Episode 4: Jennifer Hudstone and The End of The First Act

Episode 4

Jennifer Hudstone and The End of The First Act

"Only a child could make a playground of a graveyard," Jennifer nostalgically muses, more to herself than to her reader. "Today is Marsha Day, Mecha Fall's second Valentine’s day. The day our fool of a town's founder had asked his wife, Marsha, to marry him after seven years in the woman's company."

She continues to make her peanut butter sandwich; her on-the-go breakfast every Marsha Day. She and the rest of her family are in the kitchen.

"This is stupid!" Shaun argues again and angrily scoops another spoonful of cereal into his mouth. He pulls at his best, green shirt's buttoned-up collar. "Casey Weppler was a complete fool. Why do we...?"

"Sir," Their mother says, with a very sleepy Patrick on her hip. "It's Sir Casey Weppler..." She places the baby in his highchair and sighs, apparently, Patrick was sick all night and she didn't sleep much. "Jennifer, I've said it enough times to you. You tell him," She says – her exhaustion shows.

Jennifer's eyes sparkle at the opportunity. She quickly spins around, straightens her back, places her hands on her hips and purses her lips. "Shaun Robert Hudstone!" She says imitating her mother. "A man with a knighthood couldn't possibly have been a fool. He's just misunderstood."

"But, Knighthood or not, his actions point to him being a fool," Jennifer adds.

"Thank you, Darling," her mother says.

"Always a pleasure," she answers and grabs her sandwich.

Before leaving for the best day of the year, she gives her mother a peck on the cheek, salutes her family with Aloha – the way Sir Casey Weppler always did – and heads out to school half an hour earlier than normal.

The outside air stings Jennifer's cheeks as she briskly walks to school, but no matter the cold. No matter that it's only Thursday. No matter anything! It's Marsha Day and that's all that matters.

"See, today is the day that Sir Casey Weppler missed a step, quite literally fell to one knee and accidentally proposed to his best friend and comrade, Marsha Heron," Jennifer smiles stupidly at the thought. What a picture!

"Sir Casey wasn't really the best person to look up to. Before he obtained his knighthood, founded a town and proposed to Marsha, his only goal was to follow the unicorn trails. That's all. To follow them. There are many legends surrounding these mythical creatures, but Sir Casey Weppler didn't want to find a unicorn to have a wish granted, to obtain eternal life or to hunt it for a trophy. His goal was not to find unicorns at all," Jennifer walks past the library and turns down the main road that leads to school.

"All Sir Casey Weppler wanted to do was follow the unicorn trails. So, at the age of eighteen, he gathered a few friends and set off on his journey – Marsha Heron among the lot – and so it all began. They travelled far, very far, following the unicorn trails over ridges, through valleys and around mountains. They did this for five years before half of the party grew tired of following the trails. They begged Sir Casey to stop, to lay down roots somewhere, but he refused. Then, one day, Sir Casey walked off a small cliff and fell into the river below. On the way down he'd broken his leg, but luckily didn't die. After his accident, his party set up camp around the river and in the months that followed explored the woods. They came across the waterfalls, which is now one of Mecha Falls' main attractions, and found that the soil around the riverbed was excellent for farming. Half of the party refused to continue on with Sir Casey and decided to rather stay there to farm. Sir Casey and the rest followed the trails, lost them and doubled back after having realized the futility of their mission, only to find that a flood had killed the wannabe farmers. So, Marsha suggested that they rather settle atop the cliff where Sir Casey had fallen from and so Mechazele Falls was founded – named after Mechenzy and Ezekiel, Sir Casey's parents."

For a second, she stops in front of the large metal gates, before walking onto the schoolyard, but this time instead of walking to the school building, she goes straight for the graveyard.

Walking the entire length of the lot, far past the school building and the soccer field, Jennifer finally reaches the Weppler family crypt. She stops to admire the inscription above the door.

"Only a child could make a playground of a graveyard,” She reads it and pulls out a flashlight from her school bag.

"See, it was one of the things that Marsha Weppler always said. She was a wise woman who had a true knack for irony in every sense of the word," Jennifer leans with all her weight on the stone door and it slowly swings open.

Feeling the familiar rush of wind, as the tomb sucks in a breath of outside air, causes a smile to spread Jennifer's lips. She walks in, clicks on her flashlight, and descends down the stone steps.

A warm yellow glow fills the tomb and for a second Jennifer mentally drapes her surroundings in cobwebs and covers the newly cleaned floor with a carpet of dust. For a second, she imagines herself to be the spitting image of the brilliant Indiana Jones and hops off the last step into the bottom of the crypt.

Jennifer looks around the circular room, golden plaques decorate the walls with the names of the Weppler family members. Directly opposite the stairs are Sir Casey Weppler and Marsha's tombs and on each side six of their children.

"Marsha and Sir Casey ended up having twelve children. They lived a happy seventeen years together in Mecha Falls before all dying because of..." Suddenly there's a sound behind her, Jennifer whips around and comes face to face with a person.

He lets out a yelp at her sudden movement. A spark of fear courses through Jennifer's entire body, causing her to drop her flashlight.

"What are you doing!?" She yells at the unfamiliar face, her voice echoing back. "Don't do that!" She snaps next and catches her breath as she steadies herself against the wall.

"I didn't mean to scare you..." He says slowly.

"Congratulations! You've failed miserably!" Jennifer says, but quickly realizes her harshness and starts to feel guilty. "Sorry, I'm only used to my past sneaking up on me and not actual people."

He picks up the flashlight and hands it to her with a sheepish smile.

"What are you doing down here?" He asks, rather curiously, and she grabs the torch from his grip.

Jennifer huffs out an angry breath. "It's Marsha Day," she says as though the answer's obvious. How doesn't he know this? Everybody in Mecha Falls knows this.

"I'm new here... is there a footnote I could read? I'm Enoch, Enoch Reilly – just so by the by," Enoch says.

"It's by the way and," she takes a breath, finally calming down. "It's customary for people to pay their respects to Marsha, seeing as she is one of the only reasons Mecha Falls still exists. I always come here early, the crypt will be flooded with people all day and it's only opened on Marsha Day and... why am I explaining myself to you? If you didn't mean to sneak up on me, why didn't you put on the light?"

"What light?" He asks.

"There's a light switch at the top of the stairs. Are you blind?"

"Sorry? My adventures are usually limited to the pages of a book... and I've never come across a tomb with a light switch," Enoch says with a laugh.

"Well, sharpen up Sherlock. This is reality, not a book..." Jennifer says and suddenly realizes the irony in her own statement... she lets out a little laugh and shakes her head. "Sorry, you just caught me off guard."

"Next time I'll make sure to catch you on guard," Enoch says. "If your reaction is as memorable as this one, I'd say you're a character worth getting to know. What's that?"

Jennifer turns around to see what Enoch is pointing at – the inscription above Marsha and Sir Casey's tombs, carved into the grey marble.

"Nothing is written in stone," he reads and walks closer.

"One of the things Marsha said, she'd requested the stone inscription herself. This entire place is built according to her precise instruction," Jennifer tells him. "She had a knack for..."

"Irony," Enoch finishes and smiles, his eyes flash in the torchlight. "Why green? My mum told me she'd heard that we all had to wear green today, but neither of us knows why."

"It was Marsha's favourite colour, the colour of life," Jennifer's mood starts to lift at the talks of one of her heroes. "Green is the colour of nature and new beginnings... and that is what Marsha day is about. It's about retelling the stories of our forefathers and celebrating life and living by focusing on the wonders of the world and nature around us."

"Okay," He shrugs and looks at his watch. "Thanks for the chat stranger. Got to go, wouldn't want to be late for class."

He turns around and starts walking back up the stairs.

"You know I have a name and school doesn't start for another twenty minutes..." Jennifer says, Enoch just smiles in response.

"I'm sure I'll see you again somewhere. If it's that important to you, you can introduce yourself then..." He suddenly stops, halfway up the stairs, and turns back to her. "Then again, what is in a name? Goodbye, Stranger. See you in Somewhere," And walks away, leaving her alone with the Wepplers.

For a second or two Jennifer just stands there in shock. What just happened? Why is she both angry and... her eyes grow wide as she realizes something.

"Oh, snap! Plot twist!" Jennifer says and leans against Marsha's tomb. "My Author is introducing a love triangle."

***

"There's a new guy in school... I'd say he's mildly attractive," Tessa says from behind Jennifer in homeroom. As it turns out Enoch is in the same grade as Jennifer, in the same homeroom too and all the girls have been ogling him since he introduced himself in front of the class earlier. Apparently, he likes reading and is from some faraway place that Jennifer's never heard of...

"I wouldn't call him attractive," Jennifer mumbles under her breath.

"Rumour has it that he'd met up with someone in the crypt this morning," Tessa says and Jennifer can feel her body growing ridged – it does sound rather suspect when Tessa says it like that.

"So?" Tessa asks.

"So?" Jennifer shrugs back.

"Did you see him and whoever in the crypt this morning? You always go there early on Marsha Day, you had to have seen something!" Tessa says, but, at the same time, two eighth-graders walk in with baskets of flowers and Tessa's completely distracted. "I wonder who sent me flowers this year!"

The entire class grows quiet as people's names are called out and the flowers are given to them.

"On Marsha Day it's customary for people to gift flowers to the people they love – there are stations all around town and in school."

A Sunflower is given to Jennifer, a little note dangling from its stem.

"Unlike valentine’s day, all flowers are given on Marsha Day – I even know of a few people who prefer herbs. It all started when Marsha gave away all the flowers used to decorate her wedding venue – she said that each flower was a symbol of new life and that that is what she wished upon everyone for the coming year. She did that every year on her anniversary too. The day before she'd go out into the mountains and pick wildflowers and gift them to people as she went about her day..."

"You've got an admirer," Ronita, who's sitting next to Jennifer, says. Ronita nudges her head in one direction and Jennifer finds Enoch starting at her.

His eyes grow wide at the sight of her spotting him, his cheeks grow red and he waves nervously. Jennifer can't help but smile at the sight.

"He's cute as a button," Ronita says. "He'll have a girlfriend by this time next week... or maybe he already has a girl, did Tessa say who he met up with this morning?"

"Don't mind the gossip, Nita. They're all lies anyway," Jennifer says as a daisy is placed on her table and then next a bundle of long grass tied together with a white ribbon.

To detract herself, Jennifer starts reading her notes. One from her mother, one from her father, one from Angus and a few others from people around school and a few from around town. When Jennifer reaches the bundle of grass and flips open the note – it's not signed. She frowns, Marsha Day has never been about secret admirers... it reads:

Still haven't read the letter, I see.

Maybe you should shine another light on it.

But before Jennifer can bother to think about it any longer the bell rings and she's off to class.

"And off to Drama with Ms Knight we go!" Jennifer narrates, in an attempt to make her life a little more interesting.

In Drama, Jennifer takes in her usual seat at the front of the class, next to the window. As the class slowly fills with chatting children, she longingly looks out across the field outside. It's a rather cold day and fog has started to gather. There's something about how quickly and quietly mist gathers in Mecha Falls that makes Jennifer feel strangely at home. Most of the people joke that the fog is the collective spirit of Mecha Falls' inhabitants; grey, damp and ever intrusive.

"Today we're starting with The Legend of The Missing Lunch Box," Ms Knight happily announces and hands out the copies of the drama to the students. "We'll be reading it together over the next few weeks, it will make up part of your final examinations so pay attention!"

Jennifer runs her hands over the freshly printed cover of the book.

It strangely feels like the woman on the cover is looking directly at her.

"My mum had to do this play as well. She fell in love with it. Apparently, it's only symbolically about a lunchbox. It tells the story of how morals are like food and that each day we pack a lunchbox filled with enough food for the day to take with us to school and work and wherever we go. Enough patience and love and kindness to last a single day. At the end of the day we go home, rest and pack another lunch for the next day and do it all over again."

"I will be choosing students to portray specific characters as we read the dialogue. I, myself, will be reading all the stage directions and setting descriptions..." Ms Knight continues with her rather unnecessary explanation, that's always how they treat dramas in school.

"As the title suggests, it's about a lunchbox that went missing – naturally the protagonist goes on a legendary journey to track down the missing lunch box. This always sounded rather cheesy when my mum told me about it, so we'll see if it's any good."

Jennifer's thoughts drift back to the fog as she glances outside the window.

"It's a contemporary drama. That means that the entire story is built around a central issue within society. This drama's central issue is the sudden loss of morals. Turn to the prologue. The entire prologue is a monologue by the main character..."

"There's just always been something about the fog... I've never been able to put my finger on it. Pun intended. But all jokes aside, why not be curious about it? It's a vapor made up of an evaporated liquid, acting like a fluid..."

"Ms Hudstone," the teacher says and Jennifer is pulled out of thought, back to class. "Will you please read to us the note from the author, before we begin with the play?" Jennifer nods in confirmation, flips open her book and starts reading the extract aloud.

"Aren't we all just characters in a book?" Jennifer swallows hard at the first line, but quickly recovers and continues. "Don't we all have stories to tell? Can't we all divide our lives into periods of adventure, tragedy, horror, and romance? I believe, as a writer, to mimic reality within my work and because of that – I view my own life as a story as well. The drama is divided into five acts. I shall not bore with lengthy discussions as to what happens in each act, but rather describe the main framework that my stories are built around." Jennifer takes a breath; why is she shaking? "The entire first act, although short, is critical to the rest of the play. In the first act, all the dominoes are set in place and, take note, at the end of the first act a single, seemingly insignificant event or action tips over the first domino. Slowly that one action will have a large ripple effect, until it builds all the way to the main climax. In Act Two the main themes will start to emerge more clearly, as the main character starts to undergo trials. Everything escalates in Act Three, leading up to the main climax at the end of the act. Act Four is, for a lack of a better description, the aftermath of the main climax and Act Five is the resolution. With all of that in mind, you now know what to look for. Happy reading,"

An author's note. Jennifer feels disconnected from her body, as though she's suddenly looking at herself and her story from afar. She's not completely sure why a silly little note is affecting her like this. What if... but her author has never contacted her in the past. Jennifer tries to shrug off her unease, but doesn't manage to shake it.

"Based on the author's note we can start to plot a basic storyline for the play," Ms Knight starts to draw on the board with a piece of chalk – a line with five sections.

"As mentioned, the First Act is short and doesn't have much going on, but there are a few key details put in place for the rest of the play." Ms Knight says looking down the bridge of her nose. "The insignificant event, mentioned by the Author, is the main protagonist receiving a seemingly blank letter on the final page of Act One." The teacher roughly scribbles that as a note on the timeline.

...receiving a seemingly blank letter... seemingly blank... Ms Knight's words echo in Jennifer's ears for a few seconds. Ms Knight and the rest of the class all move on and continue summarizing the rest of the story, but Jennifer doesn't hear a single word for the rest of the class.

***

After school Jennifer cancels her usual study date with Tessa and heads directly home. She needs to take another look at that letter.

Once in her room, Jennifer grabs the letter and takes a seat on her bed.

"For all that is good and green, Penelope! Stop shaking!" She tells herself, but her body doesn't heed her command. After a while, Jennifer opens the envelope again and pulls out both pieces of paper.

Blank.

They're blank.

Or, maybe, just seemingly blank?

At the thought, Jennifer falls back onto her bed. She's being completely silly. This can't possibly be a note from her author, could it? She takes a deep breath at the thought, but then her mind is suddenly flooded with what if questions.

What if it is? What if her author's trying to tell her something? What if she's lost her mind? What if...

Suddenly there's a knock on the door and her mother opens it, while balancing Jennifer's bunch of flowers and letters in her arms.

"You left your flowers downstairs, Honey," her mother says and puts them on her desk. Jennifer hardly moves from her position on the bed. Her mother stops before walking out, "Are you okay, Darling?"

"Yeah," She sits up. "My entire world and existence are just in question, but other than that I'm fine."

Her mother lets out a laugh and gives her daughter a hug. "Oh, Darling, no matter what your father says... you definitely don't get your dramatic flair from me. Dinner will be served in less than twenty."

And just like that Jennifer is left alone once again.

For a while, she only stares at her flowers. She feels empty, an emotion she usually masks with her aptly named dramatic flair, but she hasn't been able to muster up a single dramatic quip since the first period.

"I get more flowers on Marsha Day than most, but the irony is that no one understands me. No matter how many times I try to make them understand, no one ever does. I'm surrounded by loved ones and, yet, completely alone at the same... there was a note."

Jennifer leaps up and lunges for her heap of flowers – at the sudden thought. There was a strange note connected to the... there it is! The bundle of grass!

Jennifer takes a seat at her desk and re-reads the note. A different light? What does that even mean?

It probably means to look at it differently. Jennifer reads every second word, maybe there's a clue about how to read the letter, but it doesn't make sense. Then she rewrites the entire thing backwards, but before finishing her mother calls her for dinner. She sets down her pen, she knows that if she ignores her mother's call she'll be in big trouble and decides to go down for dinner and return to the note later.

On her way out, Jennifer clicks on the light at the door, I'll be dark by the time she comes back from dinner. She suddenly stops halfway out the door, as another thought hits her. A literal light...

She runs down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Dad!" Jennifer says, half out of breath.

"Jennifer!" He counters while helping place the food on the table.

"Do you still have that key ring... the one with the funny light?" She asks.

"Take a seat, Darling," her mother says, but Jennifer is too hyped to do even that.

"The Black Light? It broke ages ago," her father says. "Why do you ask?"

All the excitement rushes out of her body at once, leaving Jennifer with her empty feeling again. She plops down on a chair.

"There's a letter... I think someone wrote it in invisible ink," Jennifer says. "Shining a Black Light on it might work."

"Well, maybe check if Angus still has his," Her father suggests and starts filling his plate with food.

"Hu?" is Jennifer's only response.

"I'd won the black light at that game... it was at the fair that year, I can't remember the name, but I do remember Angus also winning one." He says and Jennifer's spirits are lifted.

***

"Angus!" Jennifer says completely out of breath, as she storms him without context the next day. His face lights up at the sight of her. She stops him, in the hallway, on his way to the first period.

"My Lady..." He starts but is quickly cut off.

"Do you still have that black light keyring?" Jennifer asks and he smiles. He slips off his backpack and starts rummaging around inside of it.

"Running around the fair with you and your father is one of my best memories..." Angus starts, but notices Jennifer tapping her toe and stops. She's been awake all night, waiting in anticipation for the next day... she couldn't very well storm Angus' house in the middle of the night.

"Why do you...?"

"It's a long story," she says abruptly. Angus frowns and his smile disappears.

"It's on my house keys," He says and takes out a bunch of keys. Jennifer's eyes grow wide at the sight of the bright orange disk, the black light.

"Mind if I borrow it?" Jennifer asks and practically licks off her lips, so close.

"Sure," Angus says. "I'm sentimental, though..."

"What do you want, Angus?"

He straightens his back and folds his arms across his broad chest. He takes in a deep breath and squints while looking at her.

"I want to know what's going on. You've been acting strange, Tessa says..." Angus says, while removing the light from the bunch. "Meet me at The Grind after school," He holds out the light, but before she can take it he retracts and asks her why she needs the light.

"I'll tell you this afternoon," Jennifer says. "Thank you so much."

He hands her the light and she practically bolts down the hallway.

"Don't forget, Jenny." He yells after her, but by the time her brain processes what he said, she's already too far away to answer, let alone still see him.

"I won't forget!" Jennifer bursts and brushes off all worry of possibly forgetting. "How could I forget a not-at-all-date with Angus Keller after school?"

She rushes to the far side of the school building and down the stairs, from which she'd fallen, all the way into the school building's basement. Jennifer quickly sweeps over the dusty basement with a glance. Abandoned, as usual.

It's a large room, with a high ceiling and unnecessarily bright lights. This is only the main room, there are doors that branch to corridors and other rooms. Sometimes Jennifer wonders how long it goes on, but mostly she just prefers not to think about the true extent of the labyrinth under the school. She walks through the first door on the left, then takes the second door right and stops in a small, crowded room that smells of pipe smoke and rust.

Offset High's basement isn't used for anything other than storage these days... old school records, library books that have started falling apart, old newspapers and other nonsense packed into cardboard boxes, stacked one on top of the other.

"There are stories about some of the rooms having been used as classrooms, but the stories tend to get a little ridiculous once people start talking about children going missing..." Jennifer sighs and continues to narrate. "I'm convinced that the entirety of the town's history and secrets have been hoarded down here. The very best part about this underground lair is that not many people know that the Weppler family home also had a basement."

She walks over to the wall opposite the entrance and stops in front of a door; it's black paint chipping off only to be replaced with a layer of rust. The door has no handle.

"The school's basement was built long after the Weppler's basement and linked together with a one-way door. The school’s offices are located in what once was the Weppler's foyer and the entrance to the basement is in the kitchen. The office staff have sealed it off, thinking that the basement can only be accessed from the office, but, in an unrelated story, the door was broken and can be opened from both sides."

Jennifer pushes on the door and it silently swings open. Jennifer oiled the hinges herself, after almost getting caught the last time it creaked open like a door in a horror movie. One of the office staff had heard the creek and the next day rumours started spreading about it – she had to be more careful, she didn't want anyone to find out about her secret basement.

Once in the secret basement, she slings off her backpack, takes out her flashlight and clicks it on, instead of turning on the light like she usually would. She needs complete darkness to use the black light.

Before doing anything else, she shines a light on the room... she's always a little paranoid when sneaking down there. She's always had a feeling that someone else has been there too, but she's never found any evidence, let alone told anyone about her discovery. But even if someone walked in on her, she has a full-proof contingency plan.

Everything looks exactly like she'd left it. Marsha Weppler's desk and chair to the left corner. The stairs to the right wall, blocked off at the top, and bookshelves from floor to ceiling all around.

Next Jennifer takes out the letter, makes her way to the desk and puts down the letter as she takes her seat. She suddenly becomes very aware of the fact that she's shaking again.

"This is the first real development in my plot line..." She starts saying when suddenly the room's light is turned on. Jennifer panics, slips off the leather chair (knocks her head on the table) and quickly hides under the desk – the contingency plan she's rehearsed about a thousand times in her mind since finding the place.

"What are you doing?" A voice asks and her heart immediately calms for a second before pure anger sets in.

"Enoch?!" She whisper-yells, not wanting to start up another rumour about a ghost in the basement.

"Don't do that!" She continues to whisper-yell. He smiles as she climbs out from under the desk, catching her breath.

"Why are we whispering?" Enoch whisper-asks as he admires his surroundings – browsing through the shelves. "I turned on the light this time... didn't improve your reaction at all though."

"What were you thinking?!" She rushes past him, pulls open the door and glances out to see if anyone had followed him. "No one knows about this place. Were you following me?" She turns on her heel.

"Maybe," Is all he says. "What are you doing down here?"

"Disposing of a body. I'm a serial killer, you'd be wise to steer clear of me," Jennifer says, closing the door.

"Why, am I your type?" Enoch suddenly asks and all the air is sucked out of Jennifer's lungs.

What the... how the... the audacity! Who does he...

"It was just a joke," He says holding up his hands.

After a second's delay, she grabs her backpack, walks back to the desk, takes her letter and light and start putting them back in her bag.

"This was the last spot I had to myself! Where am I supposed to go now? Was it too much to ask to look at the letter in peace?"

Next thing she knows Enoch's looking over her shoulder. "What's that...?"

"None of your business, Nosy."

He lifts an eyebrow. "I won't tell anyone about this place. Promise," He lets out a sigh and his voice completely softens, as his ego deflates. "I'm not a gossip. Honestly, what were you doing down here?"

Something in his voice makes Jennifer trust him and she finds herself telling him the entire story about the letter and the black light.

"Let's take a look then!" He says, practically leaping out of his skin. Excitement lights up his eyes and in no time, Jennifer’s taken out the letter and switched off the room's light.

She shines the black light on the paper and little, luminescent pen marks appear.

Jennifer's heart deflates as she takes a closer look and finds nothing, but dots and dashes.

"Morse code!" Enoch gasps, as he leans over the table while Jennifer is sitting.

"It's just someone playing a prank, there's probably nothing to this," Jennifer says, defeated.

"Stop being overdramatic. There's definitely something to this and, even if it is a prank, don't you want to know what it says?” Enoch counters, speaking directly to the curiosity within Jennifer.

She, while acting like she doesn't care, takes out her phone and finds that there's no service.

"We'll have to go top-side to get a connection... unless you know Morse code by heart?" She says.

"What would be the fun in Googling it? Let's go to the library." Enoch says with a boyish smile. "It'll be an adventure."