Read Online Doon (Doon Novel, A) by Carey Corp, Lorie Langdon - Free Book Online
Authors: Carey Corp, Lorie Langdon
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lore. I emerged from that summer a new creature; a confident, creative butterfly with an incurable obsession for theater.
Now, I resisted the urge to stomp the memento of my metamorphosis into shreds as I questioned whether Gracie’s passion had been tinged with madness all along. Maybe I’d just been too young to realize the most influential person in my life wasreally the village wacko who believed her jewelry opened the mystical portal to a hidden kingdom.
The part of me that loved my aunt could’ve forgiven her—except that she’d infected Vee with her insanity.
My best friend was so susceptible. She’d spent her entire life trying to escape into literary worlds, yearning for something or someone to make her feel special and give her a legacy greater than being the neglected daughter of crappy parents. Now that she had Doon, she wouldn’t let it go. Never mind that her quest would ruin our epic vacation and defraud the woman I’d idolized.
And since Vee had guzzled Gracie’s Kool-Aid, I knew she wouldn’t stop until she got to the bottom of Doon. If reading the journal would get this fantasyland out of her system faster, she could have it. Then hopefully we could continue our exploration of actual foreign lands with real Scottish hotties.
Grabbing the book from my dresser drawer, I shoved open my door and headed down the hall to Vee’s room. But it was empty. The overhead light illuminated a square of paper on her undisturbed bed, and I recognized Vee’s tidy cursive even before I could make out the single line she’d written. “K. Gone to check out the bridge—back soon. V.”
Fabulous
.
Vee’s neurotic interest in the Brig o’ Doon had her traipsing around the riverbank in the dead of night. What did she think would happen? That she’d click her heels three times and Doon would miraculously appear?
As I jogged down the steps to the main floor and slipped out the back, I realized this might work to my advantage. Vee would never accept that Doon was merely the delusions of an aging mind unless she had evidence. If that meant standing on theBrig o’ Doon with the rings chanting “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” to prove Aunt Gracie’s kingdom didn’t exist, then it was worth it.
I carefully picked my way over branches and rocks until the overgrown trail reached the illuminated path of the riverbank. The thunderstorms that had plagued Alloway the last two days had rolled through, leaving a tiny sliver of moon to guide me in the clear night sky. As I rounded the bend, I spied Vee sitting on a bench a few steps from the old bridge.
Aunt Gracie’s ruby ring sparkled from her finger as she lifted it to the light. The way she gazed at it, I half expected her to crouch over and start crooning, “My precious.”
As I approached, Vee’s head swiveled in my direction, relief shining from her luminous doe eyes. “I knew you’d come.”
“Of course. Remember that time as kids, I spent the whole night helping you search for the second star to the right? Or the time you read that museum story and I cashed out my entire piggy bank so we could hop a bus to Los Angeles and live inside Disneyland? And we would’ve made it if my dad hadn’t busted us.”
Rather than smile, Vee stubbornly shook her head back and forth. “This isn’t like that. I just need to find more proof.”
That was my cue. I pulled the leather volume from my back pocket and pressed it into her trembling hands. “Here … It’s not like I was going to read it anyway.”
Walking past my bestie, I stopped at the mouth of the bridge. Due to the streetlamps, it was as bright as high noon. There was no swirling mist, and thankfully no mythical kingdom in the distance. An unwelcome pang of disappointment registered as I accepted my aunt’s insanity. “What now, Vee?”
In the quiet, she walked up beside me, arms crossed over her chest. “How do you think the rings work?”
They don’t
.
But if she needed proof to get to that
Now, I resisted the urge to stomp the memento of my metamorphosis into shreds as I questioned whether Gracie’s passion had been tinged with madness all along. Maybe I’d just been too young to realize the most influential person in my life wasreally the village wacko who believed her jewelry opened the mystical portal to a hidden kingdom.
The part of me that loved my aunt could’ve forgiven her—except that she’d infected Vee with her insanity.
My best friend was so susceptible. She’d spent her entire life trying to escape into literary worlds, yearning for something or someone to make her feel special and give her a legacy greater than being the neglected daughter of crappy parents. Now that she had Doon, she wouldn’t let it go. Never mind that her quest would ruin our epic vacation and defraud the woman I’d idolized.
And since Vee had guzzled Gracie’s Kool-Aid, I knew she wouldn’t stop until she got to the bottom of Doon. If reading the journal would get this fantasyland out of her system faster, she could have it. Then hopefully we could continue our exploration of actual foreign lands with real Scottish hotties.
Grabbing the book from my dresser drawer, I shoved open my door and headed down the hall to Vee’s room. But it was empty. The overhead light illuminated a square of paper on her undisturbed bed, and I recognized Vee’s tidy cursive even before I could make out the single line she’d written. “K. Gone to check out the bridge—back soon. V.”
Fabulous
.
Vee’s neurotic interest in the Brig o’ Doon had her traipsing around the riverbank in the dead of night. What did she think would happen? That she’d click her heels three times and Doon would miraculously appear?
As I jogged down the steps to the main floor and slipped out the back, I realized this might work to my advantage. Vee would never accept that Doon was merely the delusions of an aging mind unless she had evidence. If that meant standing on theBrig o’ Doon with the rings chanting “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” to prove Aunt Gracie’s kingdom didn’t exist, then it was worth it.
I carefully picked my way over branches and rocks until the overgrown trail reached the illuminated path of the riverbank. The thunderstorms that had plagued Alloway the last two days had rolled through, leaving a tiny sliver of moon to guide me in the clear night sky. As I rounded the bend, I spied Vee sitting on a bench a few steps from the old bridge.
Aunt Gracie’s ruby ring sparkled from her finger as she lifted it to the light. The way she gazed at it, I half expected her to crouch over and start crooning, “My precious.”
As I approached, Vee’s head swiveled in my direction, relief shining from her luminous doe eyes. “I knew you’d come.”
“Of course. Remember that time as kids, I spent the whole night helping you search for the second star to the right? Or the time you read that museum story and I cashed out my entire piggy bank so we could hop a bus to Los Angeles and live inside Disneyland? And we would’ve made it if my dad hadn’t busted us.”
Rather than smile, Vee stubbornly shook her head back and forth. “This isn’t like that. I just need to find more proof.”
That was my cue. I pulled the leather volume from my back pocket and pressed it into her trembling hands. “Here … It’s not like I was going to read it anyway.”
Walking past my bestie, I stopped at the mouth of the bridge. Due to the streetlamps, it was as bright as high noon. There was no swirling mist, and thankfully no mythical kingdom in the distance. An unwelcome pang of disappointment registered as I accepted my aunt’s insanity. “What now, Vee?”
In the quiet, she walked up beside me, arms crossed over her chest. “How do you think the rings work?”
They don’t
.
But if she needed proof to get to that
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