Treasure Planet Warm-Up Exercise (See Description)

-1- Solar Skates

I want to start this journal off with just my name: Leland James Hawkins. Now anyone who had any doubts before can dash them, because if you don’t know my name now, you will by the end of this story.

I screwed up, simply put. Big time. I could lie, or crumple up this piece of paper. I could weave a tale so fierce and swashbuckling you’ll be too enamoured with the thought of it to question whether any of it is real.

But I guess I’m not really writing this for you, whoever you are. Maybe I feel like I am, when in reality I just need to record the truth of what happened to me. Because ugly or no, I don’t ever want to forget.

It was December, which I suppose is the beginning, but I still can’t say when things started and when they ended. However, I do know that December was when things got bad, really bad, and it began on my sister’s birthday. Montressor was slushy, the snow not yet real snow, but not fresh autumn rain either. It was the dreary collapse into winter which the planet (or at least the town of Benbow) experienced every year.

I hated it.

I was cold, wandering up and down the town’s interwoven roads, trying desperately to find a birthday present for Tammy. She was turning seventeen, and I had not the faintest idea of what to get her. What did seventeen year old girls want, anyway? I was bad at gifts to begin with, especially for my sister. Most years my mom would set up a shared gift cache where she would do all the shopping and Milo and I just had to sign our names to it. Every one of us knew this happened on our birthdays, but nobody seemed to mind, because there had yet to be a complaint.

Except this year, my mom thought it would be a good idea to usurp the system by making Milo and I scrabble for our own ‘unique gifts’ as she so lovingly put it. In all honesty, I still believe she was mental for going rogue on us and with Tammy’s birthday only three days away.
So, there I was, the day of the birthday and nothing to show for it. I had scoured every inch of those streets for what seemed like hours (but what could not have been more than forty five minutes), and my hands were still empty. The temptation to purchase a bag of candy and call it done was unbearable, but I knew that would be a low blow, even for my annoying younger sister. With my mouth pressed into a grim line, I was about to turn around and head back home with lame excuses when a cart drove past. The Bullyadous pulling the passengers kicked up muddy snow specks and decorated my clean pants.

“Seriously?” I complained, cursing my luck as I turned around, my reflection catching in the glass window before me. My brown hair was windswept, my expression miserable and pale. I released a sigh, tired of my excursion when my eyes focused on the sign beside my mirror image.

My lips turned up in a wicked smile.

“Yes,” I muttered, entering the shop, unable to believe my luck.

“H’lo there!” called the Lopytonian man behind the counter. “What can I do for you?”

“I’ll take a pair of solar skates,” I requested, fishing in my pockets for the money.

“Coming right up,” he dipped his head and ducked into a back room to grab my gift. I sure hoped Tammy enjoyed them. I wasn’t sure if they’d be any better than her solar surfer, but this was my last hope for redemption. When the man returned, he pulled them out of the box to let me inspect them. “One size fits all,” he cheerfully informed me. I gave them a good look over without responding. They were different, for certain, than a solar surfer. Thick protected boots coated in Arturian solar crystals, small holes where discharge could erupt. Nifty!

“How much?” I asked, counting my money.

“Twenty five bits. On sale, actually,” the clerk responded. Twenty five was more than I had wanted to take out of my measly winter bank, but it was doable. I handed him the money and he wrapped the box, giving me a once over as he did so. “Interested in solar pastimes? I have a very good collection of surfers in the back if you would like to take a look.” Classic sales pitch. I tried to hide my smile.

“No, sorry, these are for my sister. Tonight is her birthday,” I explained.

“Ah, cutting it a little close, are we?” he gave me a wink. “In that case, I would be happy to add a bit of colored ribbon to the box here, if it helps.”

“Yes, actually, thank you,” I answered, a bit surprised by this. I had just been thinking about how awful it would be to wrap the damn box (let it be known I am a failure at the art of gift wrapping) when he offered. It only took a few extra minutes of cutting and tying, before the package was mine. The clerk waved for me to return with Tammy in tow next time, and I assured him I would as I dodged out of the shop. It was late afternoon, I had to get back to help finish off some chores, because Tammy was due to have a few friends over. I snorted in irritation, just imagining the social ruckus. Hoisting the box beneath my arm and away from the street to better protect it from road mush, I started home, somewhat lighter than I had been before.

One thing I was confident in: Tammy was going to love her birthday present.