Monday, August 31, 2009

Leaving on a Jet Plane

I haven't had time to snark all of Lauren Lowsky, 100% babysitter, so I'm sneaking in a quickie first. This short story was an entry in my fifth grade school journal, and I thought it was totally eeeeeeerie and could definitely get me a gig writing for The Preteen Twilight Zone. (And yes, by that I mean Are You Afraid of the Dark? Or was that more like Tales from the Preteen Crypt? Discuss.)

3/14/89

Two Friends: The Story of Friendship

Once upon a summer day, two friends, Janet and Heather, were sitting in the grass.


"I don't want to move." Heather said stubbornly, crying


"I don't want you to either." said Janet, crying, too. "But you have to promise me we'll always be best friends, no matter what. If the end of the world comes, I'll still be there for you."


These five... er, six... words I swear to you. But awww, how sweet. If the end of the world comes, I'll totally be there for all of YOU GUYS! We'll hang out in my underground (or inner-tree) bunker and play MASH until we can play MASH no more. And maybe kiss some Chad Allen posters and choreograph a new routine to "I've Had the Time of My Life." We'll go out in a blaze of 1989 glory. If anyone can find nonperishable Cool Ranch Doritos, it is ON.

"I promise." said Heather.

"Here," said Janet, taking off her necklace. "I want you to have this." She handed it to Heather.


"Your shell necklace!" gasped Heather. "The one your mother gave you before she died. OH, I can't!"

It's nice how the girls are so helpful with the exposition! Also, if my mother were on her deathbed and bequeathed to me a SHELL NECKLACE, I might get rid of it too.

My mom died and all I got was this stupid shell necklace.

"Take it." said Janet.

"Here," said Heather, digging into her pocket. "I want you to have this."


"Your lucky stone! The one you found on the beach! Thank you!"


They both have special beach objects! You have goosebumps already, just admit it.

"Thank you!" cried Heather. And then she was gone.

In a puff of smoke? What happened? Did she just apparate? Is she moving to HOGWARTS?

7 years later, when the girls were 17, there was a plane crash. Only one girl was killed. Her name was Janet McCall. Heather cried for days after she heard. Janet had been coming to visit Heather. Heather had never worn the shell necklace, but now she took it out of it's case and put it on.


Like, just how ugly is that necklace? Seriously.

Two days after Janet was killed, there was a second plane crash. Only one person died. Her name was Heather Dobbins. She was going to her friend Janet McCall's funeral. So, then they were together again.

Woooo-oooooo-ooooooh! Wasn't it EERIE, with the exchange of oceanic items and the really implausible only-one-person-on-the-entire-plane-dying thing happening TWICE? You'll be up all night trying to make sense of it, I know.

So, what was the story of friendship? A few theories:
  • Visiting your be-fri means risking your life. Even if she's already dead and you haven't seen her in seven years and you're just going to pay your respects to her family or whatever, you're pretty much taking your life into your hands.
  • Wearing a fugly shell necklace might just cause your plane to crash. (That necklace is so cursed. I want a sequel.)
  • If your friend moves away, forget her. You can give her your lucky stone, but you'll never see her alive again. But don't worry! You two can totally hang in the afterlife!
NEXT TIME: We'll finally be babysat by Lauren Lowsky.

Until then, since I know how much you like reading other peoples' diaries, you might want to check out this post on Jezebel. I'm not the only one who likes to embarrass myself on the Internets!

7 comments:

twenty_two14 said...

I kept waiting for something supernatural to happen, and then it didn't...I don't think this would have made the Twilight Zone or Are You Afraid of the Dark?. Sorry.

It would have been cool if, after Heather died, it turned out Janet wasn't actually dead.

Sada said...

Does my sarcastic tone not come through in this post? Because this may be the least eerie thing ever written.

twenty_two14 said...

No, I could tell you were being sarcastic. Still, you're pre-teen sense of "eerie" wasn't very adept. I wonder what you would have done had you actually encountered something eerie.

But don't feel bad; you've read my "scary" story, which was actually a comedy about a town of idiots being stalked by a demon (who is also an idiot) who owns a cell phone, so my sense of "eerie" wasn't very good, either.

twenty_two14 said...

Eff, that should be "your" in the second sentence, not "you're." I hate that.

Valerie Malone said...

Once I finally convinced myself it was just a story ONLY A STORY so i could quit hyperventilating in fear, the thought occurred to me that Cool Ranch Doritos are probably non-perishable already. So the bunker plan is a total go.

Jamie Newell said...

ummm, aren't all cool ranch doritos non-perishable? I think there's enough preservatives in them shits to preserve a horse.

twenty_two14 said...

I just realized how delightfully redundant the title of the story is. You really wanted to emphasize that this story was about friends and not enemies, didn't you?