I've wanted to write a book since I first learned to read. I love the written word and the thought of creating a world with my words made me giddy with excitement. I wrote many stories and books throughout school but after graduating from college I kind of set that dream aside and worked and worked and did responsible things, good things that have allowed me the luxury of writing now. So, here's the first chapter of a novel I've been writing for the last few months. If you would like to comment, please be complimentary and keep critiques short because I'm new to this and easily shy away from criticism.
Chapter 1
For the first time in 10 years Anna didn’t meet Sarah and Margaret at the corner. Sarah was confused, the three friends always waited for each other at the corner, even if it meant being late to class. Margaret, on the other hand was exasperated,
"Sarah we've got to go! We can't be late to Mr. Oliver's class again!
We'll get detention!" Her breath puffing out in tiny clouds in the frigid
winter air.
“I know, I know,” Sarah said dismissively as she peered at
Anna’s front door again checking for signs of movement;
her gaze wandered up the roof line to Anna’s bedroom window
and she saw the twitch of a curtain dropped back into place.
“But where is she?” Sarah insisted, her brows furrowed in
confusion.
"Sar-ah! De-ten-tion!” Margaret wails, her breath coming out in two long bursts of steam
like a train whistle.
Sarah glares again at the front door, willing Anna to appear but
finally she turns to Margaret with a growl,
"Mr. Oliver is a grouchy old man, even when we're on time he
threatens to give us detention! He’s just mad because nobody
ever knows what he’s talking about. Atoms and all that nonsense!” Sarah mutters as she shakes her head
impatiently.
“Anna's probably just sick today, that's all,” Margaret reasons,
“we'll check on her after school, now let's go!" she pleads,
hugging her books to her chest to keep warm.
“Oh all right.” Sarah grumbles, her worry over her missing friend
has made her more surly than ever.
The two girls hurry off to school while Anna peeks at them again
from behind her bedroom curtains. Once they are out of sight
she slips downstairs. Her father and mother have already left to
open their grocery store downtown. Anna wraps a scarf around her
curly dark hair to keep the wind out of her ears and then she slips
out the back door. She’ll take the long way to school, she doesn’t
want to run into anyone else.
News of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and a declaration of war on Japan
had come almost simultaneously and Anna hadn’t felt up to the banter
and gossip of the morning walk with her girlfriends. The war in Europe
had been a constant presence in her home since Germany had invaded
Poland in September. Her parents had met in Poland, her father a young
American missionary, her mother barely 17 years old. When Michael
returned to Utah he had sent money for Tamir to join him. Although she
hadn’t been back to Poland since immigrating to America, Tamir still
kept in touch with her family and friends there. Each night Tamir listened
intently to the radio and each morning she spread fresh newspapers
across the breakfast table tracking the horrific expansion of the Third
Reich into her beloved country. Michael was sympathetic with the plight
of his wife’s people but he grew weary of her constant focus on the war
and the subsequent interruption of his dinner and relaxing evening.
Anna was curious about her mother’s family and who she had been
before she became Mrs. Michael Harbinger. It was odd to think that she
had a whole family she had never met.
Anna approached the large, Gothic high school with trepidation.
The arched windows seemed to gape at her as she mounted the many
stone steps. She floated through the deserted halls like a ghost and
slipped silently to the window of Mr. Oliver’s classroom. She was
relieved that the teacher had his back to the classroom as usual.
Sarah was sitting on the far side of the classroom staring out the
window. Anna waved but Sarah continued to gaze out the window
longingly. Anna knew Sarah hated being stuck inside at school
even with a blizzard blowing outside she’d rather brave the blizzard
outside than remain in this dull classroom with Mr. Oliver droning
on for what felt like hours. Anna waved again trying to strike a balance
between exaggerated, obvious movement and nonchalance in case
Mr. Oliver or another teacher noticed her. This time Sam looked up
from the blank page he was supposed to be using to take notes.
He grinned and waved back at Anna. Anna smiled then pointed
towards Mr. Oliver and shook her head. Sam looked bewildered.
Luckily, Sarah noticed him staring at the classroom door and relief
flooded her face as she saw Anna.
Anna mouthed “I’m sorry,"then she pointed to the teacher. Sarah nodded then raised her
hand and said loudly,
“Mr. Oliver, how do we know atoms exist if we can’t even see
them?” Mr. Oliver spun from the black board scanning the room
through his dark rimmed glasses angrily.
“Wha..what! You...your blatant disregard for the basic building
blocks of this world is infuriating!” he sputtered. Then he whipped
around and continued to draw viciously on the black board
punctuating his drawings with the words elements and chemical reaction. Anna stole into the classroom and silently took her seat while the
teacher fumed. She stared blankly at the chalkboard as he
drew large, lopsided, intersecting circles and rambled on about
something called atomic theory. She watched the clock and leapt from her seat just as the bell rang.
Anna burst out the door and was immediately swept up in the
crowd of students flooding the hallways. The cacophony of voices
was in stark contrast to the stillness in Mr. Oliver’s class; here
boys and girls were yelling and calling to each other as usual.
Anna starts toward her locker but the words Pearl Harbor stop
her in her tracks. She tunes in to what the boys are saying and
realizes that they are boasting about avenging the soldiers who
had been killed in Hawaii.
Anna is dumbfounded, they want to fight? No, she exclaims silently, these boys can’t become soldiers, they are
my friends, I’ve known most of them my whole life! As she looks around in confusion, love and affection for each of these
boys fills her heart and her eyes smart with tears. Anna is
relieved to see Henry waiting for her at her locker but before
he can say hello another boy calls out,
“How about you Henry? Are you going to be a sailor or a soldier?”
“A sailor of course! That's where the fighting is.” Henry replies
readily. Anna’s shock twists into horror at Henry’s words.
“No! Henry!” She whispers as the crowd swells around him,
pulling him along with them down the hallway. Anna closes her locker and is surprised to see Sarah standing there glaring at her,
“Where were you this morning? We waited forever!”
Too fragile to joke or come up with a good excuse Anna murmurs,
“I’m sorry, I...my mother needed me.” she ducks her head and
starts towards the door.
“Your mother would never stand for you being late for school”
Sarah protests as she rushes after Anna, her straight blonde
hair flying behind her.
“What’s really going on Anna?” Sarah asks as she hurries after
her friend. Before Anna can reply Margaret pops up at Anna’s
elbow.
“We missed you this morning Anna, I thought you must be really
sick, you’ve never missed school before. I wanted to come check
on you but if I get detention my mother will have kittens!"
Sarah waves a hand towards Margaret, shushing her, and takes
Anna by the arm steering her towards the exit.
“Let’s go outside, I can’t hear anything in here with all this ruckus”
mutters Sarah. A surprised Margaret hurries to follow the two girls
Once the girls are away from the crowds of students Anna’s tears
begin to flow down her cheeks.
“Anna, what is it? What’s wrong?” Margaret asks, her blinking eyes
behind her glasses making her look like a worried owl.
“He...they...how can they want to go to war, don’t they know what
happens to soldiers in a war? How could they want to be soldiers?
and, and Henry, my Henry! He wants to go and fight and I just can’t believe it!” Anna rushes
out between hiccups.
“What do you mean Anna?” asks Margaret confused.
“It’s just that, war, it does things to people, it changes them, they
get all messed up inside from all that fighting and hate and they
get all hollowed out.”
“Oh Anna, that’s not true at all," Margaret says with a roll of her
large dark eyes, "Henry Forse has always been the sweetest
boy in town and no war is going to change that.”
“But what if...what if he doesn’t come back?” Anna’s voice
quavers, “or what if he does come back but he’s different.”
“Don’t worry Anna! Of course he’ll come back, they all will!
Our boys will beat those Japs silly and be home by Christmas.”
Sarah boasts. “I just wish I could go too, the boys get to have all
the fun!” she mutters. Sarah and Margaret turn back to the school
but Anna stands alone wondering how boys could so quickly
become vengeful soldiers.
Anna had cause to worry about the fate of her classmates, she had
heard stories about The Great War. Her uncle had fought in Germany,
she hadn’t known him before the war but she had a hard time imagining
the brittle shell of a man ever having been anything like her boisterous
father. Anna was equally fascinated and horrified by her uncle’s
catatonic state, the way he stared at nothing and mumbled to himself
nonsensically, jumped at the slightest sound and shivered and cried
unexpectedly. His body had come back from the war but his mind,
he must have lost that in Germany. What terrors had he seen that
had caused this horrible change in him Anna wondered? And how could
America so readily jump into another war?
Unable to concentrate at school, Anna headed home after her first
class. As she walked, she worried about Henry, he had always been
such a kind-hearted boy. When they were little Henry had nursed
sick and injured creatures back to health on the farm. It started
with birds but over the years he had learned enough about animals
that people all over town would call him up to ask about their
animal’s maladies. He was a regular veterinarian in practice and
was hoping to go to a university after graduation. He studied
animals, how they moved, what they ate and how they interacted
with each other and he knew plants that were toxic and plants that
were edible. He knew how to bandage a broken limb so it would
heal correctly and how to pull a calf when a cow was struggling,
how to keep newborn lambs warm in the early spring weather.
No, Henry could never become a soldier, a killer, no, he used
tools to heal and help animals.
Henry sees Anna standing still on the sidewalk and he furrows his
brow as she turns away from school and towards home. He knew
she had been late to school that morning and he wondered if she was
feeling ill. Anna has been his best friend since they were five years
old but she still surprises him. He remembers the first time he saw her.
He had been playing in the fields behind his house, searching for
injured field mice or rabbits, homeless from the plows used to churn
the dark brown earth. He loved Spring, the birds and animals and
insects and green plants, everything so happy to be alive again
after a long winter sleep. He gathered the sweet spring air into his
lungs and strode towards a haystack. No injured animals here but,
a girl? a real life girl lay sleeping in the hay! Her dark eyelashes
lying on her sweet round cheeks. She’s the most beautiful thing
I’ve ever seen, he thinks to himself. Her sleepy breath comes out in happy puffs
between her perfect rose bud lips. Henry wonders if she’s a princess
and if she will sleep forever. He hears a woman calling in the distance,
he recognizes the distress rising in the woman’s voice so he slips
away from the sleeping girl and goes to the woman. She has the same
dark hair and warm brown skin as the girl.
Henry motions to the woman to follow him. Then he turns and
slips through the rows of cut hay to the now sacred spot where
the girl is sleeping. Tamir’s breath catches at the ethereal scene,
her daughter nestled against a swath of golden hay.
Her dark curls and warm brown skin make everything look
golden and warm. “Sweet like honey” Henry remembers.
He jogs over to where Anna is standing but he is intercepted
by another group of boys.
