Deer Falls, Volume 1
Autumn hates her mother and the poverty they live in. She is ashamed of both but her hate defines her. If only her mother would tell her about her father or at least his name! When Autumn’s mother needs surgery, she opts to care for her rather than go to a foster home. It is during this time she finds her mother’s journals and her father. This reversal of mother/daughter roles renders insight to both sides of their relationship. Chris’s twin brother is murdered. He battles grief and doubts of his own sanity due to seeing and hearing his dead brother. He struggles with the transition from ‘Chris n Craig’ to ‘Just Chris’. It is the nightmares that finally reveal the awful truth. Ian is brutally abused by his alcoholic father. He develops empathic tendencies from being constantly alert to his father’s moods. He stays in a cave when things get really bad. Ian’s ability gets him into trouble with the law when he rescues a girl from being raped. It is then that Ian fears he is turning into his father. These three teens each find their way through unavoidable circumstances that life throws their way. Through these difficulties, they learn what is important to them, realize their own potential and who they are in the world.
Autumn hates her mother and the poverty they live in. She is ashamed of both but her hate defines her. If only her mother would tell her about her father or at least his name! When Autumn’s mother needs surgery, she opts to care for her rather than go to a foster home. It is during this time she finds her mother’s journals and her father. This reversal of mother/daughter roles renders insight to both sides of their relationship.
Chris’s twin brother is murdered. He battles grief and doubts of his own sanity due to seeing and hearing his dead brother. He struggles with the transition from ‘Chris n Craig’ to ‘Just Chris’. It is the nightmares that finally reveal the awful truth.
Ian is brutally abused by his alcoholic father. He develops empathic tendencies from being constantly alert to his father’s moods. He stays in a cave when things get really bad. Ian’s ability gets him into trouble with the law when he rescues a girl from being raped. It is then that Ian fears he is turning into his father.
These three teens each find their way through unavoidable circumstances that life throws their way. Through these difficulties, they learn what is important to them, realize their own potential and who they are in the world.
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<strong>Deer</strong> <strong>Falls</strong><br />
The kids at school love gossip. I hug Pandy to my chest. Dear Diary, will I ever be kissed? Other<br />
than by Danny White in first grade?<br />
Mom is scheduled for surgery tomorrow. She has to be at the hospital by 6:00 a.m., which<br />
only leaves us the afternoon to prepare and put our plan in place. We go to the library and read<br />
up on endometriosis, which is what Mom has. We find out what a hysterectomy entails and what<br />
the recovery will be like. We can do it, but Mom will have a lot of pain for a while and will need a<br />
lot of help the first week, but gradually she'll be able to do more. She should be back to work in<br />
five weeks. She says four. We'll see.<br />
The school will mail my assignments, and I'll slide them under the door after hours. Mom told<br />
them that she would be the one dropping them off, but her work schedule conflicted with school<br />
hours, so she would do it after hours.<br />
The food budget is skimpy. After paying full rent and working out payment plans for<br />
everything else, we're left with $60 for food and anything else for two months. Mom refused to<br />
pay partial rent. She said that the landlord is not a business, and not getting the full rent or not<br />
warning him about no rent next month would be a hardship on him, and that isn't the right way<br />
to treat a person.<br />
Mom wrote a note to the Community Food Bank explaining she was sick. She's leaving her<br />
I.D. to verify her signature on the note, so with my student I.D. from last year to show we're both<br />
Rileys, I should be able to get help from them.<br />
I lay quietly, going over our plan, trying to see if we've missed anything. We've covered Mom's<br />
job at the Food Mart, the hospital, Doctor Jacob's office, my school, my friend Jen, the landlord,<br />
the electric company, the phone company, the caseworker at the welfare office, and the food bank.<br />
I can't think of anyone else.<br />
I realize that the amazing part of all our planning isn't the story or solutions we've come up<br />
with, but that in just a matter of hours, Mom and I have come to know each other as comrades<br />
instead of enemies. I think she respects me. I think I like her. This is huge for us, Mom and me.<br />
My eyes open to Pandy staring at me. I toss him aside and look at the window. It's dark outside.<br />
My stomach lets out a growl, and I roll off the bed and stagger to the kitchen.<br />
Mom has made spaghetti. A lot of spaghetti! She's filled the huge pot; the biggest one we own!<br />
I lift the lid, and my stomach reminds me again that I've only had one bite of sandwich all day. I<br />
laugh at the absurd amount of food,<br />
"Yeah, that should fill me. What are you gonna eat?"<br />
Mom grins. "Well, I figured that if you're going to play cook for the next few weeks, I'd freeze<br />
some for later. Help my odds of survival, you know."<br />
"Really. So that's how it is? Where's the trust? The love?"<br />
Mom grins and points at the pot of spaghetti.<br />
"Hmm," I say as I set out plates.<br />
Mom pulls garlic bread from the oven and tosses the it on a plate.<br />
I tease, "Ya know, it's a good thing your care won't require sponge baths because I'm thinking<br />
right about now, you would be in a world of hurt."<br />
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