Truth or Dare / Ashley's song

We played Truth or Dare to try to get to know the new Eden! Carrie dared me to steal the genius doc's keyboard. It was a good dare. Someday I should go visit the Statue of Liberty so I can put things there for a joke. Wouldn't it be great if you got to work and saw a picture of your keyboard on top of the Statue of Liberty?! I wouldn't leave the keyboard there of course, I'd hide it somewhere else, but it would be so funny!!!

I need to think of good dares for the other two in case we decide to play again. Sooner or later they'll get tired of choosing Truth, I just know it. I should dare Carrie to dance with one of the boys (and she likes them all so it wouldn't matter which one)!! As for Eden, her dare should be something funny with her powers... She could give someone a dream where Darth Vader talks to them!! Like in Back to the Future. That would be so funny!! Plus she should know who Darth Vader is, even if she hasn't seen Back to the Future yet. Haha! Maybe she could trick Ashley. (Plus I think the genius doctor might figure it out.)

I bought a dress for Carrie today. James is taking her out to dinner again. It's real pretty and it kinda matches her bracelets. I told her not to look, just in case she was watching. Hopefully all the other me's she might have seen also told her not to look!! It's supposed to be a surprise.

I got a dress, too! I'm going to wear it to my party. I've decided on chocolate cake with gummy worms on top.

I wonder if Carrie knows what I'll have for dinner at the party, before I've even decided. I'd better not ask her, in case there's a surprise and she doesn't realize I don't know about it yet. She's so funny about time. Oh, I guess tonight is a good time to give her the watch we bought. I don't know if it will help, but maybe.

I put the glass rose on my sink counter right in front of the mirror, so it looks twice as pretty. When you tap it on the counter it makes a ting sound. It reminded me of the song of the Rose.

I wonder if the ringing glass is what Ashley's song sounds like.

Turtle Hat's turtle hat / Ka-something

I haven't been too good lately. I skipped my last few lessons, and no one has really said anything at the Tower, cause Turtle Hat fell and I saw Guy die on that island--so I guess that's good enough reason to not show up. But I felt a little bad because Miss Anna is nice. So I tried to do some homework today on the computer.

Typing was real boring, but then I found this art program, and as you can see, the effects are just about perfect for drawing that wavy semi-existence of the prim. Todash Black is deeper than this, and way WAY more dangerous than I made it look. But, here it is anyway, with Turtle Hat's turtle hat and the Turtle of the White and even the path that kept disappearing.

If Eden 1 hadn't fallen, I don't know what would have happened in 1978. Maybe we'd have saved both and had two. Or maybe the two Edens aren't ever allowed to meet, and Ka knew Turtle Hat was about to break the rules, and so it vanished the road from beneath her feet.

I keep trying to think of things that might explain her having to fall. But there's no reason or rhyme to her fall and that's the hardest part... that it just happened, just cause.

I tell you, if I didn't see the rose every day I'd forget there even IS the White. I'm not getting back on another lost highway, not unless the Rose itself asks me to.

Or if James does.

Anyway, I won't ever forget Turtle Hat, and the hard life she had. She wasn't too nice but I understood that. Anyway she was nicer than all the Prim put together, and I'm sorry she fell there. May she find a white patch where the Turtle guards against the black.

=-=-=

Just before we found the new Eden, I killed someone. First James told me to hide and I did, real good. But then the genius came and said I'd better stop James because he was going to get himself killed. I figured I'd make the genius feel better if I went--he seemed to think I could help. Besides I wanted to look after James.

And I did help. Ashleigh got one of the Low Men, and James another, and the genius doc another. I chose one and just pinpricked bits of him away.

That's when we saw the new Eden, so I didn't have too much time to think about what had happened.

He was just a bad guy, I told James later.

But James said there's no such thing. He said they were trying to get Eden and that's bad, but it doesn't make them bad all the way through.

Like Lex! He wasn't bad all the time. I don't know what would happen if James found another Lex. I could probably teleport them away to a safe place where James could sort out what the new Lex was like.

Lex called James a gunslinger. I guess that means James knows which ones are bad enough to shoot. I don't know that I've ever seen him not pull the trigger except for with me though... so maybe he's still learning too.

We talked about the old Turtle Hat, and how she was afraid to have friends. James Cain is, too, cause of what happened when he saved me. I tried to explain the new tet is different than the old one, but when he explained about good guys and bad guys, I realized they aren't too different, just on different sides.

He said he'd do anything for me, even kill the others. I told him I didn't understand that, because I really really wanted him to make friends with the others. But really, I did understand.

Eden asked what it was like being with someone who let me do just about anything. I didn't have an answer. I guess he's like a big brother. But not really. We're ka-something. Not just normal brother-sister. Ka-something.

James and me, there aren't words for.

Monster Car

What runs on gas and also runs over your friends?

A monster truck!

Well, okay, it was't really a truck. It was more a car. But cars aren't as fun to draw.

Plus, I know it attacked my mind. That makes it bigger and scarier than just a car. Plus, it burned James in the back. He was covering me with his coat. :( At least he wasn't too hurt!

EXCEPT the genius doctor (I called him a crazy old guy but Miss Anna says that doesn't reflect on his true specialist knowledge) shot him!! Shot James right in the back!! I thought he was changing sides at first, but then the scary one, the rat eater, shouted and said it was only a mistake. I knew she was right once she said it... Still...

I've asked Miss Anna to tell the secretary to make Doctor King an appointment for shooting lessons. He needs practice real bad, I told her, so she's gonna make sure it's a good long practice.

James did real good fighting, of course. And so did Ashley! He can move things with his mind, even cars. He can also make stuff. He made me a glass rose as an early birthday present, right in front of me. In thin air! I'll bet he could have steered Doctor King's arrow thing away from James if he'd not been so focused on smashing the monster car. Well, that's okay. It was pretty mean and it's a good thing we smashed it when we did.

Carrie's not so good at fighting. She kind of hid the whole time. Then at the end, when I thought it was all over, James said no, let's look around and make sure. And sure enough! Carrie saw baby monster cars all over. They scared her... poor Carrie.

Eden wasn't too happy to kill the babies. She doesn't like touching other people. I don't know why. She made it back home fine when we all joined up to teleport back.

I'm glad it's over. But now I have to go take Carrie her lunch. She said she doesn't ever take lunch breaks... can you believe it?! And James has had his head stuck in a book all day. I'll bring him a plate too. I thought about making one for Eden... but she's scary, and I don't think she likes me. Plus I don't think someone who ate rats likes bologna.

Let's see... Bologna for the meat, lettuce for veggies, pickle for the fruit, and mayo for the dairy. Plus, no duh, bread for bread!

We're making the rainbow already.

All Fun and Games

I haven't really told anyone, but I miss the hop-scotch court we used to have in front of our house.

It wasn't exactly a popular game at school, and between the slides and swings and jungle gym on the playground, me and my friends were always too busy with other fun things to play on some old faded-out blacktop. It's the kind of thing a kid with no imagination does when they've been kicked out of the library... play the boring old hopscotch.

But the court in front of my house was special. It had decorations on it that made it seem new, and exciting, and fun! The little stars were like portals to another world, and the crescent moon was so perfectly round, like Grandpa's spectacles or... or part of an ancient magic coin!

It wasn't always there, or at least, I didn't notice the hopscotch court till someone came along with chalk to decorate it. Then, when it was all new and shiny, the game called to me when I was at home. It was like... suddenly... a new thing, a thing just for me, where I could go and pretend about traveling in mystic space, do ya. If only I'd known then that I could teleport, I might have tried to take myself to the moon.

The playground at school was fun. Our games were always loud and sometimes dangerous, because if we were too rambunctious the yard duty would make us sit still for the rest of recess. But there were two things she always approved... hop scotch, and hand-clap games.

Miss Suzie had a shotgun, the shotgun had no shells
She loaded it with knives and forks and shot the boss to
Hello elevator, please give me floor one-nine
And if you keep me stuck here, I'll kick your small
Behind the Manni village, there was a little cave
Miss Suzie fell inside it, and drowned beneath a
Wave goodbye to heaven, the pearly gates are closed
The apples in the orchard are redder than the
r-o-s-e, r-o-s-e, r-o-s-e, rose! rose! rose!

Maybe I should ask Carrie to play with me. Or James. I bet they'd like that.

White Knight and Bacon Song

When I heard gunshots, I didn't have time to think about how I had suddenly appeared in the back yard. I knew Mom and Dad were dead. I knew I had to run.

I heard them crash through the fence behind me as I ran across the neighbor's yard, then suddenly I was surrounded. They pointed their guns at me and blam blam! It was over for me too. I was going to be a goner.

Then a strange thing happened. The sound of the gunfire... changed. It became something else. Like when I'm in my room and Mom is downstairs, humming distantly as she cooks bacon, and the bacon makes a sizzling sound--the sound of something soft, and pleasant, and nourishing. The gunfire sounded like bacon popping, and there was music in it that filled the air. Music like bacon, I guess. That sounds silly.

Slowly I looked up and around.

That's when I saw him. He had white blazing eyes and two smoking guns. All the other men who had been around me were gone. There were no bodies, but I know he killed them. I think he was singing, or maybe he heard the singing because he was moving in time with it--anyway, the music WAS him.

He was safety, and something else too... Nourishing, like bacon.

I started to get up but he motioned me still, and the music faded, but it didn't matter. It was still inside him. When finally it was safe to get up, I hugged him, and just stayed and stayed in the warmth of him.

-*-*-

I didn't really know why I told him My name is Penny White until later, after I saw the Rose. There there's singing and everyone's a White. Plus, when your parents are killed it changes you, and when you first hear the music it changes you. I guess I needed to name the change in me.

I didn't like the folks from the Tet Corporation at first. They knocked on the car window, said they had been looking for me, and I was to come with them.

They handcuffed James and said something about not killing this one, he'd be useful. I got scared and started to cry. I broke away from the guy holding me, and ran to James, and clung to his hip. When they reached for me I kicked and screamed, but it didn't do any good.

They got us into two separate vans. Luckily they took us both to the same building in New York. As we were led up the sidewalk to the entrance, I heard it again! It was his music! It got--not louder, but more making-my-insides-vibrate with each step. Our captors were getting less anxious as we got closer. I looked at James. His eyes were wide, and blazing white again. Somehow the song was coming from the building this time.

The front secretary smiled at me when we entered. She told me everything would be alright, and she was going to take care of me until--well, I forget. She was standing between me and James when she said it, so I backed away and ran around her. James was being led away down a hall.

"James Cain!" I yelled, and darted toward him.

He turned and looked at me. He wanted to pick me up, but his arms were cuffed and there were men surrounding him, holding him back, leading him away.

Then I was being led away. Strong hands picked me up and carried me. I cried and kicked but it was no good. "He saved my life!" I yelled at them. They were being so stupid!

"There, there," the nice secretary said, looking worried. "If Ka wills it, you'll see him again. Do you know what Ka is?"

I was upset and angry. Couldn't she see I needed him? "No," I barked.

"Then take my hand, Penny, and I'll show you. It's not far, and it's ever so nice."

I held back. "Where are they taking James Cain?"

She gave me a funny look. "Just downstairs. He won't be... far." She held out her hand. She was definitely of the white somehow, and I didn't think she was really lying to me, but rather trying to help. Reluctantly, I took her hand.

Then I saw the Rose. The music is the rose, just like everyone here is a White. The music filled my head and I knew that even though my parents were dead and James was away, it would be okay.

The rose also told me a secret. I grinned, because it made me full of happiness. The nice secretary took me to a little room, and handed me a coloring book with three old crayons.

It was a King Arthur coloring book. I guess someone before me decided Lancelot's armor was purple, because purple was scribbled all over him on every page.

She told me she'd be back for me soon, and locked the door behind her.

Soon as the lady had left, I thought carefully about how the lobby looked when I came in. There was a big desk, and I was short. I could go right in front of that and she wouldn't see me! From there I could run to the elevator, and take it downstairs, and start looking for James.

So I did. I just appeared in front of her desk and crouched low by the cold marble. It worked! The secret the rose told me was true!

I froze when I heard voices.

"--anything about the girl's abilities?" It was the secretary.

"We'll ask him." A man.

"How cooperative do you think he will be?"

"How cooperative are any of those things?"

There was a scornful laugh, and a sigh. Rustling. "Carrie said to keep him alive. I just wish we knew more."

I took a chance and darted through to the elevator. No one chased me.

I found his room in two minutes. It wasn't very nice. I had to teleport across some doors that were locked, but luckily, they had a lot of space between the door and the floor, so I could see through to where I wanted to be.

James was seated in a chair in the middle of a room with a concrete floor. His back was to me, so I could see he was still all chained up. I balled my fist on my hip and frowned.

"They aren't treating you very good," I said. "Are you okay?"