The Click of a Mouse 4&5
by: Darlene
The Click of a Mouse - chapter 4
Jax opened up his lap top and turned it on. Finally he had time to try and retrieve the e-mail Brenda sent him. He quickly clicked to his internet server screen and typed, ILYBMA into the password block. One more click to sign on and he was on his was to finally reading the letter that he looked forward to all day long. Jax got a bit distracted when he first went online. He noticed that Rene e-mailed him back. A quick glance at her response let him know that she couldn’t make it after all. She said she was sorry but she would stop by whenever she found the time. What her e-mail left out was that Andrew asked her to write that so that he could surprise Jax by flying her into town without Jax suspecting she would be there. Once he finished e-mailing his cousins he was relieved and excited.
A few clicks and Jax had Brenda’s e-mail restored to new status. One more click and he had it open. Jax smiled when he read the first line. < Jax, You’ve only been gone a few days and already I miss you like crazy.> Jax stopped reading for a moment and said, “I miss you too Brenda”. Just as Jax prepared himself to read the rest of his precious angle’s letter, he was interrupted by a very familiar voice.
A: “Jax”
J: “What is it Addie?”
A: “Mr. Fergasun just called, he needs you to fax him those contracts right now. I would have done it myself but you still haven’t signed them.”
J: “He wants them now? Can’t it wait?”
A: “I’m afraid not. You have to be at the airport in an hour and he wants to make sure he doesn’t need to make anymore changes.”
J: “How many more changes could he possibly need to make?”
This deal had been a very frustrating deal for Jax, one that he hoped would also be profitable. All day long Mr. Fergasun kept calling and faxing Jax with the changes he needed to make. Jax didn’t want to stop reading Brenda’s letter but he knew he had to wrap up this deal if he wanted to get back in time to see Brenda that night.
A: “Knowing him about five or six more.”
Jax let out a sound of frustration which Addie realized wasn’t just because he was frustrated with the deal but also because he was missing Brenda. He never said it but she knew when he had his best friend on his mind, and this was definitely one of those times.
J: “Where are they at?”
Addie smiles knowing that she will finally be able to fly back to NY that night and get home to her husband.
A: “On my desk, would you like me to bring them to you?”
J: “No that’s okay, I’ll get them myself.”
A: “Do you need me to do anything for you?”
J: “Yeah, those commercial flights always have horrible internet reception. I should have taken my jet”
A: “What is it you want me to do?”
J: “Could you save my e-mails, the ones that look important, on a disk?”
A: “No problem. Do you want me to sign you off once I finish”
J: “I would appreciate that. Thanks Addie”
Addie quickly distinguishes the personal e-mails from the business one’s. The personal one’s she doesn’t touch, the business one’s she saves on a disk, carefully labeling each one with the senders address. Addie goes to sign off then she notices Brenda’s letter still on the screen. She remembers that Jax was more frustrated then usual when she went in and deducts that he was in the middle of the letter when she interrupted. As she tries to figure out if she should save it or not, after all Jax always considers just about anything from Brenda important, Jax calls out to her.
J: “Addie, I sent the contract but I need to go back to the hotel and finishing packing. Would you mind packing up the lap top, finishing up here, then meeting me at the airport?”
A: “Of course not”
Once Addie remembers that she needs to ask Jax about Brenda’s e-mail, she calls out to him, but it’s too late. He doesn’t answer. Addie notices the time and realizes that she too has some packing to do. In her rush, she clicks save on the e-mail before her, saving Brenda’s e-mail as untitled1. One Jax would be sure to click on later out of curiosity that it wasn’t labeled properly.
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Once Jax was on the plane, he wanted nothing more then to take a short nap so that he could be well rested when he went to visit Brenda. Jax didn’t realize how tired he was when he closed his eyes for what was meant as a very short nap before he went over his e-mails. Addie watched in amazement as Jax slept through out the entire flight, even through the horrible turbulence they experienced. Apparently the late hours he was keeping in an effort to return home as soon as he could, finally caught up with him. Amazingly Jax seemed to sense when they were back in PC, he woke up as soon as they landed.
Jax offered to fly Addie to NY himself since they couldn’t get her a flight with so little notice, but she assured him she would be fine taking a car. Before Addie left she told Jax that she was sure people were waiting to see him, she really meant Brenda, but didn’t want to let on that she knew that he always went straight to Brenda’s when he got back from a tip, even a short day trip.
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Brenda decided to go to bed early since Jax hadn’t called all day and she was sick of waiting for the phone to ring when it was apparent that Jax wasn’t getting back for at least another day. Or if he was getting back, it wouldn’t be much later since he didn’t call her when he was close to the airport like he always did. His call was really more for himself then for Brenda. He wanted to make sure that no one was over Brenda’s (like who ever she was dating at the time). His calls were meant to give her time to get who ever was over out of the house so they could either spend the night talking or he could rent a movie for them to watch.
Brenda had the cordless phone right next to her bed in case Jax decided to call her after all. After staring at the phone for awhile, Brenda figured out that she wasn’t going to sleep until she talked to Jax so she decided to call him herself. She called but couldn’t’ get an answer. Thoughts of Jax meeting a beautiful woman and spending the night ran through Brenda’s head as she listened to the horrible sound of the phone ringing in her ear. B: Pick up Jax, come on Jax, pick up the phone.”
Just then Brenda is startled by a hand over hers, she jumps a bit but is eased by the sound of the voice.
J: “I can’t pick up the phone until you let go”
Brenda doesn’t have to look to see who it is.
B: “Jaaaax! how’d you get here?”
Brenda turns around so she and Jax can share a hug as he talks; one of the hugs she wrote him about, the kind where she gets lost to everything but Jax.
J: “You gave me a key, remember?”
B: “I didn’t mean to my room. You didn’t call me, I didn’t know you were coming home tonight”
J: “I told you I should be back today. I didn’t call you because I slept the whole way on the plane.”
B: “Why didn’t you call on your way over?”
J: “I didn’t want to wake you if you were sleeping. Did I interrupt something?”
B: “No, I was just trying to call me, but you heard that. Why did you come over if you thought I was sleeping”
J: “You told me that I was coming over tonight, remember? I didn’t want to make you a liar”
B: “Are you hungry? Did you eat? I know you hate that plane food.”
J: “No I didn’t eat, but I’m not hungry either.”
Jax and Brenda finally separate from their hug.
B: “So what are we doing tonight?”
J: “I’m going home and you’re going back to sleep”
B: “I wasn’t sleeping, I’m awake.”
J: “You’re all tucked in Brenda, you know you can’t lie to me”
B: “I would never try. How could I be sleeping when I was calling you?”
J: “That’s true.”
B: “So what do you want to do?”
J: “All I want to do is sit down and relax.”
B: “Good. Go down stairs and I’ll meet you down there in a few minutes, okay?”
J: “Should I find a video to watch?”
B: “I don’t know if I have any down there.”
J: “I’ll look anyway”
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Brenda quickly brushes her hair before joining Jax down stairs on the couch.
J: “All I could find was this one, but it’s not labeled.”
B: “why didn’t you put it in?”
J: “It might have been something you didn’t want me to see”
B: “Like what?”
Jax thought it might be a tape of her and her boyfriend or something, but he didn’t’ want to admit that to Brenda.
J: “I don’t know. One of your latest music discoveries.”
B: “Oh. Let me see it.”
Brenda looks at the tape and immediately remembers which one it is.
B: “It’s just the Music Man, Brooke came over and wanted to watch it”
J: “Again?”
B: “Yes again”
J: “How many times has she made you watch that with her?”
B: “Almost every time she’s came over within the last year”
J: “Then you don’t want to watch it now?”
Brenda could tell that Jax wanted to see it. Brenda and Brooke told him so much about it, but he never managed to see it. Brenda really didn’t care what was on because she planned on watching Jax the whole time anyway.
B: “Go ahead and put it on”
J: “But you’ve seen it so many times, you must be tired of it”
B: “I’ll probably just fall asleep during it anyway.”
J: “So you are tired.”
B: “I never said I wasn’t. I said I wasn’t sleeping.”
J: “I can leave and let you go back to bed”
Brenda yawns out a long no which Jax was hoping she would do.
When Jax gets up to put the tape in the VCR Brenda stretches herself across the couch, leaving a little place at the end of the couch for Jax to sit. Brenda knows that she can lean against Jax as soon as he sits down since his defenses are sure to be down since he must have missed her while he was away.
Jax gladly sits in the space Brenda left for him, pulling Brenda’s head back against him.
Jax can tell that Brenda’s trying to fight herself to stay awake for at least a little bit longer. He can also tell that she’s losing the battle.
J: “Go ahead and go to sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up”
B: “You promise?”
J: “Yeah, I promise”
That’s all Brenda needed to hear so she could stop fighting a losing battle to stay awake. Jax’s curiosity about the Music Man was over powered by his desire to watch Brenda. Jax sat there for hours, watching Brenda sleep. He didn’t realize how much time went by as he stayed mesmerized with the sight of Brenda laying there, with her head on his chest. He didn’t realize that he missed the entire movie until he heard the tape pop out of the machine after it reached the end of the movie & rewound it’s self. The sound also awoke Brenda.
B: “You’re still here”
J: “I said I would be”
Brenda looks at the clock and notices that it’s almost midnight.
B: “Hey, do any pizza places deliver this late?”
J: “Why?”
B: “I’m hungry.”
J: “I doubt if anyone’s open this late”
B: “The PC grill makes Pizza’s, right?”
J: “I think so, but we’re not there”
B: “I bet if you called room service and asked them to bring a pizza over here, they would do it for you”
J: “Don’t you have anything to eat here?”
B: “Jax this is me, we’re talking about. You haven’t been around”
J: “So you don’t have groceries either”
Brenda shakes her head yes.
J: “I’ll see what I can do but I can’t make any promises”
Brenda spontaneously hugs Jax.
B: “Thank you”.
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Around one in the morning Jax and Brenda are still up, with a half empty pizza box on the table in front of them.
B: “Are you staying here tonight?”
J: “I don’t know, do you want me to?”
B: “I would rather you stay here then drive home in the dark”
Who did Brenda think she was kidding, she would prefer if Jax stayed there every night, but she didn’t want to let on that she wanted him there more then just about anything.
Brenda’s eyes lost their sparkle for a moment when Jax got up and went towards the door.
B: “Where are you going?”
J: “To the car?”
B: “You’re not leaving are you?”
J: “I’m going to get my bag?”
B: “Why?”
J: “I have a spare pair of clothes. In case I decide d to stay.”
B: “Did you go home before you came here?”
J: “No, but I had my luggage brought to my penthouse.”
B: “Oh”
Jax returned from his little trip to the car to find Brenda almost all the way asleep on the couch,, still trying to hold her head up.
J: “Why don’t you go up to bed? You’re falling asleep on the couch”
Brenda shakes her head no.
B: “I don’t want to go to bed yet.”
What she really wanted to say was she didn’t want to be away from him yet.
B: “How much longer before you have to leave again?”
J: “A few days, why?”
B: “I was just wondering if you would be here for Brooke’s carnival. It’s all she’s been talking about lately. She asked me if you were coming”
J: “What did you tell her?”
B: “That I don’t know, but if you’re in town, I’m sure you will be there”
J: “I will?”
B: “Yes. It is all for charity AND I know you would do just about anything for Brooke. That little girl has you wrapped around her finger. All she has to do is smile and you get her what ever she wants.”
Of course Brooke isn’t the only one who has Jax wrapped around her finger. Brenda had the same power over Jax though neither of them would admit it, or perhaps neither of them realized it.
J: “That’s this weekend right?”
B: “Yes”
J: “When you talk to Brooke you can tell her I’ll be there, with bells on.”
B: “I can’t tell her that, the last time you had me tell her that, she was disappointed because she couldn’t find the bells on you.”
Jax laughs at the thought of Brooke looking for bells on him.
J: “Well then you can just tell her that I will be there, looking for both of you, and Lois too.”
Jax’s statement let Brenda know what she didn’t want to know but suspected, Jax wasn’t going alone, he had a date. Brenda knew exactly who it was, HER, the one he was dating, Brooke’s teacher. At least Brooke would be happy, even if Brenda wasn’t. Brenda did her best to smile and appear as if Jax not going to the carnival with her didn’t bother her.
B: “Well we’ll see you there. Brooke is going to be thrilled. You know you will have to win her prizes.”
J: “Of course”
Jax also knew that he would end up winning Brenda prizes as well even if they didn’t stay together, she was sure to get something out of him.
Jax and Brenda both stayed quiet for awhile until Jax got excited about something.
J: “We have to enter one of the contests that have cash prizes so when we win we can let Brooke pick one of the charities and donate the money.”
At first Brenda didn’t know if Jax meant her & Jax, or Jax and his date, by “we.”
B: “she will love that”
J: “So you will do it? You’ll enter a contest with me?”
Brenda’s delightment over Jax wanting to spend time with her at the carnival was short lived when she realized that he actually wanted her to enter one of those contest that she hated so much.
B: “You want me to be in a contest with you?”
J: “Is something wrong with that?”
B: “You know I hate those contests”
J: “But it’s for Brooke”
B: “can’t we just give her the money?”
J: “You know how special it makes her feel when someone wins something for her. She won’t enjoy it as much if we just hand her money.”
B: “Can I think about this?”
J: “Of course. Tell me your answer in the morning”
B: “Why in the morning?”
J: “Because I think you might need more then ten minutes to think about it and there’s no way you’ll be up longer then that”
B: “You think so?”
J: “No, I know so”
B: “Well you’re wrong”
J: “Okay, if I’m wrong then bet me”
B: “what for?”
J: “If you fall asleep within the next ten minutes, you have to enter a contest with me at the carnival, but if you don’t fall asleep”
B: “If I don’t fall asleep you have to go on one of those Ferris wheels with me, the kind you don’t think are actual Ferris wheels”
J: “You mean those one’s where they stick you facing two other people”
B: “Yes! Unless you’re afraid you’ll lose”
J: ”Not at all”
Jax extends his hand to Brenda.
J: “Is it a deal?”
Brenda extends her hand into Jax’s and shakes on the deal”
B: “You’ve got yourself a deal mister. I’m going to win. Just watch me”
J: “I will”.
Jax did watch Brenda, he watched her fall straight to sleep before she could even retrieve her hand from Jax’s. Her head fell against Jax and she kept his hand in hers all night long.
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Next time . . . Jax and Brenda spend some time together at Brooke’s carnival!
The Click of a Mouse - chapter 5a
The first thing Jax does when he gets to Brooke’s carnival is look for Brenda, this doesn’t go unnoticed by his date, Brooke’s teacher, Sheila Gradfield. The carnival is huge compared to their previous one’s. This year all the schools in the district from preschool (where Brooke goes) all the way up to high school decided to pool their resources and have one big combined carnival rather then the usual separate carnivals. Since the theme of thecarnival is give to charities, most of the stuff was donated or loaned to them for the day. The carnival has everything from games, to rides, to music performances.
Jax’s eyes immediately scan the carnival looking for one person, although he tells Sheila he’s looking for Brooke. Which is actually part way true since he figured that Brenda would be with Brooke. Once he spots Brooke, Sheila no longer suspects, but knows without a doubt that he was really looking for Brenda. Sheila can’t help but smile when she sees Jax kneel down so the little girl running towards him full speed, with a camera in her hand, canhug him.
J: “Hey sweetie, I missed you”
Brooke bobs her head up and down.
b: “Yes, I miss you”
Jax stifles his laughter that tries to come out because Brooke seemed to make up her own question, that she answered to him.
Jax lifts Brooke off the ground into his arms.
J: “Where’s your Mommy?”
Brooke points over to Lois.
b: “Mommy’s talking?”
Jax tries to look to see who Lois is talking to but he can’t tell.
J: “Is Brenda here?”
Brooke thinks for a minute.
b: “Mommy God be here later”
J: “So she’s not here yet?”
b: “No. She say you will come too”
Lois rejoins her daughter.
L: “Sweetheart he is here. I haven’t seen Brenda yet, I thought she was coming with you”
Jax shakes his head no, he opens his mouth to tell Lois that he brought a date but Sheila returns before he gets a chance. Sheila looks at Lois and smiles.
S: “Hello Lois, how have you been?”
L: “Okay. Oh. You came with Jax?”
S: “Yes”
b: “Hi Miss. Graaaadfe, teacher”
S: “Hi Brooke. Are you having fun?”
Brooke bops her head yes.
b: “Jax come to see me”
S: “He came to see you”
Sheila glances back at Jax as Lois asks her about how Brooke’s been doing at school, Jax never looks at Sheila, his eyes continuously scan the surrounding area for Brenda.
S: “She’s really one of the best kids in the class, she always”
Sheila’s praise of Brooke gets interrupted by Brooke herself, screaming.
b: “MOMMY GOD, MOMMY GOD”
Jax’s eyes immediately go to Brenda.
J: “Brooke’s been looking for you”
Sheila thinks, “don’t you mean you’ve been looking for her?”
Brooke looks at Jax who’s arms she’s still in.
b: “Mommy God come to see me”
S: “She came to see you”
Brenda turns her head and rolls her eyes at Sheila’s correction of her God daughter.
B: “Yes, I came to see my beautiful God daughter.”
Brenda holds her arms out to Brooke.
B: “Do you want to come to me?”
Brooke looks back and forth between Jax and Brenda. Jax looks at Brooke with reassurance.
J: “She came here just to see you”
Brooke holds her arms out to Brenda, as Jax leans down enough to hand Brooke over to Brenda.
Brooke looks at Brenda with a look of concern.
B: “Is something wrong sweetie?”
b: “Jax look for you”
B: “Jax were you looking for me?”
J: “You are a bit late. I wanted to make sure Brooke had her God mother here.”
B: “There is a good reason why I’m late. My escort”
b: “Es-scoot?”
B: “That’s escort honey, it’s kinda like a date”
b: “A date?”
B: “a special friend?”
b: “Like Jax?”
B: “Yeah, Jax could be your escort”
Brenda didn’t know but when Brooke asked about Jax, she meant Jax and Brenda, not herself and Jax.
B: “As I was saying, my special friend took a long time to get ready, he wanted to look his best when he saw my beautiful God daughter.”
b: “Mommy God? You special friend want see me?”
B: “Yes, my special friend wants to see you. I hope you don’t mind if he comes to the carnival with us”
b: “I meet him?”
B: “Yeah”
Brenda sets Brooke down on the ground.
B: “Let Jax hold your hand and I will go get my special friend, okay?”
Brooke bops her head yes again, while Jax prepares to see some gorgeous guy come back with Brenda.
Lois notices that Brenda left before she even said hi to her.
L: “Where’d Bren go?”
J: “to get her special friend”
Brooke tugs on the bottom of Lois’s shirt.
b: “Mommy”
L: “Yes”
b: “I meet Mommy God’s special friend.”
Lois notices an unpleasant look on Jax’s face, that turns to relief when he sees Brenda’s “special friend”.
L: “Hello Edward, Look Brooke it’s your grandpa”
Brooke jumps up and down in her excitement, still holding Jax’s hand.
b: “GRANDPA Q”
Brooke looks at Lois to see if it’s okay for her to go to her grandfather.
L: “Go ahead.”
Brooke runs to Edward and hugs him.
b: “Hi Grandpa Q”
E: “Hello there little lady. You sure do look pretty today.”
b: “Thank you, you look pretty too”
Jax chuckles, much to Edward’s chagrin.
J: “Yeah, Edward, you sure do look pretty today”
Edward stands up as Brooke runs back to Jax and takes his hand, then reaches for Brenda’s hand to connect with her other hand. Amazingly they looked like a beautiful family together to passerby’s. Brooke inherited her mother’s eyes, which happened to look a lot like Jax’s and her father’s hair which looked a lot like Brenda’s. Sheila noticed how much they looked like a family.
Edward looked at Brenda, while pointing to Jax.
E: “You didn’t mention he would be here.”
b: “Jax always wif Mommy God”
E: “Mommy God?”
B: “Yeah, that’s me”
Lois joins in the conversation making Sheila feel even more left out.
L: “Would it of mattered if you knew he was here?”
Edward hugs Lois as she lightly kisses his cheek.
E: “It wouldn’t of stopped me from seeing my beautiful great granddaughter and my equally as beautiful granddaughter in law”
L: “Oh Edward, you’re such a charmer”
Sheila interrupts the conversation in an effort to join in.
S: “Brooke, who is this?”
Brooke doesn’t know who her teacher’s asking her about so she introduces everyone, pointing to the person as she says their “name”.
b: “Mommy, Grandpa Q, Jax, Mommy God”
Sheila looks at Edward first.
S: “Hello, Brooke told me a lot about you.”
Edward is quite blunt in his response.
E: “Who are you?”
S: “I’m Brooke’s teacher, Miss. Gradfield” .
E: “Nice to meet you.”
Sheila then turns her attention to Brenda, the lady she heard so much about and saw from a distance several times but never actually met.
S: “You must be Brenda”
B: “Yes I am. So you’re my sweet little God daughters teacher.”
S: “Yes I am”
b: “Mommy God”
Brenda looks down to her favorite little girl who’s tugging on her hand.
B: “What is it sweetie?”
b: “Jax and Mommy God”
S: “Sweetie we don’t say Mommy God, we say God mother.”
Brenda shoots Sheila a look that lets her know her help wasn’t needed or wanted.
Brooke looks confused about her teacher’s correction. She looks at her teacher, then Brenda, then tugs on Jax’s hand. Jax immediately looks down at the adorable little girl between him and Brenda.
J: “Brooke. Did you want something?”
Brooke looks frustrated as she tries to ask her question.
b: “Um teacher say Mommy God not Mommy God. Mommy God mad at me so I no call her Mommy God in more? Jax not Jax? Em say I no good, so she no friend in more”
Jax looks at Brooke and sees the frustration on the poor little girl’s face. He also looks at Brenda and sees that Brooke thinking that she was mad at her almost made her cry.
J: “I am Jax. Your Mommy God’s real name is Brenda but you can call her what ever you want. Want to know why?”
Brooke bops her head yes. Jax kneels next to Brooke.
J: “You have to let me whisper in your ear. Come here.”
Brooke tries to take Brenda’ hand with her.
J: ”Let go of Brenda’s hand for a minute. She’ll hold your hand after I tell you the secret.”
Brooke lets go of Bren’s hand and moves all the way to Jax, who whispers, “Brenda loves you so much that you can never make her mad at you. She will always love you. You can always call her Mommy God”
b: “I CAN”
J: “Yes, sweetie.”
Brooke looks up at Brenda.
b: “Teacher say you no Mommy God but Jax say you Mommy God.”
B: “Jax is a very smart man. I am your Mommy God. Come here and give me a hug.”
Brooke looks at Jax before moving.
b: “You hold Brooke’s hand after hug Brenda?”
Jax shakes his head yes.
J: “Yeah, I’ll hold your hand after you hug Brenda.”
Brenda breathes a sigh of relief as she holds Brooke tightly to her body.
B: “I love you sweetheart”
b: “I love you Mommy God. I can call you Brenda if you no like Mommy God”.
B: “I love when you call me Mommy God”
Brenda looks at Jax.
B: “I kinda like being thought of as a God”
J: “You would!”
Just when Brenda thinks Brooke’s going to take Jax’s hand again, she looks at Brenda.
b: “Jax tell secret, now you tell secret”
B: “You want me to tell you a secret.”
Brooke shakes her head yes.
b: “ bout Jax”
B: “Oh you want me to tell you a secret about Jax. How do I know you will keep my secret? You know Brooke, secrets are like special presents, they can’t be given to just anyone”
b: “I not anyone, I Brooke”
Brenda laughs.
B: “That’s true, but can Brooke keep a secret?”
b: “I keep Jax’s secret”
B: “Yes you did. Okay, come her and I’ll tell you a really big secret but you can’t tell anyone. Not even Mommy”
b: “I no tell”
B: “Okay, come here so no one else will hear”
Brenda tries to think of a secret but only one comes to her mind. She reluctantly tells Brooke, knowing that she will have to trust that her God daughter understands how to keep a secret. Brenda very quietly whispers, “I love Jax”, to which Brooke loudly responds.
b: “That no secret. I know that already”
B: “Oh you did”
b: “Yes, Mommy tell me”
B: “Oh she did, well I’ll just have to talk to your Mommy, Maybe you can teach her how to keep a secret.”
b: “MOMMY”
L: “What is it honey?”
b: “Mommy God say you no keep secret”
L: “What?”
B: “We’ll talk about it later.”
Jax looks at Lois with concern.
J: “Who’s’ this Em person who upset my favorite little girl?”
L :” I assume she was talking about Emily but Brooke isn’t mad at her”
B: “She told Jax that Emily said she wasn’t her friend.”
L: “Oh that. A couple weeks ago, I brought Brooke to see her other family. She went into Emily’s room and colored all over a paper Emily had just finished writing. Emily got angry and told her she was mad at her. Brooke tried to get Emily to play with her. She kept saying that Emily was her friend. Emily was so frustrated that she screamed at Brooke and said she wasn’t her friend, she’s her cousin. It all blew over within ten minutes when Emilycame down, apologized to Brooke and took her out for ice cream. By the time they came back, Brooke was calling her cousin Em”.
Jax goes back to looking off into the distance.
E: “I think this pretty little lady wants to walk around the carnival and have fun”
b: “I want have fun”
Brenda looks at Lois.
B: “I think she’s telling us to shut up and do what we came for, have fun.”
Lois looks at Brenda and mouth’s “Is Jax coming with us” to which Brenda mouth’s back, “I don't know, ask him”.
B: “Brooke, are you ready to go on rides”
b: “Yes, I ready”
B: “Okay, lets go.”
Jax doesn’t realize that Brenda, Lois, Brooke , and Edward are leaving until he feels his arm being pulled away. It seems Jax didn’t notice much of anything, he kept staring at the Ferris wheel that wasn’t really a Ferris wheel, the one Brenda loves so much.
J: “Hey little girl, where are you going with my arm?”
b: “I ride lots of rides”
J: “Oh you are. Are you going to ride all the rides in Kiddy land?”
b: “Um hmm, you come wif us?”
Jax looks over at Sheila who’s off talking to another parent. As much as he wants to be with Lois and Brooke, not to mention Brenda, he knows that he came with Sheila and therefore has to spend some time with her. It’s too bad that Sheila invited him to the carnival before Brenda mentioned it or he would have happily came with Brenda, but now he was obligated to stay with his date.
J: “ No sweetie. I’m not going to go with you this time”
b: “You no like us?”
J: “No, sweetie. I like you very much, and I like your Mommy very much”
b: “You like Mommy God very much?”
J: “Yeah,”
Jax glances up at Brenda.
J: “I like Brenda very much too. I’ll make a deal with you okay?”
b: “What deal?”
J: “ A deal is like a promise”
B: “Brooke, it’s two promises. A deal is when two people each promise the other person something, do you understand?”
Brooke still looks confused after Brenda’ explanation so Jax comes up with another.
J: “Do you remember the last time you were at Brenda’s?”
b: “ Yes”
J: “Did you ask her if you could watch the Music Man?”
b: “Yes”
J: “Did she make you do some thing before she would let you watch it? Like eat something you didn’t want , or clean up”
Brooke gets an adorable look on her face that shows Jax she thinks something is not very good.
b: “Eat veg- t”
Jax sees that Brooke is struggling with the word vegetables so he cuts in to lessen her frustration.
J: “That was a deal. You promised to eat your vegetables and she promised to let you watch the Music Man”
b: “I make deal!”
J: “Yeah, you made a deal with Brenda, and now I’m going to make a deal with you. If you’re really good today and promise to listen to Mommy and Brenda”
b: “And Grandpa Q?”
J: “Yeah grandpa too”
b: “I promise”
J: “good. I promise to find you in a few hours and spend time with you. So is it a deal?”
B: “He means, do you promise.”
b: “I say I promise”
B: “Yeah Jax, she already promised you”
J: “I promise too, so it’s a deal.”
Jax holds out his hand to shake Brooks tiny hand.
B: “He wants you to shake his hand”
Brooke shakes Jax’s hand then happily leaves with Lois, Brenda, and Edward.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Click of a Mouse - chapter 5a
The first thing Jax does when he gets to Brooke’s carnival is look for Brenda, this doesn’t go unnoticed by his date, Brooke’s teacher, Sheila Gradfield. The carnival is huge compared to their previous one’s. This year all the schools in the district from preschool (where Brooke goes) all the way up to high school decided to pool their resources and have one big combined carnival rather then the usual separate carnivals. Since the theme of thecarnival is give to charities, most of the stuff was donated or loaned to them for the day. The carnival has everything from games, to rides, to music performances.
Jax’s eyes immediately scan the carnival looking for one person, although he tells Sheila he’s looking for Brooke. Which is actually part way true since he figured that Brenda would be with Brooke. Once he spots Brooke, Sheila no longer suspects, but knows without a doubt that he was really looking for Brenda. Sheila can’t help but smile when she sees Jax kneel down so the little girl running towards him full speed, with a camera in her hand, canhug him.
J: “Hey sweetie, I missed you”
Brooke bobs her head up and down.
b: “Yes, I miss you”
Jax stifles his laughter that tries to come out because Brooke seemed to make up her own question, that she answered to him.
Jax lifts Brooke off the ground into his arms.
J: “Where’s your Mommy?”
Brooke points over to Lois.
b: “Mommy’s talking?”
Jax tries to look to see who Lois is talking to but he can’t tell.
J: “Is Brenda here?”
Brooke thinks for a minute.
b: “Mommy God be here later”
J: “So she’s not here yet?”
b: “No. She say you will come too”
Lois rejoins her daughter.
L: “Sweetheart he is here. I haven’t seen Brenda yet, I thought she was coming with you”
Jax shakes his head no, he opens his mouth to tell Lois that he brought a date but Sheila returns before he gets a chance. Sheila looks at Lois and smiles.
S: “Hello Lois, how have you been?”
L: “Okay. Oh. You came with Jax?”
S: “Yes”
b: “Hi Miss. Graaaadfe, teacher”
S: “Hi Brooke. Are you having fun?”
Brooke bops her head yes.
b: “Jax come to see me”
S: “He came to see you”
Sheila glances back at Jax as Lois asks her about how Brooke’s been doing at school, Jax never looks at Sheila, his eyes continuously scan the surrounding area for Brenda.
S: “She’s really one of the best kids in the class, she always”
Sheila’s praise of Brooke gets interrupted by Brooke herself, screaming.
b: “MOMMY GOD, MOMMY GOD”
Jax’s eyes immediately go to Brenda.
J: “Brooke’s been looking for you”
Sheila thinks, “don’t you mean you’ve been looking for her?”
Brooke looks at Jax who’s arms she’s still in.
b: “Mommy God come to see me”
S: “She came to see you”
Brenda turns her head and rolls her eyes at Sheila’s correction of her God daughter.
B: “Yes, I came to see my beautiful God daughter.”
Brenda holds her arms out to Brooke.
B: “Do you want to come to me?”
Brooke looks back and forth between Jax and Brenda. Jax looks at Brooke with reassurance.
J: “She came here just to see you”
Brooke holds her arms out to Brenda, as Jax leans down enough to hand Brooke over to Brenda.
Brooke looks at Brenda with a look of concern.
B: “Is something wrong sweetie?”
b: “Jax look for you”
B: “Jax were you looking for me?”
J: “You are a bit late. I wanted to make sure Brooke had her God mother here.”
B: “There is a good reason why I’m late. My escort”
b: “Es-scoot?”
B: “That’s escort honey, it’s kinda like a date”
b: “A date?”
B: “a special friend?”
b: “Like Jax?”
B: “Yeah, Jax could be your escort”
Brenda didn’t know but when Brooke asked about Jax, she meant Jax and Brenda, not herself and Jax.
B: “As I was saying, my special friend took a long time to get ready, he wanted to look his best when he saw my beautiful God daughter.”
b: “Mommy God? You special friend want see me?”
B: “Yes, my special friend wants to see you. I hope you don’t mind if he comes to the carnival with us”
b: “I meet him?”
B: “Yeah”
Brenda sets Brooke down on the ground.
B: “Let Jax hold your hand and I will go get my special friend, okay?”
Brooke bops her head yes again, while Jax prepares to see some gorgeous guy come back with Brenda.
Lois notices that Brenda left before she even said hi to her.
L: “Where’d Bren go?”
J: “to get her special friend”
Brooke tugs on the bottom of Lois’s shirt.
b: “Mommy”
L: “Yes”
b: “I meet Mommy God’s special friend.”
Lois notices an unpleasant look on Jax’s face, that turns to relief when he sees Brenda’s “special friend”.
L: “Hello Edward, Look Brooke it’s your grandpa”
Brooke jumps up and down in her excitement, still holding Jax’s hand.
b: “GRANDPA Q”
Brooke looks at Lois to see if it’s okay for her to go to her grandfather.
L: “Go ahead.”
Brooke runs to Edward and hugs him.
b: “Hi Grandpa Q”
E: “Hello there little lady. You sure do look pretty today.”
b: “Thank you, you look pretty too”
Jax chuckles, much to Edward’s chagrin.
J: “Yeah, Edward, you sure do look pretty today”
Edward stands up as Brooke runs back to Jax and takes his hand, then reaches for Brenda’s hand to connect with her other hand. Amazingly they looked like a beautiful family together to passerby’s. Brooke inherited her mother’s eyes, which happened to look a lot like Jax’s and her father’s hair which looked a lot like Brenda’s. Sheila noticed how much they looked like a family.
Edward looked at Brenda, while pointing to Jax.
E: “You didn’t mention he would be here.”
b: “Jax always wif Mommy God”
E: “Mommy God?”
B: “Yeah, that’s me”
Lois joins in the conversation making Sheila feel even more left out.
L: “Would it of mattered if you knew he was here?”
Edward hugs Lois as she lightly kisses his cheek.
E: “It wouldn’t of stopped me from seeing my beautiful great granddaughter and my equally as beautiful granddaughter in law”
L: “Oh Edward, you’re such a charmer”
Sheila interrupts the conversation in an effort to join in.
S: “Brooke, who is this?”
Brooke doesn’t know who her teacher’s asking her about so she introduces everyone, pointing to the person as she says their “name”.
b: “Mommy, Grandpa Q, Jax, Mommy God”
Sheila looks at Edward first.
S: “Hello, Brooke told me a lot about you.”
Edward is quite blunt in his response.
E: “Who are you?”
S: “I’m Brooke’s teacher, Miss. Gradfield” .
E: “Nice to meet you.”
Sheila then turns her attention to Brenda, the lady she heard so much about and saw from a distance several times but never actually met.
S: “You must be Brenda”
B: “Yes I am. So you’re my sweet little God daughters teacher.”
S: “Yes I am”
b: “Mommy God”
Brenda looks down to her favorite little girl who’s tugging on her hand.
B: “What is it sweetie?”
b: “Jax and Mommy God”
S: “Sweetie we don’t say Mommy God, we say God mother.”
Brenda shoots Sheila a look that lets her know her help wasn’t needed or wanted.
Brooke looks confused about her teacher’s correction. She looks at her teacher, then Brenda, then tugs on Jax’s hand. Jax immediately looks down at the adorable little girl between him and Brenda.
J: “Brooke. Did you want something?”
Brooke looks frustrated as she tries to ask her question.
b: “Um teacher say Mommy God not Mommy God. Mommy God mad at me so I no call her Mommy God in more? Jax not Jax? Em say I no good, so she no friend in more”
Jax looks at Brooke and sees the frustration on the poor little girl’s face. He also looks at Brenda and sees that Brooke thinking that she was mad at her almost made her cry.
J: “I am Jax. Your Mommy God’s real name is Brenda but you can call her what ever you want. Want to know why?”
Brooke bops her head yes. Jax kneels next to Brooke.
J: “You have to let me whisper in your ear. Come here.”
Brooke tries to take Brenda’ hand with her.
J: ”Let go of Brenda’s hand for a minute. She’ll hold your hand after I tell you the secret.”
Brooke lets go of Bren’s hand and moves all the way to Jax, who whispers, “Brenda loves you so much that you can never make her mad at you. She will always love you. You can always call her Mommy God”
b: “I CAN”
J: “Yes, sweetie.”
Brooke looks up at Brenda.
b: “Teacher say you no Mommy God but Jax say you Mommy God.”
B: “Jax is a very smart man. I am your Mommy God. Come here and give me a hug.”
Brooke looks at Jax before moving.
b: “You hold Brooke’s hand after hug Brenda?”
Jax shakes his head yes.
J: “Yeah, I’ll hold your hand after you hug Brenda.”
Brenda breathes a sigh of relief as she holds Brooke tightly to her body.
B: “I love you sweetheart”
b: “I love you Mommy God. I can call you Brenda if you no like Mommy God”.
B: “I love when you call me Mommy God”
Brenda looks at Jax.
B: “I kinda like being thought of as a God”
J: “You would!”
Just when Brenda thinks Brooke’s going to take Jax’s hand again, she looks at Brenda.
b: “Jax tell secret, now you tell secret”
B: “You want me to tell you a secret.”
Brooke shakes her head yes.
b: “ bout Jax”
B: “Oh you want me to tell you a secret about Jax. How do I know you will keep my secret? You know Brooke, secrets are like special presents, they can’t be given to just anyone”
b: “I not anyone, I Brooke”
Brenda laughs.
B: “That’s true, but can Brooke keep a secret?”
b: “I keep Jax’s secret”
B: “Yes you did. Okay, come her and I’ll tell you a really big secret but you can’t tell anyone. Not even Mommy”
b: “I no tell”
B: “Okay, come here so no one else will hear”
Brenda tries to think of a secret but only one comes to her mind. She reluctantly tells Brooke, knowing that she will have to trust that her God daughter understands how to keep a secret. Brenda very quietly whispers, “I love Jax”, to which Brooke loudly responds.
b: “That no secret. I know that already”
B: “Oh you did”
b: “Yes, Mommy tell me”
B: “Oh she did, well I’ll just have to talk to your Mommy, Maybe you can teach her how to keep a secret.”
b: “MOMMY”
L: “What is it honey?”
b: “Mommy God say you no keep secret”
L: “What?”
B: “We’ll talk about it later.”
Jax looks at Lois with concern.
J: “Who’s’ this Em person who upset my favorite little girl?”
L :” I assume she was talking about Emily but Brooke isn’t mad at her”
B: “She told Jax that Emily said she wasn’t her friend.”
L: “Oh that. A couple weeks ago, I brought Brooke to see her other family. She went into Emily’s room and colored all over a paper Emily had just finished writing. Emily got angry and told her she was mad at her. Brooke tried to get Emily to play with her. She kept saying that Emily was her friend. Emily was so frustrated that she screamed at Brooke and said she wasn’t her friend, she’s her cousin. It all blew over within ten minutes when Emilycame down, apologized to Brooke and took her out for ice cream. By the time they came back, Brooke was calling her cousin Em”.
Jax goes back to looking off into the distance.
E: “I think this pretty little lady wants to walk around the carnival and have fun”
b: “I want have fun”
Brenda looks at Lois.
B: “I think she’s telling us to shut up and do what we came for, have fun.”
Lois looks at Brenda and mouth’s “Is Jax coming with us” to which Brenda mouth’s back, “I don't know, ask him”.
B: “Brooke, are you ready to go on rides”
b: “Yes, I ready”
B: “Okay, lets go.”
Jax doesn’t realize that Brenda, Lois, Brooke , and Edward are leaving until he feels his arm being pulled away. It seems Jax didn’t notice much of anything, he kept staring at the Ferris wheel that wasn’t really a Ferris wheel, the one Brenda loves so much.
J: “Hey little girl, where are you going with my arm?”
b: “I ride lots of rides”
J: “Oh you are. Are you going to ride all the rides in Kiddy land?”
b: “Um hmm, you come wif us?”
Jax looks over at Sheila who’s off talking to another parent. As much as he wants to be with Lois and Brooke, not to mention Brenda, he knows that he came with Sheila and therefore has to spend some time with her. It’s too bad that Sheila invited him to the carnival before Brenda mentioned it or he would have happily came with Brenda, but now he was obligated to stay with his date.
J: “ No sweetie. I’m not going to go with you this time”
b: “You no like us?”
J: “No, sweetie. I like you very much, and I like your Mommy very much”
b: “You like Mommy God very much?”
J: “Yeah,”
Jax glances up at Brenda.
J: “I like Brenda very much too. I’ll make a deal with you okay?”
b: “What deal?”
J: “ A deal is like a promise”
B: “Brooke, it’s two promises. A deal is when two people each promise the other person something, do you understand?”
Brooke still looks confused after Brenda’ explanation so Jax comes up with another.
J: “Do you remember the last time you were at Brenda’s?”
b: “ Yes”
J: “Did you ask her if you could watch the Music Man?”
b: “Yes”
J: “Did she make you do some thing before she would let you watch it? Like eat something you didn’t want , or clean up”
Brooke gets an adorable look on her face that shows Jax she thinks something is not very good.
b: “Eat veg- t”
Jax sees that Brooke is struggling with the word vegetables so he cuts in to lessen her frustration.
J: “That was a deal. You promised to eat your vegetables and she promised to let you watch the Music Man”
b: “I make deal!”
J: “Yeah, you made a deal with Brenda, and now I’m going to make a deal with you. If you’re really good today and promise to listen to Mommy and Brenda”
b: “And Grandpa Q?”
J: “Yeah grandpa too”
b: “I promise”
J: “good. I promise to find you in a few hours and spend time with you. So is it a deal?”
B: “He means, do you promise.”
b: “I say I promise”
B: “Yeah Jax, she already promised you”
J: “I promise too, so it’s a deal.”
Jax holds out his hand to shake Brooks tiny hand.
B: “He wants you to shake his hand”
Brooke shakes Jax’s hand then happily leaves with Lois, Brenda, and Edward.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The click of a Mouse 5b
As soon as Brenda leaves, Sheila moves back over towards Jax. She smiles brightly as she looks at her date.
S: “Guess what?”
J: “What?”
S: “I entered us in a contest”
J: “You did?”
Jax had planned on entering a contest but not with Sheila. He planned on collecting on his bet and entering with Brenda so they could give Brooke the prize money to donate. Sheila’s face lights up as she looks at Jax.
S: “Yes. You don’t mind do you?”
Jax did mind but he decided to reserve his judgment until after he heard what kind of contest it was, after all he didn’t even know which contests they were having that year.
J: “What kind of contest is this?
Sheila’s pleasure with herself was obvious as she answered Jax with confidence in her voice.
S: “A kissing contest!”
Sheila immediately noticed that Jax looked horrified by the prospect of being in a kissing contest with his date. Sheila also noticed that Jax got the distant look in his eyes that he always gets when he’s thinking about, her, his best friend. Brenda. Once again Brenda was the one he was thinking about. Jax didn’t think before speaking, the words flew out of his mouth before he realized what he was saying.
J: “I can’t. Cancel it!”
Sheila wasn’t willing to stand by and watch Jax blow her off for Brenda yet again. She already spent too many nights home alone because Brenda needed him for something, or Brenda asked him to go somewhere with her. She was reaching her breaking point and though she hoped Jax would be in the contest with her, she also knew it was the last chance she could give him. She knew she was falling for Jax, falling hard. She also knew that she had to makea decision before she got hurt anymore then she already was.
S: “Why? Why won’t you do this with me?”
J: “You know I don’t like to display affection in public”
Sheila knew what he really meant, he didn’t like to display his emotion for other women in front of Brenda. That was if he even felt any thing for other women, Sheila still wasn‘t sure about that. Sheila finally decided to force Jax’s hand on this one.
S: “If you don’t do this one thing for me, it’s over between us.”
Sheila saw Jax’s eyes wandering off to the distance and wondered why Jax kept staring at that Ferris wheel.
J: “I can’t be in that contest.”
Since Jax’s answer told Sheila the one thing she didn’t want to know, that they were over, she decided to finally get out all the anger and feelings she had been holding back since the moment she found out about Brenda’s strong connection with Jax.
S: “It’s because of her , isn’t it?”
J: “WHO?”
S: “Don’t play dumb with me”
J: “I’m not”
Jax really had no clue that Sheila was talking about Brenda. Sheila became very frustrated as tears fell from her eyes. She looked at Jax with what can only be described as disbelief.
S: “My God Jax, you really don’t know. How can you not know? I’ll admit it took me awhile to figure it out but that’s only because I wanted to believe it wasn’t true, I wanted to believe that you had room for me but Lois was right. My God, she knew all along. I never had a chance, not even for a second, How could I have not seen it”
J: “Seen what?”
Sheila doesn’t bother to answer Jax as her thoughts keep flowing out of her mouth faster then she can stop them.
S: “How could I be so blind. But you were so convincing Jax, you had me fooled. You said, you said there was nothing else between you . You said it was over long ago, but it wasn’t.”
Jax finally buys a bit of a clue.
J: “Is this about Brenda? Because there’s nothing”
Sheila cuts him off when she finally realizes why his words about Brenda seemed so true to her, why he was so convincing when he said they were only best friends.
S: “My God, you don’t even realize it, do you Jax?”
J: “Realize what?”
Sheila looks at Jax and realizes that he really doesn’t know what everyone who sees him and Brenda knows.
S: “No, you don’t’. But how could you not know? It’s so obvious. I bet Brooke even knows. Lois told me that there was still something there, she warned me but you were so convincing, now I know why. You somehow managed to convince yourself that it was true. You did. You convinced yourself that you weren’t in love with her anymore, but you are. You are in love with her Jax. That’s why she always comes first in your life, because you still loveher.”
Jax looks quite confused as he listens to Sheila ramble on about something he knows, or at least thinks he knows isn’t true.
J: “I do love Brenda, I won’t deny that and she does come first but that’s only because she’s my best friend. I’m not in love with her, I’m not.”
S: “Wow! You actually believe that. I don’t now how you managed to do that. But I could see it just then, that same convincing look you gave me when I asked you point blank if you were still in love with her. I always heard that the best liars are the one’s who believe their own lies”
J: “I’m not lying to you”
S: “You actually believe that, that’s why you’re so convincing, you managed to convince yourself that what everyone can see just by looking at the two of you is a lie. I don't know what she did to hurt you this much. But she must have hurt you bad to make you do this to yourself. You’ve managed to convince yourself that you’re not in love with her anymore, but you are. Maybe you think she’s not in love with you anymore, but that’s as obvious asyour love for her. You are the most incredible guy I ever met. I wanted to believe that I had a chance with you, but I never did. I can’t even blame you for leading me on because you made it clear form the first day I met you that Brenda came first. The only thing you didn’t make clear was that she still has your heart, but now I know why you couldn’t tell me. You didn’t know, You didn’t know.”
J: “I’m not”
S: “Please don’t try and tell me your not in love with her, I know you are, even if you don’t. Your a very kind and generous man Jax, but I can’t do this to myself anymore. I can’t allow myself to fall in love with someone who’s already given his heart away to his beast friend. I can’t compete with what you have with Brenda. God, it was so obvious when I saw you talking to her earlier. When she’s there no one else exists for you. You didn’teven notice when I went half way around the carnival to get those tickets.”
J: “I’m sorry if you”
S: “Please don’t apologize to me Jax. When you see Brooke please tell her that I had to go home but I hope she has fun.”
J: “You’re not staying?”
S: “No. I really don’t want to walk around and bump into you and Brenda. I know you love her but I can’t watch, not today.”
J: ”Is there anything I can do?”
S: “No. It’s too late for you to do something, you can’t fall out of love with Brenda now. I just hope you stop lying to yourself and realize that no one can ever measure up to Brenda for you because she’s the one you’re in love with.”
J: “I never claimed to be”
S: “I know. You wouldn’t even mention love around me. I hope you will stay in the contest, it is for a good cause and I did enter it as you and an unnamed partner in case this happened. Why don’t you have Brenda enter the contest with you?”
J: “NO”
S: “Don’t forget to tell Brooke I said bye and to have fun.”
J: “I won’t. Bye.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jax’s first thought after Sheila leaves is to cancel his entry in the contest. He walks straight over to the registration area but finds out that it’s closed down. What he doesn’t know is it’s courtesy of Sheila. Sheila made the decision as soon as she saw Jax and Brenda together. Either she was going to prove that Jax really did care more about her then Brenda, like she hoped, and would enter the contest with her (in that case, she wanted thenumber of entries to be minimal so that she & Jax could be the center couple). Or she figured Jax would refuse because he didn’t want to kiss her where Brenda might see which would prove he was still in love with Brenda (in that case she wanted Brenda and Jax to stop breaking peoples hearts, who like her were hoping for at least a little chance that they later found out was never there). In either case she wanted the entries to the contest to beminimal so that Jax would be forced to stay in it. Jax is quite disappointed that they won’t let him out of the contest but he figures that he can easily find someone who will take his place in the contest.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
Meanwhile in another part of the carnival, Brooke walks over to Brenda who’s sitting on a bench waiting for Edward, Lois and Brooke to come back from Brooke’s latest ride.
B: “Hi Brooke”
b: “Where Jax?”
Brenda gets a distant look at the mention of Jax’s name.
B: “I don’t know sweetheart.”
Brenda lifts Brooke onto her lap.
B: “You know what though?”
b: “What?”
B: “He promised you he would join us later so he will.”
b: “Jax make deal wif me”
B: “Yeah. He did, so he’ll be here soon.”
b: “Jax alone now?”
B: “No honey, he’s with your teacher remember”
b: “Why Jax not wif you? You Jax friend.”
B: “Yeah sweetheart I am Jax’s friend but he has other friends too. You have more then one friend don’t you?”
b; “Yes”
B: “So does Jax, and right now he’s spending time with one of his other friends.”
b: “He come see me soon?”
B: “I don’t know. Look Brooke, your Mommy’s coming and look what she has in her hand.”
Brooke looks at the cotton candy in Lois hand.
b: “Mmmmm, yummy”
Lois and Edward return with cotton candy for every one.
L: “Does anyone want”
Lois doesn’t get a chance to finish before Brooke’s excitement cuts in. Brooke raises her arm and waves her hand in the air.
b: “Me Mommy, I want sweet candy”
Brenda looks at Lois and mouth’s sweet candy
L: “Jax taught her that”
B: “Why?”
b: “Mommy God, Jax say I sweet like sweet candy.”
B: “You are!”
E: “Little Lady, would you like your own sweet candy?”
Brooke bobs her head indicating yes, as she lets go of Lois’ cotton candy and reaches for her own.
L: “Brooke kept asking Jax if he could get her cotton. He thought she wanted to play with it so he gave her some. He caught her eating it. He tried to explain that it wasn’t food but she didn’t understand. I tried to explain too but she thought cotton was candy. So Jax brought her to a mall that sold cotton candy. When she pointed to it, he got her some and told her to taste it. He asked what it tasted like and she said sweet. That’s when hetold her it’s called sweet candy, just like her. After that day, she’s called it sweet candy.”
b: “Mommy God eat sweet candy too?”
Edward trys hand Brenda her cotton candy but Brenda shakes her head no.
B: “No thank you.”
E: “We bought this for you?”
B: “That’s sweet of you, but I’m not hungry.”
Broke looks at Brenda and even she recognizes the look on Brenda’s face, Brenda misses Jax.
b: “Mommy God find Jax for Brooke?”
B: “You want me to find Jax for you?”
Brooke bops her head yes.
b: “Please Mommy God”
Brenda looks at Brooke’s sweet little face, covered with cotton candy.
B: “How can I say no to that sweet little face.”
The truth is even though Brenda missed Jax and wanted him with them, the last thing in the world she wanted to do was look for him. She new he was with a date and the last thing she wanted to see was Jax hugging, kissing, her holding his dates hand, but Brooke asked her and added her adorable please, so Brenda couldn’t disappoint Brooke.
B: “Lois will you be okay without me for awhile?”
L: “We’ll be fine, won’t we Brooke?”
Brooke shakes her head yes.
B: “Edward, would you like to come with me?”
E: “ The less time I see that, that Ruthless crocodile, the better”
L: “That would be a no Brenda.”
b: “Woof croc dial?”
Edward looks down at his great grand daughter.
E: “That’s ruthless Crocodile”
Brooke scrunches her face up and looks at Edward with a look that says, “what?”
E: “Jax he’s a ruthless crocodile.”
With no one to save her, Brenda goes off to look for Jax. She really didn’t look very hard, she looked in a few places then walked by the game area, where she stopped to play a few games before she went back to tell Brooke she couldn’t find Jax so they would just have to wait for him to come to them.
The game area is exactly where Jax found Brenda. At the time he was still walking around trying to convince couples to take his place in the kissing contest, no one was willing, which had Jax in a bad mood, that is until he saw his angel playing a game. It was one of those games where you have to knock down huge bottles that looked extremely heavy, and all you had was a baseball that looked somewhat flatter then usual. Jax’s voice startlesBrenda,
J: “Which prize do you want?”
Bren drops the ball at the sound of Jax’s voice.
B: “Oh. Hi Jax”
J: “Is Brooke in the arcade area?”
B: “Oh, no. She should still be on the kiddy rides”
J: “Why aren’t you with her?”
B: “She asked me to find you”
J: “You did. Though it doesn’t appear you were looking very hard.”
B: “I was looking but then I saw the games and”
J: “You couldn’t resist.”
B: “Exactly. Where’s Shiela or Shirley?”
Jax laughs a bit at the way Brenda got the name wrong, as always. For some reason it was only the women he dated who’s name she couldn’t get right.
J: “Sheila went home”
B: “She didn’t get sick did she?”
Brenda actually was only worried that she might of gotten sick because if she did, she could have gotten Jax sick.
J: “No, she doesn’t want to see me again.”
Brenda’s face lights up with a huge smile that she can’t hide no matter how hard she tries, giving the direct opposite response of her words.
B: “Oh, that’s too bad. How long ago did she leave?”
J: “Right after you guys took off.”
B: “Why didn’t you come find us?”
J: “She entered us in this contest and I’ve been trying to get out of it the whole time.”
B: “How long can it take to take your name off a sign up sheet?”
J: “The contest areas closed off and no one wants to take my place in the contest. I’ve asked almost everyone here”
B: “I did lose the bet last night so I can be your partner since I have to be in a contest with you.”
Jax smiles at first at the prospect of entering a kissing contest with Brenda, but he realizes that it wouldn’t be fair to ask her to enter that contest with him.
J: “Bren, this isn’t the kind of contest you would want to enter with me.”
B: “But if the contest area is closed, then this is the one we have to enter, I already told Brooke we were going to win for her. We can’t disappoint her.”
J: “We’ll find one you want to do when they open up the sign up lists right before the contests.”
B: “You sure?”
J: “Yes. So. Which prize are you trying to win?”
Brenda points to a light brown teddy bear with sparking blue eyes and angel wings.
B: “That one. But I think this game is rigged, it’s impossible to win”
J: “Lets see about that.”
Jax pulls out a ten and hands it to the guy behind the booth. The guy goes to give him change but he puts his hand out indicating for the guy not to.
Jax picks up the first ball and knocks two of the bottles down. Jax turns back to Brenda.
J: “How many do you need to knock down?”
B: “Two”
Jax points to the prize Brenda wants,
J: “She’ll take that one”
The guy looks at Jax.
G: “You still have two balls left on this turn sir.”
J: “But I knocked down what I need for the prize.”
G: “If you knock more down, you can get a better prize.”
Jax reluctantly picks up the balls and knocks two more bottles down with each throw.
G: “Which prize would you like?”
Jax looks at Brenda.
J: “I thought we already told him.”
G: “You can pick any prize from the top”
Jax looks at the huge stuffed animals that were probably bigger then most kids there, then looks at Brenda.
J: “Do you want any of those?”
Brenda shakes her head no.
J: “We’ll take the brown bear.”
G: “Are you sure?”
J: “Yes!”
Once the guy hands Jax the bear, he gives it to a very delighted Brenda.
B: “Now, I’m going to win you a prize.”
Jax looks at Brenda with disbelief.
J: “You’re going to win? No offense Brenda but I saw you throwing the ball and I don’t think you could knock any of the bottles down, let alone the two it takes even to win the smallest prize”
B: “Are you saying you think I’m not talented enough?”
J: “I’m saying that you told me yourself that you though it was impossible to win.”
B: “But that was before”
J: “Before what?”
B: “Before I had you here to help me.”
J: “You want me to win my own prize?”
B: “Nooooooooo. I’m going to win, you’re just going to stand behind me and help me.”
J: “Oh I am?”
B: “Yeah”
G: “You don’t’ need to play again for another prize, you can still get two more two bottle prizes or one three or four bottle prize with the gentleman’s winnings.”
J: “Thanks but we play for one prize per game. How many games do we have left?”
G: “Five”
Jax hadn’t realized that when he threw the balls he was playing on one of Brenda’s games.
B: “I’m going to win!”
J: “With my help.”
B: ”I’m still going to win.”
J: “Okay.”
Brenda’s first two attempts, even with Jax’s help were far from successful.
B: “You’re not much help Jax.”
J: “Well I could be if you would just relax your arm and stop moving it so much.”
The truth was that Brenda’s arm not being relaxed wasn’t the whole problem. Jax was also not doing everything as he needed to. To throw as well as he did before, he needed to pull his arm back far and throw the ball at a very fast speed, which he wasn’t doing.
B: “Okay, I wont’ move. I expect us to at least knock one down this time.”
In order to fulfill Brenda’s expectation, Jax tried to pull their arms back as much as he needed them to but he found that with Brenda’s arm in his, he had a hard time steadying himself. He finally moved his free hand until it rest on Brenda’s stomach, at which time he was able to help Brenda knock down two bottles and win the prize she wanted for Jax. Brenda’s face lit up as she pointed up to the one she wanted. A white teddy bear, similar to the
brown one except for the brown eyes.
B: “I’ll take the angel bear.”
G: “Let me show you what it can do.”
B: “That’s okay”
Once Brenda had the bear in her hand she handed it to Jax.
B: “Here, I won this for you.”
J: “Thank you, but stuffed animals aren’t exactly for men. Why don’t you keep it, it matches your bear anyway”
B: “I don’t want to keep it, I want you to have it”
J: “We could give it to Brooke, I’m sure she would love it.”
B: “ You don’t have to keep it in your living room if you’re worried about your business associates seeing it. Put it some where where no one will see it, like your bed room.”
Or at least Brenda hoped no one would see it in his bedroom. She also hoped that anyone who went into his bedroom (like who ever he decided to date next) would see it and know that another women was still in his heart since he had something there that he obviously didn’t by himself. However if she would have been in his bedroom she would have seen that if he did bring one of his dates to his bedroom he had something that was even more of adeterrent then a teddy bear: a picture of him and Brenda, that he could never bare to put away, still sat right next to his bed, not that anyone saw it since he wouldn’t dare bring a date to the home he shared with Brenda.
Jax reluctantly agreed to keep the bear and place it in his bedroom, right before he & Brenda started to take off to look for Lois, Brooke, and Edward.
G: “Wait sir, I believe you have one more ball left on this game and four more games after that.”
Jax looks at Brenda to see what she wants to do.
B: “Maybe just this one more ball. Will you help me?”
Jax didn’t bother to answer, he simply moved behind Brenda and got ready to throw the ball with her arm in his. Before he could throw the ball he accidentally tickled Brenda by holding the bears against the bare part of her stomach, that displayed below her short top. Brenda turned to look at Jax and ask him to stop tickling her, while she giggled lightly. But something else happened,when she looked at Jax, she caught his eyes in a look of longingthat drew both of them towards each other for a long over due kiss. Unfortunately right when their lips were about to touch they were pulled out of their own private world by a little girl who stopped their kiss before it started.
B: “Mommy God, Jax”
Brenda and Jax couldn’t help but laugh by their little intruder.
B: “Where’s your Mommy at sweetie?”
Brenda doesn’t have to wait but a second before she sees Lois running after her daughter.
L: “Her Mommy’s right here. She saw you two and went running.”
B: “Where’s Edward?”
L: “Trying to catch up with me”
Brenda turns to look for Brenda but her eyes stop on Jax holding & talking to Brooke. Brenda listens for a few seconds and hears Brooke telling Jax all about her day, with several, “really’s” and “that’s fantastic’s” from Jax.
b: “I tell Mommy God find you”
J: “And she did find me.”
b: “Mommy God say you with friend teacher.”
J: “I was with your teacher for a little while but she went home. But she told me to tell you that she said bye and she wants you to have fun.”
Jax feels Brooke wiggling out of his arms.
J: “Do you want down?”
Brooke shakes her head yes. Once she’s on the ground she goes straight to Brenda and tugs on her hand.
Brooke looks from Jax to Brenda, who has an incredible smile on her face now.
B: “Do you want something sweetie?”
b: “I tell you secret Mommy God?”
B: “Sure, you can tell me a secret.”
b: “I have to whisper in ear.”
B: “Okay sweetie.”
Brenda bends down so Brooke can whisper in her ear. Brooke looks at Jax first.
b: “You no listen. Only Mommy God listen to secret”
J: “Okay. I’ll go right over there”
Jax points to one of the games.
J: “so I don’t hear okay?”
b: “kay.”
Once Brooke sees that Jax is gone she puts her mouth almost on top of Brenda’s ear and whispers as quietly as she can, “Jax here Mommy God happy now!”
B: “I’m always happy when I’m around you”
Brooke whispers again, “you more happy when Jax here.”
B: “How did you get so smart?”
b: “Mommy say she teach me. Daddy say I born smart like him.”
B: “Oh he does, does he. Can I tell you something?”
b: “Yes.”
B: “You’re a lot smarter then your daddy.”
N: “I heard that.”
Brenda turns around to see Ned standing there, looking at his daughter like she’s the most precious thing in the world.
b: “Daddy!”
Brooke runs to Ned for a quick hug then runs back to Brenda.
b: “I tell Mommy God nother secret”
Brenda kneels down again to allow Brooke access to her ear, “teacher no here in more. Jax wif Mommy God now. Mommy God Verrrrry happy”
B: “I always knew you were smarter then your daddy.”
b: ‘I go see Jax now.”
Brenda points to Jax.
B: “I’ll watch you until you get to Jax.”
b: “kay.”
Brenda tries to walk to Lois but Ned stops her.
N: “How are you Brenda?”
Brenda ignores Ned completely and walks over to Lois.
B: “Hey Lo, you didn’t tell me he was coming?”
L: “He is Brooke’s father.”
B: “I know that, I just thought he might be gone on business or something.”
L: “Is something wrong? You looked a little tense when you were talking to Ned”
B: “We had an argument and he said some things he had no right to say.”
Lois Lowers her voice a bit.
L: “About Jax?”
Brenda shakes her head yes.
L: “I guess I should keep the two of you apart?”
B: “Do you think Brooke would mind if I took off with Jax for awhile?”
L: “Are you kidding? She would love that!”
B: “She would, why?”
L: “Once you left I told her that she shouldn’t make people search for people for her and she told me in her own little way that she sent you after Jax because he makes you happy.”
B: “She said that?”
L: “Yeah. We walked by the two of you at least three times before she ran to you two.”
B: “Why didn’t you come over”
L: “I tried to but Brooke said that you needed some special alone time with Jax. Then she missed you two so much that she ran to you. But for her walking by you that many times took incredible self control.”
Brenda & Lois’ conversation is interrupted by a very loud voice, meant to warn them that if they are talking about something he shouldn’t hear they should stop now.
J: “Was someone looking for a little girl?”
Brenda & Lois look to find Jax holding Brooke along with three stuffed animals that Jax obviously won for her.
b: “Look what Jax win me. He say he win Mommy God prize too.”
B: “Yes, he did. He’s a very good prize winner.”
b: “That like woof croc dial?”
Jax looks at Brenda in confusion while Brenda laughs quietly. Brooke looks at Jax.
b: “Grandpa Q say you woof croc dial”
Jax takes a minute to figure out what Brooke was saying.
J: “He called me a ruthless crocodile?”
b: “Yeah, woof croc dial. What woof croc dial?”
Brenda smiles at Jax before answering her God daughter.
B: “Sweetie that’s just a nick name your great grandfather has for Jax, like when I call you sweetie, or Jax calls you his little sweetheart.”
b: “I go with Mommy, daddy , grandpa Q now”
B: “Don’t you want Jax to go with you?”
Brooke gets an incredibly adorable smile on her face.
b: “No, I want Jax play wif Mommy God. I see Jax n Mommy God later.”
B: ”Are you sure sweetie? Jax came to the carnival to see you, you might hurt his feelings if you don’t want to see him.”
b: “I no hurt Jax feeling. Jax want see Mommy God too. You no mad Jax?”
J: “I would never be mad at you sweetie. You go with your Mommy and daddy and the old coot. I’ll see you later okay?”
b; “You buy me ice cream later?”
L: “Honey didn’t I tell you not to beg people to but you stuff?”
b: “Jax like buy for me.”
J: “That is true. You shouldn’t blame her just because she’s a gifted child.”
L: “Your such a bad example, but Brooke wouldn’t have it any other way. We’ll meet you two in the contest area right before the first contest. Brooke is excited about watching the two of you win for her.”
Brenda hugs Lois as Brooke hugs Jax.
B: “I’ll see you at the contests. Now, can I have a hug from my favorite God daughter?”
Brooke runs to Brenda’s open arms.
Jax and Brenda both say bye to Brooke who takes her parents hand and say’s, “bye, bye” as she looks back at Jax and Brenda.
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Jax and Brenda go on almost every adult ride at the carnival except for the Ferris wheel which Jax doesn’t consider a Ferris wheel. That one, Jax promises Brenda, will be the very last ride they go on together, after they win a yet determined contest for Brooke. Brenda never asks what contest Jax is entered in already. They go around the carnival several times, always hand in hand. Between rides they play games, most of which they instruct thegame conductor to give their prizes to the next kid who says they want a prize but doesn’t win the game. They also over pay for most of the games so that the next few people who want to play can play for free. They only keep a few prizes which they give to Brooke each time they bump into her on one of their many trips around the carnival. They also take several breaks to eat and drink, but mostly they just enjoy each other’s company.
Brooke has a wonderful time pulling her parents and great grandfather where ever she decides to go. While Brooke rides the rides, Lois tries to get information out of Ned about why Brenda was so mad at him. She also warned him not to insult Jax when Brenda was around, and especially not directly to Brenda. She gently reminded Ned that Jax was Brenda’s main source of support through the toughest times in her life and that seeing Brenda and Jaxtogether made their daughter very happy. Edward for the most part complained that he wasn’t getting any time to spend alone with his great grand daughter.
The Click of a Mouse 5c
By the time the contests were about to begin, Jax and Brenda still hadn’t found a contest to enter. They tried each booth but everyone said the same thing, they all ready had every one they needed and no large sums of money would change their mind. The only contest booth that still had room was the one Jax was already entered in. Only four couples were entered in it, including Jax & it looked like there was no way for Jax to get out of the contestunless he could find someone to take his place. The rules stated, rules which he helped create when he underwrote the majority of the carnival costs, that a contest could only occur if enough people entered so that each prize could be claimed. And there were four prizes for that contest. After going to the last open contest booth, Brenda and Jax realized that they were out of luck.
B: “That’s it, the last one. What are we going to do now? We promised Brooke that we would win her a cash prize so she could donate the money to a charity. She will be so disappointed if we don’t’ keep our word.”
J: “I know she will be disappointed but there’s nothing we can do Brenda. We should have signed up in the morning.”
B: “What a stupid rule that the contests had to be signed up for within the first half hour the carnival was open or last half hour before the contest, What are we going to do now?”
J: “It won’t mean as much but we can give Brooke the money.”
B: “Hey wait, didn’t you say you were entered in a contest?”
J: “Yeah but”
B: “Then we can be in that one together.”
J: “We can’t be in that contest Brenda.”
B: “Why not?”
J: “It’s a kissing contest.”
B: “Oh, well maybe you can enter with someone else.”
It hurt Brenda to say that but the thought of them breaking Brooke’s heart hurt even more.
Jax didn’t get a chance to tell Brenda that there was no way he would enter a kissing contest with a stranger, because Brooke came running up to them.
All Brooke talked about was Jax and Brenda winning her a prize so she could help the children who didn’t have food and a home like she did. By the time the second to last contest was almost over (the kissing contest was the big finale), Jax pulled Brenda off to the side to talk to her.
J: “Did you ask Lois?”
B: “Yeah. She said no way. She’s really angry with Ned right now, she said if it wasn’t for Brooke they wouldn’t be speaking tonight, and she doesn’t know anyone else who’s willing to enter.”
J: “Would you consider being in it with someone else?”
Jax didn’t have to wait for answer once he saw the look in Brenda’s eyes.
J: “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to, I know you don’t know any of these people anymore then I do. I shouldn’t of asked you.”
B: “Is there anyone you could”
Jax’s eyes answer before his mouth does.
J: “No”
B: “What will happen if you withdraw?”
J: “The contest will be canceled and no one will get the money.”
B: “IF you want to, we could, so that Brooke’s night isn’t ruined.”
The truth is that Brenda would have given just about anything to kiss Jax again, but she really didn’t want the only reason he kissed her to be because they were in a contest.
J: “I don’t know.”
With that, Jax and Brenda walked hand in hand back to where Brooke and her family were sitting, all eating ice cream curtosy of Jax.
Once the announcer announced that they were starting the last contest, but they were waiting for their last set of contestants to come up, Brooke looked over at Jax and Brenda and said. “Jax and Mommy God win Brooke prize so kids no more hungry n no more cold”, which melted both of their hearts. Brooke’s words made Jax look at Brenda.
J: “Are you sure you’re okay with this?”
B: “Yes.”
J: “You know I would never make you do this as part of the bet, right?”
B: “I know.”
Brenda looks at Brooke before going on to the stage with Jax.
B: “We’re going to win you that money Brooke”
b: “Kids happy cause Jax n Mommy God.”
Once Jax and Brenda take their space, in the slot Sheila bought, right smack in the center of the stage, it soon becomes obvious that the contest isn’t really much of a contest. The announcer reads the rules which basically state that each couple must begin kissing once the bell rings, and which ever couple lasts the longest wins, and each of the other prizes will also be given depending on the length that each couple lasts. The contest ends oncethe winning couple finishes. The last rule is that it can only be one kiss, a lot of quick kisses don’t count. The other contestants are a very elderly couple, where the husband looks like he could fall over at anytime. A middle age couple who by the looks they give each other before the contest don’t like each other very much. The only contestants who look like they might be competition for Jax and Brenda are two teenagers of which the boy lookslike the contest is the highlight of his day, but the girl looks less then thrilled. Before the contest even starts the majority of the audience have already picked Jax And Brenda as the couple to beat since they were the only ones even holding hands while the announcer was talking.
Brenda and Jax both let out a deep breath before the bell rings. Once the bell rings, all of the couples join mouths and prepare to out last the others. Jax and Brenda’s kiss starts out sweet and friendly, but by the time the middle age couple drops out, their kiss begins to deepen, and get more arousing. By the time the teenage girl pulls out of her kiss, Jax and Brenda are already exploring each other’s mouths as if they were digging for ahidden treasure deep with in the other’s mouth. By the time the elderly couple drops out of the competition, there’s no longer anything tentative or friendly about Jax and Brenda’s kiss. They kiss as if they were two lovers who were just reunited after being separated for a million years. Their kiss continues for well over two minutes after the last of their competition dropped out, their hands explore, as do their tongues, as couples in theaudience sit in awe asking their mate why they don’t kiss them like that. Brenda pulls out of the kiss first, as their lips separate, they move together once more for a delicate, sweet kiss, to end their long desire filled kiss.
As the announcer holds their arms above their heads pronouncing them the winners, they both feel the love that filled their bodies during their very much wanted kiss. For a brief moment they each forget where they’re at as they look into each other’s eyes, that is until little Brooke stands up and announces to the entire audience.
b: “I WIN, I WIN”
At which time Brenda leaves the stage, having to pull her hand from Jax’s, and gets her Goddaughter whom she brings on stage to collect the money with her and Jax. Neither Jax nor Brenda accept the money, they make the announcer hand the money to Brooke, who proudly announces, “I give prize to Cherry” Which Jax and Brenda have to correct, and say charity. At which time Brooke finds the lady who collected money for the Save The Children Foundation,runs to her and says, “give food children n home”. For which the lady thanks Brooke, who looks prouder then Lois ever saw her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brooke’s excitement over Jax and Brenda winning money, wore her out, so Lois told Brenda and Jax to go ahead and walk around for awhile until she and Brooke could join them for Brenda’s favorite ride, the Ferris wheel. Once it was time for Lois to look for Jax and Brenda, Edward somehow managed to convince Brooke to go play games with him. Lois knew that the last thing Brenda and Jax needed was Ned on the ride with them, so she told Jax and Brendato go ahead, and assured them that if Brooke wanted to go on a ride with them, she would convince Brooke to take them on the Merry go round, since that had the shortest lines. So Jax and Brenda went off to the Ferris wheel by them selves.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It took almost an hour before Jax and Brenda finally got on the Ferris wheel. Almost the entire time they were in line, Brenda did her little Brenda dance because she was so excited that Jax agreed to go on the ride he hated the most, and she loved the most. Not to mention the fact that she was still ecstatic after the kissing contest, and let me make it very clear that when the contest was going on, she didn’t think about the prize at all. Brendawas also quite happy because Jax noticed that she had a few goose bumps on her arms, so he let her wear his leather jacket.
The ride started out normal, with Jax and Brenda joking and laughing the first few times it went around. They sat opposite each other since Jax managed to convince the operator to let them have their own set of seats. Brenda enjoyed herself more then she thought she would ever again, until it happened. Right when they got to the top of the wheel, the ride stopped. Brenda immediately looked at Jax with a very panicked look. The first thing Jaxnoticed was that Brenda was shaking something fierce.
J: “Are you okay Brenda?”
Jax could tell that Brenda wasn’t okay but he was at a loss for words, and that’s all he could get out of his mouth.
Brenda answered by shaking her head no.
J: “Is it the height?”
Brenda immediately shook her head yes.
Jax waits until Brenda finally looks at him, he locks eyes with her in an effort to calm her down.
J: ”You’ve never been afraid of being high up before.”
B: “I was always moving before.”
Jax looks at Brenda with obvious pain in his eyes.
J: “Is there anything I can do? Do you want me to hold your hand, sing you a song, anything at all, just ask and I’ll do it.”
Brenda starts to reach for Jax’s hand but pulls back once she feels the seats sway slightly.
J: “Do you want me to go over there and sit next to you?”
B: “You’ll shake the car”
Jax notices that Brenda’s hands are red from clutching her seat so tightly.
J: “Close your eyes for a minute”
B: “Why?”
J: “Will you please just close your eyes?”
Once Brenda closes her eyes, Jax gets up and very carefully moves to the empty space on the seat next to Brenda. He manages to sway their seats no more then they were swaying without him moving. Jax delicately pulls Brenda close to him, as he wraps his arms around her and tells her it’s okay to open her eyes.
J: “Hold on to me, you know I won’t let anything happen to you”.
Jax tries to get Bren’s mind off of being stuck in the air by talking about Lois and Brooke, but it doesn’t work. The only thing that works even temporarily is retelling things that they did together. Jax reminds Brenda that nothing can happen to them because he gave her the magic lamp and it never finished granting her wishes. He reminds her that she had her day with her prince, but she still has two more wishes. Once Brenda wished to be safe onthe ground, Jax assured her that she would get her wish but it might take a little time.
After staying silent most of the time they were in the air, Brenda started shaking worse then ever, when Jax asked her what was wrong, she finally told him. Her voice started out at barely a whisper and never got much louder then a whisper, as she clung to Jax while telling him the story.
B: “When I was little, no more then three or four, Daddy took me & Julia to a fair. He did everything with Julia and left me with the nanny for most of the day, but then he said I could come on the Ferris wheel with him. It wasn’t like this one, it was one of the two seater one’s”
J: “The kind you refuse to go on?”
Jax feels Brenda shake her head yes.
B: “We didn’t even have to stand in line, Daddy slipped the operator some cash and he let us right on. He looked at me and said “you can get anything as long as you have the money for it.” I was so excited that daddy was doing something with me. I was so scared, going up that high but I was determined to make my daddy proud of me, so I acted brave. We went around a couple of times, I was the happiest I ever was with daddy, but then itstopped.”
Jax feels a tear drip on to his shirt as Brenda prepares to tell more of the story. He doesn’t mention her tear because he doesn’t want to stop her story. His response is to lightly rub her back and run his hands through her hair.
B: “Daddy started shaking our seat. I tried to act brave but, I was so scared. I was so small that I slipped right out from under the strap holding us in. Daddy told me to sit on the floor until we started moving again, then he started shaking the seat, harder and harder.”
J: “My God, he could have killed you, that”
Bren cuts Jax off before he can finish.
B: “The shaking made me have to go to the bathroom, I kept telling him to stop, but he wouldn’t. I told him that I had to go to the bathroom, he said it was too bad and I just had to hold it in. I was so young at the time. I remember getting that really sick feeling you get right when you know you can’t hold it in much longer. I started sweating really badly and I realized that I couldn’t hold it in much longer, so I pulled down my pants rightthere”
J: “On the Ferris wheel?”
B: “Yeah. I didn’t know better. All I knew was that I really had to go.”
J: “So you went up in the air”
Jax feels Brenda shaking her head no, and feels tears falling from his face onto Brenda’s head, which causes tears to flow from Brenda as well.
B: “He smacked me and ordered me to pull up my pants.”
J: “What did you do?”
B: “I sat there, shaking, and sweating like crazy, scrunched down on the floor. When we finally got down I started running towards the bath room but he stopped me. Jax, he wouldn’t let me go.”
Brenda laughs a little.
B: “He said the line was too long & I would have to learn self control.”
Jax feels himself soaking Brenda’s hair with his tears that won’t stop flowing for that poor little girl with the horrible father.
B: “I had to go so bad. I tried to hold it in Jax. I really did,”
J: “You were just a little girl.”
B: “I told him that I would stand in the line by myself and I would find him on my own, but he pulled my arm and wouldn’t let me go.”
Jax feels his shirt soaking with Brenda’s fresh tears.
B:” There was nothing I could do, it came pouring out of me.”
Brenda laughs a little bit, but Jax can tell she’s in pain just telling the story.
B: “All over his brand new expensive shoes.”
Jax mutters out, “you poor baby, how could he do that to you?”
B: “That’s not the worst part.”
Jax feels himself crying even harder, even shaking a bit.
B: “He wouldn’t buy me new clothes. He said I had no self control and if I was going to wet myself like a baby then he would treat me like a baby. He made me wear my T-shirt and a diaper around the fair for the rest of the night. He actually accused me of wetting myself on purpose so I could have the cartoon underwear I saw in one of the shops earlier and pleaded with him for.”
Brenda begins to tremble as she continues.
B: “Julia, I called her Jul then, because I couldn’t pronounce her name right. She took all her allowance and bought me the cartoon underwear I wanted but daddy took them and threw them in the trash, he said he wouldn’t reward me for wetting my self .”
J: “Honey, I’m so sorry that you had to live with that monster, no child should ever have to go through that!”
B: “It’s over now.”
J: “But this must remind you of it?”
Jax feels Brenda shaking her head yes. Jax quickly pulls out his cell phone and orders that they get them down within the next five minutes or he will withdraw all the funds he donated. His threat gets a lot more people working on the problem. Once Jax gets off the phone, he notices Brenda switching her legs back and forth.
B: “Jax”
J: “yes”
B: “I think I drank too much lemonade. I don’t know how much longer”
Jax quiets Brenda before she can finish.
J: “We’ll figure something out.”
Jax prayed that he could keep his word, since it was obvious that Brenda wasn’t going to be able to wait much longer. Luckily for both of them, the Ferris wheel started moving again within a minute after Brenda told Jax. As soon as they got near the bottom Jax screamed for them to let them off (It seemed that the ride operator wanted to give all the riders an extra long ride to make up for leaving them stuck in the air). Luckily for Jax andBrenda, one of the people near the operator recognized Jax as the one threatening to withdraw funds if they weren’t back on the ground, which was pointed out to the operator who thought it best to let Jax and Brenda off.
As soon as they got off, Jax took Brenda’s hand in one of his, and the bag with their teddy bears in the other and made a dash for the bathrooms. As usual the line to the ladies room was incredibly long. Brenda looked like she was about to cry when she saw it. She looked at Jax with a look that said, “help me” & quietly told him,
B: “I can’t wait much longer.”
Jax held his hand up for Bren to wait right there and took off, he came back less then a minute later, grabbed Brenda’s hand and pulled her along with him. She didn’t notice where he was taking her until they were already there. Jax told her to wait for a minute while he went in. Within seconds he was back out, He told Brenda to go in and he would stand guard. Then he went into Brenda’s purse, took out a piece of paper & pen & quickly scribbledOUT OF ORDER. He taped it on the door, then walked in and locked the front door. He walked in to find Brenda still switching her legs back and forth.
B: “What if someone comes in?”
J: “I bolted both doors, no one can get in, go on.”
B: “I can’t Jax, those aren’t”
Jax looks at Brenda staring at the urinals looking as if she’s trying to figure out how she could use one.
J: “There’s stalls, right over there.”
Brenda practically runs to the first stall.
B: “Jax, there’s not a door.”
J: “Don’t worry about it, it’s just us. I’ll stay right over here.”
Brenda mutters to herself, “It’s so dirty.”
J: “Ill clean it if you like but I don’t know how longer you can wait”
B: “I’ll just squat.”
Jax hears Brenda removing her lower clothing.
B: “Jax”
J: “Yes”
B: “I can’t, it won’t come out now.”
J: “Didn’t you say”
B: “I couldn’t hold it much longer, but now it won’t come out.”
J: “Is there anything I can do?”
B: “Tell me about water you’ve seen.”
Jax talks about surfing in Malibu, watching water falls, and all the beautiful water fountains he’s been lucky enough to see. His talks help Brenda, but they also make Jax realize that he can’t wait much longer either.
As Brenda finally relaxes enough to release herself, she hears a noise that startles and scares her.
B: “Jax, is someone in here?”
Jax realizes that he’s going to have to tell Brenda.
J: “I drank too much lemonade too. I’m sorry sweetie, all the water stories”
Jax hears Brenda laugh.
B: “I didn’t think about what it might do to you. Tell me when you’re finished.”
Brenda thinks about trying to hurry up and sneak a peak at Jax, but her bladder has other ideas. Once Brenda’s fully dressed again, and feeling much better, she flushes the toilet and waits until she hears Jax zip his pants and say, “you can come out now, I’m descent”.
They both walk over to the sink and wash their hands, neither of them can help but laugh over the situation.
B: “Out of everything I thought we would do together I never imagined us doing that.”
J: “Feel Better now?”
B: “Yes, much better.”
Once they both dry their hands, Jax goes towards the door, but Brenda stops him with a surprise hug.
B: “Thanks Jax. I won’t forget this.”
Jax chuckles.
J: “I hope you remember better things about today then this, like the proud look on Brooke’s face as she donated her prize to charity”
B: “I will,”
Brenda smiles at Jax.
B: “I’ll remember other things too.”
They were both think the same thing, their kiss, but neither say it.
Jax quickly escortes Brenda out the back door, then goes through the bathroom and unlocks the front door. He dashedsout of the room before anyone can see him. Then out of curiosity he and Brenda walk to the front door to see how big of a line there is. The line is just as long as for the ladies room. Bren just laughs and say’s, “it’s about time they have to wait like we always do”.
Across from the restrooms, Jax and Brenda spot Lois, with Brooke laying on a bench, Brooke’s head resting in Lois’ lap. Not far away were Edward & Ned who joined Lois as soon as they saw Jax and Brenda come back.
Brenda looks at Brooke, then at Jax.
B: “Look how precious.”
J: “All little girls should be that loved.”
Lois looks at her friends.
L: “We heard about the Ferris wheel, Brooke wanted to wait for you but she fell asleep.”
Jax looks at Brooke again and notices that she has bears just like Brenda & his own. He points to them, showing Brenda.
J: “Look.”
B: “Aw, how cute.”
Jax is the first to spot Brooke waking up.
J: “Hello sleeping beauty.”
b: “Jaaaax! Where Mommy God?”
J: “She’s right here sweetie.”
b: “Mommy say you in air, no come down”
J: “Our ride stopped before it finished, but we got down.”
B: ”We didn’t scare her did we?”
L: “I told her when she kept asking for you two. She told me that she was scarred and wanted you two to be safe and happy together.”
B: “We scared her?”
L: “Yeah she was so scared that she took her favorite prizes out of one of her bags, wrapped her arms around them and went straight to sleep.”
B: “She didn’t have nightmares did she?”
L: “NO, she had an adorable smile across her face most of the time.”
b: “Mommy God, I win lot prizes. Want see?”
B: “Sure sweetie.”
b: “I show Jax too.”
B: “I’m sure he’ll love that.”
Brenda prepares to see maybe a bag or two of prizes but instead she sees bags and bags which Lois tells her has at least one of each prize available.
B: “Did daddy when all that for you?”
Brooke shakes her head no as her very proud great grandfather takes a seat on the bench, pulling her onto his lap.
L: “She played the games with”
b: “Grandpa Q.”
B: ”Edward Are you hiding your talents from us?”
E: “The little lady didn’t need my help.”
b: “I win myself.”
J: “You must be very talented.”
Jax looks at Brenda as he speaks to Brooke.
J: “Some people say some of those games are impossible to win. You’re a very talented little girl. You have so many new toys, what are you going to do with them”
b: “I give sick kid in hos-p-tool”
J: “You’re such a sweet little girl. You’re very generous.”
Brooke looks as Lois.
b: “Mommy. I go potty.”
L: “Sweetheart can you wait a minute, I’m talking to your daddy”
b: “I potty lot, I wait.”
Jax glances at Brenda, then takes Brooke’s hand.
J: “I’ll take you sweetheart.”
Brenda reaches for Jax’s hand to let him know she’ll go with them and take Brooke, but Lois stops them.
L: “I appreciate the help but I’ll take her.”
J: “She shouldn’t have to wait.”
Brenda taps Jax lightly,
B: “I’ll walk them, I’ll be back.”
As they walk away Brenda tries to assure Lois that there’s a reason for Jax’s behavior.
L: “What’s with him? He knows I would never do anything to hurt her.”
B: “This has nothing to do with you, or Brooke.”
L: “Why’s he acting so strange?”
B: “It’s about me. Ill tell you later. Please don’t be mad at Jax, he was just reacting to something I told him about me.”
L: “Do you still want to take Brook on the Merry go round?”
B: “Yeah, if she wants to go.”
b: “I want to go”
L: “If it helps Jax calm down you might want to tell him that Brooke was saying she went to the bathroom a lot today, so she would wait, not that she had to go a lot.”
B: “I’ll talk to him. He knows you’re a wonderful parent Lo, it’s just that he’s trying to do stuff for Brooke since he wasn’t there to help me.”
L :”Why don’t you go back to Jax.”
B: “You sure?”
L: “Yeah, we’ll be fine.”
Once Brenda returns to Jax, Edward tells them how Brooke either won every game or did her sad girl or little flirting routine until the person running the game gave in and gave her the prize. He also told them how proud he was that she decided to keep a couple toys and give the rest to kids in the hospital.
B: “She really got a prize from every game she played?”
E: “There was one girl who wouldn’t give her her way.”
B: “She didn’t make her cry did She?”
Edward smirks and speaks with an incredible amount of pride.
E: “She held up her little head, looked her right in the eyes and said, “blow it out ear” then she let her know that her prizes were stupid and she didn’t want them.”
J: “What booth was it, I’ll”
E: “We went back ten minutes later and she charmed the new person. She has a lot of spunk, just like her mother”
Once Brooke and Lois returned, Brooke showed them some of her toys, including the bears she held while she was sleeping. She pointed to the boy bear and said, “Jax”, then pointed to the girl one and said, “Brenda”. Brenda asked Lois if it was because they had ones like it, and Lois explained that she thought the same thing at first but Brooke insisted that that was their names. Then Brooke took the two bears and connected their arms so that theywere hugging. It turned out that they were designed to hug so that when a kid won one, they would want the other one to go with it.
After Brooke displayed her toys, everyone decide to go on the merry go round. Since Brenda and Jax promised to take Brooke, she insisted on sharing a horse with both of them. She had to settle for sitting on the horse with Brenda while Jax stood next to them, with his arms wrapped around both of them.
Lois invited everyone to stay at her house (the carnival ended at ten), but Jax and Brenda declined her offer. Jax had his jet ready, but he decided to call his pilot and have him take one of the bigger planes that way he and Brenda could be more comfortable. By the time they got in front of the cottage, Jax was exhausted and Brenda was fast asleep. Jax didn’t have the heart to wake her, so he picked her up and carried her to her bedroom. Hefound the nearest blanket, covered Brenda, and whispered “Goodnight Angel”. Jax then went back down stairs, got a blanket and went to sleep on Brenda’s couch. He knew that if Brenda were awake she would tell him to sleep in the guest room but he still didn’t feel comfortable sleeping in her guest room.
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