Anita and Marvin Part 2

Chapter 2 – Marvin’s Past

 

In the bedroom, stars glistened through a crack in the curtains. Anita sat by the window gazing at the stars with a smile when she overheard Marvin speaking aloud continuously in his sleep; “I’ve lost my friends. Glad I’ve got someone.” Hearing this made Anita look fascinated and moved closer to listen. She knew that he would never tell her, so she tiptoed to the library to climb the ladder. 

 

Anita knew what she was looking for. She went to the left of the line of books and pushed on a leather covered book, creating a domino effect so the end book fell flat on to the floor.  Anita jumped down with her arms out landing on her feet. She walked to the book, “Potions with friends” lying on the floor, with its heavy cover closed tight.  She opened the cover with great interest, and sees a photograph of a young Marvin and a group of friends with their arms over each other’s shoulders. Smiling and happy.  She felt blessed and turned the page to see another photo of Marvin standing with a man with jet black hair, and glasses perched on a big purple nose. In the background stood another man who was holding a rabbit by the ears with his right hand and a wand in his left.

 

Anita kept turning the pages to see more photos of his friends. She reached the end and found a piece of paper with an address written on it with in pen. Suddenly the lights came on. Anita jumped. She turned around to see Marvin. “Anita, what are you doing?”

 

Anita jumped on the book and pretended that she was fast asleep, covering the address with her shirt. Marvin picked her up by the collar of her shirt and put her in his pocket thinking; “what could she possibly doing at my library at this sort of hour?” Anita held onto the address tightly as he lifted her off the floor. The next morning, Anita to her surprise found herself back in the birdbox. Marvin was cooking breakfast; she could smell toast and her stomach grumbled.

 “Marvin, what sort of delicious breakfast are you making? I’m starving.”

“First of all you were caught sneaking into the library last night without asking my permission… and I’m making toast… like usual… with butter. I can serve it in your birdbox?”Marvin sneered sarcastically.

Anita begged him, “Ok Marvin, you’re the boss; I’ll do as you say. But please can I come out of this birdbox?” Marvin kindly opened the roof and she jumped onto his hand, setting her down on the counter.

“Anita, why did you go to my library again? What is there in that library that interests you so much?”

“I like to read books. You have such a big library that I just couldn’t resist.” 

Marvin smiled, “my dear silly Anita, if that is the case then I feel it would be better if you ask me and I’ll gladly get you one to read every day. I’m the owner so it wouldn’t be a problem to find the books you want to read.” Anita was relieved that he didn’t find the address she had been hiding. She decided that until she worked out a plan to find a way to help her best friend, she wasn’t going to rest.

 

It was night again; Marvin was fast asleep. Anita squinted in the dark trying to see the address on the paper. The paper looked old and worn, with faded letters. She wondered who lived there and why Marvin was so secretive.

 

 The next morning, Marvin woke up Anita very early and carried her outside the hut. “Marvin, where are we going?” she whispered. “I hope it’s one of your magical tricks again?”

 Marvin replied in a hush tone, smiling; “if you stay silent then the suspense won’t be ruined.” Anita was hyperactive and suspicious, noticing a theme park up ahead. A big sign read: ‘Marvin’s Theme Park’.  Anita whispered in his ear,

“Marvin, this was a wonderful surprise for me. I’ve never been to a theme park before. Thank you so much. Do they have slides like the ones they have at swimming pools?” Marvin smiled and stayed silent.

Anita was placed on the ground. She ran towards a rollercoaster, she immediately became frightened at how big it was.  “Marvin, if it’s ok with you, can we please skip this ride? And try another one first? I’m sure they are much better than this one?” Marvin rubbed her on the head,

            “Don’t worry, I’m sure that you’re going to enjoy the rollercoaster and if you do get scared, you’ve always got me to hold onto.  Just close your eyes. Come on.” Anita smiled a nervous smile, Marvin sat her in his pocket and then sat in the front row.  The rollercoaster slowly moved up, stopping suddenly at an edge.

 

Anita held onto Marvin tightly, “is it over? Can we get out now please?” Marvin seeing her frightened, chuckled, which made Anita curious; “what’s so funny? Knock it off, I’m scared enough as it is and your laughing isn’t going to help me.”

 Marvin tried to hold it inside, “whatever you say Madam,” the rollercoaster swooshed down making her scream. Marvin shooshed her, “I understand you are scared, it’s your first experience on a rollercoaster but there was no need to be scared. I’m here.”

Anita replied, “I can’t heeelp iiittt!” she screamed back as the rollercoaster shot back in the air.  

 

As the rollercoaster came to a standstill, the bars came up and Anita and Marvin stepped out. Marvin saw Anita wobbling; he walked her over to ‘Marvin’s watershop’ and got her a drink. Anita thanked Marvin and smiled to see him happy for the first time. “Marvin?” Anita looked up at him and saw his shining white teeth, “what happened?”

Marvin gave a puzzled look, “what do you mean?”

Anita replied, “look how happy you’re feeling now you were on the rollercoaster with me. What happened between you and your friends?”

Marvin dropped silent with his teeth fading away into a very serious expression. Anita knew that he would never talk about this topic but thought that the only way to help him was to talk to him, “I’m your best friend so there’s no harm talking to me.” Marvin felt uncomfortable starting to fidget.

“Why spoil the day? How about you help me feed the dolphins?” Anita apologised, took his hand and walked towards the sea.

 

Marvin carried a bucket with raw fish and threw them one by one into the water. The dolphin comes towards Marvin, and peeps out with his nose, opening his mouth to greet them. Anita jumped off Marvin’s arm and the address falls out of her pocket. Marvin, focused on feeding the dolphins, did not see Anita picked up the paper and run towards the seashore. She found a large green leaf from a palm tree lying on the sand.  She drags the leaf towards the sea, grabbing a stick breaking in two, and launched herself onto the leaf into the water. Using the sticks as oars, she began to paddle towards the island in the distance.

 

 

 

Chapter 3 - Anita Meets Marvin’s Friends

 

 

 

Anita slowly opened her eyes. Blinking she saw a whisp of grey hair in the sunlight. Five old dwarves stood looking at her, she smiled. One placed her safely on the ground, whispering to themselves. A wise old dwarf carried Anita in his arm, grinning at her. Anita recognised him from the photograph.

 

“Why is she so small?” said one dwarf who was smaller than the others, and wore an eye patch over his left eye.

“She looks strange, how did she get here?” said another.

The dwarf that she recognised spoke softly, 

“Listen, I’m sure that she’s tiny because she must have eaten Marvin’s special sweet? It’s the only explanation.” The other dwarves were excited hearing his name once again gathering around Anita.

 

The dwarf looked down at Anita, “my dear, do you know Marvin?” He spoke softly and waited for to answer. Anita brushed hair away from her face and smiled;

“I do.” The dwarf beamed and his face lit up. The other dwarves hurried closer to listen in.

“He was our friend, he worked hard to look after us and we were fools to leave him.” The dwarf said with his head turned down to the ground, in shame.

Anita reached up and touched his shoulder; “what is your name?” Anita asked, reassuringly.

“Sparky,” he replied.

“It’s lovely to meet you, my name is Anita. I do know Marvin, he is my friend.” The dwarves stood up straight and stared at Anita. One by one they began to ask questions again.

 

“What is he up to?”

“Does he still perform magic?”

“How is his garden? I bet it’s magical?”

“Has he forgiven us?” It was this question that caught Anita’s attention.

 

“Forgive me, but Marvin never spoke about why you left. What happened?” Anita climbed down off of Sparky’s hand and onto the floor. 

“Who can forget the good ol’ days we spent together with Marvin?” Sparky began. “It was a Tuesday morning when we were due to do our final presentation after a number of successful magic shows. Marvin had been working on this special trick for months.  Marvin was so excited; it was finally time for him to show everyone how hard he had been working, and if he won, he was going to get a trophy from the mayor.  All the dwarves in the land had come to see us perform, the crowd was packed.  Marvin stood up on stage ready, and it went wrong. He was supposed to put a black hat over the rabbit, wave his wand and it was supposed to disappear. It didn’t. He tried countless times and he couldn’t make the rabbit disappear.  The crowd booed, and jeered at him. We should have been there, we should have helped… but we didn’t. We laughed. Marvin heard us, the look of sadness came over his face. Marvin felt like a failure, and we, his friends, just laughed at him.”

“That’s awful.” Said Anita. “No wonder he won’t talk about it.”

“That’s not all,” said Sparky.  “Marvin was so mad at us, he kept trying to make the rabbit disappear, waving his wand ferociously above his head. Until that rabbit fizzed and popped, then shrinks, and turns into a pile of sweets.  Marvin is happier that this works, and gets a boy up on stage; he wanted to show that his magic worked and was real. He got this little boy to eat a sweet. Right there in front of the mayor and the crowd of dwarves, that little boy shrunk. Smaller than you are now. And we laughed. Not a little chuckle, we laughed a lot. Marvin was hurt and ran off.  We couldn’t go back, we were ashamed and embarrassed of him, we didn’t want to be a laughing stock. So we left. Sailed away.”

 

Anita felt sorry for Marvin, “you know what you did wrong. No wonder he didn’t want to discuss you.” Sparky pleaded with his hands folded;

 “I’m sorry of what I did but please could you take us back to Marvin to show him that we’ve changed?” Anita liked their spirit,

 “good, that’s a brilliant idea.”

They sailed back to their original hut but once Marvin saw the boat approaching. He could make out the faces of his old friends and stopped watering the plants suddenly.  He moved towards them but as they stretched out their hand to greet him, he asked; “Anita, I would like to discuss something privately with you if you don’t mind?”

 

“Wait here, I’ll be back soon. Everything is going to be alright,” said Anita knowing that he might react like this.

“Why did you just vanish in the first place and then turn up here with them? They just abandoned me years ago when I needed their support so what makes you think that I would easily forgive them now? And you for that matter?”

Anita replied, “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to worry you. Sparky and his friends feel really sorry for what they did, they said so themselves. I think you should give them another chance.” Marvin felt confident, “ok, I will but it’s only because you’re telling me and besides the only reason I let you stay in my hut for longer is because you’ve always been there for me.” Marvin mustered up courage and walked outside to face his friends again after a long time. “You guys had already decided what sort of life you wanted to lead and I’ve long gotten over you so what do you need me for anymore?” Sparky and the others stepped out with their heads hanging in shame;

 “Marvin, old buddy, how can we forget the good times we had? We shouldn’t have made fun of you. Can you please forgive us?”

 

 

 

 

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