Chapter 8: Picture the Will

(Jessie)

“Hey, hey you! Excuse me, but have you seen this man?”

I showed the old man the photo of James. He paused, then shook his head. Ohh. I’ve been doing this for half an hour and no one has seen him.

“Oh well, thank you anyway” I say, as I walk off, Meowth trailing behind.

“I don’t think this was such a good idea after all Meowth,” I sigh, “No one around here has seen him.”

It’s amazing, I’m actually generally concerned, about James. Maybe there’s something inside me that only he can bring out when he’s around. A feeling that I never have, whatever it is, I can feel that something is missing.

“We bed’er keep tryin’ Jess someone musta seen ‘im.” Meowth suggests, trying to comfort me. I suppose he’s right.

Walking further on, I spot a teenage girl standing by the edge of the road with a rucksack over her shoulder. Well, I might as well try.

“Excuse me, but have you seen this man in the photo?”

I show her the photo of James, and she just stares at it.

“Yoza, he’s cute.”

Arrghh, this is not the time for raging hormones!

“Yes I know that but have you seen him?”

Yes I know that? Well, I suppose I do he is cute, I…oh, STOP IT!

“Yeah, I’ve seen him.”

Did she just say…?

“What!? You’ve seen him?!”

I grab her shoulders and shake her violently.

“Where!? Where did he go!? Tell me!”

“Jeez, calm down would ya?!” she yells prying my arms of her, “I saw him get in a black limo a while back, as I said, cute.”

A black limo? But the only person I know who has a black limo is…Hopkins, but he said that James wasn’t there. Argh, he lied. Well, I’ll deal with him later, right now, although it may not be my personality, but I could have hugged her then for telling me she’s seen James.

“Oh thank you, thank you so much.”

At least I know where to go now. I turn around and grab Meowth by his Charm, dragging him with me.

“Come on, let’s go.”

As I ran off back to the hideout, I heard the girl shout out to me.

“If ya see that guy, tell him my numbers 21 double 2 double 3, call me!”

Yeah right. As if I’d let small fry like you near my James! As we got back to the hideout, I dump Meowth on a chair.

“Listen up. Despite what Hopkins said, James is back at that Mansion, and we need to get there. Pack up.”

“But Jess, what are you gonna do?”

“Me? I’m going to change back into my uniform and put my makeup on.” As if he didn’t know.

I run back up the stairs and into the bedroom. I’m going to find James and do something I never thought I would have done. Apologise.

Half an hour later, I come back down the stairs to see Meowth outside with the Meowth balloon.

“Everyt’ings ready Jess.” He says, as he scrambles into the basket.

I too get into the basket and pull the cord, sending the flames leaping upwards into the balloon.

(James)

Half an hour later, my family were taking turns to throw roses onto the graves before they were buried. As each one through a rose, they turned and headed back for the Mansion. Soon there were only a few people left, as the last one went, I walked back over the bridge. I knelt down by their coffins and suddenly felt very alone. As I’ve said before, they may not have been the best parents, but they were still my parents, and I still loved them. I picked a red rose from one of the bushes and gently placed it on my mother’s coffin, then picked a white rose and placed that on my father’s coffin. I felt a small tear roll down my check as I looked at those coffins. Polished Mahogany wood. I smiled slightly; even to the end they could only have the best. I slowly got up and headed back towards the Mansion. Well, time to face up to my family, and then find out what I have to do with my parents Will.

I slowly open the front door just a crack. I peer through to see tables with dishes of savouries and sweets with everyone standing around and chatting. Well, here goes.

I open the door fully and the entire Hall stops and stares at me. For what seemed like hours the silence was disturbed when a female voice came charging through the crowd.

“James!! Oh my dearest James!!”

I look up to see my rather large Grandmamma coming towards me, arms outstretched. I knew precisely what was coming.

She grabbed me by the waist and practically lifted me off the ground while squeezing me into a bear hug.

“Oh James you’ve finally come back home, oh I’m so happy to see you again.”

After putting me back on the ground, she stares at me.

“Well well, look how you’ve grown, you’ve turned into quite the hansom young gentleman James you know that?”

I blush, but before I had time to say anything, she pulls me into another bear hug, squeezing the breath out of me.

“Well well, the Prodicall son returns.”

My Grandmamma puts me down and I look to see my Grandpapa standing next to her smiling at me. I smile back. Maybe this wasn’t going to be so back after all. He walks up to me and ruffles my hair.

“Welcome home James.”

Seeing these two talking to me, the others begin to move around me.

“Haven’t seen you in such a long time.” True.

“We’ve all missed you terribly.” Yeah right.

“How are you James, doing alright for yourself?” Errrr….

As you can imagine, this went on for quite a while.

“Now now everybody, time to move into the Living area where we will all be able to see the Mistress and Masters Last Will and Testament.” Said Hopkins, clapping his hands together.

Well, this was it. As my family sit on the chairs and Sofas, I sit cross-legged on the floor. A few minutes later, Hopkins comes back with a videotape. A video tape? I thought this was supposed to be a Will?

“The Master and Mistress have made their Will on videotape as they felt it would be more personal to the family.”

A few murmurs were passed between people before the video was put into the VCR. After an introduction, other fortunes being left with various family members, the tape finally comes to the part of inheritance. I listen as my parents explain.

“Now to our dearest James, our only son. I do hope you are here to witness this.” Said my mother, almost in tears. Hmm, maybe they did care for me. My father continued.

“We leave to you all the fortunes and possessions in this house.”

OH YES!!

“However…

Oh I knew it, what’s the catch?

“You are only allowed to inherit this fortune if you marry anyone you desire by your next birthday.”

With that said, the tape ended. I sat there staring at the screen. What is with the obsession with seeing me married? Suddenly, the image of Jessie flashed across my mind. Marriage? Desire? Ha, forget it, she wouldn’t want to marry me, not after that argument. Hang on, I wouldn’t want to marry her anyway, not after what she said to me……at least, I think I don’t think I do……do I? No, I…no forget it, she would never…would she, do you think she….could I, could we? Oooh, I’m confused, I should hate Jessie, but I don’t, I, I miss her…a lot. And it’s only been one morning. We had always believed that if we ever got rich we would get rich together, but now I have the chance, but Jessie doesn’t. Maybe, maybe if I ask her marry me, but not in love, in that we would both be rich. That’s been her dream since she was a little girl, and this is going to be her only chance. If she hates me that much, I’ll tell her that we don’t even have to stay together. She can have the money and do what she likes with it, I just want her to be happy. But coming out with ‘Will you marry me? just to inherit a fortune is going to sound really selfish, maybe I better think about this more carefully first.

“So James, correct me if I’m wrong but your next birthday is in two weeks. It will be your 20th won’t it?”

I nod silently

“Oh, excellent, so who’s the lucky girl?”

At the moment I’ll tell him the truth.

“No one.”

A few people gasp and the room fills with murmurs again.

“Haha, that is exactly what I wanted to hear James dearest.” Laughs a southern female voice from the doorway.

Hmm, don’t I know that voice from somewhere? I turn to the doorway to see who the voice belonged to. There stood the girl of my nightmares…Jessiebelle. I gulp…help.

I start panicking. Hopkins said she wasn’t here, why was she here, and…and what did she mean by ‘that’s exactly what she wanted to hear?’ I leap up of the floor.

“W, what are you doing here? Hopkins said your had gone back to your parents.”

She deliberately stood in the doorframe blocking my only means of escape.

“Well I did go back, but I knew that Hopkins was looking for you to fulfil the Will, and I couldn’t just let all this money go to waste if you had no one to marry...”

She smirked, what was she thinking?

“…So, I came back to help you fulfil that Will, I’ll do what I was supposed to do before you ran away…marry you.”

M, m, m, marry me? I felt faint. In fact…

“Prepare for trouble” I murmur, before I fall backwards onto the floor, blackout.