Boxed Set: Egg and the Hameggattic Sisterhood: [The 12 book 1st adventure + the series prequel]

by Robert Iannone

  The answer of course is if she loses her memory and doesn’t remember she’s Egg. And, unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened. Two days ago, when she was putting away the little chest that held her flying suit and jewelry it fell from the shelf and bonked her on the head. She passed out and when she woke up, she didn’t know who she was. Just as bad, she didn’t recognize her parents, her sister Ashley or her Grammy.

  They took her to the hospital for x-rays, but there was nothing wrong . . . except for the egg-sized bump on her head. The doctor told her parents not to worry; her memory should come back in about a day. That was yesterday – but she still couldn’t remember who she was.

  The doctor then suggested that they show her familiar things – like friends, school, her toys, or maybe a favorite book or two. So they asked their daughter’s closest friend, Sylvia, to come over and talk to her. Hopefully that would help jog her memory.

  “Hi, Egg, how are you feeling?”

  “Very well, thank you.”

  “Do you know who I am?”

  “Umm . . . the lady downstairs said you were a ham? Isn’t that some kind of food?”

  “It’s my nickname. My real name is Sylvia.”

  “Oh. Hi, Sylvia. How come they call you a ham?”

  “It’s the first three letters of my last name . . . Hampton. Do you remember that we’re best friends?”

  “Really? Well, you seem very nice. Are we best friends because . . . you know . . . I’m an egg and you’re a ham? It’s some kind of a meal . . . right?”

  “No. That’s not it at all. We’re best friends because we like each other and want to spend all of our time together. We even started our own club. It’s called the Hameggattic Sisterhood.”

  “What’s a hameggattic?”

  “It’s the name we came up with. It’s Ham – for me, Egg – for you, and attic because that’s where our club house is.”

  “Oh.”

  “We met at camp last summer.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “I just moved here from another town and we were so excited about that.”

  “Really?”

  “And, they put me in your class.”

  “That’s nice.”

  “Oh, Egg. This is just horrible.” Sylvia looked around the bedroom desperate to find something that might help jog her friend’s memory. She spotted the camp picture hanging on the wall above Egg’s desk and took it down.

  “Do you remember when we took this at camp?”

  Egg looked at the picture for a long moment and Sylvia’s hopes began to soar. “Sorry, I don’t. But it’s a very nice picture.”

  Sylvia stared at her friend, then burst into tears and ran out of the room.

  *****

  Since that didn’t work, Ashley volunteered to take her sister to the mall. The girls had spent many a long hour there shopping and eating sundaes. So, Mrs. Graystone drove her two daughters to Paradise Plaza. “I’ll pick you guys up at three. Ashley, you have your cell phone so call if you need me to come sooner. And, remember, don’t call your boyfriend.”

  “Oh, mother, sometimes you treat me like a nine year old.” Realizing what she had just said, she looked at Egg and apologized “Sorry, sis, I forgot you were nine.”

  “That’s okay. I forgot too.”

  So they went inside and Ashley took her younger sister to all their favorite shops. But the one they both loved the best was called the Which Hat?. Egg just adored the sign because it reminded her of the Wizard of Oz.

  “Do you remember this place?” asked Ashley.

  “Ummm . . .” Egg knew everyone wanted her to remember things that never happened so she took her time. “Sorry. But I like the sign.”

  “Do you know why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why you like the sign.”

  “Hmmm . . .” she studied it for a good ten seconds “. . . because it doesn’t make any sense so it must be funny. Right?”

  “No, goofy, you like the play on words and because the hat looks like the one worn by the Wicked Witch of the West.”

  “Oh.” Egg was actually getting a little tired of people always telling her what she liked or didn’t like even if they meant well.

  “Come on, let’s go inside and try on some hats.”

  “Why . . . oh, never mind. It’s because I love trying on hats. Right?”

  “Yup. Come on.”

  So in they went and Ashley tried on a zillion hats. And every one that she tried on, she made her sister try on. Egg had to admit it was kind of fun. Some of the hats made her look ever so cute. And one in particular was just awesome on her . . . but it was even better on Ashley. “You have to admit it’s very me” and she bought it for herself.

  “You can borrow it anytime you want. Ham’s going to love you in it.”

  “Who?”

  “Ham . . . Sylvia . . . your best friend. You know the one that was over this morning.”

  “Oh, sure. I remember.”

  “You remember,” exclaimed her excited big sister.

  “Well, of course, she was that nice girl who said we were hamandattic sisters or something like that.”

  Ashley wanted to scream. Instead, that thought gave her a better idea. “Come on, we have just enough time to get a sundae.” So they scampered over to the I-Scream, a restaurant with a very weird sign . . .

  “What’s your favorite – chocolate or strawberry?” Ashley knew very well that they both loved the same flavor.

  “Ummm . . . I don’t really remember.”

  “Well, you have to choose one.”

  “What are you having?”

  “Chocolate, of course.”

  “Then I’ll have strawberry.”

  *****

  And now Egg was at her Grammy’s house and they were on the couch reading about Humpty-Dumpty.

  “Sweetheart, I think I’ve read enough from this book, don’t you?”

  “It was a very nice story.” Egg knew that the lady was very disappointed and she wanted to make her feel a little better.

  “Would you mind if I read to you from one more book.”

  “Is it one of my favorites?” She, of course, had no idea which books were her favorites.

  “This is a different type of book. It’s called a diary. Do you know what that is?”

  “Oh, sure. It’s where you write down things about your life.”

  “Do you remember that you have a dairy?”

  Egg gave that some thought. And to her surprise, and that of her grandmother, she replied “Kind of. I think I remember something about ummm . . . a sun. Does that make sense?”

  “It makes perfect sense.

  “It does?”

  The older Eloise took out a book and showed it to her . . .

  “Do you remember this?”

  “Is that my diary?”

  “Yes.”

  Egg reached out her hand and her grandmother gave her the book. She stared at the cover for a long minute as if she was willing herself to remember. She traced the words with her finger then she hugged the book to her chest. “Does this tell the story of my life? My whole life?”

  “Not your whole life, love. You started writing in it about a year and half ago.”

  “Diaries are very important, aren’t they?”

  “Oh, very important because . . .” but her granddaughter interrupted her.

  “. . . because someday I can share my life with my children.” Her Grammy had told her that – almost word for word – when she had given her the diary.

  “Why did you say that, little one?” She held her breath, hoping for the right answer.

  Egg stared at the book, then at her grandmother. “Somebody once told me that. But, I don’t remember who.”

  Not a perfect answer, but not too bad either. “I did, my precious. I did.”

  “Really?” She handed the book back and asked, “Would you read me some of the pages?”

  “Don’t you want to read them yourself?�
��

  Egg shook her head and said “No. I’m afraid that it won’t mean anything to me and then I’ll start to cry.”

  “Why, dear one?”

  “I’m so afraid. I don’t know me, I don’t know you, and I didn’t know that girl this morning. Or the one that took me shopping. But everyone knows who I am. Everyone knows what I like and don’t like. And that doesn’t seem fair; I should know those things. But worst of all, I don’t have any parents or friends. I’m all alone.” She just couldn’t help herself and she started to cry.

  The older woman scooped up her granddaughter and held her tightly until she stopped crying. “Oh, my love, you do have a family that loves you and friends that adore you. And I promise you that all of your wonderful memories will come back very soon.”

  After blowing her nose, Egg took a deep breath and bravely put on a smile. “Thank you. I’m okay now. Would you read me some of the diary?”

  “Of course I will.” And she opened the book and started to read . . .

  Friday, June 15th: Dear Diary – Today was the last day of school. I’m so excited. My two best friends, Angela and Presley are coming over tonight for dinner and a slumber party. We’ll probably stay up all night talking. Maybe not all night, Angela usually falls asleep pretty early. And she snores – Yuk.

  Thursday, July 5th: Dear Diary – The fireworks show last night was simply unbelievable. The white, twinkly ones are my favorite. But the ones that make the big booms, they scare me a little.

  Friday, August 24th: Dear Diary – Today was the last day of camp. And we got to try something brand new . . . But before she could finish, Egg’s face lit up like a birthday cake with a hundred candles on it.

  “. . . archery. We did ARCHERY,” she screamed. “Grammy, we did archery and Sylvia and I tied. WE TIED. IT was archery, it was archery.”

  “Oh, my lord. Oh, my lord, Oh my lord” repeated the older Eloise as she held her head in her hands.

  “Grammy . . .” But Egg couldn’t finish. She was so happy . . . she cried again. And her grandmother scooped her up one more time and they both cried.

  After a few minutes, and about forty-three tissues, Egg said, “Grammy, I love you. Don’t ever leave me again.”

  “Oh, my little one, I won’t, I promise. And Egg . . . it’s so wonderful to have you back.”

  Chapter 2 – Sisters of the Hood

  Everybody at school knew that she had lost her mind. She tried to explain that it was only her memory, but the boys weren’t buying it. At lunchtime, they were calling her Scrambled Eggs. She took a deep breath and let it out noisily. ‘Boys’ she thought to herself ‘they are all characters from Wonderland . . . every last one of them. They make Humpty-Dumpty look smart.’

  “Ignore them. They’re just being mean.” Ham didn’t like it when someone made fun of her friend.

  “Oh, don’t worry, I am. For the life of me I just don’t understand why my sister dates one of these . . .” she made a disgusted face in the direction of the boys. “There simply isn’t anything nice about them.”

  Ham nodded in absolute agreement. As they sat there silently glaring at the offensive creatures, a thought came to Egg. “You know what we should do this weekend?”

  “What?”

  “Let’s invite some of the girls to join the Hameggattic Sisterhood. Having only two members is a bit boring . . . don’t you think so?”

  “Hmmm . . . that’s a wonderful idea. Who do you think we should invite?”

  “Well, Angela and Presley were my best friends before I met you. My Grammy says I should still try to be nice to them. Would that be okay?”

  “Sure. I like them. They’ve been very nice to me since I moved here. What about Melody? She seems very sweet.”

  “Oh no. Definitely not her.”

  “Why?”

  “She’s just not our type. Way too quiet and she hates sports. All she wants to do is study and talk about school stuff.”

  “She really seems like a nice person. Are you sure?”

  “Oh very sure. She reminds me of the Dormouse in Alice in Wonderland.

  “I don’t know what that means.”

  “It’s just that no one really likes her. She’s . . . you know, different.”

  “I think you’re different . . . that’s why I like you so much. Being different is not a bad thing, you know.”

  Egg was getting a little impatient with her friend. “Ham, just trust me.”

  “Well, okay for now. But I’m a Sister, too.”

  “I’ll tell you what, let’s start with the other girls first, then all four of us can vote on Melody. Is that fair?”

  “Thank you.”

  “Should we invite Angela and Presley over for a Tea Party? Then if things go great, we can ask them if they want to join the Sisterhood.”

  “Oh, that sounds perfect. Let me ask my Mom tonight.”

  The lunch bell rang, and the girls started to walk back to class. Along the way, they passed two of the boys, Greg and Sean. Greg saw them, turned to his friend, and said in a very loud voice “what did they SERVE for lunch, Sean?” His friend replied just as loudly “it was Ham and Scrambled Eggs.” The girls stuck out their tongues.

  *****

  The next morning the four girls were standing outside their classroom talking and laughing. Sylvia had just invited Angela and Presley to her house on Saturday for tea and a surprise. The girls, of course wanted to know what the surprise was.

  “Well, if you must know . . .” she gave Egg a sly wink “I invited Greg, Sean and Matthew to come over also.” The expression on the two girls face turned from laughter to shock.

  “Boys . . .” Angela could barely say the word.

  “You didn’t?” asked a horrified Presley.

  Egg put her hand over her mouth so she wouldn’t laugh out loud. Then she said in all seriousness, “That’s why I’m not going. I told Ham that I absolutely refuse to drink tea with those three creatures.”

  “You’re not going?” Now Angela was turning white.

  “Oh, gosh. I . . . umm . . . I just remembered, I can’t go either. I promised my mom I would go shopping with her,” mumbled Presley.

  “I guess it will be just you and me, Angela,” said Sylvia with the sweetest expression.

  “Just us . . . and three boys.” Angela looked like she was about to cry.

  Before that could happen, Egg put her finger to her lip and ‘shshsh’d’. When the girls quieted down, she leaned forward and the other three moved very close to hear what she had to say. “I think Ham is teasing you. Isn’t that right, Ham?” whispered Egg.

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  For a moment, neither Angela nor Presley said anything. Then they looked at the other two girls who were grinning from ear to ear.

  “OH YOU TWO” shouted Presley. “That wasn’t funny.” But she must have been wrong because all four started to giggle then laugh.

  “What’s so funny?”

  The four girls turned around and there was Melody.

  “Hi, Melody” said Sylvia. “Egg and I were just teasing these two.”

  Just at that moment Mrs. Sparks said “May I have your attention, please. Everyone, please quiet down. Thank you.” She waited a few more seconds then continued, “Everyone knows which group you’re in . . . so please stay together. When your parent/driver comes to get you, follow that person to their car. Any questions?”

  “I forgot my lunch,” yelled Greg.

  “Is that unbelievable?” snickered Egg to her friends.

  “Nothing I can do about that, Greg. Ask some of your friends to share their food with you. Anyone else?” Thankfully, there were no other questions. “Okay, here’s Mrs. Graystone. Egg and her group follow her, please.”

  As you might have guessed, they were going on a field trip. They were headed to the Von Steuben House, which was built in the 1700’s for a famous German general who came to our country just to help train our soldiers in the American Revolutionary war. N
owadays, it was a museum filled with furniture and clothes and paintings from more than two hundred years ago.

  Egg and her four classmates followed Mrs. Graystone to her minivan and Egg jumped into the very back seat, which was big enough to hold three kids. The middle seat could only hold two. She had expected Ham to get in next to her, but her best friend let Angela and Presley go first. Then she and Melody got into the middle seats.

  “Seat belts on” said Mrs. Graystone as she turned around to make sure everyone had done so. “Okay, ladies, here we go” and she pulled out of the parking lot and headed down the road.

  In the back seat, Egg and her two friends were whispering and giggling. Sylvia was sure they were talking about Melody. Afraid that the girl would overhear what they were saying, she started a conversation “Melody, have you ever been to this museum?”

  “No, but my older brother said it’s pretty interesting. So, what were you teasing the girls about?”

  “Oh, I invited them over on Saturday for a tea party then pretended I invited three boys also. It was very funny . . . they thought I was serious.”

  “Who else is going to your house?”

  “Just the four of us.”

  “Oh.”

  “Where do you live?”

  “On Smoke Road, just a few houses down from Presley.”

  “Really . . . she only lives three blocks from my house. That means all five of us are practically next door neighbors.”

  “Sylvia,” Melody hesitated, looked over her shoulder to make sure the other girls weren’t listening, and then asked, “Do you think I could come over, too?”

  Sylvia froze. She remembered her conversation with Egg and she was sure that the other two girls felt the same way about Melody. On the other hand, she thought that Melody was one of the sweetest people she ever met.

  “What are you two talking about” interrupted Egg.

  “Ummm . . . we were just . . .” Sylvia wasn’t sure what to say. She didn’t want to have Melody’s feelings hurt. But the girl surprised her.