Champions of Serenity :Gathering the Circle

Chapter Nine

“Jamie, trust me, this is something that you have to do. Your parents will continue to stifle you if you don’t.” Debra juggled the phone as she finished cutting up the fresh tomatoes for the salad. She could hear what Jamie was going to say even before the words were out of her mouth.

“You’re a fine one to talk, Deb. When are you going to move out? And are you going to finish your degree or just waste your life doing minimum wage jobs for the rest of forever?”

“Jamie, this is completely different. You have been offered the chance of a lifetime. It isn’t every day someone is offered a full ride scholarship to Oxford. I know, you will have to do a double major in sciences and drama, but you can do it, Jame. You have the brains and the talent. As for me, I just interviewed for a job over in Coeur d’Alene. If all goes well, I’ll be moving to my own place over there after Em’s summer visit.”

“What about your degree, Deb? Don’t tell me you don’t have the brains or the talent, I won’t believe you. It’s been three years now and the AA from the local college isn’t going to cut it.”

Debra finished the salad and set it on the table. She drained the pasta, mixed in a little butter and set that on the table as well. The sauce was already in the warming pan and the rolls had only a minute until they came from the oven.

“Dinner is ready.” Debra called to her family. As Connie came charging in from her room, Debra took the rolls out and put them in a cloth covered basket and set it on the table. “Look, Jamie, I have to go now. Em will be here tomorrow and she’s bringing her best friend and cousin along. Why don’t we finish talking about this after they leave? But, Jamie, I’m serious, if you don’t take that scholarship, it’s going to haunt you the rest of your life.”

“Are Jared and Grant coming again this summer, Debra?” Connie asked as she shoveled spaghetti into her mouth. Ever since those two had come for a visit, Connie had dreamed about one of them asking her out.

“No, Con. Jared is doing a summer project in Manhattan and Grant is with his parents this summer.” Deb looked at the table and the dinner she had made. Her parents had joined them and were enjoying it in their normal silence. Connie was digging into it like there was no tomorrow. Debra glanced down at herself and then at the table again and then at Connie. “I’m not hungry anymore. I’ll clean up the kitchen in an hour or so. I’m going out for a walk.”

The sick feeling in Debra’s stomach threatened to overwhelm her as she grabbed her jacket and took off down the road. A couple of the neighborhood dogs barked at her passage and she waved to a few of the kids playing in their yards. She never really had a plan for her life and now that Jamie had won that scholarship, it made Debra that much more depressed. All her friends seemed to know exactly what they wanted; she had even encouraged them to some degree. Hell, Darin and Mike were already in business for themselves programming computer games and they had just graduated from High School not long ago. It just seemed that there was something more out there for her, but it was never the right time for it.

She found herself at the fence overlooking the new riding stable. The family had just moved there from Colorado and set up a riding school and stable. So far, it seemed to be doing well. Draping her arms over the top rail, Debra watched as the man, Mister Carlyle, was teaching a teenager how to guide the horse without reins.

With a deep sigh, she turned away and started back toward her home. This was going to be the first time Debra would meet Karen and Mike, even though she had heard a great deal about them. From what Darin was saying, Karen didn’t want to come but Em had threatened her. Mike had been begging to come for a while, but each time something had come up and he couldn’t make it. Debra really didn’t know if she was happy or not that Darin and Em were coming for a visit.

Early the next morning, the phone rang in her room and she dug around to find it. Then Connie came in and threw the portable phone at Debra, almost hitting her in the head. Before picking it up and answering, Debra counted to ten at Connie’s rudeness.

“Hello?” She blushed at the soft voice that came over the line. Last night, she wasn’t sure she wanted to see him again, but now that he was here and she had heard his voice, she couldn’t wait.

“What’s a beautiful woman like you doing asleep on a day like this? Em made me promise not to call you last night when we got to town. So I got up early to call you this morning. Would you like to go and get breakfast before the others get up?”

“I would love it, Darin. I’ll be ready in ten minutes. I’ve missed you.” She wouldn’t have believed all those years ago when they first met that she and Darin would be dating. But ever since that second summer visit, they had both known there was something special between them.

He greeted her with a kiss and a huge bear hug. “My little dreamer, how I’ve missed you.” He then moved out of the way and she saw a strange man sitting in the car, leaning out of the back window. “I’m sorry; I wasn’t able to sneak away fast enough. Mike tagged along. I hope you don’t mind.”

“No, it’s okay, Darin. I know how annoying family can be.” Debra climbed into the car and let Darin close the door for her. She turned to look at Mike and grinned at him. She could almost see Jamie’s reaction to his curly hair and impish smile. “Hello, Mike. It’s good to finally meet you. How’s your latest and greatest coming along?”

Mike talked the whole way to the restaurant about the new game he and Darin were working on. It gave Darin a chance to watch Debra as she was half turned in her seat to give Mike her attention. He knew something was wrong, but couldn’t put a finger on what exactly it was. He hoped that by the end of the week, he would know.

After breakfast, they stopped to get Jamie before going to pick up Emily and Karen at the hotel. It was a classic meeting between Jamie and Mike. Mike wanted to dismiss Jamie as a kid and Jamie wasn’t having anything to do with that. It actually went better than Debra thought it would. Jamie didn’t try to kill him for condescending to her.

Meeting Karen was another matter altogether. She didn’t want to be there and she didn’t want to meet Debra and she made that clear. It seemed to Debra that Karen was jealous of the attention Debra received from both Darin and Emily. Nothing Debra did helped ease the tension with Karen and it really hurt Emily that her two friends wouldn’t get along.

Shægnek rubbed her chin thoughtfully. The assassin wasn’t supposed to be so difficult to deal with. And why was the wisdom having such a hard time understanding why the assassin was troubled. She wished that the Heart was there, he would know what to do and say.

The oil paint was drying just a little too fast for her tastes right now. The image was too complex to rush and yet the paint was demanding it be finished now. Shægnek looked around for another influence and found Chaos lurking, watching her work.

“Well?”

“No, Chaos. I can’t tell you anymore. You have to figure it out yourself. And I do wish that you wouldn’t interrupt me when I’m trying to finish a project. You never know what can happen if I make a mistake.”

“I didn’t mean to disturb you, my dear sister.” Chaos began in a tone that made Shægnek want to throw something in his face. “But I just heard something that you might be interested in. It’s something one of the children of Perlish is doing now. If I could just direct your attention…”

“I don’t know why she’s being that way, Debra. She normally isn’t so demanding and spoiled. I’m really sorry. This was a mistake.” The two were sitting in Debra’s room again, a window mounted air-conditioner cooling the summer heat.

Karen had sensed the friendship between Emily and Debra and she didn’t like it. It wasn’t like the other girls back home, who all understood that no one came between Emily and herself. Debra didn’t seem to care that Karen had a prior claim on Emily and went out of her way to give special attention to Emily. Karen did not like that, even if she was pleasantly surprised that Debra was nice to her as well. If Emily just wouldn’t show so much preference for Debra then Karen might actually be able to return some of friendliness.

“It’s okay, Em. We can’t always have what we want. It probably wouldn’t help if you knew I thought Karen was a great person even if she is putting on a snob act. Maybe one day, Karen and I will get over this stage and can be friends as well.”

Emily looked out of the window and down into the lawn. Karen was sitting with Connie, looking at the latest issue of some fashion magazine. Mike, Darin, Jamie, and Eric were having a lively discussion about something that required a lot of arm waving and shouting.

“Maybe it’s just as well we are leaving in the morning.”

Debra looked over at Em a moment. She, too, was watching those below them. Something hadn’t been right all week. From the way no one seemed to be able to get along, to the way an aura of depression had settled on everyone.

“Let’s hope that next year’s visit will be better, Em. Maybe this was just the wrong time of year for it. I know how busy you all are with new jobs and such. I don’t know, maybe it was just that we needed Jared and Grant here to make it more of a group. Who knows? But I do know this, Em, I’m going to miss you when you leave and I do wish you the best of luck in your new classes this year.”

“Emily, come on, we are leaving, right now!” Darin’s voice was angry as he called to his sister. He would call Debra later and apologize, but right now, he couldn’t take another minute of Eric, Connie, Karen, Mike, and Jamie. This had been the worst summer vacation he had ever had.

By the time Shægnek went back to the painting, it was done. But it wasn’t how it was supposed to be. Everything was disjointed and messed up. When she looked, the group was even worse than the painting. Chaos! It was all his fault.

The longer she looked at it, the more she became convinced it wasn’t Chaos, but his minion who had done this. The darkness was too deep and threatening to have come from Chaos. The menace was almost palpable. For a moment, the goddess was afraid of the picture. She would have to work on it, somehow make it not so bad.