Jasper
Purple Flamingos Fly at Midnight
By
Daniel Refner
Copyright © 2016 Daniel Refner
All rights reserved.
ISBN-10: 1512141828
ISBN-13: 978-1512141825
DEDICATION
The story of Jasper, came into being when my adventurous ten year old son dared to ask his daddy to write him a bedtime story. Originally five small chapters and now, many years later, a novel. Ready to be read by a much older audience. My son, are you ready to go where no Refner has gone before? Thank you for being such an active participant in my fatherhood, you inspire me, and I love you.
For Kyle
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank You, Lord, for Your blessing of my wife Kim. Along with other family members and friends who have all been supportive of my goal to become a published writer. Of them all, my wife, my greatest champion.
When I was just a kid, my mom would often tell me I should write books. She believed it to be the best outlet for my imagination. I write this book in loving memory of my mother, Lynne.
To my earthly father, Richard, thank you for the gift of encouragement that only a dad can give. Your motivational counsel put a smile on my face and made me feel like I can do anything. I’m blessed to have a fantastic father like you!
To my daughter, Kari, thank you for providing me with endless examples of teenage girl drama. LOL…and teaching me how to text.
For all the well wishes, positive thoughts, magical intentions, and prayers sent my direction, thank you, each one was a big help. I especially thank my prayer warriors Terry and Karen Haughn and Jean Refner.
A necessary thank you is due the following individuals for their assistance on this project, all of whom read various drafts of Jasper, providing invaluable feedback: Ann Perrigo, Ellen Bennett, Kim Refner, and Angela Bacon of Angela Bacon Books.
Finally, thank you to those of you who have been brave enough to try a new author. I would love to hear from you on my author page at: www.facebook.com/refnerbooks
CHAPTER ONE
Friday Morning
Jasper Indiana was in love with Stacy Applekart. Well…at least he thought he was in love. As a teenage boy he would often blur the lines of what he loosely defined as love and lust. He was an ordinary young adult striving to become a man by way of sex and prom night was his target. This is what the worldview of his time deemed normal and natural.
Today was a school day. However, Jasper didn’t want to go to school, especially not today of all days. This morning he was faced with the daunting task of asking Stacy to attend prom.
He had stressed for weeks at the very thought of asking her out. It had to be perfect. It had to be classic. It had to be done today! The last school day before the start of spring break.
As luck would have it, bad weather had rolled in overnight and the start of school was placed on a two-hour fog delay. Dark clouds hung low in the sky. Fog banks were everywhere. Some were knee-high, while others were as tall as the house.
“It’s Friday!” Jasper said to his horse Thunder. “The weekend is almost here.” With the fog delay Jasper had plenty of time to take his horse and imagination out for a little exercise.
Thunder, a quarter horse, came from a long line of horses that was bred in the western part of the United States, trained to run quickly in races up to a quarter mile. His coat was a deep hot chocolate brown. Jasper gave him the name Thunder not because the ground shook when he ran upon it but because he was a horse with an attitude. Thunder talked back like a mouthy two-year-old child, frequently chomping at his bit when things didn’t go his way and speaking in a series of rumbles, snorts, and whistles.
“Let's go Thunder!” They rode off hard and disappeared into a fog bank. “MALOOF!” shouted Jasper and a game of pretend ensued.
Jasper used his magic word, ‘Maloof’, to transform his horse into all sorts of exotic animals in the playground of his mind. He didn’t know when the word originated in his life, ‘Maloof’, had just always been there with him…a distant echo that rang out across his soul daily.
Thunder would become a brontosaurus one moment and a pterodactyl the next. They would ride fast and hard across his property. This farmland, just north of Allegan Michigan, had been the only home he had ever known. It had everything a farm boy could ever want. Open fields, patches of forest, a slow moving river, and many hills.
Jasper would use his imagination to conjure up every possible scenario a boy and his horse could encounter. At this very moment Jasper rose up in Thunder’s saddle, standing straight up with his arms out to his sides like wings of a soaring bird. His eyes were closed and he felt the wind rush across his face and he smiled in the pure joy of the moment. Jasper suddenly sat down and his eyes popped wide open. “What is that noise? Oh, my phone...” Jasper had learned to carry his phone everywhere because you never knew when the next call just might be a “girlfriend” emergency, and if Jasper had learned one thing in school, it was the importance of Stacy’s phone calls. No matter what time of day or night, just answer the phone and never let it go to voicemail. Jasper's customary holding place for his phone was the back pocket of his blue jeans; however, this morning as he woke up to a fog delay he decided to stay in his sleeping attire until after his ride with Thunder. He was in his sweatpants and hoodie jacket. His phone was ringing from the left saddle pouch.
Retrieving his phone and reading the caller I.D., Jasper sighed, “Gena Nipper again, I’m not going to take her call, if I do I’ll never get this looney-toon off the phone before she sucks up all the air off the planet. I will save the earth by sending her a text message.”
Jasper slowed Thunder down to an easy trot. He was going to attempt texting and riding, a hazard for any equestrian.
Texting he wrote, “Gena, stop calling me. I will ask her to prom before class begins. Meet me in the library.”
Jasper closed his cell phone and leaned forward to place it back in the saddle pouch. He sat up just as Thunder trotted under a jagged tree limb. Jasper was smacked in the forehead and fell off Thunder, directly onto his back. He was out cold, unconscious… looking much like a dead possum.
In his dream state…His eyes fluttered open and Jasper propped himself up onto his elbows. Where am I? Jasper pondered. He looked around at his surroundings. Where’s my horse? What am I doing on the 50-yard line of the high school football field?
“Hey, big boy!” Stacy said in her most seductive tone.
Jasper was instantly aroused. Stacy stood before him as a sexy goddess of all things sports. She had her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail under an orange and black school baseball cap, and she wore Jasper's football jersey with his name and number across her chest. Jasper thought that was odd because as far as he knew he was not a member of the Allegan Tiger football team...
Jasper stood up. He was five feet in front of Stacy. She held the ball and was ready to charge. “Kill the guy with the ball” never looked so delicious, thought Jasper.
Suddenly fog rolled by. It came between them, but Jasper could still see his path toward Stacy.
Stacy Applekart was tense with anticipation, wondering which direction she should leap in. She jolted her body left, then quickly went to the right. She ended up in the same spot from which she’d started.
“You are not getting past me, Stacy,” Jasper snapped.
Stacy leaned forward to pounce and then she stood straight up. Her eyes softened and the wicked
est smile crossed her face. She dropped the ball. It rolled, or more like wobbled, half of the distance between them. As it came to a stop, Jasper was leaping in midair yelling at the top of his voice, “Fumble!” but Stacy didn't care. She lifted her index finger to the tip of her nose and declared in a loud voice, “Not it!”
Stacy turned and ran in the opposite direction. Jasper stood up, throwing the ball back to the ground. “Stacy, this is football, not tag...err girls!” Jasper chased after Stacy which, by the way, was just what she wanted. Jasper tackled her to the ground, and they rolled to a stop with Stacy on her back and Jasper on top of her. He tickled her side, but she did not laugh. Jasper tickled her some more but no reaction from Stacy. All at once she stuck her tongue out and licked him across the face.
Jasper protested. “Hey, what was that?”
Stacy did it again and again...her tongue was so impossibly long. Jasper began to panic, and he pushed himself away from Stacy. But Stacy’s tongue followed him. Jasper became afraid and he screamed out loud.
Lick, lick, lick, went Thunder's long, soft tongue across Jasper's face. Jasper's eyes flickered open as he rolled over onto his side. “What the heck, Thunder. This is not the type of wet dream I like to wake up from and you could have warned me that the branch was there.”
Thunder gave a loud snort and stomped his front legs down at the river’s edge. He snorted again and gave a thrill of a whistle.
“What's wrong, Thunder? What have you found?” Jasper rolled onto his knees and crawled slowly to Thunder's feet.
Resting in a charred-out, dirty hole lay three glowing spears, perhaps egg-shaped, connected one to the other. Hard to tell, but this hole might be the result of a lightning strike. Curious, Jasper picked them up. They were hot to the touch like stones from a sauna, connected not by string but by pure glowing yellowish-green light. They began to hum. Their surface was getting hotter by the second, and Jasper couldn’t hold them any longer. He raced around to the other side of Thunder and tossed them into the empty saddle pouch.
Suddenly Jasper heard the straining voice of his Aunt Debbie-Lynne. She called out his name in a panic. “Jasper, hurry, you're going to miss the bus! Come on, Jasper, right now!”
Jasper jumped back into the saddle and raced back to Thunder's stall. “Thunder, I must have been out for a long time. I'll come back after school.” Jasper rushed to the front porch just as the bus pulled up to the end of his driveway.
“You have no time to change your clothes, Jasper. Your lunch is in your backpack, now catch your bus, I will get Thunder settled.” Aunt Debbie-Lynne tossed his backpack to him from the top of the porch stairs.
As Jasper ran down the driveway, he yelled, “See you right after school, I love you!”
She smiled back at Jasper as he rushed to get on the bus. Her boy…but not for much longer, a moment of regret from deep within her sent a single tear rolling down her cheek. She wanted to freeze this moment in time and hold this image in her mind forever. She should have told him the family secret. However, years ago when he was delivered to her doorstep, she had suddenly become the mother she had always wished to be. Back then she was a sought after, award winning, race horse rancher. Single but married to her ranch. Admired by some and known by many as a clever business woman, managing as many as twenty horses, with employees that simply adored her. Now, in her retirement, only Thunder remained. A foal she gave to Jasper on his fifth birthday. Best present ever as far as she was concerned…but, in fourteen short months it would all be over. How will Jasper ever forgive her from hiding the truth? The fear of the events that brought him to her sixteen years ago had become nothing more than an easy excuse she used to keep him close, the son she always wanted. She wiped away the tear.
Jasper jumped up the stairs to the bus, the doors closed, and it pulled away. Aunt Debbie-Lynne smiled to herself as she said out loud, “I wonder how long it will be before he realizes that he is wearing muddy sweatpants to school? Sweatpants or not, he is still my hero.” She shook her head side to side as she walked to Thunder’s stall. Greeting Thunder she said. “Hello old friend. Time to take your gear off. How about a hug first.” She gave Thunder a soft hug around his neck. “I still have time to tell him the truth…it will not be easy, but it must be done. Soon, I think, the sooner the better.”
Jasper found an empty seat at the back of the bus. As he walked past the rest of the passengers, he could hear giggles but was unaware that the source of their laughter was him. His heart was still racing from the run down the driveway, pounding like a drum in his chest with only one thought in his head...prom. I have to ask Stacy to prom and I'm wearing sweatpants. Jasper closed his eyes and collapsed alone into his seat.
The upcoming spring break was Jasper’s favorite part of the school year. At this moment not even the thought of that event could lift Jasper out of his hiding spot on the bus. Jasper wondered if there was a rock close by that he could crawl under. Even his brown hair was tousled and dirty from falling off of Thunder into the mud at the river bank. His sky blue eyes seemed dim with embarrassment. How on earth was he going to find the courage to ask Stacy to the prom looking like a slob?
Suddenly a student in the seat in front of him popped up over the tall green seatback. “What happened to you? Lose power?”
“That sounds about right, Kevin. What about you?” Oh, here we go, Jasper thought, feeling exhausted and defeated before the conversation had even begun.
“I'm not sure, really. Dad switched over to the generator before I woke up. I think he just likes playing with his new toy.” Kevin Hoffman laughed. He turned in his seat in front of Jasper and looked down at Jasper's pants, shaking his head. “Jasper, I've been your best friend and neighbor for as long as I remember, and so I feel it is my duty to tell you I think you stepped in horse dung. You’re dirty, dude, smell you later.” Kevin giggled and returned to his seat, commenting below his breath, “You'll never get Stacy to sleep with you looking like that.”
But Jasper heard each and every word and was instantly upset. “You are such a gigolo; you have no place to talk, Mr. 'I did it in the slop barn by the pigs.’ How do you sleep at night? Don't answer that. I retract the question.” Jasper blew out a puff of air between his lips. God must hate me. I know he doesn't like our family very much. All our friends have generators for their power outages and we have only AA Batteries. I hate being poor.
“I don’t get paid for my services, douchebag, so you can’t call me a gigolo. I would prefer if you called me an all-American boy. You should try it sometime.”
“I am an all-American boy. The difference is, whereas I set my sights on one girl, and one relationship at a time, you’re looking to do the entire female student body. Do you understand what that makes you?”
“A stud,” Kevin said proudly with a grin.
“A whore,” Jasper snapped as he flipped up his middle finger. Kevin returned to his seat with only the slightest hint of shame.
Jasper was pulled away from his thoughts as the bus came to a stop in front of the school. He was the last to get off the bus, but he scooted quickly through the set of double doors and ran down the hall to the bathroom closest to the attendance office. He removed his hoodie top and tied it around his waist to hide the dirt stains on the backside of his sweatpants. He washed his hands and wetted his hair down, he took off his dirty shoes and rinsed them off in the sink as well. Jasper made sure his t-shirt was tucked in on all sides.
Finished, Jasper stood back, looking at his reflection in the mirror. His thoughts ran wild, and he could feel his heart still pounding in his chest. This is the best that it can be for the moment. Just breathe, man. I'm Jasper Indiana and I can do this. It's only a dance, no big deal. I'll just walk to the library and pop the question. Jasper left the restroom.
Stacy Applekart stood at the checkout counter in the library. She was always in the library before school. Her best friend, Gena Nipper, continued to look nervously at the door. Gena knew Jasper was on his wa
y from the text message she had just received from Kevin.
Gena's phone vibrated again. Kevin had sent another message. “He’s agitated. About to burst; He may need a doctor of love to prescribe some good old fashioned fornication…LOL.”
Gena quickly replied, “You’re a horny toad Kevin but…LMAO.”
The uptight librarian affirmed for the second time the date the books were due back as Stacy gathered them up from the counter. Stacy loved to read. She could read an entire novel in just two days. Her college plans included being an English major with a minor in theater or possibly dog walking. So far she had won a starring role in every musical on the high school stage; yet she was shy off-stage and was normally found with her nose in a book. She was ranked third in her class and widely regarded by the faculty as the most promising student to become an author. Her poems had won nationwide awards and recognition. Large was her academic standing but small was her stature, Stacy stood a good two inches below Jasper's brow, and she believed herself to be at the perfect height for slow dances with her boyfriend. Jasper believed it to be true as well, especially when she swung her long brown hair side to side during a swing dance number. She could never stop smiling when he was near her. They had known each other since the sixth grade. Jasper was the fragrance of love in the daisy garden of her heart. He made her feel so worthwhile, and she loved all the attention he showered upon her. With her parents always out of the country on one business and/or mission trip after another, Jasper had been the tangible constant in her life.
Stacy secretly carried around with her a deep-seated resentment of the church. The church, from as early as she could remember, had left her orphaned, always taking her parents away from one foreign country to the next. On the outside she wore the mask of having an unshakable faith, a dutiful and respectful daughter. But inside, her insecurities robbed her in ways that only preacher’s kids must feel. She felt lost with no direction. Jasper was her only anchor; without him, she would just be someone in a row-boat tossed in the storm of life. She kept her internal conflicts, her most private secrets, and fears buried deep within her. Jasper had always been her cure. Stacy was susceptible to the tenderness she often found in the simple things. Like the way Jasper would place his hand on the small of her back and guide her around the junk food line during lunch period, his gentle hand cupping her chin as they shared a passionate kiss, or the way he would always fall down to one knee and romantically offer her a piece of chewing gum in the hallway between the band and choir rooms. Sure, it was silly, but it touched her sentimental little heart all the same. Stacy was head over heels for Jasper. She could never imagine her life without him right by her side.
Jasper: Purple Flamingos Fly at Midnight (Jasper - Purple Flamingos Fly at Midnight Book 1) Page 1