Lavender Mrs. Amazing and The Seed

1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5439-5631-3
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 178 Seiten

At a time when belief in anything out of the ordinary is not tolerated, Faye and Frank Faultsom are daring to be different. Determined to guide their four free-spirited children on a risky quest to enter the mysterious and mystical realm known only to them as Wonder, they attract the malicious attentions of the sinister Ms. Imperia Beasley, Director of the local Grown Up Factory, where helpless children are conformed to the Prescribed Order as their imaginations are crushed. When one of Faye's wacky schemes to help her kids discover Wonder precipitates a predicament that threatens to tear their family apart, a bold act of belief catapults the Faultsoms into a bizarre and often comical world in which they experience a strange and overwhelming Life Force. Just when they begin to understand its compelling beauty and power, the family learns they must return home to face a heartbreaking crisis - a crisis that may result in their teenage daughter losing Wonder forever.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lavender, Julie

Leseproben

Little six-year-old constance faultsom curled up in her daddy’s lap and asked to hear the story once more. “Dada, tell me again how you and mama met and why ya liked ’er? Didn’tcha think she was kinda silly at first?” Frank, a bit taken aback, chuckled. “Well, yes, your Mama has always been pretty unique but that’s what makes her so special.” “Tell me again ’bout the funny things she always wored.” “Ok, yes, your mom wore these puffy deals that she tucked into her…ah…blouses. They were kind of like what football players wear under their uniforms to make their shoulders so big and bulky.” “Boulder Pads?” Connie tried to name them. “No, sweetie. Shoulder pads. Everybody wore them back then. People thought they were pretty stylish, but now that I think about it, I guess they did make your mama look a bit funny.” Constance giggled and begged Frank to continue. “Daddy, tell me the whole stowy ’n’ tell it the wight way…” Franklin Farnsworth Faultsom, with his thick dark hair, mustache, and tortoise-shell glasses, crowned by a set of thoughtfully expressive eyebrows, had a flare for formality. A student of ancient civilizations, he always told the tale of his and Faye’s courtship as though he were narrating an impressive piece of world history. Even though most of it was beyond her comprehension, little Constance loved to hear the sound of his big descriptive words. Even when she didn’t know what they all meant, she somehow understood them because her daddy had a way of telling this particular story that his little girl adored. “Ah huummm…” Clearing his throat to set the stage, he would thus begin. “Young twenty-something, buttoned-down Franklin Farnsworthy Faultsom, who sported wingtip shoes and bulky cable-knit sweaters, with spiffy bold patterns on them, was amused and intrigued by the offbeat and breezy personality of Miss Faye Andoria Green. He first encountered her at a local plant nursery one fine April morning as she selected flower varieties. He found her quirky way of talking to the seeds as she chose them to be more than a little charming. “Although he could have had his pick of the maidens from his upper-crust circles, he found this mod-bohemian nymph quite captivating, and he pursued the redhead with her shoulder pads, wild curls, bangles, and irrepressible idealism. “It wasn’t long before Frank and Faye realized that they both saw things, odd little things — often out of the corners of their eyes. They would sometimes sense that something other was whispering to them through a portal that hung open in the air. At times it was as if a breeze had blown in from another room…no, from another realm. “And they both knew things; things one doesn’t know with just the mind alone, but things that lit them up on the inside, as if someone had let fireflies loose in their stomachs. They knew there was another dimension. More than that, they both sensed that something or someone from there was beckoning them to enter. “But alas, few in their world believed in true Mystery anymore, and it was very much analyzed and “pooh-poohed,” as if belief in the miraculous was some sort of intellectual or psychological deficiency. It was fashionable only to think in terms of the concrete and the ‘prove-able.’ Rational minds simply denied the existence of nonmaterial realities, attributing them to chemical reactions in the brains of those who reported them.” “Some people, however, did feel the absence of true mystery in their daily existences and sought to conjure up fantastical worlds to enter, as they peered into the dark depths of their own cogitations and those of would-be mediums and mystics. These diversions pacified many. But when Faye and Frank compared these phenomena to their own encounters, they found them to be the stuff of sideshows, magic tricks — or worse. Some people embraced the substance of a chilling, gray reality that sought to snuff out the firefly glow of any true marvels. Sometimes it seemed as though Frank and Faye were the last people on earth who actually saw the authentic miracles hidden in the invisible. “When they first met, the couple spoke tentatively of these things although, as she felt Frank’s reassuring gaze and quiet confirmations pave the way, Faye would often jump into the deep end of things before she could stop herself. It wasn’t long before they were comparing notes about their experiences and it was with great relief and delight that Faye would exclaim: “Oh! I thought it was just me! You’ve felt that? You’ve seen it, too?” So began their rather odd courtship. And then one day, they both found their way to some distant place together, and when they did, they knew they had also found each other.” “Did he kiss her then, Daddy? Were you, was he tewwibly womantic?…” Constance would interrupt. “Why, of course, he was and is…tewwibly womantic. And yes, I…er…he kissed her and told her he couldn’t live without her, for they shared special secrets — intriguing things that they both knew no one else seemed to understand.” “So he mawwied her!” Constance would squeal with delight, Frank nodding as she prodded him to continue. “Daddy, tell me about the special seecwets now! What stuff happened to them?” “Well, lots of strange things happened to them. Things that seemed like invitations to a party in another world. And they called that world Wonder, because there just wasn’t another word for it.” At this point Frank would do his best to explain to his daughter what he himself found quite perplexing and utterly inexplicable. To his relief, little Constance was often nodding off at this point in the story, just as her daddy started to dither around in his attempt to describe what he and Faye had experienced. Once Constance was dozing soundly, Frank would often sit with his daughter cradled in his arms, thinking about what was at stake. Even though there was much that he himself didn’t totally comprehend, he knew Wonder was worth fighting for. Considering this, his heart would swell with tenderness as he thought back to the moment with Faye that had forever set his course. As young sweethearts Faye and Frank had been walking hand-in-hand late one fall day as the soft glow of the evening sky ignited briefly with the sun’s last wink before it slid below the horizon. A chilly breeze caused them both to shudder. Faye was chattering with excitement about her latest precarious pursuit of exploration. A consuming desire for Wonder filled her soul. She was running headlong into the unknown without hesitation. “It was like I was in two places at once, all day! It was so weird and yet so normal. I couldn’t figure out which place seemed more real, and I can’t shake the feeling that this whole thing is so much bigger than we are. And…Franky, you are the only person I’ve ever met who understands. No one else seems to get it at all. I just can’t make myself fit in and I don’t want to.” Now a breeze of uncertainty chilled Frank’s heart. She was such a handful, this Faye Green. So passionate and willing to go out on a limb. He knew that a life with her would be far from ordinary and would surely upset the apple cart of any predictability. He let go of her hand. Although he, too, felt a calling from somewhere beyond himself, sometimes Faye scared him. Frank had always had a clear and conventional life mapped out before him. Success was just around the corner if he stayed on track. But Faye was anything but conventional, and she had this way of always drawing him into unchartered waters. A life with her would never allow him to fit the mold he had always been expected to fill. Where were they really heading? Thinking that he’d better distance himself from the fetching redhead with whom he was so smitten, Frank turned to look at her. He was just about to put the brakes on things with Faye, when he was suddenly overcome with a feeling of destiny, as times, spaces, and faces flashed before his mind’s eye. A welcoming pandemonium unfolded in which there were voices of children shouting, singing a very odd song, and giggling wildly. He felt himself whooshed upward, and then sliding straight down. He was experiencing a panorama of weird sounds and smells, of reverberating music, dancing lights, and a bizarre, fuzzy yellowness. Feelings he couldn’t name overtook him. It all happened so swiftly that he wasn’t able to process these impressions, but he felt Faye there in each and every layer of sensation as he stood looking into her verdant green eyes. Then it all quickly vanished. A few moments later he heard himself speak. “We are intended to be together. There is so much more to discover, and we have to find it together.” This came as a revelation to him from his own lips. “Franklin Farnsworth Faultsom, are you proposing?” Faye blurted out as her verdant...