Free Jennie by Douglas Preston Page A

a view—and then I will know.
    Roast beef for dinner.

four
    [F ROM an interview with Lea Archibald.]
    Well! It didn’t take long before Jennie and Sandy were as thick as thieves. Sandy bossed Jennie around, made her wait on him hand and foot. She trotted after him, just worshiping the ground he walked on. Sometimes she rode on his shoulders, gripping his ears. She looked so goofy up there, peering around! When Sandy went off to school, Jennie got upset. She climbed up to her tree house to watch him go off down the brook path with his books. She looked so miserable, rocking back and forth and hugging herself. During the day, she would keep climbing back up there to see if he was coming home. When he did show up, she gave a scream and went racing down the tree and just threw herself at him. When she got bigger she sometimes even knocked him down in her excitement. Her face was wonderfully expressive, and you could read it just like a human face.
    Jennie was so affectionate and so loving. Of all her qualities,this was her most outstanding. She was always underfoot, begging for hugs or kisses—or to be tickled. That chimp lived for a tickle! Goodness! It was more important to her than food—and that’s saying a lot. She needed affection more than any human child I’ve known.
    And she just adored Hugo. Hugo was so gentle and kind . . . [long pause]. Excuse me. When he came home from work, she hugged him and kissed him, laughing and squealing the whole time, and making this “hooooo ooooo” sound. She would hear his car in the driveway, and she would pound and stamp on the floor, or whirl around and around! My goodness, the things she knocked over! She broke every vase in the house, my grandmother’s Sung porcelain, Uncle Nat’s ivories. And she once tried to eat the Olmec jade head and then broke it in a fury when it didn’t taste as she hoped. Oh my goodness! She was always whirling! It was exhausting to have her around sometimes. She’d follow me around all day long, whimpering for a tickle or a hug.
    Sandy never had a younger sibling to order around. Sarah was too young. And even when she got older,
nobody
was going to tell her what to do! So Sandy thrived when Jennie came. He became much more self-assured and confident. They played every afternoon in the backyard. I could see them out the kitchen window. Oh! I used to watch them for hours! It was endlessly entertaining. Sandy had her playing this game he called “Space Invaders.” Jennie was the alien. Oh my goodness. Of course, Jennie was thoroughly confused, but she always muddled through. I’ll never forget watching them play that game. I wished Hugo had that movie camera during those days. Have you seen his movies of Jennie? Well, you must. You simply must.
    Space Invaders? It was something Sandy made up. Jennie was the alien invader from Alpha Centauri, and Sandy was the astronaut who saved the earth. Sandy had this “Lost in Space” ray gun that he got from some cereal package. He’d make Jennie stay out of the lawn, while he crept into bushes. She’d be standing there,looking so confused. Sometimes she’d try to follow him into the bushes. He was so impatient. He’d start lecturing her, “No, no! You stay there! Wait for me to come out!” And Jennie would stand there, a forlorn expression on her face! She hated to be scolded.
    Then Sandy would come bursting out of the arborvitae, firing his gun. Yelling, “Die alien!” [Laughs.] Jennie didn’t usually die when she was supposed to. She just hopped up and down, squealing and trying to grab his gun. They’d get in a terrific tug-of-war sometimes over that gun. Sometimes it was too much for Sandy. Jennie wasn’t playing by the rules! Well, she never played by the rules, in anything she did.
    So Sandy had to demonstrate how to die. Oh my goodness. He’d clutch his chest and keel over with a terrible scream and