Somewhere in My Heart (Tennessee Series #2)

by Jennifer Scott

  She bargained, “Next question.”

  Robert grinned, “Oh, I’m sorry. I keep forgetting the rules. We are not supposed to ask personal questions. It is against regulation. We are only here to work.”

  She was confused enough and didn’t want to know what he was referring to; she just wanted to go to sleep.They woke up at sunrise. They were supposed to climb a huge hill. They made it safely across. There was a waterfall on one side of it. They stopped to get some water to drink and to clean themselves. The water felt good because the heat was extreme. They went swimming for a few minutes before going back to their search. Robert admitted, “I’ll be glad when we have reached the other side of the island.”

  “Why is that?” She asked.

  He acknowledged, “That will mean that he is not here and we can leave. But, then again, that is not a good sign. Then, we won’t have a clue as to where he could be. This may be our only hope.” Memory felt as if she were supposed to be upset by this news, but she couldn’t be because she didn’t remember anything. She wondered what would happen after they left the island. She hoped a change in scenery would trigger something.

  Robert instructed, “I think I should give you a weapon to defend yourself. We are getting closer to the natives camp. With luck, we may get around them without them seeing us. You need something to protect you in case we have to separate.”

  She wasn’t too comfortable about the idea. But, she knew it was imperative for her survival. He gave her a knife. She figured she could at least get that right. Guns made her nervous for some reason. They started looking for a safe place to sleep. They saw a cave and Robert checked it out before they went in. He said it seemed safe. It wasn’t dark yet, but they didn’t want to risk being stuck in the middle of enemy territory. She didn’t like the silence, but Robert said it was too dangerous. They had to be quiet or else they would be caught. She was almost afraid to fall asleep, but she couldn’t keep her eyes open. She was more tired than she thought. She did toss and turn in her sleep.

  She felt something and thought it was Robert trying to wake her up. It wasn’t Robert. She was being tied up and she couldn’t get away. Robert was nowhere in sight. She wondered if they had captured him as well…or if they had done something worse to him. Whoever it was that kidnapped her, had also caught Robert. He was tied to a pole outside of a small hut where they took her. She didn’t know what to expect. She pondered if they were going to use her for a human sacrifice or something. They were putting some kind of oily substance on her. She thought, “Are they going to hang me over an open fire, or is this some sick custom of theirs?” After they put a different outfit on her, they left the room. A few moments later, a man came in and walked over to her in the corner. She put two and two together, and knew that the custom was for her to become his slave or one of his wives. She remembered seeing something similar to this on a nature program.

  She couldn’t escape. Robert could hear her screaming. After a few minutes, he managed to free himself and went to rescue her. The man started chasing them, with others following. They were running so fast that they weren’t paying attention to where they were headed.

  Robert asked, “Can you swim? Because there is a waterfall up ahead and we have no choice, but to jump.”

  So, that’s what they did. The only problem was, Memory’s arms were tied up, so Robert had to grab her and help her get out of the water without drowning. They luckily escaped. They remained hidden behind the waterfall, until they hoped the coast was clear. They had to figure out how they were going to get past them again. Robert wondered if they were guarding something on the other side of the island.

  He hoped, “Maybe we’ll find much more than what we came here to find.” Memory just wanted to see who her husband was, the man he was referring to the whole time. She had the feeling that the worse part wasn’t over yet.

  They didn’t wait overnight to leave because they knew it would give the savages plenty of time to find them again. This time, they did split up. Memory still had her knife, but hoped she wouldn’t have to use it. She wished she would have had it earlier, and then she wouldn’t have been almost sexually assaulted. Robert told Memory where to meet back, right before they had separated. She just prayed she didn’t get lost first. She was doing okay, just hearing an occasional monkey or bird. After being kidnapped, she had the right to be paranoid. She made it through the jungle and somehow ended up in front of what seemed to be a volcano. She saw an entrance and proceeded.

  There were manmade lamps lighting up the walkways. It looked like something you’d see in an old fashioned horror story. She was waiting to step on bugs or booby traps. She heard some strange music playing, just beyond the wall in front of her. She looked around to see if anyone was there. She saw dancers wearing veils like genies would wear. They were apparently performing for their master, or the king of the island. She couldn’t see the man’s face from where she was standing. She tried to get a closer look. At that moment, someone hit her over the head.

  She heard a voice saying, “Billie, please wake up. I’m sorry this had to happen. If you wake up, I promise I won’t accuse you of what I did ever again.”

  She opened her eyes, and she saw Ricky. She whispered, “What happened?”

  Ricky believed, “You must have hit your head on the deck or the railing. We found you unconscious out there last night. You had us all worried. It’s a wonder that you didn’t get swept off the boat and in to the ocean.”

  All of a sudden, it was clear to her, her memory restored.

  Billie pleaded, “How’s the baby?”

  Ricky assured her, “The baby is fine. It is you we are worried about now.”

  Billie responded, “I don’t remember bumping my head. But, I do remember the dream that I had. At least, I think it was a dream. I had amnesia and was on an island with an agent, maybe from the FBI. It was so strange. And now that I think about it, he looked a lot like Bobby.”

  Then, Chris walked up with Joy beside him. Billie realized, “I think you were there, too.”

  Chris joked, “It’s safe to say that you’re not in Kansas anymore.”

  Maria inquired, “What’s that about Kansas?”

  Chris had forgotten that Maria was from Kansas.

  Ricky claimed, “That’s a strange dream you had. I wonder why you dreamed it.”

  Chris prayed, “Hopefully it doesn’t mean that we are going to be shipwrecked. Not that I’d mind being on an island with Joy.”

  Billie vowed, “Well, if it’s anything like the island in my dream, I’d rather not go there. I’m just glad it was only a dream.”

  Jason agreed, “Yeah, there is no place like home.”

  -The End

  Check out this preview of:

  As the Snow Falls

  Volume 1

  M.D. James

  Chapter 1

  “Naw. She’s okay.” I half managed to get out as my friends were teasing me about having a crush on April Powders.

  “Yeah, you do! Ohhhh, yeah, you do! Jimmy likes April. Jimmy likes April,” Mikey sang out loud while dancing around our lunch table. I’m not sure how, exactly, I became friends with Mikey. I suppose it was because we had homeroom together since I could remember. He was very tall for a thirteen year old and built like a lumber-jack. And, like you’d assume from looking at his unkempt hair and dirt-stained face, he had absolutely no manners. He didn’t even care if there were girls around when he needed to pass gas, or shoot a booger out of his nose. And, he certainly didn’t mind embarrassing me in front of April Powders.

  I was quickly turning beet red, and wanted to die.

  April was a girl who I sat next to each day in my English literature and biology classes. She had curly, brown hair that always smelled like roses. She was our class president, and my lab partner in biology. The truth was, I did have a bit of a crush on her, but I’d never tell Mikey that. No need to give him more ammunition to use on me later. It was always so hard to concentrate on th
e biology lesson when I was sitting next to April. I was magically transported into the wishful thinking of my mind by the lovely, clean scent of April’s hair. I would get so nervous, though, that I had to constantly wipe the palms of my hands on my pants in class. They would sweat so much when I was around her. I mean, they would sweat a lot…so much so, that I felt like a sweat factory in biology! I probably left class everyday with pit stains under my arms too. I’m sure she thought I was a complete and utter idiot.

  Being thirteen and in high school was hard to figure out. As a teen and high-schooler, I was supposed to hit on girls every chance I got and try to get dates or more from them…but, just last year I was made fun of if I even had a crush on a girl, or a girl had a crush on me. I never really knew what to do, and Mikey seemed to know that and pounced on me every chance he got. Unfortunately, for me, he got a lot of chances. I mean A LOT!

  “Aww…leave him alone, Mike,” my best friend, Connor, interjected. “Can’t ya see he’s embarrassed?”

  Connor was everything I wished I was. He was taller than me…standing at five foot nine inches. He was athletic and toned. He had brown hair and hazel eyes like me, but also kind-of a crooked smile that seemed to make girls swoon. He was the kind of guy who was smart, funny, witty, goofy, and outgoing. I felt very lucky to have him as my best friend. I could tell Connor anything and know my secrets were safe with him. He was completely trust-worthy, and we had been friends since I was nine years old. That’s when he stopped a bully from beating my face to a bloody stump. I know he was just trying to protect me this time too, but Mikey was hard to reel in when he knew he was getting under a person’s skin.

  Just as Mikey was about to start in again, and likely embarrass me to even greater depths than before, the school bell loudly rang.

  RRIIIINNNNNGGGGGG….

  Saved by the bell, lunch was over.

  I exhaled a huge sigh of relief, as I picked up my trash and partially eaten sandwich and tossed them in the fly ridden trash can. I missed while trying to shoot the balled up wrapper into the can, as if it was a basketball. I quickly looked around to make sure Mikey didn’t see my failure, and it seemed that I was in the clear for once. Now, I just had to make it through the rest of the day.

  Connor and I told Mikey we would see him later since he had Algebra class on the other end of campus. As we walked away, Mikey yelled at the top of his lungs, “Jimmy! See ya later, Loverboy!” and cracked up laughing to himself as he blew a kiss in my direction. About thirty kids stopped and started looking at me and laughed…some hysterically.

  “Don’t mind him, dude,” Connor offered, and playfully tussled my hair as he broke away to his locker. He always knew how to make me feel better.

  The next few classes went well. I didn’t have any classes the second half of the day with either Mikey or April, so I could just focus on my schoolwork. I was always a teacher’s pet type of guy. I naturally got good grades, and was always polite and attentive to my teachers. I didn’t brown-nose or anything, but I still got singled out as the example to follow in quite a few of my classes.

  Finally, the last bell of the day rang and I couldn’t wait to get home. Mom said that if I got my homework done early enough, we could go look at Christmas lights around town. I’ve always loved Christmas. Living in Washington State, I was fortunate enough to get a white Christmas every year. It just seemed to make everything so much more magical. The lights seemed to twinkle more, as they reflected off the snow and ice…and the people became just a tiny bit happier, in spite of having to drive in a foot of snow. The cold temperatures made me wanna get a fire going in the fireplace, and drink hot cocoa while watching my favorite Christmas television special. I had to imagine the fire since we never had a fireplace in our house.

  Connor and I lived right next door to each other, so we always walked home together and talked about our day. It was actually the part of my day I normally looked forward to most.

  “Wanna have a snowball fight throw-down?” Connor challenged as we passed the park near our houses. A snowball fight throw-down is like the ultimate snowball fight….winner takes all. The last three years Connor has held the championship, but I was determined to beat him one day. It would have to wait until some other day though.

  “Can’t today, bud. We’re going to go look at Christmas lights tonight, so I gotta get my homework for Mrs. Schiltz’s class done ASAP!” I answered. “Maybe tomorrow.”

  “Deal.” Connor said with one of his patented winks as we each crossed our front yards.

  As soon as I opened the worn and squeaky door, I threw off my snow covered shoes and ran straight to the fridge. I was fortunate enough to have a very good metabolism. Though, sometimes, I wondered if I was too thin. I weighed just under one hundred and thirty pounds. I felt like that was a good weight for my age and height. I grabbed some whole wheat bread, three or four ham slices, colby-jack cheese, and some Cheez-Its and headed to my room. I put a sandwich together quickly, and got my books out of my hand-me-down book bag.

  “Is that you, Honey?” I heard Mom yell from down the hall. My Mom was a very pretty lady, who had to raise two kids all alone. She worked hard as a deli manager in our local super-market, and always seemed to have a smile on her face. Sometimes, I worried that she worked too hard. She was older than most of my friends’ moms, and shouldn’t have been doing as much manual labor as she did. My friends used to tease me when I was little about my Mom being the same age as their grandmas, but I still thought she was the best Mom around. When I would see laundry detergent commercials on television, I remembered my childhood being just like what was portrayed in them. The rays of sun would be coming in the windows, with a gentle spring breeze. Mom would always have everything smelling so great, and welcome me home from school with a perfect smile on her loving face.

  “Yeah. I’m starting on my homework now. Are we still going to look at lights tonight?” I asked her.

  “As long as you and your sister get your homework done in time,” she hollered back from down the hall.

  My sister’s name was Sarah. Don’t let the angelic sounding name fool you. She was pretty…she definitely got Mom’s looks. She had the same long, wavy, blonde hair that shimmered, and eyes that changed between blue and green depending upon which type of a mood she was in. Her skin was very pale, almost porcelain-like. But, my sister could be mean….to me, at least. I guess that was to be expected from an older sister. She just turned sixteen, and thought she was too cool to hang around her dorky, younger brother. Even as kids, she seemed to find ways to torment me while we played together. When I was barely eight, she would only play with me if I would pet and talk to her feet. She would pretend they were turtles, and if I didn’t pet them, and snuggle with them, their feelings would get hurt. On several occasions, she made me eat the dead skin from her feet…telling me it tasted like bacon, and that the turtles made it for me. And, of course, she always got her way. Anytime we had to pick a game to play or decide on what to watch on TV, it was always what she wanted. I always figured my mom loved her more, but it could’ve just been that she was mom’s first-born, or because they were both girls. Maybe it was just because my sister threw the biggest fit if she didn’t get her way. One time, we were having an argument at Wendy’s about something and she took her packet of black pepper and blew the pepper right into my eyes. Boy, did it burn! Of course, she claimed it was an accident, but, I knew better. I told myself that I hoped she wasn’t planning on coming home late and messing up our trip to go see the Christmas lights.

  BANG, BANG, BANG!

  I sprung up from my history homework, as my sister barged into my room and collapsed onto my bed, scattering my homework all over the place.

  “What’s wrong with you?” I asked a bit too rudely when I heard my sister’s sobbing.

  “I don’t want to talk about it!” she replied. I moved my homework out of the way, because I thought her nose was running and I definitely didn’t need snot all over my report when
I turned it in. “You wouldn’t even understand,” she continued in between sobs.

  “How do you know what I’d understand?” I asked, defensively.

  “Men!” she exclaimed. Before I could figure out what she meant, she rambled on like I wasn’t even there. “They will tell you they love you, and that you mean the world to them…but, don’t you believe them. Oh no! Don’t you believe them!”

  I don’t really expect to ever be in that position with a man, but okay…..

  “They’re all the same and only after one thing. Why can’t Andrew understand that I want to take it slower than that? He tried to get me to hook-up last night, you know?” she asked rhetorically to no one in particular, as if I weren’t really even there. “And, then, when I said I just wanted to kiss…he said he was fine with it. But, today he gives me the silent treatment all day, and at lunch I see him flirting with Angela ‘the slut’ Morgan!”