Watching Time (Novel): Chapter 3 (Untold Stories)

Naomi threw the present hard against the wall and cried out in frustration. All she wanted to do was be Myra’s friend, but she couldn’t get close. After thirty minutes of sobbing endlessly, she managed to get a hold of her emotions and calm down. She hasn’t even been here twenty-four hours, yet. I can’t expect her to accept me with open arms.

          She wiped her face and went to her door. On the back, she had a list of things she needed to remember to do. She stared at “Befriend Myra” and shook her head at herself. She took the pen and wrote, “Wash Face”. She locked her door and made her way back to her bed. Lifting the mattress, she pulled out a small stack of papers. She pulled the bottom one out specifically and wrote the date elegantly at the top.

Letting her emotions go free, she began to write into her tear-stained journal.

When Myra woke the next day, she could immediately tell something was up. There was too much noise in the living room. When she went to investigate, she found Fia, Naomi, Mark, Earl, and a boy she didn’t recognize all sitting and talking.

          “Myra!” Fia exclaimed. “Earl just invited us to join your vacation!”

          Myra was immediately stunned. Vacation? How come she had never been told? It probably has something to do with how I basically arrived two days ago.

          Naomi seemed to recognize this problem, too. “Um, did we actually tell Myra?”

          Earl’s excited face immediately fell. “Oh, uh…well…maybe I got a bit carried away,” he admitted with a guilty shrug. “We’re going to Florida for a week.”

          “Florida?!” exclaimed Myra.

          “Living conditions there are awful,” the boy Myra didn’t recognize agreed. “I used to live there. I’m not terribly thrilled that we’re going back.”

          “You don’t have to come,” Naomi reminded him.

          “I need a break,” John countered, a tear beginning to form. “Please. As long as I can get away from here, I’m fine.”

          Myra wondered why he was so bent on leaving. Before she could ask, however, Earl cut in. “It’s alright with your families, by the way,” Earl told the kids. “John’s were perhaps…too eager, but the rest thought it’d be a brilliant idea.”

          “I need to pack…” Myra interrupted, although she had no idea what she would pack.

          “Naomi, why don’t you help Myra?” Earl told the unwilling sister. “The rest of us will load the van.”

         

Naomi could tell Myra didn’t want help, even though no words were spoken. Maybe that was why Naomi could tell.

          Eventually, after going through clothes for about five minutes, Myra sighed and slammed the drawer to the dresser. “How am I supposed to pack? None of this actually belongs to me. It’s like…stealing.”

          “Or borrowing,” offered Naomi with a small shrug. “Just choose several pairs of shorts and a week’s worth of tank tops, and you’ll be fine.”

          “Why not this?” Myra frowned while holding up a pretty shirt.

          “It has long sleeves,” Naomi replied, a hint of a grin touching her face. “I went to Florida every year for as long as I can remember, so trust me when I say you’ll want to avoid wearing that. Especially since it’s summer.”

          “Oh,” Myra muttered. She stuffed the shirt back in the drawer without folding it, again.

          Naomi smiled and turned back to the closet she was rummaging through, and then froze. A tear began to come to her eye.

          “What is it?” Myra asked, going up to the closet.

          Naomi didn’t reply at first. She knew all Myra was going to see was a white sleeveless dress with swirling golden patterns. “It was my mother’s,” she told Myra quietly. “I had forgotten about it.”

          “Oh.” Myra seemed disappointed, for some reason. “What happened to her?”

          “It doesn’t matter,” Naomi told her, trying as hard as she could to shut out the memories. She glanced at Myra’s bag. “Come on, let’s finish. Father wants to leave as soon as we can. And don’t worry about breakfast, he stop at fast food places once every hour.”

For the first half of the trip, Myra sat in the front with Earl. The trip from Thomasville, Texas, to Crestview, Florida, which they drove in one day, had taken almost eleven hours.

          But when Myra went to get in the front seat when they got ready to leave Crestview, she was stopped by Fia. “Um, do you think I could sit there, now?” she asked nervously. “If you don’t mind, of course!”

          “Uh, sure,” Myra shrugged, and climbed back to where Fia had been seated on the way over. Next to her was the boy she hadn’t actually gotten to meet.

          “I’m John,” the boy told her, sticking out his hand. She shook it.

          “Myra.”

          “I know.” He didn’t smile. Instead, it seemed solemn. Almost…jealous.

          Why would he be jealous of me? I’ve got nothing. Does he wish he had a rich family, too?

          Myra didn’t bother asking. She just leaned towards the window and stared out. The car began to move, and once they hit the main roads, Myra began whispering the names of things she saw. She fell asleep fast, and dreamed of dragons.