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So who really is
Mary-Lou?
Mary-Lou
Lemington is the main character in my
as yet unpublished novel, Evereve. Here are four pages from Mary-Lou's diary, written in the months leading up to her descent into iWorld, as documented in Evereve.
Diary entry #1
A
dark shadow
I
knew something was wrong when I woke up this morning. That’s because
I couldn’t wake up. Not really. I felt the same way I used to feel when
I was little, like part of me was stuck inside a dream.
It was all very
well back then but I turned 13 today. I’m too old for daydreaming and
make-belief.
I
got the strangest feeling when I was helping Aunt Willow hang
streamers for the party. I thought I saw a dark shadow pass
through the
room and got this icy feeling inside, like all the joy had been sucked
out of the world. It was all in my imagination of course.
Aunt
Willow must have seen me shudder
because she asked me what was
wrong. I told her I’d pricked myself with a tack but she didn’t look
convinced. I swear, it’s as if she can read my mind sometimes.
If
only I’d known. The worst was yet to come.
Diary entry #2
My birthday wish
 I’m never going to live
this one down. My birthday party was a total disaster.
First off I
didn’t even like most of the kids there. They only came because they
wanted to hang around with my sister, Cordelia.
It’s pathetic. Just because she’s the captain of the cheerleading team
and the most popular
girl at the school does NOT mean she’s anything
special. I should know. I’ve had to put up with her for 13 years.
Gossipy
Gertrude
brought the usual gang of Cordelia-wannabes from
my class at
school. I can’t stand them. They’re always walking around preening
themselves and giggling at boys. Most of them barely said ‘Hello’ to me
and not one of them brought me a present. By the time it came for
me to cut the cake, I wanted nothing more than for them all to
disappear. I was getting ready to make a birthday wish to that effect
and then something worse (or from my point of view, far better)
happened. They turned into demons.
Cordelia
almost choked on the celery stick she'd been chewing on for ten minutes
when a pair of horns
came shooting out of her forehead. Her best
friend, Melissa, jumped out of her seat squealing and knocked over the
punch. Gertrude burst out laughing when she saw the tail poking out
from under Melissa’s ridiculously short skirt. Then Katie pointed
out that there was a huge wart
growing on Gertrude's nose, which sent
her into hysterics. It was chaos. It was brilliant. Of course I knew it
wasn’t really happening.
I
was just having another one of my daydreams,
the kind I haven’t had
since I was seven years old, the kind I had never expected to have
again. It’s as if the things I’m dreaming about are really happening,
not in this world but in another world, a place where you can imagine
anything into existence. I know it’s ridiculous. I wish I would stop
feeling like this and the daydreams would just go away once and for
all. That’s my true
birthday wish.
When
I snapped out of my daydream, I found myself still standing over the
cake with a knife in my hand. Aunt Willow told me later that I had been
standing there like a statue for several minutes with a glazed look in
my eyes. No wonder Gertrude and her gang were staring at me like I was
crazy. I bet they can’t wait to tell everyone how I flipped out at my
party. Another summer of being called Loony Lou... Great,
I can’t wait!
Diary entry #3
Is it about me?
 Something’s
going on and nobody’s telling me anything. Every time I walk in on my
parents, they stop talking and put on these fake smiles.
I caught them whispering about something the other day but when I tried
to ask them about it, they acted like everything was OK. This morning
at breakfast my mum had tears
in her eyes and my dad looked like he hadn’t slept in a
week.
Is it about me? I’ve
been spacing out every day since my birthday. I try to hide it by
spending most of my time in my room. But I can’t hide from the truth:
The daydreams have returned. When I woke up this morning, I thought I
saw a figure sitting at
the end of my bed. He was was sitting with his back to me
and wearing a long black cloak. It totally creeped me out.
The
thing is that I don’t think my family have noticed any of this. My
parents are too caught up with whatever’s going on with them. And my
sister might as well be living on another planet for all the notice she
takes of me. These days she’s obsessing about some new boyfriend of
hers.
I
hope it’s not about me. I hope my parents haven’t noticed my descent into madness.
I hope they’re not planning to lock me up in a nut-house and throw away
the keys.
I
guess time will tell…
Diary entry #4
My stranger dad
 Things
have got even stranger since I last wrote. I mean a LOT stranger. The
only good thing is that I’m pretty sure that it’s not about me. I tried
bringing up my daydreams to my mum yesterday and she totally fobbed me off,
saying I was probably just nervous about starting high school in
September. Seriously, that’s the last thing on my mind.
You
don’t know my dad. (Right now I don’t feel like I know my dad.) But
normally he’s this funny jolly man with a big smile and a loud laugh
that everyone loves. He’s always there for me when I need him and he
never has a bad word to say about anyone. That’s my normal dad.
Now
meet my stranger dad,
the one moping around in his pajamas downstairs like the world’s going
to cave in on him. I found him dozing off on the sofa this morning when
he should have been at work. When I pointed this out, he looked startled, like he
hadn’t realized it was Monday or something, then mumbled something
about taking the day off.
A
day off! My dad never takes a day off. He loves his job. He works at a
museum categorizing old bones, or artifacts as he calls them. That
might sound boring to you and me but he seems to find it endlessly fascinating.
Someone dug up something from a garden in Tumble Town the week before
my birthday and it’s all he could talk about for days. And now, it’s as
if nothing matters to him anymore, not his job, not his life...not even
me.
CLICK HERE to read a series of letters between iWorld's inhabitants
RETURN HOME from your visit to Mary-Lou Lemington to read more about the top 100 fantasy books and top 100 fantasy movies of all time
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