She didn’t deny it. She wiped away her tears, but they were followed by more. “Shit Head,” she called him. “And he’s nosy, too,” she added. “But, at least with him, you know exactly what he wants to know when he asks you something. And you know how to answer him. But even he wouldn’t give up. He kept asking about…you know…who I am. He knows, Zach. Or at least he suspects. And that scares me. I don’t want anyone to know who I am…I don’t want the Army looking for me and Whoopsie…or you…”
“It’s okay. I understand,” Zach said cutting her off, again. “But now you’ve met them, and there are others hiding in these hills you have to meet. Some of them you’re going to like, some of them you won’t.
“But I want you to keep reading the books.” He was changing the subject, again. “We’ve got boxes full of them. Keep reading and we’ll talk tonight. In the meantime, I’ve got to get the greenhouse up before it gets dark.”
“I’m too tired to read.”
“Then lie down for a while.”
“No. The house needs cleaning.”
“You’re nesting. Will you lie down…”
“No!” she shouted defiantly and stopped in the middle of wiping off the table to glare at him. “I’m taking care of my family. Can’t you understand that?”
“Let me finish,” he said calmly. “Will you lie down when you finish this?”
“Yes. But you go out and finish assembling the damned greenhouse. There’s going to be another mouth to feed before you know it.”
“I love you, you know.”
“I know you do, and I love you,” she said angrily.
He approached her to kiss her.
“Not now,” she said. “I’m not in the mood.”
But he grabbed her wrists and pulled her toward himself and when she tried to pull away, he was too strong and he pulled her closer.
“Don’t!” she yelled.
But he wouldn’t stop. When he tried to kiss her, she turned her head. So he kissed her on her cheek. “You’re beautiful,” he whispered.
“Stop!” she insisted.
He kissed her temple. “I love you.”
“Don’t! I told you I’m not in the mood…” she screamed.
But she couldn’t get away from him and she was weakening as he entangled her heart with his warm words and strong arms and his kisses, just as he had done all winter, and she finally let herself fall into his arms. She let him kiss her lips.
“You just won’t give up, will you?” she whispered.
“I’ll never give up on you,” he said.
“I love you…Mister Shit Head,” she whispered.
He could feel the tension pour out of her as he held her, like air whooshing out of a balloon, and he held her in his arms for about a minute.
He whispered, “I live with a legend, you know? I live with the Danielle everyone’s talking about, from Seattle to San Diego and all the way back to Washington, D.C.”
“I don’t want to be a legend. I just want to be happy,” she whispered back.
“Let me make you happy,” he said.
He could feel her arms begin to tighten around him.
Suddenly she yelled, “Whoopsie! Stop!”
When Zach looked over his shoulder, Whoops was trying to drag the dog by his tail. She stopped and looked at Danielle for just a moment. Then she went back to pulling its tail. Stupid ignored her.
Danielle still held onto Zach. When her anger was completely drained out of her she whispered, “Do you like my pancakes?”
“I love them.”
“Are they heavy?”
“I’d tell you if they were.”
“You’re a liar.”
“I know, but they’re not heavy.”
“What do officious, obtrusive…and those other words you used mean?” she whispered.
“Nosy.”
“You could just have said that,” she said, but she kept her head against his chest so he couldn’t see her begin to smile. Then, after another few seconds, she whispered, “You said we all have faults…What are mine?”
“Oh, Danielle, don’t ask me that, now. It’s too late in the day. Ask me in the morning when I have all day to tell you.”
“What?” She pushed him away. “Get out of here and get some work done,” she yelled. She was trying not to smile again, but he knew she wasn’t angry anymore.
He put on his jacket and turning to Stupid he said, “Come on, big guy,” and, when the dog got up, he pulled Whoops, who still had a grip on his tail, so that she tumbled to the floor.
Man and dog went out the door, one with his permanent limp, the other with his dumb-ass, three-legged gait.
Danielle finally smiled at their backs as they left.
Δ Δ Δ
When she finished cleaning, she picked Whoops up and went to the window and watched Zach as he reinstalled more of the fiberglass paneling for the greenhouse.
They had tomatoes, squash, and potatoes to bring out there when he finished. Beans, too; he said they’d have to plant legumes to put nitrogen back into the soil. He explained the milpa gardening used by the Indians of Mesoamerica where many vegetables were planted together because they complemented each other the way plants in a natural ecosystem do. Planting beans with the corn would allow the beans to climb the corn stalks into the sunshine while, at the same time, the beans were fixing nitrogen into the soil the corn to grow. He told her to read the books and she’d understand. There was so much for her to learn. And there were more plants they had started in pots some two weeks before that would have to stay in the cabin longer, and still more they’d started from seeds just yesterday. Zach told her he liked to stagger his plantings.
She reflexively put her hand on her stomach when the baby kicked and she thought about her “other” family. In her imagination Mommy, Dad, and Robert were down in southern California, warm and enjoying life. She knew there were impossible odds against them having made it there, but this was the way she wanted to remember them. But she wasn’t going down there.
Watching Zach work on the greenhouse she realized this was her life, now. This was her family and this was what she wanted. She flinched and gasped when she saw a two-by-four he had just leaned against the framework suddenly fall and hit him on the head. But, when he merely pushed it back to where it had been standing, and went on with his job, she relaxed, again.
She left the window, took the 12-gauge, and put it back up over the front door. That was where she wanted it. The AR-15 was in the closet. Her sister was in her arms, her baby was in her tummy, her husband was rebuilding the greenhouse, the Model 60 was in her pocket. This was how she lived and no man or woman, no road pirate, not the Army, nor the ice age were going to take it away from her…ever.
Afterword
Danielle Kidnapped is the first novel in a trilogy that is set in the next glacial epoch of the ice age we currently live in. The next two titles will be Danielle Discovered, to be published in 2013, and Danielle Betrayed, which will be published in 2014.
When asked why a sixteen-year-old girl is the central character, my stock answer is that if I’d focused on a twenty-eight-year-old ex-Navy SEAL, you’d expect him to survive. So I chose someone you wouldn’t think could make it: A female with one foot still in her childhood and the other in womanhood. Then I imbued her with intelligence, determination, and a will to stay alive against all odds to see where those attributes might take her.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my daughter, Meaghan Silveira, aka “Monster,” and her best friend, Lynzi Johnson. If it hadn’t been for Meaghan, I’d never have met Lynzi, and if I hadn’t met Lynzi, I’d never have known what Danielle was capable of.
Acknowledgements
It’s hard to acknowledge all the people who helped me over the years to get this novel to where it is now. I know I’m going to leave some names out and all I can say is, I’m sorry, but I still appreciate your input.
Among those who helped me with
their invaluable suggestions and advice are Dave and Ilene Duffy, Dale Myers, Oliver Del Signore, Annie and Erik Tuttle, Laurie Peterson, Christine Mack, Lisa Nourse, Rhoda Denning, Casey Mutch, Holly Davee, Andy Davee, Brandy Mack, Denise Craig, Heather Shinskie, Jamie Yager, Al Boulley, Desirae Yager, Jeremy Livingston, Mark Hamilton, Mike Nakaki, David Mills, Fred Brennion, and Claire Wolfe.
I want to thank Sammy Duffy and his mother, Ilene, for getting this monster onto Kindle
Though she doesn’t realize it, Lacie Wise, by being Lacie, did, in a small way, help me round out who Danielle is.
I also want to thank Christine Mack for the cover idea and Al Boulley, Ilene Duffy, and Sammi Craig for bringing the cover to life with their computer skills. But I especially want to thank Jaime Yager for walking down that lonely road in the middle of nowhere, where the photo was taken, on two lousy days. Despite rain and hail, she insisted on doing it until I got a photo that was right for the cover.
About the Author
John Silveira lives in a haunted house on the southwestern coast of Oregon with a houseplant named Spaz. Besides writing, he whiles away his days photographing the local wildlife, playing poker and chess, drawing women, and cleaning his guns. You can view his photography at:
www.backwoodshome.com/blogs/WhereWeLive
John is also the Senior Editor of the self-reliance magazine, Backwoods Home Magazine.
Also by John Silveira
The Devil You Know (A novel)
The Coming American Dictatorship; Parts I – XI (Political essays)
Sex and Sins in the Cemetery (Poetry)
“Safety Not Guaranteed”
John also wrote the time travel ad that became an Internet meme and inspired the movie Safety Not Guaranteed.
Safety Not Guaranteed (official website)
IMDB listing for Safety Not Guaranteed
“The Time-Travel Ad” by John Silveira
Danielle Kidnapped
A Novel of Survival in the Coming Ice Age
John Silveira
This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents depicted are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, either living or dead, and any events or locales, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 by John Silviera
Cover page photograph copyright © 2012 by John Silveira
All rights reserved
Published by Riley Creek Books
No part of this book may be used, reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system in any manner by any means, known or unknown, without express written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
For information, please contact:
John Silveira
P.O. Box 1646
Gold Beach, OR 97444
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1 — August 24
Chapter 2 — August 25
Chapter 3 — August 26
Chapter 4 — August 26
Chapter 5 — August 26
Chapter 6 — August 27
Chapter 7 — August 27
Chapter 8 — August 27
Chapter 9 — August 28
Chapter 10 — August 28
Chapter 11 — August 28
Chapter 12 — August 29
Chapter 13 — August 29
Chapter 14 — August 29
Chapter 15 — August 29
Chapter 16 — August 30
Chapter 17 — August 30
Chapter 18 — August 30
Chapter 19 — August 31
Chapter 20 — August 31
Chapter 21 — August 31
Chapter 22 — September 1
Chapter 23 — September 1
Chapter 24 — September 2
Chapter 25 — September 2
Chapter 26 — September 2
Chapter 27 — September 2
Chapter 28 — September 2
Chapter 29 — September 2
Chapter 30 — September 3
Chapter 31 — September 4
Chapter 32 — September 4
Chapter 33 — September 4
Chapter 34 — September 4-5
Chapter 35 — September 5
Chapter 36 — September 5
Chapter 37 — September 5
Epilogue — April
Afterword
Dedication
Acknowledgements
About the Author
“Safety Not Guaranteed”
Cover
Copyright
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1 — August 24
Chapter 2 — August 25
Chapter 3 — August 26
Chapter 4 — August 26
Chapter 5 — August 26
Chapter 6 — August 27
Chapter 7 — August 27
Chapter 8 — August 27
Chapter 9 — August 28
Chapter 10 — August 28
Chapter 11 — August 28
Chapter 12 — August 29
Chapter 13 — August 29
Chapter 14 — August 29
Chapter 15 — August 29
Chapter 16 — August 30
Chapter 17 — August 30
Chapter 18 — August 30
Chapter 19 — August 31
Chapter 20 — August 31
Chapter 21 — August 31
Chapter 22 — September 1
Chapter 23 — September 1
Chapter 24 — September 2
Chapter 25 — September 2
Chapter 26 — September 2
Chapter 27 — September 2
Chapter 28 — September 2
Chapter 29 — September 2
Chapter 30 — September 3
Chapter 31 — September 4
Chapter 32 — September 4
Chapter 33 — September 4
Chapter 34 — September 4-5
Chapter 35 — September 5
Chapter 36 — September 5
Chapter 37 — September 5
Epilogue — April
Afterword
Dedication
Acknowledgements
About the Author
“Safety Not Guaranteed”
Cover
Copyright
Danielle Kidnapped: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Ice Age Page 40
