Finding Famous

Finding

Famous

Alexis Anicque

Contents:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

PROLOGUE

DISCLAIMER:

CHAPTER ONE

The Great Sadness

CHAPTER TWO

Where am I Going

CHAPTER THREE

Monsters have rules

CHAPTER FOUR

Lightening bugs to fresh baked bread

CHAPTER FIVE

The wizard of sorts

CHAPTER SIX

Patience

CHAPTER SEVEN

A furry little creature

CHAPTER EIGHT

The incident

CHAPTER NINE

Perhaps I was still dreaming

CHAPTER TEN

Simply majestic

CHAPTER ELEVEN

What am I doing here?

CHAPTER TWELVE

The letters behind the waterfall

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Goodbyes, the worst part

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Famous for what?

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

A little nervous

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Don’t panic

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Everything is parallel

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The same path, but completely different

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Civilization

CHAPTER TWENTY

The best hash browns

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

Where’s your lifejacket?

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

Bingo

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

Witch castle

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

Everyone comes with a story

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

Tea time with the princess

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

Picture this

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

A little crazy

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

Dublin

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

Are You Following Me?

CHAPTER THIRTY

Fate

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

The right path

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

So what now?

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

Things become clear

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

A place of peace

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

Clueless

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

Where do we go from here?

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

The light

EPILOGUE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

THERE ARE NO WORDS to express how grateful I am to my beautiful niece Tiffany Hubbard for her love and support. I was fortunate to have her and her lovely friends Jess and Trevor to give me a quiet place of solace to finish this story. Tiffany is an amazing sounding board. I was surrounded by a lot of lovely pups and great friends.

Thank you Tiff, Jess, and Trevor.  I am fortunate to have a friend like Tammy Petry, her constant encouragement gave me drive and confidence. She has been my greatest ally when doubt crept in.

Thank you, my beautiful friends.

PROLOGUE

A GLIMPSE OF MOVEMENT in her peripheral vision froze Famous in her tracks. Something was moving toward her, she didn’t dare move. The sound was coming closer. Famous was backing up to a tree slowly, so as to not make a sound. She was holding her breath for fear of the noise. Hoping against all hopes that whatever it was would turn and go in another direction. The brush was so thick she couldn’t see a thing, but she could hear it coming for her. Her heart was pounding she wanted to run or scream or both.

Every terrifying second seemed like an hour. Maybe there was a pack of wolves surrounding her. She tried to imagine a fuzzy bunny or a harmless squirrel. She had backed herself up to a tree and crouched down low wanting to make herself invisible. The noises, the branches moving, was nearly more than she could handle. Tears began to stream down her face.

Her mothers’ voice kept running through her head saying There is not a monster in your closet Famous, I promise monsters have rules too and they aren’t allowed in little girls’ closets.

Famous would say, Then they are under my bed mommy please let me sleep with you.

They aren’t allowed there either.

Famous would say, What about behind my curtains It’s funny to think that she never denied the existence of monsters.

DISCLAIMER:

This is a work of fiction any similarities to real locations, people, or events are coincidental and have no affiliation with said fictional work.

CHAPTER ONE

The Great Sadness

YES, MY NAME IS FAMOUS, she answered for the thousandth time. Her mother had always said she would be, famous that is. She knew it from the day she had found her. Believing she had some type of psychic ability, she would tell Famous that it was just a matter of time. But famous, she was not. In fact nothing even remotely famous had ever happened in her life.

She lived in a small fishing village a couple of hours north of New York City. A small town with the population of roughly five hundred. Life there, to her, was boring and mundane. But it was her normal, wake up get dressed, and go to work. Her days off, were much like her days at work which consisted of reading or writing a book.

Famous worked for the local library where she had worked since she was fifteen years old. It was actually the only job she had ever had. It started out as a credit for high school. Then volunteering after school and summers, until she was hired on as paid summer help. Finally after high school she has hired on full time. She had imagined that she would work there forever. Her mother had been the dreamer. The one who had all of the hopes for her future.

Famous loved the library, she lived through the pages of other people’s stories. She began reading every title, no matter what it was. She read poetry, cooking, romance, even auto mechanics. The list was endless, she had read nearly every book in the young adult section. Sometimes her imagination would run wild like she was on the adventure right along with the characters. Reading was her first passion, but writing was a close second. Writing a novel every couple of months that she never intended to get published. Her mother used to say, Famous it’s your destiny, one day you’ll be a famous author on the best seller’s list.

Famous would simply say, I don’t write to be famous.

She dreamt of finding love under a moonlit sky, climbing through a rain forest, or hiding in an ice cave like the stories her mother would tell. Famous once asked how could she have possibly thought up all these crazy stories.

Her mother simply said It took me many great adventures to find you Famous. One day you will take such an adventure. But she said nothing more on the subject until it neared her death. Famous, she said, You must follow my adventures, the journey I took to find you Famous. You must take this journey it is waiting for you. Go to the house, it’s there that I have left you the path to follow. She took a deep breath, I Love you, Famous. Her final words and she was gone. Famous was heartbroken, so much so that she couldn’t think of what her mother was saying to her.

Her mother died in the summer after her 21st birthday. Famous called it the time of her greatest sadness. Her mother had always been like magic to Famous. You could see her, you couldn’t explain her, and she would entrance you. Famous often thought of her mother. She missed her more than ever, but felt blessed for the memories she had had with the woman who she had believed was the most amazing and mystical person in the entire world that ever existed. Each novel Famous had written had come from the stories her mother had told her throughout the years of her life.

Nearly seven years had passed, she still had not thought of what her mother had said on her deathbed. One night in a dream she heard her mother’s dying words. I have left you the path to follow. Her mother had come to her several times in dreams before, but in this particular dream she spoke with such urgency. Famous woke, feeling certain that her mother was there with her.

It was to her fortune Famous was able to continue to live in the house. She had always thought the house was charming. More like a cottage than a house. Decorated with photos of her mother, before and after finding Famous. There were books on shelves and a few candles, but that was it. Charming and quaint. There was a studio apartment above the garage that had a kitchenette and bathroom. They had rented it out over the years. Which is how, Famous figured, her mother had paid the note off years before. It was also how Famous was paying the taxes every year since. The cottage had been her saving grace.

Her room had been up in the loft where she could peer down into the living area. Her mother’s room had a door behind the base of the stairs. She couldn’t bear to go into her mother’s room. But she was certain that is where mother must have left the path she spoke of. After only a couple of months had passed, Famous went in her mother’s room. She could smell her mother’s perfume, the sweet heavenly scent like she was still there. Famous lied on her bed and cried, she left the room, closed the door, and had not opened it since. 

Exactly seven years after her death, Famous had finally decided it was time. She opened the door very slowly. Looking in she could visualize her mother laughing and saying I have another story Famous, come sit on the bed with me. Those were the best times in her life. Thinking how disappointed she might be that she had done nothing in the past seven years. A prison term life sentence in some countries.

It was dark so Famous pulled open the curtains. The room was filled with dust and cob webs. It was time, actually beyond time to fill this room with life again. Maybe she could find a roommate, it was hard to picture anyone else living in this space besides her mother. It was and would always be her mother’s room.

The door creaked as she opened the closet, she saw her clothes and could picture her in every item as she removed them from the hangers. The room wasn’t as sad as it had been before. Carefully she packed the clothes in boxes except those she chose to keep. The ones that reminded her of her the most or ones Famous thought she might wear. The shoes were too large for Famous so she packed them all away, thinking that a shelter would be a nice place to take them and may help someone. Her mother would be happy that her things were doing good rather than not being used.

There wasn’t a lot there, just two boxes in the top of the closet. Surely she was missing something. Pulling down the first box and examining the contents. Some train tickets, a map, a necklace piece of some kind, and a napkin from some place in Ireland. Souvenirs, she guessed. A bunch of other miscellaneous items. The second box was full of her journals. She opened several looking at the dates. Finding the one for the year she must have begun her journey to find Famous. She began to read.

‘She came to me in a dream, Famous, a baby looking for a mother. The next day I began my quest for finding Famous.’

There was a small piece of paper like a sticky note added, ‘If you are reading this Famous then I am gone. Stop reading and pack your bags, it is time for your adventure to begin. There are clues in the box next to the box of journals.

She stared at the journal, not knowing what to do. This was just like her, Famous thought, drop everything and go now.  She couldn’t possibly just pack her bags and leave tomorrow the way her mother had all those years before. Yet, if she continued to read it was showing such disrespect to the memory of her mother. Her mother would have had to know that for Famous it would be necessary to get things in order. That would not be the way her mother would think though.

Famous didn’t know what to pack, she didn’t dare read ahead in the journal. Famous sat at the edge of the bed staring at the page in the journal. She had no idea what would happen next. The journal snapped closed and startled her. She was certain that she had imagined the whole thing. The same little note was sitting right on top! She read it over and over. Logic told Famous to read on in the journal, but she would not even attempt to open it.

Unlike her mother, she was scared to just pack her bags and run out the door. This was a fear she would soon have overcome. Running to the loft, she began to pull out clothes. Wondering what to take, how much should she take, if only her mother had said more than just ‘pack your bag’ as if she would know what she needed for the journey? Famous was thinking, where am I going? She knew her mother well enough to know that she would say ‘pack only what you can easily carry.’ She would often say the same of burdens and stress.

Famous was certain that her mother had learned this freedom from her mother. She could only imagine, but Famous knew her mother’s name was as odd as her own. Dar Alegria, roughly meaning give joy in Spanish, although Famous didn’t remember her grandmother she had imagined her many times from the stories her mother had told.

Hastily she packed a backpack, thinking she would just have to make due. Sending an email to the librarian saying she would be taking some time off to do some traveling and she was sincerely sorry it was so last minute.

CHAPTER TWO

Where am I Going

THE BEGINNING OF THE second page of the journal her mother wrote,

I did not know where I was going, only that I was going. I could hear life beckoning me to go. I immediately packed and went to the train station.

A second note: Famous you must go to the train station travel north into Canada and once you’re on the train read the next few pages you will know when to stop.

I’ll know when to stop, how? How will I know when to stop? She was staring up as if talking to the ceiling.

Again the journal snapped closed. She jumped and realized she hadn’t imagined it at all. Famous remembered the train tickets in the box of souvenirs. She emptied the contents into her backpack and would look at them when she got to the train station.

The journey began just like that, Famous left her little cottage. The place of her childhood, the safety of her home to the unknown. The train station was a short walk, though for Famous it was a great distance of uncertainty. She had hours to wait and had even thought about walking home to wait. But wasn’t certain she would have the courage to leave the cottage a second time. As she sat in the station she longed to read on in the journal, but could hear her mother saying, ‘be patient Famous everything happens as it should and in the time it should happen. You mustn’t rush destiny.’

She felt the journals in her bag and could feel her mother there with her, like she had not felt in years. Famous felt alive again, a part of her had died the day her mother passed. Sitting there she wondered if that is when her mother had come to find her, when her own mother had passed. She had so many questions.

The train station was small with very few people. Famous found only one train going north to Canada, she didn’t even know where she was to go, just north. Perhaps the old ticket stub her mom had left will be the clue. Stepping on the platform she could feel herself being pushed toward the train. Glancing back, thinking she could still turn back and go home. She stepped up on the train and found a seat in the first car. As the train left the station she opened the journal and began to read.

My journey began in a small train station today, I could hear it calling me. I left my home and traveled on the very first train out which led me to a nomad’s cottage in the mountains of Canada. I should say he was a wizard, of sorts. (There was a small note saying she must find the wizard who holds a message for Famous.)

Famous pondered this message, what it must say, a message, she can only guess from her mother.

I watched as the train journeyed north. I would see the people in the towns and imagine what they must be doing. Living their lives, did they have a family, who were they and how did they spend their time? I had my mother who was an amazing mother, I hope when I find my child I will be as well.

This made Famous smile and feel so warm and connected to her knowing that she was the most amazing mother ever.

"It was raining and in the dark of the night when I knew it was my stop. I was just going in the direction of my calling. I walked and walked through the forest. I heard the cry of animals and the call of an owl. I did not feel fear as I knew this was the journey I must take to find my little one. Hours had gone by and I was sure I was lost walking in the cold of night, it began to rain.

I took shelter and the wizard, Jeremiah, found me huddled under a tree escaping the rain. He called my name, although I had not met him before. Picking me up and carrying me to his cottage and placing me by the fire."

He said, Dear little Dar, I have been waiting for you. What has taken you so long?

Famous couldn’t believe what she was reading, how is such a thing even possible?

"I slept by the warmth of the fire for hours. My dreams were so vivid of a girl lost looking for answers that only I could give. I imagined her to be petite with long flowing strawberry