Chapter 1 - Ring The Bells

     Chapter 1

                                                             

                                    Ring the bells that still can ring

                                                forget the perfect offering

                                                there’s a crack in everything

                                                that’s how the light gets in…

                                                                                        - Leonard Cohen

                                                                                             “Anthem”

                                                              

      It was a day, like any other day...before or aft, at least to this mindless, quite clueless, oblivious to the world ten year old.  Pastoral days were the norm; unless it snowed...then all hell would break loose.  The Mill River flowed, actually meandered, behind the Micluses' ranch and Reiatas' cape cod.  There were eighty-one homes in this bucolic development but they were either the ranch or cape cod variety, usually alternating, but not necessarily. We always walked between those two homes to gain access to the River.  I always considered this route the passage into fantasyland and eventually manhood. You would too, if you only knew the things that took place in, on, and around this den of iniquity.  But this day was different. It was about to change my life forever.  Little did I know this WAS the beginning of the rest of my life.  The end of childhood with no place to go.  A ten year old child whose life was about to change...nay.... erupt into his next passage of life (skipping a couple on the way), with no warning and no time to prepare.  Sometimes we blame fate or chance for the events that affect our lives.  After all, if we get up ten minutes later than we usually do, or travel a route we usually don't, or have a prolonged argument with our siblings, which we always do.... Don’t those occurrences affect the flight of our destiny?  Getting stuck in traffic, answering the telephone, missing the school bus...doesn't that adjust our pre-destiny, our pre-determined fate?  I don't know, I'm just asking.

     But this day, this day was certainly going to be different.  Fate really didn't play a part.  Not in my mind, anyhow.  There was nothing, absolutely nothing I could have done differently to change the outcome.  Not at ten years old.  Maybe if I was thirty-seven years old I could have made a change or two that would have altered the cosmos, but not at ten.  I was still trying to figure out who I was and how I fit in. I was a chick pecking his way out of its shell and just beginning to see the world.  Life was not yet in color for me.  It was still black and white, though slowly fading to gray.  My mind was only interested in baseball and football, riding my bike, fishing, and most importantly being with my friends.  I couldn't care less about anything else.  Life was GRAND, until that day.  A day that will live in infamy, as old FDR stated after the Jap's bombed Pearl Harbor and flushed us smack dab in the middle of World War II.  My day of infamy was a day that barely touched the rest of the world, but changed mine forever.  It changed my course, for better or for worse, and affected everything I would do or touch, from that moment on. This was my D-day, but the troops were only slightly visible.   

     I remember like it was yesterday; the images, the smells, the conversations, the

television, the confusion, the anger. It was Thursday, May 29, 1960.  As I

remember the day, it was calm, almost sublime.  The types of day you just sit back and smell the roses.  School was nothing out of the ordinary except I think Melanie Avanti told me she would like me if I let her have my pen. Of Course, I relented...I was a boy about to become a man.

 

     

 

 

 

Author's Note

Honest critiques and comments are welcomed

Reviews

[Mockingbird]

this is a great chapter. it leaves you with a cliffhanger. it leaves you wondering what it is that changed his life forever.

[patricia]

you changed font size! A good chapter, I love Leonard Cohen. I wish I had read this story from chapter One onwards, but there you go, anyway what I have read in all these chapters is that it just gets better and better, reminded me of Dave Eggers work. Love it all. Thanks.

[Mark]

Critique was solicited, so here goes:
Was "den of antiquity" an intentional play on words, or did you perhaps mean, "den of iniquity"?
For the benefit of others not as old as we, might it be better to say "Roosevelt", rather than "old FDR"?
Last, a typo: "Of course..."
I'll reserve value judgments until I've read the remaining chapters. But at least you've got me wanting to do that, and that's always a good start!

[Becky C Strukamp]

This is absolutely worthy of reading and hoping you will continue. You have peeked my curiousity and you know what happened to the cat. Your view of life being changed by one moment that changes unexpectedly in our lives is absolutely correct. If we miss the buss and down the road the bus wrecks. If we are in a hurry then suddenly something slows us down and later we learn of perhaps a wreck down the road that we would have been in a part in had our attention not diverted> I am a firm believer that if we listen to life it directs us right where we need to go. You are a brilliant poet and now I see you have a wonderful knack for story telling as well. I loved it. continue please!!

[?]

I agree our day...destiny...can be altered...changed..delayed by some little something.
This was a wonderful chapter, kept me interested. I wanted to hurry and get to the end so I could read what had happened, transpired. But oh my guess I have to read Chapter 2.
Im like Coyote, I dont remember my childhood, something happened that made me forget it somewhat. But then again somethings are good not to remember, lol

Awesome cant wait to find out what happened.

[Coyote Poetry]

A very good opening to the story. I don't remember my childhood. It wasn't so good. I have spotted memories of people and places. I like the way you told the story in the chapter. When we are kids. Mind is simple and trying to grasp the concept of life. I like the complete chapter. A strong ending to a excellent chapter.
Coyote