Window in the Earth Trilogy

by Fish, Matthew

“Have you ever seen the ocean?” Alex asks, as he remembers back to a moment in his life that his family took a vacation east all the way to California.

  “I’ve never left Missouri,” Kate replies.

  “Would you like to?”

  “I would,” Kate answers. At this point, after all that she has been through, she is ready to go anywhere, just as long as she can be with Alex. She trusts in him, and in their future.

  “When I was a kid and my father was still around, we took Route 66. Well, as most of it as we could, all the way down to California. We saw so many beautiful things… unique places… canyons…. There is this place past Texas right into New Mexico, where the ground just slopes down thousands of feet and the desert lies stretched out before you. You can see for hundreds of miles… it has always stuck with me. Then, the desert, especially at night, it’s beautiful. It feels lonely, quiet. Yet, it is unlike anything else. Next we hit California, rolling hills of gold fields that turned to farmland and mountains. Then finally, the ocean, so beautiful that you have to see it,” Alex says, his mind mostly in memories of the past.

  “Sounds perfect,” Kate replies as she squeezes Alex’s hand into hers. The open road lies before them, full of new possibilities. “If it is even half as wonderful as you say it is, then that is where I want to be.”

  The destination has been decided. Their journey begins.

  Daniel Wolfe

  Daniel, now back at home, is resting on the couch at Lavender’s apartment. They have only been back for about a week. Daniel has moved out of his cramped dorm room, saying a fond farewell to Hen, who said he would miss Daniel, but also noted that he was envious as hell, as Daniel was going to be “getting ass” every night, especially with the broken arm—“Girls love wounded guys,” he claimed.

  It is midday. A warm breeze blows in from the open window, causing the curtains to flutter. Daniel looks up from his notebook, looking to the brick walls of the apartment. Lined along the wall are three photographs, hung in elaborate wooden frames and matted in white textured paper. The first is of Jack Olen and William Walker, the two standing arm-in-arm, smiling. Below that photograph is the picture of the wolf and fox sleeping together beneath the ash tree. Finally, at the bottom of the three, are Jack and the mysterious woman dressed in white that embraces him, kissing him on the cheek. Daniel smiles as he stares at the photograph for a moment longer. He returns to his notebook, writing a short poem, a small token for Jack.

  For Jack

  By Daniel Wolfe

  Perhaps, the two of us are like raindrops. Falling on separate continents, each, on our own journey to reach the sea. I do not know if I am in the fall, or among the fallen. Yet, I fear what point is there to love and success, when none of it lasts? When the connections that bind us can be swept away so easily, not like steel, yet instead as a child’s brittle chain of daisies left in the summer heat as a strong wind approaches. I find no comfort in the world when people say that we have only one life to live, for I fear failing most of all. However, through all the bad times and good times that lie ahead, I know that you will be with me—just as you said you would. Someday we’ll meet again, Jacky. Until then, I will do my best. I promise. I will confront my fears about life and continue on for you, and for Lavender. I wish you would have gotten a chance to meet her, just as I wish I had a chance to meet that lady of yours. Yet, I hope… no, I know the time will come when all of us raindrops finally reach the sea and we will all be together once more.

  ***

  A Window in the Earth: Revisted

  By Matthew Fish

  Copyright 2012

  All Rights Reserved

  From the Author: The Reluctant Sequel

  First, let me state that this book is a direct sequel to A Window in the Earth, and that A Window in the Darkness (while related) is not necessary reading—as it is more of a darker side-story. I call this book a “reluctant sequel” because I never had any plans on revisiting the same characters or world again. For me, the story was wrapped up in a way that I never planned for a return. However, while looking through some of my old files I found the first chapter of the original version of A Window in the Earth (at the time named Christopher’s Room) and saw that it was started in 2002. Realizing that it had been ten years since I began my very first novel, I realized that the idea of returning to Pine Hollow was not necessarily a bad idea. I decided that I should somehow commemorate the passage of time at least in some small way. This story, which I had intended to be a full length novel, is the byproduct of an idea that after ten years, it would be nice to go back without any expectations and just see what comes out of the woodwork. It is not exactly the story that I expected, or perhaps wanted—but, life in general is often a lot like that. With that in mind, I hope that you enjoy and are not disappointed with this little return trip to Pine Hollow, Missouri. Thanks so very much for reading.

  Sincerely,

  Matthew Fish

  ***

  It had been many years since Christopher Janes stopped sending letters addressed to the old cave at Pine Hallow. He never meant to let this lapse of time occur. However, as he grew older—life, in turn, became so much busier. Christopher worked a ‘9 to 5’ job at a large banking company where he pulled in a decent salary to support his family. He was not as present with them as he had hoped he would be; in a bad economy he had to make the most of what he had—and be thankful for it. His wife Kylie worked part time during the night as a pastry chef at a small café, during the week they would see each other shortly in the morning or either very late at night. Despite the absences their lives made them endure, he never lost any love he felt for her. Perhaps, that is why her sudden death was so hard on him.

  It was the beginning of spring of 2012 when Kylie Janes died unexpectedly of a brain aneurysm. She was working a shift on a cool Thursday evening. A co-worker noticed her staring off past the window to the darkened streets as cars passed by. He asked her if everything was alright. Kylie simply whispered, “There is so much light.” After that, she collapsed to the ground. By the time she reached the hospital, she was pronounced dead on arrival. There was no explanation for why it happened. No symptoms. She simply fell to the ground and died without warning and as suddenly as one could possibly imagine.

  Christopher was at home with their daughter Alena when he received the phone call. Alena was ten, nearly eleven years old. She was a tall and wiry girl for her age and had inherited her mother’s dark hair and light, sparkling, blue eyes. As Christopher dropped the cell phone down to the floor, it shot apart into pieces.

  “Dad… What’s wrong?” Alena asked.

  Christopher had no answer for her. As he attempted to pick up the pieces of his phone, hands trembling, and piece them together like a maddening puzzle, Alena rushed over and attempted to help. As Alena handed him the battery cover he broke down into tears and held onto her tightly.

  Eventually he was able to form the correct words to express the loss that they had both sustained. He did not have all of the answers for Alena’s questions. Hell, he didn’t even have all the answers to his own questions. Alena was old enough and smart for her age to understand the concept of death. She just did not understand why it had to be her mother. The year before Alena asked why everyone was celebrating the death of Osama Bin Laden on the news. To her, she could not understand why death was something to be celebrated in any form. Christopher told her that he was an evil man and that people were celebrating his passing because he could not hurt people anymore. It was this memory of hers that would lead her to ask her father a very painful question: “What did mom do to deserve to die?”

  Christopher tried his best to console his daughter and promise her that Kylie had done nothing wrong. The concept that good people just died without reason or that life could just disappear so quickly was especially devastating to Alena. She could not understand why the just die equally to the evil. It seemed unfair and Christopher agreed.

  By the first of June Christ
opher and Alena had seen their mother buried into the earth almost a month earlier. They attempted to keep some semblance of a normal life in their house in Bloomington Illinois. However Christopher was finding it harder and harder to find a reason to continue work. He often felt disconnected with his job and would space out during phone conversations. As much as his manager said that he “understood” what Christopher was going through, Christopher was becoming more and more lost. What was worse was that Christopher felt that he could not properly be a father to Alena alone. Kylie was much more in charge of things regarding Alena, their connection was something that Christopher felt he could never have with her. Often they would eat meals without speaking a word. They no longer ate at the kitchen table; instead, the drone of evening television was all that filled the air in the broken Janes household. Alena, on summer break from school, was growing into a depression. Christopher could no longer take the events that were unfolding before him. He had lost too much. He had lost his hope, his love, and he felt that he was losing his daughter to the darkness as well.

  On the 5th of June Christopher returned from work early. He pulled his red Mazda hatchback into the garage and made his way into the house. He was first greeted by Alice, a sixteen year old girl that lived next door and watched Alena while Christopher was at work.

  “You’re home early today,” Alice said as she gestured to Alena who sat on the couch and mindlessly watched a cartoon on the TV. “She’s been pretty quiet, as normal… She ate alright at lunch so that was good.”

  “Thank you Alice,” Christopher said as he smiled and handed the girl about a little over hundred dollars in cash.

  “This is too much,” Alice said as she hesitatingly pushed the money back into Christopher’s hand.

  “We’re going away for a while,” Christopher said as he placed the wad back into Alice’s hand and closed his hand over hers. “This is a small way of me saying thank you for helping with Alena.”

  “She’s been through lots,” Alice said as she looked saddened. “I just wanted to be helpful.”

  “You’ve been wonderful,” Christopher said as he nodded. “We just need to get away. I think that might be the best thing for the both of us right now…”

  “I get it,” Alice said as she looked to Alena. “I’ll see you later kiddo.”

  “Thanks Alice… sorry about the short notice.”

  “You guys do what you have to do,” Alice said as a thin smile spread across her small face. “Do what you have to do to get better—have a good trip Mr. Janes.”

  “That’s more understanding than my boss was,” Christopher said as he allowed a short laugh to escape his usually dour mood.

  “He didn’t agree?” Alice asked as she walked towards the front door.

  “No, so I quit.”

  “Well screw him then,” Alice said as she placed her hand on the brass doorknob and gave it a turn. The darkened hallway was illuminated by the soft afternoon light filtered in shades of emerald green through the tall single oak in the front yard. “Don’t worry, my mother yells at me for my language at home. I’ll work on it. Give me a call when you get back if you need someone to watch Alena… She’s really a great kid.”

  “I cannot thank you enough,” Christopher added. “I will definitely call you when I’m back in town; I know that you’ve made quite a difference in Alena’s life in such a short time. I know you’ve been great.”

  “Thank you…Later Mr. Janes—you have a good trip.”

  Christopher nodded as he shut the door. He paused and took a heavy breath of air full into his lungs as though he was filled with apprehension. He walked into the living room and turned off the television.

  “Are we going somewhere?” Alena asked, having overhead a portion of the conversation.

  “Yes Allie,” Christopher said as he knelt down to his knee and placed a hand upon her head. “There is somewhere I think we need to be. So I need you to help me pack up everything you’ll need for a while.”

  “What about work?” Alena asked as she cocked her head to the side.

  Christopher was not surprised in the least by her confusion. Work had been so stupidly important, and he had done a great job of making sure everyone in the house knew that. It seemed like the most important thing in the world at one time. Now it seemed like the most pointless thing in the world. “I don’t have to worry about work.”

  “Are we going on a vacation? How long are we going to be gone for?”

  “Yes kind of, and I have no idea…”

  “Where are we going?”

  “We are going to the place that your mother and I first met—a place called Pine Hollow.”

  Chapter 1: Christopher’s Return

  As I brushed away layers of dust I found not only possession, but memory—I found time where time had lost prominence. As my fingertips came into contact with the past, I shuddered. Does this place remember me? Did this place miss me in my absence?

  The road ahead was as dark as the road behind them, save for the headlights that illuminated the bisected highway that was in need of repair. It had been an hour since Christopher and Alena had spotted another car speeding off in the opposite direction. As they grew nearer to their destination memories of the past flooded Christopher’s mind—he remembered the day that Aunt Lynn drove him and James down this very same path after the death of their parents. Christopher remembered it was the first time he felt so isolated in darkness, so far away from what felt either safe or familiar. He was thirteen, almost fourteen, then. Now at thirty-three he was back on this same road, returning because of a loss that he could not deal with. He did not know his exact reasoning for his return—mostly it was out of desperation. Life without Kylie seemed impossible. He did not know what he exactly expected from his return. When Christopher and Kylie were younger they would often return to the cave. They would hope to see the window once more, to get in contact with Christopher’s brother James. They would stay in their grandfather “Bones’s” old house hoping for some sign or contact—nothing ever came of their expeditions. As Alena grew older they eventually stopped coming altogether. There was magic here once. Christopher was counting on that. After all, things were different now; he needed it so much more than he ever did. There had to be something here for him.

  A short meow from the backseat freed Christopher’s wandering mind.

  “It is okay Face,” Alena whispered as she placed her hand gently and rubbed the old grey and white cat behind the ears. “The road is bumpy and he’s upset.”

  “He’s made this trip more times than you have I’d reckon,” Christopher said as he looked to in the rearview to the backseat and could barely make out the form of his daughter and the old cat.

  “I’ve been here before?”

  “When you were but a baby, yes,” Christopher said as he thought back to the last trip. “We stopped coming when you were around four.”

  “Why don’t we remember things that good when we’re babies?” Alena asked as she continued to stroke the cat as it purred like a motorboat.

  “I don’t know Allie,” Christopher said as he attempted to come up with at least a passable guess. “I think it’s just that we’re just figuring everything out about the world—like how it works, and why things are the way we are, so we just don’t have enough room in our memories to remember everything like we do when we get a bit older.”

  “Maybe babies are just stupid.”

  Christopher laughed, genuinely laughed for the second time since he had lost Kylie. “That is probably an equally good theory.”

  “I told Ms. Ellsworth that Face was like twenty years old or even older and she said that I was making it up.”

  “Some cats live a long time,” Christopher said as he remembered back to the day he adopted face… or was it the other way around? Of course back then Face was something entirely different. All these long years and he’s never been nothing other than a cat—but at one time, he was something of a creature, a thing formed of
smoke and memory. Occasionally, the old cat would disappear from time to time, both Christopher and Kylie worried that he might not return, but he always did. Christopher used to believe that the cat was here to watch over him, kind of like a parting gift from his brother and the original Alena, for which Christopher and Kylie named their daughter—however, over the long years Face has done nothing spectacular other than the regular habitual things that a typical housecat does. Face, after all, had saved both Christopher’s and Kylie’s lives at one time. It was a pity that he could not have saved Kylie now. “Ms. Ellsworth only says that because she’s never met a cat like Face.”

  “Ms. Ellsworth is not a nice person.”

  “She isn’t?”

  “I don’t think so,” Alena spoke as she looked out the car window and off into the darkness. “Why is it she’s still alive and mom isn’t?”

  Christopher was hurt by those words, they reminded him that he could not answer because the pain was still too fierce within him, and at once he knew, this is why he had to come.

  As they reached the rough gravel driveway, Christopher brought the car to a halt. The old house looked dark. It had been in the care of Jack Olen and Bill Walker until recently when they had both died in an incident at the old Cartwright farmhouse a few miles away. Christopher did not really know the details, it was something related to a police case that Jack was working on and a famous children’s author that had gone mad. Jack and Bill were always good about keeping the house in repair and always had it ready for Christopher and Kylie whenever they would make the trip—their loss was another devastating blow in the many deaths that had occurred in Christopher’s life. Jack had once promised Christopher that he’d find James—if he could. Christopher wondered if Jack had ever given up hope… he would not have blamed him for doing so.