"Thank you, so much." Jamie stumbled out of the house, as her mother thanked Ms. Gisela profusely. "I don't know how we could have managed."
   Um, you could have called a babysitter, or left me alone, Jamie thought bitterly. She was quite frustrated with her parents.
   They had promised to pick her up in the early afternoon. Instead, they had come when it was already dark.
   They did tell her some exciting news, though. Jamie's mother had received the job of a waitress, she'd been looking into, and now they were a fully working family. And in a few weeks, school would be starting. Then it would all be even more real.
   Jamie didn't feel ready to start school. The days were going by so fast.
   But she was happy when they got home. Her father went into the kitchen, and started making dinner, while Jamie and her mother sat down on the couch.
   "So, how was it?" Abby asked her daughter.
   "Fine, I guess. She is really nice. Well, I kind of felt awkward, because she made me this huge breakfast, and stuff..." Jamie trailed off, her voice dying.
   "Really?" her mother asked, surprised.
   "Yeah, she had the normal breakfast stuff, and then all these cakes. Then you should have seen lunch. I don't know how she did it. One second the table and kitchen was empty then, poof,"—Jamie made an explosion with her hands—"the table was full again. It was crazy. I don't know what to think. Then she looked at some of my drawings, and started getting really sad. She kept taking about her son, and stuff." Jamie sighed, reliving the memory. "She didn't say what happened to him. I—" She stopped realizing she had been blabbering, while her mother sat quietly.
   After Jamie stopped speaking, they sat in silence. The smells of her father's famous and delicious chili, wafted over them, and Jamie's mouth watered.
   "Well," her mother said, running her fingers over Jamie's hair lovingly. "We'd better help set the table for dinner."
   And so they did.
   They laughed, and worked together, smiling as her father served the chili.
   They talked and ate, and Jamie could almost forget about the day.
   Hours later, she laid down in bed, and closed her eyes. But pictures were flashing through her mind, each one there, then gone. She tried to focus, but they moved too quickly. Sometimes she would spot a flash of something she remembered. Mr. Forkle's face. The woman from the ice cave. Ms. Gisela. The flower. And then there was another picture. But this one stood still. It sat in her mind, though it couldn't be real.
   The image was a wrist. Though there was no significant markings on the hand connected, Jamie knew the arm belonged to a woman.
   A bracelet encircled the wrist. It was made of beads, each one a perfect sphere. All the beads had a flower painted upon them. She recognized a tulip, a daffodil, and a rose, but the rest were foreign to her. One was a pink fanlike flower, that spanned the whole bead.
   She turned the wrist in her mind, seeing the dozens of other beads. Her mind focused on the image, taking in every scrap.
   Then she sat up in bed. Standing up, she walked over, and drew back the curtains. Moonlight streamed through the window.
   She climbed back into bed, and propped up her pillows. Grabbing a sketchbook, she wasted no time finding a clean page.
   Her pencil went right to work.
   Swirling the tool between her fingers, Jamie depicted the hand from her memories. Each finger took a few minutes, and when Jamie reached the wrist, her eyes were drooping. She only had time to draw the first bead, before her eyes closed, and the book slipped down on her lap.
   She awoke gasping a few moments later, when she found the sharp pencil digging into her leg.
   Wearily, she got up and put away the book. She was about to climb back into bed, when she remembered her open curtains.
   She walked over, and the moment she got in range of touch to her sill, tingles exploded down her back. The shivers were fiercer that ever before. Angry, almost.
   Jamie jumped when the tingles began, and she found herself hurrying to the window.
   Outside Ms. Gisela was standing in her backyard.
   Normally, Jamie would have thought that a bit creepy, but it was Ms. Gisela's yard, after all.
   But then Ms. Gisela threw her hood over her head, and picked up something by her feet.
   Jamie squinted, and after a moment she made out what Ms. Gisela was holding.
   Quickly, she drew herself up to the window, and closed the curtains behind her. She was ready to watch something happen.
   Because Ms. Gisela was holding the fancy golden box, another hooded person had held. On the night when she had seen the strange happenings with marbles.

826 Words

Hope you liked it, and I hope that the ending was satisfactory. My average word count per chapter is around 800-1000, but that has been put down lately. The next chapter will also be like this.
—Wawawa