It was perhaps three in the morning when Jeane ran from her house, dressed in a tee shirt and black shorts and carrying a large, brown book under her arm. There was a crazed look in her eyes as she looked down the street. Sometimes, she really wished that she didn't live in Durem, as her destination was Gambino. There was an auction going on for a pair of cats boots, which her friend Lynxa was dying for, and Jeane had decided to get them for her.
Her first problem, of course, was the fact she was barefoot. The second was that Jeane loved to sleep, and she had twenty minutes to run to Durem. The third problem was that Jeane was terribly slow. She had once been clocked at a minute and thirty seconds for a fourth of a mile run. Although that had been perhaps three years before, she was still slow.
She finally made it to Gambino, with three minutes to spare, still lugging the large brown book. Gasping for breath, she headed to the marketplace.
Four minutes later, a very grouchy, tired girl emerged. She had been outbid. So there she was, three twenty four in the morning, barefoot, and sleepy, and two towns away from her nice warm bed. She sighed and started off home.
"Aaak!" She cried a moment later, tripping over an older lady. Her gold bag and book went flying as she landed on the plump woman. She lay there, stunned, before she realized that there was indeed someone below her. Jumping up with a squawk, she leaned over and offered her hand to the woman. "I'm so sorry, Ma'am! I wasn't watching where I was going at all!" The woman chuckled as she picked up the book and bag.
"Here, young girl." She said, handing the things back. Her eyes sparkled for a moment, and she added a small pendant on top. Jeane cocked her head to one side and poked it.
"What's this?" She asked, looking up. Her eyes widened; the woman was gone!
Oh, yes. Jeane was also terribly afraid of ghosts. She sat down abruptly and poked the pendant again and whimpered. Finally, sighing, she added the tiny bowtie to the many pendants on her necklace. The ghosty lady had wanted her to have it, and she didn't particularly want to tick off the ghosty lady.
But once she replaced the necklace around her neck, she felt a bit odd. Her brain raced and she looked down at the book in her hands with a grin:
The Complete Sherlock Holmes.
