NaNoWriMo + 
= #freewritemadness.
17 18 freewriters are gathering at the 
Today’s prompts are: this picture and a Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
As usual I started with the freewrite prompt and used themostdangerouswritingapp.com to write the first five minutes:
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Catch up with the previous chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
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The many torments of Tiny Earl - Chapter 18
Eleanor woke up suddenly, wrapped tightly in the sheets of the bed. It was still dark, no light leeched it’s way past the curtains. She groped the bedside table for her phone, and looked at the time. Four thirty eight. Something had woken her. She turned on the light next to the phone and blinked for a moment before getting out of bed and padding over to the bedroom door. She opened it, slowly and had a look around. No one was there. At least Clare had gone. For a moment she thought the woman was going to spend the night standing guard outside the room. For a dreadful moment she thought Tiny was too, she was sure she heard his voice just before she drifted off to sleep.
Something moved in the corner of her eye.
Probably nothing. Just your imagination, Eleanor. Go back to bed. Go back to sleep. Everything will be alright in the morning. Everything always looks brighter in the morning.
Just your imagination? You don’t believe that for a second do you, kiddo?
No. She didn’t. Eleanor could sense something was wrong. Something that her Aunt Jackie would say had popped over from the EXTRAordinary world on the other side of the balancing log. Eleanor smiled. Well, kiddo… are you ready to get back on and have a look, see what it is standing right there in the corner of your eye?
Well, kiddo, I’m waiting…
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Eleanor had always know she wasn't the same as the other children. At first that had been okay. Before her aunt Jackie was taken and put in the mental hospital, not allowed out despite her pleading she was taking the medication, and she would be a good girl, honest she would, Eleanor was happy that she and Jackie were so alike.
"You and me," Jackie would say. "You and me ain't like the other folks, kiddo. Your mum... well I love your mum, and you gotta love her too, but she ain't like us. She's an ordinary. People like us, we're EXTRAordinary. We see the world differently. We see and hear things that the ordinaries can't handle."
Jackie would do exciting things. She would buy cars she couldn't afford and turn up at Eleanor's house and shower her with gifts. Her mum was never very nice to Jackie when she showed up in one of her 'high' phases.
"Jackie, I've told you: you need to take your meds. I don't want you round Eleanor when you're behaving this way."
But Eleanor loved it when Jackie was in one of these moods. It was exciting.
Eleanor was five when Aunt Jackie introduced her to her new friend, a little alien called Lemony, from “a place, far, far away”.
It was a Saturday. Eleanor remembered it was a Saturday because she was watching cartoons and her mother only let her watch television on Saturday mornings. Her mother was in bed, she had one of her migraines and asked Eleanor to only disturb her if it was very important and only then if it was strictly necessary!
She was half way through a bowl of cereal - Eleanor had managed to serve herself cereal without making too much of a mess - when she heard Aunt Jackie’s special knock. Eleanor loved her Aunt Jackie, and when she heard the rat-tat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat at the door she almost dropped the bowl of cereal in her haste to get up off the floor to open the door.
“Hello Aunt Jackie!” Eleanor said, opening the door. Aunt Jackie gave her a huge smile and an even huger hug and whispered in her ear as she did so, “How you doing, kiddo? Wanna go for a ride?”
Eleanor most certainly did want to go for a ride. Even though Saturday mornings were the only time she was allowed to watch television, going for a ride with Aunt Jackie was always going to be heaps more fun. And most probably would involve eating ice cream and candy. Possibly both at the same time. She nodded vigorously and Aunt Jackie looked over her head to the living room beyond.
“Your mum in, kiddo?”
“Yes,” Eleanor nodded. “But she has one-of-her-heads so I’m not to disturb her unless it is really important and then only if it is strictly necessary.” Eleanor took a deep breath and gave her Aunt a big smile.
“Hmmm,” Aunt Jackie said, her eyes wide and sparkling. “Well, it is kinda important to tell her you are going out, just in case she wonders where you are. But it isn’t strictly necessary to disturb her, is it? We can just leave her a note. That way she’ll know where you are, but you won’t get in trouble for disturbing her!”
Eleanor’s smile was as big and wide as her aunt’s as she nodded. “Let’s do it!” she said.
Eleanor could write quite well for her age - so her mother said anyway - but Aunt Jackie said it would be quicker and use up less paper if she did it. Eleanor watched as her aunt scribbled a few lines onto a bit of paper, and then slid the note underneath the half eaten bowl of cereal.
“Come on kiddo, let’s head off into the land of adventure! Hey! Wait ‘til you see my new car! It goes really fast. And it’s yellow. Do you like yellow?”
Eleanor nodded. She didn’t really like yellow very much. It wasn’t in her top five of colours, anyway. Although, she thought as she followed her aunt out of the house and down the front steps, yellow was the colour of some of her most favourite things! Like sand, vanilla ice cream and the sun! So perhaps she needed to rethink her top five colours, after all.
Aunt Jackie’s new car was very yellow. Eleanor thought it was perhaps the most yellowy thing she had ever seen. It was quite small, and didn’t have a roof. Eleanor hoped her aunt hadn’t paid too much for a car without a roof.
“It’s a sports car,” her aunt said. “Do you like it?”
“It doesn’t have a roof,” Eleanor said, one finger in her mouth, wondering if it would still work okay.
“Oh!” Aunt Jackie said, and she laughed. “So it doesn’t! Now, I wonder if we can make the roof appear if we say some magic words. What do you think? You wanna try some magic, kiddo?”
Eleanor nodded. She loved magic. Sometimes when Aunt Jackie did magic it didn’t always work out, but that was only sometimes.
“Hop in then!” Aunt Jackie opened the door and Eleanor climbed in. “Careful!” Aunt Jackie shouted pulling on Eleanor’s arm. “You! Get in the back!” Eleanor looked at her aunt, not really understanding the instruction. The car was very small, and only seemed to have two seats, both of them at the front of the car. There was a little space behind the seats, but it looked quite a tight fit for a girl of five to fit into! Her aunt, however wasn’t looking at her, she realised. She seemed to be staring at the seat that Eleanor was about to sit down on. “Go on!” Aunt Jackie said. “Hop it!” She smiled at Eleanor. “That’s better! You don’t want to squash Lemony, do you?”
“Lemony?” Eleanor said, looking at the empty seat.
“Oh! That’s right, you haven’t been introduced, have you? How rude of me. Eleanor, meet Lemony, Lemony meet Eleanor. Now, be nice Lemony. I know you called shotgun, but you are smaller than Eleanor.”
Eleanor wasn’t sure what to do. Her aunt sometimes talked to things that weren’t there. Her mum said that it was part of Aunt Jackie’s “condition”, and Eleanor wasn’t to be rude about it. Not wanting to be rude about it, Eleanor said hello to the empty seat and then when her aunt seemed to indicate that it was now really empty she got in.
“Now, don’t forget your seatbelt!” her aunt said. Eleanor couldn’t quite manage it, by herself so she let her aunt help her. “Right! Where are we off to, then?”
“The seaside!” Eleanor said, bouncing in her seat as much as the seatbelt would let her. “Let’s go to the seaside.”
“Hmmmm,” said Aunt Jackie. “The seaside is quite a long way away.” Eleanor felt a wave of disappointment wash over her. Her aunt looked at her with a sad face. And then she smiled the biggest smile Eleanor had ever seen. “Just as well we have a very fast car to take us there, then isn’t it? Hold on tight!”
It was a very fast car, and the wind whooshed past Eleanor’s face, making her hair fly up. It was very exciting, and Eleanor was only just a bit sad that her mummy wasn’t able to come too. But there was only room for Aunt Jackie and Eleanor. Oh, and Lemony, of course.
It did take quite a long time, even in the fast yellow car, but eventually Eleanor could see a glint of sunlight flash off of something blue and she shouted, “I can see the sea!” and Aunt Jackie laughed so hard that the car wobbled a bit onto the otherside of the road and another car beeped at her. Aunt Jackie said something rude then, and then told Eleanor to be a good girl and forget that word, because it wasn’t a very nice word for young ladies to know, let alone say.
It was lunchtime as the pulled the car into a parking space right on the seafront. Aunt Jackie let Eleanor put the money in the meter, although she had to hold Eleanor up, because she wasn’t quite tall enough yet to reach all by herself.
“Come on!” Aunt Jackie said, locking the car door. “Last one to the sea is a banana!”, and she began to run across the sand.
Eleanor didn’t want to be a banana, because, unlike sand, sun and vanilla ice cream, banana was one of the yellow things she didn’t like very much, so she ran as fast as she could and she managed to catch Aunt Jackie up and even overtake her. Eleanor went running into the sea with her shoes on, laughing and pointing at her aunt, shouting, “You’re a banana, you’re a banana!” But her aunt laughed and shook her head and pointed at the wet sand that was being washed by the waves and said, “No! I’m not! Lemony is!”
Eleanor thought that wasn’t fair, because she couldn’t see Lemony, but it didn’t really matter, because she wasn’t a banana. Her aunt said she could have an ice cream now, if she wanted before lunch, so they walked back up the beach, her aunt holding both her and Eleanor’s shoes and socks in one hand and Eleanor’s hand in the other.
They sat on a bench overlooking the sand and the sea and ate their ice cream. Aunt Jackie said they should watch out for the seagulls, because they might try to steal her ice cream, and Eleanor laughed and said, “Seagulls don’t eat ice cream, silly!” But Aunt Jackie might have been right because a gull flew down and sat on the rails near them and stared at Eleanor, whilst she ate her ice cream. It made her feel more than a little uncomfortable.
Once they finished their ice cream, and the gull flew off to intimdate some other day trippers, Eleanor walked along the promenade with Aunt Jackie telling her about all the exciting plans she had. There weren’t many people about. An elderly couple sitting on a bench they passed, and a younger couple on the beach, playing on what looked like a trunk of a tree. Eleanor would have rather played in the sand, rather than walked along a fancy named pavement, but sometimes Aunt Jackie needed to walk and talk.
“And I am going to get a job - well not a job exactly - because I have an idea - or rather Lemony had an idea - of how to travel more quickly but without using any traditional form or transport and -”
“Aunt Jackie,” Eleanor said, suddenly stopping and looking up at her aunt. “How come I don’t see Lemony?”
“You don’t?” Aunt Jackie said, genuinely puzzled. “I thought you’d be able to see him. He said you would. He said you have the talent. Just like me. That’s what you said, ain’t it, Lemony. Yeah, I thought so.” She stopped and for a moment Eleanor thought that she had forgotton all about her question, maybe even forgotten all about her, and then Aunt Jackie smilled and looked her right in the eye and said “Yes, of course! Why didn’t I think of that?”
She paused and looked out to sea again. And then she pointed at the couple on the beach. “You see those two, kiddo?” she asked. Eleanor nodded. “See what they are doing?”
“Playing on the beach.”
“Well, yes. But what are they doing?”
“Walking on a tree trunk.”
“They’re balancing on it, aren’t they?”
“Yes.”
“And they are holding hands to make sure they don’t slip from one side or the other.”
“Yes.”
“So you and I, that is what we do. Us EXTRAordinaries have the ability to walk on a tightrope-”
“Or a log?”
“Yes, or a log. We have the skill that allows us to walk between two realities. On one side is the ordinary side. It is what everyone else sees when they look at the world. Sand, sea, sun-”
“People walking on logs!”
“Yes, people walking on logs! That dog playing in the sea over there, the old couple on the bench there. On the otherside of the tightrope -”
“Or log.”
“Or log, is the EXTRAordinary world. That is only available for special people to see. People like you and me. Everyone else has been trained not to see what is on the other side, they only look at the ordinary world. In fact most people never bother to walk on the tightrope - or log - at all. They just stay firmly in the ordinary world, never being able to even get a glimpse of the EXTRAordinary world.”
“What happens if you fall off the log?”
“Well, it depends. Most of the time you don’t really hurt yourself. Those people there if they fell off they would land on the sand and probably have a jolly good laugh about it, wouldn’t they?”
“I would laugh!”
“Yes. But sometimes if you fall too far into the EXTRAordinary world you find it too difficult to relate to what is going on with the ordinaries.”
“Is that what happens when you have to go away?”
Aunt Jackie smiled, “Yes, kiddo. Sometimes, I fall right off the log, and land so far away in the EXTRAordinary world I can’t even see the ordinary world.”
“And they give you medicine, to help your mind get better? Does that help put you back on the log?”
“Sort of. It certainly drags you out of the EXTRAordinary world.”
“So,” Eleanor said, putting her serious face on. “I still don’t know why I can’t see Lemony.”
“Because you haven’t climbed up on to the log! Your mummy - love her to bits - is so worried that you’ll turn out like me that she wants to keep you off that log.”
“But I want to climb up! I want to see Lemony!”
“Then - just like that couple on the beach are helping each other - I’ll help you.”
And then she explained to Eleanor how to open her mind up, to picture a tightrope - or a log! - and to walk apon it. “Look to the left,” she said. “You can see everything as it normally is, yes? Now, look over there!”
And Eleanor looked. And there standing by the side of her Aunt was a tiny little yellow woman.
“Hello Lemony!” Eleanor said.
“Hello Eleanor,” the little creature said.
“I like you, Lemony!” Eleanor said. “Another yellow thing I love. Perhaps yellow is my favourite colour, after all!”
They spent the rest of the afternoon playing on the beach, the three of them. It was one of the best days of Eleanor’s life. Only spoilt when the police arrested Aunt Jackie for stealing the car and taking Eleanor without her mother’s consent. Aunt Jackie spent quite a long time in the mental hospital that time, and she was never quite the same.
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Eleanor had avoided climbing on that log - looking into Aunt Jackie’s mad world of the EXTRAordinary. She’d been convinced it was a one way ticket to the mental hospital. But now something seemed different. It seemed to her that something had crawled over that log and found itself in her world - the world of the ordinaries.
It didn’t seem very fair, to Eleanor, if whatever it was could see her, but she couldn’t see it.
Eleanor took a deep breath, closed her eyes and stepped onto the log. Then taking another deep breath, she opened her eyes and took a good look.
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