Blackberry Bun's Journal: Chapter 7a

[Blackberry Bun]

Chapter 7a: Sweet Dreams

Day by day, I became more open to everyone. I went out and play more often and I managed to establish closer friendship with everyone around Strawberryland, although Huck was still the closest of them all. Well, it couldn't be helped since his fort was the closest from my house, and he was the only boy around besides me.

One day in the afternoon, after passing through five days of sickness, I went out to visit Huck in his fort. When I arrived there, I saw him on the rooftop and he saw me too. Then we met inside.

"Hey, Blackberry. Long time no see," Huck welcomed me.

"Yes, I have been sick for these past five days but now I'm okay," I replied

"Oh, why didn't you tell us? We could have taken care of you. We thought you have been concentrating on your work so we didn't want to disturb," he said.

"I didn't want to bother you all. I could take care of myself just fine," I replied.

"Hey, next time don't hesitate to ask for our help okay? That's what friends are for. Too bad you have missed a great event," He said with his hands on my shoulders.

"Don't worry about that. I saw them all," I replied.

"Hmm, let me guess. Eagle Eye?" He guessed, which was correct.

"Well, what else? With that I saw everything that happened in the competition. I found it funny that none of you noticed the obvious fact," I said, remembering all Peppermint's cheating there.

"Well, that couldn't be helped. We thought she had learnt her lesson from the previous event, so we trusted her," he replied, making me remember the time she used my walkman for cheating in the pet contest.

"You all can be too trusting sometimes. That's what I like from you all," I said, chuckling. Right after that, a toddler came in. I knew I had seen her a few times before through Eagle Eye, but I still didn't know her name. I approached her and asked with a smile.

"Hello, what is your name cutie?"

"Apple Dumplin' wants to know yours too," She replied.

"I'm Blackberry Bun. It's nice to meet you, Apple Dumplin'. Where do you live?" I asked.

"Apple Dumplin' lives with Strawberry. Apple Dumplin' is Strawberry's sister," She replied, which surprised me a bit and made me look towards Huck, who immediately nodded. I then remembered seeing her in the Time Monitor on the day the group re-introduced themselves to each other so it became clear to me.

"You are not with your sister now?" I asked

"Strawberry and friends are out collecting berries, Apple Dumplin' go to Huckleberry's house," She answered.

I still had questions in my mind. Where was she on the day I had the accident with Telekinator, and the next two days when I had my first introduction to Huck? Why it seemed like she was totally free to roam around Strawberryland without supervision, like in the day I saw her with Angel Cake a few days ago? And in Time Monitor I saw her coming out from a falling giant flower. How come? This world was indeed mysterious in some ways.

I didn't ask those questions, though. The child has already been asked enough. For then I would just accept those things as they were. I knew I would get to know the answers someday.

The three of us spent the rest of the afternoon together. When the sun began to set, Apple went home on her own, and so did I. I was still wondering about all the questions in my mind, but I decided to save them for later when I met her again someday.

At the next day, when I was home alone working at another device, somebody rang my doorbell and I opened the entrance. Huck, along with Apple, came in and I welcomed them.

"Hi, Huck. Hi, Apple. What brought you two here?"

"Strawberry is out growing a garden with friends. Apple Dumplin' play with Huckleberry. Apple also want to visit Blackberry," Apple replied.

"Well, I'm happy to welcome you two here, but wouldn't it be better if we all go help them?" I asked.

"Strawberry did not want apple to work too hard. That was what Strawberry told Apple," she replied.

"Well, there is a way to help without working too hard," I said with a smile, then I took Nature's Blessing from Successful Invention shelf.

"What is that Blackberry?" Apple asked.

"Nature's Blessing. With this, plants will grow before your eyes. I have used this once and I'm sure Huckleberry knows when," I answered with a meaningful smile to Huck.

"Huh...? You mean... the Growing Better All The Time Garden was your doing?" he said with surprised tone.

"Well, kind of. If the said garden is the one which once had a problem with crows. By the way, I didn't see you that time Apple. Where were you?" I said, trying to divert the topic before I accidentally told him that I was also the one who invited the crows, unpurposedly.

"The same as now. Strawberry did not want Apple to work too hard," she replied.

"I see. Let's go then. The sooner we help our friends, the better," I said. Then all three of us left Blackberry Bushes.

When the place where the garden was supposed to be made was on our sight, we didn't see Strawberry and friends there. All we saw was two strangers, one male and one female, planting something there. We stopped and spied on them from afar.

"What's going on here? Who are they?" Huck asked, and Apple was as clueless as he was.

"Whatever they are doing, I can feel that they are up to no good..." I said.

"So what should we do?" he asked.

"Well, if they want something to grow there, nothing will grow," I said, planting Nature's Blessing, but not without tweaking it first. "Now this device will prevent anything from growing in there instead," I turned it on, and the device emitted pale green aura instead of the bright green it once had.

"I think now we should go to see Strawberry. I'm kinda worried about her," I said, which everyone else agreed. Then we left for Strawberry's home.

When we arrived there, we saw Strawberry throwing some things I recognized similar with the thing I saw in Time Monitor. She was throwing butterfly letters. We then approached her.

"Hi, Apple. Hi, Huckleberry. Hi, Blackberry," she welcomed us.

"Hi Strawberry. I want to ask you something," I replied. Then we had a conversation where all three of us learned about Purple Pie Man and his sister Sour Grapes, then the dispute that happened because of Angel Cake's careless talk (also the presence of two new friends as well), and Strawberry's plan to overcome it.

"Well, that's what will happen if someone does not think before talking," I said. "Glad that you have a good plan, Strawberry. The letters should be at their hands by now, and I guess we should not stay here any longer because we don't want to interfere with your plan,"

"Well, I guess so. Good luck, Strawberry. I hope you can restore their friendship," Huck said, agreeing with me.

As me and Huck went away, Apple pulled my shirt and said, "Apple wants to sleepover at Blackberry," which surprised me a bit, and I was speechless on that. "Apple wants to know Blackberry more," she continued, and I couldn't refuse. Strawberry also didn't mind so the decision was made easily.

That night, I was no longer alone in my house. Apple was with me, and so was Huck (I invited him too because I thought the more the merrier). We played around with things Huck brought from his fort, and also some of my devices which could be used to play around such as the Telekinator I had remade. All in all we spent good time in my house.

"You know, I'm kinda curious about Strawberry's plan. Did she succeed?" Huck asked me.

"Well, we can check if you want. And you know how," I replied with a wink, and he understood it clearly.

I turned on Eagle Eye and threw the satellite out. We checked on Strawberry's house and saw that her plan was indeed a successful one. Nobody in her house seemed to have a dispute any longer, and we ended up listening to them singing a very good song about Sweet Dreams. After that, we went to sleep. I left Eagle Eye turned on because I was too tired to call it back.

Later that night, I heard something from Eagle Eye's monitor. Something that cried for help. I woke up slowly, scrubbing my eyes, and walked to the monitor. What I saw there made me wonder if I was awake or still dreaming. A talking shining bug asking for help? However, the longer I saw the monitor, my drowsiness gradually diminished to the point I became sure that I was not dreaming. I woke Huck and Apple up and asked them to take a look. It took some time for them to believe that they were not dreaming, but in the end they believed it.

"We should help them," Huck said.

"But it is too late. It took so long for you two to believe that you are not dreaming. Now Ginger Snap has somehow finished making that huge boat she called as Dream Boat and now it is departing... except if..." I replied.

"Except what, Blackberry? Hurry up if you know something!" Huck said, and I nodded.

"Come here," I said, taking a remote from my desk's drawer and running to the outside of my house. I pressed one button of the remote, which revealed a small aircraft that had been invisible this whole time. Huck and Apple looked astonished.

"All aboard!" I said, entering the aircraft and they came in as well. "Now fasten your seatbelt because this will be a rough ride,"

I turned the aircraft on and tried to pilot it as smoothly as possible. But as I had said, it became a rough ride although the aircraft managed to fly.

"What is this Blackberry?" Huck asked with weird tone due to the massive vibration inside.

"The most difficult thing I've ever tried to make, which I named as Falcon. As you may already noticed, Falcon is still not perfect yet, and I couldn't find any way to fix the problem so I gave up and put it into invisibility so I could forget it as a whole," I replied, almost biting my tongue several times.

We had a really rough ride for a short while until we saw the Dream Boat Ginger Snap has made flying in front of us. However, Falcon's main engine suddenly overheated, slowing down the aircraft significantly.

"We are losing them! What should we do?" Huck said, quite panicked.

I pressed a button which made Falcon shoot a harpoon to the back of the boat. The harpoon softly attached itself to the Dream Boat without making any damage, and then Falcon and Dream Boat became connected through a long invisible wire. The sudden load that the boat had to carry made it have a similar rough ride for a short moment, but after that everything went fine.

"Now that the two vehicles are connected, we won't lose track of them and our ride will be smoother," I said, turning off the main engine leaving only the float engine on. Apple was afraid of this trip and started to cry. I then attached my walkman to Falcon's sound system, which then played another astonishing song I had recorded from another universe.

Don't cry, don't be blue
We're sailing toward a day that's new
Who knows all the joys in store?
When you're sailing toward tomorrow

The sun will shine so bright
And we'll be guided by the stars at night
They remind us we can dream of more
'Cause we're sailing toward tomorrow

So don't be scared or ill at ease
Afraid the sun won't rise
The endless possibilities
Are as limitless as the skies

The rain will splish and splash
But then clouds will disappear in a flash
And a rainbow will appear from shore to shore
'Cause we're sailing toward,
Yes we're sailing toward tomorrow

The rain will splish and splash
But then clouds will disappear in a flash
And that rainbow's gonna make your spirits soar

'Cause you'll be sailing toward
You'll be sailing toward
'Cause you'll be sailing toward
Sailing sweetly toward tomorrow

Yeah, nobody knew what we would be facing at the destination of this trip...

-To be continued-

[Stella Grapes]

Caaaan I just say that your narration has improved? Your narration goes from storytelling to casual conversation here, which would be good... if it happened during conversations instead of narration. It's quite a jump, the way you were narrating it.