Well, thanks to a good cup of coffe I was able to finish this one
last night... As always, feedback is encouraged.
Disclaimer: I don't own all of these characters! HB owns Jonny
and the rest of the cast from JQ:TRA. I'm not
making any money at all with this, but I'm having
fun!
Rating: E, HR (I'm not telling between who and who. And no, it
probably is not the couple you were expecting from
me...)
Sinopsis: A look at what might have been...
Archivers: Go ahead!
Last time we saw Jonathan Quest:
He fell asleep thinking of Liz. He had expected that the
girl in his dreams would now be replaced by her, but he didn't
have such luck.
He had the dream again. He saw the girl, dressed in a green
blouse that matched her eyes, her fiery mane caressed by the
wind...
And now I shamelessly present:
*********************************
* *
* Reality *
* by Carlos Rodriguez *
* *
* Chapter Two *
* *
*********************************
She tried to reach the changing figure in front of her,
but before she could take his hand he had vanished, replaced by
a burst of light.
Slowly, she opened her eyes, just to be blinded by the
morning sun, coming inside her room through the window. Using
her hand to block the path of the light, she glanced at her clock.
It was already nine in the morning. God, how could she
sleep so much? Well, it was saturday after all, and since there was
nothing else to do...
Jessica Bannon stretched, then she rolled out of the bed.
She quickly got dressed in her green blouse and jeans and decided
to go breakfast hunting to the nearest fridge.
As she walked down the stairs, her nose caught the scent
of chilaquiles while a soft voice singed a popular song on the
kitchen. 'Of course,' she thought 'I had forgotten that mom's
vacations start today. That means we will have a decent breakfast
for a change.' While her cooking abilities were not that bad,
Estella Bannon had a special touch that Jessie lacked.
"Good morning, mom!" she said as she walked into the
kitchen, giving Estella a kiss on the cheek. "That smells wonderful!"
she added as she peered over Estella's shoulder to see her adding
the fried tortillas to the tomato sauce.
"I'm glad you aprove" she replied with a smile. "Now, why
don't you put the table while I finish all of this, uh?"
"You got it, mom!"
She was working on that when she heard the steps coming
down the stairs. "Good morning, Ponchita!"
"Good morning, dad!" she greeted him.
Jessie's father sniffed the air. "I see your mother is
cooking..." Then he tiptoed to the kitchen door and dissappeared
inside. Then she heard a small scream as Roger Bannon gave his wife
a little scare. "Don't do that, Roger!" Jessie heard, then the sound
of laughter filled the house.
She was grateful for these mornings. She remembered that
some years ago, when she had been five or six, there hadn't been
any laughter in the house. Instead, it was filled by the sound
of the fights between his parents.
She had never been sure what had been the reason of the
fights. She knew it was because of his father's absences due to
his job, but up to this day she didn't know what that job had
been. Nor she wanted to ask.
Her smile dissapeared as she remembered those days, when
she hid herself in the closet and placed her hands over her tiny ears
so she wouldn't hear the sound of broken plates and the curses they
threw at each other.
But it had ended. His dad ended giving up his job and stayed
with them. Those days were far behind, and now these were much happier
times. True, his mother still traveled a lot due to her job,
but many of those times both her husband and her daughter traveled
with her.
Estella appeared in the doorway with a saucepan in her
hands. "Breakfast time!" she announced. Roger was not far behind,
already armed with a fork and an impacient look on his face.
"By the way, Ponchita," Roger said after breakfast was over,
"we have something for you."
Estella came back from the kitchen, a big smile on her face.
In her hands she had an envelope. Jessie recognized the logo in
the corner of it even before her mother gave it to her.
"It came with the mail early this morning. And I don't have
any doubt at all of what is inside."
Jessie quickly opened the envelope, and extracted a white sheet
of paper from it. Both Roger and Estella studied her face carefully,
and they knew that they had been right all along when a very big
smile formed in Jessie's face.
"I'm in!" she exclaimed. "I'm going to study in the US!!!"
She jumped from her chair into her father's arms and kissed him
on the cheek, then turned around and embraced her mom with one arm
and her father with the other. "I can't believe it! Oh, thank you
so much!"
Roger grinned. "Hey, we didn't do anything. Your scores
were the ones that got you that school grant in first place,
and it was you who passed the admission test."
Jessie laughed. "But it was you who encouraged me to do it
in the first place!"
Estella was about to say something when the phone rang.
While Jessie and Roger remained in a tight embrace, she picked up
the phone.
"It's for you, Jessie!" she said as she held up the phone.
"It's Enrique."
Not two seconds after that Jessie was already at the phone.
"Enrique! Oh, I'm glad to hear you... I got some great news!... No,
silly!... OK, take a seat... I've been admited!.. Yes, in the US!
Aren't you happy for me?....What? OK, I'll ask..." Jessie placed
her hand over the phone and spoke to her parents. "Enrique wants to
pick me up tonight to celebrate. May I go?"
Estella nodded and Jessie turned to the phone. "OK, I have
permission!... Really?... Why?... OK, say hello to your mother for
me... Yeah, tonight at eight... I love you too..."
Jessie saw her father flinch a little at those last three
words. It had taken him a while to admit that his daughter was old
enough to have a relationship, but he was taking it easy now. After
all, Enrique Durán was a smart, caring guy. A guy who had won Race's
trust.
"So, when will you leave?" asked Enrique.
She sighed. "I don't know. In a couple of months, I suppose."
"I'll miss you" he said, his brown eyes showing a little hint
of sadness.
"Oh, Enrique." she said, reaching over the table to take his
hand on hers. "I'll miss you too.. But we must give thanks for
modern communications." she added with a grin. "I promise I'll
write often and call at least once a week."
His familiar lopsided grin appeared once again in his face.
"Don't worry about that. Just promise that you'll get the highest
grades in the whole school."
That was something she liked so much about him. He always
placed others before him. She knew that this was hurting him, a lot,
but he knew that this was very important for Jessie, so while he
didn't like the situation he wouldn't even dream about doing something
to keep Jessie in Colombia.
He had always been like that. To other people, his hasteness
when acting would appear like recklessness. And perhaps there was a
little of it, but Jessie knew that he acted in such a hurry because he
knew that whatever he was rushing into had to be done. It was the
right thing to do, and the sooner it was done the better it was.
There were no rules holding him back to do whatever was needed to
help other people.
Oh, he was always looking something to do. One day he would
be hangliding, and the next day he would take a bycicle and ride
trough the woods. He craved adventure, the thrill and the excitement
that came with it. Jessie also liked adventure, so they had shared
many of them, something that had strenghtened the bonds between them.
Perhaps he was a little careless, true, but his heart was
bigger than his chest.
Jessie knew the person beneath Enrique. It was somewhat hard
to believe that beneath that adventure seeking exterior there would
be a gentle, tender soul, one who cared about her as much as she
cared about him.
He was, in a word, perfect.
As perfect as reality would allow.
She kissed Enrique goodbye before entering into her house.
She found his father sitted in the living room sofa, with a small photo
album in his lap.
"Good night, Ponchita." he said, using her pet name. His
voice sounded normal, but the look in his eyes confirmed her that he
was in a nostalgic mood, trying to assimilate the fact that his
daughter was not so ponchita(*) anymore.
"Good night, dad" she said, walking slowly toward him.
"What are you doing?"
"I just couldn't sleep," he replied, "so I came down here
to check some old stuff."
She sat beside him and took the album from his lap. She
opened the album in the very first page, showing a two weeks old Jessie
Bannon in the arms of a much younger Estella Bannon while her
husband smiled at the camera, his arm around her shoulders.
"I remember that picture" Roger said. He stared at the
ceiling and kept talking. "Your grandfather Jorge took that one
when we visited him and your grandmother to introduce them to their
new granddaughter. I was so happy, I couldn't believe I was a father.
All those days all I could do was to sit by your craddle and look
at my little girl..."
His voice has started to tremble a little. "Dad..."
He continued talking, as if he hadn't heard her. "How can time
move so fast? One day, you are a small baby. Next time I know you
are a five year girl who can't stay far from mudholes, and then
you start to look at boys... And now you are going to the university.
I can't believe what has happened to my little girl."
She hugged him. "Nothing has happened to your little girl.
Here I am. I will always be your little girl. I will be doing other
things and I will visit other places, but I will always be with
you..."
The embrace lasted quite a while, none of them really wanting
to let go. When they finally did, they had already talked about many
things, and both of them feel better now, knowing that they would
always have each other's love. And they started to talk about the
pictures in the album, laughing at anecdotes from the past and
remembering long forgotten moments.
They fell asleep on the sofa with the album still in Jessie's
lap, opened in one of the last pages. And that night, Jessie dreamed
again with the misterious blue eyed boy...
To be continued!
(*) Just for those who are wondering... I found out the word Ponchita
does exist, although I had to search quite a few dictionaries to
find a modism that could be used as a pet name. "Poncha" is a
word used in some South American countries that means "short" or
"small". Using the rules of spanish grammar, "Ponchita" would mean
"little short one" or "very small one". That's a pet name that is
used a lot by mexican parents (but using a more common word,
"chaparrita", that means the very same thing).
_________________________________________________________
| | |
| Carlos Rodriguez | Cannot find REALITY.SYS |
| carlosrgz@hotmail.com | Universe halted |
|______________________________|__________________________|
______________________________________________________
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