Amber's Flame (eBook)

J.E. Guerrieri (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2022 | 1. Auflage
452 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-6678-4114-4 (ISBN)

Infos

She's not your typical high school girl; at least not to new kid in town, Jeremy. Jeremy's past year has been a year of grief. Now in a new town and school he is caught up in a roller coaster ride of emotions and occurrences that will test not only his belief system but everything he has ever been taught about the supernatural world. At the center of his new world is Amber, a mysterious girl that he suddenly finds a deep attraction towards or is it infatuation. Whatever this girl's pull has on him, he can never seem to get her out of his mind. He soon finds himself surrounded by things he only read in books. He wants answers, but to get them he'll have to step into a world that he didn't know existed.

Textauszug

Chapter 1

 

 

 

Standing in front of the large mirror that covers my bathroom wall just above the sink, I gesture at it as if I were in the next Ironman Competition. I flex my arm muscles and hold my pose for a moment, happy with my build. I am actually feeling more like myself considering the events of my summer break that brought me here. I’m not a bad looking guy, I think to myself, as I pose again. I’m a little over 6 feet tall with broad shoulders and a decent muscle build. Being on the varsity football squad, I really had to work on my performance. I’m a starter and am getting into great shape with weight lifting and track running. My hair has just recently been cut shorter than I like for my mom. It’s dark brown and brushed just above the collar in the back. I favor a clean cut rock-star look with even a pair of scars that add to the look. Both scars I received as injuries from the car wreck my family and I were in while on vacation this summer.

It had been a couple of years since the last time we went on vacation. Dad had been traveling a lot with his job and so he was not home much to go on any extended vacation. Early in the summer, he had received a promotion and decided we were all going to Florida to celebrate.

My dad was a traveling sales person for a mom and pop company. If you had seen him, you would never have guessed he traveled selling wall laminates for businesses. Frank Lidstrom was a 6’5 burly linebacker guy with a full beard and military hair cut in a business suit, sort of a GI Joe in a three piece suit. I think half of his sales were from his intimidating look. He had played college football as a defensive end for University of Kentucky but had a career-ending injury to his knee in his third year. He had pro scouts looking at him before his injury; he was that good.

Because he was always on the road, I did not get to spend the time with him that I wanted to. When he was home, I was either getting into trouble, or he would be too busy to spend time with me. The quality time we did spend together, I would not have traded for the world. When we got along the time was priceless. So I was not sure if I was excited or not about going to Florida when he told us. Being 17 and going on a family vacation was not on my top to do list, but I figured I probably would not be going on too many more vacations with my folks so I would make the best of it. I always jumped for good quality time with my dad because it was so limited. I had been causing so much of a ruckus at home that I did not make our relationship always on the best of terms. It was not that I intentionally did bad stuff, but trouble always seemed to find me. Ok, I am not all innocent, I know, but I cannot ever seem to catch a break when it comes to trouble.

Life is just difficult and especially now. You see, I might have been dealing with typical teenage issues before, but now after losing my dad, things seemed to progress to even more difficult. These scars are a constant reminder of that horrific day, the day that my life changed forever.

On the way back from our vacation this year, a drunk driver crashed head on into us. What I remember most about the accident was awakening to my mother’s screams just before the oncoming car hit us. The next thing I saw was a bright white light when I awoke in a bed in an unfamiliar room. My mom sat just to the left of my bed as I focused on the room. I reached for her hand as she saw me wake up. She then just started sobbing as she held my hand close to her face. “I’m ok,” I told her as I gave her a reassuring smile.

I actually was. I remember not feeling much pain except for a small burning feeling above my right eye and a dull pain on my right shoulder, hence my current scars. I remember looking at mom and realizing no matter what I said, she was still very upset. Then I looked around the room and noticed my dad was not there. Was he ok, I thought to myself?

“How’s dad?” I asked, figuring he was in his own room. Suddenly her grip tightened and she then told me the news I didn’t expect, that he didn’t make it. That’s when my whole world got turned upside down. A spark of electricity ran up my spine as reality hit me. I felt chills and it was hard to breath. Then the thought of never getting a chance to see dad again filled my mind as a sudden rush of sadness engulfed me.

It’s depressing that, when you lose someone close, all you think about is negative memories. The harsh words I said to him in anger and the very few times I ever just said I loved you dad. You never think of saying caring thoughts like that because you never expect a loved one to be just suddenly gone from your life…forever. I thought over all the insensitive words I said that I didn’t mean. Why couldn’t I have handled those instances differently? Then I wouldn’t have these regrets now. This is what I have to live with every day, and it isn’t easy.

Ever since the accident, I have experienced headaches and sometimes short blackouts. They are not often, but they are very unsettling to experience. I see flickers of light sometimes, as a shady vision comes over me. They make me dizzy and nauseated for a short time. The doctors said that they could result from the head injury and that they would pass. All I know is that it sucks, almost like a bad dream.

Speaking of dreams, mine are now more elaborate and visual than ever before. I don’t remember being able to recall all my dreams from one night, but now I can. They aren’t normal dreams either. There’s always some problem or issue that I am trying to deal with. Almost as if I’m running in the whole dream, only to wake up and feel like I actually did run. Why can’t the dreams be more normal where I’m scoring the winning touchdown in a game or meeting some hot girl?

It’s been three months since the accident and I’ve had to mature a lot since then. I’ve also had to help provide some income, not to mention emotional support, for my mom who is having trouble grieving. Working nights and weekends at Plano Plastics at a measly $10.00 an hour is not a great paying job, but at least it’s something. I know dad would want me to step up and be a man, to move on and be strong, especially for my mom.

So mom and I moved from the sprawl of Atlanta and are now located in a small town in Texas called, Walker. I never would have dreamed of moving to a place like this, but after the accident, my mom wanted a change of scenery and decided to move away from a place with too many reminders that made it hard for her to move on. I don’t miss the humidity that smothered you in the summer time in Atlanta so the dry heat in the little town of Walker is definitely new to me.

Dad’s life insurance paid for the move, closing cost on the new house, and even his funeral. Mom and dad never thought of raising the life insurance after they were married, which would be a learning experience for me. I hope that I will never have to go through losing a spouse in my lifetime. Now my biggest worry is becoming acquainted with Walker, Texas, the new town I now live in.

Walker is a city I had never heard of until the day my mom came home from work and informed me of the move. A town located 45 miles from Austin, it’s like the small towns you see in old TV shows. There are no malls unless you want to call the Super K-mart a mall. There’s also a 3 cinema theatre that’s behind in new movies only by about 2 decades. In fact, last weekend “Back to the Future” was playing along with “Top Gun” and “Breakfast Club.” Talk about a throw back to the 80s! It’s like I’m caught up in a Twilight Zone episode, but on the positive side the movies are only a dollar. There’s also a Piggly Wiggly grocery store and a Jack in the Box fast food joint, where you can get two spam biscuits for a buck every day, all day. A diner perches in the middle of town where most town folk go after church or for a great home fried breakfast. The sign outside the front window reads “Kathy’s Place,” and Kathy, the owner, is about as southern as you can get. Her specialty is the Charlie horse breakfast sun riser plate for $3.99 with 2 eggs, 2 bacon strips, 2 biscuits, and a bowl of Kathy’s homemade grits. I have to say it’s southern good. The rest of the one block of Walker’s main street is lined with old stores that look dated back to at least the 60’s like “Pop’s Hardware” and “Older Than Dust Antiques.” Overall, it’s a very quiet town with a small police station and a courthouse that sit right in the middle of town.

The high school I’ll attend is located on the outskirts of Walker’s main street, which ironically is called Main Street. It sits beside the First Baptist Church of Walker with its fire and brimstone pastor and congregation. Mom and I visited the church shortly after arriving in Walker and felt very welcome during the visit. We also enjoyed the townsfolk we met as we walked around town; they were very warm and pleasant.

My mom’s a beautiful woman, physically and spiritually. Unfortunately, I would catch my friends on numerous occasions checking her out when she came around. I would give them the evil eye or a quick smack on a noggin. Very petite and sporting long straight blond hair, she’s a fitness guru and always eats healthily. Before the accident, she would run 5 miles every morning before I even got out of bed, and then would join my dad for a cup of coffee after a quick shower. She was in good shape and took good care of herself, or at least she did. After the accident all that seemed to change. Since then I have watched her get drunk and pass out on a few occasions. Normally she would do her drinking after I had gone to bed. I guess she thought she could...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 3.6.2022
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• ISBN-10: 1-6678-4114-9 / 1667841149
• ISBN-13: 978-1-6678-4114-4 / 9781667841144