SUMMER COULDN'T COME SOON ENOUGH

LAND OF MISTASIA

PHILLIP & WHIZZY TRILOGY (BOOK 1)

SUMMER COULDN’T COME SOON ENOUGH

Chapter 2

  It was the last day of 8^th grade and my mom was driving me to school. I only lived a block away on Violet Lane, but it was raining out and my mom didn’t want me getting wet.

So I jumped into the back of our dirty, black car, set my worn out backpack in the seat beside me and buckled up.

  “All buckled up, Phillip?” My mom still treated me like I was in Kindergarten sometimes. I think it’s because I’m an only child…so to her I will forever be her little baby boy. The one problem with that was now I was nearly six feet tall and closer to driving the family car to school myself than learning how to walk or go potty. Most of the time I just let it go. She didn’t mean any harm.

  “Yes, mom.” I replied trying not to sound too annoyed.

She started up the engine, which sounded a little rough. This car was nearly as old as me, but we couldn’t afford a new one. We weren’t very wealthy…that was why I had also been using the same backpack all through middle school and most of my clothes were too short. I had gone through another growth spurt this school year and now most of my shirts looked like I had no sleeves and my pants showed my ankles.

  The school bully, Billy Lawton, always teased me. “You expectin’ a flood, Harper? Looks like you’re worried about getting’ your pants wet.”  I hated Billy! He picked on me everyday, but today would be his last shot until high school. We were about to start summer vacation and it couldn’t come soon enough.

  It didn’t take very long for us to arrive, only a minute or two. My mom turned right onto Orange Avenue…the one main road directly through Greenville. All the schools for our town sit next to each other on Green Circle. The high school, where I will go next year is in the middle with the elementary on the left and the middle school on the right. These buildings were pretty old. My mom and dad both went to school here too.

  As we pulled up in front of Greenville Middle School the sun tried to peek out from the massive dark gray clouds that had consumed the sky. For a slight instant a sliver of sunlight dashed toward the ground like a spotlight on a stage. It only lasted for a few seconds and then the sun was swallowed up by another uniquely shaped cloud. It looked like a taco, which reminded me that I had forgotten to eat breakfast this morning and was hungry.

I always had a hard time eating breakfast because my stomach was turning in knots.

  “Bye, Mom!” I yelled as I started to open the door. The car door bumped the car next to ours. My stomach flipped. I hurried out to check the beautiful, expensive, white car for damage. Somehow there was no mark, just some dirt.  “Thank God!” I was relieved.

  “Everything alright, Phillip?” My mom questioned through the passenger window. She had a worried look on her face.

  “Fine. Everything’s fine.”

  “Please, be careful.” She always worried about me. Especially since I was quite clumsy. “Sometimes I pray that you will just come home in one piece, honey.” She smiled at me and waved goodbye.

  I stood on the sidewalk as she drove away. Then I remembered that there was some crackers in my backpack; I was hoping food would cure my stomach pains. I rummaged around inside my bag as it started to rain harder. Fumbling around, I dropped my notebook on the wet sidewalk. A gust of wind began blowing the pages open. “Darn It.” Quickly. I gathered my notebook and backpack and ran towards the school. Running was a problem for me. My big feet and general lack of coordination seemed to end any attempt at speed or grace. Today was no different. A long strap from my backpack dragged on the ground, and of course…I stepped on it. I tumbled like a twisted ballerina, which for a 14-year-old-boy isn’t the way to go. I landed very ungracefully on my belly. I could hear laughter rise out of the entryway. I looked up to see three 7^th grade girls who had just witnessed my non-athletic moment. My stomach turned like someone was ringing out water from a sponge. “This day can’t end soon enough.”

  A loud voice from behind barked at the giggling girls, “What are you geeks laughing at? Huh? Oh, thanks for the help!” I didn’t need to turn around to recognize his sarcastic voice. It was my best friend, Michael Whizzenmog the third, but I called him “Whizzy”. “You alright, Phillip?” He asked while helping me get back to my feet. He shot another evil look at the girls who now moved inside.

  “Thanks, Whizzy.” I moaned.

  “Man, you are all wet. Did you bring another shirt?”

  “No,” I replied. “Don’t worry about it. I’m fine.”

  We walked inside Greenville Middle School for the last time. It would have probably been a good feeling had I not looked like I showered in my clothes. Everyone stared even more than normal as I walked down the hall toward my locker. You see I’m the tallest kid in our school…that is why I can’t wait to go to the high school next year. I stick out like a tree in a field of shrubs. It doesn’t help that my best friend is on the shorter side.

  Whizzy has always been rather small. He only comes to my chest. Even his twin sister, Rachel is taller than him. That hasn’t helped his demeanor either. You know how the smallest dog barks the loudest? That’s Whizzy. You would think that I would be the one protecting him, but it’s always been the other way around.

  After collecting my stuff, Whizzy and I went to his locker. While he cleared out junk from the past school year, I watched the usual daily gatherings in the hallway. It was the same everyday.

  A group of 6^th grade girls stood together in a huddle, yet no one talked. Laughter would erupt periodically as they texted one another on their cell phones. The blonde-haired girl with braces held her hand over her mouth so no one would notice her smile, but everyone knew she had braces. Her friend wore the same ponytail. It never changed. I wondered if it was real hair or just a wig that she put on every morning.

  “Did you study for the math exam?” Whizzy asked.

  “Yeah. It should be pretty easy.”

  “I don’t know. I just don’t get it.”

  “Whizzy, we have been studying this all year.  How can you still not get it?” I didn’t believe that Whizzy had even attempted to look at the study guide for this exam. He hated math…well mainly our teacher Mr. Quinch. “You should have asked me for help.”

“I know.”

  I laid my head back against the lockers waiting for Whizzy to gather his book when I saw his sister, Rachel Whizzenmog, walking toward us with a group of her friends.

  She was beautiful. Her reddish-brown hair came down to her shoulders. She had emerald green eyes and had developed a young woman’s figure over the past year. The whole school had noticed that. Unlike Whizzy and I, Rachel was very popular. The funny thing was that Rachel and Whizzy almost didn’t even talk. They ignored each other most of the time, and when they did talk it was more like arguing. I never understood them. How could twins dislike each other so much?

  I watched her almost glide up to the locker beside her brother’s. As she walked past, I pulled my head forward to watch not knowing my hair was caught in the locker hinge. I pulled a tuft of hair out. It hurt.

  “What are you doing? Are you checking out my sister?” He slapped me in the chest. “You traitor.” Whizzy walked away quickly leaving me at the lockers with Rachel and her entourage.

  “Hi.” I said to Rachel with a smile.

  She laughed. She had always considered me a dork, partly because I was an awkward klutz and partly guilt by association. Being Whizzy’s best friend hadn’t endeared me to Rachel.

  My stomach flipped again. Luckily, I hadn’t eaten my crackers because I probably would have thrown up. I dashed off behind Whizzy.

  We sat in our 1^st hour math class awaiting the bell to ring. It hadn’t been the worst start to a day this year, but it hopefully wouldn’t get worse.

  “Only seven hours left. Summer couldn’t come soon enough!”

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Whizzenmog Betrayal

WHIZZENMOG BETRAYAL
LAND OF MISTASIA NOVELLA
(THIS STORY TAKES PLACE BEFORE LAND OF MISTASIA) 

ETHAN WHIZZENMOG
CHAPTER 1

Standing before me was the shadowy figure of my brother. His back was to the light of the full moon, which hung large in the dark, star-filled sky. His usually red-colored fur was nearly black. His eyes were intense and fixed on me.

My heart pounded in my chest. It was hard to breath. I held my arm outstretch with my wand gripped tightly in my right paw. My yellow fur seemed to glow against the brightness of the full moon making it quite difficult to hide.

“Don’t do it, Rainer!” I pleaded as the tip of his wand lit up. “No!” I screamed in fear.

A bolt of light dashed toward me and slammed into my chest before I could jump out of the way. My body went numb and I fell on my back. I was now starring into the Mistasian night sky. The blades of grass wrapped around my long fox ears. I wanted to get up and run away, but nothing moved. My big brother had just paralyzed me with a spell. It was the same thing every time. We would begin to practice our spells and one way or another it would end with me losing.

“Great job, Rainer. You have really developed into a premier wizard son.” The voice of our father, Glyndon Whizzenmog, proudly proclaimed. “The King and Queen will be truly impressed at your skills.”
      “Thank you, father!” my brother gleefully replied.

“Tomorrow I will present you to the King. You are ready to join me in protecting the throne, Rainer.”

Then our father turned his attention to me as I still laid motionless in the cool grass. “Ethan. I’m disappointed,” He said with a deep exhale. “Your brother has defeated you with the exact same spell three days in a row now. Will you ever learn?”

Even in the dark, I could see the disapproval in my father’s eyes. Rainer was so much stronger and quicker than me. It was unfair. We weren’t the same wizard.

I watched as my father patted my brother on the back, “Great job!” Then turn and walk away leaving me paralyzed in the grass.

My heart sank. I don’t know why it still bothered me…my father had always been that way. He was embarrassed of me.

Rainer pointed his wand at my chest again. It lit up sending a warmth surging through my body as if the blood suddenly flowed through my veins again. I took a deep breath. When my brother reached out his hand to help me, I pushed it away.

“I don’t want your help!” I shouted in disgust. “Why do you have to do that?” I angrily yelled at him once I was back to my feet.

Rainer was taller than I was too. I had to stand on my tip toes to see eye to eye with him.

“Cut that out, Ethan.” Rainer shoved me in the chest and laughed. I stumbled backwards and tripped over a rock falling back into the grass again. Rainer quickly realized he had pushed too hard.

“Hey, I’m sorry. Let me help you up.”

“I don’t need your help, brother!” I was fuming. My left paw bruised, but not as deeply as my ego. He just didn’t understand what it was like to feel small…weak. I wanted to show him so badly, but knew I would never match up to him…our father’s favorite son.

“Come on. Let’s go back to the house.” Rainer turned and started walking, but then stopped when he noticed I wasn’t following. He was used to me following him everywhere. I had always been envious of him, but now I was just angry. “Ethan?”

“You go,” I calmly replied. “I want to be alone.”

“But father’s waiting for us?” Rainer ignorantly stated.

“No, Rainer.” I held back tears. “Just you!”

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Copyright 2013: Christopher M. Purrett

Kyra's Spooky Shack

I've always been uncomfortable in the dark. The quiet of night allows the mind to wander turning innocent noises into sinister sounds. For years, my wife has teased me when I turned on the light in every room leaving a trail in the darkness leading directly to me. Even now, in a house I am very familiar in I flip on the switch when I enter a dark room...even if it is just to pass through.

Recently, I sat comfortably in my den reading the young adult novel, Last Emerald, to my youngest daughter, Kyra. Outside, it was fall in Michigan and an unseasonable storm began to roll in. It had grown dark, but the flashes of lightning illuminated the sky. Rain began falling against our den window. Kyra looked at me with concern.

"Daddy, is it a bad storm?" She had always been afraid of big storms like most young children.

I smiled back at her little body huddled under the crook of my arm as we sat together. "We'll be fine," I calmly replied.

I had barely finished my short reply when a bright blue flash exploded into the room, followed by the loudest boom of thunder I had ever heard. It shook the house. Kyra screamed. I jumped. The power went out, and so we sat in darkness.

Next, I found myself standing at the basement door, I hesitated to open it, but knew I had to. The power box was in the basement, and I hoped that the circuit breaker had been tripped. Kyra was wrapped around my waist like a belt, trembling. Taking a deep breath, I reached for the door handle, grabbing it hesitantly.

What was I afraid of? Apparently, I believed that some hideous monster would be beyond this door that I had opened without incident for years. Its funny how our mind works. The cold door handle chilled my hand to the bone. I turned it. The door creaked so loudly that Kyra wrapped herself even tighter around my waist. A chill ran through my entire body...she must have felt it too.

I slowly descended the dark, carpeted stairwell, gripping the handrail firmly. My feet attempted to make no sound as though trying not to awaken the monsters below. At the bottom, the staircase turned to the right. Before me was a shadowy room. Flashes of lightning trickled in through the glass block windows, two of them, giving the room some depth, yet it was still difficult to see. Reaching for the wall, I fumbled around trying to remember exactly where the desk was positioned. I apparently didn't remember, because I crashed into it. Stumbling backward I slipped and fell to the hard cement floor covered only by a thin rough carpet. Amazingly, Kyra remained tightly secured to my right leg.

"Kyra, are you okay?" I said as my heart attempted to leap from my chest. Her tiny eyes were all that I could make out in the darkness. She didn't respond verbally, but I could see her eyes bobbing like a cheaply animated cartoon. Placing my hand on the ground to push myself up, I felt a slippery, warm liquid squish between my fingers. A shiver leapt through my spine as I yanked my hand away.

What is that? I thought. A large area of the ground shimmered from the moon light. It was blood red. What the hell is down here! I screamed in my head. I quickly grabbed Kyra and wrentched her free from my leg. Gripping her tightly, I was now on my feet and backing away from the bloody puddle.

Another flash of lightning dashed through the windows. I gasped as I noticed a pair of hollow eyes against a silhouetted figure between two poles in the center of the room. Those eyes just gazed right through me, white with no pupils. I jumped back and slipped in the blood stain, again falling to the floor. Kyra landed unharmed on my chest, but whimpered. It was the first sound she had been able to muster since the lights had gone out. I wasn't sure if that was a good sign, or just the beginning of hysterics. Quickly, I scurried back to my feet checking my pants in hope that I hadn't fallen directly in the fresh blood. Fortunately, my pants seemed dry...in the back anyway.

"I have to get to the door!" I encouraged myself. I positioned us along the wall, just beyond the desk. To my left, the unblinking eyes stared into me as though searching for my soul. My daughter now clinched around my neck, making it difficult to breath. I felt dizzy and placed my right hand along the wall to brace myself.

Kyra gasped, as the house seemed to take a breathe of life. "Daddy?" She clutched me for dear life...which nearly ended mine. "Let go, Kyra. I can't breath." Another distant rumble of thunder subsided, when I heard a faint sound. I closed my eyes to focus and listened. It was there! The familiar humming of the appliances in the house. Just beyond the door, I attempted to reach was the furnace that had kicked back on because of the cool chill settling into the house after the fall storm had overtaken the unseasonably warm day.

The powers back on!

I quickly searched the wall for the light switch.

"Ah, here it is!" i felt a sudden wave of relief.

My fingers reached the cool drywall. I slid them across locating two switches. I frantically flipped the first one my fingers came into contact with. It clicked on, but no light.

"Daddy, look!" Kyra said.

Directly in front of us was the door that led to the furnace room. Around the door frame I could see the beautiful yellow light gleaming from behind. Now all I had to due was flip the next switch and I would be free from the darkness. My hand began to tremble from anticipation or fear, I wasn't quite sure which. Finally, my fingers reached the next switch. The cold plastic against my fingers felt like an ice cube.
Click, was the sound of the switch as the light flared bright.

"AHHHHH!" I screamed like a frightened little girl that had just awoken from a horrible nightmare. On the wall, were two cartoon drawings, one of a ghost, and the other a vampire. I jerked my hand back to cover my mouth in shock...not of the drawings, but of the horribly girlie shriek that had just escaped me. When I did my fingers accidentally flipped the light switch back off, placing us back in darkness.

Kyra was suddenly gone from my hands and a maniacal cackling burst into the room.

Panic settled in my chest, just as I began to call out for her the lights turned on. I was terrified that the ominous figure with the unblinking white eyes would be standing there holding Kyra hostage! Once again the two cartoon drawings were before me. It didn't make me feel any better to see them a second time knowing the reaction they had caused.  Above them were three words, "Kyra's Spooky Shack!"

My seven year old daughter stood safely at the wall, giggling. Her smile beamed from ear to ear. "You screamed like a girl!" the small proud voice cackled so loudly that even the vampire and ghost on the board would have covered their ears...if they were real. It was amazing to see how quickly she had recovered from her fear of the dark stormy night.  Apparently, she had spent all day decorating the basement for Halloween, which I hadn't seen until the power went out. That was when I noticed the Halloween mask hanging from a spot light nearly six feet in the air. On the floor, wasn't blood...it was a red sleeping blanket, with a spilled bottle of bubbles.

In only a matter of seconds, a normal night had transformed into a panic stricken episode in the dark. It is amazing what tricks the mind can play...especially from the mind of a seven year of girl.

Tigers an Underdog?

Is a tiger considered an underdog in its natural habitat...I would think not. However, when the specific animal I'm referring too is the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball, it is a much different story.

The 2012 baseball postseason will begin tonight as the newly added Wild Card play in games take place, my home town team, the Detroit Tigers, wait to face their opponent Saturday night. They will enter the playoffs with less wins than both the Tampa Rays and Angels of Anahiem, who each ended the regular season on the outside of the 5 team playoff race in the American League due to the divisional layouts.

Do these Tigers have a chance in winning the World Series? YES, underdogs always have a chance!
Underdogs are the backbone of this country and have been witnessed in legendary battles, on movie screens, and are stories of legend.  Just look to recent sports history to see what can happen. Of the four major sports champions in the North America, three were large underdogs entering the playoffs. In the National Football League, the New York Giants, won the Super Bowl over the heavily favored New England Patroits after making the playoffs with a meager 9 - 7 record. In the National Hockey League, the Los Angeles Kings, won the Stanley Cup as the lowest seed in the Western Conference, never trailing in a single series. As for Major League Baseball, last seasons World Series Champion, the St. Louis Cardinals, made the playoffs on the final day of the regular season, and knocked off three of the best teams in baseball to become champions.

Underdogs are what drives us, keep us turned into events like the Major League Baseball playoffs.
Yes, the Detroit Tigers have every chance to win the World Series, just as Phillip Harper has in saving Mistasia, but will they? That is why we watch...that is why we cheer for the underdog!

Find more writings from Christopher M. Purrett @ www.LandofMistasia.com