Pompons and Bagels - by merel huijben
Pompons and Bagels
By M.J. Huijben, 1508891, 2635 words.
Laura
I had never liked cheerleaders, with their little dances and gangs gossiping through the
school corridors.
And even though my mom and sister used to be cheerleaders and leading Delta’s in their
days, I never came to appreciate the art of stretching and singing to cheer both public and
players.
I never sought their company at school although they tried to get me with their little gang,
knowing about my mothers and sisters past. By the second semester of freshmen year, they
had invited me for countless dinner parties, dances, slumber parties and of course - football
games. I only attended one party to please my mother, but left after only five minutes when
I discovered they planned on setting me up with the school mascot. A skinny red haired boy
named Timmy with a face so full of freckles that it was like he had blown in the mud. After
that they gave up on me and finally left me alone.
After I had had some of my grandmothers famous blueberry muffins for breakfast that she
had send us the other day, I took my Labrador Teddy for a walk. I always enjoyed taking
him out early in the morning and walk around in our neighborhood when it was still quiet.
Last night it had been far from quiet. The Mayor’s daughter, a true devoted cheerleader and
soon to be Delta new, had been having a slumber party with her girlfriends. Giggling and
girly music had filled the streets and finally stopped after several neighbors had made their
complains.
While crossing the street towards the Johnson’s house, I heard the sharp ringing sound of
glass breaking followed by a knifelike scream coming from Mayor Dobbins’s backyard.
Running through the rose bushes - Mrs. Dobbins took care of as if of her own baby - I
scratched my bare legs on thorns, leaving big red bleeding marks. I could not help noticing a
motorbike hastily leaving Moog Avenue which lays behind the Dobbins’ backyard.
Though Baldwin County had not had a decent shower for at least three months, the air was
humid and the grass seemed to exhale the dew that had fallen a couple of hours before. The
sunlight made the pieces of scattered glass that had found their way in the recently mowed
grass, sparkle like diamonds. They encircled the twisted left leg and the right - bend in a
unusual position. They covered the wide spread arms. And mingled with the bleached strings
of hair.
̃
Pretty soon the police would come and identify the victim as Chelsea Dobbins, daughter of
Mayor Dobbins, grey eyes, blonde hair, 5 foot 4. A doctor would arrive some minutes later
and fill in the forms concluding that the young woman had died. Cause of death? Severe
spinal cord injuries.
The fact that the Bay Minette Police Department normally did not have more work than
writing bills for speeding, did not mean that they did not have a policy for such situations.
Unfortunately it also did not automatically mean that everything was handled accordingly,
nor handled in the perfect order.
̃
Mel
The scene should have been marked with yellow tape to keep any curious neighbors out who
were bound to ‘stop by’, demand information or even claim to know what happened; but
most importantly, to feed their gossiping tongues. Detective Inspector Mel Hallis sighted.
Since the yellow line had not been drawn, the scene was soon no longer useful to the
detectives and was now everything dependable on stories of what might had happened.
̃
Laura
The girls, still wearing their pink pajamas’ and furry slippers, who had been sleeping at the
time Chelsea died, were all brought to the police office to be questioned. A couple of hours
later I saw Chelsea’s parents, both devastated by the loss of their only child, driving off to
the Police Department themselves. Their grey faces and hollow eyes barely noticeable
through the windshield of their dark blue Cadillac.
I could not focus on my college application essay that afternoon. The police did not ask me
many questions after they had arrived at the scene, neither did I presume to tell them what
I had seen. What I had seen was probably of no importance, it was just another cheerleader
who had gotten into trouble, and sadly, died. They would find out sooner or later what had
happened. It was what cheerleaders did, somehow they seemed to all end up in trouble to
be saved by their rich daddies. But the image of the figure racing off on his motorbike
somehow was permanently imprinted in my memory.
A knock on the door wakened me from my ponderings. My mom entered my room. She was
as dressed up as always, her dyed blonde curls put back in her neck, sealed by a single
pearl necklace. Her make up as natural as possible, to, as she used to say “show off the
features life had given her.” “There are two gentlemen to see you Laura” she said, while
putting back a lock of her hair that had come loose.
̃
Mel
All the way down to the Police Department he had felt like he had forgotten something. But
he could not think of what; he could not even hear himself think because of the sobbing and
wailing of the four girls in the backseat of the van. He wondered if the one responsible for
the girls’ dead had gotten sick of it too, was that why she died?
It was only after he had sent four of his female colleagues to question the girls and read his
notes of that morning that he remembered the girl who had made the phone call. How could
he have forgotten about the prime witness?
Though the scene nor the witness statements were not as helpful as they should have been,
every little detail seemed to indicate that Chelsea’s dead was no accident. Someone must
have had pushed her. According to the forensic expert who examined the girl’s body there
were no bruises indicating a fight or struggle. Even though bruises had not occurred on
Chelsea’s back there had been nail polish on the back of her boyfriend’s football shirt she
was wearing.
On the stairs had been the remaining of a platter with bagels and fresh coffee. The victim
obviously had been wanting to surprise her girlfriends with breakfast in bed. “She must have
been pushed by someone”, he thought. But since she did not seem to have any enemies, he
had no idea where to look for probable suspects.
He had only briefly talked to the girl who had called the police and did not remember her
face. And as he entered the Jannice’s house he expected another copy of the sobbing and
wailing girls he had had in his van that morning. But the girl in stonewashed jeans and a
green colored hoodie calmly walking down the stairs, did not fit his expectations. He
wondered whether she could help them, since there was too little information found on the
scene nor were the statements of the girls and parents of any help.
̃
Laura never liked wearing tight tops, showing off her features. She never cared much for
clothes and only required one thing of them, they ought to be comfy and the right color.
Normally she wore her dark blonde shoulder length hair in a ponytail. She did not have
bangs; she liked her eyebrows and had no intention to hide them. She thought eyebrows
made the expression, complimented the eyes and therefore were way too important to
conceal.
̃
Laura
I sat down at the kitchen table while my mom offered the two police officers coffee and tea,
showing off her perfectly manicured nails, this time covered with a sparkling old pink color.
Inspector Hallis did not like introducing his questions with chitchat about the weather, and
immediately came to business. “Miss Laura” he started. “You heard the girl’s scream and
then found her body, you have told my colleague about this matter.”
I carefully looked to my left. Inspector Morris obviously seemed to be very young still.
Inspector Hallis, whose dark brown hair slightly started to fade to grey, on the other hand
appeared to be much more experienced. I felt comfortable enough and decided to tell him
that while police was investigating the scene I had walked to the other side of the backyard
and jumped over the fifty inch high hedge, to see whether I could discover any traces made
by the motorbike I had seen driving off.
He wanted to know everything I knew about the girl who I went to school with and had been
living in the same street for years. There had to be something I knew that would be helpful
to the investigation. So I told him everything I knew, once in a while my mom would add
something; in my opinion deliberately touching Inspector Hallis’s shoulder every time she
spoke.
I told him about kindergarten, how we always had been totally different and never got
along. But that somehow our lives had always touched each other. I wondered about one
thing though, I did not know what to do, and as the conversation suddenly stopped my
anxiety grew.
̃
Mel
Laura seemed to tremble, her brown eyes narrowed and she started twiddling her hands.
Inspector Hallis wondered if there was something she was keeping from him. Even though
the information she had given him helped him to form a clearer view on the Dobbins’s girl.
Then all of a sudden – and finally in Inspector Hallis’s opinion – young inspector Morris
opened his mouth. “Laura, are you sure you have told us everything?”.
Laura looked like she was about to rise and leave the room, but only for a moment, then she
sighted and seemed to relax. “Actually there is something I have not told you yet, I do not
know if it is of any use to tell you and I certainly do not want to bring those girls nor Paul
into any trouble.” Inspector Morris kept quiet en so did his older companion. “Come on
Laura, you can tell these two gentlemen everything you know. They will not lock up any
harmless children, will you Detective Inspector Hallis?” Though Inspector Hallis had been
terribly annoyed by Mrs. Jannice’s behavior ever since they had entered the house, he now
actually was glad she interfered.
̃
Laura
“I do not know if any of Chelsea’s friends have told you this. Chelsea has a boyfriend, Paul
Bryant. He is the quarterback in the school’s football team. He and Chelsea have been
dating about four months now.” I saw Inspector Morris raise his eyebrow but I continued. “I
know because I often sit in my window sill, and have seen him bringing Chelsea home. He
drives a black Yamaha motorbike, with red stripes on the sides. But the last couple of weeks
the rumor has been going that he was cheating on her with one of her best friends, Daisy. I
do not know if it is true, but the last time I saw Chelsea and Paul together they were fighting
at her father’s doorstep.”
Inspector Hallis insisted on seeing the place where I had seen the figure on the motorbike
leave. As we walked towards the Mayor Dobbins’ mansion over the pavement that was now
warm and dry because of the blistering sun, I saw something moving in the bushes.
I did not think the men saw it. When we got closer I recognized the figure that seemed to be
carrying a little black package. The moment I opened my mouth, Inspector Morris saw it too
and called out to make the person – whoever it was – stop.
̃
Paul
How could he have been so blockheaded to just drive off like that? At least nobody had seen
him driving off; except for Daisy no one knew he had dropped by that morning. And she
would never tell, he had made her promise not to. The security camera must have had
recorded everything, if the police would find out they would definitely suspect him and come
for him. Only the thought of asking his dad for help from the inside of a cell in the police
department made him sweat even more than he already did. Not to think of losing his
position in the football team. He had worked so hard to get there. He had to get that
videotape. It was a good thing he had helped Mr. Dobbins to install the camera’s after that
burglary, the only thing he had to do was to sneak in and get the tape..
The tape was still there, no one had thought of removing it. The police probably had not
thought of checking the security camera’s. He let a sigh of relief, there was nothing to be
panicky about. As he closed the backdoor - the one he had helped Mr. Dobbins with painting
firefighter red - behind him and walked across the grass carpet in the backyard he heard a
man call out to him, demanding him to stop. His heart started to beat twice as fast as he
stood still and turned around. The two man both wearing white shirts and black trousers
where definitely police officers. He saw Laura was with them and started to run. “She must
have told them everything,” he thought. He jumped over the hedge where he had parked his
motorbike, just like that morning, and drove off almost bumping into a parked car on the
right side of Moog avenue. It was only when he was driving on Jaycee Road, that he realized
that he had lost the tape..
̃
Laura
The figure walking across the grass carpet in Dobbins’s backyard stopped and slowly turned
around. I recognized the dark curly hair that laid on his forehead. The muscles in his arms
tightened and stretched the red T-shirt he was wearing. Paul turned around and started
running; both Inspectors followed. It was obvious that Inspector Hallis was too old for
chasing young criminals; he slowed his speed before he had crossed the backyard.
Inspector Morris came back holding something in his hand. It was the little black package
Paul had been carrying when they saw him coming out of the Dobbins’s house.
̃
Mel
Detective Inspector Mel Harris cramped his fingers around the worn off steering wheel of his
van. He could not wait until they got back at the police station and watch the security tape
of the Dobbins’s house. And he could tell from the sniffing of his younger colleague – who
was constantly turning and moving in his seat – that he was also eager to see what was on
the tape. He wondered whether he had done the right thing by not bringing Laura along, she
had been of great help to their investigation.
He looked at Morris’s white astonished face, and pushed the rewind button of his old video
recorder. His secretary had been wanting to replace it with one of those new high-tech
recorders. But somehow he was attached to it, as he was to the rest of his office with its old
musty containing. Together they looked again to the couple making out on the porch on the
left side of the house.
And again the image switched to another camera that had been recording at the same time.
A girl with bleached blonde hair in a football T-shirt climbed the stairs; in her hands a platter
with filled coffee cups and bagels. She wobbled and the platter almost slipped out of her
perfectly manicured hands. Then when she had almost reached the landing, she slipped out
of her slipper and got out of balance; stretching out her hands to break her fall. Seconds
later all the image contained was the broken window, its sharp shards shimmering in the
sunlight.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
its been a while
hello,
I know I havent been posting for forever, and since tinas been telling me i should, here i am back once again lol.
Ive been okay, currently very busy with school. I am following my last course of the whole study, next year Ill be teaching and following some courses for my minor - a part of your study you can fill in yourself. Its like a paper you write at the end of your study, you give your study more depth. I could have chosen to do something thats got to do with education, but I insisted on doing something that hasnt got to do anything with it. first I wanted to do something with art, but that meant I had to sort stuff out and arrange meetings with other faculties, and I am way too busy for doing that. So I decided to do spanish - its in the same faculty im studying english so thats easy:)
Sjors is okay too, still studying too, he wont be finished for another two years while I- on the contrary - will be graduating (hopefully) next summer.
If so Ill be visiting the states again, probably in August-september, but im not sure what exact dates yet. Ill tell you more bout that later on.
My last course of the study english is called finishing touches; you work on your speaking and writing. We had to write a murderless mystery for the writing part. Joe's sent me some feedback on some spelling/grammar mistakes, but I havent had the time to revise it yet. Ill upload it on my weblog so that yall can read it:)
Ill have to let you go for now,
byebye, love and kisses,
merel
I know I havent been posting for forever, and since tinas been telling me i should, here i am back once again lol.
Ive been okay, currently very busy with school. I am following my last course of the whole study, next year Ill be teaching and following some courses for my minor - a part of your study you can fill in yourself. Its like a paper you write at the end of your study, you give your study more depth. I could have chosen to do something thats got to do with education, but I insisted on doing something that hasnt got to do anything with it. first I wanted to do something with art, but that meant I had to sort stuff out and arrange meetings with other faculties, and I am way too busy for doing that. So I decided to do spanish - its in the same faculty im studying english so thats easy:)
Sjors is okay too, still studying too, he wont be finished for another two years while I- on the contrary - will be graduating (hopefully) next summer.
If so Ill be visiting the states again, probably in August-september, but im not sure what exact dates yet. Ill tell you more bout that later on.
My last course of the study english is called finishing touches; you work on your speaking and writing. We had to write a murderless mystery for the writing part. Joe's sent me some feedback on some spelling/grammar mistakes, but I havent had the time to revise it yet. Ill upload it on my weblog so that yall can read it:)
Ill have to let you go for now,
byebye, love and kisses,
merel
Sunday, November 25, 2007
painting the kingdomhall with both congregations: Soest and Baarn
Here are some pictures I've made during the three days we were painting our kingdomhall. at the bottom you'l also find two movies with the result.
love merel
getting ready to start
having lunch and coffee
eve
br carlo van eeten
my dad just before we started topain the bakcground of the platform
fulco and winfried
lex and carin
Friday, November 16, 2007
it's been a loooong time
hello you!
I'm sorry I haven't thought about posting anything.
But I'll tell you what I've been up to lately. I started school again, which I had to get used to again. It had been almost 6 months since last time I went to school. But everything was going so quickly and we had to keep up with all the courses so I got used to really quickly. I also started my internship at my old highschool a couple of weeks ago. All the teachers constantly ask me whether I'll come and join them in their lessons. Me and another student started doing a small project with one of our classes. We're doing task based learning, which means that the teacher is not instructing the students but supports them. We had to set up a webquest for one of our courses at the faculty and we're using that now. (if you'd like to see it: http://be-our-guest-webquest.webquestmaker.nl/city_trip)
Yesterday we've started painting our kingdomhall. Some brothers chose the colors and set out a plan for thursday through saturday. I went working in the hall yersterday and worked so hard that I was hurting this morning..I guess I should have taken a break..:P Anyway it is definatly worth it. While everything was in it, the chairs and everything it sure did look nice. But once you take away everything and get a close look you can see it definately needs some new paint. The new paint is a little too pink in my opinion, but as long as it looks good and clean I'm ok with it:)
I've made a bunch of pics, so I'll upload them when we've finished so that you can see the before-after differences.
AND!!! most important, birdie arrived this morning!! me and my mom went to the airport to wait for her, then Lori took her home and brought her in the afternoon. She's spending the weekend at our place since Lori is away for twoor three days with her husband's family.
She'll probably go to her daughter after that, but that depends on how the situation is.
I'll upload the pics later on! Hope you're all fine, please let me know
Love you!
merel
I'm sorry I haven't thought about posting anything.
But I'll tell you what I've been up to lately. I started school again, which I had to get used to again. It had been almost 6 months since last time I went to school. But everything was going so quickly and we had to keep up with all the courses so I got used to really quickly. I also started my internship at my old highschool a couple of weeks ago. All the teachers constantly ask me whether I'll come and join them in their lessons. Me and another student started doing a small project with one of our classes. We're doing task based learning, which means that the teacher is not instructing the students but supports them. We had to set up a webquest for one of our courses at the faculty and we're using that now. (if you'd like to see it: http://be-our-guest-webquest.webquestmaker.nl/city_trip)
Yesterday we've started painting our kingdomhall. Some brothers chose the colors and set out a plan for thursday through saturday. I went working in the hall yersterday and worked so hard that I was hurting this morning..I guess I should have taken a break..:P Anyway it is definatly worth it. While everything was in it, the chairs and everything it sure did look nice. But once you take away everything and get a close look you can see it definately needs some new paint. The new paint is a little too pink in my opinion, but as long as it looks good and clean I'm ok with it:)
I've made a bunch of pics, so I'll upload them when we've finished so that you can see the before-after differences.
AND!!! most important, birdie arrived this morning!! me and my mom went to the airport to wait for her, then Lori took her home and brought her in the afternoon. She's spending the weekend at our place since Lori is away for twoor three days with her husband's family.
She'll probably go to her daughter after that, but that depends on how the situation is.
I'll upload the pics later on! Hope you're all fine, please let me know
Love you!
merel
Monday, August 27, 2007
note
I've got a whole bunge of other pics, basically of the second week that I will upload later on since it takes quite a while.
love merel
love merel
pics part two
Our appartments and the beach/rocks
sights in the mountains:
beach pics
Irapetra and its market, boulevard etc
He probably didn't survive..his mom wasn't there. The Island of Crete is famous for 'the thousands of wild cats living on the streets.
Restaurant on the boulevard that day and our view on the small beach next to it:
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