Sea Of Flames

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The light shines through a small crack in the wall waking me from my slumber. I brush the sleep out of my eyes, and figure that I fell asleep despite the storm of last night. My bed is warm from the sunlight that the moring brought. I feel around for the clock to the time; It’s 7:11. I grab a pair of slippers and make my way downstairs. Regardless of the fact that I have slept in, the house is silent. Bean, our cat, is in my chair. I pick her up and put her on my lap. I quietly stroke her wait for Alder to wake up. Eventually I hear the creaking of the stairs and know she is trying to sneak up on me.

“Alder, elephants are quieter than you are.” I tease. Alder pokes around the corner with a look of annoyance on her face. “You’ve never sneaked up on me and you never will. Although nice try it was better than hiding under dad’s house coat while he walks ahead.”

“Paralee it’s harder than it seems. You should try.” Alder stomps down the stairs and comes to steal Bean from me. She grabs her and she caresses her happily. Bean, unhappy from being waken, hisses at Alder and returns to my chair. I smile mockingly knowing this will bug her immensely. She stands up and throws a small pillow at me. I dodge it and the pillow hits mom’s ceramic bird. It falls to the floor and breaks, scattering peices everywhere. I look at Alder who has her hands covering her mouth realizing what she has done.

“Are you trying to wake up Wym?”  I say in a hushed, angry voice. She shakes her head. We both know that if Wym wakes up he will be a pain all day. He'd be complaining of how we woke him up before ten o’clock. I get up and gesture her to the closet. I hand her a broom and dust pan to clean up her mess. She grabs it and walks reluctantly to the mess she has made. I however, walk toward the kitchen, ready to make breakfast. I decide on making pancakes with blueberries. I run to the front door, slip on some runners, and make my way to the blueberry bush.

Most of the blueberries are ripe enough so I pick all the best. I’ll freeze the leftovers. Castro runs to me and deposits his ball right in front of me. Castro’s black and white fur are soaking wet. He must’ve gone swimming in the lake.

“You are such a stupid mutt.” I pick up his ball and throw it as far as I can. He speeds in the direction of ball shaking off water as he goes. i smile a little at our silly dog.

When I get back inside Alder has cleaned the bird and there is no trace of what we did. Except that the bird is gone.

“Can you tell?” Alder questions

“No. Not really, but there is no bird. So mom will notice eventually” I reply in the kindest way possible. Alder sighs and put the broom away. ALder then goes to the screen door and lets Castro inside. He seems a lot dryer than before so I allow it.

Alder and i both go into the kicthen. I grab some flour and milk. Once we have all the ingredients necessary we start to mix the batter. Alder washes the blueberries as I start to make some pancakes. As I prepare the fifth and final plate, the clock strikes ten.   “I guess he never woke up.” I say as Wym walks down the stairs.

“Wrong I heard you, but I thought that it would be funnier to see what mom says when she sees what happened to her bird.” Wym says. Alder and I both sigh because we know it’s true. Last time we broke mom’s artwork,  Wym had painted on her latest piece she punished him by making him remake it with her and she also made him sleep on the kitchen table. “Where’s my breakfast?” He questions.

“You know on second thought I don’t think you deserve it. “ I reply scooping up a spoonful of blueberries.

“What about Alder? Why does she get breakfast?” he whines.