*NOTE: This is the third chapter of my new saga "A New Life". If you haven't read my first saga you may not know where these characters are coming from. So you might want to read it, or at least "Meant to Be Parts 5-9". This story takes place 5 years before the end of "Meant To Be"
*If you want to find my other stories (My first saga) click on my screen name on the top of this page, and you can find my stories on my profile. If you want to stay updated as to when I post new chapters, please subscribe to my username!!
*Anyway, I hope you like this! Please leave reviews!
A New Life
-Chapter 3: Honor Among Thieves-
Rose Oken was very concerned for her little brother Michael. He had been paralyzed from the waist down about a week ago. He had always been such a joyful, energetic kid. But now he was confined to a wheelchair. He was having to learn to deal with the fact that he could no longer walk or even sit up on his own. He did have all of his family and friends for support. But he was still very unhappy, and he had changed drastically in personality. He had been a very open and friendly person. Now he was extremely closed off and down emotionally all the time.
"Mom there's gotta be something I can do. He's so sad all the time. I'm not used to him like this." Rose said. "We have to give him time to adjust. He's just a little boy, and he's being forced to adjust to a life changing injury that no one should have to deal with." Lilly told her daughter.
"I know he's got to get used to it. But isn't there something we can do to help him do that?" Rose said. "I don't know what to tell you. We've tried just about everything. He's just not ready to start getting back into things yet. You can try to help him. But I think the best thing to do is to just give him time." Lilly said.
Ten minutes later Michael was wheeled in by Jimmy, who didn't look too pleased with something. Michael began to wheel himself off into another room. "What's wrong Jimmy?" Rose asked him. "He's still in the same bad mood he's been in ever since he got home from the hospital. He won't talk very much either." Jimmy told her. "Isn't their anything we can do to cheer him up?" Rose asked. "I've tried everything I can think of. I took him to the park. That just made him even more moody. I offered to take him over to see Susan and Robbie, but he definitely didn't want to do that. He seemed like he would've been embarrassed. I even tried telling him the jokes I tell him all the time that always make him laugh. He didn't even crack a smile. I don't know what to do." Jimmy said.
"Well I have to go across the street. Dad wants me to bring Mrs. Halverson her newspaper." Rose said. Mrs. Halverson was their elderly neighbor. She needed help with things like that from her neighbors. So Rose headed over there. She began walking up the walkway and scooped up the newspaper. She made it to the door and rang the bell. Mrs. Halverson came shuffling to the door. "Why thank you my dear. Would you like to come in for some tea? I have a fresh pot on the stove right now." She said.
"Sure, that sounds nice." Rose said, following her into the house. She sat down in the living room and waited for Mrs. Halverson to come back with the tea. She didn't really like tea that much, she was only ten. But she didn't want to be rude.
"So you're younger brother Michael is paralyzed. I'm so sorry. He is such a nice boy." Mrs. Halverson said. "Yeah. He's been really down lately. We haven't been able to cheer him up at all." Rose said. "I've got something you can give to him for entertainment that doesn't require him to be able to walk." Mrs. Halverson said. "That's great. What is it?" Rose asked.
"I have this bag of marbles that used to belong to my son. He's all grown up now and he has his own children. But I'll bet he won't mind." Mrs. Halverson said. She stood up and shuffled off into another room. When she came back she had a silk pouch in her hand. She reached out and handed it to Rose.
"Take a look. They are the best quality. They don't make them like that anymore. Go ahead, take a look." Mrs. Halverson said. Rose obediently poured the marbles out onto the table, carefully. They were very shiny and fancy looking. Some with real gold in the center. Some with silver in the center. And some with bronze or other various metals in the center.
When Rose went to put the marbles back in the pouch, she noticed that it was inside out. So she put her hand into the pouch and pulled it right side out. There was a little tag on the corner. She placed the marbles back into the pouch and pulled the drawstring shut. Then she noticed that there was print on the label. It said "Property of Oliver Oscar Oken".
"Oh, dear, I'm afraid I've made a mistake." Mrs. Halverson exclaimed. Now knowing that the bag of marbles had belonged to her father and that Mrs. Halverson had kept them for some reason, Rose had no intention of giving them back, at least not until she had showed them to her father.
She stowed the pouch in her pocket and bolted out the front door as fast as she could. She was half way down the front walkway before Mrs. Halverson had made it to the doorway. "Get back here! Give those back! Thief!" shouted Mrs. Halverson.
She ran back to their house intending to show the marbles to her father Oliver, and then give them to her brother to play with to help cheer him up. But Michael wasn't there, and neither was Jimmy. "Dad…dad have you seen Michael or Jimmy?" Rose said, slightly out of breath. "They're at the park. Why are you out of breath?" Oliver asked. "I ran here from Mrs. Halverson's!" Rose said. "Why did you run?" Oliver asked, perturbed. "This is why!" she exclaimed.
"What about it? It's a bag of marbles." Oliver said looking it over. "Look at the label dad." Rose said to him. Oliver looked at it, his eyes widened slightly. "I haven't seen these since I was seven. I forgot what happened to them. I must have lost them. Where did you find them?" Oliver asked.
"I didn't find them. I got them back from Mrs. Halverson. She must have stolen them from you." Rose declared. "She wouldn't have done that." Oliver said. "Then how did she get them?" she asked. "I don't know but I'm sure there's a good reason." Oliver said. "Yeah, she's a thief!" Rose said. "Stop that. She is not." Oliver told her.
"Go see if Jimmy's having any luck with Michael. We'll talk to Mrs. Halverson when you get back." Oliver said.
Jimmy was in the park standing behind his brother's wheelchair. "Michael, why won't you at least try to have some fun?" Jimmy begged his brother. "I don't know." Michael uttered. "That's what you keep saying… 'I don't know'. But I've tried everything you like to do with me. I took you to Disneyland. I almost managed to get you onto the Hannah Montana roller coaster, "The Climb"; you just sat there the whole time we were there, no smile, nothing. We went to work with dad for his Saturday morning show. I've taken you to the park every day after school, so you can get outside. I even told you all those old ghost stories before bed. You always loved it when I did that. But none of that seems to work. What's it gonna take little bro?" Jimmy pleaded. "I don't know. Nothing seems the same anymore." Michael said, serenely.
Later on one of Jimmy's friends from school ran into them. "Hey Jimmy!" said John Stokes. "Hey John, what's up?" Jimmy replied. "So I see you got yourself a girlfriend!" John teased. "What are you talking about?" Jimmy asked, bewildered. "I saw you and Alice Greenwood kissing under the pier last weekend! I thought she must be your girlfriend. Jimmy's got a girlfriend, Jimmy's got a girlfriend, Jimmy's got a…" John chanted. "She's not my girlfriend! Grow up!" Jimmy said, slugging him in the arm. "Hey, I'm just telling it like I see it!" John said. "Well she's not my girlfriend. So don't go telling people that!" Jimmy said.
"What's it worth to you Jimbo?" John said, trying to act slick. "Andy Corelli is a lot bigger than you are, John!" Rose said as she walked up to them. "So, what?" John asked her. "So you remember how easy it was for Jimmy to win a fight with him? How do you think you would do?" Rose said. "Rose I'm not gonna hit him. I'm not like that." Jimmy told her. He was more or less anger free lately, because of all the exercise and workouts he had been getting.
"But if you do tell anybody about that, I'll tell them that it was you that let one during that eight grade Shakespeare play our class saw." Jimmy told him, with a slick look on his face that matched the one that had just vacated John's face. "Ok. I see your point. Don't worry about it. I won't say anything if you won't." John said. "Gee thanks." Jimmy said sarcastically.
"Dad told me to see how you guys were doing. So… having fun?" Rose asked. "No! He's not any less mopey than he was yesterday." Jimmy said. "It'd probably work better if you didn't talk about him like that right in front of him." Rose said. "Trust me. I've tried everything, I've said everything I can think of, to try and cheer him up. He just won't snap out of it. He's just too down about this whole thing." Jimmy said, looking very discouraged.
Having no success whatsoever they took Michael home. When they got there, their mother looked angry. "Rose I need to talk to you as soon as your brothers are out of the room." Lilly said. After a few minutes Jimmy took Michael into another room and started playing a board game with him. Michael was quickly tiring of this, because he was used to being quite a bit more active and doing things that involved running around and playing outside with his friends, which he could no longer do. He could still do things with his friends. But so far he hadn't seemed willing to.
"Ok, Rose. I got a call from Mrs. Halverson. Do you wanna explain to me what you're doing steeling from her?" Lilly asked. "I didn't steal anything. I took back something that belonged to dad. And besides she was trying to give them to me until she realized she'd stolen them from dad." Rose answered. "I realize they belonged to dad but that doesn't mean that you should just take them and run." Lilly said. "But they where dad's!" Rose insisted. "I don't care. When you found that out you should have given them back like you were asked, and then come back here and told us. Then we could have dealt with it." Lilly said, sternly.
"Ok. Fine." Rose said, grudgingly. "Now me, you, and your father are going over there to straighten this whole thing out with Mrs. Halverson." Lilly told her. Lilly left the room and moments later returned with Oliver. "Let's go." Oliver said to Rose.
The three of them walked over to Mrs. Halverson's house. Rose still didn't understand why she was in trouble. When they rang the doorbell Mrs. Halverson let them in promptly. When they sat down Mrs. Halverson spoke up. "So Rose you're here to apologize from steeling those marbles from me?" Mrs. Halverson said. "I'm sorry Mrs. Halverson. I shouldn't have taken them." Rose said. "Wait a minute! That's very grown up of Rose. But you know those didn't belong to you. I don't know how they came into your possession. Could you possibly tell me that?" Oliver said.
"They're mine! They belonged to my son." Mrs. Halverson insisted. "The pouch has a tag with my name on it. So unless your son's name is Oliver Oken, then they aren't yours. Now I don't believe that you would just come over and take them out of our house. So I would like to know just how you came to have them, please." Oliver said. "Okay. You're right; of course they do belong to you. I'll tell you why I have them. I was out in my front yard, years ago, planting flowers in my garden. There were these two little boys. One of them was you. The other I did not recognize. You were playing with those marbles on the sidewalk directly in front of my house. And you and the other boy where making an awful racket. So I asked you to keep it down. And you kept it up. So it told you to leave and I confiscated those marbles to teach you a lesson. I must have forgotten to return them to your parents. I'm sorry for making such a fuss." Mrs. Halverson told them.
"Thank you for being honest with us Mrs. Halverson. If you want to keep them then that is okay." Oliver said. "No, not at all. They belong to you. You should have them for your son. It is an awful shame what happened to him. He's such a good little boy. He must be devastated to have to adapt to life like that." Mrs. Halverson said. "He has been pretty down in the dumps since it happened. Nothing we try seems to be working with him. He just doesn't seem to want to cheer up at all." Lilly said.
"How is he at school? He must have lots of good friends. After all he is such a very sweet boy." Mrs. Halverson said. "He's doing alright. Everybody there is being especially friendly and helpful to him. But his teachers tell us he's been just as closed off with the other kids as he is with us. It's really sad to see him change from such an outgoing, likeable kid to this closed off, sad little boy." Lilly sighed.
"There's one thing you may not have tried. You are wonderful parents to all three of your children. But still, you may not have thought of this." Mrs. Halverson said. "What? What haven't we tried? I'd like to know. We're running out of ideas." Oliver said desperately.
"Have you just tried, all of you getting together with him, and just talking to him?" Mrs. Halverson asked. "Well, I guess so. Not really. Not so much. We've really just been trying to take him around and do things that might cheer him up. But that hasn't seemed to work. He says that nothing seems the same anymore, that he just feels a little empty. And I guess we can't blame him. It's like part of his world was just snatched away from him and now all he can do is just sit there and watch the things he loved doing just pass him by. But I think maybe talking to him about things might just be the way to get him to start living again and stop being so closed in. He is a very 'feeling' person. So I think maybe he would enjoy just being with us and talking." Lilly said, smiling.
Oliver had begun to lose focus, a little, near the end of the conversation. But just then he snapped back to attention. "Oooooh, yeah! I do remember you taking the marbles away. I was seven. And I was playing with a friend from school that lived on this street. I lived on the other side of town near where Lilly lived then. It was me and Peter…Peter… Peter Bishop! Yeah!" Oliver said. "Umm, Oliver we've kind moved on from that. We think we might have a way to get to Michael." Lilly said, giving him a look. "Yeah, I know, we need to talk to him more. I totally agree." Oliver replied.
"It's been nice talking to all of you." Mrs. Halverson said, as they got ready to leave. But Oliver stopped Rose for a second. "By the way. Since you did take those marbles, after you were asked to give them back, and didn't handle it maturely, here's what's gonna happen. You are going to come over here every day after you finish your school work, for a month and help Mrs. Halverson around her yard." Oliver told his daughter. "Ok. Fine. Alright." Rose said, mumbling a little bit.
When they got home they saw Jimmy and Michael sitting in the living room. They were both laughing hysterically. Michael was smiling for the first time in the last week, but it seemed like forever. "What's going on here?" Oliver asked them. "We were talking… and Jimmy… he… and… I… he said something… funny." Michael said through laughter. "Mind if we join in. It looks like fun!" Lilly said.
They sat down with the boys and started talking. Occasionally something would get said that would remind Michael of something he could no longer do, and he would sigh forlornly. But most of the time he was smiling or laughing happily. And at one point he even reached up and hugged Rose when she mentioned how much trouble she had gone to to find something to cheer him up. It was very clear that Michael was well on the road to being his old, happy self again. He just needed to be loved. That was the one thing he needed more than anything to adjust to his new circumstances. Love.
Notes to the readers:
*Reviews are much appreciated!!
**I hope you enjoyed this third chapter of my new saga.
***Again, it might help understanding where the main characters came from if you have read "Meant to Be parts 5-9 or 8-9" or something. Although they are pretty much their own characters, so it might not be that hard to read without knowing where they came from.
****Lilly and Oliver, and Miley and Jackson are in their thirties. Jimmy is 12. Rose is 10. Michael and Susan (Miley's daughter), and Robbie Rod (Jackson's son) are all 8.
*****The title "A New Life" means it is the lives of Lilly and Oliver's kids and their friend's kids. But mostly their kids.
******There will be more in the near future. So I hope you will continue reading.