by Jenn Kelly
She maneuvered her body to sit on the edge, her legs dangling into the dark hole. Jackson was a little worried. “Should you be climbing down there? I don’t see any stairs. You could hurt yourself,” he said.
Great-Aunt Harriett placed her hand on Jackson’s cheek. Her clear eyes were bright blue.
“Jackson, you’ve given me a great gift. I forgot this place existed. I used to come here as a little girl. It’s a…it’s a door to another place. A place I loved to visit. A place where rooms have rivers, where bookstores sell magical books, and where elves live. Where Josh went when…” she cleared her throat and wiped her eyes.
“I used to come here all the time as a child. I even used to bring your mom here, although I doubt she remembers. Such an amazing place that the Author made,” she said.
Jackson was speechless.
She hugged him tightly. “Thank you. Come visit soon. You’ll love Meeka.” Then she pinched his cheek. Not too hard though. “Go find your story, Jackson!”
She jumped.
Chapter 77
In Which We Learn More
Jackson cried out. He waited for her to hit the bottom or yell or something. There wasn’t any noise.
“Great-Aunt Harriett! Are you okay?” he yelled. But there was no answer. Just quiet. Jackson felt a calming peace fill him. Something told him that she was okay. That maybe, just maybe, this was a door to where he had been. But how did that make sense?
Jackson stepped out of the shed and saw his mom. She walked slowly toward him with a very serious, grown-up look on her face.
“Did she jump?” she asked.
Jackson was surprised, but he nodded.
“She probably won’t come back,” she said.
Jackson nodded again. “She told me that you used to go there.”
“When I was younger,” she paused. “I thought places like this didn’t last.”
She smiled.
Chapter 78
In Which We Learn Even More
Jackson and his mom walked back to the house holding hands. They hadn’t held hands in a long time, and she missed that. Any mother reading this will know the feeling.
They climbed up the back steps and opened the welcoming back door. Dust danced in the sunlight that seeped through the windows. The large crystal chandelier cast one or two feeble rainbows on the walls. The hallway of tables and mirrors mounted in old gilt frames beckoned them in.
“Mom?”
“Yeah?”
“Great-Aunt Harriett changed. I mean, well, her hair got uh, smaller. And she grew. Like she got taller. And she wasn’t lisping anymore!” Jackson blurted.
Her eyebrows frowned thoughtfully. “Well,” she began slowly. “I guess it was time for her to be her real self.”
“What does that mean? Be her real self?” Jackson asked. He didn’t understand at all. “I don’t understand at all.”
“I think when you get older, you’ll understand better.”
“What? That’s not fair! Tell me now!”
Jackson’s mom smiled at him. “Have you ever heard of the Author?”
They were interrupted by a tinkling in the air, of something magical happening.
A pink envelope appeared on a red table.
Jackson picked it up and turned it over in his hands. He handed it to his mom and she opened it.
She read it out loud.
This is what it said, exactly.
Jackson hugged his mom. She held him tightly.
“We should go visit them soon,”
she said. Jackson agreed, hugging her tighter.
Epilogue
A couple of questions weren’t answered for you, so I’m answering them for you now.
The cosine of 7.88 is 0.99055738.
The Spanish word for “couch” is el sofa.
And I suppose you have more questions.
Will there be another book? Will there be a prequel so you can read more about Meeka and Rayaa and Eleissa? Will you find out if Rayaa and Eleissa were promoted? Does Meeka ever get promoted? Does Great-Aunt Harriett find Josh? Does Jackson ever return to where they all are? How does he get there? What is that place anyway? Can I go there?
The answers to these questions are: Probably. I think so. I don’t see why not. I think she could be, but it’ll take awhile. Probably. I don’t see why not. I can’t say. You’ll get it someday. Only if you get it.
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, thank you, Lord, for making this dream come true!
Thank you, Danny, for working two jobs. Thank you for never complaining about my lack of housekeeping skills. You see me and you know my heart. I love you, and you are my hero. Here’s to Paris.
Thank you to all of my encouraging fans, especially the ones who were there from the beginning. Thank you to my three Glennie girls for letting me borrow your wonderful personalities and idiosyncrasies. Thank you to Burb, who effortlessly edited what she could, and to Zuzu for letting me borrow Josh. Thank you, Suzanne. Thank you to Gigi, who told me I had to write another one. Thank you to Sylvia, who gave me The Dreamgiver and told me to just write it. Thank you to Andy Meisenheimer, who saw potential in this crazy girl and put the manuscript right into the best hands. Thank you to Kathleen, my beautiful, genius editor who is brilliant at her job and is a brilliant friend. I can’t wait to work with you more. And I can’t wait for California. Disco balls and lattes, baby.
And finally, thank you to Jackson for being my hero. You are my heart walking around outside my body. Keep God in your heart and you’ll never fail. Find your story, my little gaffer. I know it’ll be awesome. I love you.
ZONDERKIDZ
Jackson Jones: The Tale of a Boy, an Elf, and a Very Stinky Fish
Copyright © 2010 Jennifer Kelly
Illustrations © 2010 Ariane Elsammak
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.
ePub Edition JULY 2010 ISBN: 978-0-310-39967-4
Requests for information should be addressed to:
* * *
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kelly, Jennifer, 1973-
Jackson Jones : the tale of a boy, an elf, and a very stinky fish / by Jennifer Kelly ; illustrations by Ariane Elsammak.
p. cm.
Summary: When ten-year-old Jackson falls into Great Aunt Harriet’s very big hair, he finds a wealth of amazing things including a new friend, Meeka the elf, perilous dangers that allow him to be a hero, and even his own story.
ISBN 978-0-310-72079-9 (hardcover)
[1. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. 2. Heroes—Fiction. 3. Authorship—Fiction. 4. Elves—Fiction. 5. Hair—Fiction. 6. Humorous stories.] I. Elsammak, Ariane, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.K29622Jac 2010
[Fic]—dc22
2010013101
* * *
Zonderkidz, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
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