Dreams Of Fame
1.28 - Sylvan Glade
Zoe clicked the send button on her computer screen, and the manuscript for the 18th book in her A Day in the Life of Granny series was sent to her publisher. She leaned back in her chair and sighed contently. Life was good.
Giovanna, who was sitting beside her, clapped excitedly. “Hooooray!” she cheered.
“You’re a real star Granny!” Zoe beamed.
“I am?” Giovanna muttered to herself.
Zoe frowned. She really wished she hadn’t ruined Giovanna’s mind. She couldn’t even say if most of the stories Giovanna told were real, she already regularly changed the story of how she and Zoe met. In the most recent one, Zoe was a crime fighting ghost who protected Giovanna and her husband when a thief tried to steal her boots.
But if there was anything on Zoe’s mind today, it was Summer. She’d thrown herself into finishing her latest book as a distraction, but as she should have expected, that distraction was only temporary. The only thing that really stood out to her in the searches she’d gone on was that weird tree she and José had looked at.
“Hey, Granny? Do you know anything about weird trees?” she asked.
Giovanna stared off into nothing, lost in thought.
“Granny? Giovanna?”
“There was one! With a passageway inside it!” Giovanna suddenly shouted out.
Zoe smiled sadly. “Thanks, Granny.”
She retreated to her bedroom, and sat on her bed. Trees didn’t have passageways. If only someone had found Giovanna before she went insane… she might have known something. Because it sure seemed like Giovanna had been everywhere with her husband.
But still… that tree… there’d been a certain stench around it that was strikingly familiar. Something was up. Sighing to herself, Zoe opened up her closet and pulled out a set of purple clothes for the day.
Meanwhile, José sat on his couch, staring blankly at a tv screen. The volume was turned all the way up, but he wasn’t hearing any of it. It was already noon and José hadn’t showered. He just felt like he’d failed Summer. First, he’d ruined months of a good relationship for what was, in the grand scheme of things, an insignificant event. Then, he’d freaked out and forced two of Summer’s best friends to blast off to space. No one knew when they’d be back. Then, to top it all off, he wasn’t even able to be helpful when she went missing.
José was interrupted from his stupor by a sudden polite knock on the door.
He let out a deep sigh, shut off the tv, and slowly shuffled over to the door. When he opened it, the light was blinding and he had to squint, unable to see who was there.
“José?” a sweet voice said. “Can I come in?”
“Sure…” José muttered.
The woman shut the door behind her, and with the light gone, José was finally able to see who it was. Zoe Patel.
“So, José, I’d like to thank you again for doing that exclusive interview with me-“ Patel suddenly coughed. “José, you reek! Take a shower, for goodness’ sake!”
“Sorry…” José said slowly. “I… I just haven’t been myself lately.”
“Clearly,” Patel snorted, walking over to José’s dining table and sitting down.
José sighed, but sat down across from her.
“Why are you really here, Zoe?” he asked. “If you were actually going to congratulate me again, you’d just call. You’ve already done that a 100 times, a 101st time wouldn’t have been any different.”
Patel let out a fake cough and smiled. “Well, José, you and I have really hit it off recently, haven’t we? I was thinking that now that Summer’s out of the picture-“
José gave Patel a dead eyed stare. “Are you seriously telling me that you want to go out with me?”
“Well, I understand if you need a little time, Summer only went missing, oh, two days ago?”
“Yeah, because of YOU!” José exclaimed.
“Hey, I didn’t tell that dumb blonde to disappear! I said my piece, and I made my exit. I didn’t overstep my bounds. I did nothing wrong. And if you can’t see that? Maybe we shouldn’t date!”
José rolled his eyes. “And what gave you the impression I even considered it?”
Patel gave José a coy little smile. “José. Come on. Have you seen me? I look incredible! Who could say no to this?”
José pushed back his chair and stood up. “Someone who’s in love with someone else, that’s who. Get out, Zoe."
“Well, I think given a little more time with that alcoholic, you’ll reconsider. She drank. In court. On the stand!”
José gestured for her to leave.
Patel let out a dramatic sigh, but she stomped over to the door. Once outside, she turned around. “Call me! And don’t forget to showe-“
José slammed the door, and locked it.
He headed over to his living room, and sank back into his couch. And, for the first time, he saw himself. He was sitting here, lost in his misery, doing absolutely nothing to help Summer. And Zoe Patel was right about one thing. He did reek.
José went and got in the shower.
Within an hour, he was knocking on the door of Summer’s house. While in the shower, he’d come to realize that he really was doing nothing but wasting time sitting around moping. If he actually wanted to get to a point where he could ever fix things with Summer, he had to dedicate himself to finding her first. And he couldn’t give up hope. He would find her. He had to.
Giovanna answered the door with a giant smile.
“Hey Giovanna, can you get Zoe?” José asked.
As odd as Zoe was, he’d found that she was honestly a good partner in this. He hadn’t expected it, especially after all he’d heard about her from Summer. If there was one good thing to come out of this situation, it was that.
“She went out…” Giovanna muttered.
“Okay, how about Travis?”
“He took Clara and Jacob to the park! I wanted to go to, but he said no…”
José frowned. He hadn’t expected this. “Do you have any idea where Zoe went?”
Giovanna cocked her head and looked at him like she was completely lost in thought. “She asked about a tree… tree passageways?”
“Okay, thank you for your help, Giovanna,” José smiled. “Have a good day.”
Giovanna waved and shut the door as José turned around. When he thought of trees, there was only one that Zoe had been really interested in the day before. And it was practically right around the corner.
When José got to the tree, Zoe was nowhere to be found. He walked around the tree, examining it closely. At one point, he got a sudden whiff of a very strong smell. He looked down, and spotted a half buried bottle of one of Summer’s favorite wines.
She’s definitely been here, and recently too, for the smell to be so strong. José pushed and prodded on the tree for what felt like hours. After a while, he stood there, and looked up at the tree defeated.
“You know what? I think I really love her. Which sure would suck if we can’t ever find her,” he laughed bitterly.
He kicked the bottle, and what little wine had been left in the bottle trickled onto the ground. José was about to turn around and head home, until he heard a sudden thud. Confused, he wandered back around the tree and found a pathway that hadn’t been there before. He hurriedly pushed his way inside.
On the other side, he came to a clearing filled with cherry blossoms and the oddest pink lighting. It didn’t even feel like summer. What really caught his eye, however, was the two figures across the clearing. A woman in a blue dress, collapsed on the ground, and a woman in purple leaning over her.
“José!” Zoe exclaimed, surprised.
José hurried over.
“I’ve been pushing on her and calling out her name for forever now, and she just won’t wake up!”
“We’ve got to get her to a hospital,” José said, preparing to pick Summer up.
“Okay. Just be careful, José, there’s something unnatural here…” Zoe muttered. “When I was talking to the tree outside, it told me this place was called Sylvan Glade, and that I shouldn’t do anything the forest doesn’t want me to…”
“Well, Zoe, I doubt the forest wants us staying here any longer. Let’s go, please! Summer clearly needs help!”
Zoe nodded slowly, looking around anxiously as José picked Summer up. José ran out of the clearing, Summer in his arms. Zoe followed more slowly, looking around. There was something so comforting about Sylvan Glade… she could easily see how Summer had slept for two days straight.
She took one last look at the clearing, and for a minute, she thought she saw something strange in the fog… But she dismissed it, and left. Probably a side effect of that weird therapy she’d gone through.