. “I liked them. I really liked Jamie though. She seemed
so confident, you know? And Jordan seemed very funny, and Jill… oh, Jill! She
was the cutest thing I ever did see! Gandalf, I wonder if they have a dog. You
know, maybe you could meet it. It’d be great if we were all friends. I like
that they moved here, I was getting lonely since Joy left.” Joy was Clara’s
best friend. But, when Joy moved to Arkansas Clara got terribly lonely.
Everyone else in her neighborhood were grownups! The grownups always favored
her and invited her in and gave her all sorts of wonderful treats, but she was
still lonely.
Gandalf and Clara soon made it back to their home. Clara let
Gandalf in the backyard to… go. Clara
then ran into the kitchen where her Mother was making cookies.
“Mother, somebody new moved in!” Clara burst.
Her mother looked at
her thoughtfully. “Yes, I know. These cookies are for them.” She pointed to the
fresh batch.
Clara smiled. “Did you
meet them, Clara?” her Mother inquired.
Clara nodded saying
that she had. “Very good.” Her mother approved.
“Here, you may take
these with you to their house. Mind you bring Gandalf, I don’t want you getting
kidnapped and with that hairy giant I am certain you won’t be.” Her mother
handed her a tray of cookies.
Clara took them and
then she went out and unleashed Gandalf. “Come on, Gandalf. We need to deliver
cookies now.” Clara said and Gandalf barked loudly.
Clara rode back over to
the Newsbearer household.
“Hi!” she said to
Jordan who was picking through a box of what looked like tools in the garage.
Jordan looked up at her. “Hi. Oh, where is that confounded
hammer?” he said. Clara grinned at him.
“Looking for something, Jordan?” she inquired.
“Well,” Jordan replied.
“There’s this thing that got bent out of shape in the moving truck, and I need
to bend it back into shape.” Clara nodded with understanding.
“Hey,” she suddenly said. “Look! Is that it?” she asked.
Jordan turned around to see a black hammer.
“There you are.” he
murmured. Jordan looked at Clara.
“So, what’s up? Do you need a cup of sugar or something?” he
asked. Clara shook her head.
“No, but do you?” she
said as she unveiled the tray of cookies. Jordan groaned and Clara looked at
him with curiosity.
“What’s the matter?”
she asked. Jordan frowned.
I’m allergic to chocolate. Sad case, I know, I can’t eat any
of it.” he explained sadly. Clara backed away.
“Oh my goodness, I’m so
sorry, Jordan. Here, shall I bring them in for your sisters?” Clara inquired.
Jordan nodded and pointed to the garage door.
Clara nodded back and
skipped over to the door. She opened it and went inside. Wow! Clara thought. Look at
all these boxes! How much stuff do they have? She grinned at Jill as she
walked into the front room. Jill had made a fort out of some of the boxes.
“Clara!” Jill shouted. “What are you doing here? Hey what’s in that tray? Can I
just call you Clare?” Jill fired questions at her.
Clara grinned at the
little girl. “I am delivering cookies, that is what is in the tray, and yes,
you may call my Clare.” Clara answered her.
Jill gaped at her. “Wow, you answer way faster than Jordie does. So, those are cookies? Neat! I’ll get
Mommy and Jamie, Daddy is at work. Oh, Jordie can’t join us though.
Allergies.” Clara, or Clare as I will
now call her nodded.
“I know, he told me.”
she said.
Jill suddenly
disappeared up the stairs, then she came down with her mother and Jamie. Jamie
grinned the same wonderful grin that she had grinned earlier.
“Hi, Clara! Didn’t
expect to see you back so soon.” Clare smiled. “Hi, I brought cookies. I was
thinking that after we were done eating all four of us could go take a walk
around the lake.” Clare said. Jamie nodded.
“But, it’s cold!” Jill
protested.
“Get your jacket on
then!” Jamie said, as she handed Jill her big puffy jacket. They finished their
cookies and soon were off, with Gandalf right at their heels.
“Wow, look at this scenery!” Jordan exclaimed
enthusiastically. Clare nodded in agreement with him.
“It is pretty, huh?”
she said. “I’ve lived here for a pretty long time, and I have something really
special to show you.” Here Clare stopped and put a leash on Gandalf.
“Come on.” Clare
whispered mysteriously. Jordan raised an eyebrow and Jamie looked at him, but
when she looked back Clare was gone. So was Jill.
“Where did those two
go?” Jordan asked, putting his hands on his hips.
“Jillian Emily
Newsbearer, get over here!” Jordan shouted.
Jamie slipped her hand
into her pocket and went into the woods where they figured Jill and Clare had
gone.
“Clara!” Jamie
whispered.
Suddenly a hand grabbed
Jordan, whose back was to a tree, by putting it across his mouth. He fell back,
and Jamie gasped as something pushed her in the direction Jordan had fell. Both
their mouths were covered by mysterious hands. Jordan tried to shout, but he
was hushed by a familiar voice.
“Hush, Jordan! It’s
just us!” he heard Clare’s voice say from behind him. Jordan grabbed her hand
and flung it away.
“Say, what’s the big
idea?” he whispered. “We didn’t want you shouting, because this is a secret
hiding place.” Clare explained. Jordan still couldn’t see her. Jamie relaxed
and pulled the hand off of her mouth. Suddenly Clare appeared in the sunlight.
“Come on, guys. Let me show you!” Clare grabbed Jamie’s hand
and pulled her towards a bush.
Clare pushed away the
bush to reveal a little cabin. It was covered with leaves, but looked well-kept
and it had flowers and what looked like a new coat of paint.
“This is Mt. Parson.”
she introduced the cabin. “Why is it called ‘Mt.’?” Jamie asked. Clare grinned.
“This is why.” and with that Clare pulled back another bush.
When she did it revealed a beautiful landscape of a giant hill encircling a
littler lake than the one they had seen previously. Jordan’s jaw dropped.
“Wow!” he breathed.
“I’m the only one who knows about it, well, Mom and I.” she said. “So you can’t
tell anybody.” Jamie nodded.
“Wait! Where’s Jill?”
Jordan suddenly became aware that his youngest sibling was gone. They heard a
scream, a splash, and a crack. They knew exactly
what happened.
“Jill!” Jamie screamed.
The three of them ran down the hill as fast as they could.
“Jill!” Jamie continued screaming. Jordan got to the bottom of
the hill first, so he started to take of his leather jacket and shoes so he
could dive in.
“Jordan, no!” Jamie said. “You can’t swim!”
“And the water is freezing!”
Clare protested.
Clare took off her jacket an her shoes, then without thinking
twice she dived into the freezing water. Jamie and Jordan tried to look in the
water to see them, but they could not. For what seemed like hours (though it
was only twenty seconds) they waited, until suddenly Clare popped back up with
Jill in her hand. Clare coughed a little as Jordan pulled them both up out of
the water. Jordan and Jamie stared helplessly at their little sister who was
still.
“Oh, please! Move!” she said. Clare unzipped Jill’s big coat
and pulled it off of her. Jamie stared at her sister, and then glanced at Clare
who had a puzzled expression on her face.
“What’s wrong?” Jamie
half shouted.
Clare said nothing in
reply but instead put her legs on either side of Jill so she was standing over
her, then she bent down and, taking Jill’s hands and putting them by her side
hit her stomach. Jill’s eyes popped open and she coughed out a bunch of water.
Jill continued coughing for quite a while.
“Jill!” Jamie said.
Jill sat up. “I-I-I
slipped.” she explained. Jordan leaned down and hugged her. Then he picked her
up.
“We’re going home. Come on, Jamie.” he said.
“You guys ought to learn how to swim,” Clare yelled as they
walked away. Jordan turned around and nodded in agreement. Jamie turned around
as well, but she ran back to Clare and burst into tears. She hugged her and
whispered her thanks in Clare’s ears. Clare nodded. “It’s okay, I’ll teach you
to swim if you want. Are you going to be okay?” Jamie nodded and then she took
off after Jordan.
And with that the
Newsbearer’s left. Clare went back to the little house where she had put
Gandalf and she dried off.
“Come on, Gandalf. Let’s go home.” she said and Gandalf
trotted gloomily behind her, obviously being bothered that he had been left
behind. When she got home she found Mrs. Newsbearer talking to her mother in
the kitchen.
“Clara.” Clare’s mother said. “Come here.” Clare obeyed.
“I can’t say how-how
grateful I am.” Mrs. Newsbearer said.
“Oh, thank you Ma’am, but it was nothing. My mother taught
me.” she said and she pointed to her mother who was smiling with pride.
Mrs. Newsbearer looked
at Clare’s mother and smiled. “Well, still, Jordan said he didn’t know what he
would’ve done if you hadn’t been there. And Jamie said she couldn’t imagine the
chaos if you hadn’t jumped in when you did.”
Clare blushed with pleasure and then she took a little bow and
ran up to her bedroom. Later that night she pondered all that had happened. She
thought of how grateful she was for her new friends. She also thought of how it
was more fun and adventurous with them around. It all depends on how you look
at it. What one person would see as adventure another would see as a
heart-attack, a scare of a lifetime. But
either way the new friends continued their friendship and they often camped in
the little cabin that belonged to Clare.
When they got older,
ten years later, in fact. Jill was fifteen, Jordan was twenty-four, Jamie was
twenty-one, and Clare was twenty-two. Clare became a specialist in veterinary
medicine, Jordan became a star athlete in the Olympics (Jordan and Clare got
married.), Jamie was a hiking guide for Mt. Rainer, and Jill became a movie
producer. Clare and the Newsbearer’s
remained, to this day, friends.
Pepper
Potters
