Second Chances

Chapter One (Go Back To Page One)

Oregon, 1999

Rosewood, Oregon was a sleepy little town, just like any other American small town where everybody knew everything about everybody else. But it turned out that Rosewood was not so sleepy, after all. The town had begun to wake up—and not in a good way. There had been a recent string of robberies and murders committed by a gang of drug-addled high school and college dropouts from the neighboring town and were slowly establishing their reign of terror in their new territory. Dozens of families fled, among them Oswald Jackman, CEO of Jackman Industries and landlord of The Rose, a posh apartment complex in the heart of Rosewood. He evicted his tenants and gave them six months to vacate the property, some of whom were more than eager to leave. When the last of them had left, Oswald Jackman, along with his wife Catherine, their 12-year-old daughter Bethany, and 13- and 14-year old sons Kevin and Justin packed their belongings, never to look back.

Bethany Jackman just had to look back, however. She couldn't leave without saying goodbye to her best friend, Sammy Prescott, the boy who lived just across The Rose from them. She walked with timid steps, her eyes following her own feet's movements.

"Beth?" a tearful voice asked, making her look up. "Are you really going?"

"We have to," Bethany said, heaving a sigh, her bottom lip quivering. "Here. I brought you something... So you can remember me when you're sad."

"What is it?" Sam asked, cocking his eyebrow.

"Open your hand," Bethany said, pulling something out of her cardigan's pocket. It was a silver thimble on a necklace. "It's our kiss. You know how you said I'll always be your Wendy Bird?"

Sam nodded, swallowing hard and fighting back tears.

"I'm gonna miss you, you know?" Sam said, wiping furiously at a tear that had stubbornly fallen. "I wish we didn't have to say goodbye."

"This isn't goodbye," Bethany reminded Sam gently. "Remember what Peter said? Never say goodbye, because goodbye—"

"Means going away," Sam finished. "And going away means forgetting."

"And I never forget," Bethany assured him. "That's a promise. So don't you forget."

"I won't," Sam promised. "Ever."

"Bethany! Let's go, sweetheart!" Mrs. Jackman called. They had already loaded up their things and Mr. Jackman and Bethany's older brother Kevin were already in the cab of the moving van beside the driver. Their suitcases were already in the trunk of the car and she and her older brother Justin were to follow behind the moving van, driven by Mrs. Jackman.

"I... I gotta go," Bethany said with a sniffle, turning away sharply, running to her mother. "I'm sorry..."

"Bethany! Wait!" Sam called after her, running after the departing car and moving van. He huffed and puffed as he ran, the soles of his shoes noisily pounding the pavement beneath him.

New York, 2016

Sam breathed through his mouth as he jogged, being pulled along by his four-legged best friend, Jonas the 2-year-old black lab whom he adopted. It was like love at first sight the moment Sam first laid eyes on Jonas and vice versa. Jonas was a pretty great dog, but there was just one problem: squirrels. It always happened whenever they were out. Jonas would smell, see, or hear a squirrel and he'd be off on a mission to catch or kill. He had made it his short life's ultimate goal to wage war on the Squirrel Kingdom and vanquish it, forever erasing it from the pages of animal history. Whenever Jonas was in one of his squirrel-chasing moods, he had a strength and a speed that not even Superman and the Flash themselves could hold a candle to.