while being kept at the hospital for observation over the next week, Miranda, with her horrible attitude, was hardly a model patient. Though her physical signs were very good, her violent temper and acid tongue were enough to require the care of only the most seasoned and tough-skinned hospital staff.
Miranda was still in the hospital when the news came out that her idol was actually an impostor. This would've been bad enough, but the identity of the impostor made it much worse.
She had been doing well enough in the hospital now to start interacting with other patients. This included a supervised time in the hospital lounge on her floor. This meant exposure to the daily news once again via TV or radio, and it was just Miranda's bad luck to be in the lounge when the late evening news broadcast started.
The woman reporter's calm voice began the newscast with, "There was an unusual interruption at a Mr. Un rock concert this evening. Shortly after the performance began, audience members were shocked at the sudden appearance of two apparently identical singers...one of which, moments later, was revealed to be a disguised impostor."
Just then some images from the concert were shown, close up, giving Miranda and the others in the room a good look at the impostor's real features.
On seeing this, Miranda began moaning. "No, this isn't happening!"
On screen, the reporter continued. "We are awaiting comment from the show and the Police Department, but the Mr. Un impostor has been identified as former businessman Horace Tompkins."
Miranda's father!
Miranda bolted over to the TV and shut it off.
"Hey! I was watching that!" Rayanne exclaimed as she headed for Miranda.
"Who cares?" Miranda shot back. "It's all a lotta wacko crap! Maybe that idiot reporter should check herself into this stupid joint!"
"All right now, hold on, girls!" one of the nurses tried to intercept.
Ignoring the interruption, Rayanne shouted back at Miranda. "Oh, and just who are you to decide what's crap anyway, huh?" she demanded. "I got a right to watch anything I want whether you think it's crap or not, miss high and mighty!" Then she gave Miranda a push.
"You stupid ugly cow! Just mind your own stupid business and get lost!" Miranda shouted back, giving Rayanne a violent shove that knocked her off her feet.
"I'm gonna kill you, wench!" Rayanne snarled, trying to get to her feet.
"Oh, right, and I'm really scared too, just shaking in my boots!" Miranda sneered and went for Rayanne again. But Rayanne was just as full of bad attitude, and she cuffed Miranda in the jaw.
As the girls started to fight in earnest, the nurse and several orderlies had to physically intervene to break it up. "All right you two, that's enough now!" one of them said sharply as she approached Rayanne and began to pull her away from Miranda. Rayanne was heard shouting as she was being hauled away.
Miranda received the same treatment, but she was even more difficult to handle. She fought with her fists, feet and even her teeth, and it took three male orderlies to get her into a timeout room. "To hex with that crap! It's all a bunch of stupid stupid lies!" she screamed along with many other things.
It was another hour of thrashing around in the timeout room before she was calm enough to return to her own room for the night.
Trouble started again the next morning at breakfast, when someone asked if anyone had heard about the singer and his impostor. The patient went on to say, "Some real low-life kidnapped him and took his place and no one knew till last night."
That was all Miranda needed to hear. She suddenly exploded, screaming, "Shut up you stupid dorks!" She threw a spoon at the patient's head.
"Hey!" the patient she'd hit started to yell.
"You're all a bunch of stupid freakin liars!" Miranda shouted.
"Have you gone out of your head!?" retorted another patient.
But there was no stopping a spoiled brat acting like a toddler in a rage. "Liars! liars!" A bowl that was half full of cereal was thrown.
The other patients started panicking and scrambling for the door.
A full tumbler of milk went hurling and spilling all over the place, turning it into all out mayhem.
People were panicking, screaming, chairs were toppled, there was shoving, pushing, cowering, people jostling to get out the door.
"Dumb liars! It's not true!" More dishes went flying as Miranda continued to throw a huge tantrum, picking up everything within reach to be tossed and broken. "They're all just jealous! Freakin haters! Liars! Losers! Losers losers losers! Shut your stupid fat mouths and don't ever talk to me again!"
When Miranda was satisfied she'd caused enough damage and panic, she went screaming and rampaging out of the room.
Two nurses went after her while two others stayed behind to calm down the few remaining patients and called for more staff to help clean up the terrible shambles the place had been left in.
The two who'd followed Miranda were practically running all the way, but even so, they reached Miranda's room just in time to see her vanish around a bend in the corridor beyond it. A corridor that led out of the rehab ward into the main part of the hospital complex...
"Stop her!" someone exclaimed.
"I'm trying!" another voice answered back.
But Miranda had managed to race down the hallways and out an entrance at a dead run, and she kept on running until she was off the hospital property, nearly mowing down several patients and hospital staff in the process!
Several upset staff members had gone out looking for her, but decided it would be best to simply notify the proper authorities and Ariel that Miranda had gone missing.
_________________________________________________________________
Back at Ariel's, the phone rang.
"Oh sure, never fails, the minute you sit down to eat, everybody calls." said Danae.
"I'll get it," NT said, and before anyone else could say anything, she answered it before it had a chance to ring again. "Hello,"
Hello, this is the General Hospital calling. May I speak to Ariel Dawson?"
"Yes, hang on."
NT put down the receiver and took her seat again. "It's for you, Mom."
When Ariel came to the phone, she was informed of something no one had been expecting
The call lasted maybe a minute, and when Ariel got off the phone, she immediately let the others know what had happened. "Miranda escaped from the hospital this morning."
Danae turned a strange color and stood up abruptly, completely forgetting about her breakfast. "I hope this isn't because she found out about last night's show!"
"Huh? How would she get access to a TV?" NT was confused and alarmed. She didn't remember there being a TV in her hospital room when she was so sick. She also did not like the idea of Miranda finding out the truth, then running off to do who knows what.
Ariel explained to her that Miranda wasn't sick in the same way NT had been hospitalized. She could still watch TV with other patients, and it was possible the news about the unusual concert was all over the hospital by now.
Both Pippi and NT stood up to volunteer helping Danae find Miranda, and either bring her home, or take her back to the hospital. Danae advised both Ariel and NT to stay behind and sit tight.
NT protested, wanting to go along and help, even to offer support, but Pippi and Danae both said that would be too dangerous. Pippi feared that Miranda in a fit of despondency might just lash out at NT or at Ariel.
Pippi convinced NT finally by saying, "Besides, none of us are even ready for the day as it were. It'll take less time for Danae and I to get ready and go. If you come too that means more time spent as we all take turns in the bathroom, you know how that goes."
NT sighed. She was visibly upset but she didn't argue the point.
So, while Ariel and NT continued with their meal, Danae and Pippi were all cleaned up, dressed, and ready to go in record time.
Some time after escaping, Miranda ducked into a deserted alley. There, she finally sat down to try and clear her head.
Just then, she thought she heard something like footsteps, and then someone calling her name. Quickly Miranda ducked behind some trees and peered out to see who was coming.
"Miranda!" the voice came again. It sounded familiar, it wasn't one of the hospital staff. Then a red-headed woman came into view, it was Pippi Longstocking, out looking for her. Pippi called out again. "Miranda, I know you're somewhere around here, will you please come out of hiding so I can see you're all right?"
Miranda remained frozen in place, and Pippi approached, looking up and down and into every possible place Miranda might be. Miranda didn't dare to breathe as her hiding place was being examined, but just as Pippi was about to move on, apparently not having seen the girl, Miranda got the hiccups.
"Oh, so you are in here after all." Pippi turned back and pushed some branches aside to reveal Miranda standing there, still as a statue.
"Oh, shart!" Miranda mumbled.
"We got a call from the hospital saying that you'd gone missing. Are you all right?"
"All right?" Miranda repeated. "Does it look like I'm all right?"
"That's enough sarcasm. Would you mind telling me what happened?"
"I'm not going back there! They're all a bunch of freaks!"
"Miranda, running isn't going to solve anything. They'd said you were doing so well, you were this close to being released. What happened?"
"None of your business, just drop dead!" Miranda shot back.
"Miranda, this is my business. If something happened at the hospital I'd like to know about it so it doesn't happen again."
"It won't happen again, ok? 'Cause I'm not going back! Can you get that through your thick skull?"
"It's either there, or back home with Ariel and NT, or I'll have to turn you over to the police and social services. I'm not letting you stay out here on the street. Now we can stay here and argue the point until you're blue in the face, or you can make it easier on everybody by coming with me."
"How about you just go away." Miranda retorted.
"Miranda, you take so much pride in doing exactly what you want, not allowing yourself to answer to anyone, and everybody has to make way for you."
"Stuff it!"
"I can be just as stubborn as you,, so am not going away no matter how much of a fuss you raise. Now are you coming with me to the car or--"
"Well maybe you won't go away, but I freakin will!" Miranda responded, and she bolted before Pippi had a chance to stop her.
"Not so fast." Danae sprang out from her hiding place where she had been waiting for Miranda to run past. She caught her as gently as she could by one arm, then wrapped an arm around Miranda's body.
Miranda blasphemed.
Danae frowned, sighed, then finally said grimly, "That better be a prayer."
"Oh back the hex off, will ya?" Miranda mumbled under her breath, not being quite able to keep quiet, yet at the same time, not wanting Danae to figure out what she said and get angry. And she didn't say 'hex'.
But Danae did hear and understand it. "You watch your mouth." she warned.
"And--and if I d-don't?"
"If you don't wanna find out the answer to that in a hurry, you'll be smart and lay off the foul language."
"Why don't you guys leave me the hex--just leave me alone?"
"BeCause that's not the way it's done around here. When somebody's in trouble, we try to help."
"Well I don't need your help! I don't need you or anybody! Do you hear!"
"Yeah, I hear, But I don't believe that for a second and I doubt you really do either."
So Miranda's dad was possibly the rock star impostor, and Danae was possibly not the psycho she and Iona had talked themselves into believing. What was going on? Miranda had tried so hard to make NT look crazy in previous months, but was it Miranda herself who really was going crazy? No, that just couldn't be. "You know," she suddenly said in a voice that was meant to sound confident but came out forced and high. "I wrote my dad and asked him about that stupid concert last night! He'll write me back with the truth about it! Because he was framed by some sicko who wanted to get them both in one shot!"
"Miranda," Danae said softly, "How much of that concert did you see?"
"Just what those idiot reporters showed on the local news."
"Did you get a good look at the impostor? What about 'is movements or voice?"
"That was probably just some dumb mage pretending to be my dad getting exposed!"
"OK," Danae tried again, "If that was the case, why would some other mage let themselves be humiliated like that just to get some other person? It seems to me it'd be the other person who'd be getting it, not the one trying to make 'im look bad."
Miranda had no answer for that, and all she could do was scream over and over, "It wasn't my dad! It wasn't him! He didn't do any of that crap!" and she dissolved into tears, sobbing hard, letting herself sag against Danae, who held and comforted as well as she could.
Pippi approached, "I'll go get the car."
"Thanks." Danae replied quietly.
In a few moments, Pippi parked the car within several steps of them, and helped Danae get Miranda in the back seat. They all headed to Ariel's in an uneasy silence.
Danae was first into the house, so she ended up telling Ariel and NT how it went. Then she headed for the stairs looking shaky and upset.
_________________________________________________________________
Miranda asked NT if they could go up to her room to talk.
She agreed, and the two girls headed upstairs.
NT let Miranda in and shut the door, then gestured for Miranda to take a seat on the bed.
NT stiffly took a seat next to her, but said nothing. This was making her feel very awkward.
After a considerable tense silence, Miranda spoke up. "When I thought he was..." she began tearfully, taking in a dramatic breath to make NT feel sorry for her, "He was so wonderful in the beginning, he'd listen to me when I'd talk and he bought me things...But then he changed."
"Because he had an agenda." NT, for now, buried all of the hurt feelings Miranda had caused, putting herself on hold for the sake of Miranda now. At this point NT was too sorry for Miranda to think of her own feelings or to distinguish the difference between true forgiveness and pity.
"N, I tried so hard to get everyone to not like you... I'm surprised you're even still talking to me."
But that was when you still thought Horace was the innocent victim in all this. And yes, you did make me want to punch your lights out - there were times I had wished you'd never come here. But even then I wouldn't wish this set of problems on you." NT was feeling too sorry for her to feel anything else at this time. She had hoped Miranda wouldn't run away again, and that they could all start out fresh. Ariel did want them learning to get along after all. NT, like everyone else but Tompkins himself, was still unaware that Miranda's banged up condition at the mansion as well as the kidnapping had been planned out and staged by Miranda as well as Horace. For now, NT just thought Horace had been the one and only mastermind behind the whole thing and Miranda was as much a victim as anyone else.
Miranda nodded. "What's wrong with me? First Iona, then him."
NT snorted. "They sure wrote the book on lying, didn't they. And..." she paused, worried this would upset Miranda more, but it had to be said. "Danae found out Iona was way in league with Horace and that she befriended you to get you and Horace together without us finding out."
Miranda's eyes went wide. "Demn it her too? Where does it stop??" she cried.
"She just used your hatred of me to get you to trust her. Sorry. Maybe I've said too much."
Miranda shook her head. "N...I know you've never thought of him as a father but I did. Until now. And I...I don't know how the hex I'm supposed to go on."
NT frowned. "I don't know."
"I must be the stupidest person on the whole demn planet, to fall for this. Iona was just some mage I met in a bar. And now you tell me *he* paid her to set me up?? And then posed as my favorite singer..."
"No, he stole his identity before he got Iona involved with you." said NT. "At least, that's how I understand it."
Miranda lost it again. "You've got Pippi and Ariel and Danae and...Demn it what do I have now?" Sorry for herself but lapping up NT's sympathy, Miranda burst into tears again to keep NT feeling sorry for her. "What's gonna happen to me?"
NT said nothing. There was only so much she could think of, but Miranda was determined to feel incredibly sorry for herself. NT just didn't know how to fix this, neither did she understand Miranda's sudden willingness to seek comfort from her after everything that had happened. NT couldn't quite trust this change.
Miranda started to say something but only ended up in a terrible coughing fit.
"Want a drink?" NT asked.
Miranda nodded.
NT promptly left the room. She came back shortly with two sodas.
Miranda grabbed the can NT offered her and greedily and noisily chugged it down without taking a breath.
In contrast, NT took a noiseless sip of hers but set it down on her dresser. She would have to wait with drinking it all until later, or drink a little at a time. The carbonation burned her throat going down.
Presently, Miranda let out a huge belch. "Oh demn. Excuse me."
NT said nothing, but turned her face away to hide her disgust.
Back on the main level, the doorbell rang.
"I'll get it." Ariel answered the door, "Ameh? You don't have to ring, you're moving in, remember?"
"How could I forget? I have to get all this stuff in from the car. Fun & games." Ameh grinned.
Ariel couldn't help noticing that ever since the day Horace fought with Pippi and Danae, and had his magic taken away, Ameh seemed a lot less guarded. It had been a surprise to everyone that she had shown up that day, and made sure nothing had gone wrong back at the house while everybody had been confronting Horace. Also that Ameh was so willing to help with the exposition at the concert. Now, she was asked to move in, and she accepted the offer with no apparent qualms.
Later, Ariel put out snacks for NT and Miranda, and called them to the kitchen table.
NT came out from her room in short order, and smiled at Ariel. Her eyes lit up as she saw the chocolate covered cookies at her place at the table. She thanked her mother and took her seat.
Ariel laughed. "You're welcome!" She enjoyed treating other people, especially if they were as pleased as NT was.
It was a minute or so before Miranda came shuffling down, and she hardly even looked at Ariel or NT as she took her seat and began greedily devouring the cookies. But munching down cookies couldn't take away the fact that her father had lied to her and wrecked her dream of a future with Mr. Un.
The hospital was called, and possible treatment plans for Miranda were discussed.
But Miranda put up such a strenuous fight when Pippi and Danae tried to take her back there, that Danae gave up. It wasn't safe transporting her themselves, she was doing everything she could to cause enough problems in the vehicle to distract Danae's attention from the road. So, they took her back home, but planned to have an ambulance waiting for her at school one day, if she still didn't improve within the next week or so.