Chapter 46

 

We stood outside Kelly’s house watching Pascal set up the machine. He and Mortimer had been able to figure out a way for it to send us on a one way trip back home. I looked around at everyone who had gathered to say goodbye. Lauren, Jessica, Kelly, Joanna, and the entire Goth family were standing behind us, waiting to see us off.

Bella had helped Raven and me go through the house and gather everything we owned. She bought us some suitcases, and we filled them up with all of our clothes and accessories. Even our dresses from the party were in there, all folded up nice and neat and wrapped in a plastic sleeve. With all of our stuff Raven and I looked like we were going to the airport.

It was kinda sad saying goodbye. I’ve met lots of different people from all over the world so I’ve said lots of goodbyes, but I knew that we would be able to keep in contact. This time, it was likely that we’d never see each other again. Bella had become a really good friend of mine, and it would be really hard to say goodbye to her.

But on the other hand, we needed to get back home. We had evil to fight, people to protect and a world to save. We had our whole lives back home, our team members needed us, and we needed to get back to them.

Pascal had finished setting up the machine and was now entering the destination place and time.

“December 19, 2009 in San Francisco. Is that right?” he asked. Raven nodded. Pascal tweaked with the machine some more and an image of Titans Tower appeared in circle. “Is this the place?” he asked.

“Yep,” I told him, “that‘s it.” Amanda’s jaw dropped.

“Whoa! Joan!” she said. “That‘s your house?” I nodded. “It‘s even bigger than mine!”

“I told you I had a heli pad on my roof,” I told her.

Pascal explained that the machine would work in the same way as it had during our trip to Pleasantview. We would go to the exact same place and time where we had left and we would step into the portal at the same time as our arrival. That gave us some time to say goodbye.

Anne didn’t want me to go. She ran up to me with a sad look on her face.

“Why do you have to go?” she asked. “I like having you here.” I got down and looked her in the eye.

“We belong somewhere else,” I told her. “I need to go back and be with my old family and friends. And we need to protect our world from evil. You wouldn‘t want that world not to be saved because we weren’t there, would you?” She shook her head. I gave her a hug, and she went back to Mortimer and Bella.

Amanda understood that we had to go back and I gave a goodbye hug too.

“I’d love to come over to your house sometime,” she said. “It looks cool!”

“That would be cool,” I told her, “but there isn‘t really a way to come back.” Amanda looked sad, but she gave me a hung and put a smile on her face.

Cassandra thanked us for everything and she even let me hold Alice one last time. The little girl looked happy in my arms and she either hit her face against mine or gave me a kiss - I couldn’t tell.

I turned to Joanna, Randy, and Kelly. I told them to enjoy their time in high school and they told me that they couldn’t me more excited about it.

“We‘re going to miss you,” Lauren told us.

“It‘s not going to be as interesting around here without you,” Jessica added. “I‘m going to miss having something to think about while I‘m working.”

“Well I‘m going to miss being around when all the hilarious stuff happens,” I told them. And that made me think. I wondered how they would make it through the coming recession. They had Bella to rely on, but she would only be able help them so much. She wasn’t going to pay them out of every hard situation, she knew they had to get through some of their problems on their own. I hoped they would be okay, but I guess giving them a hint wouldn’t hurt.

“Oh and by the way,” I said, “the economy’s kinda gonna tank in about three years, so I suggest you get that jar back out.”

“Thanks for the heads up,” Jessica said.

“Don‘t worry about us,” Lauren told me. “We‘ll be okay.”

Bella and Mortimer were the last people we said goodbye to.

“I know you said that it was your way of thanking us,” I told them, “but still, thanks for everything.”

“Your welcome,” Bella said. “Are you excited to be going back home?”

“I little,” I told her. “When I was out there fighting Dina, I realized that I missed all the action of fighting evil. Don‘t get me wrong, I loved being with you guys, it‘s just that I like to be where the action is too.”

“I know,” Bella said. “Stay safe, okay?”

“Don‘t worry, we will.”

“It‘s almost time to leave,” Mortimer told us, and Bella pulled me into a hug.

“Thanks so much,” she said. “You really are a great friend, and I‘m going to miss you.”

“I‘m gonna miss you too,” I told her.

We let go of the hug and Raven and I grabbed our bags.

“Take care,” Bella told me.

“You too,” I said back.

And then I took Raven’s had and together we stepped through the portal.

 

Chapter 47

 

I heard the sound of rain hitting the window as I opened my eyes to a light purple room. I was laying on a bed in a room with floor to ceiling windows. The lights were off but I could still see that Raven was right next to me on my bed. We were home.

We got off the bed and looked around the room. Everything was exactly the way we had left it except for our suitcases which had found their way to the floor. I tried to turn a light on, but then remembered that we had left during a storm and the power was out. I looked at the battery operated clock on my wall. 2:15. No time had passed since our departure.

“Can you believe we‘re home?” I asked Raven.

“Yeah,” she told me, “I can.”

We went to the window and looked out at the rain pouring into the San Francisco Bay. It felt so wonderful to look at that familiar scene. I hadn’t been this happy to return home since we got back from Paris after spending three long months traveling across Europe and Asia.

While we were looking out the window, the lights came back on. Someone had gone to the basement and turned on the back up generator. We were about to leave the room when I noticed an envelope sitting on my desk that hadn’t been there before.

“Wait,” I told Raven.

“What is it?” she asked, coming back to my desk.

“It‘s a letter,” I told her. I picked it up and looked at the writing on the envelope. “Oh my gosh, it‘s from Bella!”

I tore into the envelope. Inside was a letter and a picture of Raven and me with Bella, Lauren, Jessica, Scarlet, and Joanna from the party. I put that aside and opened the letter. It was handwritten in script so neat even I could read every word. I looked at Raven and read the letter aloud.

 

August 31, 2005

 

Dear Joan and Raven,

 

I hope this letter finds you well. Mortimer figured out a way to send this to you, and I thought it would be a great idea to send you this picture taken at our party.

Once again, Thank you so much for everything you have done for us. It really means a lot to our whole family that you would give up a chance of going home to do the right thing to help us out. It’s not often you meet someone like that, and when you do, it’s a wonderful thing.

Everyone here is doing great. Alice has been happy since she learned how to crawl, and Cassandra is the happiest she’s been since she got divorced. It must be the fact that Alice is learning new things everyday and finding new ways to keep us all busy. Just the other day she found my cell phone and ended up calling Jessica who was with me in the next room. She was even making noises into it and Jessica picked it up and said, “I think Alice has your phone.” I took it from her and it turned out she was right. It gave us all something to laugh about.

Amanda and Anne are doing fine as well. Mortimer and I went to tuck them in after Cassandra had put them to bed one night, and just as we were about to leave we heard Amanda say, “Good night Grandma,” when we thought she was asleep.

Joanna and Randy started high school last week. Alexander showed them around the school on their first day, they’re enjoying it so far.

Mortimer and I are doing fine. We take Lauren and Jessica out for lunch about twice a week and they enjoy eating with us and Alice. Lauren actually got a raise the other day and she’s excited to be bringing in a little more money.

I hope you are doing well as you continue to make your world a better place just as you did for us. If you ever find yourselves in Strangetown again you’re more than welcome to stay with us. We’d love to have you.

We hope you have a merry Christmas and a great 2010.

Take care,

Your friend,

Bella

 

“You know,” Raven said as I taped the picture Bella had given us to the wall with other photos of me and Raven, “if you want to write her back, I‘m sure I can find a way to send it to her.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Sure,” Raven said. “There‘s probably something in one of my books that will tell us how.”

This was great. Bella and I would be able to stay in contact, making it easier to stay friends. I looked at Raven.

“Thanks,” I told her. “Do you think we should tell everyone about what happened?”

“I don‘t think so,” Raven said. “They probably wouldn‘t believe us even if we did.”

“Yeah,” I said, “let‘s keep it to our selves.”

“Hey Joan,” came a voice from the doorway. We turned around to find one of our teammates standing in the doorway. “Guess what?” she said. “We finally got everyone to agree to play Super Smash Brothers Brawl with out fighting again. Want to play?”

“Sure,” I told her.

As I placed Bella’s letter on the desk, things got back to normal, or as normal as they ever get around here.