Della, Part 9

The final act in the Della saga! Last time... well, the first sentence of the chapter actually sums it all up neatly.

Della couldn't believe it. Here she was, trapped in a tiny corner of the room, with a python coming at her.

Della's reaction here is nowhere near as panicked as mine would have been.

Luckily she remembered what she'd once read about how to defeat pythons, and she did have a pocket knife in her pocket.

Okay. So this was the actual advice that I'd read in some bizarre book about how to defeat pythons. Check it out.

She let the python wrap itself around her and watched Robert cackling evilly in the background.

I thought he ran out and locked Della in with the snake?

It was okay, she'd show HIM! 

Then the python began to swallow her legs. 

"Oh, gee, he's swallowed my knee, oh my, he's swallowed my thigh..."

She sat as still as she possibly could until it got up to her knees, then she stuck the knife into the side of the python's mouth and ripped upward, thus killing the python.

Yup. That was the book's answer. Let the python swallow you until you can safely stab it. Meep.

Then she slowly extracting her legs from the python's jaws, and, as an astonished Robert watched on, she sliced open the hallway doors as well, 

That's one heck of a knife she has there!

and went parading out into the hall.

Hey, you might as well be as triumphant as you can.

She got home that day 

Thank goodness. I'm glad to hear it didn't take her multiple days to get home from Robert's house.

and called the police right away. The nice sergeant at first couldn't believe her, but when she told him her story, he had to admit that sounded a lot like a murder to him! They'd go over to murder Robert right away.

Oh, dear. I see we're in a punishment-fit-the-crime society.

Scene break!

"How are you doing?" Della asked, putting a hand on Dax's pillow. 

He shrugged and squirmed a little in the white sheeted bed. "I'm restless. I'm bored. I've got nothing to do."

Maybe he would be less bored if he was in the blue sheeted bed.

"Oh." Della tried to think of how to bring the subject up, but finally just said, "I thought I should tell you I'm in love with you."

Casual. Subtle. Great timing.

Dax's eyes got really big.

I'd think he'd run out of the hospital screaming.

"Really? Hmm. That's interesting."

Really? Hmm. That's incredibly anticlimactic.

Della hadn't known what she was going to get, but she had been hoping for slightly more than a "Hmm. That's interesting". 

She was hoping for him to tell her how smart she was.

Her eyes registered her disappointment, she supposed, because Dax quickly said, "That's not a bad 'That's interesting', just a 'That's interesting' 'That's interesting'."

Ah. All is clear.

Della's ears perked up at that.

Finally Dax said, "Well, you're still in high school. Once you get into college we'll talk about it."

Nice to see Dax is practical as ever... How old IS he, anyway?

Della gave a huge grin and said, "That sounds like a GREAT idea!"

And Dax said, "On second thought... How about we put the talking about it on hold indefinitely?"

Then she sat down on his bed and watched cartoons with him for hours and hours.

Well, this is an exciting end to the story.

THE END

So Mr. Jorgenson gets away with his smuggling thing. Not to mention the fact that Della spends the entire story chasing him when he actually has NOTHING to do with it. HECK YES.

Thanks for following along with me on Della's story. Next week, I'll be back with something else snarky... but I'm not announcing what yet because I haven't completely made up my mind.