Posted by Alicia on 3/6/2008, 8:48 am, in reply to "A Tale Of Entwinement From Page One"
138.73.79.152
Oh man.
A) Great story. Worth the wait
B) Are you from the gulf islands?!
--Previous Message--
: This story is dedicated first and foremost to
: my sister, for all her tremendous support
: and encouragement, not to mention sassy
: comments.
:
: To Greg, for asking to be included as a
: character in this story, it was because of
: his request that my writer’s block subsided.
: Thanks buddy; I couldn’t have done it
: without you, literally.
:
: Each and every one of the Futurama
: references are dedicated to you as well,
: They were put in the story especially for
: your amusement, I hope you enjoy them.
:
: To Boswell, for his endless toil on my
: behalf, and on that of this story.
: Everything from the beginning to Chapter 12
: is dedicated explicitly to you, my very dear
: friend.
:
: And to Knife, a fellow Canadian and source
: of great encouragement, laughter and
: support, for your continual reviews and all
: the time you put into these pages.
:
: I dedicate everything from Chapter 20 onward
: to you, I wouldn’t have gotten over my
: writer’s block if you hadn’t been so
: patient, but really, it is small
: compensation for the inestimable amount of
: time and insight you have poured into the
: fabric of this tale.
:
:
: Thank you; you are all part of this story.
:
:
:
:
: A Tale of Entwinement
:
: By Bowen Cates
:
:
: Chapter 1: Which Starts The Wheel Turning
:
:
: Canada, British Columbia, Bowen Island, 662
: Cates hill Lane, 2007, Tuesday August 22nd,
: 10:37pm standard British Columbian time.
:
: Theodore wrapped his arms around the trunk
: of the tree; it was his favorite place in
: the whole world, away from everyone and
: everything in it. He wanted to scream into
: the sky and hear the echo fade away into
: nothing, to grind all his anger into the
: bark of his perch and make it stay there,
: forever encased in sap like the remains of
: some prehistoric insect.
:
: It wasn’t fair! Why should his brother make
: fun of him? Just because Theodore liked to
: be alone and read? Just because he
: preferred the fictional to the real! He
: pounded the tree trunk. And then stopped,
: catching himself “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean
: to hit you, I really didn’t”.
:
: He burst into tears, knowing if he went down
: that it would only make things worse, he
: didn’t understand how events could have gone
: so wrong! The day had started out with such
: promise! He had woken up with a wonderful
: feeling.
:
: He had looked himself over in the mirror and
: smiled “you’re fourteen today” he’d informed
: it, addressing his reflection “and today is
: going to be the best day ever!” what a
: rotten liar he had turned out to be.
:
: His mom had made his favorite breakfast:
: waffles with loads of maple syrup. And they
: had planed to go to the movies to see a
: film. The theater was doing a theme week of
: just really old movies and Theodore had been
: looking forward to seeing ‘house boat’ he
: had never known that they even made movies
: in black and white.
:
: Just as they were getting ready to go, his
: dad had suggested that as they had finished
: breakfast early Theodore should open a
: couple of presents before they left.
:
: He had agreed to this idea very readily, and
: his mom had brought out a big package
: wrapped up in dark red paper, the color rich
: people always had their carpeting.
:
: Theodore had inspected the whole thing
: before opening it, wanting to be as much
: like his role model as possible. His
: brother, Matt was getting impatient and told
: him to “hurry up and open the damn thing”
: but he was grinning, as if he knew what was
: inside and wanted to see his brother’s
: reaction Theodore took no notice but slowly
: began to undo the ribbon.
:
: He gasped
:
: It was an entire set of old Sherlock Holmes
: stories, each in a separate book with color
: illustrations. He flipped the first one
: open eagerly, it was thicker then most of
: the other ones ‘the sign of the four’ its
: spine declared proudly in gold letters.
:
: “Oh thank you, thank you!” he had shouted
: with glee as his parents’ faces broke out in
: wide grins.
:
: Then everything had gone wrong. Matt
: grabbed the book out of his brother’s hands
: “cool” he had said smiling, but his grin had
: changed somehow, it was still a grin, but
: one which harbored no good intentions.
:
: “Give it back Matt” Theodore had Begged
: desperately
:
: “No, I only want to see it”
:
: “Matthew, give your brother back his book,
: please”
:
: “Ah come on dad, I only want to see,” he had
: taunted, waving it just out of Theodore’s
: grasp.
:
: “Matt!” cried his mother “give it back; it’s
: his birthday for gods sake!”
:
: But too late, Theodore lunged for it and
: with a blood curdling Rip his precious book
: sailed though the air, shedding pages as it
: soared past the partly open door and landed
: with a ‘squelch’ in the mud by the front
: steps.
:
: “I hate you!” Theodore had yelled and then
: swiping what was left of the book from the
: puddle had crawled up his tree as fast as he
: could manage.
:
: His mother had tried to get him to come down
: “now Teddy dear, we’ll get you another book,
: they sell them separate too, we can get you
: another one exactly the same.”
:
: But he had been too upset to listen, his
: birthday had been ruined. His father had
: said that they would have a wonderful time,
: that “you didn’t need other kids to have a
: birthday you’d remember till you were 92”
:
: Now it was all ruined, nothing was good
: anymore, he didn’t even care about the
: movie, he had been waiting for months,
: dropping hints as to what would be his dream
: birthday gift.
:
: He loved those “stupid old dust mops” as
: Matt called them, he had been getting them
: out from the library over and over again for
: the past year, he could even recite the
: beginnings of some of his favorites. For
: two seconds he had been the happiest child
: on earth, but then, as always, his stupid
: brother had had to ruin it because he wanted
: to get a rise out of his younger sibling.
:
: Now, hours later Theodore was still holding
: the book to his chest, half of it was gone
: and most of the stuff left was illegible
: because of the layers of dirt coating the
: pages.
:
: He could still hear his parents’ arguing,
: they had long ago sent Matt up to his room.
: Another time Theodore would have thought
: that to be the funniest thing: a 17 year old
: being grounded.
:
: Right now though, no punishment seemed
: sufficient.
:
: He suppressed a fresh wave of sobs and began
: to climb down the tree, it was getting dark,
: the shaded outline of the house and garden,
: the splotches of light from the kitchen
: windows…it all looked so picturesque.
:
:
:
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