You know that feeling you get when you're waiting for the epic conclusion of a really good movie or book? It's ALMOST over, the best part is yet to come, you only have to hold on a little bit longer...then real life intervenes or something happens, and you miss the ending. You're stuck with wondering what happened, and it's more than a little frustrating. Well folks, that is exactly what you're NOT going to get today! Enjoy Part 2 of the excerpt from The Healing Shard!
Excerpt from The Healing Shard – Chapter 3 -
Departure
(Part 2)
“I’m feeling much better now.”
Leo’s mother settled back comfortably in the passenger seat.
Another kick from inside reminded her that there would soon be
another member of the Robinson family. Her husband reached across
and patted her knee.
“Good.”, he said, his mood
improving by the minute. They had left the party ten minutes earlier
and were well on the way home now. He glanced down at the clock in
the dashboard; he’d see the last half-hour of the football if they
got a move on. Life wasn’t so bad after all. He pressed a little
harder on the accelerator.
“It’s a lovely evening.” Carol
went on, looking up through the window at the starry sky. “I
wonder if Leo saw his planets, or comets, whatever it is?”
“That boy worries me.”, said Keith
in reply. His wife looked across at him, surprised.
“Worries you? Why?”
“All this astrology and science –
its not natural. A boy his age should be interested in sport.”,
said Keith firmly.
“Astronomy.”
“What?”
“It’s astronomy, not astrology.
Leo would go mad if he heard you say he was interested in astrology.”
Keith scowled.
“Astronomy, astrology – its all
piffle.”
“Just because he doesn’t share
your obsession with football.”, said Carol, as they stopped at a
set of traffic lights.
“He just shows no aptitude for sport
at all.”, said Keith despairingly. He slipped the car into neutral
and pulled on the handbrake.
“Sport isn’t everything.”, his
wife replied.
“What sort of a job’s he going to
get, with all this astrology?”, he went on. Carol sighed and
turned back to watching the sky.
“When I was at school I was a member
of the football team, the cricket team and I played tennis for the
county.”, said Keith, oblivious to her sigh.
“I know.”, she said dreamily.
“And I was…. what’s he
staring at?” A boy turned the corner and was clearly surprised at
seeing Batman driving a Ford Focus. Carol started to giggle as the
lights changed to amber and then green. They turned left and were
soon heading out of the town. They had just a few minutes drive now,
along a quiet country road. Keith loved this stretch. It was long
and straight and if you needed to hurry along, well you could.
Tonight he was being rather more careful as there was clearly frost
on the ground.
Carol felt another kick.
“What shall we call him?”, she
said suddenly.
“Who?”
“Who do you think?”, she said
crossly, rising to the bait her husband had cast. He chuckled as he
flipped the car’s headlamps on to full beam.
“We’ll call her Emma”.
“I don’t think it will be a
girl.”, said Carol emphatically.
“How do you know?”
“Hmmm. A woman knows these things.”
Keith smiled.
“A woman’s intuition.”, he said
with mock seriousness. Carol nodded, suddenly sleepy.
“Something like that.”, she
agreed, closing her eyes. Keith glanced again at the clock and eased
the accelerator pedal a little nearer the floor.
“Well if it’s a boy, we’ll call
him Algernon. Or Cuthbert. Or…Oh my God!” Keith stamped on the
brake pedal as the figure of an old man suddenly stepped out from the
shadows just yards ahead. His wife screamed as the wheels slipped
out of control on the ice and they began to skid across the road.
The figure stood motionless as the car slewed past him, missing him
by inches. Keith wrenched on the steering wheel to try and regain
control but it spun uselessly in his hands and the car careered
across the verge on the opposite side of the road, smashed through
the hedge, splintering wood and glass as the windscreen shattered and
finally thudded hard into a huge oak tree at the edge of a copse.
There was a loud hiss of steam as the radiator folded and burst.
Keith Robinson felt blood trickle into his right eye and a searing
pain in his right leg. Dimly, he saw his wife bent forward, her head
on the dashboard, blood pooling on the floor beneath. He thought he
saw someone moving outside too; a shadow against the stars. Then the
darkness wrapped itself around his pain and he slipped into
unconsciousness.
* * *
Every few minutes, Leo put his hand
into his pocket to feel the strange, new thing he had found. Every
time he was surprised at how it felt so cold. It was as though each
time he touched it it drew energy from him. He quickly discovered
that the jagged side was razor sharp and had to be treated with
respect. The other side was as smooth as ice. He hurried along as
fast as he could, both fascinated and a little scared. More than
once he thought about phoning his father to tell him about it, but
each time something made him change his mind.
Steadily, the star-filled black sky
turned to a pale orange desert, as he returned to the town. At last,
his back garden hedge came into view. Despite the cold, he was
sweating. Usually it took him thirty-five minutes to walk back from
the old barn to his house; this time he had done it in twenty-five.
He scrambled through the gap in the hedge and walked up the path and
along the side of the house. The Robinsons always locked the back
door from inside, so he had to use the front door again.
As he came round the corner into the
front garden he stopped abruptly. A stranger was standing a few feet
from the front door. He caught sight of Leo immediately and the two
stared at each other for a few seconds. Then the stranger spoke.
“Leo?”, he said uncertainly. Leo
stayed where he was and put his hand into his coat pocket and felt
for his mobile phone. He couldn’t see the stranger’s face
clearly in the orange light from the street lamps but he was sure it
wasn’t anyone he knew. He seemed to be dressed rather oddly from
what he could see.
“Who are you?”, he said after a
few moments. The stranger seemed ill at ease and kept turning
around, as if he was looking for something, or someone. Leo moved a
little further away from the house.
“What do you want?”, Leo demanded,
tightening his hand on his phone. Then he noticed that the front
door was slightly ajar, light from within showing a bright line of
yellow down one side. He felt panic rise within him.
“What’s going on?” The stranger
took a step towards him.
“I’m calling the police.”, said
Leo, taking the phone out of his pocket and aiming it at the stranger
like a weapon. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Mrs.
Goodman’s front door was open too. The panic turned into a
chilling fear.
“Mrs. Goodman, where is she?”, he
said slowly. The stranger stopped and Leo could see his face was
that of a man in his thirties or perhaps forty.
“Mrs…. Goodman….”. The man
seemed to be searching for the right word. “Mrs Goodman….. is…
dead.” Leo stared blankly. Then he pressed the key to unlock his
phone and started to key in 999.
“Don’t do that.”, said the
stranger. Leo paid no attention. His hands were shaking and he
mis-keyed. He cancelled and tried again.
“Please don’t”, the stranger
repeated. Leo didn’t look up. This time he got it right. The
blue display on the phone shone into his face. 999. He went to
press the “Call” key.
“LEO!” The stranger’s shout
made Leo jerk his head up. As he did so, it seemed that his hand
became paralysed and, try as he might, he could not make the call.
Then he began to feel dizzy and it felt as though the ground was
pushing up through him and he in turn was sinking through it. It was
getting darker and quieter. The display on the phone changed from a
pale blue to a beautiful, deep ultramarine and the pale orange of the
street lights deepened to red. The stranger seemed to elongate and
smear in front of his eyes. The fear and panic disappeared and a
peace and calm came over him. Then he sank into oblivion.
Well, there you have it. A good author knows when to leave you wanting more, and I don't know about you, but I want more. Enter the drawing to win a copy of The Healing Shard!!
