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Into the Lens

AuthorHouse

Contents

Chapter 1-Juicebox....................................................1Chapter 2-The Man in the Black Chair..................................7Chapter 3-The House in Auburn.........................................11Chapter 4-The Gash in the Bathroom Floor..............................17Chapter 5-Juicebox's Cottage..........................................23Chapter 6-Roger Fandlan...............................................29Chapter 7-Atlas.......................................................31Chapter 8-Cinnamon and the Flying Squirrel............................37Chapter 9-The River...................................................43Chapter 10-The Black Bear.............................................47Chapter 11-The Hall of Tapestries.....................................53Chapter 12-The Queen..................................................55Chapter 13-The Birds..................................................57Chapter 14-The Pink Lights............................................63Chapter 15-The Nighttime Visitors.....................................67Chapter 16-Daisy's News...............................................73Chapter 17-The Escape.................................................77Chapter 18-Louis and Louisa...........................................79Chapter 19-The Silver Fox now Red.....................................87Chapter 20-Atlas's Gift...............................................91Chapter 21-Escape from the Palace.....................................95Chapter 22-The Sycamore Forest........................................97Chapter 23-A Conversation in the Woods................................103Chapter 23-The Magical Flute Sounds or Does it?.....................107Chapter 24-My Impending Death.........................................111Chapter 26-Cronus and Atlas's Fight...................................117Chapter 27-The Unwelcome Visitor......................................121Chapter 28-Becoming Royalty...........................................125Chapter 29-Saying Goodbye.............................................129Chapter 30-Return to Auburn...........................................133Chapter 30-The Christmas Gift.........................................135

Chapter One

I chose to sit next TO the window so she couldn't see my tears. She didn't mind anyway; she liked the aisle so she could stretch out her legs. I glanced at her; sure enough, she'd fallen asleep.

The drink cart was coming down the aisle. I wondered whether I should shake her awake. I was sure she would yell at me if I tapped her on the shoulder.

Whack. "Ow," she said groggily.

The blonde flight attendant spoke. "Would you like a drink, free of charge?"

"No, thank you." She rubbed her heavy eyes, then looked at me with that all too familiar look of disgust. "Gwen, you look so red. Have you been crying?"

I looked away from her piercing green eyes and turned my attention to the tabletop attached to the seat in front of me. I slowly nodded.

She dug her sharp, manicured nails into my shoulder. "Look at me when I talk to you."

I rubbed my aching shoulder and with much effort looked at her. Her curly golden hair was a mess. Thank God she didn't have a mirror. She would've screamed at her appearance. "Sorry," I said softly.

"Gwen, what am I going to do with you?" She threw her hands up in the air. "You can't cry over this. You are being such an idiot."

"I'm sorry." The tears welled up in my eyes. "I'm just not as strong as you."

She pinched me again in the shoulder. Now there was a nice circular red patch forming.

"Strength has nothing to do with it," she snapped. "Millions of kids have divorced parents. You don't see them crying now, do you?"

I shook my head. "But I'm sure in the beginning they cried." I put my hand over my shoulder.

"Oh, Gwen, don't be so presumptuous." She always liked to use big words in uncomfortable situations. I wondered if she even knew what presumptuous meant because I had no idea. She went on, despite my confused look. "My friend, Gina ... her parents divorced two months ago. She didn't shed a single tear."

"Wasn't that because her father hit her mother?" I asked feebly. I took my hand from my shoulder for one second. Slap! The patch throbbed again.

She opened her mouth, but the pilot's voice came over the intercom, "Ladies and gentleman, we thank you for flying with us this evening. We will be arriving in Sacramento in thirty minutes. At this time, we ask you to please turn off all electronic devices. Flight attendants, prepare for arrival."

I looked out the small Plexiglas window at the green patchwork thirty thousand feet below me. It amazed me how small the world looked. It seemed like a giant architectural model from up here. The people looked so small that I couldn't even see them. The freeways reminded me of those racetracks I used to play with last year. The pickup trucks and large eighteen-wheelers were now the size of the model cars. There were no clouds up here. It was simply a clear blue sky. It was almost calming.

The flight attendant bobbed down the aisle and crouching down to our level, she said, "Hello, girls." Her smile looked like it would fit in perfectly in a Trident commercial. She had a slight Southern twang. "You two have been such little angels. Are you clear on what we do once we land?" I opened my mouth to ask whether we were to get off the plane before or after everyone else, but my sister once again clawed my arm. I should really get a metal covering for my shoulder.

"Yes," my sister responded with a fake smile.

"Great; here's a present for you." The flight attendant handed my sister two Santa-themed coloring books from behind her back. She then turned and shuffled down the aisle, humming, "We Wish you a Merry Christmas."

"Oh joy, coloring books," my sister said sarcastically after the woman left. "Does she know how old we are?"

She threw the book onto my lap. I gripped my throbbing shoulder. "You're fifteen," I said.

She responded with a kick to my calf. On the bright side, my shoulder wasn't injured, I thought

As soon as we landed, every single person was on his or her cell phone, including my sister. "Hey ,Mom, we just landed ..."

"No, it wasn't scary at all. There was a bit of turbulence over the mountains but nothing major ..."

"I took the aisle, so I didn't really see what was outside. Gwen sat by it though, and she was glued to it the whole time."

"Yeah, I wish I could be there too," she said. Rifling around in her purse, she took out her hot-pink iPod. She turned on the iPod as she continued, "But hey, next Christmas we'll be with you."

I reached for the cell phone. She swung her head away from my hand. "I have to go now, Mom. I'll tell Gwen you said hi. Love and miss you already. Bye." She closed the phone.

"Hey," I said and then huffed, "I wanted to talk to her!"

She put her iPod on her lap. She held both my shoulders and swung my body so I couldn't help but look at her in the face. "Do you know what would happen if you talked to Mom right now? You'd cry. Then she would feel bad about us leaving. Do you want her to be sad, Gwen?"

"But Daisy, I just wanted to hear her voice."

She squeezed my arms tightly. "Gwen, you are so immature. You need to grow up. We'll be back in Connecticut in two weeks. You can hear...