Chapter 2 ~ The Silver Tree

The Beginning and Ending of Summer Vacation

Charity Evans tapped her fingers on her desk waiting anxiously for the final bell to ring. After a long day of classes it was almost time for summer break to begin. The sun?s rays through the closed blinds were only teasing reminders of the beautiful day outside. The anticipation made every second unbelievably difficult.

Hot, humid air filled the classroom, but none of the students paid any attention to the heat. They stared blankly at the clock on the wall, squirming uncontrollably in their seats, as it moved so slowly it was almost like it was going backwards.

Tick

The sound echoed through their heads.

Tick

Each second dragged on.

Tick

The sound of the teacher?s voice was drowned by the ticking of the clock as only a few seconds remained. Every eye watched as the hand moved in slow motion.

Finally, the last bell rang.

"I hope you have a fun and productive summer," the teacher called out to her rapidly emptying classroom.

Charity jumped from her desk so quickly she knocked her chair to the ground. She flew into the hallway as all the students ran from their classrooms with the force of a hurricane. Lockers opened quickly and slammed shut adding to the cacophony in the hallway. Papers flew around as the lockers emptied for the last time that school year.

The hallway was a maze of clutter which had to be navigated carefully. She made it to the double doors and paused momentarily on the other side. The summer air filled her lungs and she smiled happily. She turned to have one last look at the school which she attended for the last four years.

James K. Polk Middle School was a small one story building. There were only about five hundred students in the school. The walls were a dark red brick which was worn in many places. The roof was so old that when it rained water sometimes leaked into the building. Other than its many flaws it was a good school. After giving a little farewell wave she walked almost skipping down the sidewalk.

The school was in the center of a large neighborhood filled with cookie cutter houses. They were all so similar it made it hard to navigate the streets if you were unfamiliar with the area. Charity maneuvered through them expertly as she had done many times before.

She walked up to a quaint two-story house at the end of the street. It had a white picket fence which surrounded a well-manicured green lawn. The house was painted bright white with dark blue shutters. A large tree sat in the middle of the front yard giving plenty of shade from the sun. A multitude of colorful flowers lined the sidewalk creating a bright and beautiful border for the yard. She took a deep breath in and let it out slowly soaking in her first few moments of summer freedom.

She walked up the stairs and onto the large wraparound porch. A white porch swing swung back and forth as she set her bag down to look for her keys. They had traveled to the bottom of her bag underneath the stack of notebooks. When she finally found them, she put the key in the lock to find the door was already unlocked.

Charity paused. The door was never left open. Panicking she moved quickly backwards almost falling down the stairs. She ran to the sidewalk before noticing the car parked in the driveway. It was the red Volvo which belonged to her mother sitting there. She laughed at herself for not noticing it in the first place.

The door's hinges squeaked as she pushed it open. She entered the small foyer placing the mail and her keys on the small table near the door. The inside had beautiful hardwood floors in all the rooms which could be seen from the foyer. Only half of the staircase was visible before it took a ninety-degree turn.

On one side of the house was a mostly unused living room. The large white couch and matching chairs were only used when company came over so most of the time the room remained empty. The family room on the opposite side was obviously used often. It wasn't because the room was messy, it just had all the subtle hints of a well-loved room. There were many magazines laid out across the small wooden coffee table. The soft brown couch had misplaced cushions and pillows. The TV cabinet was open revealing the large screen behind the doors. She could only think of a few occasions when those doors had been shut.

A small gold package sat in the center of the table wrapped with a large red bow. It had no name attached and her birthday wasn?t for a couple of days. Her feet moved slowly across the room, but as soon as a hand hit the smooth paper her mother called from the kitchen.

"Charity, is that you?"

"Yeah."

She threw her backpack onto the floor with a loud bang. Pens and pencils slid from an open pocket quickly across the floor. She made her way back to the kitchen to say hello to her mother.

The kitchen was in the back of the house facing the fenced-in backyard. The bright yellow paint made the room cheery and inviting. The sound of her mother?s heels clicking on the tile floor echoed throughout the room. The room smelled of homemade cookies, and the makings of dinner simmering in the crock pot. Charity grabbed a warm cookie from the tray. She smiled as the chocolate melted right onto her hand.

"Hey, Mom," she said. "I didn?t know you were going to be home so early."

"I took a half day so I could be here when you got home. I wanted you to have a special treat for graduating middle school," her mother said as she gave her daughter a big hug, and planted a wet kiss on her forehead.

Mrs. Evans was a petite woman with a kindly smile and the same jet black hair as her daughter that she wore pulled back in a tight bun.

"How was your last day?"

"Pointless," Charity said. "We didn't do anything but watch movies, sit around, and talk. I don?t know why I even had to go to school today. I would have learned just as much watching tv here."

"I don't think anybody would have been paying attention if they tried to teach anyway. All that matters now is it's over, and you have three months of no school ahead of you," her mother said.

"I have been looking forward to that all day long," she gathered a few more cookies into a napkin. "I'm going to go to my room now."

"Okay, honey, you have fun and I will call you when it is time for dinner."

Charity walked up the stairs to her room at the end of the hall. Her name was printed in a flowing script on a sign attached to the door. A wooden sign above the door had the words disaster area printed on it letting anyone know what to expect inside. She grabbed the knob and used her body weight to open the door just enough to walk into the room.

Her room was as neat as could be expected for a teenage girl. Clothes were thrown all over the floor. The closet was filled with empty hangers and piles of shoes. The hamper in the corner was hidden beneath a pile of clothes, but oddly there was nothing inside. It was hard to tell which items were clean or dirty. Random books were stacked in every corner of the room. The bed was unkempt in the far corner with piles of stuffed animals thrown all over the top. It was hard to see any room for someone to sleep.

The dresser was covered with little knick knacks, and a jewelry box. The chains from some of the necklaces could be seen hanging over the sides. The mirror frame was filled with pictures of her friends, and notes to remind her of things she needed to do. She noticed her mother had placed a note among the many other ones. It said "clean your room" in bold black lettering. She laughed and looked around at the mess. She tore the note from the mirror and threw it in the direction she thought the waste basket was in.

A small wooden desk sat against the wall across from the bed. Paper covered every inch of it including the computer. Pencils were spread across the top, and many had fallen on the floor underneath. Charity went over to the desk dragging her feet to make a path in all the chaos. She threw some of the papers to the floor just so she could find the elusive mouse. She began to regret the wireless mouse she had recently gotten when she moved everything and still it was no where to be found.

She knelt on the floor and reached into the small space between the desk and the floor. Her arm stretched as far as it would go feeling around for what she wanted. Suddenly she felt something squishy and furry. Charity pulled out her hand quickly. She tried to see what she had just touched, but it was too dark. She pulled the lamp down to face the beam underneath the desk. She looked through the crack again and saw the edge of what she thought was a plate. Being more careful than last time she reached slowly back grabbing the edge of the plate.

"Eww gross!" She screamed when she finally pulled the plate from its hiding spot.  "Maybe I do need to clean my room!"

She was unsure what it had been, but she knew now it was a bright green fungus. She placed the plate on her dresser making a mental note to take it downstairs when she went to dinner. Now she needed to resume her search for the mouse. The second attempt was much more successful when she pulled the little gray object from behind the desk.

The computer screen lit up, and she began to play her favorite game. The sound of the game was muted, but the furious key punching could be heard across the room. The little character on the screen jumped and ran quickly through the levels. It dodged the traps and fought against enemies with one push of a button. She sat in her room for a few hours basking in the eerie glow of the screen before she heard her mother call her down to dinner.

"Charity, please come down and set the table," her mother yelled from the bottom of the stairs.

"Okay, I'll be down in a minute," she said not looking away from the screen for even a second. Five minutes later she still sat completely engrossed in her game.

"Charity! I thought I asked you to come downstairs," her mother said from the doorway.

"I will in a minute. Just let me finish this level."

"Now young lady."

"But..."

"No buts. Shut the game off, and go set the table."

"Fine," Charity grumbled as she saved her game.

The large table in the center of the dining room was more than enough space for three people. It was covered with a beautiful white table cloth made of lace. Each place had a mat of bright green with a small rose design around the edges. The chandelier above the table sparkled as the light bounced off the crystals. The Van Gogh print on the wall added to the elegance of the room.

Charity went to grab the dishes from the kitchen until she noticed her mother had already placed them on the table for her. They were not the normal ones that they used every day, but the good ones that they only used for special occasions. They were white china with blue flower designs. The silverware had a large cursive E on the top of the handle. They had been gifts from her grandmother on her parents wedding day.

"Is someone coming over tonight?"

"No," her mother said. "Why do you ask?"

"These are the good plates. I thought they were only used during Christmas."

"I thought we would celebrate the end of another school year. You only graduate from middle school once. Besides they never get used."

The smile on her mother's face made Charity suspicious. She couldn?t place what was actually wrong with the picture, but she knew her mother was up to something. She shrugged her shoulders. Maybe her mom wasn't planning anything. It was just her imagination.

Her mother began to bring the food to the table just as Charity finished setting the last of the dishes in place. There was a large bowl of spaghetti with meat balls, and a basket of warm garlic bread. The smell made her stomach growl. She grabbed a warm slice of bed. The butter dripped down the palm of her hand. The strange feeling something wasn?t right started creeping up on her again as she grabbed a napkin from the table. This was her favorite meal including the angel hair pasta, and large homemade meatballs. She hoped whatever her mother planned it wasn?t going to be too bad.

Her father walked through the door from the garage, and placed his keys on the counter top. He picked up a cookie from the tray in the kitchen, but her mother managed to catch him before it was eaten.

"You can have a cookie after dinner not before," Mrs. Evans scolded him. "Sometimes you are just a big child."

"And I always will be," he said as he gave his wife a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.

He placed the cookie back on the tray, and went to the dining room to say hello to Charity. After a big hug they sat down to enjoy the wonderful dinner in front of them.

"So, last day of middle school. How does it feel to finally be a high school freshman?" He asked.

"I don?t feel any different. I think once school starts again it will be. I don?t want to think about it now. I am ready for a lazy summer."

"Do you have any big plans?" Her mom asked.

"No," she mumbled with a big chunk of food in her mouth. Once she could talk again, she finished her answer. "My friend, Ashleigh asked if I wanted to go to the beach with her and her family. I think that would be fun."

The trip was much more important to her than she let on to her parents. She hoped that by mentioning it so casually they would be more inclined to let her go. Ashleigh would be leaving in a couple of weeks so Charity believed she would have enough time to get them to say yes.

"I am not sure if I want you hanging out with that girl," her mother said.

"She's my friend!"

"We can discuss this later. Right now I want to have a nice dinner with my girls," her father said hoping the subject would be quickly changed.

Charity and her mother looked at each other. The silent air was thick.

"Are there any camps you want to go to?" Her dad asked trying to get the conversation started again. "You used to love camp."

"I am too old to go to camp, Dad," she said.

"I will keep my eyes open for anything you might be interested in. I hate to think you are going to sit around for a whole three months," he said as he winked in the direction of her mom.

"You can do whatever you want."

Something was really wrong with this Charity thought to herself. Her parents never tried to pressure her do anything, and now they both wore big goofy grins across their faces. She could only wonder what kind of horror would come next. Dinner ended without an incident. She asked to be excused and took her plate into the kitchen. She looked out the small window above the kitchen sink, and watched the hammock blowing in the summer breeze. Her mind drifted happily as she imagined herself lying peacefully in the sun.

Charity wandered to the living room where her father sat watching some show on television. It wasn't her kind of show, but it didn't really matter. She grabbed a book from her bag so she would have something to read when the show became too boring for her to watch. Her father on the other hand watched intently wanting to know what was going to happen next.

Soon her mother came into the room carrying a tray of cookies, and three large glasses of milk. They sat in silence enjoying a nice, peaceful evening. The only sound in the room came from the television.

After the show finished everyone was throughly relaxed. Charity's head began to drop, and her eyes began to shut. She would have fallen asleep if her father had not spoken.

"This is for you. Happy graduation," he said as he handed her the gold box she had been eyeing all evening.

"What is it?" Charity asked excitedly. She shook the box hoping to figure out what was inside. Only a rustling sound came from inside giving her no clue to the contents of the box.

"Just open it."

She stared at the box with its shiny gold paper and large silver bow. Her parents sat in the room watching her intently. They both had large, goofy grins as they waited breathlessly. Charity knew from the looks they gave her that she really didn't want to know what was in the box. All she could do was sit and stare at the beautifully wrapped present as it sat in her lap.

"Well, aren't you going to open it?" Her father said. She could see the suspense was killing him.

"I am just letting the moment soak in."

Charity knew she had stalled as long as she could, and slowly pulled off the wrapping paper. She held onto the plain box hidden inside as though it was a bomb, and opening it would cause the end of civilization as she knew it. Unfortunately, she didn?t realize how right she was.

"It's a box," she said with a small sheepish grin.

"Look inside the box," her mother replied.

The box was small and light it looked almost like a shoe box. Charity slowly raised the lid and peered inside. The box contained a guide book to England. It was not what she had expected to see. It was just a book. Nothing to be scared of. She pulled out the book and began to flip through the pages looking at the pictures.

"Thank you," she said to her parents. She was still a little confused by why they were so excited by a book.

"There's more," Mr. Evans said gesturing to the box.

She looked down and saw a folded sheet of paper remaining at the bottom of the box. She slowly opened the paper to see a plane ticket for a flight scheduled to leave the next day.

"We are going to Europe!" Charity said excitedly as she jumped out of her chair knocking the box and her new book to the ground.

"You are going," her mother said. "We are saying here."

"I am going alone?" She asked anxiously.

"Your grandmother is going to meet you at the airport, and you are going to stay with her for the summer."

"My grandmother? I thought she lived in Wyoming?"

"Your other grandmother. My mother," her father said. "I think the last time she saw you was when you were three. You probably don't remember her. She had written me a few months ago asking if you would like to visit. I thought it would be a great idea."

"So, what do you think?" Her mother said still smiling.

The only thing that came out of Charity's mouth was a high-pitched squeak.

"She is so excited she is speechless," her father said.

"This is really short notice.  Why didn't you ask me if this is something I would want to do?" She asked when she regained her ability to talk.

"We wanted it to be a surprise," her mother said lovingly.

"It is definitely a surprise. What if I had made plans. Maybe I would have preferred to go to the beach with my friends, but now you want me to spend it in England with some old woman I have never met," Charity began to raise her voice.

This was not the reaction that her parents had hoped for. They wanted her to be as excited to go as they were about sending her.

"Don't get angry at us. That "old woman" is your grandmother, and it is about time you got to know her. You sounded so excited when you first found out."

"It is different with you going. I don't want to be shipped off to a far away country where I don't know anyone. I would rather spend my entire summer doing nothing here. Not across an ocean learning how to knit a sweater!" She knew what she was saying sounded horrible, but she just couldn't help it.

"That is not the right attitude, Charity. You can learn a lot from her, and you aren?t giving it a chance. I am so disappointed in you," her mother said.

"It's too bad you feel that way because you are going to go anyway. We are going to drop you off at the airport tomorrow even if you are kicking and screaming like a two-year-old. So you should go upstairs now, and get everything packed," her father said.

"Fine, whatever," Charity said as she stormed out of the room.

She knew there was nothing else she could say or do to change their minds. She also knew she was being silly and childish. So, she stomped her way up the stairs and slammed the door to her room knocking some of the photos off the wall on the ground.

No wonder they were so excited. They were getting rid of me for almost three months, Charity thought.

The plane was leaving the next morning, and she wouldn't be flying home until one week before school started again.

"AHH! Why are my parents torturing me like this? What did I ever do to them? Sending me away without any warning. There should be laws against this. I didn?t even get enough time to complain properly," she screamed to the stuffed bear smiling at her from the foot of her bed.

Her mother had already been in her room, and placed two large suitcases and a small carry-on bag next to her bed. Her mother had also made a list of some things her daughter would need. Charity kicked one of the suitcases knocking it to the ground with a loud thud. The sound of the paper tearing in her fingers as she tore the list in half gave her little gratification.

She knew throwing a fit would not solve the problem, but maybe her parents would come to their senses, and see how miserable this was going to make her. After calming down she went around her room and picked up a few items she knew she would need.  It was impossible to find anything in the mess. When she finally finished, she laid down on her bed and fell into a restless sleep.

All night long her dreams were haunted by images of the tortures her summer would now bring her. She knew she was being over dramatic, but it didn?t stop her mind from imagining the worst.

She dreamt she was in a house with crocheted blankets covering every piece of furniture. An old woman sat in the corner knitting in the dark, stuffy room. She squinted but could not see the woman's face. The woman suddenly looked up at Charity her flame red eyes staring right through her. Then the house was gone and Charity found herself in the cockpit of an airplane flying toward a dark mass of storm clouds. The old woman was also gone, but Charity had an awful feeling that someone or something was standing in the shadows behind her. She turned to see the old woman's flame colored eyes glowing in the darkness.

The plane started to plummet, but she felt no motion. The entire experience was more like a movie than actually being there. She looked around for the pilot, or anyone who could help her, but no one was there. The only thing she could do was watch the plane spiral down. She began to panic screaming for help as the plane continued to drop. Tears were streaming down her face as she looked away from the ocean quickly approaching below her. Then there was only darkness. In the distance a dark, sinister laugh echoed combined with the loud alarm coming from the control panel.

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