by Mia Castile
GENERATIONS 1:
Book of Enlightenment
By Mia Castile
Copyright © 2011 by Mia Castile and Entwined Publishing, LLC.
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Entwined Publishing P.O.Box 34274 Indianapolis, Indiana 46234,
Visit our website at www.entwinedpublishing.com
First edition: October 2011
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
ISBN-10-0983510849 ISBN-13-9780983510840
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
About Mia
Preview of The Ocean
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank God, first and foremost, for all the wonderful blessings in my life. It seems like He sends people into your life whom you need in those moments to encourage and uplift you. Sometimes they remain a part of your life, and sometimes they fade away like the season. Rain or shine, cloudless sky or grey, He knows what we need, if we just trust Him.
Mano, my love, thank you for your support and encouragement. Thank you for your love and understanding that writing is something I am happy at. Thank you for sharing me. Te Quero Mucho, Papi’
My Sofi and Benji, my hearts, you are my inspiration and the reason I wake in the morning. I love you.
Grandma, thank you for standing beside me. This has been a very challenging year for us, and you are my hero. I hope one day to grow up and be as brave as you are.
Chasadee, my first best friend, you knew and understood me when there wasn’t much to me. Thank you for falling so deeply in love with Generations that I only wanted to give my best to it. That’s what it deserves.
Sue, my editor, I’m so glad I found you! You’ve made learning fun. I know I have a long way to go, but I’m glad you are coming with me. Carla, thanks again for your contribution. We would have been lost without the word you contributed.
Kristina, my partner, what a trip. Who know we would learn so much so fast. I’m not sure I could do this with anyone else. Thanks for picking me.
GK and Tiffany at Q7 Associates, I cannot thank you enough for handling Kristina and me with such care. It has been a true pleasure to work with you, and I look forward to building our professional relationship.
To my friends, Alphas and Betas who have supported me along the way and read this book when it was still young, thank you.
Prologue
I was running, and though it was dark, I knew where I was going. I was going to him. He was forbidden to me. He wasn’t mine, yet I couldn’t stay away from him. My hand glided along the stone wall. It was old and dusted onto my fingertips. I stayed close to it. The wind blew the soft fabric of my clothing around me. Ribbons held my hair in place in an up-do that I could never have fixed on my own. My slaves fixed me, knowing that I was breaking the rules—we were breaking the rules—they still remained faithful to me. We would be together. I opened the large, thick, heavy temple door that creaked around the hinges. I breathed heavily as I walked to the altar. The priest stood behind it, reading from his great book.
“I’m here, I’m here,” I said in a hushed exclamation.
“So am I.” There he was. He reached for my hand and pulled me close to him. We embraced. I clung to him as he to me.
“Are you sure this is your desire? It’s never been done before; you’ll go against all that is right,” the priest asked in a low whisper. But he couldn’t change our minds, no more than we could. I loved this man, and he loved me.
“Yes,” my love answered.
“Then so be it.”
I woke up in my dark bedroom, my hands clinging to something, but I didn’t know what. There was nothing in my arms. I wanted—I needed to see him; I could see him in my mind. It was just a dream; but it felt real, like a real life—like it was alive. But he wasn’t tangible; he wasn’t real. He was my angel and my protector of all the imaginary places and times I dreamed of, but he wasn’t real.
Chapter 1
“Ellie Solomon, sit down!” Her eyes locked into mine. I saw them ease from frustration to compassion. “Come sit by me, sweetie.”
“I can’t. Does it always take this long? It’s a simple answer: ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”
I continued pacing in the long corridor of deep maple walls. My dress was shades of purple, but in the dim halls it just looked grey. The government building in our city of Jordan was as old as the city if that was possible. It was very intimidating in its majesty. It was the only place I’d ever lived, so I knew it like the back of my hand. Jordan was the epitome of a small Midwestern town from the storefront five and dimes, to the fifties diner across from my high school. My shoes clanked on the marble floors. I walked the circle of the rotunda to give my nervousness some form of escape. The noise resounded throughout the whole building. “Should it be taking this long?” I asked again as I wrung my hands, willing the doors to open.
“Well, he is petitioning to be your guardian. And he’s only eighteen. This is a big deal and takes a great deal of consideration.” Nancy was right. She’d helped us get this far, being our social worker for the past five years. Her black hair was graying at the temples. Her grey, square-rimmed glasses made her look wise beyond her years. She had smile wrinkles in the outer corners of her dark eyes and her thin lips. She wasn’t beautiful or elegant. She was kind of plain, but she was precise. From her stiff, pressed skirt suit to her perfectly molded immoveable hair, she was precise. We trusted that she knew what she was doing. She and I had testified already why this was the best thing for Gideon and me. We’d bombarded the judge with letters from teachers, former foster parents, and Gideon’s current employers. We’d put together a plan about how we were going to support ourselves and go to school. Gideon was going to the university next year on a full scholarship. He still planned to work at his part-time job. I would be a senior next year and also work part-time. I had had a job since I was 14; so had Gideon. Hard work was nothing new to us. That wasn’t a problem. We were young. That was the problem. Nancy would still be checking in with us weekly, and we’d have a reoccurring court date to show our progress. We would be on probation if we got permission. Gideon would be my guardian. We’d be free of the system, sort of. I was still pacing when Gideon rushed out the door. I couldn’t read his expression. His dark brown hair that had been perfect when he went in an hour earlier was disheveled. I held my breath.
“Sorry, kid, we tried.” I looked away
. I was trying not to burst into tears.
“You’re going to have to unpack all those boxes back in your room. In our new apartment,” he said. I finally breathed.
“Are you saying?”
“Yes! Yes! We got it. I’m the boss of you. Ha-ha.” He began to laugh for real, not the teasing laugh. Before he finished, I was in his arms hugging him so tightly. His laughter was contagious. I laughed so hard. His brown eyes were dancing with delight, as were mine. No more foster care. No more wondering how long in “this house” or “that house.” Don’t get me wrong; we were lucky most of the time and got to stay with some real angels. We shared our life with some good people. But there were a few families that were awful. I’d never want to go back to that again.
“Now, before you get too excited, we will have a check-in from Nancy every month for the next five months, and every two months for the final six months. Then you’ll be eighteen, and we won’t have to answer to anyone but ourselves.”
“You’ll always have to answer to me. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.” Nancy came over to where we were hugging and embraced us both. “I’m so proud of both of you. Do you know how special you are?”
“Please tell me this is the last box!” Gideon slapped the box on top of my only two other boxes.
“Yes, Gid, it’s the last box. You act like there were a hundred boxes that weighed a hundred pounds.” I laughed and rolled my eyes.
“You mean there’re not a hundred boxes here?” I threw Mr. Bearingston at him. He, of course, caught it.
“Mr. Bearingston is not a ball; he is a bear who has feelings. He’s watched you grow up; I don’t think he appreciates being tossed like a rag doll.” With that, he handed him back to me and nudged my shoulder. I followed him into our living room. Our apartment was dinky to say the least. It wasn’t in the best area of town, just on the edge of our school district. The building was old. Our apartment was on the fourth floor, but really a floor above that. We liked it because it had roof access. After climbing four flights of stairs, we came to our apartment door. When we opened it, we immediately climbed another flight of stairs to our attic-feeling, living room-kitchen combo. The floors throughout the entire apartment were wood. They were old, scuffed, and worn. All the exterior walls were brick. The interior walls were plaster, painted a soft butter yellow color. The exterior wall that faced the roof, however, was a large sectioned window that had a glass door leading out to the roof. There was enough room here in front of the window, we had assumed, to put a table. We’d bought a long, skinny table. We found six wooden chairs that didn’t match. We decided that if we were going to buy used things, we would buy things with character. My bedroom door was in the corner off the living room; Gideon’s was off the corner in the kitchen. We shared an adjoining bathroom. My bedroom was small. Our foster parents had given each of us a full-size bed and a bed-in-a-bag comforter set. We bought a dresser and chest of drawer set with two end tables. I took the dresser and a table for my room, and Gideon took the chest of drawers and a table for his. Closet space was scarce. I guess it was a good thing that our clothes were too. This apartment was what we could afford. We knew we’d have to be careful for safety reasons. There was a buzzer system that made us feel better, but we couldn’t be careless. This was real, and we were on our own.
“So, what’s next?” I asked, surveying my disheveled room.
“Well, we have everything here. Now we just have to unpack,” Gideon smiled.
We’d been scouring thrift stores all day looking for furniture. We’d bought a couple of lounge lawn chairs first because we were excited to watch our first sunset on the roof. Nancy was our own guardian angel; she’d put together a care package laundry basket of cleaners, detergents, laundry bags, towels, extra sheets, and wash cloths. Everything we needed for a new skuzzy apartment to be spit shined. It really meant a lot to us that she’d contributed so much on her budget.
“Let’s get started then.” I stood there looking around. Our couch was faded and would need a good cleaning. The end tables and coffee table needed painting. We’d bought all the cleaners and paint we needed. The TV stand was the only thing that looked new—until you got close enough to see it had some water damage on the lower shelf. We bought all miss-matching dishes with the same color scheme. We looked for unique pieces too. We enjoyed thinking outside the box. Our silverware and glasses were mismatched also. We didn’t buy two items the same. Our cabinets in the kitchen were metal and painted a bright white color. We had a bar counter extending from the wall, dividing the room but still managing to give the appearance of a larger area. There were two bar stools for the counter that came with the apartment. The window above the sink overlooked the river north of downtown. You could see houses and neighborhoods that began to be more urbanized and better neighborhoods farther past the river. I liked our apartment. It fit where we were in our lives. Gideon had picked it out months ago. He had decided to rent it even if I didn’t get to move in with him immediately. He said he would have just gotten it ready for us after I turned eighteen. He’d been saving since we’d begun seriously discussing doing this with Nancy a year before. We were lucky to have the support of our foster parents, too. They brought out the best in us. They had even allowed Gideon to stay with them until a decision came from the judge.
“I got the kitchen. You get this mess of a living room,” Gideon smirked. “Gid, Mom and Dad would be proud of us, right?”
“Are you kidding? They are proud of us! I miss them, but I know they’re in heaven watching over us. And they are here with us.” He patted his heart. “That makes me happy. I know they are proud of us.”
“Yeah, I just wish they were here.”
“Me, too, kid.” He came around the couch and hugged me. I always felt small in his arms even though he was 5’9” and I was 5’5”. Being only eleven months apart, we were often mistaken for twins. But now he was taller and handsome. I had one picture of our parents. Gideon was looking more and more like our father in that picture. His brown eyes were always so expressive. He could look at you, and you could feel what he felt. He said I looked like our mom. I never saw it. She had brown eyes and long, straight brown hair. Actually, I guess I did look like her because my eyes were brown and I had long, straight brown hair. I had her curves too. She was beautiful; I never felt that I could ever comfortably say that I favor her in that area.
That afternoon as the sunset approached, we took our lawn chairs out to the roof top and watched the sun set over the city. It was a nice end to our busy first day of freedom.
It took us the rest of the weekend to put the apartment together—cleaning, painting, scrubbing, and sorting. I was glad when we were done. Gideon continued working at the fancy Italian restaurant where he was a waiter. He always made excellent tips. He had a knack for reading people and knowing how to serve them. His perception always allowed him to receive the best tips. I had already quit the greeting card store. It was four blocks from our old home, but it was too far from our new one downtown. I’d have to find something close. That was my mission for this week. We had a little over two months before school was out and Gideon was graduating. He was under a lot of pressure. He didn’t need a messy apartment or my joblessness looming on him.
Chapter 2
I woke up. The sun was peeking through the gap in my mini-blinds. It hit me right in my eye line. “Note to self, make curtains for my windows to keep out the ever-intrusive sun,” I thought out loud as I moved to put my pillow over my face.
“Note to self, get Ellie a check list so she’ll stop saying ‘note to self’.”
“Ha-ha, very funny.”
“Wow, I thought I was the sarcastic one,” Gideon laughed. I threw my pillow across the room at him standing in the doorway. I missed. “Come on, kid. We got a long walk, need to get a move on.”
“I’m up, I’m up.” Even though I wished I weren’t. I mustered enough willpower to go to the bathroom and take a shower.
I st
ood in my towel in our mint-green and black-and-white tiled bathroom in front of the mirror and wiped my hand across it. Like a flash, everything went black. I felt wind all around me. All I saw was black with a red slash, then a silver flash. I felt like there were ribbons wrapped around my hands and I was flying. And just as suddenly, swords flew into my hands. It was almost like I wanted them and they came to me. I landed on my feet, looking down. As I looked up straight ahead of me, I was staring into the half-steamy mirror, my hair flowing behind me as if it had been in a strong wind tunnel, damp, but softening back around my shoulders. I looked down at my hands. I could still feel the metal in my palms. My clenched fists were empty. My breath was heavy, like I’d just run a marathon. I felt ridiculous. I looked around just to make sure no one else was there. I quickly got dressed, dried the rest of my hair, and dabbed on some light tan eye shadow, mascara, blush, and strawberry lip balm. Everything then went under the sink except for the lip balm. That went in my jean pocket for later. I gave myself a once over. I wore a white knit, scooped-neck top with my form-fitting jeans. As I came out, Gideon was checking his shoulder bag. “Sorry I took so long.” I quickly put on my sneakers.