Lost in the Desert Wild

Chapter 2

As soon as I hit the ground, I started walking over to where the horrible chirping noises were coming from. I crossed my clean-cut lawn, and walked down the stairs, nearly stumbling over my own two feet. I reached the end of the driveway, and turned left  onto the barren road. I tried looking up at any of the trees, to see if any bird's nests were there, but to my dismay, there weren't any. I should have known better anyway. Not too many birds make their nests in any of the trees around my house anymore. The last time I remember seeing the birds around my house, I was in the 7th grade and had just started school. I remember celebrating my thirteenth birthday on September 21st,  two weeks after school started, and inviting all my friends over. Most of them said, "Oh, my gosh, you're thirteen!" or  "You can practically, like, drink now."

It was all pretty dumb and naive, and we didn't even know how alcohol tasted, nor what it would even do to us. Little did they know that in three short years, they'd be drinking every weekend and end up being too sick with a hangover to even go to school on Monday. 

Anyway, since it was late September, the weather started to get a little cooler. Everyone piled out of their parents' cars with their multi-colored coats, and fall boots. The birds were starting to fly south in prepearation for the winter. I remember being out on the back porch with the other girls, with the wind making our hair fly north, south, east, and west. I remember looking up at those birds flying up above my head, to wherever their destination was taking them. I put my hand up in the air and waved to them, "So long, birds. I'll see you in March."

However, that summer, they never came back.  That was the last time I ever saw those birds again. 

My investigation would have to go on a little bit longer than I intended. As I walked further and further, the chirping became louder and louder. I've never went as far as I did that night on that road. I must have been walking for an hour before I saw a figure in the distance. I walked up to whoeverit was, with caution, and suddenly the chirping stopped. 

The figure was standing at the edge of the street. The street with a dead end. The street that abruptly stopped-- it looked like the edge of a cliff. As I reached the edge to where the roadway ended, I looked up at the figure. The moon's glistening relfection casted itself upon the figure's face, and I nearly screamed! It was a clown. His face was white and his hair was in a hodgepodge mess of red on is head. The clown was dressed in usual clown clothes, decorated in multicolored patterns, white gloves, and big red shoes to top it off. He was holding an umbrella in one hand, and two bird shaped balloons in the other.

I used to love clowns. When I was in kindergarden, my parents would take me to the circus nearly every weekend. My mother said I'd always "giggle with delight" when the clown chose me from the audience and asked me to assist him in a magic trick. It was so exilerating to me. Clowns never scared me like they did other to other kids. I found them humerous and nice.

I wasn't sure what I was suppose to say. The silence was unbaerably awkward.  I sighed, and finally, he turned to face me. 

"What brings you here?" the clown asked.

I shrugged my shoulders, "I followed the sound of the chirping."

The clown nodded and begun to sit down on the edge of the cliff. Pieces of the road fell into the dark abyss, as he tried to situate himself into a comfortable position. "Anybody who comes to where the sidewalk ends, comes with a purpose."

"And what would that purpose be, exactly?" I asked, curiously.

He twisted his mouth to the side, lost in thought. He was one of those clowns that had the fake teardrops underneath each eye. His mouth was covered in red lipstick and where a nose should have been, layed a big red ball. He smiled and said, "People come when they want to get away from the world. Or when they want certain things to happen.  Anything, really."

"So you're a like a genie . . . and a clown?"

"No, not a genie . . . more like a time-traveller, who can give you anything you want. I can let you go back in time . . . I can let you go forward in time . . . I can even let you go left and right in time."

I wasn't exactly sure what this clown was talking about, to be quite honest. Did I really come with a purpose, like he's talking about? Or did I come just to investigate the sounds, like I thought? I looked at him with glistening eyes and remembered the birds. I asked, "Can you take me back in time? Back to when everything was fun and happy? And I was care-free?" 

He eyed me carefully. His eyes went from the top of my matted-down hair, all the way down to my six-inch stilletos. I'm surprised my feet didn't have blisters on them by now. On normal circumstances, I would have felt extremely awkward. This . . . guy? Clown? Time traveller? Whatever he was, didn't seem dangerous at all. I felt safe in his presence. 

"It seems that going back in time wouldn't be the best option for you," he hypothesized. "Instead, I shall take you to a place filled with bliss. I'll take care of you. I'll be your guardian angel. I'll carry you off to a dimension filled with happiness".

I studied him. The clown looked like a sincere man. I looked a little harder. His clothes were tattered and torn, and his umbrella was turned inside out. The balloons were oddly deflated, although it still hung, flying in midair, as if it was they were real birds. I smiled, "I'll go wherever you take me." 

"Great," he smiled and his laugh echoed across the cliff. "Our destination, is right down there."

He pointed to the bottom of cliff. I gulped, trying to calm myself down. He's my guardian angel, I thought to myself, He'll keep me safe.

"You looked famished!" he exlaimed.

I snapped out of my own thoughts for a moment. Everything that came out of his mouth seemed to have an exclamation point attached to it, at the end. The clown's voice wasn't too deep nor too high. It was a goofy kind of voice. I really was hungry, and I nodded, in agreement. Out of seemingly nowhere, he pulled out a brownie and a bottle of a clear liquid. "Here you go! Drink! Eat!" he incouraged.

Trusting him, ate the sour brownie and drank the clear, burning liquid. I thought I was about to pass out for a second. The liquid and brownie burned my tongue and throat so badly , that I thought I would thow up. As soon as it went down my throat though, I started to feel jittery. The stars up in the sky started to burst into colors of confetti and the moon seemed to be smiling down at me, saying everything would be okay. Suddenly, I felt more awake then ever before. I felt like I could do anything and that I was ready for anything.

He slyly smiled, "I think you're ready."

He reached out, pulled out a coin from behind my ear, and flipped it into the dark region over the road. He then threw the balloons over the edge (oddly enough, they floated downward) and took my hand. He counted to three and we jumped.