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Episode 1: Juliana and the Nonstop Hiccups
This is the beginning of a series on the adventures of Hannah Jamison, a very frequent hiccuper, and her friends. Obviously, some of this story is introducing the characters, so bear with me if it seems to be taking a while to get to the actual plot. Also, in this story, it isn't Hannah who has the hiccups predominantly. But I think you'll like it anyway. Don't forget, there are more episodes than this one! Visit the index to check out the rest. --The Author
*HUCK* Fifteen-year-old Juliana Davis hiccupped loudly, for what seemed like the 5,000th time: just in the last hour! She felt like screaming, "Grrrrrr!!!" and several less sanitary things, too, but instead just slammed her locker door angrily. As she turned from the locker, she saw her friend Hannah Jamison on the other side of the room, heading her way, busily chatting with a couple other people. Well, Hannah had been her friend. But at the moment, she was more than a little mad at the sweet girl. "Oh br-*HIC* brother," she mumbled to herself, "Not her!" With that, and another hiccup, Juliana quickly turned and found a different way out of the locker room.
Hannah didn't even notice Juliana until she had already turned in the other direction. "Juliana!" she called to her friend, but Juliana just continued the other way.
"Why do you even to talk to that crabby girl?" her friend Chris asked, drawing Hannah's attention from Juliana. "She's just a grouchy complainer, that's all."
"Chris! Don't talk about people like that!" Hannah chided indignantly. "Juliana is a really nice girl, just in her own special way, you know."
"Hmmph." Chris obviously wasn't convinced. "It must be an awful strange 'special way', because I sure haven't seen any of it."
"Yeah, really," Hannah's friend Ellie agreed, "she sure does hide it well."
"Oh, come on, you all, be nice to the poor girl, you don't know half of what she's gone through. And plus, she's my friend, and I don't like people talking bad about my friends! She's been my best friend for a very long time."
"I can't see how," Chris muttered.
* * * * *
Indeed, Hannah and Juliana truly had been best friends for a very long time, although they seemed to have very little in common. Hannah, who had recently turned sixteen, was a carefree, bouncy girl who seemed to enjoy every minute of life, and who never seemed to be lacking for friends. She was slightly short, nicely built, yet not the tiniest bit overweight, blonde-haired and blue-eyed - in short, everyone but Hannah herself thought she was incredibly cute. Why not Hannah herself? Oh, she was too busy having fun to notice!
Juliana was just a month or so younger than Hannah, and was about the same height, but that was about as far as the similarities went. Juliana was quite thin, had dark brown hair, equally dark brown eyes, and although many found her kind of pretty, she was no match for Hannah in appearance. Her personality was even more opposite from Hannah's; she was melancholy, touchy, easily angered and frustrated; yet she could also be one of the most understanding, deep, true friends one could have - if you could handle her periodic sulky moods and outbursts. The problem was, most folks couldn't, and so Juliana was left with but a small handful of friends; indeed, Hannah was her only really close friend and her total confidante.
These two girls had one thing in common, however: something that had pulled them together, despite their differences. They both came from less-than-ideal backgrounds. Juliana's father was a worthless man who cared of nothing but food and drinking - mainly drinking. His heartless lack of interest in his family had not been good for them: Juliana's mother, just as delicate a woman as Juliana herself had become, had been chronically ill for years, which meant Juliana had to not only care for herself, but also for her sick mother. Juliana's father treated her essentially like a servant or a maid, and when he didn't need her, he simply ignored her. She pretty much had to find her own food, and most of the time she had far too little. In the past her father would refuse to let her leave the house, except for school; in those times Hannah would come to Juliana's window and sometimes even crawl through into the dilapidated excuse for a house, and the two would talk for hours. Juliana's stupid father never noticed!
Hannah's own background was no better; actually, it was worse. Her father was the buddy who had gotten Juliana's dad into drinking so long ago. But unlike Juliana's father, who seemed always in a state of half-dazed stupefaction, Hannah's father was a veritable beast of a man. Since as far back as she could remember, he had beaten her, abused her both physically and verbally although, thank God, not sexually, and made her cater to his every whim. And when he was in a highly inebriated state, those whims could get pretty idiotic. So where had Hannah gotten her great personality and sweet disposition from? No, not from him; that was all thanks to her mother. The one spot of light in her fearful childhood, Hannah's mother, a wonderful, devout woman who had, due to a foolish mistake, ended up with this wicked man, had done her best to protect her daughter from him. And somehow her beautiful character had rubbed off on her poor little girl. Tragically, though, even that little glimmer of happiness came to a sudden end, when Mommy was hit by a drunk driver while crossing the street in front of their house. She lived just long enough to see her dear little girl once more, and leave her with a last admonition to never forget that Jesus loved her, that Mommy loved her, and to always be a sunshine in her dark world. And, above all, to never, ever, EVER, drink even a drop of alcohol. The sobbing girl promised she would do it all, and wailed, "Oh, Mommy, tell me you won't die!" Mommy could only weakly hold Hannah's little head to her own broken body, and whisper, "I love you, dear. Oh, how I love you."
Although she had been a child of only seven when that happened, Hannah could remember it all as if it were yesterday. She herself had nearly died of grief after her mother's death, but eventually recovered, and devoted herself to doing as her mother had told her: to be a sunshine, even in her dark little world. Such a young girl would probably have never succeeded in surviving and keeping her bright outlook, had it not been for one family that had kindly taken her in. Since being at home could be rather traumatic for her, after school little Hannah would generally try to stay out on the streets as long as possible before going back to her house. One of these many evenings outside, she happened to meet a girl about her age named Ellie, who she quickly became friends with. Ellie introduced Hannah to many of her friends, including the Beloit family.
The Beloits took a special interest in this cute little girl, and she quickly became almost a part of their family. She usually ate her meals with them, played with their children, and went to church with them. In fact, she did practically everything with them except spend the night. She tried that one time but quickly learned from her irate father that that was not allowed. Mr. and Mrs. Beloit were both wonderful people, and their love and care helped nurture the beautiful disposition that Hannah's own mother had done so much to create. Hannah also found great friends in their three children, Sarah, Chris, and Amanda. Sarah, a year and a half older than Hannah, was like a big sister to her. Chris was just as annoying and yet just as lovable as a twin brother, and little Amanda also enjoyed having Hannah around.
To say that Hannah got the hiccups a lot would have been a definite understatement. She even had them the very first day she met Ellie and the Beloits. If people couldn't remember her name, she was generally referred to as "that hyper blonde girl" or "the girl who's always getting the hiccups". Either title described her pretty well.
Shortly after Hannah met her new friends, her school, a run-down old public school located in an undesirable section of town, was closed, and, much to her delight, she and Juliana ended up in the school the Beloits went to. Although Juliana occasionally visited the Beloits with Hannah, she didn't become nearly as close friends with them. For one, her father often refused to let her go anywhere after school; secondly, she simply didn't make friends as easily as Hannah; and finally, she didn't really care for how religious they were.
It wasn't that Juliana didn't believe in God at all, she just didn't see how, if there was such a wonderful God out there, there could be so much sadness and problems in the world. Hannah had tried to get her to see the loving God for who He is, but had finally given up; hoping only that someday her friend would have a change of heart. But Juliana's own experience didn't help with her doubt at all. Her latest problems had begun just weeks ago.
After having suffered continually for years, Juliana's mother was finally unable to hang on any longer, and one evening it became clear that she was dying. Juliana, as one might imagine, was grief-stricken and frantic. She ran straight to Hannah's house, and, despite Mr. Jamison's protests, practically dragged Hannah over to her house, as if she could somehow help her dying mother. Not surprisingly, Hannah hadn't a clue what to do, so she told Juliana, "I'll get help!" bolted out the door, and started at a run for the Beloit's house, a full mile away. Needless to say, she was crying by that time, which isn't a good thing to do when you're running down a street. Through her blurred vision, she failed to see that the sidewalk had a step up in it, and fell headlong over it, scraping her hands and her forehead rather painfully in the process. But Hannah was on a mission. She got up, tried to dust herself off, and then started back on her way to the Beloits house. All the running, as well as the crying, wasn't good for her breathing mechanisms, either. What a sight it was that met Sarah's eyes when she opened the door to Hannah's frantic knocking! Before her stood Hannah, her forehead scraped and bloody, panting, crying, now also hiccupping and trying to talk, all at the same time. To attempt to type it wouldn't be doing her justice, but it must have been something like this: "O-*hic* oh, Sarah, *gasp* Juli- Juliana's mom *sob* she n--*HURK-uhh* needs he--*gasp* help!"
As Hannah continued to attempt to say something halfway recognizable, Mrs. Beloit heard the commotion and came to the door. "What on earth is wrong, dear? What did you do to your face?" she asked. Somehow Hannah managed to get across to them that something was wrong that they needed to come with her, and that it had something to do with someone being sick, so Mrs. Beloit got her trusty first-aid kit and off the three of them went.
When they arrived at the house and Mrs. Beloit saw Juliana's mother's condition, tears came to her own eyes. "There's nothing that can be done," she whispered sadly. Hannah, still hiccupping absurdly fast, stepped closer to the bed where the half-conscious, dying woman lay. Juliana's mother opened her eyes slowly. "You sure can hiccup," she said, smiling weakly.
"O- oh yes, *hic* I'm g--*hic*--ood at tha--*hic*," Hannah replied. "B-*uh* But is th--*hic*--ere anything *hic* that we ca-- can do for *huck* for you? *hic-uhh*" Hannah almost giggled in spite of herself.
"No, I'll be fine, just fine," she breathed. "Be good, Juliana. I love you."
The next morning, little had changed in the tiny room. Juliana, her body shaking with great sobs, was still kneeling beside the bed, her head buried in the sheets which lay over her mother's lifeless body. Hannah, who still hadn't lost her hiccups, was once again beside her, trying to console her. But it was clear she wasn't going to take this well. Even Juliana's father was there, with great tears running down his face. Both Mr. and Mrs. Beloit came to the door. "We're so sorry…" Mrs. Beloit said, her voice trailing off. There was no response from Juliana.
Even two weeks after the simple funeral, Juliana still seemed to be in complete shock. She practically hadn't spoken since she had called Hannah over to her house that fateful evening. Hannah was beginning to really worry about her friend. Finally she went over to Juliana's house again and sat down to talk to her. That evening, Hannah once again had her trademark hiccups, but, as always, she totally ignored them as she spoke, "Julia- ana, you really need to c--*hic* come back to school. It--*hic* been more than two weeks now *huck*. The teachers don't want you to g- get too far behi-- *hic* --nd." She continued trying to encourage Juliana; but Juliana would have none of it.
Opening her mouth for one of the first times in the last several days, she replied rather bitterly, "I don't want to get up from here! I don't want to go back to school! I just, I just want to…" her voice trailed off. "I wish I had died with her! My life is so, so pointless. No one even cares for me now."
"But Juli--*hic*--ana, you know that I care *hic* for you; you're my b- -est friend! And the Beloits love *huck* you too. And you know that God…"
Juliana interrupted: "No! God doesn't love me! He put me in this awful place; He made my Mom die; what good does He do for me? And all those Beloit people want to do is convert me to their religion."
Hannah replied almost indignantly, "Don't say that, Juliana! God does too love you; more than you can even know. And the…"
Once again she was interrupted: "I don't want to hear that! You're just here to convert me, too. I just want to *HUCK* …" She stopped and waited, her hand on her chest. *HUCK* "NOW look, you've gi-- *HURRK* you've given me your bla-- *HIC* blasted hiccups!"
"Well, you know," Hannah said, grinning, "mine actually are gone."
"*HUCK* I hate these things! *HIC-CUP* Grrrr…"
"Come on, it's just the hiccups, it's not like it's some dread disease."
"But they hurt! *HUCK* I thought everything was wrong that could be wrong but *HURRK-uhhh* lo and behold, I guess that wasn't en-*HUCK* enough," Juliana complained wryly. "If it isn't God who hates *HUCK* me, He sure does let someone torture m-*UCK* me."
As she walked back to her house, Hannah could only shake her head in dismay. When a girl is depressed enough to blow up like that just over a few hiccups, it must be really bad, she thought to herself. Yet she felt helpless. There was nothing she could do.
* * * * *
The next morning Juliana arose to find herself still violently hiccupping. Actually, that isn't quite true - she hadn't been able to get even a wink of sleep overnight because of the hiccups. She just stayed lying there for a while, until her father came into the room. "All right, girl," he growled, "how is a man supposed to sleep when your hiccups are echoing through the house?"
"Well, *HUCK* how much *HUCK* sleep do you th-*HIC* think I got?" Juliana retorted.
"I don't know, but you need to go to school today so they don't think you're dead, too; and so I can actually get some sleep."
"I might as we-*HIC-CUP-uhhh*…"
So, Juliana, hiccups and all, headed off for school that Monday morning. She was careful to take an unusual route, so that she wouldn't cross paths with Hannah.
Having been gone for so long made Juliana's first day back at school a rather difficult one. And having those hiccups made it an interesting one. Every teacher seemed to respond to them a little differently.
She went into her first class just before it started, and since Hannah was already seated, she chose a seat far from her rather than her usual seat right next to her friend. She didn't even try to keep her hiccups quiet. Just a minute or two into the class, the teacher asked Juliana to "please be a little quieter," so she kept her mouth closed over the hiccups. That not only created some very strange hiccup noises through her nose, it also became painful very quickly.
About halfway through class, Juliana could stand the painful jerking no longer. She raised her hand. When she was acknowledged, Juliana just gave the teacher a pleading look. The teacher seemed to understand. "Juliana, you can go up to the nurse if you would like."
As soon as she had closed the door behind her, Juliana stopped keeping her hiccups silent. They seemed to want to make up for all they had missed, and were incredibly loud, bouncing and echoing down both ends of the hall. "I sure hope Miss Burns can do something about these," she thought.
Miss Burns heard the hiccups coming long before she heard the footsteps coming toward her office's open door. "Here comes someone expecting me to cure them of the hiccups," she mused unenthusiastically. When she saw that the afflicted one was Juliana, though, she brightened. "Juliana! It's so good to see you again! I haven't seen you in weeks. I'm really sorry about your mother. Is everything OK now?"
"Oh, th-*HUCK* thanks. I've mis-*HUCK* missed you all *HIC-uhh* so much. *HURK* Yeah, I'm *HUCK* all right, I *HIC* guess, except for th-*HURK* these stupid hiccu-*HUP* ahhh, I can't even *HIC* say it! These *HIC-URK* … yeah." Juliana helplessly shook her head.
"They sure sound bad! How long have you had them?" Miss Burns asked sympathetically.
"Uhhhhh," Juliana groaned (and hiccupped), "they've been like *HUCK* this since *HUCK* about *HIC* sometime yesterday eve-*HURK* evening. Can't you d-*HIC-CUP* do something for the-*HURK* for them?"
"Hmmm, I don't know; there's no real magic cure for hiccups. The only thing I can - wait a minute, did you say you've had the hiccups like that since yesterday evening?"
"Uh-huh. *HURK* It's miserable."
"Mercy, Juliana, how on earth did you sleep?"
"I *HIC* didn't."
"You must be really tired then, along with being tired of the hiccups."
"Yeah."
"Hmmm," Miss Burns tried to think of a cure that might work. "Aha!" she said, with more surety than she really felt. "Have you tried holding your tongue, having someone plug your ears, and singing the Star-Spangled Banner?"
"You mean all *HUCK* at once?" Juliana giggled through several fast hiccups.
"Of course all at once!" Miss Burns laughed. "Here, stick out your tongue and then hold it really tight with one hand. I'll plug your ears."
Juliana was already following the strange instructions. "Heh, weehth ah thuthuh *HURK*" Noticing her inability to say anything meaningful, she released her tongue. "How am I *HUCK* supposed to hear my-*HIC-uhh* self sing if *HUCK* my ears are plugged? *HUCK*" she asked, quite confused.
"Oh, don't be silly. You don't have to hear it, just do it!" Miss Burns replied with a smile.
"OK. *HIC* Here goes." And after securely grabbing her tongue, and waiting for Miss Burns to plug her ears, Juliana started to sing the national anthem. "Uh thaa caah *HURK* yuh heee, *HIC-CUP* bah thah dath *HURK* uh-ee eyethh…" She made it all the way to the part about the bombs bursting in air before she herself burst out into helpless laughter, still holding her tongue, and still hiccupping like crazy. Miss Burns couldn't help but laugh, too.
"That's the farthest anyone's ever made it into the song before cracking up," she admitted, "but it really does work for a lot of kids."
"Ah thon't *HURK* think it workth *HIC* for me," Juliana replied, still not talking straight even after releasing her tongue. "Wow, it'th ki-*HURK* kinda hard to *HIC* talk now."
"Well, I bet you've already tried holding your breath, haven't you. And drinking, too."
"Both. *HIC* Several t-*HUCK* times."
The two tried several more obscure hiccup cures, but they all failed as miserably as the tongue-tied singing had. By the time Juliana had to leave for her next class, her hiccups were actually worse than they had been before. "W- *HIC-URK* well, th- *HIC-uhh* thanks fo- *HUCK-ahh* trying. *HIGGERK* Arrr-*HIC-CUP*-rrggh! I *HIC-uhh* hate these *HIC-uhh* things!" she moaned as she left.
Juliana's next class, math, was taught by a rather ornery old man. Hardly before Juliana could even take a seat, the teacher, without even turning from the equations he was writing on the board, commanded, "Whoever it is that's hiccupping needs to go to the water fountain." Finally looking to see who he had just addressed, he started back a little when he saw it was Juliana. "Why Juliana, you're back. I hope you're doing all right."
"I gu-*HIC-uhh* guess I a-*HIC-CUP* am," she replied.
"But please do something about those hiccups," the teacher said. "We can't have such distractions once class starts."
"I j-*HIGGERK* just wish I *HIC-uhh* could do s-*HURRK* something abo-*HIC-uhh* about them, *HIC-uhh*" Juliana answered, sounding very frustrated.
"Well, at least keep them quiet, OK?"
"All *HIC-uhh* right, I'll -- *HURRK* ohhhh," she trailed off. Just a few minutes passed before she decided that keeping the hiccups quiet wasn't going to happen - at least not by just closing her mouth. A lot of them were somehow slipping between her tightly sealed lips, anyway. So she leaned over onto the desk and put her hands over her mouth. Perhaps that would be less painful. A hiccup jerked her halfway back to an upright position. This wouldn't do. Finally she managed to find the least painful, but still effective, position and hold there as the teacher droned on. Amazingly, her hiccups even slowed a little.
"Juliana??" The teacher's voice jerked her attention back to class.
"Uhh… *HURK* ummm," she stammered.
"Oh yeah, never mind. How about you, Rosie?" he said, moving on to the next student.
Finally the class ended. But now Juliana was on to speech class. "A lot of good speaking I'll be able to do," Juliana silently complained to herself. "But at least Miss Murphy is nice."
Once Juliana explained to Miss Murphy how she couldn't stop her hiccups, Miss Murphy didn't even make her keep them quiet. "I don't want you to be in pain just because of me," she explained. But Juliana's hiccups were quite a disruption to class nonetheless, and about the only speech that got done was several students recounting their own worst cases of the hiccups. Hannah wasn't in that class, though, or she could have taken the entire time talking about her own numerous cases. Juliana just sat there hiccupping miserably, as the others talked.
Lunch? Juliana couldn't have begun to eat with her violent hiccups, and her stomach hurt so bad that she couldn't have eaten even if her hiccups had stopped.
But that they certainly hadn't done. The rest of the afternoon was more of the same. Finally it was time to leave, and Juliana had left the locker room in haste when she heard Hannah calling to her.
* * * * *
Such was the condition of things at the moment, as Hannah tried to stand up for Juliana to her friends. They had heard her helpless all-day hiccups, too, of course, but they still didn't have much sympathy for Juliana.
"So what that she has the hiccups! And I know that her mother died and of course that's awful, but she's been like that since the very first day I met her, and that was a long time ago," Ellie said with a bit of disdain.
"Now look here, you all," Hannah suddenly stopped and looked at Chris and Ellie, "I think there is a way that we can help make Juliana a happier person. Her mother's death may be a part of it, and even her hiccups might help us. I just don't know how yet. But will you all promise to help me when I think of a way to do it?"
"I suppose so, although I don't see much hope of her ever changing," Chris answered.
"Well, I guess, uh, yeah. Sure I can help you! I doubt anything will happen, but I guess you never know," Ellie agreed with a little bit of enthusiasm.
"All right, I'm counting on both of you," Hannah said, smiling.
* * * * *
Back at home, Juliana was glad to find that her father wasn't around. At least there was no one around to bother her about her hiccups; or to stare at her. So she just sat there, hiccupping, and crying. No, not crying about the hiccups, and not even crying about her mother, just, crying. She was too tired, yes, exhausted, to figure out why.
Although sleeping would have topped the list of things she wanted to do at the moment, along with the list of things her body was desperate for at the moment, it was the one thing she simply couldn't do, thanks to "those stupid hiccups". But she went to her bed and just lay there, looking up at the cracked ceiling through blurred vision, and asking herself why. Why everything. Why did her mother have to die? Why was Hannah so into God and religion? Why did the Beloits always seem so happy? Why couldn't she have a family like the Beloits? Why had she been hiccupping for a full 24 hours now? Why did she even exist? Why? Why???
Asking seemed a whole lot easier than answering, and so she did a lot more of it. And somehow, many hours after lying down, she managed to drift off into a fuzzy, halfway sort of sleep. Much too soon thereafter, her mind fuzzed back into the reality of being awake, to the unpleasant music of her own hiccups, still going strong. She got up and prepared as best she could to face another day.
This day was much like the last, except that the people at school, both teachers and students, were quite surprised, even worried, to find that Juliana still had the hiccups. They weren't quite as bad as they had been the day before, and she valiantly kept them quiet as much as possible. She even managed to learn something from her classes.
But another day with essentially nothing to eat and way too much involuntary abdominal exercise, followed by another night with very little rest made Juliana feel totally miserable by her third day back at school - also her third day of nonstop hiccups. Yet she determinedly dragged herself to school anyway, still taking the long route so as to avoid Hannah. Now her teachers felt much too sorry for her to make her silence her hiccups in class. She was sent to the nurse again, not for a cure this time, but to see if Miss Burns could tell if something major was causing her nonstop hiccups, which were by then going on 64 hours straight, or, as one over-zealous student in math class estimated, 134,000 very fast hiccups straight.
Miss Burns had no clue what to say to Juliana and Miss Murphy, who had personally taken her to the nurse's office. Finally she said, "I don't know. I've never seen someone have the hiccups as long as you have, Juliana, except for people who have had abdominal surgery or… ohhh, there is someone else I've seen hiccup for days on end! Hannah Jamison! I remember she had them for something like seven days straight one time, although they weren't as bad as yours. You know Hannah, right? Why don't we call her up here? Maybe she will know of something that will work for you."
Hiccups or no hiccups, Juliana did not want to talk to Hannah. "No!" she replied firmly. "I will n-*HIC-uhh* not speak to *HUCK* Hannah! She's th-*HIC-CUP* She's the one *HIC* who gave them to *HUCK* me in the first *HUCK* place. And plus, *HIC-uhh* if she kn-*HIGGERK* knew of any *HUCK* good cures, she w-*HUCK* wouldn't have hic-*HIC-uhh* hiccupped for a w-*HIC-uhh* week like she did *HURRK* that time. *HIC-uhhhhh*"
"But maybe something she knows of will work on you," Miss Murphy reasoned.
"NO! *HIC* I won't t-*HIC-CUP* talk to *HIC-uhh* her! *HMUCK*" Even Juliana's hiccups got angrier at the very thought of talking to Hannah.
Miss Murphy gave up. "All right then, go on back down to the classroom; I'll be there in a minute." After Juliana left, Miss Murphy told Miss Burns that she would send Hannah up after class, even if Juliana wouldn't talk to her. "At least she might be able to give you some ideas."
Hannah was no help in the search for a cure for Juliana. Although she was very good at hiccupping, Hannah had long since given up on finding cures, simply because no cure worked on her. EVER. She learned that years ago, and so even the time she had the hiccups for a week, she never once tried to stop them, except when Miss Burns made her. And beyond that, the hiccups didn't really bother her. She could even sleep with hiccups firing every couple seconds. She didn't generally enjoy them, but she rarely disliked them either. It was just part of life as Hannah Jamison, just like being a blonde, giggling, and being in a happy mood. So when asked for a cure that could help Juliana, she said, "There's nothing I know of. But I think I know why she has the hiccups, and I'm going to try to do something about it."
"What is that?" Miss Burns asked, obviously interested.
"Oh, I can't really say. Because I'm not totally sure yet." So Hannah left Miss Burns without any cures. And Juliana spent the rest of the day with the hiccups. Amazingly, despite her body's insubordinate jerking and bouncing, the ever-studious Juliana did her best to catch up with what she had missed in the weeks she had missed. She even read a poem she had written for English class, hiccups and all. Juliana wouldn't let the hiccups beat her; no, never!
That evening, Juliana decided the hiccups were going to stop, no matter what. She tried every cure all over again. She even tried just sitting there and trying to fight them off, as if she could will herself not to hiccup. When holding her breath didn't work, she finally, in desperation, called her father into the room, who, remarkably enough, was sober enough to follow her simple instruction: "Pl-*HUCK* plug my nose a-*HIC* and cover my mouth *HUCK* and don't let g-*HUCK* let go until *HUCK* they stop or… *HUCK* until I can't st-*HURK* stand it any longer. *HUCK*" He did it quite well, too, not letting go until she started turning blue and passed out, having never tried to get him to let go. At that point, he became rather worried. So he picked up her limp, yet still hiccupping, body and put her on her bed. He waited for her to come to again, but her body was quite happy with the unconscious rest it was getting, so it was some time before she awoke, furious that even that extreme method hadn't worked.
But by Friday, her fifth day of hiccups, Juliana was feeling even more miserable and helpless than she had on the first day. She spent much of the day silently crying. Miss Burns was at a loss even for words, no less cures; so she took Juliana to a doctor. The doctor examined her thoroughly, but all he could report in the end was that there was only one thing wrong with Juliana: she had the hiccups. Except everyone knew that already.
* * * * *
Hannah, meanwhile, had been brainstorming, trying to figure out how she could help her friend. Then, as she sat at lunch with Ellie, she suddenly burst out, "I know! How could I forget?" Then in a lower voice, she asked, "Don't you know what tomorrow is?"
"Umm, it's the seventeenth, isn't it?" Ellie, just as much a blonde as Hannah, guessed.
"No, no. Well, yes it is, but what I mean is, tomorrow is Juliana's birthday! She's going to be sixteen. Maybe if we took a cake or something to her house and had like a little party, it would cheer her up. You know, it would kind of show her that people really do care for her. And… yeah, don't you think that would be good?"
Ellie wasn't so sure how well Juliana would take a surprise party. "But what if she gets mad and won't even let us in?"
"Ooh," Hannah apparently hadn't thought of that. "Well, if she does - OK, here, I'll go to her house this evening and kind of test out the waters, you know. Then you meet me at the Beloit's house and we'll decide what to do."
* * * * *
Sure enough, early that evening, there was a knock on Juliana's door. "Who *HIC-uhh* is it?" she yelled.
"It's me, Hannah."
There was a long silence, broken only by the sounds of hiccups and what sounded like muffled sobs from within the house. Finally, an answer came, in a weak, pathetic sort of voice: "Go *HIC* away; I don't *HUCK* want to talk t-*HUCK* to you!"
Hannah didn't speak again, but just stood there at the door, listening. It was silent again, except for hiccups and those strange sobbing sorts of sounds. Finally Hannah headed over to the Beloit's. And somehow she just knew that her plan would work. What on earth would make her think that? Who knows? Only the likes of Hannah Jamison could possibly understand.
At the Beloit's, she got together with Chris, Amanda, and Ellie, and, with some help from Mrs. Beloit, a talented cook, they worked on making a lovely birthday cake for Juliana. They also got together some other party foods.
* * * * *
Another night of very little sleep made Juliana feel totally wasted by Saturday morning. She didn't even get out of bed until afternoon. After all, why should she? There was no school; she couldn't eat; she had nothing to do and no one to do it with. And if she opened her door, her resounding hiccups would undoubtedly awaken her father, who was still snoring away.
Eventually her father did wake up, though, and left the house without as much as a "good morning" to his afflicted daughter. Just after he left, Juliana realized that it was her birthday. "Oh yeah," she thought gloomily, "It's my birthday. What a crappy way to spend a birthday! But I don't even care any more. No one else does, after all."
Nearly six days with almost no food or sleep hadn't been good for Juliana's mind, and as the afternoon wore on, it started to wander. It wasn't the first time that had happened, but she had always fought off that drugged feeling before; now she simply didn't care. She had gone from anger to misery to stubborn resistance to finally pure apathy. But she wasn't confused enough to start talking to herself; that was much too difficult to do with her hiccups, anyway. Random thoughts just barraged her mind, like silent, yet persistent voices. "I wonder what Hannah's doing," she mused dazedly, thinking positively of her friend for the first time all week. "I bet she's in church with her friends. No, wait a minute, what day is it anyway? Is today Sunday, or is it Saturday? It can't be a weekday because there's no school. School? Maybe there is school today. Oh yeah, it's my birthday. So it's the seventeenth. Let me go look on the calendar."
Juliana got off the bed, and suddenly felt very dizzy. Everything looked strange. She tried to walk toward the door, but her legs didn't seem to want to cooperate, and she nearly collapsed on the floor before deciding just to go back to her bed. "Who cares what day it is? Why was I wondering that, anyway? Oh yeah, because it's my birthday. No, or was it - yeah, because I wondered what Hannah is doing. Why should I care about Hannah? She doesn't care about me." "Oh yes she does. You know that she cares for you as her very best friend." "No, she just wants to convert me. But maybe I'd be better off converted. This sure isn't much fun." "Hannah cares for you very much, not just to convert you." "This is *HUCK* getting bad; *HIC-uhh* now I'm ar-*HIC-uhh* arguing with myself, *HURK*" she said aloud as she tried to get her mind to think straight again. "Oh, i-*HUCK* it's no use. *HIC-ahh* Ohhh, these hurt *HIC-CUP* so bad!" she moaned, and drifted back into her pointless musings.
At some point she fell into a fitful kind of sleep, dreaming of Hannah. In her dream, she tried to apologize to her friend for how angry she had been at her all week, but she couldn't do it, because every time she was about to start, something would stop her. No, not a hiccup; it was more like her pride. Nothing would come out.
*HIC-CUP-uhhh* An extra-hard hiccup jolted her back to the real world - or at least closer to it. She struggled just to focus her eyes on the cracks in the ceiling, but she couldn't. Mercifully, her body finally allowed her to fall into a real sleep, even if it was still interrupting her breathing every couple seconds. Yet her sleep was still full of confusing, strange dreams.
A squeak from her room's door awakened Juliana hours later. Her father stood in the doorway. "I, uh, well, just thought I should wish you a happy birthday, if it can be happy the way your body's been treating you."
"Oh, *HUCK* thanks, it's not s-*HUCK* so bad," she giggled, surprised at her own cohesive, even cheery reply. Maybe the sleep had done her some good. She was surprised to see it was already evening. That was the most sleep she'd gotten all week.
* * * * *
"All right, do you think we can go now?" Ellie asked, as they waited in the Beloit's living room for Hannah's innate senses to tell her it was the right time.
"I think so," Hannah answered. "Why don't we have a prayer before we go; Juliana sure could use prayer."
"That's a good idea," Mr. Beloit agreed from his comfortable chair.
"Why Daddy, I thought you were asleep!" Amanda laughed. "Why don't you pray with us?"
"I'd be glad to."
And with prayers and best wishes from Mr. and Mrs. Beloit, as well as Sarah, who had another appointment, and was thus unable to go with them, the four set off toward Juliana's home. When they reached the door, they stopped and listened. Finally, after a few seconds, Hannah said, "All right, she's here. It took a while for me to hear the hiccups. She must be in her room."
"Do you think we should bother her?" Ellie asked with just a little trepidation.
"Oh, it's all right; her father must be here, and I don't think he enjoys listening to her hiccups."
"Oh, I see."
Hannah knocked on the door, and they all waited for an answer.
"Coming," they heard a gruff voice say.
"That's her dad," Hannah whispered. "I hope he's in a good mood."
"It sure didn't sound like it," Ellie worried.
"He always sounds like - oh, uh, hi, Mr. Davis," she stammered as the door suddenly opened.
"What do you all want?" was his unfriendly reply.
"Well, you see, it's Juliana's birthday, and we came to give her a little party. I hope you don't mind," Hannah replied in her usual bubbly way.
The very mention of Juliana seemed to strike a sympathetic, even pained, chord in his poor, fried brain. "Oh, um, well, sure, come in. I'm sure she'd like that. I guess she would, anyway," he agreed. "That's awful nice of you all. She's in her room."
"And I think you could help us," Hannah continued confidently, "You wouldn't mind providing the drinks, would you? We couldn't find any at my house or theirs. You know, like even some soda or something would be good enough."
Hannah had a way of getting people to do what she asked them to without even realizing it. "Well, let me look," Mr. Davis obliged. Sure enough, he found some, and they opened their bags and set out the simple snacks they had brought, along with the beautiful cake. Then Hannah went by herself to Juliana's door, and knocked quietly.
"*HIC-ahh* Come in," came the reply.
Hannah smiled. Of course Juliana knew she was the one knocking. This was the first time all week Juliana had agreed to even look at her, no less speak to her.
"Hi, Juliana, I know today's your birthday, so we decided to have a little party for you. Do you feel well enough to come out?" she asked, surprised at how worn her friend really looked.
"Oh, Ha-*HUCK* Hannah, that's so n-*HIC* nice of you," Juliana said, smiling weakly, "*HIC-uhh* I'll be right *HUCK* out."
A few minutes later, Juliana emerged, and Hannah and her friends began singing "Happy Birthday" to her. Even her father joined in. "Happy Birthday, Dear Juliana; Happy birthday to you."
"Quick, blow out the candles!" Amanda admonished. And, between hiccups, Juliana blew all sixteen out in one blow.
"Ooh, that means your wish comes true!" Amanda shouted. "What did you wish?"
"You're n-*HUCK* not supposed to *HUCK* tell what your w-*HURK* wish was!" Juliana laughed. "It's a *HUCK* a secret!"
So they all enjoyed the simple little party. Hannah even taught Juliana her special method of eating around the hiccups so that Juliana could enjoy the cake and goodies, too. "It's easy, you can chew whenever you want, just don't swallow until right after a hiccup, then swallow really quick," she explained.
"Oh, that's *HUCK* so simple!" Juliana said incredulously, "I s-*HIC-ahh* sure could have *HUCK* used that ear-*HURK* earlier this week. *HUCK*" She tried the simple method. "It *HIC-CUP-ahhh* yeah, it really does *HUCK* work!"
"Yeah, I use it all the time," she answered. "Well, not all the time; only when I have the hiccups, which isn't quite all the time, just pretty close to it," she corrected herself, laughing.
* * * * *
After the party was over, Ellie, Chris, and Amanda left, saying that "our parents said we needed to get home by ten", and Juliana's father went into his room for a while, leaving the two friends alone.
"Juliana, I'm really sorry if I hurt you with what I said last Sunday. I was just trying to encourage you," Hannah apologized.
"No, it *HUCK* wasn't your f-*HIC-uhh* fault. I was *HUCK* so mean to you. *HIC-uhh* You should be *HUCK* the one forg-*HUCK* forgiving me. *HUCK* I'm so sorry. *HUCK* You are so n-*HUCK* nice to me, an-*HIC* and the Beloit's *HIC-uhh* are too. *HUCK* I've been even wor-*HIC-uhh* worse to them *HUCK* than to you. *HUCK*" Juliana said, her teary face hidden on Hannah's shoulder. "How c-*HUCK* can you be so *HIC* nice to me?"
"I'm so not just trying to convert you," Hannah answered kindly, "I just love you so much and hate to see you so sad and despairing. And I know that if you would just accept Jesus it would make you so much happier. After all, He loves you even more than I do."
"Oh, *HUCK* Hannah," Juliana finally whispered, "I do. If *HUCK* He can love me fo-*HIC* despite who I am an-*HIC-uhh* and make me *HUCK* half as nice as *HUCK* you, I'd be *HUCK* so happy."
The two remained there for a long time, Juliana quietly sobbing into Hannah's shoulder. Hannah felt a tear run down her own cheek. Suddenly, an idea came to her mind. "Well then, I propose a toast to our renewed friendship, and to your newfound Friend, too."
"That would *HUCK* be great!" Juliana smiled.
Hannah took the soda bottle and poured them each a small cup. She knew that soda always gave her the hiccups, but that was part of the whole idea. "To my friend Juliana," she said pompously, raising her cup.
"To my *HUCK* dearest friend Han-*HIC* Hannah, and our *HUCK* friend Jesus, *HILK-uhhh*" Juliana replied, with newfound strength. Together they sipped the drink. "Thank you *HIC-uhh* so much for doing this," Juliana said, "You don't know how despairing I was. And thank your friends, too."
"They're not just my friends, they're your friends, too," Hannah corrected, taking another sip of the soda.
"I guess they are," Juliana agreed. "It was really nice of them to come."
"Oh, they don't mind at all," Hannah smiled oddly, "They care for you just as much as *hic* - Now look at what *hic* you've done! You've g-*hic*-iven me your hic-*hic*-cups. How cou-*hic*-ld you??"
Juliana put her hand to her chest. Why, they - they…" she stammered, "They are gone, aren't they! Oh, Hannah!" she gasped, throwing her arms around her newly hiccupping friend. "How did you do that?"
Hannah held up the soda cup. "It *hic* does it to me every ti-*hic*-me," she explained. "And I guess *hic* it made yours g-*hic*-o away. Plus, I *hic* couldn't let you br-*hic*-eak my hiccup recor-*hic*-d!"
"No, Hannah, I think it's more than that," Juliana replied. "I think my newfound friendships had something to do with it. *HIC-CUP-uhhhh*" A huge hiccup rocked her again. She threw her hand back to her chest.
"Aww, who cares *hic* if you got th-*hic*-em again? Then we-*hic*'d have them together! *hic*" Hannah laughed.
"I guess so," Juliana agreed, beaming, "But I think that one was just a straggler. I think we have enough in common without sharing the hiccups for now," she reasoned.
Yes, indeed, they did have much in common, and most of all, they were best friends forever. And Juliana slept better - and longer - that night than she had ever slept before.