Melinda Bruce (Blue)

**Melinda Bruce** was the version of Melinda from the Blue World.

## Biography

Melinda was Katherine's lifelong best friend who fully supported her in all aspects of her life from the Parallax to her family's financial woes.

A slightly nerdy and highly excitable girl, she was intrigued by the idea of travelling to other worlds and exploring different Werrinups. Melinda particularly loved going to a 1950s themed rock n' roll dance in the Red World as such things were forbidden in her world.

Melinda strained under the heavy restrictions placed on the inhabitants of her version of Werrinup. Like Katherine's father Stefan, she regarded it as deeply unfair that public displays of pleasure, dances, pop music, milkshakes, walking on the grass and personal devices such as MP3 players were banned by the many laws, rules and regulations created by Judge Blackburn. As a result, she longed for the freedom enjoyed by teenagers in the Red World.

Against Katherine's advice, Melinda travelled to the Red World and posed as her counterpart, whom she envied because of her popularity (especially with boys) and self-confidence as well as the fact that she didn't need to wear glasses. However, her impression of the other Melinda proved unconvincing as she was unaware of most of the details of her life. Both her counterpart's father and Martin noticed her strange behaviour, including rolling around in the grass. While in Mrs. Dawes' chicken coop, she accidentally discovered the portal to the Silver World and became lost in a dump filled with items of high technology. Katherine, Ben and Francis Zapmeister managed to track her down and bring her home. Melinda was disappointed that the experience wasn't anywhere near as fun as she thought it would be.

Looking for further adventure in the Parallax, she wanted to accompany Francis Zapmeister, Una and Due to the Green World in obtain the antidote for Ben's Krellick infection. However, Francis wouldn't let her come as he viewed it as a date with Una. He remarked that three was a crowd but four was a swarm. Nevertheless, Melinda was determined and followed the trio through the portal to the Green World. As soon as she arrived, she was almost attacked by a Krellick but Mundi rescued her. While there, she helped Francis, Una, Due and Mundi kill the Krellick swarm using Super Soakers.

Still jealous of her Red World counterpart, Melinda gave herself a make-over but went overboard with it. Not wanting to hurt her best friend's feelings, Katherine tried not to laugh but advised against going to the Red World and once again imitating the other Melinda. Once she got there, Melinda realised that she had made a mistake as she was receiving the wrong kind of attention. Tiffany told her that she looked like Constable Garcia in drag. She had hoped that Ben would find her new look attractive but all she succeeded in doing was attracting Martin, which was the last thing that she wanted. As before, Melinda returned to the Blue World disappointed.

Having been warned about Betti by Francis Zapmeister, she sent her on a wild goose chase when she arrived in the Blue World in search of Ben. Melinda told her that there were a group of four boys who always seemed to come and go without explanation and that she had last seen them in the library. Melinda was fearful that Betti would observe her travelling through the library portal to the Yellow World so she waited until Katherine returned to tell her that Betti was getting closer.

When the Francis of the Red World told Una that Betti, posing as Veronica, was in the Johnson house looking for signs of another Guardian, she and Una travelled to the Red World to help Francis clear everything out of Ben's room. Francis was worried that Ben would be annoyed but both Melinda and Una thought that it was better than Betti finding him. Ben's room was converted into a sewing room and Melinda claimed that Veronica had promised to give her lessons.

At Katherine's insistence, Melinda later accompanied Stefan and Jeremy to the Silver World as it was there that Veronica had last been seen. While there, they witnessed Enforcement Officer Garcia about to arrest Francis Zapmeister on the charge of being a truant minor and staging his own disappearance as he had mistaken him for his Silver World counterpart. As Melinda was concerned that Francis would fall into Betti's hands, Stefan and Jeremy intervened on his behalf and Francis was able to escape while they distracted Garcia.

Betti eventually discovered that Veronica had been using her stave to send coded messages and decided to set a trap. She hid her stave under her hat and told her sister of her plan to send the Krellicks to the Silver World as a prelude to blandishing it. Mundi and Ben heard Betti's plan over the stave and informed Katherine. Equipped with Super Soakers, Melinda, Ben, Katherine, Francis Zapmeister, Una, Due, Mundi, Jeremy and Stefan were able to defeat the Krellicks with the help of the Mr. Short of the Silver World. A senior municipial employee who worked in Werrinup's park, he turned on the sprinklers in the park at Ben's request and the water killed all the Krellicks. Although the Parallax gang had won the battle, Betti won the war as she enacted her plan to infect the Silver World Werrinup's entire water supply with the blandishing substance. Aberrants, including Mr. Short, began disappearing.

Una and Due were convinced that they were aberrants and were worried that the same was true of their parents. Melinda brought them a supply of uninfected drinking water so that they could avoid the effects of blandishing. She was extremely taken with the energy drinks, filled with sugar and artificial colourings, that were on sale in the Silver World.

Over the stave, Betti explained the so-called advantages of blandishing to Katherine. She claimed that it created perfect worlds with no anger, fear, hunger or jealousy. Melinda worried that Katherine, who had always liked the very orderly nature of their Werrinup, was being swayed by Betti's argument and pointed out that the blandished worlds were devoid of individuality, passion and differences of opinion. Katherine gathered herself and told Melinda that she had been merely following the argument to its logical conclusion.

Melinda realised that the Mrs. Daweses were the keepers of the portals when she saw the Green World version maintaining the Parallax symbol in her world. Katherine told her to interview the Mrs. Daweses to find out whether one of them knew the location of the Reading Room. A somewhat annoyed Melinda retorted that Francis Zapmeister could do it. After Francis left, Katherine asked her what was wrong. Melinda told her that she was not an errand girl and complained that Katherine had been sending her on missions all of the time. Feeling guilty, Katherine apologised. Melinda forgave her but told her that she owed her the biggest chocolate milkshake in the Parallax when things got back to normal.

After the Martins of the Red and Blue Worlds met and formed an alliance, they attempted to blackmail the gang into letting them join by threatening to reveal the existence of the Parallax to everyone in both of their worlds. However, Ben and Katherine pointed out that no one would believe them while Melinda reminded her Martin that his claims would probably get him locked up in their world.

The gang determined that Betti must be holding Veronica prisoner on an island in the Silver World as she had a boat and neither of the two portals in that world could be accessed via the water. Due figured out that the island in question had to be Circe Island as it was the only one in the vicinity to which Betti could make a round trip without refueling. Melinda, Francis Zapmeister, Una and a reluctant Ben, who was afraid of the water, then travelled to the island on a sailboat in order to look for Veronica. Melinda was surprised that Ben had a problem with water when he showed no fear regarding Betti, Krellicks and Welkin. While the two of them searched the house, the others kept a lookout. Francis Zapmeister soon spotted an oil slick on the shore, which meant that Betti had been on the island recently. Although Veronica was not present, Melinda found her wedding ring, which gave Ben some hope as it indicated that she had been there.

When she ran into the Martin of the Red World, who was searching for Ben, she pretended to be intimidated by him. She sent him on a wild goose chase by telling him that she had last seen Ben heading towards the drain. The Francis of the Red World was very impressed by her deception.

Melinda was surprised when the Red World Francis, who had always been afraid of the Parallax, volunteered to travel to the Purple World and rescue Veronica so that Ben and Katherine would not be placed in further danger from Betti. She wanted to go with him but Ben and Katherine believed that two people ran twice the risk of getting caught. Even so, Francis was glad that Melinda accompanied him on his first trip through the Parallax to the Silver World. As she set the portal in the foyer of the Spiral Corporation building for the Purple World, he was visibly nervous but did not hesitate when the time came. Melinda once again volunteered to join him but he assured her that it was alright. When Veronica was brought back to the Red World, Melinda was delighted to see her and gave her a big hug.

She later helped with Ben's plan to trap Betti in the Orange World forever by hiding the true locations of its portals. First, Ben and Francis removed the stones marking one portal. While Ben and Katherine distracted Betti by getting her to chase them, she, Francis, Una, Due and Otto moved her tent, which she had erected over the other portal. The plan initially succeeded in trapping Betti but Katherine insisted that they return as they had accidentally left the Martin of the Blue World behind. Melinda was delighted when she learned that Katherine had fooled Betti into blandishing herself as, with Ben and Katherine being the only other people in the Orange World, she was the aberrant.

As they began to work together more closely in the Parallax gang, it was hinted that she and the Francis of the Red World were attracted to each other but both of them were too shy to do anything about it.

## Appearances

* "One Big Happy Family"
* "A Rare Find"
* "The Artful Dodger"
* "Achey, Breaky Heart"
* "Lost in Paradise"
* "One Man's Rubbish"
* "Artes Veritas"
* "The Battle of Mundi's World"
* "The Big Sleep-Over"
* "The Martin Crimes"
* "The World According to Betti"
* "Decoy"
* "Too Many Chiefs"
* "Ex-Ben"
* "Dad Meets Dad"
* "The Krellick War"
* "The Reluctant Guardian"
* "Seek and You Shall Find"
* "Sand Witch"
* "My Favourite Martin"
* "The Reading Room"
* "Clownin' Around"
* "It Ain't Over"

## Behind the Scenes

All versions of Melinda were played by Francoise Sas.

With 23 appearances, she made the most appearances of any version of Melinda. The only characters to make more appearances are Ben and Katherine, who both appeared in all 26 episodes.