04-14-03 @ 7:01 am EDT

Part two of {user:poetnb}'s Manitou Island fanfic! Woohoo!

In case you missed the first part...

An Entry I'm Very Happy To Share! :D

And now on to the story... :)

No sooner had Charmian opened her eyes again that she realized that Jocelyn was holding both of the wrists steadily in front of her. He had a scared and puzzled look on his face, because he wasn't sure what had just happened. Charmian's eyes grew wild and she suddenly pushed her arms down to break the grip and pushed Jocelyn to the floor, yelling out to him as she left.

-"I've got to use the payphone," she said, running now as she bolted out of the diner to the street. People were staring as she ran past them on the sidewalk to the payphone on the corner. She dug out some change from her jeans pockets, deposited a quarter in the slot and pressed 0.

-"Operator, how may I help you?," greeted a cheerful voice.

-"I need to make a long distance collect call to area code 806-454-6261."

-"Who may I say is calling?" the operator dutifully asked.

-"Charmian, she knows me," Charmian said, slowly losing patience as she fidgeted with the receiver. She listened to the dialogue between the operator and Drake's mom and then the line was connected.

-"Charmian, how nice of you to call."

-"Hi Mrs. D," Charmian said, which was her nickname for her, "I'm afraid I have some terrible news." She swallowed hard and bit her lower lip.

-"Oh? Someone sick in your family?" Drake's mother inquired in a concerned tone of voice.

-"It's about Drake, something has happened to him," Charmian said, as she tried to ease the bad news in as gently as possible.

-"Just a moment, I'll go get him, he's outside." She quickly put the phone down, Charmian hearing it come in contact with a hard surface.

By this time Jocelyn was standing next to Charmian outside the phone booth gesturing to her, wondering what was going on. Charmian got a huge grin on her face as she repeatedly said, "Drake's alive, he's not dead."

Just then an annoyed voice came over the phone; it was Drake's. "Charm, what are you trying to do, get me grounded? My mom was asking me a whole bunch of questions! There's a big dance tonight!"

-"Drake, Drake, it's so good to hear your voice!" Charmian said, caught up emotionally.

Drake heard her sniffling and thought she had been crying. "Are you OK, Charm? Why do you sound so upset?"

-"You wouldn't understand if I tried to explain it to you, and yes I'm OK. I'm just happy to talk to you."

"You want me to come over, because...." Drake started to say before Charmian cut him off.

-"No, no, no, stay where you are, don't leave the house with your car," Charmian urged, suddenly remembering the crash she saw in the dream.

-"That's what I was going to say, I can't come over because I sold the car this morning. I'm going to use part of the money to pay for some of my college tuition. It was my dad's idea."

-"Smart man, that dad of yours." Charmian didn't know what else to say as she was sure that Drake wouldn't understand if she told him about the vision or dream she just had fifteen minutes ago. Jocelyn was still outside the booth making pointing gestures at his watch. To that Charmian just gave him the one minute signal with her hand and continued talking to Drake.

-"So, um...care to tell me what all this is about?" inquired Drake. "I'm sure you weren't calling to get me in trouble or ask me to the dance as I already have a date," he said proudly.

-"Oh, you big goof! I'll be up tomorrow afternoon, if that's OK. I have to go now; tell your mom that I'm sorry if I worried her and I'll be there to try and explain."

-"Yup, I just told her and she said that if you take the early bus, you can join us for a late lunch and be here by one o'clock."

-"Bye Drake, take care."

-"Bye Charm!"

Charmian hung up the phone and she looked outside the phone booth, seeing Jocelyn whose expression was full of questions that she couldn't answer. She couldn't tell him about Manitou Island as even Drake didn't remember any of it himself. It was something that was like a dream or from a best-selling fantasy novel. She had questions herself as to why Tal Natha would send her such a dream? Since she was awake at the time, it would have to be a vision. She just didn't understand the "how and why now" part of it. Reluctantly, she stepped out of the booth and hugged a baffled Jocelyn tightly in her arms, kissed him on the cheek and apologized.

This puzzled Jocelyn even more as Charmian wasn't one to show any public displays of affection above holding hands. True, that she'd never had to apologize for anything before as she was well organized and always on time. Still it bothered him, that in the last thirty minutes, he saw her emotions go from one extreme to the other. It wasn't like her to fly off the handle like that, even more so in a public place. Then, during the phone call, she went from tears to grins and then laughing again. On top of that she got out of the phone booth and hugged and kissed him, which was a first for him in public. He thought he knew her, but now it was all put into question. He didn't understand why it was so urgent to make that call--and to whom had she made it? Questions started to pop into his head like balls in a pinball machine, but he decided that he would let her tell him when she was ready. He still expected an explanation for her strange behavior.

It was all so new to Charmian to have to explain her actions to someone else. As they walked down the street, hand in hand, she didn't know where to begin. Jocelyn's silence didn't help either. Did he think that she was some kind of mad woman on the loose? Her behavior was unlike anything she was sure that he was accustomed to, and so unladylike. She wondered what went on in his head. If only she were back on the island where she could listen in on people's thoughts.

As they walked by an appliance store which had a huge store front window displaying TV sets, most were airing the Mid-Day News. The big flashy colors of the words: "This just in..." caught her eye and both of them stopped and stared as the news station scanned the news stories they were going to cover in the next half hour. The car crash was the first to appear and Charmian blurted out: "That's the car!

-"What car?" Jocelyn asked, as he seemed lost as to what she was talking about.

-"The car that crashed!" Charmian exclaimed as she yanked him inside the store. "I have to see this story, about the car that crashed, I'll explain later if I can." Now they were both inside the store looking at several television sets all set to the same news broadcast, waiting for the commercials to go by. Then the news came back on.

The anchor woman started to describe the accident.

-"A terrible accident happened just an hour ago on highway 108 and KRCV News was there. Our traffic helicopter was headed to the Hindle Expressway when it crossed highway 108 and spotted a car out of control. We have it on tape. Dale Tilley, our helicopter camera man, will describe what he saw. Dale? Can you hear me?"

The whole time the cameraman was describing what he saw as it played back simultaneously.

-"Yes Angela! It was a single car accident and for no apparent reason it started to swerve and took the ditch, knocked down that speed limit sign and then swerved a few times more and ran into the cement structure of the Hanwell Road overpass. There were no attempts to slow down and no brake marks that you can see on the video, so possibly the driver was deceased before the crash. Back to you, Angela."

Just then after watching the news broadcast, Charmian felt ill to her stomach and wanted out of the store. She yanked Jocelyn by the arm; they went outside the store and she just stood on the sidewalk with both hands covering her face. Jocelyn brought her close to him, with her hands still over her face; her head rested on his shoulder as he lightly put his arms around her to comfort her. The scene on the news played out in the same manner as she had seen in her vision. She had the same bird's eye view as did the helicopter crew. But what did Augwak have to do with this? Were the vision and his greeting her two separate incidents? Now that she knew that the vision came true, what about Augwak? Would she have to face him, on the mainland and without her elemental powers? She broke her hold from Jocelyn and looked at him straight in his eyes.

-"We need to talk."

There may be only one more part to the story, so so stay tuned to this journal! And thanks P.! ^_^