The Color Box: The Search Westward by Eddie Davis
G and J Publishing Palm Springs, California, USA Copyright Eddie Davis 2014 All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form without written permission from the Publisher ISBN 978-1-940530-03-1 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are a product of the author s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental Editor, Jessica Caudle Cover design and page layout by G and J Publishing www.gandjpublishing.com
The Color Box: The Search Westward
Prelude This was the time of day John loved, while at the same time dreaded. He loved the peace and serenity of the place but couldn t stand that it reminded him of what he once had and lost. Yet, he came to this spot every day of the week at exactly the same time. He d been doing it for two years. The flowers were in full bloom, the grass was green, and the Texas heat hadn t turned up yet for the summer. Upon reaching his destination, he noticed a gift someone left behind. Normally, anything left there he wouldn t touch, but this gift looked too special to not take with him. After his customary hour-long visit, he gathered the present and turned to leave. For the first time in a very long while, John felt peace. There was something else, but he wasn t exactly sure what. It was just as well. He didn t need any emotional upheaval in his life right now. He was fine just the way he was. Sometimes people needed to be reminded of how special and vital they really were. Being fine wasn t always the best way to go through life. Sometimes when something was lost, it could be found again.
Chapter 1 Garden Glen, with only a few exceptions, is like other small towns. There are limited stoplights, one road into the city, a small city council, and it seems that everyone knows everyone else. Garden Glen s close proximity to Charlotte, North Carolina, allows for a smorgasbord of food choices, access to professional football, basketball, and baseball, a golf course, and a beautiful lake. The seven thousand people that live there are of varying ages. There is a strong population of older folks, but with a recent wave of younger people moving in, there are a lot of kids. Main roads, lined with flowering trees, cause visitors to slow down and admire them but also cause locals to sneeze and cough all spring. The lake shimmers from spring to fall, and the walking trails are almost always clogged with families walking with their children and pets or joggers trying to look their best in this lakeside community. You can almost always drive by of one the many parks and see a sporting practice taking place or just a bunch of kids playing whatever it is they play. The town is also a bird sanctuary that houses hundreds of bird types, and on any given night you can see a fox beside the road or deer leaping around the golf course or even your yard. Before the recent expansion of homes, animals had plenty of woodland to reside in. Now the woods are smaller, but that doesn t make it less fun for the kids of Garden Glen to explore.
Max and Samantha are just two of the many kids who live in Garden Glen. Everyone calls Samantha Sam. Max, who is twelve, plays baseball, football, and basketball and plays each to the best of his ability. He is not the most talented player the area has ever seen, but he is considered a vital part of every team he is on. Like many other boys his age, he is a little over zealous and loud but respectful and fun to be around. Sam is just eleven years old and loves to play soccer, perform gymnastics, and has been a cheerleader for her brother s football teams. Sam is a bit quieter than her brother but just as respectful and tries hard at everything she does. Unlike Max, Sam never wants to be the center of attention. Sometimes people, even kids, get pulled from their comfort zones, and one family is about to start an exciting adventure that will take them to some of the most extraordinary places our country has to offer.
Chapter 2 Max and Sam live in a charming house close to the golf course and lake. They have a pool, two dogs, and a picket fence. They are the average American family not considered rich, but neither are they poor. Their family is middle class and enjoys everything that each day brings. Their parents get involved in the community by coaching the kids sports teams. Mom and Dad also try their best to make a difference in the community in as much as they can while working and spending time with the family. Max has a lot of friends in town but doesn t have a lot that live close by. Sam, on the other hand, has friends all over the neighborhood. Even so, the two kids spend a lot of time together practicing sports, playing games, and just being brother and sister, which usually means arguing. Today is the first day of summer vacation. The family trip has not been scheduled yet, and Max and Sam are already bored. Most of their friends left town for Myrtle Beach, Charleston, or any of the other beach towns that litter the coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and even Virginia. Last year the kids spent a great week in Maine visiting their grandparents right after the school year ended. That trip was followed by a trip to Nags Head on the North Carolina coast. Those two weeks were some of the best times the two can remember, and neither is shy about reminding their parents of how much fun they had and how bored they are already.
Mom works for a large company doing a job she loves, but it takes up a lot of her time and dictates when they can go on vacation. That never stops her from spending lots of time with Max and Sam, but she often wonders how her kids can be bored so often. When Mom looks back on her childhood, especially summer vacations, she is always outside. Mom and her friends hike through the woods, ride bikes, or just sit in a field and talk. Mom doesn t ever remember being bored during the summer. Dad has been trying his hand at many different ideas. He has started companies, written books, even tried to sell underwear. He has more time on his hands than Mom does and tries to get to the park with Max and Sam or just play video games like Socom and the Sims with his kids. He too, wonders why the kids can t occupy themselves. Dad also looks back at his summer vacations and fondly remembers playing baseball every day with his buddies, riding his bike to his friends houses, or just hanging out eating Doritos and drinking Coke. While sitting on the porch Max asks Sam, Well, since Mom and Dad are busy and none of our friends are around, what are we going to do today? Sam thinks. We could go to Carowinds. I m not going there with just my sister on the first day of summer vacation. I start eighth grade next year and can t ruin my rep already. Well fine, I guess we could do something around here. That way, your FRIENDS won t see you hanging around with your little sixth-grade sister. Right now, Max and Sam are only one year apart age wise but are two grades apart. While Sam is going to be
the young kid in middle school going into the sixth grade, Max is about to be the cool kid in middle school an eighth grader. This is a kid s last time of being the oldest, therefore the coolest, in school until he is a senior in high school. Senior year follows the other three years of high school with the hardest being freshman year. Max is not looking forward to that. He s heard stories about getting his head dunked in the toilet by senior football players, books knocked out of his hands in the hallways, and worst of all, the stories about being forced to stand on the table during lunch and sing the school fight song in front of everyone. Max shudders and pales every time he thinks about it. Sam isn t old enough to understand these fears. She will one day though. Then again, Max has been told by his Dad, since he was much younger, that one job he will always have is to watch out for his baby sister. Any of Max s friends on Dad s teams have been told that as well. They all take the job very seriously, as does Max, so Sam should be alright. For now they need to figure out what they can do around the house. They can play video games, go onto their Facebook pages, or watch TV. Mom quickly stops these ideas by making both of them get their behinds outside. Okay. What are their options outside? Let s practice soccer, Sam suggests. You can play goalie, and I ll try to score goals on you. This seems like a great idea, but it s only five minutes after they start that Max and Sam begin to argue. You crossed the shooting line, Sam. It s too easy to score from that close in with no defense. You can t stop even one of my shots from that close.
Oh, Max, you re just complaining because I scored a goal on you. Yeah, a girl scored a goal on big bad Max. If you didn t cheat, Sam, you couldn t score on me. No girls could, especially not a sixth-grade girl, yells Max. Sam smiles and realizes that her brother is really only mad she scored a goal on him. This always happens when they play soccer or even basketball. If she happens to score on Max, he claims he s not ready or he lets her score. No matter, Sam knows better and lets her brother get mad. With a laugh Sam suggests they find something else to do. Basketball? asks Max. No, that ll end up the same way as soccer. It always does. Let s just go down to the woods and see if we can find any snakes or golf balls. Sam has always enjoyed nature. She likes all kinds of animals, even some types of snakes, just not the big or poisonous ones. Sam does not, however, like spiders. One time, while walking in the backyard at night, Sam walked through a rather large spider web. To this day Sam still insists on having a flashlight with her in the backyard at night. Max also thinks this is a good idea. While it isn t as fun as playing with his friends and doing boy things, like Airsoft wars, it is better than sitting around doing nothing. And besides, maybe Sam will walk into another spider web, or they ll find a huge copperhead snake. Max loves it when Sam gets scared of things in the woods.
About The Author The Search Westward is the first novel released in The Color Box Adventure series by Eddie Davis. He owns Business Capital Solutions which is a small commercial equipment finance brokerage house, and also coaches football and basketball at the local middle school. He lives in South Carolina with his wife of 15 years, his son and daughter, and two dogs.