Q: What did Geronimo say when he jumped out of the airplane?
A: ME!!!!!!
Hello everyone! Can you believe it’s already been over a month since Christmas? Pretty soon it’s going to be spring again, which is when my friends Jimmy and Donald will be coming back home to Toledo! Yeah! Let’s just hope their mansion on wheels doesn’t have any more toilet issues between now and then. Ewww! Gross! Anyways, here’s the next chapter in my ongoing adventure, as well as the links to the previous installments. Enjoy!
https://thetwelfthstep.com/2014/12/10/andys-woodsy-adventure-chapter-1/
https://thetwelfthstep.com/2014/12/18/andys-woodsy-adventure-chapter-2/
https://thetwelfthstep.com/2014/12/27/andys-woodsy-adventure-chapter-3/
https://thetwelfthstep.com/2015/01/04/andys-woodsy-adventure-chapter-4/
https://thetwelfthstep.com/2015/01/16/andys-woodsy-adventure-chapter-5/
Andy’s Woodsy Adventure – Chapter 6
I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn’t imagining what I was seeing. It really did look as if everyone were a mannequin posing in odd ways. For a moment, I began to consider whether I might actually be going crazy. But given everything I had gone through in that cave, finding out three years had passed since leaving it, and learning that my home was no longer my home, I quickly pushed aside any of those thoughts seeing how crazy my whole day had been already.
“Mom?” I said somewhat timidly, hoping somehow she might respond. She didn’t and neither did she when I lightly touched her arm either, which honestly felt no different than what any person’s arm feels like when touched.
I repeated the same process with my father, my sister, and even with Officer Wooten and Bogart, but nothing happened with any of them either. Even weirder were those people in the police station who had been talking just a second earlier. Now their mouths were wide open as if they still were, yet nothing was coming out of them.
I waved my hands, jumped up and down and then screamed at the top of my lungs hoping one of them would make some sort of a difference, except none of it did. Ironically, I wasn’t panicking though and neither was my heart racing. After what I had already gone through so far today, this seemed much less frightening. Somehow this magic crystal was responsible for what was happening, but how? As it continued to glow that purple color in my hand, I saw the spot was still blank where the Libra symbol had been.
“What does Libra have to do with any of this?” I said aloud hoping to get an answer out of one of the creepy police officer mannequins I had just walked up to.
WHOOSH…
“Son, you know you’re not supposed to be back here…” The creepy mannequin suddenly had come to life causing me to let out of blood-curdling scream.
“AHHH!”
Officer Wooten immediately came running over and asked what was wrong and how I had gotten back there. I didn’t say anything. I mean how could I, as it didn’t make any sense to me either. He promptly escorted me back over to my family who were all looking at me now as if I truly was crazy. I looked at the crystal in my hand and noticed the Libra symbol had now re-appeared back in its original spot.
“How did you get over there?” my sister said pointing to where I had just been. “I mean weren’t you just in front of us?”
“Don’t you see the symbols on this crystal?” I said holding it in front of her while my parents and the officers just shook their heads.
“Andy, I don’t see anything other than a gray rock…” Laura said sadly.
“There is! Look closer! This is definitely a Libra!”
WHOOSH…
Everyone abruptly became a mannequin again as the Libra symbol disappeared.
“LIBRA!” I said the Zodiac word again seeing if my hunch was correct.
“Andy, it’s ok, I’m sure you’ve been through…” Office Wooten started speaking. The symbol re-appeared.
“LIBRA!”
WHOOSH…
Mannequins, no Libra symbol.
“LIBRA!”
“a lot…” Officer Wooten finished.
I smiled as I saw the symbol re-appeared once more on the crystal. While I was far from understanding anything that was going on, I was excited about this new ability. For the next few minutes, I continued to mutter the word “Libra” repetitively watching everyone become mannequins and then return back to life. It appeared as if saying the word ‘Libra’ really did freeze time and was somehow tied to the crystal, as the symbol would come and go each instance I said it aloud. I ultimately decided to put it away though when my mother asked me to stop saying the word Libra because from her perception, I’m sure it must have looked like I was just going nuts saying it over and over again.
After what seemed like an eternity, my family was finally allowed to take me home, or at least to my new home that is. I was totally exhausted. After having repeated my story countless times to everyone in exactly the same way, which recounted my entering the woods and then re-emerging a bunch of hours later, it was decided that I was in shock and didn’t know what I was saying. It was obvious to me now that I was the only one who could see the true nature of the crystal, which made me wonder what other secrets I might find contained within it.
As I hopped into the backseat of the Camry, I thought about what Officer Bogart has told me during what felt like an interrogation. He said that the woods had been fully searched for many months after I had disappeared three years ago and that the only thing they had found was the huge rock I was speaking of and nothing else. The thought briefly crossed my mind that maybe they hadn’t been able to see the secret hatch just like they hadn’t been able to see my crystal.
The car ride to my new home was rather uneventful other than my sister continuing to stare at me like I was an alien. I managed to chuckle once though after making a creepy face at her, which had totally startled her. She looked so much older to me now, and I could tell that three years had done her well. I’d probably never admit it to her, but she did look a whole heck of a lot prettier now. My parents on the other hand both seemed to have aged, more than what three years should have brought them. Each had a ton of gray hair and wrinkles all over their face. By the time we pulled in to the driveway of my new home, everyone had stared at me and smiled in silence dozens of times, all of it having felt so very uncomfortable.
After the car was parked in the garage, I asked if I could go lay down given how tired I felt. I had been so tired I hadn’t even paid much attention to the details of my new home when we had pulled in the driveway. Thankfully my parents agreed to my simple request without any further questioning and led me to the guest room where they told me it would now be my own room. I plopped down on the bed after they closed the door and pulled out my mysterious crystal that only I could see. Its purple glow soothed me and I was thankful that it was proof on some level that I truly wasn’t going crazy, even if I was the only one who could see it.
“I wonder…” I said noticing my Zodiac symbol, the Gemini.
“Gemini!” I said aloud.
Suddenly I heard a “POP” that sounded a lot like a cork coming out of a bottle of wine.
“Hi Andy! How’s it going?” An exact duplicate of me was now sitting on the bed directly next to me smiling.
As I looked down at the crystal and noticed the Gemini symbol was now the one disappeared, I grinned in excitement knowing the upcoming school year couldn’t come soon enough…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson