Tempest Relief Prologue (standard:drama, 1371 words) [1/4] show all parts
Author: Ari Walker	Updated: May 09 2002	Views/Reads: 3793/2334	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
sorry, this comes before chapter one. but i just wrote it last night, so... :)

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

Edith leaned against her counter, and looked Jade Anabella Louise
Spencer up and down. The girl was just past five feet tall, and 
slender. She had just a hint of curves showing through her worn out 
Aerosmith T-shirt and holes in both knees of her jeans. Her baseball 
cap was pulled low over her eyes, but her shoulder length hair was 
loose, the color of caramel, wild and curly. Her lips were full and 
serious, her chin stubborn, her nose short and straight. Edith had a 
feeling that if she peered closer, she'd see freckles beneath a pair of 
wide set, apple green eyes, and a dimple in her left cheek. 

The girl was almost identical to Callie. 

"How old are you, Jade Anabella Louise Spencer?" Edith asked, her face
expressionless. 

"I turned twelve in February, Mrs. Edith," Jade answered, her head
tilting to the side. Her stomach rumbled and she lowered her lashes, 
embarrassed. 

"Edith's how I introduced myself, Edith is what you should call me,"
Edith straightened up and made her way to the Deli. 

"Thank you, Mrs.... Edith. You can just call me Jade." 

Edith laughed, opening the deli case with it's matching containers of
mayonnaise, mustard, tomatoes, pickles, olives, lettuce, peppers, 
sprouts and onions. She leaned down and pulled out a sourdough roll. 

"Waddya like on your sandwiches?" 

"Oh... nothing. I mean, I'm not hungry," Jade blushed as her stomach
rumbled again. 

"Sure..." Edith shook her head and sliced the roll open. "Why don't you
just tell me what you like and then we'll get to your missing person 
problem." 

Jade looked down at the ground, and then over her shoulder, her gaze
following a young couple as they crossed the highway to the beach. 

"Mustard, tomatoes, Swiss cheese and salami," Jade said quickly. She
wasn't sure how she'd pay for it, but maybe once she found her father, 
he'd pay for it. 

Edith hummed to herself as she made the sandwich, her eyes watching
Jade. Jade was trying not to stare at the sandwich. And failing 
miserably. 

"Go on and sit yourself down," Edith pointed to the tables and chairs on
the far side of her store with her chin as she held the sandwich firmly 
and sliced it in half. Jade nodded and picked her duffel bag up. 

"Here you go," Edith said a moment later, placing a plate with a huge
sandwich, a slice of orange, and a pile of chips in front of Jade. 
Jade's eyes widened. Never had she seen such a big sandwich. 

"Small town sandwiches are big, aren't they?" Edith laughed. "What's
your preference, Coke or Pepsi?" 

"Pepsi, please," Jade answered, picking up half the sandwich and
wondering how to get her mouth over it. 

"Just start at a corner and work your way through it," Edith grinned,
bringing a glass of ice and a can of Pepsi over. 

Jade smiled and nodded, then opened her mouth wide and bit into the
sandwich. Mustard and tomato juice squirted out the sides and down her 
chin, but she was so hungry she didn't care. 

"Wonderful," she managed, when she finished chewing and paused to pour
her Pepsi. Her eyes stared in wonder at the glass of ice and Pepsi. 

"It looks so pretty," said softly. "I've never had soda but in a can,
except for at McDonalds last Thanksgiving, where they serve it in paper 
cups." She turned red the moment she said it and concentrated on her 
sandwich again. 

Edith sat down across from the girl and leaned back, her arms crossed
beneath her breasts. She liked the girl, and she had a real bad feeling 
about whoever she was looking for. When Jade sat back with a sigh, 
looking like she'd burst if she had a another bite, Edith leaned 
forward, her elbows leaning on the glass table. 

"So tell me, young'un, who you looking for?" 

"My father," Jade answered, her eyes peering at Edith hopefully. "His
name is Koby Ayala, and I know he lives here. A girl I know from school 
came down here on vacation last summer and said there was a man named 
that who lived here. Do you know him? Could he possibly be my father?" 

Edith chewed on her lip and thought about what she should say. 

Sure, there was a Koby Ayala who lived here. And Edith was damn sure it
was Jade's father. The kid looked too much like his oldest daughter, 
Callie. Edith would have loved telling this lonely, lost little girl 
who her father was. 

But Koby was the biggest bastard Edith had ever met. He didn't give a
fig about anybody but himself, and Edith had a feeling he'd end up 
hurting this little girl more than she had already been hurt. 

"Ah, honey," Edith said softly, carefully. "I am so sorry to be the one
to tell you this. Koby Ayala died last summer." 

The look on Jade's face would forever be imprinted in Edith's mind. 

Copyright 2001 by Ari Walker 


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