Michelle L. Levigne's Blog, page 9

Excerpt: VIRTUALLY LONDON, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 3

 Doni slipped herlittle hand into mine as we sat around the white wrought iron café table in themain room of Divine's. We sipped pineapple sherbet floats while I talked aboutmy dreams. Angela didn't react. Her expression didn't change, except maybe thatfunny little smile, indicating she knew more than anyone else about what wasgoing on... Well, it didn't quite fade, but it wasn't as strong as usual. Shedidn't ask me any questions, just focused her big blue eyes on me and listeneduntil I ran out of words. Angela had a way of listening that made me think sheheard more than anyone said. It would have been a relief not to say some of thethings I had experienced in my nightmares, just picture them in my mind andhave them go directly to hers.

I finished my story. Wesat sipping in comfortable silence, for a few more minutes. I felt a lotbetter, like some pressure had been removed. Maybe it would be more accurate tosay that having told Angela, I had fulfilled a responsibility I didn't know Ihad.

That made sense, Irealized. Angela and Divine's Emporium were there in Neighborlee to protect it,or us, or maybe... Well, to be honest, sometimes I was sure there were thingsin our town that had to be contained in our town. So maybe Divine's protectedthe world from Neighborlee, instead of just the special people, the oddness,being hidden from the world? By telling Angela about my dream, I was helpingher to guard us, or guard something else?

"Guardians,"Angela murmured. Her little superior smile edged toward a smirk when I flinchedat her word, coming so soon on the heels of my thoughts.

Yeah, I coulddefinitely believe Angela read minds.

"Bethany, wouldyou and Doni go upstairs and get one of my moonlight journals from the chest inmy bedroom?" Angela reached inside the neck of her dress and drew out athin silver chain with a long, crystalline skeleton key hanging from it, andhanded chain and key to Bethany.

As the two of themheld hands and hurried out of the room, heading for the stairs, Angela's smilefaded entirely.

"It's real,isn't it?" I whispered. "The things in my dreams." I swallowedhard. "And you don't want Doni to hear what you're going to tell me aboutfighting it."

"Right, and yetnot entirely." Angela took hold of my hand. "My dear Athena... How Iwish you weren't so perceptive, that you hadn't inherited your grandfather'sgifts and the responsibilities that come with them. And yet I know, from longyears of experience, we are born to duties and burdens. We destroy our souls ifwe refuse them." She took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, all the whilegazing into my eyes. "First, I sent them away because there are things Idon't want Bethany to hear. I made a promise to her mother to protect her fromthe very things you must face because you are Ford Longfellow’s granddaughter.Until Doni starts dreaming too … why worry her?”

"Why don't youwant Bethany to know?"

"Her bloodlinehas done enough already for Neighborlee. Her mother was another foundling, justlike your grandfather, like Lanie Zephyr and her friends."

"Her mom?"I shivered, the cold coming from deep inside, as I remembered when Bethany'smother died. We were only nine. Sometimes being young helped to make the heavysadness fade, but other times it just made the impact worse, and last longer.

Then I knew. Iunderstood. Fragments of those sad, confusing days bobbed up to the surface ofmy memories.

"There was thatweird storm. Mrs. Miller... She didn't die of a heart attack, did she?" Iwhispered.

Angela gripped myhand tighter and shook her head.

Six years ago, therewere strange buzzing sensations in the ground for a day or two. Other peopledidn't seem to notice the electrical tingles in the soil, but Granddad let mecurl up on the couch with him, where we both kept our feet off the ground. Thatday, Bethany and I were at soccer practice with Miss Lanie. Mrs. Miller hadleft the diner on an errand before lunch and didn't come back. A freak stormhad struck, sending people diving for cover, driving rain horizontally. When itcleared up, she was found collapsed in an alley between two stores on the Mall,drenched, cold and dead.

Part of me wanted toyank my hand free of Angela's and run away. If I tried, she probably wouldn'thold onto me, keep me there. Not with her hand, anyway.

"Where are thedreams coming from? There's someone--no, something trying to come up, come out,break through a wall." I shook my head and pressed my free hand against myforehead. "I remember hearing things. You and Miss Lanie and Granddadtalking. Mrs. Miller stopped something." For a second, it was like Icouldn’t catch my breath. “Something that tried to happen before.” 

"Yes, our enemy tries periodically to shatter thebarriers we hold up to protect the world. Stephanie was part of that defense.Neighborlee has many guardians, each of us picking up clues, warning signs, indifferent ways.”

Excerpt: VIRTUALLY LONDON, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 3

 

Like I said, I hadnightmares. Those really nebulous, misty, disjointed nightmares where I knew Iwas being chased. I had to keep moving, because if I slowed down or lookedbehind myself, whatever it was would catch me. Plus, the nightmares weren'tletting me go. As soon as I fell asleep again, I was right back to the point inthe dream where I had managed to yank myself awake.

"What'sbothering you?" Bethany asked, one morning after somewake-me-up-six-times-during-the-night nightmares.

That was the greatthing about having Bethany for my closest friend. We could tell when thingswere wrong with each other, or when one of us had an incredible secret. I lostcount of the times, growing up, when one of us would be thinking about theother, wanting to talk, and the other one would call, or come by the house.Angela encouraged our friendship and said we were good for each other. As wegot older, I grew more sure that she somehow helped our link or whatever-it-wasgrow stronger.

So when Bethany askedme, before I even finished sitting down next to her in homeroom, I tapped myear, then my wristwatch, our signal for "tell you later--when the mundanesaren't listening."

We went outside atlunch and walked around the high school instead of sitting in our favorite spotunder the trees next to the agriculture class's experimental garden plot. Itwas the only way we could guarantee someone wouldn't eavesdrop. When I finisheddescribing the nightmares, the solid sense of threat but no other details,Bethany didn’t even pause before telling me what was only common sense.

"You need totalk to Angela. Have you told your folks?"

"I would have,but you know how crazy it is in the mornings at our house."

Bethany just rolledher eyes and grinned. She had slept over enough times to know that no matterwhat time of the year, whether it was the weekend or weekday, Longfellowscouldn't seem to get our acts together in the morning. We were always rushingaround and snatching up things, hurtling out the door and coming back a fewtimes. Usually we raced out the door half-dressed, running late for work orshopping or appointments or school or wherever we had to be that morning.

Honestly, I wanted totalk to Gram and Granddad about my dreams before anyone else. They would listenand understand. They weren't the kind of grownups who listened to psychologybooks that contradicted what their children knew was going on. I planned ongoing to them that night, probably after dinner, when all our day's crazinesshad calmed down.

Going to Angela,however... That might be a better first step.

So we went right after school, Doni and Bethany andme.

Newest release: ENCHANTING THE PRINCE, Enchanted Castle Archives Book 3

 

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What's it about?

Zair was thirteen when he waskidnapped and trained to be a Shadow -- to stand in for Crown Prince Anwir indangerous situations. Magicians broke the rules of magic when they woveillusion spells around him, so he would walk and talk and sound and look likeAnwir, The two boys were meant to be friends, companions, perhaps the only truefriend either one would ever have.

Magic in the kingdom of Dorwain wasbroken, the old ways purged, forgotten, or warped. The magicians made mistakes.Some fatal. However, when they used the dust of a shattered magic mirror as thebase of their spells, that proved to be Zair's only hope for survival andescape.

Despite the destruction of herphysical body, Viza the magic mirror was alive in her dust. Zair could hearher, proving the strength of his sleeping, inborn magic. She became his friendand teacher. Together, they sought a way to escape. The magic awakening in Zairproved he had royal blood, with a claim to the throne. That made him a threatto the current king. He needed to break the growing web of spells thatimprisoned him, and reclaim his own face before time ran out.

 

Excerpt: VIRTUALLY LONDON, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 3

 That summer, I spenta lot of time with Doni. Not just because I realized early what a smart,quietly fun kid she was. And not because I felt sorry for her. Bethany lefttown. It wasn't any fun working at Miller’s Diner without her. We had alwaysasked for the night shift because first, the tips were better with the eveningmenu and second, we liked to have our mornings free. We liked sleeping in. Exploringwhat new treasures had arrived at Divine's Emporium. Or just sitting somewherequiet in the park and reading or daydreaming about our futures.

Well, Bethany'sfuture not only arrived, it snatched her up and dragged her off to Hollywood.So I was pretty much alone. Yeah, I had friends, but nobody I really liked tohang with, day in and day out. I kept my night job at the diner, because I wasstill saving for my dream computer.

Mornings were forDoni and me. She was quite happy to spend her afternoons and evenings hangingwith Gram and Granddad, talking about books, working in Gram's garden, making aplace for herself. Roots.

She needed thoseroots when the Hallidays fought back.

They got prettyoffensive because they had to get defensive. Mr. Carr went after them witheverything he could think of, to protect Doni from them in the future. We wouldhave preferred to let sleeping dogs lie, meaning doing everything possible toavoid reminding the Hallidays we existed and Doni was with us. However, thesmart thing was to look for landmines now. We had been dealing with the Grandstonesfor generations, here in Neighborlee. So we knew to anticipate the Hallidayspulling the same kind of dirty tricks, and worse, once they learned just howrich Doni would be when she reached twenty-one.

For example, theGrandstones had bought up a bunch of old buildings, intending to get rich offurban renewal. Kurt Hanson worked for a garage they bought. He quit when thatjerk-face Reggie Grandstone marched into the garage and boasted that he was nowKurt’s boss. A year later, when Kurt sold a security alarm system he had beenworking on at the garage, the Grandstones claimed that anything invented bytheir employees was automatically their property. Even when they didn't signany agreement regarding intellectual property and work-for-hire.

The Grandstones sued, and lost. Kurt had proof he hadbeen inventing and tinkering with the system for years before that tiny windowof time between them buying the garage and when he quit. So he didn’t"invent" the system while he was still working for the garage. Mr.Carr got involved, and proved the single paycheck Kurt received after the Grandstonesbought the garage came from the previous garage owner. Technically he neverworked for them. They outsmarted themselves, making the former owner pay forany accounts payable generated before they took over.

Excerpt: VIRTUALLY LONDON, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 3

 After Mr. Zephyrleft, Gram took Doni upstairs to show her some things she had dug out ofstorage for her room: rugs and curtains and pictures and things like that. Iwas alone with Mr. Carr for a little while. He settled down at the kitchentable, covered with all sorts of documents and lots of handwritten notes. I putaway the lemonade and cookies and washed the dishes we had used.

"How's yourcousin settling in?" he asked me, when I'd finished rinsing the lastglass.

"She's a prettytough little kid. There were a couple times I thought she'd startcrying..." I shrugged and looked up at the ceiling. Gram and Granddad'sroom was over the kitchen, with the big cedar closet right next to it, and Icould track Gram and Doni's movements by the faint creaking of the boardsoverhead. "They took all her books away."

"Eh?" Heslid his glasses off the end of his nose and sat back, looking at me.

"Aunt Lenore waslike Granddad--loved books. Doni's the same way. I'm pretty sure all thosebooks Aunt Lenore and Uncle Thad sent to us, they had the same books forthemselves. So that's like thousands, maybe. They had to build an extra room ontheir house for all the books, Doni said. Well, the Hallidays sold all herbooks. Except for that backpack full, that she stole when she figured what theywere doing. Who'd be so mean to a little kid?"

"Indeed, I'vebeen wondering what kind of people these Hallidays are. I met Thad, after he marriedLenore. A good man. It amazes me that such a kind, generous man could come ofsuch people. Then again, serial killers often pop up in loving, moral, strongfamilies, so who can say?" He tapped the papers in front of him, writtenin a bold, square handwriting. "Charlotte and I have been planning what tosay and do. The way this whole affair was handled is unforgivable. She isn't awoman to seek vengeance, but this is her granddaughter who has beenirretrievably injured by the cold callousness of these people. It pained her toadmit she suspects the way everything was handled indicates these people weremaneuvering to profit from Thad and Lenore's deaths. The secrecy, and holdingonto London, and then casting her off the way they did." He shook hishead, his eyes dark with stern disapproval.

His eyes got darkerwhen I told him what Doni had said, about being in the care of the authoritiesfor seven weeks before the Hallidays showed up.

"I believe Ishall take great joy in...hounding these people, causing them as muchinconvenience and frustration as I can."

Excerpt: VIRTUALLY LONDON, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 3

 

"Charlotte, didyou send Jinx to get Ford, tell him the news? Or would you like me to run up tothe old fishing hole and get him?" Mr. Zephyr said, when they came downafter the final trip, hauling the last set of bookshelves.

"Oh, you'dbetter believe it," Gram said. "That boy wasn't in so much a hurry toget out of town that he'd overlook something like that." She chuckled andgestured with her tray of lemonade and fresh sugar cookies, out onto the porch.We all settled down. Doni curled up next to Gram on the three-seater swing withone of her new books.

"Get out oftown?"

"Senior PrankNight." I took my usual spot on the steps with my back against the bigsupport pillar Uncle Jinx had carved to look like dragons had wrapped aroundit. The other pillar had unicorns chasing each other around and around up tothe top.

"Oh, joy."He shared grins with Mr. Carr. “Forgot about that.”

"What's SeniorPrank Night?" Doni asked, and sprayed a few crumbs from her mouthful ofsugar cookie.

It was kind of niceto see she was a normal little kid in some aspects.

We explained aboutthe long-standing tradition in Neighborlee for graduating seniors, on the firstWednesday of June, to play some extravagant prank. Sort of to leave their markon the town before they headed off into adulthood. If they survived. Somemembers of the police and fire departments, and teachers spent Senior PrankNight on patrol. They tried to head off any pranks that got out of control, andprevent expensive or long-term damage to people, places, and things.

"Lanie swearssome of these kids don't want to attend their own graduation ceremony,"Mr. Zephyr said with a chuckle.

"We're stilltrying to figure out how she and her friends threaded those tires on theflagpoles in front of the schools, the board of education office and the policedepartment," Mr. Carr said. "No ladder in this town tall enough toget to the top of those flagpoles. I tend to think that friend of hers, the onewith the gift for gizmos--" He looked around, stumped for a moment.

"KurtHanson," I supplied.

"That'sright." He nodded. "I think he rigged some elaborate pulley system tolift those tires up and over. At least Lanie’s prank didn't get anyonehurt." He chuckled. "And they used ordinary, worn-out tires thatcould be cut off easily. As I recall, the year that idiot Grandstone and hisfriends tried to blow up Blackwater Pool, some other fool in their graduatingclass put steel-belted radials on the shorter flagpoles in front of the bankand the post office. Brand new ones. That's what got them caught, as Irecall."

"How?" Donisat up, eyes wide, her fourth cookie in her hand.

"They trackedthe tires back to the store where they were stolen and the fools were caught onthe security tape. Had to get a special saw to cut those tires off theflagpole." He nodded to Mr. Zephyr. "Nobody was hurt or upset, anddidn't cost the town or the schools a penny to remove those tires, the yearLanie graduated."

"Yeah, Rainbowand I raised our kids right, I think," Mr. Zephyr said.

"I suppose Lanieis on patrol tonight," Gram said.

"You can bet onit."

March Quiz: VIRTUALLY LONDON

 Here's your quiz for March to earn points toward free books from the Neighborlee, Ohio fantasy series.

Listen to the first chapter of VIRTUALLY LONDON on the Ye Olde Dragon's Library storytelling podcast, either on the podcast page at YeOldeDragonBooks.com, or on your favorite podcast app.

Answer the questions below.

Send the answers to 2OldeDragons@gmail.com and earn your points. That easy!

What's the name of Athena's uncle?What end of the year party was Athena looking forward to?What day of the week did the story start?What was Athena's mother's name, and where was she when the story started? What was she doing?What were Doni's parents' names?Where did Doni and Athena go while their grandmother talked with their family lawyer?How did Athena's grandparents meet? What was her grandfather doing, and what did her grandmother do to stop him?Where was Angela and what was she doing when Doni met her?What kind of cream soda did Doni love? Who else loved it?What furniture did Doni and Athena find? What did it look like? Who helped them bring it home?

Excerpt: VIRTUALLY LONDON, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 3

 "So they tookcare of you until your relatives showed up?" Mr. Zephyr said. His voicewas so gentle, it made me want to cry. Doni nodded. She sniffled a little whenI reached up to her in the front passenger seat and took hold of her hand."How long was that?"

"About..."She frowned for a few seconds and the fingers on the hand I was holdingtwitched a little, so I guessed she was counting. "About sevenweeks."

Mr. Zephyr growledsomething that sounded Chinese. It was a good guess he was cussing, likeGranddad did sometimes. Doni's eyes got big. Then she giggled.

"Sorry aboutthat." He shook his head and gave us both a crooked grin. Then he pulledinto the driveway of our house, right behind the glossy black Lincoln thatbelonged to Mr. Carr.

The nice thing aboutMr. Carr was that he wasn't afraid to do manual labor or get his hands or evenhis clothes dirty. Of course, there wasn't any dust on the furniture or bookswe hauled home from Divine's, but the possibility of it counted. Mr. Carr cameoutside in his light gray, three-piece summertime lawyer suit, and helped haulthat furniture upstairs to Doni's room. 

Before that, he bowed to Doni and shook her hand andsaid he was very pleased to meet her. Gram had told him the whole story already,so he didn't ask any questions. Instead, he talked about Mr. Zephyr's upcomingresearch trip, and offered to help find someone to rent the big old Zephyrfarmhouse while they were away.

Excerpt: VIRTUALLY LONDON, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 3

 

A funny little hitchsocked me in the chest, when I looked at Doni and realized something. AuntLenore was dead, but in all the fuss of Doni showing up and getting hersettled and being so furious on her behalf, that little fact had slipped rightpast us. Who was going to tell my mother that her sister was dead? Had anybodythought of that yet?

I felt about twentyyears older all of a sudden, and tired. Tragedy sure created a lot of work anda lot of things to think about. Even if--maybe especially if?--that tragedy wasfour months old.

What was wrong withthose Hallidays, that they couldn't be bothered to call and say, "Oh, bythe way, your daughter is dead. We don't want her daughter. She's on herway"?

Doni turned andlooked at me with those big, sad eyes, and I shuddered at a new thought: Maybeit wasn't that they didn't care about her. Maybe they hopedsomething nasty would happen to her. Then there would no one to claim whateverinheritance she had coming to her, so they could take it over.

Of course, thatbegged the question of just what these people had done to Doni in the fourmonths since her parents died. Why had they held onto her all that time, andonly now cut her loose?

"Hey, Doni, howlong after Aunt Lenore and Uncle Thad...well, after they had theiraccident--"

"There were alot of government people and protective services people and lawyers." Hereyes got bigger and full of shadows, but there was no feeling in her voice.That was kind of scary.

Mr. Zephyr gave herthat look I had seen him and Police Chief Tanner use when someone tried tosnatch a little girl from the playground at the middle school back in March. Themiddle school was next to the high school, and I was trying out for the trackteam with Miss Lanie when it happened. Someone screamed. Miss Lanie vanished, likeshe flew from the running track to the playground. Then she was back, holdingthat little girl, who was so scared she didn't start crying until Miss Lanietold us what happened and sent someone to call school security. The kidnappergot away, though.

Suddenly there were peoplecoming from every side of town. Police and teachers and Mr. Zephyr and PastorRocky. They got those sad, determined looks on their faces, just like he hadnow. Nobody ever said what happened, but there was a big time gap between when theycaught up with the kidnapper on the edge of the Metroparks, and when he showedup at the police station.

That kind of look canbe scary, but make you feel really safe, all at the same time.

This month's featured book in the Neighborlee Visitors' Guide: VIRTUALLY LONDON, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 3

LISTEN to chapter 1 of VIRTUALLY LONDON on the Ye Olde Dragon's Library storytelling podcast.
QUESTIONS for a quiz will be posted here later in the month, with all the answers in Chapter 1.
ANSWER those questions, and earn points toward a free book in the Neighborlee, Ohio fantasy series!
What's VIRTUALLY LONDON about?

Athena Longfellow and Doni Halliday aregranddaughters of one of Neighborlee’s guardians, Ford Longfellow. When dangerthreatens Neighborlee, the girls awaken to their duties and their gifts, andslowly grow into their heritage.

Athena, the computer whiz, finds andexperiments with an unusual video camera at Divine’s Emporium. She recordsDoni, and then records a room at the shop -- and inadvertently opens a door toanother dimension. Properly frightened, she shuts down the program behindfirewalls. Enemy invasion thwarted. For now.

She doesn't realize she also created avirtual copy of Doni, until an advanced computer class in college, when theartificial intelligence that calls herself London Holiday "movesinto" her team's class project.

Athena suddenly has a good idea how Dr.Frankenstein felt. The question is: If she has to pull the plug on LondonHoliday … how?

 

 And remember: ALL formats of VIRTUALLY LONDON are on sale for the entire month of March.  Catch up, fill in the holes in your collection, and save $$$!!

At YeOldeDragonBooks.com