Delphic Song

Chapter One

“Was not!”

Omigod, was I seriously doing this with him?

“I’ll make you another deal,” Liam said reasonably. “Whoever gets back to the house first wins.”

I didn’t wait for encouragement; I immediately took off, ducking under low hanging tree branches.

"Hey, wait!" he yelled. "You got a head start! Come back and face me like a man!"

I ran even faster, my laughter and the wind stealing my air and making it hard to breathe. My dark hair streamed out behind me like water. Apple trees sped past me as I lengthened my stride up the sloping hill up to our house.

The sky was a pale, clear blue. It was a cloudless, breezy day, the wind cold on my face. It was the perfect fall weather, although it was still late summer, and it was a relief from the muggy, hot days that August usually brought with it. The cool air had made our apples ripen faster, so we had opened our orchard, Connolly's, two weeks before we usually did. This meant work started early, but I was glad, and excited. Well, most of the time. I tended to enjoy myself less when costumers hung around into my free hours. Normally, the orchard opened the week that school started, September 1st, and I missed most of the preparation that came with working at and owning Connolly’s, but this year I was here for the experience.

I loved the orchard. I loved the apples, and the sharp fall wind, and the little wooden stand where we weighed the apples and sold my step-mom, Liz's homemade jams and pies. I remember when my dad had made it. Liam and I had helped him by bringing him nails, wood, and his peanut butter and fluff sandwiches for lunch. When he finished, he had rewarded us by letting us paint the little shed. We had chosen to paint a rainbow, so the small stand still had red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple stripes across it. We had even painted a leprechaun and his pot of gold. I had been eight at that time, and Liam ten.

I smiled into the wind as I thought of our names, scratched out inside a heart in the bottom right corner of the shed. Friends for Infinity, it said.

Just as I began to feel my breathing get heavier and my heart gallop in my chest, the house came into view. It was an old house, built with wood that may have once looked new but was now gray and weathered. We had added a big wraparound porch a few years back, which faced the orchard. Sliding glass doors opened onto the deck, giving a full view of the sloping green fields and bushy apple trees.

I slowed to a walk as I crested the incline our house sat on. I could now see the huge garden Liz had raised from scratch, bustling with greenery and life. I could smell the rich, earthy tang of the soil and the aroma of ripened tomatoes. I could see them, glistening red from where they hung directly in the light if the evening sun, ripe and… my mouth watered as I realized how hungry I was. Liz had probably prepared a delicious, fresh salad with her crisp lettuce and tomatoes, baby carrots and lemon cucumbers, tossed with my dad’s own honey balsamic. My dad was the cook in our family, and an amazing one at that – and when you combine his cooking with Liz’s fresh vegetables…. My stomach rumbled loudly.

Heavy panting close behind me alerted me to Liam's presence. I turned around and gave him a smug smile. “Ha,” I said, letting him catch up and walk beside me. “I told you I always win.”

“I had to run back and grab something,” Liam grumbled, but he grinned with me anyway.

We walked through the front door and into heaven.

Or, at least, it smelled like heaven.

I was assaulted with mouthwatering smells the second I entered the house. The salty tang of slightly blackened steak; the sharp but sweet scent of the mustard marinara sauce that my dad used with most meat; and the buttery scent of broccoli steaming on the stovetop. I was salivating to the point of it being gross.