Amber by Dan-Dwayne Spencer (e book reader .TXT) 📕

“No time. I gotta catch up with everyone. We’re going to a place called Eudora.”

His laughter froze. “You… and who else is going to Eudora?”

“Flower is going with us.”

His eyes brightened. “I’ve heard rumors about Eudora. It’s a magic place. I hear there’s a real, honest to god, phoenix there.”

Skeptically, I said, “No kidding.” Then I did a double-take of his face. “You’re serious.”

“You’re lucky.” He pulled a cloth from his apron pocket and started wiping down the table, stacking the dishes as he went. “I was never so lucky, but you better hurry. You shouldn’t keep Flower waiting.”

“Magic?” I rolled my eyes. “Okay, whatever you say.”

I wiped my face with the back of my hand, grabbed my stack of clothes, and was off to find Jimmy, Roger, Rose, and Flower. Before I reached the door, I stopped. The little beast called curiosity had nipped at my heels and I couldn’t help myself. I called from over my shoulder before facing him. “If it’s so great, why don’t you come along and see this phoenix for yourself?”

He was gathering up my messy dishes and putting them on a tray. “I can’t. I mean, we can’t go there. It’s forbidden. Only the elders ever go there and even then it’s seldom.” He stood, straightening himself to his full height, and with hands on his hips, he said, “I don’t know exactly why. Seems silly to me, but there must be a reason we’re not allowed to go there. You’re so lucky. From what I’ve been told, Eudora is like no other place on Earth.”

“Dude, if you ask me, turning soybeans into eggs and sausage is magic—freaky magic.” I had always felt like I was a freak, and learning about my gift only cemented the idea. Here, at the commune, it seemed I ran into freaks everywhere I turned. By the rule of simple logic, I should have felt right at home, and maybe I did in a freaky kind of way. One thing was for sure, after my conversation with Kelly Carter, I realized, Eudora freaked out the freaks.

I resumed my haste and trotted out to where I expected Jimmy’s Mustang should be. Instead, there was a brightly painted VW love van waiting for me there with Flower at the wheel and the sliding door wide open. She took one look at me and huffed, “You’re not dressed yet?”

I shook my head as a reply.

“Hurry, change before you get in. You can stand behind the van and use the bumper to sit on.”

I stepped behind the van where the exhaust was rumbling out of the small engine. I quickly decided, with all my friends just on the other side of the van’s windows, it was way too public. I slipped the T-shirt on and pulled the jeans up over my swim trunks; stuffed the undies in my pocket and strapped the sandals onto my tanned feet; collected my flip-flops and jumped in the van. I hauled the love beads Stoney had given me out from under my shirt, letting them dangle across Bruce’s face. It made his kung fu stare less intense.

With a slam of the door, Jimmy grumbled. “Loveless, you’re the slowest guy on the planet.”

There wasn’t any use explaining. If I’d skipped breakfast, maybe I could have been there a few minutes earlier, but all considered, I had readied myself as fast as possible. Sitting there in the van, I started feeling guilty about stuffing my face when everyone else had gone without. What was I fretting about? They ate supper the night before and I hadn’t. I deserved breakfast after fighting the fire all night. Everyone, except for Flower, looked completely exhausted—especially Jimmy.

Flower drove us away from Happy Hollow the way we had arrived. When we passed the playa pond where the wreck had happened, I couldn’t help but notice the flowers and the tiny cross placed between the water and the road. I quietly asked, “Can we stop for a minute?”

Flower looked at us in the rearview mirror. She started to say something but stopped short, made a grimacing smile, and pulled over to the side of the road. “Don’t be long,” she replied.

We trekked across the road and over to where the memorial flowers were placed. White daisies and mums were side-by-side with a bundle of white roses. Nestled between the foil-covered flowerpots were candles decorated with the image of the Blessed Mother printed on the side. A white cross on a dowel rod towered over the display.

Rose took off a strand of love beads and wrapped it around the cross. “There you go, Dave. I don’t have any flowers to leave you.” Dark mascara tears started running down her cheeks. “I guess you didn’t make it after all.”

An odd, tangible sadness flooded over us as we stood before Dave’s makeshift memorial. Even for me, and I didn’t know the guy.

“You shouldn’t have wasted your time. You can’t change fate.” The gravelly voice of Mr. Dark resounded through my mind. “When you have a vision like you did at the truck stop, you can’t change the prophecy. It’s lunacy to try—you struggle against fate.”

I ignored him and bowed my head in reverence to Dave, the truck driver, Rose’s friend.

“Nothing you did mattered for this man. How do you expect to help all of mankind? Go back home and stop listening to this nonsense.”

I heard Rose cry. I glanced over to check on her. To Mr. Dark, I silently replied, “Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do. I’ll do what I want and you stay the hell out of my business.”

A police car pulled over onto the road’s shoulder and parked not seven feet from us. A young deputy who I had not seen before got out. When he saw Flower, his face lit up. He traipsed across the