Blackberry's Second Journal: Chapter 11 Extra

[Blackberry Bun]

Extra Chapter: Almond's Path


"Let's get going!" Mary said after Blackberry left her and Almond.

"You lead the way," Almond said.

"First stop, the park!" she said, and the two started walking.

"So, you have been Randy's friend for a long time?" he asked while still walking.

"Yep!" she replied. "We were born on the same day at the same hospital, and our beds were next to each other! So we pretty much have been friends since birth!"

"That's cool!" he said.

"You think so? It sure is!" she said.

"But from what you said you seem to like making fun of him," he said.

"Ha! It's just that he was so cute, simple, and sincere that I couldn't resist doing it! But I never did anything bad to him," she said. "Not too bad at least... I think."

"Do you think we can find him in the park?" he asked.

"Not the park, but the special place in the park," she said.

"Special place?" he asked

"Just wait and see," she said.

Not too long afterwards, they passed a house where there were two boys sitting on the terrace. One of them was rather fat while the other was thinner and shorter. When Almond and Mary passed them, the boys looked at them and stood up. Then they approached and Mary sighed.

"Here we go again," she said.

"What?" Almond asked.

"Hey hey do you see what I see?" the fatter boy said.

"Yes yes I see what you see," the other boy said.

"It's Mary the witch, and she has bewitched a slave," the fatter boy said.

"Ohh she has bewitched a slave for herself!" the other boy said.

"Yes, a slave for herself!" both boys said at the same time. Almond could only watch in confusion.

"Cut it out, you two!" Mary shouted. "Hearing you two rapping about everything gives me headaches!"

"Well well if you say so," the fatter boy said.

"We'll cut it out, yes we'll cut it out," the other boy said.

"Because Mary is boss," both boys said at the same time.

"Alby, these two useless boys are Nick and Terry. They're also called The Rap Brothers because of what you just saw," Mary said.

"Hey, we're not useless," The fatter boy said. "Anyway, I'm Nick."

"And I'm Terry," The other boy said.

"Nick and Terry, this is Alby. If you remember Randy telling about his faraway friend David, Alby is his brother," Mary said.

"You two really confused me back there," Almond said. "Do you always do that?"

"We used to always do that," Nick said.

"But we got kinda tired, so now not always," Terry said. "Anyway, where are you going?"

"We're looking for Randy. He looked troubled for some reason I don't know," Almond said. "My brother is also looking for him now."

"Troubled?" Nick said, then he looked at his brother who did the same to him.

"If he looks troubled maybe he's there again, right bro?" Terry said, and Nick nodded.

"Sure thing," Nick said.

"There? Again?" Almond asked.

"Yes indeed, he's there again," Nick said, starting to rap again.

"The one place where he always goes to," Terry said, also rapping.

"Whenever he looks troubled," they said at the same time.

"That's where I'm taking him to," Mary said. "The Secret Place."

"Let's go together then!" Nick said. "We're kinda bored right now actually."

"Your call," Mary said. "Let's hurry on."

The group then went to the Greenhill Park. When they arrived, clueless Almond could only follow the other kids walking through the forest part of the park.

"Can't believe that a forest exists in a city," Almond said.

"Hey, almost all cities must have a park like this somewhere, don't you know that?" Mary said.

"No," Almond said.

"Now I really can't imagine the place where you come from," Mary said. "Anyway, I bet you don't know that a crocodile lived in this park."

"Really? wasn't that dangerous?" Almond asked.

"Of course it was! That's why people moved it to the zoo when they found it!" Mary said. "Oh, here we are! The Secret Place!"

Almond looked at the thing they said as The Secret Place. It was a simple wooden triangular tree house with a ladder leaning on its front for people to access.

"So this is the place, huh?" Almond said, climbing the ladder with the other kids following. The inside of the tree house looked more like a storage room than a house. Various things were all over the place, and all of them had collected some dust. Almond looked around and he didn't find Randy there, but one thing caught his attention because it was much cleaner than everything else. It was a large yellow toy car which little kids could ride on. On the seats of the car lied three smaller things. A toy robot, a small green toy car, and an even smaller toy police car.

"That's what that kid used to call as 'ChaCha'," Mary said.

"ChaCha?" Almond asked. "This toy car?"

"Yeah," she said. "He had a dog named ChaCha, whom he loved very dearly. However, about six years ago, ChaCha died protecting him from a car crash."

"That is a sad story," Nick said.

"Yeah, a really sad story it is," Terry said.

"You two! Could you do me a favor and don't rap in your speech?!" Mary shouted. "Just for today... Please?"

The two brothers were speechless, looking surprised.

"Did you hear that, bro?" Nick said.

"I heard that loud and clear," Terry said.

"Mary said 'please'!" both said at the same time.

"Alright, just for today as you wish," Nick said, and Terry nodded.

"Thank you," Mary said and Almond sat on a chair next to the toy car. "Moving on, ever since then, that kid started calling that toy car ChaCha. He kept telling me that the toy car was ChaCha, but I didn't believe him."

"We neither, but he was such a nice friend that we decided to play along," Nick said. "Sorta."

"In other words, he played make believe with this toy car?" Almond asked and everyone else nodded. "Either that, or the soul of the dog possessed this toy car."

"Wait a second! What did you just say?" Mary asked.

"Uh, maybe the soul of the dog possessed the toy car?" Almond replied.

"You actually believe in such thing?" Mary asked, looking upset.

"Why shouldn't I?" Almond asked back.

"Because there is no such thing as ghost!" Mary said.

"Are you sure?" Nick asked. "Don't you remember the ghost in the haunted house?"

"Nobody has ever seen it for real, and now the house no longer looks haunted!" Mary said.

"Alright, let's just end the arguing and move on," Almond said. "So, why is this car left here now?"

"That's because..." Mary said before an interruption came.

"Mary!" a voice shouted, and all of us looked at the source. It was Randy himself.

"Uhh..." Mary said, looking timid. "Hi, Randy."

"How much have you told him?" Randy asked, looking angry.

"Um, not much?" Mary replied, still looking timid.

"Just leave now," Randy said with a sigh. Mary and the two brothers left the place immediately without question, but Almond sat still on the chair. "Why are you still here?"

"Let's go back home. Your mother is worried about you," Almond said.

"You lied," Randy said. "It's still too early for Mom to be worried about me."

"Alright, we are worried about you," Almond said.

"Why should you?" Randy said cynically. "Now, please go away."

"Randy, I have never met you before, but why you hate me and my brother?" Almond asked.

"No, I don't hate you..." Randy said. "I just... don't want you to be here."

"Why?" Almond asked.

"Please don't ask," Randy said. "Please... just leave me alone..."

Seeing Randy's sad face, Almond decided to leave him alone although reluctantly. After he climbed down the ladder, he hid himself behind a nearby bush to keep watching. He couldn't see what was happening inside the tree house, but the front of the house was in clear sight so he would notice if Randy left the place. While watching, Almond wanted to contact Blackberry telepathically to inform him that Randy had been found, but he was aware that it would not work.

"It's useless. Without the planet's soul I don't even know where brother is," Almond said to himself. Then, suddenly he heard a voice.

"Hey, you're watching too?" the voice asked. Almond looked behind and saw that it was Nick. Mary and his brother was there with him too.

"Yeah, I'm kinda worried about him," Almond said.

"You can say the same for us," Mary said. "I've made him upset several times with pranks, but that was the first time he looked angry and... sorta scary."

"By the way, you haven't answered my question because he interrupted," Almond said to Mary.

"Oh, alright," Mary said. "I actually have nearly no idea. He just said that he wanted to dump his old toys."

"That's it?" Almond asked.

"Yeah, that's it," Mary said. "And that honestly sounded very, very, very strange to me! I mean, he has been telling everyone that they were his best friends, and then one day he suddenly dumped all of them here?!"

"Exactly!" Terry said.

"Hmm, I think so. Even though it only meant his make believe was over, he could have just keep the toys at his home," Almond said. "By the way..."

"What?" Nick asked.

"We have been talking and nobody is watching the tree house?" Almond asked. Everybody were surprised, realizing their mistake. Almond quickly went to the tree house and climbed the ladder. Seconds later, he came out shaking his head and sighing.

"The worst timing possible," Mary said with a sigh. Nick and Terry also sighed.

"Let's just go home then," Nick said.

"Yeah, it's useless staying here now," Terry said, and the three of them left the place after waving hands to Almond.

From the color of the sky, Almond knew that sunset was very near, so he decided to go back to Randy's house to meet Blackberry there as they had promised. Nothing happened on the trip, and when he arrived he knew that he was in time because Blackberry was not there yet. A few minutes later, Almond saw a black car coming near. The car then parked right in front of him, and soon two people came out from it. Almond was a bit surprised that one of them was Blackberry.

"Hey, bro," Almond said.

"I pretty much failed," Blackberry said. "Were you luckier than me?"

"Yes and no," Almond said, which confused his brother.


--End of Extra Chapter--

[Stella Grapes]

My commentary is the same as it was previously, sans the comments about what you've taken out. I'll have to see some of this show sometime.