July (The Year of The Change Book 1) (39 page)

In eighth grade, his folks were able to buy a house within biking distance of mine. After that we spent a lot of time on our bikes as soon as it was warm enough until freezing tempts put a stop to it.

We told each other everything. That was, until Gram told me a secret I couldn’t tell even Donny. He stuck by me when all the weird stuff started. Even when I couldn’t answer his questions he still stayed my friend. He was there when all my girlfriends left. He’s my best buddy for life.

After dinner, Dad and I carried the family computer up to my room and set it up, along with the old printer. It was slow, but it was better than having to stand in line. I got the larger desk that the computer had sat on in Oklahoma. When we were done and Dad left, I sat there and looked at
my
computer. I pulled up email and wrote Donny a long letter off-line. When I was done, I dialed up, sent it, and disconnected quickly. I didn’t want Sue getting mad at me.

There were a couple of emails in my in-box from Donny. I opened the oldest one. It was a short note telling me he already missed me. It had been sent the night we left. The next one was sent three days later on Monday. He was wondering why he hadn’t heard from me yet. Donny could be a little impatient. He told me about his swim meet last Thursday -- the first that I’d ever missed, and that was because Sue insisted I finish packing the last of my things. Next, he wrote about the meet they had coming up Saturday, today. It was the second swim meet of his that I’d ever missed. We were on the same city league, of course. Even when I sprained my ankle, I still went to cheer him on. We’d spent every summer cheering or consoling each other. This summer I would have to cheer him on from Alaska. He wouldn’t have to bother cheering me on, there wasn’t anything to cheer about.

Already, I could tell I would have to work hard to keep my emails from sounding depressing.

I responded to each of his emails and put them on hold until after nine, when there shouldn’t be any phone calls. Donny would be surprised at the avalanche he would find in the morning. I smiled at the thought of him being happy to hear from me. We’d never gone so long without, a minimum of a phone call. Maybe Dad would let me call him sometime.

I used to spend hours answering emails from all my girlfriends. Now Donny was the last connection I had to Oklahoma and my old life.

To my surprise, I also had emails from each of the Beck boys, Jimmy and Rob too. It was exciting that they all wrote. They each talked about our visit and wished we could’ve stayed longer. Randy talked about football practice starting soon and his horse Molly that he was going to barrel race at the county fair. Mark talked about his horse Scout and his Eagle project that was due in a month. He said he and Kevin had a long talk and they were doing better. I was so glad to hear that.

Kevin told me about work and school. The poor guy was taking summer classes so he would be ahead when he went on a religious mission for his church after Christmas break. He didn’t actually know where he was going, yet. That was because he’d just sent in his papers … whatever that meant. Wherever they sent him, he knew it would be great. He thanked me for a picture I drew for him and tacked on his cork board. I didn’t remember doing that. He said it was a drawing of the two of us just like the photo he has except it was as we looked now. I shook my head. Another of those weird pictures I didn’t remember drawing. I sure hoped I would have better control after The Change.

The next email was from Jimmy, who teased me about not swimming at the pond and not being able to sit still in the bleachers. I missed him. He was a lot of fun.

I was afraid to open Rob’s email. Curiosity eventually won over my fear and I clicked on it.

It was a very short note. “Hi Sylvia, hope your trip was fun, miss you. I hope you like your new town. Rob” It was short, and very sweet.

I responded to each email hoping they would all write back. I put these on hold, too, and sat back.

My brain itched and I jumped up to find my wallet. Inside was a piece of folded paper that had been torn from an order pad at the Mexican restaurant in Crete, Nebraska. I unfolded the crumpled paper and smoothed it out on the desk. Sitting back I stared at the defenseless paper as though it might bite me. There, in hurried print, was Shalem’s email address. Not sure if I should do what I was thinking, I almost threw it away. I bit my lip and smiled. I was too far away for him to do anything rash. And it couldn’t hurt if I just wrote to say I’m sorry for causing trouble and ask how the fight ended. Or, that’s what I kept telling myself as I composed the email. It took rereading it five times before I put it on hold.

I sighed and looked at the clock, one more hour until I could send the emails.

I went and got a book to read so I wouldn’t think about the trouble I could be causing. Could be? No, I always cause an uproar.

Sue was like a tornado in reverse and did the bulk of everything on the main floor. Good thing there wasn’t much more to do. I didn’t know if I could look at another box.

Destiny came over, late morning, to help Dad and I unpack the garage, while Sue went over to have tea with Cara. All Destiny had to do was walk into the garage and the chore became fun. Her happy chatter kept me from thinking about being homesick. I didn’t even have to think about what I was doing. Hopefully, my weirdness wouldn’t scare her off too soon.

Speaking of weirdness.

We were knee deep in boxes in the middle of the garage when two boys, that Destiny knew, rode by on their bikes. They waved and continued on down the street. I breathed deeper with relief. The last thing I needed was boys freaking Destiny out. My relief was short lived. The boys came back. Parking their bikes, they stood at the garage entrance.

The short one with dark hair and braces was the spokesman. “Hi, Destiny.” He eyed me as I worked myself to the back, near the door to the house.

Destiny looked up and smiled. “Hi, Danny.” She waved at the other boy. “Hi, Cory. What’re you guys up to?”

Danny kicked at a crumpled piece of packing paper. “Nothin’ … just messin’ 'round.” He looked at me. “Who’s the new neighbors?”

Cory, with the dark blond hair, jabbed him in the ribs and frowned.

Destiny stood up. “These are the Kennins, Sylvia …” She pointed at me and I forced a smile as I cringed back. “And her dad, Mr. Kennin.”

Dad stuck out his hand and they each shook it uncomfortably. They didn't say anything, so we went back to work. I knew it was useless to hope they would just go away and not cause trouble. I hoped anyway.

Danny followed me from box to box, asking questions. "Where'd you move from?" He got between me and the shelf I was trying to load from a box on the floor.

“Oklahoma.”

He tapped the cement with his toe. "Wow, that's a long way, isn't it?" He shifted with me when I tried to go around. "Did you fly here?”

I tripped over Danny's big foot. Cory moved to help. Dad jumped quicker and caught me before I fell into something breakable.

He took Danny by the shoulder. "Here, why don't you unpack these tools and put them in my rolling tool chest?"

My father was wonderful. Danny, eager to please, did as Dad asked and followed the older man across the garage, away from me. Just as nature abhors a vacuum, so does The Change.

Cory slipped in beside me. "How long were you on the road?"

He pulled gardening tools from the box and unwrapped them for me. This would’ve been great except his fingers shook so much he couldn’t hold onto anything. The hand spade missed my foot, but the long handled hedge trimmer didn't.

"Ow!"

"Sorry, sorry, it slipped."

"You're such a klutz, Cory." Danny taunted.

Just like my answers to their myriad of questions, I didn't say much and walked away. "I'm ok, it's ok."

Cory tried to follow me to the step where I sat to take my shoe off. Dad ran interference again. He put Cory to work near Danny. I glanced at Destiny to see how she was handling weird event number one. She seemed amused by the two boys. Maybe these two usually behaved like this and it wouldn't be so unusual to her. The questions kept coming. Now, they both asked at the same time. They seem to be in a contest for who could ask the most interesting questions. They frowned at each other more often than they smiled at me. The only time Destiny frowned was when the two boys talked over her. Truth be told, they made it hard for anyone to get a word in edgewise.

No matter what Dad had them doing they eventually ended up next to me. A thought came to me that made my stomach flip flop. What if Destiny liked one of them? They looked younger, but I wasn’t a good judge of age. She didn't seem to favor either of them. I crossed my fingers and said a quick prayer.

Just when I thought the situation couldn't get any worse, out of the corner of my eye I saw someone standing across the street. I did a double take.

Drew?!! What was he doing here? Better yet, how’d he get here?

No one else seemed to notice him. He must’ve been in Phase. I perspired and dropped the hose I was holding. It immediately unwound and spread across the cement floor. I struggled to rewind it. Drew sneered.

The hose actually wasn't that hard to coil back up. Regrettably, Danny and Cory wanted to help – and didn't want the other to help me --- which meant they weren't any help at all.

As I finished with the hose that I’d wrestled away from the two boys, I tripped over Danny. I landed head first in a large box full of packing trash. Danny and Cory both reached in to help me, and quickly got into an argument about who should help me out. Cory actually put his hand on my back to prevent Danny from pulling me up. Danny pushed Cory and they scuffled only a foot away. Meanwhile, I was off balance and couldn’t get myself out.

Dad and Destiny had to break up the fight. He made the boys leave. I could hear everything as I lay, stuck half out of the obnoxious box. As I waited to be rescued I could smell oil and, if I was correct, the apple cores we threw away earlier. My stupid stomach wanted me to find them and finish off what was left. Ew. There were a lot of things I would do for my stomach, but I drew the line at eating other people’s trash. I didn’t care how much Destiny left on hers.

Dad snorted. “Well, that should take care of them.”

Destiny’s voice was subdued. “They’ve been best friends for as long as I’ve known them. I’ve never seen them fight before, sorry about that.”

“Oh, it’s okay, boys will be boys.” There he went again, excusing them just because they were boys. He was probably being generous because of me.

I distinctly heard Drew laughing. Was he closer?

Destiny was apologetic. “If I’d known they were going to act like that I wouldn’t have encouraged them to stay.”

The blood pooled in my head.

“It’s okay, Destiny.” I could hear what sounded like pats, probably on Destiny’s back. I wasn’t completely sure with the blood beating a rhythm in my ears. My stomach signaled that the core in question was in the corner, not far from my hand.

I worried they’d forgotten me. “Hey! Remember me?!” I waved one of my feet hoping it would get their attention.

“Oh, Sylv! Sorry about that.” Dad reached in and pulled me out by my belt.

Finally erect, my head swam while the blood went back to where it belonged.

Destiny removed some used tape from my hair. “Are you okay, Sylv?”

“Yeah, just embarrassed.” I watched her face fearing I would see the first traces of her thinking I was weird. I wouldn’t have blamed her if she bolted.

She waved her hand. “Don’t be, they’re only freshmen.”

I rubbed my stomach where the box had dug into the skin. It felt abused and gurgled for me to feed it comfort food to make it feel better. “They don’t live close by, do they?”

“Danny lives directly behind me and Cory lives a block away, the other direction from us.”

Oh great, two affected boys within nuisance distance. I could only hope they wouldn’t become frequent visitors. Hope was in short supply where I was concerned.

Using the motion of smoothing out my t-shirt, I glanced over to see if Drew was still across the street. He wasn't, he’d come for a closer look and now stood at the opening to the garage. He pantomimed my falling into the box and laughed harder at my latest ordeal. He would find it funny.

Sue returned and came out to announce lunch was ready and invited Destiny to join us. That was nice, since Sue didn’t usually encourage my friends to come around, let alone stay for a meal.

Drew motioned to me. "
Hey, Sylv. Come talk to me
."

I looked at him from the corner of my eye and shook my head. He frowned, all humor gone.

When the others weren't looking I whispered. "Later."

He shrugged and I scampered into the house.

My stomach was overanxious to be fed and I knew Destiny could hear it. Drew being outside made my anxiety worse. How was I going to get rid of him? Though, I felt sorry for him being alone, he couldn't stay here, not this year.

There was nothing I could do for now, so I pushed him from my thoughts as my stomach took over. When Destiny wasn’t looking I took extra food. Dad and Destiny told the others about the boys and the box. Sue frowned deeper. Well, there was the first weird event, one more to go before I lost Destiny.