Obligations

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Obligations - book excerpt

Chapter 1

Janet stood at the bottom of the stairs and looked up for the fifth and she hoped final time.

“C’mon Vic. We’re going to be late. Aren’t you done yet?”

The last thing Janet wanted was to be late. She really loved her mother-in-law, but Della had two commandments, and she expected them to be followed. Thou shall not be late, and thou shall dress for dinner. Janet didn’t plan on letting Vic break either one.

Victor’s head of dark blonde hair appeared over the stairs’ wooden rail. His brown eyes looked innocently into his wife’s blue ones. He could definitely see fire there. Still, he smiled easily. Janet frowned, how could he look so damn calm? When she was slowly becoming a nervous wreck?

“It’s okay honey, she’s just my mother. It’s not like we have a dinner appointment with the President. Just give me one more minute.”

Janet would rather be late for the President. Her mother-in-law was a great person, possibly too great. Janet knew it was jealousy behind her anxious feelings. She always felt inadequate next to Della. The woman was a wonder.

When Della’s husband died, she took over the running of his construction company. Victor had been her partner and helper, but Della was the brains behind the flourishing company. In fact, she had been even when Pete Amberson was alive. After he died she had just stepped in and taken over. Della did everything that way, with such confidence and composure. No matter what time you dropped by at her office or her home, she was prepared with coffee and some kind of dessert. Her house and her person were always immaculate. The biggest problem was that Della wasn’t smug about her perfection; in fact, she was just the opposite. She was the most down to earth person Janet knew. She was good and friendly to all. Janet always felt a step behind her. Maybe that’s why she felt they should be dressed and on time now.

Janet shook her head. Her usual mess of light brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She hardly ever bothered much with her hair, the shoulder length mass usually hung loose. At least it looked half-way neat pulled back.

The sound of a bouncing basketball pushed her thoughts away and she hurried to the backdoor through the kitchen. Victor had put up a hoop above the garage door for both him and Josh. Once in a while they even got Janet to join in a game. She looked out at her son.

“Joshua Amberson, you put that ball up right now.”

Josh turned to see his mother standing on the back steps. He sheepishly rolled the ball on to the grass, than ran his fingers through his light brown hair. It was almost light enough to be blonde. It was also in its usual state of disarray.

He couldn’t seem to train it to look neat, and he had a habit of running a hand through it when he was nervous. Now, at the wonderful age of 18, he didn’t really care. His messy look was nothing compared to some of the styles. And for some reason, the girls seemed to like that messed-up look. Josh smiled and his face lit up, another thing the girls found attractive. Josh didn’t realize that yet though; he was still pretty shy with girls, and he was kept pretty busy finishing up his senior year.

All his finals were coming up the week after. Josh was looking forward to no school, even if it was only just for the summer. He hadn’t decided if he would be heading straight to college or taking some time off and working for a while. He was glad for the part time pay checks he’d been receiving and was kind of looking forward to seeing his bank account grow when he went on full time. Aside from studying and working, all his spare time went into sports and video games. He enjoyed playing and watching. Josh walked over to where he had rolled the basketball, picked it up, and carried it over to the garage door.

Josh walked over to his mom. “Is dad ready yet? I’m really getting bored out here waiting.”

Janet opened the door wider. “C’mon, maybe between the two of us we can get him moving.”

They went into the house and walked together to the stairway. Janet was just getting ready to yell again when Vic appeared at the top of the stairs. Janet smiled with relief.

“At last, let’s get moving.”

The three headed out. Vic stopped to lock up the doors. Their small town had very few crimes, but a few years ago a freeway had been put up. The exit ramp was only about a half mile away. The freeway had also insured that a lot of people lost their businesses. Ashton never really had much in the way of businesses, but now people were in too much of a hurry to stop anyway. It seemed only the drifters and troublemakers had time to stop now. So, better safe than sorry.

Vic climbed in behind the steering wheel. Josh was already in the backseat, video game in hand. Janet in the passenger seat was nervously wringing her hands.

Vic smiled at her. “C’mon honey, it’s only 20 miles.” Vic glanced at his watch. “We’ve still got an hour. We’ll get there in plenty of time. Not much traffic between here and Norville. Get your seatbelts on everyone.”

Janet smiled and relaxed a little as she pulled the belt on and clicked it. Vic was right. The road was just a small two lane, most people preferred the newer, faster four lane freeway. Not too many headed for Norville anyway. It was bigger than Ashton, but not by much.

Janet sat back to enjoy the ride. Vic turned on the radio and started off. The ride was a scenic one, especially on a May afternoon. They headed east out of Ashton. The road was lined on both sides with big trees fat with green leaves. Janet had just started to enjoy the trip when she felt the car slow down. Curious, she turned her head from the side window, where she’d been enjoying the scenery, to the front. A farm tractor in front of them filled most of the road. She looked at the speedometer; they had dropped to twenty miles an hour. Just great.

“Can you get around him, Vic?”

Vic tried in vain to see around the tractor, but it was definitely taking up more than its share of the road. A few farmers still tried to make a living in the area and drove their equipment on the back road. Any one in a hurry usually took the bigger freeway. Vic looked over at his wife, knowing she was getting nervous about being late, although for the life of him he couldn’t understand why.

“Hang on, I’ll just try and see around it.” Vic gave the car a little gas and pulled to the left of the tractor. As soon as he did he knew he was in trouble. “Oh shit.”

Janet glanced nervously at her husband, from her position she couldn’t tell what he had seen, but from the sound of his voice, she knew it wasn’t good. Josh, behind his Dad, also looked up. He had a better view. He could see the semi that was coming toward them. Josh was trying to brace himself for what he knew was coming.

Vic quickly let up on the gas. He was hoping to drop back into his own lane. For some reason the farm truck slowed down in front of them and then stopped, blocking their path. Vic reached down to shift into reverse. He heard the gears grind as he tried unsuccessfully to get the car into gear. Vic held in the clutch and tried again.

This time the gearshift glided in easily. Vic let out the clutch, looking up at the same time.

“Oh my God.” Vic heard Janet’s scream, but didn’t have time to comfort his wife. The big grill of the semi filled the front window before it hit the small car. The force of the collision crushed the car’s front end. The metal against metal screeched loudly in the otherwise quiet morning.

Janet screamed as her legs were crushed by the dash as it was pushed in to her. The pain was excruciating but Janet had no way to get away from it. Vic didn’t even have time to scream as the steering column drove into him, the impact collapsing his lungs. Janet swore she could hear the air blow out of them. She couldn’t stop screaming. The car was now being pushed backward.

The semi driver hit his brakes and the truck began to jackknife in the road. The long trailer it was hauling turned sideways, blocking the road. The farm tractor too, was caught up in the semi’s momentum. The three vehicles slid down the road, screeching metal and the smell of hot brakes. The vehicles were moving closer to the trees with each passing second. The semi was slowing, but not fast enough. The farm tractor slid off to the right as it broke loose from the semi, rolling as it went off the road’s shoulder.

Janet watched it go, as if in slow motion. She turned to the backseat, where her only son sat alone.

“Josh, hang on baby, hang on.”

Josh tried nodding at his mom so she would know he had heard her. He tried to answer her, but felt like he couldn’t get enough air. His Dad’s seat had pushed against his legs, pinning them so he couldn’t move either one. He grabbed the headrest in front of him, trying to find a way to hold on.

Josh looked over at his mother. Her eyes were wide with terror. It took Josh a few seconds, which felt like hours, to realize she wasn’t actually looking at him. Instead her eyes were focused on the rear window.

Josh turned his head, trying to look behind him. Out the side window he could see that they were off the road now. The tree trunks blurred as the car flew past.

Josh heard his mom scream again. Suddenly he felt himself being flung forward as the semi pushed the car into a large oak. The tree had stood in that spot for perhaps a hundred years. Its branches spread and dropped. Its huge roots had sunk deeply and sturdily into the ground. The tree had finally put a stop to the momentum that had carried the vehicles. The car, already small, was compacted even further. For Janet and Josh, the world with its beautiful, sunlit, May sky began to go black.

Chapter 2

Josh never knew it could be so dark. He could remember camping out plenty of times, but there had been stars then. He’d hid in a dark closet once when he was a kid and it had been pretty damn dark, plenty scary too. But what he was experiencing now was a completely different type of darkness.

Josh was sitting, his arms wrapped around his bent knees. He lifted one shaky hand to his face. When he couldn’t see it, he quickly put it back, holding on to himself even tighter. Josh felt like he was moving, but he didn’t know on what. He closed his eyes against the blackness that surrounded him. Suddenly he felt warm and tired, like the times when he’d fallen asleep outside on a hot summer day, when the sun’s rays seemed to reach down and soak up your energy. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling. It felt…comfortable...

Josh opened his eyes again, but they felt so heavy he closed them again; besides, the darkness was still there and he couldn’t see anyway. Josh felt himself drifting off; he was so tired. Once again he lifted his heavy eyelids, and that was when he saw the light. It was just ahead of him. It made the place he was in now look like a tunnel. At first he thought he might want to reach out to the side of him and feel for tunnel walls, but he quickly changed his mind, afraid what else he might find out there. It was still dark and he’d watched too many science fiction shows. Josh just knew if he reached out into that blackness something slimy would grasp his hand. Instead, Josh stretched a hand tenaciously forward. He felt compelled to try and touch thelight. It was so white. Not like the light of a lamp or the sun. It seemed bright, but it didn’t hurt to look at.

Josh carefully stood up, his legs were shaky, but he was pretty sure they’d hold him. It was an odd feeling to stand and not know just on what he was standing. Josh just knew that somehow he’d be okay if he could just focus on that light. He gingerly took an awkward step toward it. As he did, the light suddenly shifted. It wasn’t in front of him anymore. Instead, it seemed to be around him, encompassing him. He looked down at his legs, then his feet, and suddenly he realized there was no pain. That wasn’t right. He remembered the pain when the car seat had been driven into him. What was going on, where was he?

Josh found himself standing on grass. It was so green, so perfect, that he thought it couldn’t possibly be real. He could see each individual blade, almost like he had a built in magnifying glass in his head. Josh knelt down— he had to touch it, just to see if it was real. He slowly reached out one hand, sliding it across the surface. Josh had never felt anything so soft. He ran his hand back and forth deeper through the silkiness. He couldn’t stop smiling with wonder at what he was seeing and feeling. He had never felt so happy before, so peaceful. Josh looked ahead of him now that he was out of that total darkness. It had been so sudden like going straight from night to day.

He saw a stone pathway had been laid. Each stone was a different color in the grass. The way they were laid out the colors just seemed to fit together, to blend. Josh walked to the path.

He stepped upon the first stone. He knew the stone had to be hard, some kind of rock, but it felt cushiony beneath his shoes. He almost felt like taking off his shoes to be able to feel it better.

Josh walked ahead and cameto a small bridge. It was only three or four feet across to the other side, and it archedover a shimmering stream. Josh looked down into the water. It was about three feet to the bottom. The water was so clear he could see each rock that lay in the stream bed’s depth. Josh knew if he wanted to, he’d be able to count each one. He was pretty sure if he knelt down and drank from the stream it would be cool and sweet.

He stepped now onto the small bridge, grabbing the handrail as he did so. The surface felt funny under Josh’s hand. He looked closer at the railing. Something was carved into the whole length of its surface. It looked to Josh like those ancient hieroglyphics he’d seen in pictures from old Egyptian ruins—like those in the pyramids. Josh ran a finger slowly over the carvings. As he did so, he felt a slight vibration beneath his fingertips. The tingling felt almost like when your hand had fallen asleep and was waking back up. Josh smiled in awe as he held up his fingers and stared at them. He was surprised that they didn’t look any different. He didn’t know what the writings said, or even if they did say anything, but the feeling he got from them was something he had never felt before and one that he couldn’t easily put a name to.

“Josh buddy, c’mon. Hurry up will ya?”

Josh looked up; sure he must be hearing things. When he did, what he saw made him grab the railing so tightly he was sure it would break under the pressure. Josh stared ahead of him, his mouth hanging open. It took a minute for him to finally find his voice.

“Grandpa Pete?” Josh shook his head. “Is it really you?”

Pete Amberson smiled, waved, and then held out his arms. Josh flew into them. He held thewonderful man in a tight hug. He hadn’t seen his Grandpa Pete in five years. That was when his grandpa had passed away. He really missed his grandpa; the two of them had always spent lots of time together.

Two days before his grandpa had died; he’d taken a much younger Josh fishing. The memory flashed through Josh’s mind.

The two of them had sat on a creek bank. They had the sun shining down on them, that peaceful afternoon.

“You got a bite there, buddy.”

Josh had grabbed the fishing pole higher in his small hands and began reeling, just like Grandpa Pete had shown him to do. He could feel the pull against his line. His hands were getting tired, but he could hear his grandpa’s words of encouragement. His grandpa’s head had leaned down next to his own, whispering into his ear.

“You got him buddy, keep on reeling.”

Josh did and pulled in a beautiful rainbow trout. His first catch of the day. It was a toss-up as to who was prouder of that fish, him or his Grandpa Pete. Everyone in Josh’s family had always stood behind him in anything he tried, but it was always Grandpa Pete who had given him the most encouragement. He’d always been free with his praise and his love.

Now here he was wrapped up in Grandpa Pete’s big arms. Josh grinned from ear to ear. He’d really missed his grandpa and all their special times together. His grandpa pulled out of the hug first. He looked down at Josh.

“Well now buddy. Let me take a good look at you.”

Josh stood back and looked into his grandpa’s blue eyes, so like his own. Pete smiled broadly.

“You must have grown over a foot, Josh buddy.”

His grandpa had always called him buddy. Josh nodded and then cocked his head to one side.

“Well, it has been five years grandpa.”

Pete rubbed his chin with his hand, a thoughtful expression on his face.

“Has it now? Time’s a little different here. I can’t really explain it.”

Josh looked puzzled. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know where here was. The place was beautiful and he had never felt so happy and comfortable before, but he was only 18. His grandpa put an arm around his shoulders.

“C’mon buddy, let’s go sit a minute, should we?”

Josh went with his grandfather. In a few seconds they found themselves in front of an enormous shade tree. Pete sat down, leaning against the trunk. He patted the space beside him. Josh sat down next to him. His grandpa pulled up a blade of grass and stuck it between his teeth. Josh had seen him do that same thing hundreds of times. Pete took a deep breath and then sighed.

“I know this is all a bit overwhelming for you to take in.” His Grandpa patted him on the shoulder. “Now don’t you worry buddy, things are going to work out.”

His grandpa then put his hand under Josh’s chin, turning him so they faced each other.

“I’m going to have to leave you in a minute; I have some other things to take care of. But don’t worry, someone else will be here. This other work I have to do, it doesn’t involve you right now. You just need to wait here.”

Pete’s big hand tousled Josh’s hair. “I sure did miss you buddy.”

Josh swallowed, trying to get the lump out of his throat. “Same here grandpa.”

Pete nodded and hugged Josh again before standing. He stretched his 6 foot 2 frame. Josh had forgotten how tall his grandpa was…had been. Josh moved to stand up, but Pete stopped him.

“You just stay there buddy, and don’t worry. Like I said, someone else needs to talk to you. Now, I got a job to do. Obligations, you know, we all got them. You take care buddy.”

Before Josh could think of what to say, his grandpa was a half a field away. Josh could see him waving, but couldn’t hear his words.