Area 15

Introduction

The 5th day of June had dawned bright and mild for the people of Seven Skies Village. There was a certain coolness to the air, which was rare for early June in the area, and the town was enjoying waking up to it. 

The town's best banker, Clyde Elliott, was in his office, counting up sums. Fruitseller Noah was hurriedly cramming apples into their crate on his cart before his first customer arrived. Farmer Buescher came bustling into town with his horses to sell his harvest and meat at Poole & Queen's, the local market. Anthony's Italian sat dark, waiting for 10AM, but Pickle's Bakery, run by half the village girls' interest, Todd, was waking up and getting ready for breakfast, and the inevitable line of girls who had perfectly good things to eat at home but wanted to ogle Todd while he put batches of cookie dough in the oven and rushed about giving people their breakfast had trickled in. 

Seven Skies Library was run by Mr. Ryan and his brother, Kyle. Ryan always sat at the front desk, typing on his typewriter and sorting books, while his brother ran the children's section, helping little kids find what they wanted, and getting yelled at at least twice daily for playing with the kids and the little wooden train set instead of working. Dr Harvick, who was on the night shift at the hospital, came out the doors, yawning, only to be greeted by the day doctor, Dr Kahne. Next door to the hospital was the vet, run by Dr Thompson, a friendly man of about 22 years that radiated calm and happiness in his business. Seven Skies Village had only about 120 residents counting the businessmen, and the businessmen were never considered a higher rank than the townspeople. 

On this particular morning, Roxie Bishop sat up in bed, for once excited to get up. She had plans for today. Roxie was fifteen years old and lived alone. In the village, children were considered ready to live alone by age thirteen, and although some chose not to, Roxie's parents had died when she was a baby and she had spent her whole life in The McDowell orphanage. While the owner, Mikey, was kind, she hadn't much enjoyed living in a building that didn't feel like hers, so she had taken over and fixed up what used to be an old run-down shop and made it her home. 

One day, she'd been struggling to paint the outside of it (she had painted a pale sky blue) when a tall, gloomy looking figure had paused in front of the building. He had glanced at her and said in a deep and gravelly but soft voice, "You want some help with that?" 

And so began the friendship between Roxie and Cody. 

Cody had helped her finish painting. He'd helped sand the kitchen table and put together her bed frame. Kenzie Smith had sewn her bedclothes by hand, and Cody had also helped her find cutlery, dishes, decorations and many more things to make her home feel like home. Roxie was a beautiful young girl who worked at Pickle's Bakery with Todd, because she just loved to bake and she got along well with the striking young man. She always kept her long auburn hair in braids, and her eyes were a soft, almost sorrowful blue-grey, but she had a joyful laugh and a beautiful smile, and all the boys of the village adored her, though she never expressed interest in any of them. 

Cody was handsome, in his own mysterious way. He kept his brown hair short and neat, he rarely smiled because his teeth weren't straight, and he hadn't very much to smile about anyhow. The only remarkable thing about Cody's appearance was his eyes. Bright blue, piercing orbs that seemed to radiate whatever he was feeling at any given time, his eyes always shone like a winter moon. He earned money by working at the Buescher's farm out northwest of town. 

Roxie had a few friends, foremost being Cody, of course, but she had also befriended Kenzie Smith, the wife of a clerk at Poole & Queen's. Kenzie was a pretty thing, blond and gay with a pretty smile and big, shimmery eyes. Her husband, Chandler, was pale and small, but he had a mass of dark hair atop his head, sparkling grey eyes, and a perpetual grin that was brighter than the sun, and some may have said he was handsome. 

She had befriended twenty three year old Kyle at the library, and his brother Ryan, in a way. She and Kyle enjoyed reading to the little kids (including Chandler Jr, Chandler and Kenzie's oldest child, who was two) and playing with them, despite strict and repeated orders from Ryan NOT to play with them. Kyle only ever got a strict talking-to for those incidents, since he worked there, but if they both got caught, Ryan would scoop Roxie up and carry her outside, telling her firmly it was not funny and she needed to listen to him while she just giggled uncontrollably in his arms. 

Roxie's other best friend was a pretty young girl with large grey eyes and a swath of dark brown hair down her back. Her name was Willow. At only fourteen years old, she was a quiet but opinionated girl, afraid of no one, and the sister of Mayor Byron. Although she was the Mayor's sister, she still enjoyed working with Dr Thompson and his animals in her spare time because of her naturally caring nature. It was common knowledge that Willow was going to marry the village secretary, Mr. Tyler Randal Gibbs (though everyone called him Ty). One of the store clerks, Sam, had once embarrassed himself by absentmindedly calling the girl "Miss Gibbs" when she came to counter with a pound of apples. Willow had not minded. Rather the opposite. She had just giggled and said, "Oh, not yet, you idiot." Sam and Willow didn't exactly get along, but there were moments where they tolerated each other and this was one of them. They didn't get along because Sam and Ty had gotten into a fight a few years back and Willow was not quite the forgiving sort when it came to her future husband. 

Ty himself was twenty one years old, and both boyish and very masculine at the same time, with a crown of gol- oh, Willow would want me to say, strawberry blond hair surrounding his pale face, an angelic smile and the lovingest pair of shining blue eyes. Willow had spent many an afternoon in Roxie's parlor, absentmindedly eating an oatmeal cookie and waxing poetical about everything she adored about Ty Randal. 

Roxie also occasionally spoke to May Anderson, who worked as a night-shift nurse with Dr Harvick. May wasn't exactly pretty, but she was kind and chipper and sunny, a contrast to Dr Harvick's slightly gloomy aura. May lived in a little cottage on the west side of town with her husband, Robby, and their cat, Oreo. Oreo did absolutely nothing. He did not hunt mice. He did not kill rats. His favorite activity was sunning on the Anderson's porch railing, frequently accompanied by May with whatever her latest sewing project was (May ADORED to sew) and Robby with a beer. This only occurred in the afternoon, however, seeing as May spent the most of the morning asleep after her shift at the hospital. 

Another character Roxie spoke with was Ms Julianna Robinson, who worked at the library, and regularly maintained the adult section while Ryan prowled about making sure Kyle was behaving (he very typically was not behaving). Ms Julianna was old enough to be Roxie's mother, but the two of them spent time poring over books (especially books with maps. Oh, how Roxie and Julianna LOVED maps). 

Julianna was married to a Matthew Wayne Foster, who worked as the pasta chef at Anthony's Italian ("Matt's pasta sauce" was sort of a legend in Seven Skies). Matt wasn't exactly talkative but he was friendly enough and could crack a good old dad joke when he wanted, and got along fantastically with Anthony, whose demeanor was rather similar. A trader (his name was Shane, but mostly he was called "SVG" due to he practically unpronounceable last name) once said, "Anthony's Italian is everything you could ask for... good food, friendly cooks and waiters, and the people-watching is fantastic. I once saw a gang of rowdy young men tie this tiny little guy to the ceiling fan and then turn it on. Anthony was hopping mad. Banned the boys from his restaurant and gave poor Justin some spaghetti for free." The village was busy working, playing, keeping things in order. Oh, and there was a newspaper, of course, run by one of the town's friendliest characters, Parker Kligerman. 

Strong, handsome, kind and overall very sweet, it was absolutely impossible to find anything to dislike about Parker, and he was always very modest about it. Seven Skies Village was a place where kindness and wellbeing were always placed ahead of money or any other greedy motive, and anyone who did put their own wellbeing ahead of others' was rather looked down on. Even the relatively wealthy Mayor Byron and his sister always would stop to lend a helping hand.

But what about needed help that no one could see?