All the Slivers of Red

Chapter 3

After Linny and I recover, we go back to our room. We find my little sister Kelsie playing on my bed.

"Hunter! Linny!" She cries. "I missed you THIS much!" She spreads her arms out wide.

"Kelsie, I was only gone for a day," I laugh.

"But it felt SOOOOO long!" She spins around and falls back on the bed. "Are you coming home now?" She asks me. "Are you going home, too, Linny?"

"I'm coming home now," I start. "But I don't know about Linny." I look over at her.

She's looking down and playing with the hem of her shirt. "No, I don't- I don't think I'm going home today," she says. She seems tired again.

I sigh. "Kelsie, can you go tell Mom and Dad I'm ready to go?" I tell her, and she runs out of the room.

I watch Linny ease herself onto her bed. "Are you okay?" I ask, because she's obviously not.

"It's nothing, Hunter. Just tired is all." She yawns and forces a smile. "Go home and have fun with Kelsie for me, okay?"

With that, she lays down and pulls the curtain shut. I have nothing else to do but go find my parents and Kelsie, so I leave Linny. I know I'll see her within a few weeks.

I find my family in the child play area, where Kelsie is putting a puzzle together. We leave the hospital and drive home. It takes about ten minutes, as usual.

When we get home, there's a package on the doorstep. It's addressed to me. "I've got it!" I yell, and run downstairs to my room to open it. The cardboard box takes four minutes of repeated scissor-stabbing until it pops open, packing peanuts spilling all over my floor. I dig out a dark green Tshirt, a letter, and a medal in a glass case. I push the Tshirt and case away to read the letter first. It says,

"Dear Mr. Hunter Nays,

Thank you for your interest in Parkville's Annual Youth Story Contest. The story you submitted was looked over by our panel of professional judges. However, it was not picked to be featured in the Parkvilles Newspaper because of the sensitive topic about which you story was. As participation prizes, you receive a medal and Tshirt.

Sincerely,

The Parkville Newspaper Staff"

I stare at the letter, hands shaking. I had worked for two years on that story. TWO YEARS. The letter was utter bullcrap! There was no sensitive topic; it was about a high school boy who was being bullied! I scream in frustration, ball up the Tshirt, and throw it across my room. I growl as I tear up the Tshirt. I finish by slamming the glass case on the ground. It shatters, and glass shards fly all around my room. Breathing hard, I fall on the glass pieces and cry.

When I wake up, I have tiny little scrapes from the glass. I walk back upstairs, and naturally my mom freaks out.

"Where have you been? What happened?" She asks frantically, wiping my face and arms of the blood and glass.

"My story didn't win anything." I grumble. "Probably some last-minute entry ended up winning."

My mom gasps and hugs me. She knows how hard I worked on that story. "Why don't you go outside with Dad, honey? Maybe he has something for you." She smiles weakly.

I go out to the garage, where my Dad is.

"Dad?" I call, searching through the mounds of old stuff.

"Here!" he says from the opposite corner of the garage. I can hear him smiling.

I find him by an old desk. There's a blanket covering something on the table. "Dad? What's-"

He cuts me off. "Go on. Take the blanket off." He is beaming.

I slowly wrap my hand around the corner of the blanket. I take a deep breath; I don't know how I will respond to whatever it is considering what happened with my story. The corner is fuzzy, but I hesitate pulling the blanket off.