We Begin
The Parkdale Boys


Minus -20, arctic frost suspended all movement as the boys huddled together in front of Parkdale market. Eerily, John's ski mask, ghost-like, radiated steam. Ronnie vainly tried to form a ball from the permafrost snow with frozen fingers. The cold penetrated deeper and deeper into the bones, as the boys became impatient with the late bus. "Let's hook a car" Carl exclaimed. "Yeah!' the group chimed-in. Without much prompting or thought, a simple suggestion often set them off in an adventurous direction. It was always like that. Life or death decisions agreed upon hastily. A spontaneous bunch. Frozen roads and slow cars rendered perfect this venture. Simply, they'd wait by the stop sign, and grab onto the bumper of a stopped car and ride it as far as possible when it began moving. A dangerous sport for 10-yr. olds, or anyone else for that matter. Norman died that day.

Decades later, in the silence of his bed, the images of blood-stained snow and a friend’s brain tissue, spattered upon the icy road, flooded Kevin’s thoughts and the nausea returned, afresh. The screams, the sirens, the gasps, and the shocked voices of the bus riders, echoed loudly in his memory. Kevin’s first recollection of tragedy and death. The horror, Long past, of Norman's mangled body, crushed under the weight of the yellow school bus, remained, deep in the recesses of Kevin's subsconcious memories. Memories which surprisingly surfaced at unexpected times and places. A newscast of a child's death, a dead deer on the highway, the passing of an old friend, war casualties, stacked Iraqi corpses, and a stream of accidental deaths, surfaced the forgotten images of that terrible day in the small frozen Montana town. Past and present un-reconciled, Kevin's fear of tomorrow un-abated. A constant, pathlogical fear of dying, pervaded his spirit. At times the tension paralyzed him.

Surely, Carolina would detect the dread, the nervousness, and the anxiety at tomorrow’s meeting. She always read him very well. Her favorite saying was that "The eyes are the windows to a person’s soul", and she took pride in discovering the deep secrets and the forbidden longings of others. She thought herself to be very perceptive; somewhat of hybrid amateur psychologist and a psychic. Strangely, Kevin feared that she might have already guessed the awful secret that he had to share with her. He shuddered, and a gnawing foreboding overtook him.

She longed for the peaceful valley of the Augusta ranch…..her birthplace. When Carolina’s folks died, Clay her older brother, tried to run the vast spread, but lacked the business savvy and the energy of his father. In hock to the government, he eventually sold off all but five of the pristine two thousand acres, lying in the shadows of the Bob Marshall Wilderness’ majestic Sawtooth Mountains. When her parents drowned in Mirror Lake, Carolina was away at the university, studying clinical psychology. Now alone and afraid, she left school, and after the funeral went to San Francisco, where she met Kevin. Rarely did she return to her beloved country home, as the memories of the treasured past filled her with sadness at the loss of her family, and the transformation of the magnificent ranch, now a mere shell of its former state. The chance to see Kevin once again, filled her with hope and anticipation of tomorrow's reunion. They once seemed so inseparable. Her mind drifted back to the first time their eyes met. Instantly she knew that he was like no other man that she'd ever known. How would she feel tomorrow? Had he changed? Did he still have feelings for her? Why did he call me?, She wondered. Strange... something's up... A dark, ominous cloud overshadowed her thoughts as she continued to think of her former lover. Her toned body quivered under the quilted comforter, as she closed her eyes, into an uneasy sleep.

Chapter 2
A pock, pock pock sound resonated as the black raquetball rebounded from the walls of the court. Kevin's face, trickled with sweat and his workout shirt clung to his wet, muscled frame. He swung the raquet like an angry fighter, seeking revenge on a mortal foe. "Take it easy", Roger, his opponent and friend, exclaimed. "It's only 5 bucks, Kev"! "Sorry pal, my mind is elsewhere today", Kevin replied. He was thinking of her.....dreading the journey.......hating the news, and above all saddenened by his pending message to her. He knew Carolina would be devastated by the news of her little brother's capture. It was ironic that he, old Kevin, was chosen as the messenger. Once again, fate would bring them together, where the passion of their first encounter melded into heated love.

Through a welter of mist, the "city by the bay" sleepily awakened, as Carolina groggily opened her eyes. Her stiff body resisted the coming day. Each second an eternity. Remnants of her intense dream remained. She couldn't shake it off. The screams...the violence... images of tortured faces; and the voice, pursuing her through the dark alley ways.Small beads of persperation trickled down her face as she forced herself from the bed. "Get going" she sleepily muttered to herself. From her inner recesses, her mom's voice prompted her to "Hurry up Carol. Honey, the school bus will be here soon!" Parent's voices....constant exhortations of childhood recordings. Always present, they guided her like Ariadne's magic thread.Bathed and dressed to travel, Carolina awaited the airport taxi, to begin her flight.



- posted by Coach @ 2:22 PM