Chapter 1

 I walked down the bus stairs and onto the pavement. A gust of winter wind brushed against me like a feather, sending a chill down my spine. I shivered a little and kept walking to my street. The world around me was so white it was blinding and the snow falling from the sky made me feel like I was living in a snow globe. Coming out of my headphones was the amazing music of Toby Mac and the Diverse City band. I was mouthing the words to the song that was playing, Gone. I knew every word to every Toby Mac song, had seen him in concert twice and probably more to come, and had almost every CD.

            Another gust of wind, this time stronger, hit me and made my skirt fly up. I quickly pushed it back down and held the bottom with my hands so it wouldn’t fly up again. I couldn’t help but think how glad I was that I had put on tights instead of knee socks this morning. Going to a Catholic school had its advantages and disadvantages. Not having to pick what to wear in the morning was nice, especially when you wake up with ten minutes to get ready. The bad part about going to a Catholic school was the overly strict administration and rich kids that think they are all that and a box of Girl Scout cookies.

            Just as the song was ending, I reached my mailbox. I leaned down to check the newspaper opening underneath the actual mailbox, nothing. My brother must have taken it when he got home not even an hour before me. I continued to walk down the driveway, up the front walk, and into the house. The basement door was open and the light was on. My brother must be down there playing video games; he always does when he gets home from school.

            “Hey, I’m home!” I yelled down the stairs.

            “What are you guys doing? You are supposed to be going in the other direction,” he said to clearly his Xbox live headset. He had no idea I even spoke.

            I walked into the kitchen and poured myself a glass of water. I went over to the computer and logged into my name so that I could go through my daily routine. First, I checked to see if anyone had messaged me on AIM. There were a couple messages, but nothing that needed to be answered immediately. Then, I checked my e-mail; just a bunch of spam and a few from colleges that “wanted” me but I probably would not even consider. Next, I went onto Facebook to see what I had there. A couple of friends wrote on my wall, so I quickly typed messages back. Lastly, I went onto Myspace to see if anything was there. Nothing. What a surprise; nobody uses Myspace really anymore. I don’t even know why I still check.

            I logged out of everything but AIM and walked over to the pantry. I grabbed a package of Pop Tarts; my after school snack. As I went into the living room, my phone beeped, text message. I went over to my backpack on one of the counter stools and pulled out my phone. I slid the screen up to see that it was a text from him.

            “Him” is the guy I have been talking to, well texting, for about two weeks. We met online and I do not know much about him. All I know is that his name is Eliot Turner, he is seventeen, and he lives in the same town as me, Augusta. We have never literally met, like seen each other face to face, but we have traded pictures. So I know that he really is my age.

The best way I could describe Eliot Turner is the phrase “baby cute.” He has those big blue eyes, that angelic face, and the kind of hair that looks good even when he has bed head. Eliot’s hair is an auburn brown and goes down to the neck in the back and just above his eyes in the front. He is about five foot ten and has a football player’s build. Eliot in a nutshell is every girl’s dream looks wise. But from what he has told me, it is his personality that doesn’t attract girls. He isn’t mean or cocky; in fact, he is the complete opposite. Eliot is the most shy and self-conscious guy I have ever met.

            Anyways, I read the text and couldn’t help but smile.

Hey beautiful, how was your day?

He always sent texts like this at the same time basically. This was the time of the day that I looked forward to the most. No matter how bad my day was Eliot always seemed to know how to take my mind off it.

            So I texted him back:

Eh, it was pretty bad. I just

don’t get physics and pre-calc

is even worse. How was your day?

            I sat down on the couch and flipped through the channels. Out of the hundreds of channels I get there was nothing worth watching on. I picked one of the music channels so I could have something other than my brother’s video game yelling for background noise.

            Now probably would have been a good time to start my homework, but I didn’t feel like being depressed because I couldn’t do math. I just sat there and listened to the music with my eyes closed. The sound of the Bee Gees filled my head and took me to a better place then here; this better place for me was like Grease for John Travolta.

            “Hello! Is anybody there?” my brother’s voice said as it dissipated my better world and the hold of the music on my mind. I slowly opened my eyes to see his hand waving in front of my face and his face with a concerned look on it.

            I batted his hand away as I sat up and wiped a little drool from the side of my mouth. “Honestly Brandon, could you be anymore annoying? I am trying to take a nap for once and you have to ruin it.”

            “Sorry Sis, but you didn’t look like you were breathing. What would mom think if she came home and saw you like that? She would think that I killed you.” Brandon said with a smirk on his face. I knew he was picturing our mother frantically running around the house only to find out that I had been in a deep sleep.

            “Or maybe she would think I was sleeping and leave me alone; unlike someone I know.”

            “I said I was sorry. You could always go back to sleep and I’ll wake you up when dinner is ready.”

            “No, it’s too late now. I’m up. I probably should start on my homework anyways. God only knows how long it’s gonna take me.”

            “Fine, do what you want. I’ll be on the computer.” Brandon walked away with his arms up in surrender.

            Why is it me that gets stuck with a family like this? I must be the only one who has a brother that thinks he is the funniest person alive, I thought. 

I pulled out my assignment pad and looked to see what I had to do tonight. Pre-Calc seemed to be the hardest and most put off assignment. I knew it wasn’t a good idea to not do math, but it is so hard and I just don’t understand it. So I decided to do English first. All I had to do was analyze the poem “The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake.

            That took all of five minutes and I was on to the next assignment. Studying the Enlightenment was not very interesting, so I gave up on that as fast as the roadrunner outsmarts the coyote.

            My mom walked in the door and that’s when everything happened. The dog ran to the door from the living room. He was only trying to greet her, except he slid across the wet floor, crashing into her around the knees. This table topped her into the front hall. She fell onto the floor and a cracking sound echoed throughout the seemingly empty house. Next thing I knew, my mom was screaming in pain, clutching her wrist. It was clearly broken.

            “Get the car keys. You are driving me to the hospital.” my mom said in between screams.

            “Mom, don’t you think it would be better if I called an ambulance?” I said. I don’t think I could drive my mom to the hospital and stay calm.

            “Amy, go get the car keys! You can get there faster than an ambulance can get here.”

            “Fine.” I reached for my set of keys from the hook above the front hall table. “Brandon, stay here and make sure grandma knows where we went and that there is no need to worry. I will update you when I know more.”

            “Okay, you got it mam.” Brandon said as he saluted me.

            I rolled my eyes at him as I walked over to my mother. I gently helped her up and made sure she was holding her arm in a good position. We walked out the door and got into the car. It was hard to concentrate on driving when I wanted to help my mom myself.

            We got to the hospital and I had to fill out the paperwork. The receptionist told us to sit in the waiting room and she would let us know when a doctor would see us. It seemed ironic that we had to wait in a waiting room when we were at the emergency room. But I guess some things could only be tended to so quickly.

            The waiting room was nice, clearly to keep people’s minds off the pain they were in. There was a fish tank with an assortment of tropical fish in it, most likely to entertain any children that came through. There was a table in the center of the room that was surrounded by upholstered chairs and couches.  On the table were the lame month-old magazines that no one actually reads, but flips through.  I took a quick glance to see what the selection was. There were the usual medical magazines with articles that make people more paranoid. The couches and chairs were upholstered in the tackiest material I had ever seen. It was purple and green zigzags that hurt my eyes as soon as I looked at it. To make things better, the curtains matched. The overload of purple and green brought me back to my Barney days.

            My mom and I sat down on one of the couches. I picked up one of the health magazines and opened it to a random page. The article that was on the right page was about a new illness that was discovered in another part of the country. Just from reading the first paragraph, I could tell that this was not going to be an uplifting article. Why did hospitals have articles like these out in the open for people to read? It only makes people feel worse about themselves or their condition.

            I kept fidgeting in my seat. The couch cushions were extremely uncomfortable. It was as if I wasn’t sitting on a cushion, but rather in a concrete slab. There was just no winning with this situation.

            A nurse in a snowflake scrub set walked into the waiting room. “The doctor will see you now,” she said.

            My mom and I got off the slab and walked toward the nurse. I glanced over at the fish tank as I walked past it. There was one fish that appeared to be watching me. It was the smallest fish in the tank and a beautiful light purple. I walked over to the tank and to take a closer look at the fish.

            “Amy! Let’s go!” my mom said.

            The nurse led us through the double swinging doors. It was another world on this side of the doors. Everything was more hectic and fast paced. There were doctors and nurses going from room to room, carrying stacks of patient files and bringing pills and water to those who needed it.  Everyone was doing something. It was a miracle that no one ran into each other. Our presence didn’t even slow them down.

            The nurse led us to a room across from the main counter. There was another bed besides the empty one next to the window. The other bed was enclosed by the paper thin curtain that you can still see figures through. The person behind the curtain must have been in serious pain because the sounds that were coming from behind it were the kind that upset your stomach before you even see what’s wrong. I could only imagine what they were going through.

            My mom sat down on the open bed as a doctor walked into the room. He went behind the curtain to check up on the unknown person. There was more noise that made me feel even more uncomfortable.

            “How are we feeling today Danny?” the doctor said.

            The man’s response was a groan at first. But then he managed to say: “I could be worse.”

            The doctor chuckled a little and then said: “This is true. But what I want to know is how is your body feeling? These kinds of treatments can take a toll on a person’s body.”

            “I know what you meant Doc. As for how my body is feeling, I’d have to say tired.” Danny said in a sarcastic tone. It even sounded like he had a smirk on his face as he said it.

            “Well that is a normal reaction. If anything appears weird or goes wrong, let me know,” the doctor answered as he walked out from behind the curtain. He then made his way over to where my mom and I were waiting. “Hello, I am Dr. Tilst. What is the problem here?” he said as he shook my hand and went to shake my mother’s, but hesitated.

            “We are pretty sure her wrist is broken.” I said.

            “Would you mind explaining for me what happened exactly?”

            I told him about how the dog charged at her, slipped, and knocked her down. Then I mentioned the cracking sound that happened when she landed in her wrist to try to catch herself. I said that it definitely sounded like it was broken and if the sound hadn’t given it away, her screams surely had.

            “From what you have told me, it is broken. However, we want to be 100 percent sure. So, we are going to do a couple x-rays and see what they say.” Dr. Tilst said.

            “That’s fine. Do whatever you have to do. I want my mom to get better.” I said.

            “If you would follow me…”

            “It’s Ms. and the last name is St. John,” my mom said, cringing.

            “Oh, sorry,” Dr. Tilst said. “Ms. St. John, if you would please follow me to the x-ray room.”

            My mom got up slowly and followed Dr. Tilst out of the room. I was alone, besides Danny who was quiet at the moment, once again. The only sounds I could hear were the ones coming from the medical machines and the footsteps of people in the halls. I lied down on the bed and closed my eyes, trying to concentrate on the strange rhythm the beeping and footsteps created. It was surprisingly quite relaxing; all of the day’s stress seemed to be lifted away with each beep and step.

 

 

            Walking down the dirt path, I glanced up at the sun. Its rays were coming through the few places that tree branches weren’t. I could see the path each ray took, the way it played off the leaves, and the warmth it created. There was an overall feeling of peace and comfort, like nothing could go wrong.

            I came to a clearing in the woods. There was a small wild flower field to my right and a pond directly in front of me. The pond was full of lily pads, had a little stream attached to it at the North end, and large rocks scattered around it to serve as a place for someone to sit. The field had flowers that were golden yellow, royal purple, and pure blue. The sun was brighter here because it had more room to shine. The greater warmth strengthened the feeling of peace and comfort.

            On one of the rocks was someone sitting with their back to me. From what I could see, they had their knees up against their chest, their arms wrapped around their knees, and their head was looking down at their feet instead of straight ahead at the pond. They were wearing a black sweatshirt with an intricate angel wings design in sliver and the hood up. They were clearly concentrated on whatever it was that was on their mind.

            Something within me wanted to know who they were. It was a strange yet compelling feeling because I felt as if I already knew them. Like I had seen that figure before and was connected to them on a higher level then stranger or acquaintance. Maybe that’s why I had no problem walking through part of the field, over to the rock, and sit down next to the person.

            They did not acknowledge that I had sat down on the rock. They just continued to look down at their feet and stare at nothing in particular. This was aggravating and made me feel as if I was invisible or didn’t even exist, which was not a good feeling. So I looked over at them to say something and make my presence known. But when I turned to the left, I couldn’t speak; words weren’t even forming because too many thoughts were going through my head. The person was Eliot and he had tears rolling down his face! I reached out to wipe the tears away but he turned his face away, as if he was ashamed of something.

            “Eliot, what’s wrong?” I asked without a response. “Please talk to me. I want to help you if there is anything wrong. I want you to come to me and confide in me.”

            Eliot turned back toward me and there was a look of pain in his eyes. It made me want to cry too. “Amy, I can’t… I just can’t.”

            “You can’t do what?”

            “This.”

            “What do you mean this?” I asked, close to tears.

            “Look,” he paused as if collecting his thoughts, “there is something you should know.”

            “What?”

            Right when he was going to answer me, Eliot’s eyes widened at the sight of something behind my head. He became rigid and his whole body froze. I turned around to see a hooded figure making its way across the field. I didn’t need to know anything about this figure, just by the looks of them; I could tell they would be trouble. The fear in Eliot’s eyes gave it away too. I felt compelled to protect Eliot, but I knew that there was nothing I could do against this person.

            Once they reached us, they walked right by me and straight toward Eliot. I was invisible to him too. So I took this opportunity to get a better look at the man. They were wearing black work boots, worn jeans, a windbreaker, and a baseball cap to hide his face. His untamed, black hair was sticking out from different angles underneath his cap. His hands were awkwardly shoved into his pockets and his head faced the ground.

            “I thought the rules were clear boy,” the mysterious man said. “Now I have to do something I was hoping I wouldn’t have to.” He reached out and grabbed Eliot by the wrist. He yanked so hard that Eliot practically went flying off the rock. The man continued to pull Eliot away from me and back into the woods.

            “No! Don’t take him from me! I need him! Eliot come back!” I shouted after them. I jumped off the rock and began to run after them as fast as I could. But it wasn’t enough; they had vanished. So I fell to the ground, head in my hands, and began to cry.