“You won’t find faith or hope down a telescope,
You won’t find heart and soul in the stars,
You can break everything down to chemicals,
But you can’t explain a love like ours.
It’s the way we feel, yeah, this is real.”
From “Science & Faith,” The Script (Daniel O’Donoghue and Mark Sheehan) ©2010
The sun shone through a few puffy clouds as I walked up the sidewalk to a house I had known my whole life. No, that’s not quite true. I had lived in the place my whole life, but it wasn’t always the same house.
Once it was filled with colorful paintings of flowers and my mom’s voice singing and humming. For a while it was a building overflowing with a dull, grey dread.
It is once again a house filled with color and life. But it’s not the same house as when my mom was alive. That house is gone, but I now know how to find it if I want. Thing is, these days I don’t want to go looking for it anymore.
It would be great to report that after we got back from Europe they stopped calling me ‘Freak Girl’ and that I became popular and adored. That didn’t happen. But I stopped caring about what Greta and her cronies thought. I’d lived through tutelage with Madame Wong and faced down a black hole. Somehow Greta’s nasty comments didn’t seem to matter after that.
Greta’s still here but Muriel is gone. By the time we got back she had packed up her stuff and left. I guess it was okay to be the bully, but when push came to shove, she wasn’t willing to hang around if it meant she’d have someone shoving back.
As I walked across the porch today, I didn’t care that the boards squeaked. There wasn’t any dread or fear at all as I put my hand on the doorknob and turned it.
I walked down the familiar hallway and toward the smell of pancakes, coffee and bacon. I could hear their voices bantering.
“More chocolate chip pancakes?” my dad asked as he flipped another batch.
“I’ll take more,” said Fanny.
“Figures piggy. You’re going to be fat as a house,” teased Jake.
“Shut it nub before I take you down.”
“Come on guys, give it a rest will you? Can’t we enjoy a pleasant Sunday morning together without your bickering?” asked Dad.
“We are enjoying,” said Jake.
“Yeah, this is us enjoying,” added Fanny. She shoved about three normal forkfuls into her mouth at once.
Dad smiled wide as he worked the pancakes on the griddle. His smile widened as he looked up and saw me standing in the doorway.
“Oh hey, Emily’s back with the juice. Thanks, Em,” he said with a wink.
“No prob Dad.” I handed him the juice. I threw a copy of the Weekly World News down on the counter of the breakfast bar in front of Jake and Fanny.
“What’s this?” asked Jake.
“I thought you’d all get a kick out of the cover story. Check out the photo on the front. Look like anyone we know?”
Jake and Fanny both stared at the front page, and I soon saw their eyes about to bug out of their heads as they recognized the woman on the cover.
“Holy chiz!” said Fanny.
“I can’t believe it,” said Jake.
“What?” My dad reached for the paper.
His turn for eyes buggin’. There on the front cover of the Weekly World News was a wild-eyed photo of our beloved Aunt Muriel. The headline above the picture read, ‘Woman Attacked by Niece Possessed by an Alien’.
My dad threw the paper across the counter, laughed and went back to flipping pancakes. “Oops, these are a bit burnt.”
“That’s okay, I’ll eat them anyway,” said Fanny as she held out her plate for more.
“Dad, that’s all you’re going to say? ‘Oops, these are a bit burnt.’”
“What should I say? My sister is crazy. I just wish I had been here – really here – to see it sooner. I’m so sorry,” he said as he hugged me.
“I know, Dad. You don’t need to keep apologizing.” I hugged him back. “Okay, who needs more coffee?” I hovered the coffee pot over to where Jake and Fanny sat.
“Come on, use your hands,” said Jake. “You know it freaks me out when you hover things.”
“It only freaks you out because you can’t do it,” I quipped. I ordered the pot to give Jake more coffee.
“I’ll take some more.” Fanny held out her cup for more.
“Oh no, no more for you.” I set the pot back down. None of us wanted to see Fanny on mega-caffeine.
A new typical Sunday with family. Click your heels three times.
Tomorrow is Monday, and I’ll leave this house again. I’ll walk out the door and try to find a way to be me and yet fit in; be Emily but a part of everything else too. And at the end of the day I’ll come home.
THE END :-)
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Thank you for reading!! I've posted the first six chapters of Book 2 of Emily's adventures, Emily's Trial, here on Wattpad. You can purchse Emily's Trial at Amazon http://amzn.to/R58yyW
And the first six chapters of the third and final book, Emily's Heart, are posted here too. Emily's Heart will release February 1, 2014.
The iBookstore http://bit.ly/UWeGeg
Barnes & Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/emilys-trial-natalie-wright/1112990363?ean=2940044978607
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Emily's House: Book 1 of the Akasha Chronicles
FantasyFourteen-year-old Emily Adams is flunking math - and life. But Emily has a secret, one that she has kept even from her best friends. Soon the ancient legacy coursing through her veins will force her secret to be revealed. Dormant for over a thousand...
