Read Online Haven [1] A Stranger Magic by D.C. Akers - Free Book Online Page A

stranger without sounding like a nut case. As for Sarah, there was no way his mother was going to trade her in for a really cool brother, or even give her a good smack upside the head. Which she deserves, Sam thought. No, today started out bad, and had just gotten worse, and it wasn’t his mother’s fault. He was smart enough to know that.
    “I can’t help you if you won’t talk to me, Sam,” she said, patting him on the hand.
    “I don’t know, Mom. It’s everything,” Sam said, looking down at the cluttered floor.
    She wrapped her arm around him and gave him a gentle squeeze. “What’s everything?”
    “I don’t know … like everything … like I hate Sarah …”
    “Saaam,” she said in that tone she used when hate came up.
    “Okay, I don’t hate her, but I really, really, really dislike her!” Mrs. Dalcome tried her best not to smile.
    “Sam, she loves you.”
    Sam couldn’t believe she was going to take Sarah’s side on this. Sarah was the meanest person he knew, except for Daniel Harris, and he did hate Daniel Harris. “No she doesn’t, Mom. She’s mean and it’s not just her. It’s school, it’s here, it’s my whole life!”
    Mrs. Dalcome removed her hand from his shoulder and gently clutched his chin, forcing him to look into her eyes.
    “Sam, look at me. I know it’s hard being thirteen. It’s not an easy age for anyone; it wasn’t for me, your Dad, not even for Sarah. But it will pass and things will get better. I know that’s hard to hear now, but it’s true.”
    It was hard to hear now because it didn’t fix anything. Sam was still empty on the inside, ordinary, and well, let’s face it, heading nowhere.
    “I just feel alone sometimes. It’s hard to explain.” He could feel himself getting irritated. He didn’t want to talk about this anymore.
    “Well, you’re not alone. I’m here. I have always been here, and I don’t think that’s going to change, do you?” she said with a soft smile. She released his chin and placed her hand on his back again.
    “That’s not what I’m talking about, not alone … alone. I mean like …” He paused for a moment; he could not find the words. Where were the words? Why were the words not there to explain the emptiness he was feeling? Now he just sounded like a bumbling idiot.
    “Oh, never mind …” he said, discouraged. Why did he even bother to speak? The words never came out right anyway.
    “Is it something at school? Did you and Sarah have a fight? Was it—”
    “It’s all of those things, Mom, and more! I hate school, I hate Sarah, and I hate where we live! It’s just all wrong, it just feels all wrong! I just wish Dad was here!”
    Sam heard the words come out, but it was too late to stop them. He didn’t mean it but there they were, out there where he could never take them back.
    He looked in his mother’s eyes; he could tell he had hurt her feelings. She let her arm slide down across his back and slowly stood up. She stepped over the piles of clothes, books and video games until she reached the doorway. Sam’s eyes followed her every inch of the way. She opened the door, walked out into the hallway and turned back, reaching back to grab the door knob. Sam saw her eyes were full of tears as she cleared her throat.
    “I’m sorry you feel that way Samuel, but I am trying, and for the record we all love you.” She turned away as tears started to roll down her cheek and gently closed the door behind her.
    Sam sat on the edge of his bed staring at the back of the door in silence. The rain had stopped, and the storm had passed, but the frustration lingered.
    In one day he had managed to hurt his mother’s feelings and make Travis mad for not going to the caves with him. Not to mention that Sarah hated him, he was cut from head to toe from the attack of the rosebushes, and there was a vanishing stranger stalking him.
    No matter how you looked at it, this was a bad ending to a very bad day.

CHAPTER 8

    T he sound of