Chapter 1-2

Chapter 1-2

            The phone rings. “Hello, Mr. Watkins. Sorry to be callen’ you so late. This is Doc Hatfield, that’s right―how’re those triplets? Glad to hear. I need a favor; I need some ice; do you think you can spare me some? Oh, I don’t know, as much as you can give me. I need lots. I have a boy here going through it like water. I can’t keep him cooled. The boy has a big fever, sure, I’ll send someone right over. If you know anyone else, pass the word. I’m at the Downing farm, thanks, Mr. Watkins,” Doc said, hanging up the phone.

             “Steve, they live just about ten, maybe twenty miles down the road. Go straight, make a left, and turn right; he’ll leave the light on for you. You need ice, now git, son, before we run out. Oh―And give them my best; they are just simple farmers, like the rest of us.”

            Steve gave him a weird look. “All right, Doc,” he shrugged his shoulders.

Steve hopped into the car, following the directions the Doc gave him, with a bucket for the ice. Steve saw the farm, and Mr. Watkins dressed just like Richard when he first saw him. The Doc wasn’t kidding about simple farmers.

            “Doc says ya need ice for a boy with fever?” Mr. Watkins said. Mr. Watkins was an average farmer, but he didn’t do a lot of actual farming these days. Mr. Watkins mostly worked on Main Street in a small grocery store called Watkins Grocery. With his wide girth and small legs and arms, he still had pure muscle in those arms. His short, crewcut brown hair remained unchanged from his days as a gunner on the big warships during his service in the war. He was the type of guy who would do anything for a neighbor or a stranger who had fallen on hard times.

            “That’s right, sir,” Steve said.

            “Here you go, son. Tell Doc I hope to see you at the picnic soon. Yeah, you can come, too, son, if you like. There’ll be plenty of room for you,” he replied.

            “We’ll see; we’re not sure right now. Things might be changing back at the farm. Well, we gotta get back with this ice. Doc’s waiting for it. We have a boy that has to be cooled soon,” he said as Steve waved goodbye. “Thanks for the ice,” he said as he headed back to the car.

            Mr. Watkins went back inside, watching him go back up the road. “Wife? Did you pass along that the Downings needed ice?” He asked. “I can run to the store and clean out the cooler, if necessary,” he said.

            “Yes’um,” she replied.

            “Call Doc back, ask about the picnic and wife, and see if he needs anything else before I go.”

Steve returned to the farm with the ice, putting it into the freezer. Doc, on the phone with Ms. Watkins.

            “Picnic? I haven’t given it much thought, Mrs. Watkins. I’ve been Somewhat busy. Yes. I guess I’ll be there. What about the Downings? Don’t know, hard to say?” Steve overheard the conversation and looked at the Doc, who shrugged. He put the ice in the freezer. Doc nods back. “Yes, he just got back. Thanks for the ice, Mrs. Watkins. I’ll do that, thanks again.”

            Doc hangs up the phone and turns to Steve and says. “Steve, that’s how the farmers are around here, always worried about their neighbor. She says more ice is on the way and to leave the porch light on,” Doc said.

            “Good thing, too, Doc. It looks like they took the last of the ice. This is all we have left until morning,” Steve said, looking down at the bucket half-filled with ice.

            “You better get some rest, Steve. I’ll be fine,” he poured himself a hot cup of Joe. Richard walked into the kitchen, finding Doc resting his eyes for a few moments. “Doc, EJ is getting too weak, and we can’t cool him on the stool enough. It takes too much out of him; he nearly falls off it.”

            Richard inherited his father’s height, standing at five feet and five inches, which was taller than his mother. Unlike his father and two brothers, who had lost their hair before the age of twenty, Richard managed to keep his dark brown hair from balding. He had a blue-eyed gaze, a hard, straight nose, and high cheekbones like his mother. Richard was not man-made by education or status, but rather by hard living, just like his brothers.

            Richard chose to stay at home after his father passed away to care for his mother. However, he regretted he would never have the opportunities like his older brother, Steve. Richard tied himself to the house and seldom went out to date young girls or attend spring or summer dances, unlike most boys his age. He stayed home, reading a book on wintry nights or caring for the house and the yard while his mother visited old friends. Every time he saw pictures of his father staring back at him, it filled him with grief, and he wondered if his father was proud of the choices he had made.

            Doc nodded as he walked down the hall and gently nudged Wayne, waking him without disturbing his wife. “Wayne, we need your muscular arms to move your son.” Wayne nodded his head and looked over at his sleeping wife, still sound asleep. Wayne leans over and kisses her on the cheek, then closes the door behind him. “We need to put him back into the tub, Wayne; he’s too weak to be moved back and forth,” Doc said.

            Pa saw EJ lying on his bed, and Julie and Richard tried to keep him cool; EJ looked up at Pa as he leaned over. “I’m so tired, Pa, and it’s so hot,” as Julie wiped his head.

            “I know, son, I know,” Pa said as he looked down at EJ, resting his hand on his shoulder. Julie, see if you can find a quilt and some towels. Richard, see if we can try to make a bed in there for him.” Slowly, Pa gently picked up EJ, carried him back to the tub, laid him in it, and cooled him off. Pa took a quilt, soaked it in cold water, and laid it on top of him. Julie placed a pillow behind his head to make him more comfortable. Richard brought a cot in and a stool so someone could sit next to the tub to monitor him.

            EJ could finally rest with a cool, damp quilt on top. Julie and Richard would remove the quilt and replace it every so often. “Richard, I’ve got it. Why don’t you go get some sleep?” Wayne said, pushing Richard towards the door. Julie and I can handle it from here.”

            “Are you sure, sir?” Wayne nodded his head, watching Richard head off to bed. Wayne headed down to the kitchen for more ice. When Wayne walked into the kitchen, Doc was pacing the floor. Doc looks up and sees Wayne trying to smile.

            “Just nerves, Wayne. We are low on ice, and your boy is using it up faster than I would like, and we still need to get him to the hospital. He’s burning up hotter than a firecracker on the fourth of July.”

            “Well, that’s the last of it,” Wayne said, taking the last bucket down the hall with ice water. Doc got worried and picked up the phone to make another call for ice, then heard a knock at the door.

            Wayne opened the door and saw Mr. Watkins with a pickup filled with buckets of ice. “Sorry, Doc,” Mr. Watkins said as he stared at Wayne. “Sorry I’s late, but you’s forgot to turn your porch lights on’s and we missed the turn. This should git ya started, more’s on the way’s, Doc― Oh, change of plans on the picnic, we ain’t sure if ya were’s goanna t’a make it,” he said, looking at Mr. Downing. “So’s me, and the boys thought, heck, we just have one of our ‘own’s’ rights here’s,” he replied.

            Wayne looks at Doc and looks back at Mr. Watkins with a puzzled look as if he missed something. “Doc. What picnic is he referring to?” Wayne asked.

            “Well, are’a ya Goanna help me unload this ice, boys?” Mr. Watkins asked as he picked up the buckets and set them on the porch.

            “Yes, sir,” they replied, forgetting all about the picnic, for now at least. Doc and Wayne shrugged their shoulders and helped unload the ice from the pickup, watching Mr. Watkins drive down the road.

            “Wayne, it looks like we have ice,” Doc said, slapping him on the back. “The question is,” looking at all the buckets, “where will we put it all?” Doc asked.

            Wayne and Doc packed the freezer chuck full again, placing the ice in every cool spot around the house to keep it from melting too fast. Now they had too much ice, and more was coming. Doc and Wayne laughed. “You ‘got ta’ hand it to our farmer neighbors. Be careful what you wish for, or you might get a snowstorm,” Doc replies.

            It was just a few hours till dawn; Mary and Lizzy got up and headed down the hall. They passed Wayne in the hall with a bucket of ice water. “We had to move him during the night,” as they looked towards the bathroom. They saw Julie sitting on a stool by the tub.

            “How’s he doing, Wayne?” They asked.

            “Weak and tired, Doc’s calling the hospital now to see if we can get him in there sooner.  Martha and her sister are still asleep; they are both out like a light. Whatever Doc gave them worked like a charm; best night’s sleep they have gotten in a long time,” Wayne said.

            “Did you sleep much?” Mary asked, leaning against the wall in the hallway next to her sister Lizzy.

            “No, not really. I laid there mostly, worried. I got this, Julie,” Pa said, holding up the bucket of ice water. I got a boy that needs cooling.” Pa put down the bucket of water to cool him down. “Well, lest he is sleeping some,” he replied.

            “Pa, I think we need to wake up, Ma, and find the Doctor. His breathing has been a little rough the last hour, and he is starting to feel a little clammy, too,” Julie said, getting up from the stool near the tub and tucking the cool quilt around him.

            Pa found the Doctor and told him what Julie had said. When he got off the phone, the Doctor checked on EJ again. “The Doctor’s over there, Wayne. The soonest he can look at him is sometime around noon. We can’t wait that long,” he said, looking at EJ. “Go wake up your wife.             Like it or not, we’re going now.”

            Wayne ran down the hall, waking up his wife and boys. “Quickly, boys, Robert, pull out the pickup and bring it to the front of the house. Will, Richard, grab some quilts and water and ice.”

            “Yes, Pa, yes, sir,” they replied.

            Robert was the type of guy who took life seriously when making hard decisions. He always looked up to his father and knew without a doubt he could talk about anything with him without feeling embarrassed about any subject. Robert, like his sister Julie, was very mature for a fourteen-year-old. But he thinks that time had slowed down as he watched other kids his age goes out and do things that neither his Pa nor his Ma would approve of. Meanwhile, Robert wished he could become an adult today instead of waiting. This was fine because he had plenty to do right here, such as helping his Pa take care of the farm. If there was one thing he learned, it was responsibility and being responsible for your actions, or else suffer the consequences.

            Robert resembled his father. He had broad shoulders, soft brown hair, and blue eyes, or one would say one blue eye and one green eye, depending on the light. Robert stood tall at a height of five feet, six inches. Lengthy and sprite, he enjoyed doing nothing more than being with or teasing his two brothers, Will and Sam. He sometimes did not agree on a few things regarding his sisters Julie and Anna, but no matter how hard they embarrassed or teased him, he loved them and held them in high regard when asking for advice.

            He shared a unique ability with his mother, known as the “Sight.” However, his ability had grown stronger over the past few years. Today, he had a clear vision of a battle in his own backyard. He saw a strange man, an evil wizard with red eyes, casting a spell over his new brother EJ. Another man, tall and wearing a long white and silver robe, held a long white staff and pointed to the evil wizard as they fought back and forth. Eventually, the dark wizard vanished. Then, his brother EJ fell off the cot onto the ground, and things got out of control. For a moment, he thought he had only dreamed the whole thing. However, the days were becoming even stranger, and he needed to talk to his Ma and Pa about what he had seen before he lost his mind. Perhaps he already had?

            Will was thirteen, just a year older than EJ. Will, who still had a childlike heart and would get into trouble whenever he could, didn't earn the label of a bad kid for seeking attention. Yet it was true that Will acted out more for the fun of it and never cared about the consequences. To say he was a handful sometimes would state the true nature of his fun-loving self. Like his brother Robert, Will took life seriously, just not as seriously as people would have liked. He preferred to play in the sun, fish, and swim in the pond near the house more often than he did his chores.

He received countless grounding from his parents. Will was still waiting for his growth spurt to kick in, like his brother, and not just because his brother Robert and his friends at school teased him about it. He tried to stand tall at four feet, eight inches to a size six feet, unlike his brother’s ten-foot size. It was true that Will, would never be a basketball star or make the team play football, but there was always track. After all, he could outrun his sisters from time to time.

Like his mother, Will liked to wear his hair long over his ears but short enough to keep it out of his deep blue eyes. Like his Ma, he took pride in his long stride and high cheekbones. Will, always had a smile for girls whenever they waved to him in the hallway or the classroom. He would watch his brother roll his eyes when the girls sighed at him. He earned a reputation as the jokester, yet he could be the sweetest guy around if he chose to.

            He felt like he was losing his sanity as he watched two unfamiliar figures fighting in his backyard. However, what he saw was more than just those two individuals. Unlike his own reality, he could see other things, such as different realms and worlds, peculiar creatures that he would find in fairytales and old legends, and people engaged in battles all around him. Some of these individuals spoke in foreign tongues, yet he somehow understood what they were saying without knowing why.

            It was puzzling why these strange creatures and people were searching for someone named the White Solon and the Five Keys of Destiny. The question that kept lingering in his mind was, what exactly are these Five Keys, and what do they do or unlock? Despite some of them begging for his help, he was just a simple farm boy and mortal, and he felt out of place among these strange beings who had previously only visited him in his dreams. Now that they were appearing in his waking world, he couldn’t seem to escape them. He wondered if he was losing his mind now that he was fully awake, and it seemed it was no longer a dream.