Prologue and Chapter One

Prologue



Yvonne Wickens wasn’t supposed to go to the Williams Seaside Carnival on this particular day. She was planning to stay home with her two year old daughter, Amanda. After all, they were just there the other day. But late this morning someone called to ask her to meet there.

“Come on Yvonne don’t say no so quickly, just meet me later at the Carnival,” he asked. “I really want to see you and meet Amanda.”

“Can’t you just come by the house we’ll be here all day?” replied Yvonne, as she kept an eye on Amanda who was currently trying to climb out of the play pen. That precious little girl is a handful, she thought; always climbing into, and getting out of, everything. She’s my little adventure girl… her thoughts trailed off as her caller answered the question…

“The first day of these shows is always the craziest, it’s super busy all day until about six. I can’t really take off before then. I’m only in town for this one day. The only time I can meet you is tonight. I can get to the carnival by seven.

Yvonne let out a long sigh and said, “well, I actually do have plans today—”

“Plans! Oh come on Yvonne, unless it’s a funeral, your plans have just been changed.”

“When will you be back in town again?”Yvonne managed to squeeze in.

Yvonne heard his low grumbling sigh before he replied, “that’s hard to say, probably not till next spring again. Come on Yvonne, we were always good at keeping in touch and I don’t want yet another year to go by.” He was beginning to raise his voice. “We met up only once in the last four years, that’s terrible!”

“Look, calm down. My plans can be changed,” Yvonne replied. “But what I’m worried about is Amanda. I don’t have enough time to set up the proper magic around her…my best charm takes time to prepare. Plus there’s the moon… Oh, and Mom will definitely want to do her thing… no, it’s all to last minute to be safe, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Well, you will also have me there; I’m not all that useless. The three of us together for an hour will be fine because its last minute, we’re barely on the radar yet! I’ve already taken the necessary precautions, of course: I cast our spells on the last full moon a few nights ago, I always have cloaking stones, and I’ve even made protecting Gris-Gris bags. Yvonne I really want to see you and meet this little girl everyone has been talking about,” he was pleading with her now. “It’s just not right that I haven’t even seen her yet,”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Yvonne trailed off. She started to feel bad for him. He really should meet Amanda and I would like to see him. This could be our only shot for a while.

He could tell by her tone he was starting to convince her. “Yvonne, it’s now or never. You can’t keep living in a bubble like this with no spontaneity in your life. It’s not good for either of you,” He paused a few seconds. “You have to say yes right now if this is going to work this time. Ok?”

“Fine I’ll go, Yvonne finally said. But we will be leaving exactly just shy of the hours’ window. Now get off the phone so we can smudge this conversation, I’ll see you precisely at seven o’clock. Where aah? Let’s say the parking lot?”

“Seven o’clock in the parking lot, which gives you almost two hours to prep—but you won’t need it! See you then Yvonne, this time it’s going to be fine…”



Before this day is done, news of a huge fireworks explosion will be all over the media. .. “Three people killed and five are missing as the fireworks on the South Pier Barge suddenly exploded as it was leaving the dock…” and the most talked about victim “…two and a half year old Amanda Wickens among the missing and is presumed drown...”

Presumed drown by the rest of the world, but Yvonne knew better, she knew that Amanda did not die in the accident but was somehow stolen from her. Because of her abilities, Yvonne knew that Amanda was not dead. The explosion was all just part of a horrific and evil plan to kidnap her special little girl, Amanda.



This day will be talked about for a very long time. For Yvonne, it will be the day, for all those years, she frantically started looking for her only daughter. Confused, angry, and deeply hurting, Yvonne never gives up her search for Amanda. She never gives up because although she can’t sense Amanda’s essence anymore (troubling enough) she also cannot summon her as a ghost, so she must be living… somewhere.

This day will be a source of celebration for others. Others have been busy planning for a very long time. Getting Amanda at an early age was the key to this part of the plan. Getting Amanda at all would be difficult; a lot had to fall into place. They were almost surprised at their success. They were anxious to claim their prize. But right now they have to wait a while for Amanda to become useful. They must keep Amanda unaware of her real Mom until after she turns thirteen. They have to wait quite a while but they have been waiting a very long time-- so what’s another ten years.

They have other plans to execute in the meantime, of course.

The father was gaining in powers and was anxious to “see things through to the end.”



















Nine and a half years later…







Chapter One

The Warning







“Where did those sneakers get to?” Amanda mumbled to herself as she checked around the front entrance, “I wore them yesterday so where are they? Mom will probably know.”

Amanda called upstairs, “Mom have you seen my black sneakers, they were by the door?”

Amanda knew Beverly was upstairs in her master bedroom folding laundry. She saw her up there a minute ago.

“Yes, they should be at the door but you took them off in your room… again, that’s where you’ll find them,” Beverley called down from upstairs. “You’re tracking dirt all through the house Amanda. I don’t want to have to say it again.” Beverly cut off Amanda as she headed up the stairs leading to the second story. She pointed to the beautiful sunny day out the window at the top landing. “Besides, it’s the Middle of August Amanda, give your sneakers a break and wear a pair of flip flops or something.”

“Sorry Mom not gonna’ happen,” she stepped around Beverley then turned back and smiled and said, “Those sneakers are all I’m wearing, I love them.”

Amanda’s small bedroom was farthest from the top of the stairs at the back of the house. It used to be her Mom’s extra closet and storage room. Amanda used to have the bigger room until her brothers came along almost three years ago. It was a bit of a surprise to Amanda to suddenly have two little brothers, twins, after being an only child for almost ten years.

Amanda’s room may have been the smallest bedroom but it had a feature Amanda loved: It had a small bay window with a window seat. Beverly was always lining up Amanda’s old stuffed animals on it and Amanda loved to sit there and stare out the window, daydreaming. There was a big beautiful Maple Tree in the back yard, towards the back. Amanda had been playing around that Maple Tree for as long as she could remember. She missed the tire swing that was there for a long time; it was replaced by baby swings for the boys. She still loved to climb that Maple Tree.



BEEP, BEEP. Amanda heard her best friend Rose in the yard here to pick her up. Rose called her yesterday to invite her shopping.

“Hi Amanda, Mom is going to the mall tomorrow, she said there’s a big sale. Do you want to go?”

“Sure, I’ll ask Mom. I still need to find some jeans that don’t look like stupid flood pants on me. Did you get that top you wanted?” Amanda went to the Waterford Mall with Rose and her Mom last week also. It was a shopping spree for school clothes.

“Which one?” Rose was trying to remember. “Oh, how could I forget, you mean the dark blue one. Well you know my Mom… ‘That’s too much money for a twelve year old to spend on a top!’”

“Well maybe it will be on sale today?” Offered Amanda.

“That would be awesome. That top is just perfect. Anyway it’s my allowance I’ve saved up, I should be able to spend it however I want. I’ve got to have it.”

“Yeah, it is pretty cool. I want to get new sneakers too—”

Rose cut her off. “Amanda Curtis, are you actually going to get a different pair of sneakers?!”

“Uhm, nooo. I said new sneakers, not different sneakers. Mine are falling apart. I’m gonna’ get the same ones, just in a bigger size I guess. But I’m sure my Mom will ask me to look at boots. Whatever, I’m not interested. You coming over today, Moms’ got her new Cosmo magazine; we can look through it and make fun of the too skinny models?”



Amanda liked hanging out with Rose; they are true BFF’s. She lives just around the corner, five houses away. They have been friends since they were kids. Their Moms’ used to hang out more when they were younger. Amanda liked her own house just fine but loved going over to Rose’s place because they had a trampoline in the back yard. Amanda and Rose were also given their very own section of garden in Rose’s front yard. As far back as Amanda could remember, they were allowed to plant whatever seeds or bulbs they wanted in their small section. When they were little kids her and Rose would be so excited to see the bulbs come up early. That meant they would be going to pick out their seeds for the summer blooms.





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