Full Circle

Chapter 1. DAYDREAMER

JENNY STARED AT THE POSTER of the boy. What schoolgirl wouldn't? He was very handsome.

His pale-blue eyes gazed lovingly back at the lime-green eyes of the royal blue school-uniformed mass of infatuation. Jenny. Jenny Sullivan. Jenny in a dream.

In no time at all, Jenny's mind wandered off to a far distant paradise...

There they were, strolling hand-in-hand along the sun-kissed shore arranging the date of their wedding. He with his long buttery blond hair, and she with her shoulder length black hair. Two fifteen-year-olds in love.

"I know, let's wear our pyjamas," said Jenny enthusiastically. "That would shock a few people. Why, just imagine the Pope's face!"

Of course, it stood to reason that they would marry in the Vatican.

"No, no, let's just not bother to wear anything at all," replied the boy, laughing hysterically.

Then Jenny decided to break free from his loving hand and run into the refreshing deep, blue sea. She was hoping to impress him with her swimming and immediately plunged into her only stroke, which had taken her years upon years to learn—the dog paddle.

But then, all of a sudden, a screaming giant octopus the size of a mountain rose out of the sea in an exploding column of seawater. It stretched out one of its greedy tentacles and grasped poor little Jenny.

As her panic stricken cries rang out, people interrupted their sunbathing and raced to the shoreline; their hearts raced too.

They watched in a mixture of terror and amazement as the whopping tentacled monster tossed Jenny high into the air with one tentacle, before catching her wriggling, screaming body with another. The octopus seemed to be playing a game with her helpless body.

"Leave her alone, you big potbellied monster," shouted Jenny's lover. And in true heroic fashion, he swam in powerful butterfly strokes quickly towards the action ready to fight against immeasurable odds.

When he reached the giant octopus he shouted out to Jenny, who was spinning violently in the air, having just been unleashed by one of the monster's uncoiling, flicking tentacles, "It's all right, Jenny. I'm here. I'll save you."

And he did just that.

He punched the creature in the eye so hard that it swam off screeching in agony.

Naturally he caught Jenny as she returned through the sea-sprayed air from the last of the giant octopus's powerful tentacle tosses.

"Oh darling, you saved me!" croaked Jenny, and once again she felt safe and secure in the arms of her dream boy.

She stared longingly into his eyes as he lowered his head to kiss her passionately amid the cheering crowd who had gathered on the shore.

But before his lips could meet hers, his face froze...

And once again the boy was simply an image on a poster displayed upon a newsagent's window along the Station Road near London's city centre.

"And to think I already have a boyfriend that I love very much," muttered Jenny. "Oh well..."

Jenny smiled, then sighed, as she took one last glance at the buttery blond-haired handsome face before she finally tore herself away from the window and resumed her journey to school.

Jenny Sullivan was easily distracted and often lapsed into daydreams. No wonder she was frequently late for school. This morning was no exception. Already she had stopped to talk to a forsaken dog chained outside a bookmakers, stopped to take a quick browse around a new fashion shop, stopped to talk to someone she hardly knew (Jenny was extremely sociable), and of course there was the poster affair. If you were to add up all the minutes she had interrupted her journey to school it added up to her being well behind schedule.

"Crumbs, I'm going to be late! If I miss my music practical exam, Mum will kill me!"

It was then that the fifteen-year-old fifth form pupil from St Mary's Girls Comprehensive Community School decided that perhaps, just this once, she would take a risky shortcut down one of the side streets. It was "risky" for two reasons. First, because she had only just moved into the City of London six months ago from the English countryside, and so her unfamiliarity would probably result in her getting lost. Second, because her parents had always warned her not to venture into them because children and adults had gone missing in them.

Jenny had never bothered her head before to seek out a shortcut through the side streets and much preferred to take the longer route along the Station Road with all its attractions—some would say distractions. However, this morning she knew she would have to find a shortcut if she was to have any chance at all of reaching the school in time for her music practical exam.

Like many teenagers of her day, she had adopted the habitual habit of endlessly chewing bubblegum, and endlessly failing to blow any bubbles with it. But she decided that if she was going to have to concentrate she would have to reluctantly dispose of it. She had to find a suitable side street, and time was running out.

Quickly, she put her hand to her mouth and spat out the bubblegum...which, accidentally, and quite unfortunately, landed on the head of a passing toddler, lodging itself in his hair as he and his mother brushed past Jenny along the busy Station Road.

"Oh dear," exclaimed Jenny, as she watched the gum bob up and down on the boy's thick brown hair.

"Yuk!" yelped the mother the moment she noticed the slimy well-used bubblegum.

She tugged her son to an immediate halt.

The toddler gasped in surprise.

The mother squatted and carefully extracted Jenny's sticky ex-bubblegum from the boy's hair.

"What on earth is this?" she said, straightening up and holding the offending slimy substance closer to her inquisitive eyes.

The toddler's eyebrows quickly scrunched up and his eyes seemed to explode with anger. Up he leapt and snatched the bubblegum from his mother's hand.

"That's mine! That's mine! I left it there for later!" he roared before greedily popping it into his mouth and starting to chew happily away.

"Disgusting little mite!" scolded his mother. But she didn't say any more. She simply tugged her resisting son onwards with great force. Perhaps like Jenny she was late for an appointment too.

"The good thing about silly little boys," said Jenny to herself, "is that they can, with a bit of luck, grow up into handsome big boys. Anyway ... I MUST CONCENTRATE ..."

And so, Jenny kept her eyes peeled for a potentially suitable side street shortcut; unusually for her, concentrating fully.

Then it happened ...

Her eyes met with an unusual sight ...

It was a street sign, all right. Though it did look a bit different from the other street signs she had seen in that it was, although new looking, a bit old-fashioned in its design. She had to blink to be certain that she had not misread the sign. But no, she had not misread it, and the words "THIS WAY" embossed in large black capitals on a white shiny painted iron rectangular plate, repeated themselves in her bemused mind.

"I suppose it must be the way I should go—especially with a name like that," she said to herself, still finding it hard to accept that someone had named a street "THIS WAY".

"Yes, I'll definitely take it," she said. And this was a decision which would take her on the start of an adventure far more incredible than any of her daydreams.

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I hope you enjoyed this Chapter. I welcome any votes, comments or constructive criticisms (style, spelling, grammar and punctuation errors).

T. J. P. CAMPBELL.