“Don’t leave me!” Jennifer cried in Jell’s direction.<\/p>\n
Which was altogether pointless, but Jell didn’t complain.\u00a0 For 9 years, Jell had not left Jennifer.\u00a0 For 9 years, Jell had protected her.\u00a0 And, for 9 years, Jell had followed Jennifer wherever her whims had led them.<\/p>\n
So many adventures they had together those 9 years!\u00a0 The whims of Jennifer were wide and varied, and sometimes silly, and sometimes frighteningly dangerous.\u00a0 This was one of those dangerous times, perhaps the most dangerous, but Jell didn\u2019t complain.\u00a0 She would follow Jennifer into the depths of hell if that\u2019s where she wanted to go.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s really not that far from the truth this time<\/em>, Jell thought to herself as she looked back at Jennifer and motioned for her to come on.<\/p>\n Jennifer had led them into a volcano.\u00a0 Why they were in a volcano, Jell had no idea, and she was terrified, but she didn\u2019t complain.\u00a0 Jell was leading the way over the rocky steps trying to find the best path through.\u00a0 They were surrounded by lava and the safe places to step were few and far-between.\u00a0 The rocks appeared in places here and there like tiny rocky islands in an ocean of lava.\u00a0 Many of them were slippery.\u00a0 Occasionally, she\u2019d find a rocky outcropping large enough to rest for a minute, which she needed badly; maintaining her balance hopping from stone to stone was exhausting.<\/p>\n Breaking the silence, Jennifer cheerfully asked, \u201cHey do you remember that time I stitched up your neck?\u201d<\/p>\n Jell turned around and smiled.\u00a0 Jennifer was always so cheerful and it always made Jell\u2019s heart swell.\u00a0 Of course she remembered, it was one of her fondest memories.\u00a0 They had taken an adventure through the woods and had a horrible incident with a thorn bush.\u00a0 Jennifer had cried uncontrollably while she stitched up Jell\u2019s neck, and had continued crying long after.\u00a0 The cut had been minor, but it was large enough to require stitching.\u00a0 It hadn\u2019t been life threatening, though.\u00a0 The pain had been excruciating both before and after and especially during the stitching, but Jell had never complained; her only concern had been consoling Jennifer in some way.<\/p>\n Jennifer smiled back at Jell.\u00a0 And then they just smiled at each other for a moment, eventually breaking into a laugh; the kind of hearty laugh that can only be shared between the best of friends.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t laugh too hard, though, because they were still busy keeping their balance.<\/p>\n They carried on for a while, Jell in the front finding the path, and Jennifer happily following and laughing all the while.\u00a0 Jell was amazed at Jennifer\u2019s ability to laugh in the face of these dangerous situations.\u00a0 Jennifer really enjoys this stuff<\/em>, Jell thought, and suddenly she felt a swell of courage within and she pressed on ever more quickly.<\/p>\n The rocky islands came to an end at a cliff face; a cliff face so tall that they couldn\u2019t even see the top.\u00a0 Jell turned around to go back, but Jennifer was having none of that.\u00a0 She gaily jumped onto a thin ledge leading along the cliff and began to inch her way along it.\u00a0 Jell had no choice but to follow.<\/p>\n Jell\u2019s newfound courage vanished on the ledge. The ledge varied greatly in width and the lava below seemed ever hotter.\u00a0 The lava seemed to be bubbling more than it had around the stone islands, and even sometimes bubbled up to just below the ledge.\u00a0 Jennifer was undeterred, however, even as they came upon gaps in the ledge.\u00a0 She hopped across them with glee.\u00a0 Jell was terrified for Jennifer, but she didn\u2019t complain; she simply followed.<\/p>\n Jell was so relieved when the ledge finally came to an end.\u00a0 She thought for sure they would turn back.\u00a0 She thought they didn\u2019t have any choice.\u00a0 Of course, Jennifer had other ideas.\u00a0 She spotted another ledge just above them and decided to jump for it, but that ledge proved to be unclimbable.<\/p>\n Jennifer jumped and grabbed the ledge, but she did not find her grip. \u00a0She scrambled with both hands and flailed her legs in every direction as Jell frantically tried to think of a way to save her.<\/p>\n \u201cJelly Bean I\u2019m going to fall!\u201d<\/p>\n Then the ledge gave way and Jennifer came crashing down on top of Jell, followed immediately by the ledge crashing on top of both, and pushing them off the ledge at the same time!\u00a0 Jell\u2019s leg caught in a crack on the edge of the ledge, and she could only watch as Jennifer fell into the lava.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat are you doing this time?!\u201d mom asked exasperatedly as she ran into the room.<\/p>\n It was a good thing the floor wasn\u2019t actually lava.\u00a0 Jennifer turned out to be fine, but the book shelf that just broke earned her a massive scolding.\u00a0 Jell could only watch helplessly as she dangled from the bottom shelf.<\/p>\n Jennifer interrupted her scolding. \u201cI have to save Jelly Bean, she looks hurt!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLike I already told you, I am NOT fixing that teddy bear again! You\u2019ll have to fix her YOURSELF!\u201d<\/p>\n Mom picked up the broken shelf and stormed out of the room.<\/p>\n Jell\u2019s leg ended up being broken in two places.\u00a0 Jennifer fashioned her a cast for it and a little crutch that was just the perfect size for Jell to hobble around on.\u00a0 Their next adventure would have to wait for Jell\u2019s leg to heal, and Jell certainly did not complain about the wait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Don’t leave me!” Jennifer cried in Jell’s direction. Which was altogether pointless, but Jell didn’t complain.\u00a0 For 9 years, Jell had not left Jennifer.\u00a0 For 9 years, Jell had protected her.\u00a0 And, for 9 years, Jell had followed Jennifer wherever her whims had led them. So many adventures they had together those 9 years!\u00a0 The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A Story for Deven","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-short-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7UkFD-m","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":528,"href":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions\/528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}