What Keeps Our Hearts Beating

Chapter 2

16-year-old Lacey Ainsbrough looked out the window at the large black gates that led to her family's summer manor house on Long Island. She hadn't been to this home since she was 6 years old but she could never forget the 3 spires extending upwards into the heavens of the manor house. It was brown and white, heavily German influenced by her great grandparents in the 1920's. The gardens stretched for miles with miles of more woods. Something new was the guardsman at the front who asked the limo driver for identification and the retina scanned security system.

"Why all the security," she asked, recognizing more black gates surrounding the perimeter of the beautiful nature preserve.

"Security to keep the rift raft out from harming the children, Lacey," her father spoke sternly and Lacey immediately sank back into her seat. If her father could have bought her a bubble to stay in he probably would have. Luckily for Lacey, her doctor said that was a really bad idea. But a heavily guarded manor house, no problem. Lacey was destined to never live a normal life.

"Doctor Weber will be coming to see you this afternoon once you are settled," her father twitched the gray mustache on his round face, wearing a tweed hat and suit and looking more like a grandfather than her actual father, pain having aged him too quickly. "Now remember don't shake hands with the other kids, wash your hands at least 6 times a day and don't play too much outside, or preferably, don't play outside unless the temperature is at least 70 degrees Fahrenheit."

"You are making me sound like I have some contagious disease, Dad," she rolled her eyes at her overprotective father. She felt the ugly black shirt and gray skirt sticking to her skin and she wished she could wear her own clothes than this sickly uniform- a sickly uniform for sickly children. The beautiful fall foliage beckoned her attention to the giant grass field surrounded by trees draped in beautiful golden hues that draped like a canopy over their long pathway. The gravel path led to a sign that read the "Ainsbrough School for Hope" and an arrow leading left.

"So, a fire destroyed the old hospital, right." She asked, trying to make conversation with her father, which was never easy.

"Yes, that unfortunate fire destroyed the hospital where those children and teenagers had been living. But now it's advantageous for us, I dare say."

"Advantageous," Lacey laughed. "Only you would call a fire advantageous."

"This is a fresh start for you, Lacey, and believe me when I say Dr. Weber is mighty selective about who he lets into his program. Please don't let me get a call from Dr. Weber that you have been fighting again."

"My Anger will be in check," she mockingly saluted her father. He shook his head at his high strung teenager who had her fair share of death and illness to deal with over the past 6 years since her mother died. And with no real father to grieve with since he was never around. He had to work so hard for the medical bills, he would claim, but she assumed he just couldn't stand the sight of their penthouse apartment or the sight of her for that matter, reminding him of too many, yet too fleeting, happy memories...when her mother was alive.

"And I volunteered your late mother's beloved summer home to Dr. Weber, for the children of course, but primarily to help treat you until a heart donor is located."

Lacey didn't want to think about what would happen if a donor was never located. Instead, she focused her mind on meeting other teenagers, since she had been taken out of school 6 months earlier for that anger related incident her father liked to mention. She hated being home schooled on Science, Math and Engineering and Technology. She wondered if she would actually make friends but then feared what would happen if they thought she was too sickly, or different or weird. The way some of the kids in her school had treated her. Like her heart condition was somehow contagious.