IMPORTANT NOTE: As I'm running this blog by myself and have been very busy, this will probably the last post for a while. Possibly until next school semester.
Hi guys! Another new author has submitted to us. His name is Caleb and this is the beginning of his story, Document8. I hope that you enjoy it and will continue to follow our blog and share it with your friends!
Hi guys! Another new author has submitted to us. His name is Caleb and this is the beginning of his story, Document8. I hope that you enjoy it and will continue to follow our blog and share it with your friends!
~ * ~
Prologue
John Thomas pulled open the church's
side door and walked into his office. It had been a typical Monday afternoon
for him, paying visits to sick members of the church family, organizing a
barbeque for the following Sunday, and preparing a sermon for the following
Sunday. But now, finally, the day was nearly over.
He sat down at his computer and was
just about to check his e-mail when the ringing of the phone in the outer
office caught his attention.
“Citrus Heights Community Church.”
This was Grace, the perpetually cheerful secretarial intern. A recent high
school graduate, she was volunteering at the church over the summer before
going off to college to study medicine.
John, turning his attention back to
his computer, opened his e-mail and started to read an e-mail from a friend
overseas in China. Only a moment later, however, his focus was broken by
Grace's voice, not quite so cheerful this time.
“Oh hi Mrs. Downey...what happened?”
There was a small gasp.
“No!...is...is she okay?” John was
used to Grace's reacting sympathetically to phone calls, but now she sounded on
the verge of sobbing.
“What...what happened to her?”
Grace's voice trembled. John leaned forward in his chair, brow furrowed in
worried concentration.
“Oh...oh....” Grace's breath came in
short gasps. “Poor, poor baby!” She took a few deep breaths to try and get a
hold of herself. “Thanks for telling me...tell her I love her and...I'll be
praying for her. Okay...yes...yes...okay, bye.”
John heard the phone drop onto the
desk, then Grace's muffled sobs. He heard Grace take a few, unsteady, deep
breaths, trying to calm herself. Then there was a small squeak as she got up
out of her office chair, followed by soft footsteps coming towards his door.
The next thing John knew, Grace was
walking into his office, her face blotchy from crying.
“Have a seat.” He gestured to a chair next to his desk, which
Grace collapsed into, burying her head in her hands. Her brown hair spilled
over her, hanging towards the floor.
A heavy silence settled over the two
figures, Grace hunched over in her chair, John leaning towards her in his, his
face full of concern and pity. The bright rays of late afternoon sun spilling
into the room suddenly seemed oppressive and out of place to John, reminders of
better times long gone. Times when everything was fine, when everything was
happy and comfortable, when everything was as it should be in the world. Times
that contrasted bitterly with the looming threat of...whatever devastating news
Grace was about to pass on to him.
Finally, Grace straightened up,
dabbed at her eyes with a tissue, took a deep breath, and spoke.
“Pastor John – there's been an
accident.”
Chapter One
The
Delta Breeze
The cool Delta Breeze blew up out of San Francisco Bay and over
the Sacramento Valley, just as it always did in the early evening, refreshing
and renewing the valley after a hot dry summer day. It cooled off a pair of
tennis players, drenched with sweat from the hot Sacramento sun, then blew
onward, rippling the waters of the American River, and slowing the progress of
a group of people on an nflatable raft. It ruffled the feathers of a chicken,
blew a flimsy sign advertising fresh strawberries over onto its side, and sent
a wave of cold through a rattlesnake sunbathing on a hot rock.
Still running its course, it blew in
through Delaney Downey’s window, flapping the edge of an Iron Man 2 poster. Delaney, a tall fourteen year old girl with
long, black curly hair, was stretched out on her bed in the spacious room that
she shared with her little sister Chloe. It had been a low-key day for her -
she'd spent her time playing video games online, practicing for her upcoming
swim meet, and occasionally checking in on her sisters – just to make sure they
stayed out of trouble.
But now it was closer to six, and
the Ryans were due to arrive in an hour or two. Delaney thought back to the
time when, in the spring of that year, the construction workers had arrived to
build a small apartment connected to one side of the family's large house; it
had ended up occupying most of the side yard. Delaney and her three sisters had
helped make it as nice as possible for the Ryans, who needed a place to stay.
And today, they were finally arriving. There were three of them, and, from what
Delaney had heard, one was a boy about her own age.
She laughed quietly to herself. She
and Savannah would be having some fun tonight.
*
* *
Delaney stood up and stretched, then
walked around the dividing wall into her sister Savannah's room. This room was
much like the one that she and Chloe shared, but it was smaller, and every inch
of wall space was covered with posters of athletes, bands, movies, animals, and
scripture verses.
She walked over to Savannah's
dresser, which displayed her trophies from the many swim meets she had starred
in over the years. Delaney had a few to boast of herself, too, but Savannah was
by far the family champion. Plus, Delaney's trophies usually ended up being the
hidden treasures in Chloe's games, and sometimes they stayed hidden for quite a
long time.
Pulling the top drawer open, Delaney
grabbed a black t-shirt from among the jumbled clothes. Savannah would need it
when she got out of the pool.
She walked out of the bedroom,
continuing down the short hallway until she came to the family's computer room.
This was a large room, serving a variety of purposes depending on the the time
of year. During the school year, Delaney's mother taught her high school
English classes online, and Delaney, Savannah, and Katelyn attended similar
classes on all sorts of different subjects. Delaney and her sisters had been
homeschooled their whole lives, something they had grown to love.
But now it was summer, and the
computer room had become a cross between an entertainment center and a mad scientist's
laboratory – organized chaos, like much of the Downeys' house.
Delaney walked downstairs to the
foyer, where Snickerdoodle, the family's big yellow labrador retriever, was
snoozing in a patch of sunlight, his tail twitching occasionally.
“Come on, boy!” Delaney scolded,
“You're supposed to sleep in the laundry room, not right where everyone walks!”
Snickerdoodle responded by rolling
over onto his back, hoping for a belly rub.
“No, you need to get up and move
it!”
Snickerdoodle, paying Delaney no
mind whatsoever, yawned and rolled back onto his side again.
“Oh forget it.”
Delaney turned her back on the
sleeping dog. Savannah had a knack for talking to the dog, but she herself was
hopeless.
She walked into the kitchen, where
she found her 10-year-old sister Katelyn, sitting on a stool at the central
island, staring dreamily into space. Katelyn was short for her age, and had
wavy golden-brown hair. Her shy brown eyes looked out at the world from behind
pink wide-frame glasses. She was wearing a green cloak over her t-shirt and
skirt , and was talking quietly to herself, in a soft, dramatic voice:
“Spray
flies in all directions
Clouds
are rumbling, as though they are speaking
Writhing
and wriggling, tossing ships as if they were toys.
Gulls
screech and fly away frenzied,
Wind
whips the shore as the clouds grow louder,
Writhing
and wriggling, tossing ships as if they were...”
“So,” said Delaney, interrupting, “Have the Ryans called since I
last checked?”
“Wha...What?” Katelyn, startled,
jolted out of her daydream, gave a small jump and frantically scrambled to
reconnect with reality. “Oh, right, the Ryans...the Ryans...I have, I
think...yes, I have.” Katelyn often seemed to be living in the fantasy realms
that she created, resulting in her usual scatterbrained absent-mindedness in
the real world.
“So what time are they coming?”
“They're about twenty-five minutes
away from here right now, I think. Something like that. Did you like my poem?”
“It was pretty good. What's it
called?”
“Tempest
- I got the idea while we were fighting over the pool raft yesterday.”
Fighting over the family's blue pool raft was one of the Downey girls' favorite
swimming pool pastimes.
“So....is there going to be more of
it?”
“Well I haven't really figured out
where to go from there – do you think I should have it end up being more of a
tragedy, or should it have an uplifting ending?”
“I think I'll leave that for you to
decide, I need to go find Savannah – oh, by the way, do you have any idea where
Chloe's at?”
“I think she's building a fort out
of the couch cushions in the den. It might be a castle, I don't know...I helped
her rebuild it after Snickerdoodle wrecked the first one.”
Delaney chuckled to herself – this
was Chloe being her typical, playful, adorable, and troublesome self.
“So, mind meeting me in my room in a
couple minutes?”
“Uh...what for?”
“Stuff.”
“Delaney – don't be ambiguous.” Ambiguous was one of Katelyn's new
favorite words.
“You'll find out soon enough.
Anyway, I'm off to find Savannah.”
“Okay, see you in a little then.”
Katelyn resumed writing in her
notebook, and Delaney walked through the kitchen and sunroom and out onto the
patio. The clay tiles, hot from being in the direct sun for several hours,
scorched Delaney's bare feet, and she scampered lightly across them until she
came to the edge of the pool, where she sat down, soaking her toes in the cool
water.
The Downey's large pool was situated
at the edge of a tall bluff that provided a view over the American River
valley. On the far side of the pool, a deck was suspended over the steep hillside. The family's
spacious three-story house sat behind the pool and seemed to tower above it.
Looking out over the valley, a viewer could discern a couple of prominent cell
phone towers and a tall Mariott hotel poking up through the densly packed trees
on the opposite ridge. On clear days, the Downey children were able to see the
ghostly outline of Mt. Diablo seventy miles away.
Savannah was, as usual, swimming
laps back and forth across the family's pool. She was doing the freestyle, her
best stroke, which she'd been perfecting since she was small. She'd been
perfecting a lot of things, actually - for as long as Delaney could remember,
Savannah had been in constant motion. It could've been anything from tapping
her foot impatiently to running up and down the stairs repeatedly, but Savannah
Downey was always moving. If Newton had been alive in the twenty-first century,
that would've been his fourth law of motion.
Because Savannah could never stay
still, she had developed an interest in sports from a young age. She was now a
star member of the swim, track, and volleyball teams that both she and Delaney
were a part of. Delaney was a good athlete herself, but when it came
down to it Savannah was the family champion.
As Delaney watched, Savannah
continued to swiftly move back and forth across the pool, her arms and legs
churning the water, the bright blue of her one-piece swimsuit blending nicely
with the darker blue of the water, and her dark curls streaming out behind
her...
Delaney knew these was something
wrong with this picture.
“Savannah!”
Savannah surfaced, clinging to the
edge of the deep end.
“Savannah, where the heck did your
swim cap disappear to?”
Savannah scrunched up her face,
trying to recall. “Well...I think I put it...hmm...well, honestly, I'm not
exactly sure where. It's around the house somewhere.”
Delaney groaned – why were her
sisters always losing things?
“Look for it later – right now you need to come inside, the Ryans
are coming in about 25 minutes, and we need to talk some things over before
they arrive.”
“Why?”
“Well we don't want to talk about
them after they get here, do we?”
“Fine. I'll get out.” Savannah swam
over to the side of the pool, climbed up the steps on the shallow end, and
emerged, dripping wet, onto the patio. She grabbed a towel, then turned to face
Delaney.
Delaney had grown used to situations
like this. Still, though, looking at Savannah full in the face was eerily like
looking at her own reflection. The two girls shared just about everything –
green eyes, dark curls carefully cut to the exact same length, a tall, thin
build, and even certain freckles. They weren't just identical twins, they were
exact copies of each other. And over the years, they had shared more than just
appearance – they shared friends, activities, secrets, everything.
“So,” Delaney said, “I brought you
your t-shirt.”
“I already have one,” Savannah
objected.
“But remember...the plan?”
“Oh, riiiiight. Thanks, sis.” Savannah
gave Delaney a sly grin, grabbed the t-shirt, and walked over to the little
brown poolhouse to change out of her swimsuit. Her mission accomplished,
Delaney walked back into the house, where Katelyn was still at the kitchen
table, now scribbling in her notebook. She grabbed a dark chocolate bar out of
the cupboard, then walked up to Katelyn, trying to peek at what she was working
on. Delaney only caught a quick glimpse of Katelyn's messy cursive before
Katelyn slammed the notebook shut.
“Forsooth!” Katelyn exclaimed in a
fake British accent. “Thou art not to behold the works of Lady Katelyn of the
house of Downey until the set hour hath arrivethed!” She dropped the accent.
“Or is it arriv'd? Arriveth'd? Or maybe it's something else altogether...”
Delaney shook her head in disbelief.
Katelyn's recent delving into Shakespeare had been – well, interesting was one
way of putting it.
She decided she might as well fight
fire with fire.
“I am extremely sorry,” Delaney
responded in an equally bad British accent, “But I do not possess any degree of
knowledge to that regard. Anyway, my good lady, Savannah's getting changethed,
she shall be ready for our meeting in a minute or two. You might as well come
with me, we're commencing with our meeting in a minute.”
“Aye, I shall accompany thee over
hill and over dale to the sacred gathering place.”
Delaney, confused by her own
Shakespearean English, switched to her personal favorite alternate voice - the
bad German accent. “Ah need yoo to come vith mee now!” She pointed her
half-eaten chocolate bar at Katelyn menacingly. “Yoo must come or ELSE!”
“Alas,” Katelyn moaned, “I have been
seized by my ruthless oppressors, never again to see my dear homeland and even
dearer loved ones ever again.” Katelyn allowed herself to be led out of the
kitchen, past Snickerdoodle, who was still out cold, and up the stairs to the
second floor.
Here Delaney stopped in front of
den, a small room opposite the computer room, which doubled as a playroom for
Chloe, and as a guest bedroom. Delaney decided to poke her head in to see what
was going on.
It was a disaster.
Cushions were piled up everywhere except on the little couch, the bed was
covered with dolls and stuffed animals - as was the floor - and Chloe was
nowhere in sight.
“Chloe – I know you're in there!”
“No I'm not.” This was a small voice
coming from beneath a pile of blankets in one corner.
“If you're not there than how come
you're talking?”
“I don't know.”
“Chloe, we need to talk about some
important things. We're having a meeting, and we want you to join us.”
The idea of a meeting seemed to
intrigue Chloe, so she climbed out from under her pile of blankets and,
stumbling over the myriad stuffed animals on the floor, made it to the door.
Chloe was the littlest of the four
Downey girls. She was six, and she held her older sisters in the utmost esteem.
She had black hair like Delaney and Savannah and brown eyes like Katelyn, but
the similarities ended there. Her hair was short and straight, rather than long
curly, and it reached only to the base of her neck. Her skin was darker than
her sisters, and her eyes were almond-shaped. She was also very small for her
age.
“Delaney, look!” she said, grabbing
a little blue notebook off the floor and waving it in the air excitedly.
“Katelyn bought this for me when we went to the grocery store with daddy! Now I
can write and draw things in it just like she does!”
Katelyn smiled, glad to be a good
influence on her creative little sister. Ever since she was adopted from China as
a toddler, Chloe had actively tried to keep up with her older sisters. She had,
over the years, learned to swim like Savannah, to play Minecraft like Delaney,
and, most recently, how to do art projects like Katelyn.
“Look! I drew Snickerdoodle!” Chloe proudly
held up her notebook again, this time open to a lopsided drawing of something
that, with a bit of imagination, could pass for something sort of like a dog.
“Very nice,” said Delaney, carefully
admiring Chloe's picture.
“You're showing signs of real
talent,” Katelyn added.
“And then I drew you and Katelyn and
Savannah and me.” She turned the page to show a couple of stick figures, one
much smaller than the others, all smiling.
“That's...” Delaney began, but she
was interrupted by a loud thumping noise, which turned out to be Savannah
sprinting up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
She froze at the top, poised to
spring. Delaney, brandishing her chocolate bar menacingly, jumped into an
identical position facing her.
The two glared at each other, both
ready to pounce.
Katelyn groaned. “Why do you two
have to do that?”
“Because we feel like it.” Savannah
straightened up and joined the little group in the hallway.
“Anyway,” said Delaney, also
standing up again, “Let's go to my room and talk over some stuff before the
Ryans get here.”
Delaney led her sisters down the
little hallway and back into Delaney's alcove, where Savannah collapsed noisily
onto Delaney's bed. Chloe sat down on her own little bed opposite Delaney's,
and Katelyn squeezed in next to her. Left without a place to sit, Delaney
stood, leaning against the window that overlooked the parkway.
“So,” Delaney began, assuming a
dignified, authorative tone, “We're all here to discuss some last-minute
thoughts regarding the new arrivals. I know this is kind of short-notice, but
there are some things we need to be caught up on before they arrive. First of
all, our primary goal is to make them feel at home – being warm and inviting,
and inviting them to join in the stuff we do.”
“Like playing castle in the den?”
“Maybe, Chloe. We'll see if they'd
like that.”
“So,” said Savannah, “Remind me
again – how old are the two boys?”
“I think the older one's about our
age, the younger one's something like Chloe's. Anyway,” she turned to Katelyn,
“Katie, I wanted to mention something to you...”
There was no response from Katelyn,
who was staring, mesmerized, at Delaney and Chloe's tropical fish tank,
mouthing something about someone being “lost forever in the watery depths.”
Savannah laughed. “You can tell
Katelyn's tuned out when she doesn't object to being called Katie.”
This got through to Katelyn, who
shook herself abruptly. “Sorry...sorry...sorry...what were you saying,
Delaney?”
Delaney laughed. “I was going to say
– try not to space out around the Ryans, if you can help it.”
Katelyn looked slightly embarrassed.
“Sorry – I'll try, but I can't really help myself sometimes.”
“That's okay,” Delaney responded,
“Just try your best. And you don't have to talk with them a ton, leave that up
to Savannah and I...”
“Savannah and me,” Savannah interjected.
“I'm pretty sure it's Savannah and
I,” Delaney retorted. “And anyway, stop being the grammar Nazi around here.”
Delaney had been telling her sister this for years, in the hope that it would
get through to her sooner or later.
“Bet ya a dollar that it's 'Savannah
and me'.”
“Fine, I'll take you up on that if
you'll be quiet.” Delaney raised her voice slightly. “Anyway, other items of
order – Chloe, you remember what mommy and I told you about manners?”
“Yes!” Chloe responded, excited to
show the newcomers that she was very grown up for her age.
“Okay, good – Now as for the two of
us...” she turned to face Savannah, “We'll just do what we always do.”
“Right.” Savannah smiled
mischievously.
“Anyway,” Delaney continued, “Does
anyone have any questions?”
“I have one.”
“What Savannah?”
“Are you going to be eating the rest
of that chocolate bar anytime soon? Because if not I'd be happy to take it off
your hands.”
Delaney looked down at the half eaten
chocolate bar that she was still holding, now starting to feel slightly soft.
“Oh...right...that thing.” Delaney
laughed, then crammed the rest of it into her mouth.
“So much for that.” Savannah “You know when dinner's going to be? I'm
starving.”
“Pretty soon,” Delaney replied,
“Whenever the Ryans get here.”
~
* ~
Caleb
B. is a home schooled high school student, musician, and novel writer. He is
currently working on completing his novel, currently titled Document8 (for lack
of a better title), about a home school family and their friends struck by the
sudden tragedy of a daughter's paralysis.
