User:Evangeline Catherine Pharaoh/sandbox

Evangeline Catherine Pharaoh*'s alternative ending to Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt.

Winnie woke up to sunlight and humming. Humming? Mother and Grandmother never hummed, and they never let in sunlight as to not

ruin the old family portraits.

All of a sudden the weight of yesterdays events came crashing down on her like a burden too heavy to carry. She gasped, it was

almost like the pressure was real. Whether she would admit it or not she missed her spotless house with her immaculate, stoic

family and her soft down mattress.

As Winnie sat up and peered over her make-shift bed she saw Mae hurrying over with knitting needles and a half finished green

scarf in one hand, and a maternal frown on her face, “Child, are you well?”, asked Mae in an worried tone. “Perfectly fine.”, she

said despite her aching neck.

“Where is everybody?” asked Winnie, “Well Tuck should be upstairs still sleeping I suppose, and the boys’ll be back with the

breakfast in no time”, Mae answered with a glance at the door.

At that second Miles and Jesse burst through the door carrying armloads of food. Winnie stood up abruptly spilling the blanket to

the floor, and self-consciously pressed her wrinkled dress with her hand while smoothing back her tangled unruly hair. Jesse

laughed “There’s no need for that here Winnie Foster, we ain’t judgein’ you.”, Winnie blushed as Miles and Mae grinned at her. But

while the others plopped down in their chairs she sat daintily.

The smell of bacon, eggs, and toast wafted up to the second floor and brought Tuck

bounding down the stairs with a creak at every step. He sighed “Been dreamin’ again.”, “About what?”, Miles asked curiously as he

helped himself to a glass of milk.

But he didn’t answer “About that heaven.”, Mae said angrily waving the wooden spoon she was cooking the scrambled eggs with in the

air. ”I dream about it all the time. A place where life just ends where, where…. I don’t know -since I’ve never been there- but

somewhere good.” said Miles softly. “Well it ain’t no good dreamin’ about what you can’t have.”, Mae continued as Jesse and

Winnie picked off the bits of egg that fell on their clothes during her outburst.

Mae took a deep breath and scooped out the remaining eggs out of the pan into a bowl and brought it over to the table. For the

next twenty minutes there was no sound except for forks scraping plates and the occasional burp.

All of a sudden there was urgent knocking at the door, Mae got up but Jesse put a hand on her shoulder, “ I got it.” he said

quietly. As he approached the door the rapping became immensely loud and frantic. Finally as Jesse swung the door open there was

a small fist raised as if prepared to knock again.

Connected to that fist was a small wrinkled old lady dressed fully in black who bared her toothless smile at Jesse and stalked

into the room boldly. She bowed formally in Mae’s and Tuck’s direction, shaking as she rose and said, “May I dine with you this

feast kind ones? I am famished since my poor stomach hasn’t seen food for a long time.”, Tuck stared blatantly with his mouth

agape while Mae rose out of her chair and said “Our pleasure. Come sit down in my place since,” she glanced around the room, “we

don’t have any spare ones.”.

“Bless your kind sou-, bless you and your family.”, the old crone mumbled. She sat down swiftly and started wolfing down the

food with her eyes glued to the plate, and her hand clasped protectively around the fork lest someone try and snatch it away from

her. After she had eaten her fill, Miles stood up to leave. But she clasped his elbow with an iron hard grip and said “ No. All

of you must be here.” He sat down eyeing the old lady suspiciously.

“For your great hospitality, and kind open hearts I wish to reveal a secret to you. Yes I know about your immortality, and yes I

do know of a way to rid you of it. And you,”, she said pointing to Winnie, “ you must continue the journey with them guiding

them. Although they are a great deal wiser than you, you shall be come my successor. Here is a map,”, she said while taking

something out of her shirt,” of where you must go.” .But it wasn’t a map. She took out a small glass vial with a swirling green

gas inside and pulled the stopper.

“O spiritus prophetia a intra et intrare alia pura

mente quia iube tempus futuracognoscente et sapientia quaesitor. Intrare aliud quoniam dies numerati. Videoanimam et est mundus et

habet potentia vobis. Intrare. Intrare.”, She sang as she circled Winnie’s chair. The green mist swirling around her as the Tucks

stared. Then suddenly the green mist enveloped Winnie and entered through her mouth.” oh spirit of the prophecy,” Winnie

translated, “`enter this pure soul of a wisdom seeker and knowledge wanter for my days are numbered. Enter. Enter.”.

Suddenly she felt wisdom blossom in her head making her smarter than her eleven years. She felt her body being stretched and she

grew another foot and a half taller, and her hair grew another forty two inches making her mentally and physically an 15 year old.

Then the lady vanished. The Tucks stopped staring and flew into panic. Their jumble of voices grew louder and louder until they

saw green smoke spew out of Winnie’s mouth,

“Hither to the river that has made you so, go on horse or foot do not row a boat, There you will find the thing you most seek, but

to travel this journey you must not be weak, There are challenges along the way, and tempting lies might lead you astray."

Winnie spoke this but her voice was more mature and it seemed the words were forming on their own using Winnie to talk.

“We have to go!” said Jesse. “And leave everything behind?” argued Miles. “What is there to leave behind?“, Jesse argued hotly.

But it was no matter what they said because Tuck’s eyes were lit up with excitement. “we are going, and that is final.”, he said

in a whisper and then hurried off to pack. As they all left with provisions they found a horse. Once Winnie was seated on it she

spoke in the mystical way again “Follow the river my dear children, follow it to its source.”. After a mile their house was being

knocked on by none other than the Fosters.

As Arthur Foster broke down the door his first thought of the empty house is “They’re hiding her.”. He searched the whole house

turning it upside down in the process but found nothing. Shaking with rage he bellowed at John Doe “You lying weasel!”, “You

know where she is don’t you! You‘re just here to scam me out of my good earned forest” he said angrily as he pushed his sleeves

up “Once I get my hands on you…..”. You must understand, Mr. Foster was an imposing man. A former lumberjack he was tall with

bulging biceps. In other words not a man you want to anger for fear of your physical health. Mr. Doe was unaffected by this

outrageous accusation, he calmly brushed the spittle off his yellow suit lapel and said “ All right sir if you insist…..” and

punched him in the nose. He quietly walked away blowing on his fist not to be found ever again.

Only afterwards did Arthur see that his wife Abigail, had followed him and was sobbing softly at the threshold of the house. As he

neared her, soft-spoken Abigail lunged at him banging her tiny fists on his chest sobbing “Why?! Why did you lose our only chance

at finding our daughter, our only daughter by losing your temper!”. He hugged her as silent tears streamed down his face because

he knew that she spoke the truth.

As the Tucks and Winnie continued up the river in search of the thing they most seek bears came and attacked so did wolves but

they were always shooed away yet to return again. By the fourth night of their journey they all slept under the stars even though

they could barely see any with the numerous trees. As Winnie was trying to find what grandmother used to call “the big dipper”

Jesse laid down next to her and asked “So have you thought about it yet Winnie Foster?”, She answered with a sigh “Jesse I don’t

know yet. I’m sorry.”.

“No worries.”, he said cheerfully “When you got all the time in the world why be impatient?”. They exchanged small talk though

there wasn’t much of it and Jesse slid back to his old spot. Then Miles came over, extended a hand and said “Would you care to

take a walk?”. She took his hand and got lifted off the ground. As they walked Miles warned her “Jesse can be cheerful about our

style of life but I want to warn you that its not all fun and games I once had a family and… and now they are all gone into the

world above but I can’t join them.Believe it or not its heartbreaking. But what I would like to know Winnie is,” but they were cut

off by Winnie spewing more green smoke but no words of prophecy were uttered. The words were speaking in her mind telling her:

“He is the one. Do not drink from the river until your twenty first birthday or you shall be doomed. Your children will bring

Faith, Grace, and Hope to the world, when it desperately needs it.”, over and over again until she mentally said “ Enough!” then

it became silent. Miles had a troubled look on his face and said “Another night then.”.

Months flew by. Mae was counting the days and when it came up to Winnies birthday they didn’t know if she was twelve or sixteen.

Life was unremarkable and the same every single day. But then they finally reached a sign that read:

Quaesitum est, mille passus prorsus desiderium sitis. Accidet quod mente meliusvel in

deterius corpora passione. Summa cautio est, ultrices vitae ingredi.

“I know what that means!” exclaimed Winnie “The sign says ‘In exactly one mile is what you seek to thirst your desire. It will

affect you mentally, physically and emotionally for the better or for the worse. Enter with extreme caution for this is

life-changing.’ its Latin.”

As they stopped there to rest Miles took her aside and said in the shade and privacy of an large oak tree saying “I know this is

rushed and I don’t have your father’s permission but,” he said as he knelt on one knee and opened a box to reveal an egg sized

jewel on a golden band.

“will you marry me Winnie Foster?,” he continued, “If this place where we are going to is real then I‘ll have something to make

me start ageing now. I- I love you. The way you smile, how you‘re so kind, your laugh; I love it all.”.

Winnie was stunned. How could she say yes? She told Jesse that she would think about

his unofficial proposal now his brother asks her with a ring waiting in his hand. Then she

remembered the prophecy voice “He is the one.” and then it mentioned children. Was this

a sign telling her that she should marry him? But all she did is say “Ask Jesse for his blessing too.” and then she ran to Mae to

help fold the tents to distract her from seeing Miles confused, hurt face.

Arthur paced back and forth in the tucks living room, knowing every single detail from his constant searches for his Winnie. His

mother-in-law Ethel idly picked up a box with a crank on the side. It was a handsome thing, with a silver background and etchings

of flowers on the sides. Ethel turned the crank curiously and gasped, this was the elf music. Her eyes filled with tears thinking

how foolish she had been all those years, now her foolishness had caused Winnie to slip away from her while she was taking a nap.

She collapsed into a heap on the floor and died as a victim of a heart attack.

Abigail placed her mothers head on her lap crying. Two of her closest family members had left her in the past four months. She

cried so loudly that all the wildlife started scurrying away from the odd structure in the middle of the woods.

As the Tucks and Winnie got closer and closer they saw a great tree. And from its roots the river was formed. It had apples of metallic gold, silver, and bronze; and earthy tones of red, and green. They were so luscious that your mouth watered the instant you laid your eyes on them.

Jesse approached the tree and out came a voice from the sky “Jesse Tuck, you desire

someone to be with you on your adventures, a best friend. Plant the seed of the bronze apple in the ground and water it

with the water of the River of Immortality.”. Jesse did so hastily. As the final drop of water fell from his hand to the earth a

young man sprung up, shook hands with Jesse and engaged a lively conversation with him and they walked into the woods together

planning their next trip.

Mae and Tuck came next since ‘the voice’ beckoned them over. “Angus and Mae you wish for an escape of this life or as one of you

may call it - heaven. Pick the Green Apple from the tree since it is the Apple of Age. Take one bite and your souls will be

free.”. Tuck and Mae looked at each other lovingly and embraced each other as they took the

bite. They dissolved into the air with smiles on their faces.

“Miles Tuck approach the tree.”, said ‘the voice’ “take the Red Apple for it is the Apple of Dreams. Bite it only one and your

Deepest dream will come true.”, Miles picked the Apple, looked at Winnie and bit it. Instantly there was a small cottage with

daises in the front and a back yard with a garden and lambs, and kids( the baby goats). Winnie gasped, this was her dream house

she drew when she was seven. She loved the house ever since the day she made it and now it came to life.

“Last but certainly not the least Winnie Foster. Pluck the Golden Apple and split it into two halves and it will bathe in a golden

light who your destiny intertwines with.”,. As she did the light around Miles turned into a majestic gold. Winnie smiled and took

his hand. The got happily married the next day and lived in their cottage. But not alone, they had three daughters. Just like the

prophecy stated. Their oldest was Faith the middle child was Grace and the youngest was Hope. They lived up to their names and

gave their mother all those things. But they still had to go and meet the rest of the world.

But as their mothers story just ended, theirs has barely begun.


 * Evangeline Catherine Pharaoh is an alias for Ariella Sarah Banayan