march

daniel parker

countdown: march

Taylor shivered in the chill of the basement. He'd never been overly fond of dank places, and especially not in March when Tulsa seemed at its coldest.

Dressed only in night clothes, Taylor opened the door of the dryer and sifted through its contents. He found what he was looking for, a warm track set and clean socks. Taylor started to close the door again, but felt a bit guilty about slacking off his chores and changed his mind. Taylor sighed and looked around for a wicker to put dry clothes into. He found one beside the laundry sink and brought it over to the dryer. Taylor bit his lip for a moment and weighed the possibility of re-twisting the wrist he'd hurt last weekend showing off his diving skills at his birthday party. He'd meant to do a back handspring off the board, but he'd misjudged a little and ended with his weight all on one wrist and not both. His mother had scolded him and shook him and told him over a thousand times how lucky he was to have only hurt his wrist. Taylor hadn't told her that he'd also hurt his pride.

Eventually Taylor decided his wrist would hold out fine, and piled all of the wash into the basket. He started to put the wet clothes from the washing machine into the dryer when he felt the first twinge of pain in his wrist. It was minor, so he ignored it and continued.

As Taylor was loading some dirty laundry to be washed, the lights started to flicker. Taylor nervously poured the suds in and started the washing machine and dryer. He wouldn't have admitted to anyone, but he was just a bit afraid of the basement when it was dark.

Taylor grabbed the wicker of clean wash and bolted up the stairs as quickly as he could. He switched the lights off and turned the lock in the door. Then he glanced around to make sure no one had seen, and continued down the hall into the rec room. He set the laundry on the sofa and focused on the burning pain in his wrist. Taylor moaned quietly to himself and walked out to the kitchen to find some ice for it.

Ten minutes later Taylor was in the rec room again, having taken some Advil and gotten an ice pack out of the freezer. He was flipping past some TV channels in a bored way when the stairs creaked. He was shortly joined by Jessica.

"Hi Jess." Taylor said as his younger sister, still clad in pajamas herself, cuddled into his side. She snatched the TV remote and turned on a morning cartoon program.

"Morning, Taylor." Jessica replied once her cartoons were on. She handed back the remote, her eyes flickering from the screen, to her brother, and back to the screen again. "You hurt your wrist again?" she asked sympathetically.

"Yes. Carrying the wash." Taylor gestured to the wicker he was resting against on the sofa. "Could you get the brace when a commercial comes on?" he added apologetically as an afterthought.

"Sure. Do you want anything else?" Jessica's tone held no trace of sarcasm or annoyance, only concern. So Taylor considered for a moment.

"If you don't mind? I'd also like to finish the March book. I think we're supposed to hold the book chat today, aren't we?" Taylor wondered.

"We are." Jessica agreed. "Where is the book?" she asked.

Taylor thought for another short time. "Beside my homework, on the desk," he replied. A commercial came on just then, and Jessica left to fetch Taylor's wrist brace and his book. Her footsteps creaked up the stairs again, and Taylor turned to watch the TV with minor interest. A commercial for that afternoon's Friends was on.

A few minutes later, the stairs creaked again. This time much louder and not as evenly as before. As expected, Jessica appeared with Taylor's things. As an added bonus, a sleepy looking Isaac and Zac trailed behind her.

"They want you to finish this and then have the chat." Jessica informed Taylor and rolled her eyes.

"Isn't 7 a.m. a tad early? I doubt any of us can think straight yet." Taylor said.

"And that's why I'm going to the kitchen and make coffee." Isaac replied with a yawn. "Anyone else?"

Taylor, Zac, and Jessica turned their noses up in disgust. Isaac laughed. "That's a no then," he answered himself and headed to the kitchen.

"I can't believe you haven't finished the book yet, Taylor." Zac said and shook his head. "You've had over three weeks, and those books aren't so long and complicated."

Taylor shrugged his shoulders. "I've just been busy lately, I guess," he supplied. He reached over to get the book from Jessica. "Thank you, Jess," he said to her and opened the book to its mark.

"I think I'll get some breakfast." Zac decided. His stomach growled, as if to agree.

Jessica giggled. "Me, too." she said, and the two left to join Isaac in the kitchen.

Taylor became engrossed in the last two chapters of the book, featuring Harold and Sarah, with a bit on the Third Lunar Cycle, and the demons, in between them. By the time his siblings had come back from breakfast, Taylor had finished reading and was back to watching old re runs of "Top Cat."

"Are you through with the book, Taylor?" asked Zac with a hopeful look. Taylor chuckled at his brother's eagerness.

"Yes, Zac. Would you like to watch TV with me for a while?" Taylor's eyes held amusement at his brother's vigorous head shake. "Perhaps some homework?" Taylor suggested.

"Yes!" Zac agreed quickly.

"OK. I should have some vocabulary work left." Taylor said, pretending to be thoughtful. Zac's face fell.

"Taylor," Isaac said sternly. But there was a smile in his eyes.

"I was only having some fun with him." Taylor argued lightly.

"And that's fine, but let's get down to business now. What sort of questions are we asking today?" Isaac countered and turned things back to the chat.

"What about those predictions we made before? The flood came true." Taylor cut in.

"But that was too easy." Jessica pointed out.

"And Ariel wasn't in this book, so no one knows whether you were right or not." Taylor called back with a shrug of indifference.

"Change of subject. Is there any part of this book you would rather not have read?" Isaac suggested.

"That part in the middle where the girl has food poisoning and dies." Jessica said without hesitation.

"Ick," agreed Zac. "Or the part with that Duane kid. He was irritating." The others rolled their eyes to agree.

"And what of the part where George thinks of,say, ten different words for sex." Taylor grimaced.

"Good. And what about the parts you liked especially?" Isaac said.

"I like that part where Sarah was faking illness so she wouldn't have to go out and pray." Jessica said with a giggle. The others chuckled too.

"That was funny." Taylor agreed with a grin. "And I liked the part with George and Julia in the cabin, in the eighth chapter. It was sweet."

"Aww, Taylor you softie," teased Zac. The others laughed.

"And what about you, Zac? Any favorite moments?" Taylor turned the spotlight away from himself.

"I like it where Sarah is reading the scroll and thinking about it. I don't know why." Zac admitted.

"Those parts are thoughtful," Taylor offered. "So it's all good."

"And what about Ibrahim?" Zac added with a chuckle. "He's odd, but likeable, I say."

"He is." Taylor agreed. Jessica and Isaac nodded to show that they agreed as well.

"There's a good one. What are your favorite secondary characters?" Isaac said, inspired by Zac's train of thought.

"Ibrahim was probably the only likeable one introduced in this book." Taylor said thoughtfully. The others murmured their agreement.

"I have one! What about all of those visions. There are less of them now, but those are cool." Jessica suggested.

"I think the ones about George's baby are interesting. Because there must be some reason for them, right? And yet they don't tie in with the rest." Zac pointed out.

"There was only just that one vision in this book anyway." Taylor added.

"That's true." Jessica admitted.

"You know what was funny? The part with the flood where George and Julia thought they would die." Isaac chuckled.

"Well that's a bit odd to say, but I do like that part. And the ending where Sarah and Ibrahim are in the tidal wave." Jessica added.

"You know who I don't like at all?" Taylor put in. "Harold."

The others agreed. "Oh, and how much stuff was he ON in the beginning? Now we know why he was a doctor at all." Zac commented.

Just then Mrs. Hanson walked into the room. "I hate to interrupt, but Taylor, you should be getting showered and dressed now. I'm taking you to the doctor today, remember? He wanted to check back on your wrist," she said.

"Oh, right! I forgot." Taylor apologized. "What's my homework?" he asked Isaac.

Isaac smiled. "I thought we'd do something unusual this week. And since we never get around to writing about Naamah and Lilith and all of those demons, I'd like to have all of you write about them and all of their recent activities. And, just for fun, extra credits are a paper or two on the scrolls, and what you think may be in the future ones. Go over both subjects thoroughly, and have them turned in by next Tuesday." Isaac said lightly.

Mrs.Hanson chuckled. "You do make them think a lot, Isaac," she teased.

Isaac smiled widely. "I learned from the master! Someday they'll thank me," he said with feigned loft.

Taylor gave a snort. "No, but we'll be sure and repay you the favor anyway," he said on his way out the door to get ready for his shower.

"I'd better sleep with my eyes open tonight..." Isaac murmured. Out in the corridor, Taylor grinned to himself.

Note: Liz has pretty much taken over hansonBooks at this point! ::grin:: Her dedication and generosity continues to amaze me. You're a real sweetheart! Rock on!

If you'd like to write Liz, I know she'd love to hear from you.