“Of Endless Time” – the opening chapter.
I know, I’ve been terribly mum on all things NaNoWriMo this year, and it’s because I’m so far behind in my word count! But I have, indeed, been writing…and if you’ve not yet read my novel excerpt, posted over at my NaNo profile page, here it is. I’m reworking a book I wrote in high school (yes, I wrote an entire novel in high school, and yes, all resemblances to places or persons living or dead are intentional!) & am trying to keep the Young Adult Fiction flavour to it. Here’s the opening chapter, which I think gives you a pretty good idea just what it’s all about… 🙂
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“Turn it on.”
The sleepy voice from the passenger seat startled Brynn, who for the last hour or more had been driving in silence, eyes fixed on the twisting road ahead but her mind already at their destination. A smile tugged at her lips. She knew exactly what she was being ordered to turn on.
“Do it yourself, lazy cow,” she said with a smirk, giving a quick glance at her best friend. Amanda stretched lazily and yawned, which served to remind Brynn just how tired she was herself. “I left it off so I wouldn’t wake you.”
Amanda slid her seat forward and leaned to hit the play button on the car stereo. “Yeah. Like background music wouldn’t have helped me along in the sweet dreams department.”
The two laughed and were both invigorated as soon as the first notes of their favourite song by their favourite band filled the space between them. Laughter gave way to singing, and Brynn couldn’t help but feel like a giddy little kid again. This whole trip had been planned around their shared girlhood daydreams, and here they were, using their summer off from university to live it out. It was kind of incredible.
“So what did I miss while I was out?”
“Oh, you know,” Brynn said dryly. “The usual. Rolling green pastures, quaint little farmhouses, oodles of sheep.”
Amanda snickered and settled back into her seat. “So, basically, everything I’d already seen before I lost consciousness?”
Brynn nodded, but she could tell from the tone in Amanda’s voice that neither of them had felt the effect of being in the English countryside wear off. Not in the least. They had been ten years old when they first started dreaming of being here, their fanciful plans of running away from home to marry their rock star crushes in a lavish dual ceremony with the Atlantic Ocean as a backdrop. A decade later they were, obviously, older, and mercifully wiser, but something about actually seeing the places they’d fantasized about for so long tapped into the little girl that lay not so far beneath their surfaces.
“You’re doing a not half bad job of keeping us alive on this road,” Amanda offered by way of a compliment. “I mean, you’re probably doing better than I would. What did the guy at the rental place tell us to watch out for?”
“Hairpin turns, sudden fog, and the whole ‘driving on the wrong side of the road’ thing.”
“What about stray sheep?”
“Cattle. Not sheep. Apparently the flocks are more obedient. Or so he said.”
“Hmm.” Amanda looked out the window and smiled; Brynn could see her face in the reflection of the glass. “I think fog is the least of our worries for the time being.”
“I don’t think the guy would’ve said ‘sudden’ if he thought we’d have warning, Mand.”
“Oh. Whatever.” Amanda turned her attention back to the stereo, mindlessly fiddling with the cord that hooked into the iPod they’d loaded especially for this leg of their long journey. “God, I love this song.”
Brynn took one hand off the wheel, a bit nervously, and turned up the volume by one click of the dial. “Do you remember what you used to say about this song?”
“No, but I don’t doubt you do, and that you’re about to remind me, and humiliate me in doing so.”
“Glad to see you know what to expect after all this time,” Brynn said with a laugh. It was so easy to laugh with Amanda. “You used to tell me that this was the song you wanted Robert to sing to you instead of proposing marriage.”
“Which is brilliant of me, isn’t it? Since he wrote it but never sang a single thing on any of their albums and all.” Amanda put a hand to her forehead. “Man, we were stupid.”
Another fit of laughter passed between them. “Yeah. So stupid way back then. We’re loads smarter now,” Brynn said in an exaggerated valley girl drawl. “We’re, like, total brainers who are still driving to the promised land with the not-so-secret hopes of…?”
She let Amanda finish her thought. “…of running into Robert and Paul and having them fall madly in love with us, leave their wives or girlfriends…”
“…or both!” Brynn chimed in with a giggle.
“Right, or both, because that’s the way rock stars live, isn’t it? Hey, maybe we can be the girlfriends, and let them keep their wives.”
“Now you’re talking.”
The song changed, and it was inevitably another one the girls both loved. Talking once again gave way to singing, a version of companionable silence that had marked their friendship from day one, and another hour slipped by easily that way, with Brynn daring to throw Amanda an excited smile only when the road was straight enough to tear her eyes from the yellow line. Using songs as their markers rather than time of kilometres, they both knew that, with the last note of one leading into the first of the next, they were that much closer to their destination.
The sun was still peeking out from between the fluffy white clouds when Amanda sat up straight in her seat and said breathlessly, “Oh. My. God. Brynn.”
Brynn’s knuckles whitened as she gripped the steering wheel harder, anticipating something dreadful ahead. “What? What??”
Wordless, Amanda simply pointed to a far-off road sign that was drawing nearer by the second. Brynn squinted and managed to make out what it said well before they actually passed it, and she felt her heart do a little pirouette. She was fairly certain she’d not had that particular feeling since her eleventh birthday, when her parents had given her a copy of Floor 44’s live concert video. The sign read “Portsmouth,” and right below it was a symbol indicating they were only fourteen kilometres away from the ferry now.
Amanda finally looked away from the sign long enough to grab her camera, which had somehow remained laying in her lap through her nap and all of the stunt driving Brynn had been doing for the last five hours. “I need to get a shot of this!” she cried, and Brynn slowed the car down just enough to allow Amanda to click the shutter. They both glanced at the preview window, and while it was a touch blurry, Amanda seemed satisfied. “That’s got to be right near the front of the scrapbook.”
“Right after the plane tickets, the barf bags, the car rental slip with the impossibly long phone number on it…”
“Clearly you know nothing about scrapbooking,” Amanda said, trying to sound haughty. “Those pages are huge.”
Brynn laughed. “Yeah, I’ll leave that part up to you. We can share custody.”
“That could get messy if there are photos in there of us with Paul and Rob, you realize.”
For a moment, Brynn’s smile faded slightly. Had they hyped up this trip too much? Were their 20-year-old selves going to be satisfied with the realities of it all? That there would be no star-crossed meetings, no chance encounters, just two weeks of girl time and sightseeing in all of the places they’d read about for so long? She hoped so. Amanda had to be kidding. Of course she was. But Brynn couldn’t help but wonder if, secretly, underneath it all, they would come away disappointed with anything less than the realization of what was, truly, an impossible dream. The idea saddened her, because they had planned this vacation so meticulously and had saved up for so long…
Amanda’s voice cut into Brynn’s thoughts. “I know that look.”
With a slight smile, Brynn glanced at her best friend and said, “And I know that tone.”
In an uncharacteristic display of affection, Amanda reached over and put her arms around Brynn’s neck, careful not to obscure her view of the road but managing to give a light squeeze all the same. “This trip is going to be amazing, Bee. I don’t care who else shows up. I’m just glad we’re doing this. Together.”
Brynn lifted one hand long enough to pat Amanda’s arm in silent thanks, and at that moment the sun slipped behind the clouds once again, erasing much of the lush colour that had surrounded them up to then. She bit her lip, trying to push away the gray thoughts that seemed to be edging in, and instead nodded her head toward the next road sign they were approaching. “What does that say, Mand?”
Amanda turned and leaned forward, peering through the windshield for a moment before letting out an excited whoop. “Next left, Portsmouth! Ferry to Isle of Wight! Omigod!”
There was no way to stop herself; Brynn had to laugh. They were so close now. As the song changed and the girls began to sing along once more, Brynn guided the car around the turn, hoping that the clouds outside the car would clear soon, and perhaps take the ones inside with them.
With a sigh that could have been dreamy or nervous, Amanda whispered, “Almost there.”
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Heather V. Swanson 