Hey Vaish
I've read first couple of para and it definately sounds interesting!!but obviously, I'll have to read all of it to give you proper feedback which I'll do withn couple of days 😃
rgds
Vanshita
sure vanshita, take your time and thanks for liking it so far!
thankooo nuttzie!
knew u would b such a great support!!!
luvya
now go check ur PM!!!
CHAPTER 2 – A CAVE… AND A WET DAY!
It was indeed a cave, and a spacious one too, thought Rebecca. It looked dry and cool. It seemed very spacious, however on the contrary it looked from the outside. The wanted to see more but the light wasn't enough howver they shifted themselves accordingly to let maximum sunlight in.
"Does someone have a torch?" asked Rebecca.
"A torch! Why didn't I think of that? When I knew we were coming for a picnic I should have brought a torch! Why, it seems so obvious!" exclaimed Julia sarcastically.
None of them had a torch with them. Although Sam's cell phone torch provided light enough to see how much space was there, it was not very powerful.
"We seem to fall into our findings today!" said Sam winking.
"It is highly unlikely for anybody to hit upon this clearing so I vote we come back for it tomorrow with torches."
"This is so cool!" squealed Julia. The rest of the picnic passed with excited chatter about how to personalize the cave. They talked about bringing rugs and books, pictures and tinned food…
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Julia was at her usual tree branch spot reflecting on the day's events. She ran her fingers through her silky hair and her eyes lacked their characteristic dreamy look, instead were filled with luster, life and excitement. She was thinking about her encounters with Kevin. As much as she did not want to dwell about it, the incident puzzled her. It was a small and insignificant happening and her mind could not figure out why she was feeling so strange about it…
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"Hello Julia? Kevin here. It is raining cats and dogs! How are we going to get to the cave? Looks like we are going to cancel it."
"The rains don't look like they are going to stop. I don't get it…rains in mid-summer?"
"I guess they are mid-summer rains," said Julia with a tinkling laugh, "but I was looking forward to today."
Julia sounded so crestfallen that Kevin urged forward with a plan to cheer her up.
"Why don't we all come to your house and we shall play games."
"Indoor Games! That sounds like so much fun!" she said sarcastically.
"Doesn't look like we have a choice does it?"
And Julia had to agree with that.
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"We win!" screamed Julia to Rebecca as she revealed her last three cards [3 kings] before declaring.
"This is the third round of Bokaro and you both have won all three!" moaned Kevin, slamming his cards at Rebecca for her to shuffle and deal them out.
"Can we quit cards for the time being? I mean we have been playing cards for the past 4 hours."
"Rebecca is right. Do you have anything else Julia? I thought you had some board games and books etc."
"It is all up the loft. Let me see."
Julia climbed up the window grill and raised herself onto the top of her cupboard and finally sat on it. She opened the door of the loft and caught a gust of dust on her face. She almost lost her balance because she was coughing so hard. She then cleared up some space to the front in the loft and climbed inside. Kevin climbed up after her and was helped by Julia to get on top of the cupboard. He did not get into the loft but looked on as she fumbled in half darkness.
"Rebecca! Can you get me torch from the first drawer and pass it on to Kevin?" She yelled down coughing as she inhaled fine dust, "and a kerchief!" called down Kevin after her.
Rebecca snatched the torch and handkerchief and handed it to Kevin who handed the kerchief to the coughing Julia. He switched on the torch, right into Julia's face, who was temporarily blinded by the sudden flash of light in her eyes.
"That's right Kevin! The best way to help someone is to blind them," she said, moving slightly to her right, trying to get the bright spots to clear from her eyes. She spotted her pile of storybooks and stack of board games.
"What game do you all want to play?" she called out as she flicked the dust off the names of some.
"Kevin and you decide and bring it down."
"Hey Julia! How about bringing down some storybooks of yours? We could make space in the cave for that." said Rebecca.
"Say Kevin, what do you want to play?" asked Julia as she handed down some books to him to pass down.
"Umm… what all do you have?"
"Cluedo, Scotland Yard, Ludo, Snakes and Ladders, Life…"
"Umm why don't you bring down everything? We could even stack them up in our cave."
"…Chess, Boggle, Scrabble and Housie."
"Hand them over one by one, except chess…I can't find a more boring game than that one!"
"I know! I once took chess classes, dad wanted me to go…" and she rolled her eyes as if to say that it had not been one of her pleasant experiences, "I don't see all these rules about the movements of each coin. You know in a real battlefield you can move around wherever you want to…"
"And I suppose in real life you come across a snake you go 10 steps down!" said Kevin indicating Snakes and Ladders.
She picked up the games, carefully so as to not disturb the dust and handed it to Kevin, who forwarded it to Rebecca. She then reached out to take down her storybooks. She had her entire Harry Potter collection, Malory Towers, St.Clares, Famous Five, Mystery Series, Agatha Christe, Meg Cabot books, Classics and Perry Mason. The loft looked half empty after the books and games had been emptied from it. She turned away to climb down when her eyes caught an old dust covered treasure box behind her chessboard, which she had evidently missed when she had handed out the books. She picked it up and climbed down with it. She was tempted to check it out but tucked it away in her drawer and joined the others in their chattering.
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Julia flopped on to her bed after dropping her friends home. She was still puzzled about the incident near the cave. Should she talk to Rebecca about it? Naa…Rebecca might tell her that she was imagining things. Was she? She just listlessly walked up to her computer come study table and switched on the computer. She waited for her computer to come on when she was struck by the thought of the box she had extracted form her loft. She picked it up from her drawer. She wiped the dust away gently with her fingers. She felt around for a way to open the box and spotted a small lock hanging from an iron clasp. She pulled at that lock which refused to budge at first but gave way when subjected to a little more pressure. She tossed the now useless lock into her drawer thoughtlessly and opened it. She had expected to see some jewels or some cash… or even a collection of sea shells or baseball cards (no, the box was too feminine for that) or something. But she had least expected what she saw. She was not even sure what it was till she ran her fingers across the top and cleared a streak of dust from top. She saw that it was a diary. A really old and yellowing one too. She picked it up charily and kept the box aside. She glanced at the year on the diary which was 1905, almost 100 years back. She carefully opened the yellowing pages so as to not tear them. She opened to the first page, the bio data page, and read the name on top – Nadia. She scanned the page and learned that Nadia's birthday was Jan 30, 1890. 'Hey that's my birthday too!' thought Julia. So the girl – Nadia - must have been 14 years when she wrote the dairy. She switched on music on her computer. She had been planning to burn the songs into a CD but had forgotten. But that can wait, she thought lying on her bed with the dairy. She opened the page to January 1st.
January 1st
New Year…and it was fun. Today Jenna and Allen came home and we finalized the report to be submitted tomorrow. Jack had gone to kodaikanal and therefore was writing his own report. I finally gave Jenna and Allen the New Year gifts I got for them. Jenna LOVED that purse I got for her. She gave me a beautiful pen with which I am writing this entry. Diary let me describe this pen to you. It is cyan blue all over and has my name engraved on it. Nice na? Anyways, Sunil also loved the key chain I gave him, the one with his picture on it and a phone book attached. He gave me a really cute carved box with a key and that is where I am going to keep you dear diary.
Julia read ahead, through the month of February, March, April and to the start of Nadia's summer holidays. She was amazed as she read on as to how much Nadia's life reminded her of her own. She identified herself with Nadia. She almost felt as if she and Nadia were one person, as they seemed to share the same interests and opinions. At some point of time or the other she found herself reading extracts from her own life. Nadia and her group of friends even seemed to occasionally go to the woods near their house for picnics! She laughed inwardly thinking how similar the life of one girl could be to another. She was so engrossed in the day-to-day life of Nadia, her thoughts, her feelings, her anger, her happiness, and her sorrow, that she actually became Nadia. She could picture herself as Nadia going through those things with her friends. She had a vague feeling that these had happened in her life. As she read on, she became so involved in it that she forgot the time. It was only when her mother called her down for dinner did she realize that it was 8 in the night. She decided to skip dinner as she had eaten a lot of snacks with her friends in the afternoon. She turned the page to April 21st, 1905, the corresponding date to yesterday, the first day of their summer holidays. Her eyes widened as she read.
You will NOT believe what happened today. The day began as any ordinary day, with me waking up late, taking my bath, having my usual breakfast and then rushing off to my special tree to dream…about my story. Then around 1 mom called me in for lunch and at approx 2:20 Jenna came over. She suggested that we go in for one of our usual picnics and then we fixed it up with Allen and Jack. We met at Allen's place where Jack suggested that we take the smaller route and find another picnic spot. Though I was in favor of that idea, Jenna and Allen did not seem so keen on it. But Jack and I somehow convinced them. We had to go through really tough spots on foot but we somehow managed. Just when we thought that we were leading nowhere, Allen fell through a green curtain of leaves and creepers and branches. My heart stopped for a minute when we did not get a reply from Allen. Jack however checked it out and then found that Allen had fallen right into a beautiful pond. Beside it was a smooth field-like grass which was so unlikely of the forest. We decided to have our picnic there so Kevin and the wet Allen helped us girls through. As Allen was drying himself with one of the hand towels which Jaina had brought, I tripped over a log which I had not seen. I instinctively caught hold of Jack for support. Well it was what anybody would have done in that circumstance but it suddenly felt different for me. It was something innocent and insignificant but I do not know why it made me and Jack blush or my heart race. I couldn't make any logic out of that. I am sitting on my tree branch writing this and I have no idea whatsoever happened because the next minute we were talking as if nothing had gone wrong.
That apart, a really spectacular thing had happened. When I was just leaning back on what I assumed to be a rock covered with creepers and leaves, I felt myself falling back (the same thing that happened with the log tripping happened here also but I am NOT going to elaborate on that as I am already blushing at the memory! O God! Help me!!!!!!!) On investigation we found out that it was a cave. But as it was almost darkening, we had to leave for home and voted to go back tomorrow.
Julia turned the page to April 22nd. Her eyes widened as she read through it unable to believe it. She wondered if she were dreaming it but a stinging pain on her cheeks (where she had pinched herself) she knew that she was very much awake. With slight deviation to suite the advancement of science and technologies of today, the dairy entry could as well be hers! There was even a mention of a 100-year-old diary! She stared at the words practically open-mouthed. This was just a little more than co-incidence. She turned the page to April 23rd, tomorrow according to the present calendar. Her heart beat slightly faster than normal, not with that strange feeling she felt with Kevin, but with excitement.
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Hey all of you!
thank you for reading my nove and liking it!
here i s the next chapter. hope it will intrest you all
pls reply!