Sanctuary: Grove Haven Commune, Book 1

Prologue

Safe in the backseat of the car she sleeps as the road goes on. A tall lean man, red haired and green eyed watches the road. His large hand touches the smaller hand of a woman. Fidgeting nervously she brushes back a length of chestnut brown hair. Her hazel eyes watch the road, flicking back to watch their child wrapped in blankets, safe in her car seat.
Breathing a sigh of relief she watches the road, pulling a coke out of the ice chest"It will be all right Amy. He says as they listen to some music soft in the background. "But what if it won't be? Amy asks a little nervously. The man size softly "Amy it has to be all right. He says with determination.
"But Greg?" Amy asks as she hears their daughter sighing in her sleep. A moan fills the back seat and Amy turns her head to watch as her daughter twitches in her sleep. Her eyes open and she screams a high terrified quivering sound that punctures the soft muted sounds of the smooth Jazz. "Pull over!" Amy's tense voice fills the car with her own terror. "There's a rest stop up here a mile or two." Greg says tensely, "Will she be all right?" "I don't know." Amy says.
Silence again for several long moments, but the scream pierces the night once more. they pull in and Amy gets out and sits in the back seat gently rubbing their daughter's hair, stroking it gently between her fingers, "Kendall baby." "Its all right." "Mommy's here." "Daddy's here." The girl's eyes open wider and quivering she arches her back as a low moan escapes her throat.
A sharp inhale and the girl grows stiff and rigid. then the shaking begins. "Greg." Amy says as she watches, "What?" Asks Greg coming back from the little gas station with two cups of coffee. "She's having a seizure." Amy says, calmer now, more in control as her medics training takes over.
Gasping, harsh breathing and that shaking goes on for another moment. Greg hurries into the back seat on the other side, wedging his body next to the car seat.
The moment passes and the child's eyes flutter open then close in the overhead light Greg has switched on. Her breathing resumes its sleeping sound and Amy breathes a sigh of relief. "Its ok, she's fine, she'll be cranky in the morning but, she'll be fine." She says softly to Greg as they lift her out of the seat, change her diaper, and replace her, wrapping blankets around her.
She's so deep asleep that she doesn't register any of it. Amy fills a child's  cup with water and ice, and another with apple juice. She places the water in the cup holder. They know she'll be thirsty and hungry when she does wake up.
"I'll drive honey." Amy says softly as they buckle themselves in, assured that their daughter is sleeping peacefully. "You sleep." "What if she does that again?" Asks Greg tensely as he reclines the seat, pulling a blanket over himself. " "I don't think she will." Says Amy as she pulls out.
"things have been milder since we left." Amy says, "I don't know why but it has been"
As her husband sleeps she thinks back to all the things that have brought them to this point. They'd lived in California with their families and when Kendall had been born it had been a happy family that had embraced her. Her brother and sister had already married bringing grandchildren to Amy's and Greg's parents. but they had hoped and waited until Amy graduated medical school before they got married.
In her last year of residency she'd gotten pregnant. For five years the families had loved Kendall, treated her like she was gold, and had given her all the support a large family could. Two other sisters and another brother were still not married. On Greg's side he had three older sisters who had children and a pair of twin brothers younger than him who were serous with a pair of twins. There was hope of a double wedding in the future.
Wealth on both sides had made sure that ll of the children had good educations and more wealth kept them all from rushing into marriage for want of funds.
But it had all started when Kendall was one and a half. She'd woken up drenched somehow and didn't like it. The crib still had charging on it from where for no reason fire had filled the crib. They'd heard her screaming. How a fire had been set in the crib they never knew. Two months later she'd been playing with a cousin who'd snatched a toy away from her. Somehow the cousin had been found with his legs and arms tied up.
Things had continued this way with more fires, and other strange happenings.  There had been that freak snowstorm in September as well. She'd been standing there with a blank look.
At first Amy and Greg didn't want to believe that the small fires, the strange occurrences of boxes and jars flying from shelves and breaking, the odd weather, and the things that had happened to other children  was all Kendall. But when they'd seen her floating near the ceiling they had to believe.
Now they knew that when Kendall was staring into space she was doing something. what the something was they didn't know. All they knew was that something odd would always happen around her. Being an intellectual family no one else wanted to believe it either.
That had all changed though four months ago. It had been Greg's oldest sister Carrie's son Nathan's seventh birthday party. Kendall was wining because she'd wanted more ice cream. When she was told "No!" /Sternly she'd howled. then the cake, the beautiful car shaped cake that still had half left rose into the air and had floated over Her grandmother and fallen. Not just fallen, but had forcefully fallen. the cake had been smashed to pieces.
From then on they'd called her evil. the family had begun to turn on Amy and Greg and wondering if the child didn't need to be punished or cleansed. For an intellectual family they still had some of the Pentecostal roots Greg's great grandparents believed in before they died. So there had been talk of possession and demons and, the devil has her talk.
The house had sold quickly though and Amy had been able to transfer to Salem Health Hospital. Greg had gotten a promising partnership in a law firm like magic.
They wondered about magic. Did Kendall have magic? They'd gotten an apartment not because they couldn't afford a house. But because they wanted to know if things would work out here.
People had asked why Oregon. Greg and Amy couldn't say why but that it felt right somehow, as if there was something guiding them here, to this place.
Kendall had been enrolled in kindergarten in a special education room smoothly as well. There had been no hassle or red tape or anything that would have normally taken place.
Kendall was five now but looked like she was two. She was small and delicate, fine boned and fragile. Greg's family were English, while Amy's were Irish, strong   catholic. It had only been when Greg had agreed to go to counseling that Amy's family had even agreed to the marriage.
There had also been the odd moments where Kendall said she saw things. things that weren't there. Greg and Amy had both shied away from a possible mental illness because the things were either of an imaginary kind such as the unicorn that was always around. The little winged people, or the frightening people who walked through walls. The other kind were things she knew. During these moments her eyes would widen and she'd speak if flawless sentences of things that were going to happen. Sometimee she knew things from the past. So it wasn't all bad.
But Kendall was also plagued with seizures. Mostly at night, though sometimes during the day. She was not communicating with regularity yet. She could only say one or two words. They were clear, not at all hard to understand, but she'd not progressed past that stage. She also wasn't potty trained, though they'd tried and tried. The doctors back in California had diagnosed Kendall with autism.
As the sun rose Amy pulled into a rest area and stopped the car. She breathed in the fresh air, the green air of Oregon and knew they'd be there later that morning. Kendall was still asleep. Greg woke though and drained his lukewarm coffee, shuddered and went to use the bathroom.
When Amy got back to the car after he'd returned he told her to sleep, that he'd drive, and wake her up if Kendall woke up. As she drifted to sleep she prayed, "Please let everything be all right, please God."