Monkey Business: The Garnet Talisman #2

By Virginia A Trahan

While walking home from her first day at school after her summer vacation, a teenage girl, Anna Grant, finds a beautiful gold and garnet necklace tucked in a box. It appears to have come from the other side of the world. She believes this discovery will be her lucky talisman, but soon discovers it is much more than that; it has the magical abili

• Language: English
• Publisher: CVTrahan Publishing
• Release date: Nov 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781736947388

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Monkey Business

(The Garnet Talisman Trilogy #2)

Virginia A. Trahan

CVTrahan Publishing

Tioga, TX USA

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and

incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2021 by

Virginia A. Trahan

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

ISBN: 978-1-7369473-9-5

This book was published in the U.S.A. by CVTrahan Publishing

What kind of chaos can rain cause? We all remember those major floods that destroyed people’s lives. At times, it can be disastrous, however, at the same time, it can inspire many and change lives in unexpected ways. The strength they’re left with can callous over the bad. Feel the rain… Don’t just get wet.

Chapter I - The Find

The South Memphis school bus was about to arrive late at the campus due to a cats-and-dogs rainfall. This was the first day of school for the School District. No one understood how, out of nowhere, the weather could change in an instant... Just like that! Lately, the weather had been quite warm, even hot; thirty days of balmy weather had everyone spoiled. This cloud burst was more of a torrential downpour. The heavy rain was supposed to start in two days. What a surprise when everyone had let their guard down. This wasn’t just some precipitation; it was a downright deluge! Main Street in downtown Memphis had already flooded.

This was the famous city of Memphis, Tennessee, once the home of Elvis Presley. Everyone that had lived here for any length of time was especially proud of that. No tourists would be visiting Graceland today, unless they had a boat.

Betsy and Billy Singley were brother and sister. They lived on the second floor right above Anna Grant’s apartment. They all became close, especially since Anna looked a lot like Betsy; just an older version. They were all drenched, while waiting at the bus stop. All three students stood on the corner of Main Street and Pine wondering if they might drown just by standing in this deluge without an umbrella. They each would agree that it really sucked to wait for a school bus without any cover or protection from a storm of this magnitude. It was the worst rainstorm that Anna could remember. The rain was teaming nonstop. Betsy and Billy had raincoats on, but Anna did not. It was kind of like getting a shower with your clothes on. None of the three teenagers had brought an umbrella.

Today the bus had to wade through water that many cars couldn’t navigate since it quickly covered their wheel wells. Their bus stop was on the corner of a very busy intersection and it was hard to even get a glimpse of the bus from where they stood. All the cars that passed by the trio splashed large waves of water on them. Not an inch of Anna’s attire was dry. Even an umbrella couldn’t have saved her today.

Anna was dressed in a new pair of jeans with a brand-new t-shirt that said ‘In God We Trust’. She had to ring out her pony tail when she had found a seat on the bus. She wished she had given up and gone home before it had arrived.

The bus was full of dazed teenagers and many were soaking wet, just like Anna. Their bus stop was the last one before arriving at the school. Everyone was sitting with a lost stare. No teasing or loud outbursts were heard, which was unusual, especially on the first day back from summer vacation.

Anna lived with her widowed mother Barbara and her brother Ray. Ray had graduated high school the previous year. He was temporarily working at a local bagel shop. He had hoped to start a job cooking at Carmela’s, one of the finer restaurants in the area. The head chef had been working there since they had opened fifteen years ago so, unfortunately, they weren’t hiring.

Ray’s desire in life was to save up enough money to go to cooking school. He had been saving for the past year and was very close to coming up with enough down payment for the entrance fee. The local Culinary Arts School in South Memphis was known throughout the South as a fine school for teaching the skills that are needed for working in any well-known gourmet restaurant.

Miriam, Anna’s grandmother, had been a waitress at Carmela’s during the day. She had recently retired and her daughter Barbara, Anna’s mother, started working that very same day. She had been plugging Ray’s creative talents to Buddy, her boss at Carmela’s, for some time.

Anna was about to start working as a bus-girl at Carmela’s on her sixteenth birthday which would be in two and a half weeks. As she exited the bus, when it arrived at the school, the last bell rang. She sprinted to the office. She explained that her tardiness was due to the bus’s late arrival. The principal’s secretary gave her an excuse note. Sherry recognized Anna and walked her to her designated homeroom. Anna walked along the corridor, soaked to the bone and embarrassed. She was getting water on the newly polished floor.

Sorry, I’m really dripping all over this floor.

Sherry said, Everyone is soaked today. No worries.

They were in the old wing of the school which was falling apart. There were buckets catching rain water in certain areas of the corridors. The ceilings were dripping in different classrooms. The new wing was impervious to the rain, but those classrooms were not completely finished for the students yet.

When she walked into her new homeroom, she looked at the teacher’s desk. There was a bucket sitting on it catching rain drips. She walked over to where her teacher was sitting and attempted to introduce herself to him. He was a balding man with pasty white skin who wore wire rimmed glasses. He had a slight beard that was mostly immature reddish blonde straggly hairs, like that of a teenager trying to grow his first beard. He was sitting in the front row of seats amongst the students. He didn’t seem to realize she was late. He was busy reading a text on his cell phone. He ignored her, while he smiled at his phone.

Hello Mr. Lee. Excuse me... Mr. Lee? Very slowly he searched to find out who was talking to him.

Yes? He looked up at her with a squinty quizzical expression.

My name is Anna Grant and I’m supposed to be in your homeroom, she said while trying not to drip on him. A bit of splattered rain reached him. He carefully tried to protect his phone by covering it with his hands.

Uhuh... Sarcastically he said, Well isn’t that special… Now sit! He turned away and continued to stare at his phone, drying the drips with a tissue. His eyes squinted tight while trying to dry every last drop.

Anna sat in a vacant seat directly behind the teacher. She was still soaking wet and fully embarrassed. She stood up from the seat leaving a puddle of water on the chair and headed toward a section of empty seating. She moved all the way to the far-right corner of the room. Water splattered as she walked down the narrow aisles. She tried to get far away from the jibber jabber that was going on inside the classroom. One guy that she passed was sitting on an end seat with his elbow sticking out. She accidently bumped into him.

Anna said, Excuse me. She noticed she had splattered water onto his arm. Oh, sorry.

He looked at her with pure disdain. His arm was soaked. He made an annoyed sound and with a grumpy tone said, Oh man! What’s wrong with you? You should bring your own towel along with your broom on rainy days like this, witch. He couldn’t believe he was dripped on and shook the water off his arm. He then glared at Anna with disgust. He flailed his arms up and down, as if she discharged cooties, and wiped his arm on his trousers. His friends next to him snickered.

She hurriedly squelched her way along the pristine linoleum floor to the last seat in the last row. A path of water trailed behind her as she made her way. Anna felt mortified. She turned her head in the opposite direction of the nasty boy. She wondered why she had even ventured out of her house. She could be home sitting on her bed with her sweet cat Sissy and a cup of hot chocolate while sketching her favorite gorilla.

Within minutes of that display, another drenched girl, almost as wet as Anna, walked in and sat down next to her, but in the adjacent row.

"Hi, my name is Kara. I’m not sure why he, Mr. Lee, wouldn’t talk to me. He seems brutal! I believe I’m in the correct homeroom. Maybe he was afraid I’d get him wet."

Anna shook her head and said, "He wouldn’t talk to me either. I don’t care if I’m in the right classroom or not. I’m not moving. It looks like you’re almost as wet as I am. What’s your last name?"

Jones.

You’re in the correct homeroom. Lee’s homeroom is ‘G’ through ‘K’. Let’s go to the restroom and get some paper towels to dry off. I feel like a slimy fish today.

Me too, yuck.

She looked at Kara and noticed a piece of jewelry around her neck. Wow! That’s a pretty necklace. What a beautiful yellow stone. Is that a gem stone like garnet?

"Yes, it is garnet; this is my talisman. It’s supposed to protect the wearer with good health and keeps you safe from harm."

A talisman, huh? She nodded her head. I guess it kept you safe from harm but…Who’ll stop the rain? My mom loved that son by Creedence Clearwater Revival. They both laughed.

No, it can’t stop nature. They both giggled some more.

  They stood up to walk to the restroom. Anna moved closer. She mentioned that the guy in the row they were about to walk down was strange. She whispered, Whoa, he’s staring at me. Stay clear of him. He made me feel like a piece of nothing; more like flotsam.

That same weird guy put his foot out so that Anna couldn’t walk by. She turned, laughed, and went a different direction. Kara followed. He looked somewhat disappointed. Anna and Kara headed toward the restroom laughing; it was just a bit longer of a route. They saw that water was seeping up from the floor and into the lavatory.

Ewww!

Anna said, Let’s get out of here. What would cause this bathroom to flood?

Water had started pouring into the bathroom from the floor.

The ravine must be flooded out. Once that happens it’s not safe around here. Let’s get outta here!

The bathroom had started to flood, and it stunk. The girls hurried back to the classroom and noticed it was flooding there also.

An announcement came over the loud speaker, The weather forecast is calling for very heavy rain. Anyone that would like may be excused and are encouraged to leave. You may call your parents. We do not have buses to take anyone home. You may stay on the second floor of the new wing temporarily if you do not have a ride home. There was a lengthy pause, then the announcement started again, Attention all students, the school is beginning to flood. We are asking everyone to take cover on the second floor. All students take cover on the second floor.

Anna and Kara decided to walk home. They were soaked to the bone anyway. As they began the walk home, Kara said, I’m going the wrong way. The girls realized that home was in different directions for them. They decided to go to the bagel shop to get a cup of hot cocoa.

Just down the street that now had five inches of water flowing along the road was The Corner Bakery Café. This was where many that lived in South Memphis frequented during their morning commute. The coffee was the best and their bagels were baked fresh daily. Anna’s brother worked there and it was near the school. That might warm their bones. The bagel shop was open and there weren’t any customers. Her brother was there and super excited someone had stopped by.

Hi Ray! Two hot cocoas please, Anna piped. Oh, and do you have a bagel we could both share, brother dear?

Ray ran to the back and found his sweatshirt jacket and covered Anna with it. You are soaked girl.

Kara smiled at Ray for being so sweet. He smiled back and asked Kara, Do you need something to warm you up.

Kara stared shyly. "How about