Books & Chocolate Make Everything Better! Read online

Books & Chocolate Make Everything Better

  An Anthology

  Copyright 2014

  Written by:

  Stacy Lynn Carroll

  R.J. Craddock

  Cindy M. Hogan

  Sally Johnson

  Wendy Knight

  Jo Noelle

  Rebecca Rode

  Konstanz Silverbow

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2014

  All rights reserved.

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this e-book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this e-book and did not purchase it, please purchase your own legal copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Some of this collection is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the authors' imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance of characters to actual people is coincidental. However some works in this collection are non-fiction. In these cases the author is authorized by the individuals portrayed to tell their story. 

  Cover Art Copyright R.J. Craddock 2014 

   

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  My Name Is Bryan

  The Forsaken

  Adrenaline Rush

  The Skeleton In My Closet Wears A Wedding Dress

  Shattered Assassin

  Lexi's Pathetic Fictional Love Life

  How To Have Peace When you're Falling To Pieces

  Missing Royal

  Thank You

  My Name is Bryan

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.”

  – C.S. Lewis

  June 1979

  “Cliff jumping. You in?” Bryan’s smile widened as he watched his best friend’s eyes light up.

  “Absolutely! When?” Greg asked.

  Bryan threw his large duffel bag into the opening under the bus. “I don’t remember. I think my dad said it’s toward the end of the trip. But apparently we get to conquer some pretty big rapids first.”

  “Sweet! This trip totally beats what we did last year.”

  “Yeah, no kidding.”

  Bryan and Greg stepped away from the bus, wandering across the parking lot to settle under a large oak tree.

  “Hey, man, you ready?” Another lanky teenage boy came up to the pair.

  “Yeah, my dad was telling me about some cliffs we can jump off during the rafting trip.” Bryan could hardly contain his excitement.

  “Oh yeah? How high?”

  “Not sure,” Bryan said, looking around as some other guys approached. “But it sounds awesome.”

  “What sounds awesome?” one of them asked.

  “Cliff jumping,” Greg chimed in.

  “Seriously? Sweet!”

  “Are the leaders going to let us?”

  “Yeah, Duane is the one who told my dad about them,” Bryan said.

  “Hey, looks like we’re loading now.” Greg pointed at the line of teenagers snaking their way through the parking lot and onto the bus.

  Bryan and his friends were the last to get in line.

  “Oh, man, that means we’re probably sitting up front.”

  “Loser seats. Right behind the…” Bryan trailed off as they climbed the three steps and found the last two empty rows were directly behind the chaperones, just as he had feared. “Parents,” he sighed.

  Carol Jean turned around in her seat and flashed her son a huge smile. Bryan tried to return the grin, but it came across as more of a grimace. It was bad enough his parents were on the trip, but now he had to sit by them?

  “Oh, Bryan,” Carol Jean laughed. She rolled her eyes and turned to her husband, Glenn. “Have you ever seen a more sullen teenager?” she asked.

  Glenn turned in his seat and smiled. “Well, he is stuck with all us old fogies. Poor kid can’t catch a break. First his boss doesn’t want him to come, then he has to travel on his last youth conference trip with both his parents and his sister. Maybe we should start planning his pity party now.”

  “Okay, thank you,” Bryan waved his parents off and turned to Greg.

  “Your boss didn’t want you to come?” Greg asked, putting on his black aviators and leaning back in his seat. “How come?”

  “Summer is the busiest season for pouring concrete, as I’m sure you can imagine,” Bryan explained. ”My boss couldn’t find a replacement so he didn’t want me to come.” Bryan shrugged. “I was able to talk him into it eventually though.”

  Greg nodded.

  Bryan lay his head back against the soft, grey headrest and closed his eyes. He wasn’t tired enough to sleep, but after working hard labor outside every day, it felt nice to just sit and relax with his eyes closed. His thoughts traveled to Jana and he wondered what she was doing at that moment.

  As if reading his thoughts, Greg asked, “So how are things going with Jana?”

  Bryan opened his eyes and smiled. “Really great! She’s amazing and lots of fun.”

  “So what’re your plans? You gonna keep pouring concrete?”

  “For now. At least until I can get a job at a garage somewhere.”

  “Still no college?” Carol Jean asked, trying to hide the disappointment in her voice. She had been eavesdropping from the row in front of them.

  “What would I do with college? If I’m going to be a mechanic, the best schooling I can get is in a garage.”

  “Have you found a garage to take you on as an intern yet?” Glenn asked, trying to turn around in his seat.

  “No. I thought it would be better to start applying after this trip. I didn’t want to get on somewhere only to tell them I needed a week off.”

  Glenn nodded his head in agreement. Bryan watched as his dad quickly put his focus back on the driver and the road. His dad had a map in his head and could get anywhere without a problem. He always preferred the scenic route to reaching his destination quickly. Bryan knew it drove him crazy to just sit back and watch as the driver sped past several attractive pullouts. His dad constantly said, “Life is about the journey,” before turning down a dusty little side road. But they always ended up right where they needed to be. Bryan smiled as he watched Glenn’s lip twitch. He knew it was killing him not to say anything.

  Bryan looked down the long row of seats toward the back of the bus, catching his sister’s eye. He smiled, but Becky returned to her conversation without acknowledging him. The game was on. Bryan stared, unblinking at the side of Becky’s face. His eyes bore into her cheek until it started to turn pink. His eyes narrowed, but still he didn’t blink. Becky’s mouth twitched at the corners, until she finally broke into a smile. Bryan laughed and turned around in his chair. He had won.

  The drive was peaceful, especially compared to family vacations. With four younger sisters, road trips were anything but quiet. There was always fighting over seats or music or screaming at each other to stop touching.

  “If both your parents are here, who has your other sisters?” Greg asked.

  “Brenda is at a junior rangers camp, and both Glenda and Jenny are staying with a cousin.”

  “So this must be a nice week off for you, huh, Mrs. C?” Greg asked, leaning forward.

  “I’m not sure I’d call rafting through rapids a relaxing week off, but I’m sure we’ll have fun.”

  Several hours later, the bus jostled Bryan awake as they drove over loose gravel, nearing the San Juan River. He hadn’t even realized he’d fallen asle
ep. Once they reached the river and everyone climbed off the bus, they split into smaller groups of ten or so to a raft, and each raft had a chaperone in charge. Duane walked to the front of the group and welcomed them enthusiastically.

  “How’s everyone doing this morning?” he asked.

  “Fabulous, marvelous, and wonderful!” Glenn’s response was louder than any of the kids in the group. Several of them turned toward him and smiled. His enthusiasm increased the excitement around them.

  Everyone quieted again and Duane gave a small lesson on rowing by having the kids all practice smooth, strong strokes together. Once food and supplies were safely loaded, the kids climbed aboard the big yellow rafts and pushed off.

  They spent the first two days on the water for a good portion of the day. They pulled off occasionally to eat or explore but spent most of their time working together to row through the brownish green water. They had little time for floating, as the water moved quickly over the large rapids. When they did get moments of calm, the kids got in water fights with the other rafts or jumped in the water to swim and cool off. They had to travel so many miles each day to ensure they’d make it to the next campsite and that the trip would end on time.

  Having already turned eighteen, Bryan was one of the oldest kids in the group. He was even in charge of his own raft since there weren’t enough adults to go around. He took this charge seriously and watched over his group as he guided them down the smooth river.

  On day three, some of his group began to get restless so Bryan devised a plan. They slowed down and waited for Becky’s raft to come into view, and then they pulled up alongside it to ambush her and her friends. Several boys jumped aboard, grabbing the screaming girls and throwing them into the water. The girls squealed and tried to get away, but the ambush worked in the end. They not only emptied their opponent’s raft, but they were saved from boredom as well. Becky grabbed onto the side of her brother’s raft, gasping, and asked Bryan for help. He grabbed her by the lifejacket to pull her aboard, when two other girls popped up from the water and grabbed Bryan, yanking him in. The cold water rushed into his face, burning his nose and eyes. He sputtered and coughed, and then broke his head through the waves, chuckling.

  On the last night of the trip, as their raft neared Slickhorn Canyon, Bryan and his friends began talking excitedly about the anticipated cliffs.

  “Did Duane say how tall the cliffs are?”

  “No. You wanna take bets?”

  “Twenty feet.”

  “Fifty feet.”

  “One hundred feet!”

  Bryan and his friends laughed as two of them jumped into the waist-high water to help pull their raft ashore. Bryan slowly got to his feet and wiped the sweat from his brow. Leaping from the raft and pulling it the rest of the way up the bank, he held the yellow beast steady so his passengers could climb out. Duane appeared at their sides, a glint in his eye as he whispered, “You boys ready?”

  They nodded enthusiastically. “Let’s do it!”

  They hoisted the raft further up the bank. Dinner was underway and several groups of teenagers relaxed around the bank where they had made camp. Excited at the aspect of exploring the canyon and finding the cliffs to jump from, Bryan definitely wasn’t ready to be done for the day. A stream flowed into the canyon, forming several smaller ponds. Duane led the way, following this stream past the surrounding area.

  “I’ll catch up to you guys in a minute,” Bryan called. Duane nodded. The boys hooted in excitement as they followed closely behind him, making their way up the steep, red rocks. Bryan had to get his raft secure for the night before he could go. Since he was in charge, it was his duty every night to make sure the raft was tied down and their supplies were safe. Once everything was carefully placed in the shade of some nearby trees, Bryan ran to join the others.

  He began hiking in the direction the other guys had gone. He hiked nearly a mile and was about to turn back when he saw them jumping off a ledge that overlooked the water. The crimson cliff stood before him like a towering giant, with arms stretched up toward heaven. A smile spread across his face and he lunged at the overhang; David was ready to take on the mighty Goliath. Bryan could hear laughter growing closer as he climbed higher and higher. His long legs made the ascent easy, and as he grabbed the last dusty ledge, he heaved himself up and over the top. Spending the last couple months working hard outdoors had seriously increased Bryan’s muscle mass, so he was able to climb up to the rocky ledge with relative ease. As he watched the other jumpers, some hit the water with pencil-straight legs while others bent their knees, looking as though they were sitting mid-air. A couple of the guys started doing flips off the cliff edge into the water. It seemed inevitable, given the large group of guys gathered together, that they would try to outdo one another. Bryan watched another buddy flip off the ledge and land feet first in the water below, and then jump up out of the ripples and shake the water from his hair, laughing as he made his way back to the shore to try it again.

  Bryan didn’t want to do a flip. That just seemed stupid. He knew it would be harder to control the way he land, and he was nervous about clearing enough space to keep his head from hitting rocks. He couldn’t really just jump either. After the flippers, that would make him look like a pansy. Bryan spent the majority of his life living near a pool, and he spent a large number of weekends on a lake with his family’s boat. He was a seasoned swimmer. He had no doubt in his mind that he could show up these boys.

  Bryan stepped closer to the edge and looked down, waiting for the others to clear out of his way. With perfectly straight arms raised above his head, he bent his knees slightly for momentum and jumped. A huge smile spread across his face as he sailed through the air, the wind caressing his cheeks as the water neared. Bryan knew he had done a perfect swan dive. He only wished he could have seen how beautiful it must have been to the onlookers. His fingertips touched the cool liquid first, his body forming a flawless straight line behind them. But something was wrong. He was sailing through the water, and the river floor was coming too fast. His hands hit the sand hard. His elbows buckled. Bryan’s head smashed into the bottom and with a loud POP, he knew his life would be changed forever.

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  My Name is Bryan

  Copyright 2014 Stacy Lynn Carroll

  Published by Pink Frog Press LLC

  The Forsaken