From the Pages of Mini-Di: First Work of Fiction, Part 2

If you liked Rainy Day Cindy, Part 1, I hope you’re ready! She’s about to take life to a whole new level.

In case you’re wondering, I was never bedridden due to a cold as a child. Also, I did not spell as well as this. There are many more spelling mistakes in the rough copy; my mom (also my homeschooling teacher) edited all my work.

Just so you know, that is the absolute spitting image of my mom. And I seem to remember she sometimes offered us hot juice when our throats hurt.

Coughing and sputtering! This is serious stuff! No wonder Daddy didn’t want to go past the quarantine line.

And her scar-faced doppelganger lurked in the corner. I can’t remember how this unfortunate, unerasable illustration came to be, but my frustration shows through in the shoddy colouring job on this page – and the fact that I couldn’t even be bothered to give the bed four legs, much less five or six (as on some pages).

Have you EVER SEEN such a commotion?!

My use of the word “muttered” is indicative of the beginning of my love affair with expressive words. It wasn’t long after this that I started using my special red writing notebook, in which I had a whole long list of “good words”, ones I just liked the sound of, ones around which I would engineer sentences so I could use them.

You may remember that I really liked exclamation points as a child.

Cindy J. Miller. That sounded like the coolest name ever, to me.

His pants do look a bit idiatic. Not to mention his freakish arms. [Please don’t take it personally, Mini-Di. I do love your drawings.]

Are you wondering what are the “things that circus people do”? Me too. [Side note: I totally wanted one of those mirrors with lights all around it.]

The days are abbreviated as Mon., Tuse., Wend., Thers., Fri., Sater., and Sun.

Ah, back to five legs on the bed. Whew. (Still half-assed colouring, though. I remember how much bigger a project this turned out to be than I’d anticipated – it was hard work and I was getting tired by this point.)

Don’t worry – all these kids have phenomenal immune systems. Their parents are fine with them going to the birthday party of an germ-infested invalid.

Scary clown. Don’t get on Lee’s bad side.

And the trapeze was… strapped to the light fixture in Cindy’s bedroom.

Like that crazy thing with her knee! And her shoulder… I think she was actually a triple-jointed break-dancer.

Unfortunately, it appears her face did actually burst.

I remember well how much trouble it was writing “birthday” that many times. That’s a long word. But I was steadfast and I persisted.

I’m afraid I cannot take credit for that joke – the funniest joke ever, to my six-year-old self. I’m pretty sure I saw a dog like this at someone else’s birthday party, and logged it away for future use.

As we found out in Part 1, Cindy knows all about adventures.

“Glossy” also falls into the “good words” category. I know a pillow seems like a nerdy gift (as in, “Who invited that kid?”) but I remember thinking that a brand-new, super-fluffy pillow would be a most fantastic item possible.

Sneezing is SO FUNNY!

[That’s her tongue on her face, by the way.]

What a relief that was, to be finished! You can tell I rushed the ending, since I didn’t even say what kind of cake it was, even after describing the wrapping paper on every present. I’m pretty sure I was getting close to my seventh birthday by the time I completed this – so it seemed to me to have taken years, especially if you take into account that the rough copy included a storyboard of the whole book.

Although I wrote several more stories, I never illustrated another one. (Too much work!) This one is my chef-d’oeuvre. I hope you liked it!

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