The Strange Adventure of Maria Mercado (17 page)

             
Maria walked over to Jasper. “Hey,” she said. “You will wait for me, right?”

             
“Yes, of course. I said I would and I will,” he replied. “I will miss you but I will see you again.” The young couple locked lips one more time. Maria hugged him before leaving the kitchen escorted by Gadik.

             
“I will take you to the same area where you got in,” said Gadik. “And from there you should be able to find your way back home. Are you ready?” he asked.

             
Maria sighed and nodded. She was going home.

             
They made one quick stop in the land of the Omtars where Luxa apologized to Maria on behalf of the tribe for Meeka’s actions. They also handed to her the backpack that she had left behind. “My backpack!” Maria said excitedly. “Thank you all so much and I will see you all again soon!” She waved them goodbye and went on her way with Gadik.

             
Eventually they found themselves on the same spot where Maria first entered. She turned to Gadik and gave him a big hug. “I don’t know how to thank you,” she said. “You saved me life more than once. You are the best warrior I have ever seen. I will miss you!” Gadik returned the hug and squeezed her tight. “You take care of yourself out there,” he said. “And don’t you worry. Before you know it, you will be back here.”

             
“Will you all be the same age? I mean I know the time here goes by faster than out there but how does that work?”

             
“It’s weird but even though it goes by differently, somehow when you come back, you will find that exactly the same amount of time will have passed for us. Your friend Jasper will also be at the age of majority by then” He smiled at her.

             
“Oh okay,” said a blushing Maria. “Well goodbye for now then. Thank you and see you in three years!” Maria walked forward until she is standing by the tree where she had napped. She took her iPhone out and found it to be working again.

Awesome! And it says its only 8:15pm. I’ve been gone for only a few hours?

She made her way to her parents’ store, as she is late for the shift that she had promised them she would take. As she rushed over there she took the time to answer the tirade of text messages that she received as soon as she turned on her phone.

“Maria! Where have you bee?” said a very worried Ruben Mercado. “We were so worried about you!”

“Young lady, you better have a good explanation for this,” said Virginia Mercado.

“I was in the park and I fell asleep under a tree,” said Maria. “But I do have something to tell you guys.” She proceeded to tell them of how she was suspended from school but that it wasn’t her fault. To her surprise, her parents didn’t make her feel guilty and did not force her to tell the principal what really happened.

“Well what you need to do is talk to Jasmine about it,” said her mom. “And then the two of you can go and decide together the best course of action to take that won’t put your friendship in jeopardy.”

“Go Maria. You were late for your shift here anyway, you can make up for it by doing a full day tomorrow while you are suspended,” said he dad.

Maria looked at them and hugged them both. “I missed you guys so much,” she said as she turned around and went on her way to find Jasmine.

Mr. and Mrs. Mercado looked at each other, confused by their daughter’s words.

***

Maria remembered that they were all supposed to be studying at Alex’s house so she proceeded to go there. She knocked on the door and Alex opened.

“Maria! Where have you been?” he asked.

“Is Jasmine here?” she asked, ignoring his question.

“Yes, I am. Oh Maria! I heard about what had happened and I am sooo sorry! I really am! I did take the blob when I spilled it out of Neil’s backpack. I did put it on her locker so that it would fall on her hair. I didn’t know that you would be blamed for it! I will go and sort this out at school tomorrow,” said a worried Jasmine. “Anyway where have you been?”

“Oh I was just in the park. I lost track of time and fell asleep under a tree.”

“Anything interesting happen?” asked Neil, as her closest friends all looked at her with inquiring eyes.

Maria smiled, thinking of the great adventure she just had and all the wonderful creatures she just met. “Oh no,” she said to them. “It was just a good old ordinary day.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jenell Diegor was born i
n Cebu, Philippines and grew up between Manila, Philippines and the oldest city in North America, St. John’s, Newfoundland.

A complete list of her published work can be found on her official website
www.jhnellorx.com
and all are available in both paperback and Kindle formats through Amazon.

Jenell currently resides in Toronto, Ontario with her cat Rocsi, and lists traveling as her favorite hobby.