Diane Young [Camp NaNoWriMo July 2014]

Diane Young [3]

3

From seven each morning, I'm basically all on my own. Though this isn't a problem, it'd be nice to have someone to talk to about my strange dreams and other trivial yet fun things. At least, it'd be better than just sitting by myself on the dining table.

I normally wake up at about eight, brush my teeth, shower and then go to eat cereal while watching a cartoon. After all of this, I'd probably just do anything that comes to mind. Which wasn't really much. I'm pretty boring.

However, on this fateful morning, when I was halfway through my breakfast of cocoa puffs, there is a sharp and loud knock on the front door. It rang out through the whole apartment, and I wondered who would be coming so early and so urgently.

The knocks repeated and I counted to three before going to check who it was through the eye hole. Of course, who else could it be but my new and slightly pretentious new neighbour? I opened the door and leaned against it.

"Hello, Elijah."

"Elijah West. I don't go around just calling you Diane." He snapped, looking very flustered.

"Oh my apologies. What's the problem?" I asked.

"Dukey's gone missing."

"Dukey?"

"My chameleon!"

"I though he was called Duke."

"Dukey is my very affectionate nickname for him. Dukey, Duke Boots, Dat Dook, hell, sometimes I even call him Dukerella when he's wearing a makeshift dress." He looked around impatiently. I waited for him to finish his mini search and speech before speaking again.

"I understand. But why are you telling me this?"

"Can I search in your apartment?"

"Mine?"

"I think I did say that Diane Yo-"

"It's just Diane. Or Dia, according to my brother."

"Yeah yeah, so can I search? And can you help me?"

I shrugged and he looked distressed before I moved over and let him in. As soon as he got into the living room, he went on his hands and knees and started making these high pitched bleating sounds.

I stood behind him with folded arms, wondering what he was doing. As if Elijah had read my thoughts, he turned around and looked at me square in the eye.

"What is it?" He snapped once more.

"Nothing, continue your search." I waved my hand and returned to the kitchen, where I finished off my cocoa puffs and even made a cup of tea.

I like tea.

After twenty minutes or so of irregular bleats and a mad thumping sound coming from the living room, Elijah came crawling into the kitchen. I watched him from my chair, wondering if this was an effective way to find 'Dukey'. I wouldn't know. He would, though, considering he was the chameleon owner (who apart from Rapunzel owns a chameleon?), so it probably was a good way to find him.

He scaled about half of the kitchen on his hands and feet before I asked him if he'd like some tea.

"Oh, thank you so much! Yes, I'd like tea when my poor little Dukey is lost and alone somewhere that I do not know!" He replied.

"So, you'd like some tea, then?"

"Yes please, Diane Young."

I put the kettle on and watched him bite back a very wide smile.

In the end, I did help Elijah look for Duke. We both crawled around every room in my house, bleating loudly while we looked. It was great fun, surprisingly, though it yielded no results. Little Dukey was nowhere to be found.

"Oh, my baby." I had seated a rather upset Elijah at the dining room table with a sandwich and a can of Fanta in front of him (he said he hadn't even had breakfast). "My baby has gone missing and it's all my fault!" He put his head in his hands and started shaking it quickly. I was worried he'd get a headache.

"Don't worry, he won't be that hard to find. We still have to search the hallways." I said, holding my own can of Fanta. He looked at me with something akin to awe.

"You're so hopeful! He's a chameleon, remember? They blend!" He reminded me. I frowned.

"Look at it this way, at one point or the other, he's going to get so tired and hungry he won't have the energy to 'blend'. This would mean that he'll fall asleep somewhere he can be seen."

"Well, nobody knows what the future holds-"

"And it's bad enough just getting old." I finished, sipping on my drink.

"You what?" I shrugged and he shook his head. "Anyway, you never know whether Duke might eat something he finds outside."

"It won't happen." I said firmly. One of his slightly bushy eyebrows shot up to almost meet his hairline.

"How do you know that?"

"I'm Diane Young, I know everything." I take another sip. He laughs.

"If you know everything, Diane, then tell me this; who was I to Elizabeth Matlida Winters?'

Finally, I put my drink down.

"Firstly, her middle name was Charlotte. And at the funeral, you told me that you were her good friend. So I'm guessing, since she did tell me she had a sassy, pretentious and downright odd boy sitting next to her in her Algebra class, you are him."

For a full minute or so, Elijah stared at me. I picked up my can of Fanta once more and stared back at him, with less of a determined gaze.

"I like you." He simply said.

"I know."

"But can I ask you a question? Apart from that one, of course."

"Yeah, I guess you can."

"How did you become depressed?" He propped his elbow on the table, leaned his head on his outstretched palm and stared at me.

"I'm not depressed."

He nodded. "Okay. You were depressed. How did it happen?"

I shake my head and place my drink down once more. "No, you're not understanding me. I wasn't depressed - never. I was sad, sure, but I would never go all out and call my sadness depression. It was far from. And I guess I became sad - the word I like to use is melancholy - just because. Just because it was easier being sad than facing the world."

Elijah doesn't do anything for a moment.

"Makes sense."

"Mhm."

"What's in this sandwich?"

"Ham. Why?"

"Because it's moving."

I blinked and he picked up one of the pieces of bread. Not so subtlety, he threw Duke on the now exposed meat, and poor Duke, probably feeling scared and victimised, turned pale pink to match the ham. I wasn't sure whether to be shocked at the fact Duke was obviously never lost, or humoured at the fact he tried to fool me by throwing him in the sandwich.

"Oh, wow." I said dryly.

"I've found my Dukey, my work here is done!" Elijah declared. I nodded firmly. "We've braved many carpets, but Duke is now saved!" He said.

"Huzzah." I replied, and he laughed.

"This was fun."

"Somewhat. Thanks for brightening up my morning." I said.

"No problem, Diane Yo-"

"It's just Diane."

"Not any more."