Jennifer Arthur and All the Gone
Book Two of the Chrystellean Trilogy
by
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Teenager Jennifer Arthur was nearly to the lilac bush when she stopped abruptly. She and Atta Girl were the only ones there. Well, the note from Nitty Gritty said three-thirty. There were still a few minutes to go.
"And Nitty said 'we', Atta. Maybe Morgan will be with her." She grinned, remembering the soft, starry fluff that covered their Wohtt friend from head to hips, the silver bells that tipped his delicate antenna, his super-fancy way of talking and his plain, comfortable way of being a friend. "Or maybe even Behrnn." Her heart flip-flopped at that thought. "He probably can't leave Chrystellea though, she added." His people need him." She didn't want to get Atta's hopes up. Or hers.
But allowing for her clock to have been a few minutes fast, where were they? Jenny began to feel foolish, rushing into her backyard in search of aliens. Maybe she had been imaging things? For reassurance she bent down to touch the chrystal which Nitty the Newfangler had hung on Atta's collar when they had been on the White World in Space.
Then suddenly, without a breath of warning, she and Atta Girl were somewhere else. Last time there'd been the long, wild trip through the white hole, misty and scary and vague; this time there was nothing between. Nothing at all, except – like when you're riding in a fast train through a dark forest and suddenly there's a house ahead, with a lighted window that you want to see into. You absolutely yearn to see who lives there, and whether they're washing dishes, or reading, or playing cards. But then you're beyond already, and you'll never know who lived there.
Or what.
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About the Book
When Jennifer Arthur gets an inter-galactic message from Nitty the Newfangler, she misinterprets its meaning, so Jenny and her marmalade cat Atta Girl find themselves without warning back on the White World. There is no one to meet them, but they are just in time to witness the brutal kidnap of Morgan the Wonderful Wandering Wohtt right from the path to Nitty Gritty’s front door, where Jenny and Atta had landed. When Nitty returns, she is shocked to hear about Morgan’s ill fate, but reveals that there are more tragedies on the surface of the planet; children have been disappearing from locked and barred homes and in various places right out from under their parents’ noses. She also discovers that the powerful alien Chrystal, an irreplaceable part of the Chrystal Gate, is also missing. There is no way, now, for Jenny and Atta to return home.
With the help of the gallant Behrrn the Remember, a carved stoned pirate, a parrot named Marvin, a lost boy named Harrell (Rell to his friends) and a Molly Kahdel, an experienced guide, Jennifer and Atta join a group one of the groups dedicated to finding the lost children, Morgan the Wohtt, and the Chrystal necessary for their way back home.
While with this company, she saves a toddler from falling into a VERY VERY VERY DEEP HOLE, only to fall into it herself. At the bottom, she realizes she has become invisible, unable to feel anything, or even to call for help. She floats to the surface, but is still unable to be seen, to be felt, or even to communicate in any way. Lonely and lost, she floats into one of several misty tunnels which try their hardest to trap her there…
About the Author
Alice Salerno has lived most of her life in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has been wife, mother, substitute teacher, interior decorating consultant, retail advertising manager, advertising director for three states for two international retail corporations and owner/director of her own agency. Through all this, she says, writing, storytelling and poetry have flowed like a quiet river beside her busy life.