I Cannot Live Without Books

Here is another small section from my work-in-progress novella, 21 Minutes. I’m so happy you all liked the first part of my story! This chapter begins directly after the end of the last section.

Ashley

The steam from the shower rises around me as water washes me clean of my sweat. I hate morning volleyball practices. I keep my shower short, only two Shawn Mendes songs instead of my usual five. Then I turn off the water, shivering as I wrap my towel firmly around myself. I step out onto the yellow bath mat, avoiding the blue stain in the corner. My heart squeezes as I look at the stain.

“En garde!” I shout, holding my toothbrush out like a sword. My brother giggles, whips his Lightning McQueen toothbrush from his mouth, and turns to face me. Our toothbrushes clash as we battle. Toothpaste foams around his mouth and I laugh.
       Then, I whack his toothbrush out of his hands and it lands on the ground. More specifically, I it lands on the bath mat. He rushes to pick it up, but a sticky blue glob has stained the pale yellow. We look at each other, trying not to laugh.
       “Oops.” I say quietly, and that sets us both off. We laugh until our eyes water. Then, once we’ve both calmed down, we yell out a single word.
       “Moo-oooo-m!”

I change into my clothes quickly, eager to get downstairs and eat breakfast. Mom always makes something delicious on the weekends. As I comb my long, brown hair, I check my outfit in the mirror. I’m going mini golfing today with Hope and Thomas, my two best friends.

Hope’s freckled face swims in the mirror, her blue eyes flashing with excitement. “Thomas is finally gonna ask you out!” she shrieks. I close my eyes. That was over four months ago, and Thomas hasn’t made a single move.

All guys are idiots, but especially football players. I always warn my younger sister Natalie to stay away from the football players at Deep Creek High. They are nothing but trouble. Luckily for her, her crush plays basketball or baseball or something like that. Thomas on the other hand…

The crowd is cheering louder than ever, and the whole student section bouncing up and down like we’re on a trampoline. “Let’s GOOOO THOMAS!”I scream, cupping my hands together. It doesn’t matter; there’s no way he can hear me over the noise of the crowd. It’s 24-20 with less than a minute left. I have a particular investment in this game. Thomas said he’d take me to homecoming tomorrow if we win. He thinks we’d just be going as friends. He also thinks Fantasy Football is the greatest thing on the planet, so what does he know?
       The announcer rambles on in a foreign language, so I just watch the team intensely when…
       “TOUCHDOWN!” The one word I understand roars through the microphone as the bleaches shudder from the weight of jumping fans. I look over at Hope, both of us still screaming. She gives a smile bigger than the entire stadium and I hug her. This is going to be a good Homecoming.

 I sigh. Thomas ended up going with a group of football friends. They acted as a barricade around him, blocking anyone not cool enough from getting to him. I didn’t even get a chance to talk to him.

I give my hair and makeup one last glance, and then I open the door. Cold air hits me as I exit the sauna of a bathroom. I hear fast-paced news anchor talk floating up from the living room. My dad’s concerned voice calls out over the noise of the TV.

“Hey, honey? You should come see this.” I head down the staircase just outside the bathroom door. The whole house smells like Mom’s cooking, and after such a hard practice I’m starved.

I stop just at the bottom of the stairs and crane my neck to see the TV screen. I freeze. The words send a shock through my body, terrorizing my thoughts and stopping my heart. I sit on the step beneath my feet and stare blankly at the ceiling.

Just this morning I was at volleyball practice with my team, who are all my closest friends, running sprints and joking about stupid things. Less than an hour ago I was talking to my best friend about our plans to go mini golfing and whether this year would be the one that Thomas finally asked me out. Just this morning I was a normal teenager.

And now, the world is ending.

Earlier this school year, I wrote a novella entitled 21 Minutes. The novella is a fictional take on one family’s rush to escape impending nuclear war. The family has 21 minutes to get to their safe destination. This story is told from the alternating perspectives of the family’s three children. As the clock ticks down, the story alternates between the present and flashbacks. The family’s history slowly unravels as their time quickly evaporates.

This is a small section from the first chapter. It’s nowhere closed to being fully edited, but I thought I’d shared just a taste to see how it reads to some other brains. 🙂

Mom pulls the bacon from the stove and throws it onto a plate sitting on the counter. A stack of golden brown waffles balances unevenly next to it.

“Hey, honey? You should come see this.” My dad’s gruff voice calls out from the living room. Mom strides over to the door. I stay put for a second, staring at the pile of food. The clock on the microwave above the stove blinks furiously. It’s 8:54. Then, I hear my mother’s voice. “Oh, no.” she says softly. I jump up and walk swiftly into the living room.

Dad is watching ABC 7 News, his arms stretched across the scarlet red couch. The remote dangles from his left hand. His back is to me, but I can tell that he is watching the television in deep concentration. I walk to the left, around the end of the couch, and I collapse next to my dad. His strong arms pull me into a hug, and I can almost go back to sleep. Almost. Instead I turn to face the TV, and I read the bold headline scrolling along the bottom of the screen.

“NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR MISSLES HAVE BEEN SPOTTED. COULD LAUNCH AT ANY SECOND. DESTINATION UNKNOWN.”

I look in horror upon the flashing screen, not believing what I’m reading. The news anchors are babbling on furiously but my ears are ringing. I screw up my face in concentration and listen.
“Well of course we don’t know where they’re going or when they’re going to be launched but for now let’s assume that these nukes are headed for Washington, D.C.” a tall, dark-haired man with a chiseled face is talking loudly and moving his hands an awful lot. “It will take approximately forty one minutes for the missiles to reach the capital. Now we can’t say for sure what will happen, but we know that the whole city will be affected by the blast, and the wreckage and radiation may creep into Maryland and Virginia.”

The word Maryland stings me like a bee. McHenry, Maryland is on the western edge of the state, close to West Virginia. McHenry, Maryland is on the tip of Deep Creek Lake and home to the Wisp Ski Resort. McHenry, Maryland is my home. And now I may have to leave it.

“Could we get blown up?” Dylan asks from the other couch, as if he was asking what’s for lunch in the cafeteria.

Mom hesitates. She bites her nails nervously like she always does. Dylan and Ashley do it too, but not me. I’ve always hated nail biting. It grosses me out.

“Could we Mom?” echoes Ashley from the staircase behind Dylan. I jump. I didn’t even know she was down here. She looks much more awake than the last time I saw her.

“I don’t know babies.” Mom says slowly. “But maybe we shouldn’t stick around to find out.” She finishes, looking over at her husband. I turn to Dad, expecting him to freak out. But instead he nods solemnly and says, “We need to start packing.”

My jaw drops. This can’t be happening. As my dad jumps to his feet, I look at the grandfather clock hanging above the mantle to my left. It is 8:56.