the ballad of amelia james

chapter 2

Pj lugged his suitcase stair after stair up to his hotel room that would be home for the next few months. The desk clerk had informed him how the elevator was broken in the antique hotel, but the staircase would be just fine for an inshape 20 something year old. The rolling suitcase beat up the wooden stairs as he hauled the weight up, cursing lightly underneath his breath. Pj quickly reached for the key card in the back pocket of his black skinny jeans before reaching the landing to the 3rd floor of the hotel. Not fast enough, the hefty suitcase began to fall back down the stairs but not before Pj grabbed his most valuable possesion, the camera bag.

"Damn it." He cursed out loudly his British accent cutting the quiet hallway as his voice echoed back to him. Pj ran his fingers through his wavy, dark chocolate brown hair that had become nappy thanks to the lengthy plane ride over. Slidding his camera bag across the vintage wooden flooring to his room door, Pj trodded down the stairs two at a time huffing with frustration at gravity when he reached the landing in between the 3rd and 2nd floor. He leaned down grabbing the handle of the stuffed luggage case but not before his eye caught a glimpse of a small frame leaning around from the corner. Raising up, Pj placed the unstable luggage against the stairwell's wall and gently stepped forward.

"Hello?" Pj's voice echoed, once again, throughtout the empty hotel as he took one more cautious step toward what appeared to be a little girl. He could faintly make out her childish figure along with her messy hair falling out from her ponytail.

The petite girl stepped out from what appeared to be a space that once held a vending machine. Her hair, a golden brown color, escaped the hair band at the back of her head and lay in all different directions making her childish appearence even cuter. Her small hand clutched an equally fitting sketch book with a crumbled cover from heavy usage. By the way she clutched the sketchpad Pj could sense her shyness and gave a small smile as he placed his thumbs into his pockets and squatted down to the girl's level.

"My name's Pj. I see you have a sketch book there... May I see some of your sketches?" Pj had no clue why he was so interested in the girl, but she had been the only kind and innocent being that he had come in contact with since he arrived, and he was craving some creative talk even if it be with a 7 year old girl who viewed his 6'2 frame as a giant that towered over her.

She crept out of the wall's cut out and sat down crossing her legs as she held out the sketch pad for the stranger. Pj took the pad and slowly opened the wrinkled, damaged cover and exposed page after page of scribbles that only a child's mind could create. He smiled as he flipped through the pages and admired all of the girl's works. Occasionally, between page flips, he would glance down at her as she still sat, legs crossed and eyes raised to watch the "big kid's" reaction to the thing she cared about most and took high pride in.

Pj closed the cardboard back of the pad as he placed it back into her outreached hands.

"Those were really good. Very impressive for a girl of 7?" He smiled trying to get her to open up a little more.

She nodded and gave a small smile revealing a missing front tooth that was starting to grow back in.

"Well then I'm glad I got to meet you, and thank you for sharing your art with me."

Stretching out his arm he offered a handshake to the small girl as a welcoming and friendly gesture. Her hand was overtaken by Pj's massive one, but she still shook it forcefully. Making his way back to the luggage, Pj turned his back to the little girl who hadn't spoken a word but had been friendlier than anyone else in the city.

"You talk funny." The squeaky voice broke the quiet air as Pj turned back around to the little girl now giggling as he made a goofy face.

"She speaks!" Pj gasped making the now curious child exploded with laughter as she tried to contain her excitement of a new friend. "I'm Pj, and this is my disobedient suitcase. Sorry if you heard my language usage before."

"Tessa Caroline Akers." She spoke the name as if she had recited it repeatedly in the mirror as Pj guessed she had."And that's okay daddy says sometimes he needs to use it too, and one day he says I can too." She laughed once again and looked around the halls and down the stairs. "Daddy runs the place. It's pretty boring for me, but sometimes I get to scare people!"

Pj repeated her name adding a small laugh as he watched her nod along as his British accent made her name into an elegant poem.

"Big name for such a little girl. I have to go put up my stuff but I'll see you around, okay? Maybe we can scare a few people together. I make some pretty good scary voices." Pj moved to this suitcase as he began his adventure fighting the stairs once again. Tessa's face light up as she recognized the new found "big kid" friend.

Pj lugged the suitcase up once again, making it to the 3rd floor a little more gracefully this time. Opening the door to his hotel room, he slung the camera bag onto the bed as he flopped down next to it. The time difference crept up on him as his heavy eye lids closed; his mind drifting off into a peaceful sleep.