Eddie Ozark

CHAPTER ONE

The Dream

Eddie Ozark stood in his messy bedroom. He watched the china cabinet's glass door in front of his bed slowly come loose from its hinges with a small "squeak". A clock arose from  his own china cabinet and situated itself into the palm of his large hand. The clock was small, perfectly smooth, round, and pure gold, including the face and tick tocking hands. Strange red engravings encircled the outside rim of the clock. He recognized the clock. His grandfather gave him the old time keeper when he was seven, the same year Danthan appeared and gave him Maddie.



All of a sudden Danthan appeared, a small white mouse squeezing his way out from under a wall that didn’t quite meet the hardwood in Eddie’s room. Eddie was surprised.  This was the first time Eddie had seen Danthan in years. The shape shifter transformed into a beautiful golden hued fox before Eddie’s eyes, as he was abruptly transported from his room to what appeared to be woods in his own backyard. The magnificent golden fox dashed away heading North, and Eddie darted full speed after him. He weaved between dead overgrown trees and brush, as his skin was brazed by thorns and sticks. He did not notice the blood trickling down his arms, leaving a small trail of red in the crunchy dead leaves below him.  “Danthan, slow down!” Eddie could see the sun rising in the distance through the gaps in the forest of trees.  Suddenly,  just as Danthan disappeared into the horizon, Eddie felt a great surge travel through his body, starting in the hand that concealed the golden clock. In a moment he was being thrown towards a light he mistook for the sun.

.

Eddie  awoke at once. He glanced around groggily trying to take in his surroundings. Ok, still in my room. He identified the familiar sound of his computer buzzing. The clock filled china cabinets that bordered the walls of his room were slowly coming into focus, lit by the moonlight, shining through one small window in his midnight dark room. He saw Maddie, his fairy’s, glow coming from her intricately carved small wooden house he had whittled out of cedar just for her. He realized with relief he had not been sleep walking tonight. He sat up in bed and looked beside him at his alarm clock. 3:04. He was not tired anymore. He was too curious about the images that frequently haunted his sleep now. He threw his ragged quilt and worn out flannel sheets back and swung his legs over the side of the bed. His feet hit the cold hardwood underneath him, sending a chill through his body. He stood up, still wobbly from the sudden adrenaline rush that had flooded him. He walked across the chilly hardwood to the china cabinet situated directly in front of his bed.



This cabinet is where he kept his most treasured clocks. He carefully opened the delicate glass door and very gently pushed aside a few clocks until his long, skinny, white fingers felt the smooth edge he was searching for. The clock that had accompanied him in his dream.  Since the age of seven, the first time he ever held it in his hand, he knew this clock was special.



His grandfather, Papa Bill, had brought the clock back from one of his many trips.    And he always brought back quirky gifts such as this one. “Maybe they’ll mean something to you later boy, when you grow up,” Papa Bill told him.  This puzzled Eddie. Eddie had always adored the gifts. But this gift seemed different. He was not sure why, but he felt it the first time he held the small clock in his palm. Its tick tock sent vibrations all the way through his body, seeming to ignite something different in Eddie. Some part of him that was normal, that made sense. This must be why dad collects coins, he thought. It was the only thing they would ever have in common, it seemed.  Eddie had collected clocks ever since, thinking in some odd way clocks were his link to normalcy.



Eddie examined the clock quizzically for a moment, then gently set it back in the cabinet. He brushed a strand of dark brown hair out of his sleep encrusted, light blue eyes. The beautiful eyes he had inherited from his mother. He left the cabinet and  tiptoed downstairs to get a warm glass of milk, hoping he would not wake his parents. When he reached the end of the staircase he heard a "thump". He peered into the kitchen, where the sound had come from. There was his mom. She was rocking an old, wooden, off balance stool. She was drinking what Eddie was sure was a cocktail of orange juice and vodka, puffing on a long cigarette.



“Dreams,” Eddie said, startling Josephine.



“Damn it, boy!” she interrupted, agitated after spilling a bit of the concoction on her lap. “You scared me Eddie,” she said a bit more calmly while clumsily reaching for a dishtowel off the counter to clean up the small spill. “You shouldn’t be up at this time, you have school tomorrow.”



“Dreams again. I’m just going to get some milk and go back to bed.” he replied.



“Dreams again, huh?” his mom said, her tone condescending.



“Yeah.”



That is all the answer he gave and his mother did not press the matter any further, just rolled her once beautiful, now sagging, eyes.



He had spoken to her once about the strange reoccurring dream. “Your grandfather’s been filling your head with those crazy stories, hasn’t he? They are fairy tales, Eddie, nothing more. Does he not realize you are fifteen years old? I swear if he wasn’t your grandfather I’d have that man committed," was her response.



"What stories, Mom? What stories! Papa Bill has never told me anything."  Hiding a secret life was  hard enough. His mother's accusations and coldness about the subject only added to his confusion. But Josephine refused to believe his plea of ignorance. “It’s all just your imagination, Eddie. You've got a wild one. Runs in the family.” She ranted. “I don’t want to hear about anymore of that ignorant talk,” she said curtly. That was her response the last time he had mentioned the dream to her. 



She could not see Maddie like him. In fact, no one could.  He had thought of mentioning her to his grandfather on a couple of occasions, but decided not to in fear that his parents might have him committed. But he understood. Even Eddie felt like he didn’t belong to this world. He never fit in anywhere. Not at home and certainly not at school. He had very few friends. There was Adam, his best friend from kindergarten, but at age fifteen Adam seemed to be going in a completely different direction. He began ignoring Eddie and now spent all his time with the players on his baseball team. 



And he had Joe. Joe was a little weird, like him.  But he liked Joe. Joe wasn’t very handsome. He was a heavy set fellow with a round face and cherry red cheeks. He had worn braces since they were eleven.  His face was plastered with acne. He was quite shy and hid his face behind long sandy brown hair. He told corny jokes, but he was good enough company.  At the very least, Joe gave him someone to sit with at lunch in the cafeteria at school.



Often, in times such as these, when Eddie felt lonely or sad, he would take one of his treasured clocks deep into his favorite spot in the woods behind his home. Though no clock gave him the same sensation of the first clock he received from his grandfather, he found the rhythmic tick tock of all clocks to be quite soothing. But tonight, after his mother’s apparent irritation, he decided it would probably be best if he stayed in the house. He warmed a tall glass of milk in the microwave and scuttled back up the stairs to his bedroom. After finishing his milk, and tossing and turning for a good deal of time, Eddie finally dozed back off to sleep. And tonight, his dream began again, picking up where it had left off.

         

Eddie brain was completely lost in thought the next day in math class when Mr. Tuttle called his name. “Um, would that err… be seven?” he answered questioningly. Mr. Tuttle glared at him. “Not quite, Mr. Ozark,”

“Now maybe you’d like to get your head out of the clouds and join the rest of us in reality,” he scowled.

Small giggles rang in Eddie’s ears. He was used to be laughed at, though.  “Um sorry, Mr. Tuttle.”

         

Eddie had been replaying the new piece of his puzzling dream over and over. He had begun airborne being thrown at the sun. But as he neared the light, he realized it was not the sun at all. The light was radiating from a magnificent kingdom in the far distance.  Without warning, he was dropped from the air to the hard ground. He tumbled a little way, came rolling to a stop, and tried to reclaim his balance. He stood, still unsteady, mystified, taking in everything around him.



His surroundings looked somewhat familiar. He was in a place that resembled his backyard in Borenton, Mississippi. He was in the forest that ran parallel with his home.  But it was slightly different. Everything seemed larger. The great big trees towered over him, much higher, he thought, than the trees of his woods. The colors of the forest were much more vibrant. The greens deeper, the browns brighter.  The usual overgrowth and brush were replaced with beautiful plants and wildflowers, most either as tall as or taller than he. He thought for sure he heard a giant purple violet snicker. 



He caught a glimpse of a dark shadow moving in behind him and was suddenly overwhelmed with fear.  He started running ferociously towards the beautiful kingdom in the distance, knowing that he was being chased, hunted down, by whatever savage followed him.  He moved swiftly gathering his thoughts, trying to overcome the fear.  This is a dream. I'll wake up any minute.



He realized that he was running exceedingly fast. Thirty miles per hour maybe, he estimated. The air lashed at his face. It pounded his arms and legs with great force but they prevailed. He felt strong. Stronger than human. He was nearing the edge of the woods as he saw flat fields of beautiful, colorful, wildflowers stretched before him leading to a pathway of shiny grey marble. He ran through the field of exotic red, purple, orange, and yellow flowers until he reached the marble road. He could not believe he had not tired yet. The marble road led straight to a white marble mansion that was glowing with white light now. As he neared the mansion he became aware of how enormous and marvelous it was.



The white glow was becoming brighter as he got closer.  There was no sun in the sky.  This kingdom was bright enough to light up all of its surroundings.  He came to the end of the marble road to large silver stairs  stacked high leading up to the entrance of the palace. He placed one foot on the silver steps and started to climb to the top to open the stunning crystal  doors. When he reached the doors he found that diamonds larger than his outstretched hands doubled as doorknobs. He placed both hands on one diamond and began to turn it. In the same instant the light went out of the kingdom and darkness enveloped everything. Overwhelming fear took over his body and he awoke panting with sweaty palms and beads of perspiration trickling down his face and back.



CHAPTER TWO



Lily James lifted Spex from his home made of sticks and grass fashioned together into a miniature box that sat on top of her dresser. Spex was being sluggish today. Lily was ready to go explore the clandestine world of Borenton, her secret place. Well, it wasn’t exactly just her secret place.  The whole James family and the secret keepers knew of the land. But it was hidden from all ordinary humans.



Spex was resisting her grip. He usually flew alongside her but today she was holding him, her hand around his tiny waist as he struggled to get away grabbing at her bedpost, then her coat rack, then her doorway as she attempted to walk out her bedroom. Spex grabbed at the door frame with his tiny fingers using every bit of strength he could muster from his tiny little body. But Lily easily pried his fingers away from the frame as he shouted obscenities in fairy language that only he understood. His language sounded like gibberish to Lily.  She skipped down the hallway with him in tow, like there had been no struggle at all.             



Danthan warned you of this, Spex thought. He was right, Danthan had warned her. “A fairy’s magic can be very powerful, Lily. Spex is yours but always trust his guidance when using his power,” he  told her the very first time she  ever saw him.  The little mouse had come to her when she was only seven. Later, after her tenth birthday, he came back to her and explained that she was not like other ordinary humans.



She had listened to him in incredulous delight.