Across from the River
Chapter One
Life on the East Side
It was a beautiful day to be sailing…the skies were blue, the mood was merry. Everyone was smiling and singing.
At the stern, staring out into the peaceful ocean, stood a young girl named Demi, clad in a modest white sundress. "Isn't this just simply amazing, Corneil?" she turned to a little yellow dog, who didn't appear to be feeling "simply amazing". "I mean, the crisp ocean air, the cool breeze," she took a deep breath, absorbing the beauty of it all, and let it back out with a contented sigh.
"Fantastic," Corneil replied dolefully.
"Well, this great weather isn't just great for us, you know," a sailor slid down out of the crow's nest. Demi recognized him as Joe, a boy of nearly the same age as her, with long brown hair and a purple.
"What do you mean?" Demi turned around to face him, and watched as he picked up a fish.
"I mean the Cake Nation must be getting great business with all the sunshine and fresh air," he said. "C'mon Demi, you knew that!"
Demi stared at her friend, one eyebrow raised.
Corneil huffed in exasperation. "Oh, stuff and nonsense, Joe!" he declared, and looked at Demi. "Don't you believe a word he says, he's got rocks in his head."
"But it's true, Corneil!" Joe retorted, waving the fish in his furry friend's face. "One day, I'm gonna visit, and prove you completely wrong!" on impulse, Joe flung his hands up in the air, sending the fish flying back into the ocean. "Oops," he muttered, leaning over the edge of the boat. He chuckled nervously. "Guess they'll have to catch another one."
On the shore side of Lake Erie, a local and gave a quick thought before trotting off toward the Cake Nation, where an enormous crowd gathered itself outside the glass doors, attempting to enter for the show.
Inside and on stage, a popular news reporter known as Ryan Seacrest was starting the show. "Presenting to you, the owner of the Cake Nation restaurant, Mr. Danny Gokey!"
Danny came onstage. "Thank you all for coming! Don't forget to come back every day for a pastry!" he laughed as he adjusted his trademark square glasses, and exited the stage as the audience applauded.
Ryan continued. "Also, musical composer for the Cake Nation talent show, not to mention counter boy, Mr. Sterling Knight!"
Sterling also came onstage. But unlike Danny, he didn't receive any applause, and stormed backstage, arms crossed.
"This is the greatest money-maker you've ever thought of!" Danny encouraged his moping cashier.
"Yes, and my last hope for a musical career," Sterling worried, watching the show from behind the curtain.
Danny nudged Sterling, grinning wide. "But I'm especially looking forward to a certain little Honduran," he whispered. "He's been making me easy money since he started working here!"
Sterling rolled his eyes. "Yeah yeah. We all know that he's the most amazing baker the world's ever known." he griped. "If only he'd actually be here for half the practices." Sterling re-entered the stage area to introduce the first act. "And now, Allison Iraheta and the Riot." He announced, and walked backstage again.
A cutesy and red-haired teenaged girl, Allison, along with three of her friends, climbed up on stage, all wearing enormous grins.
Allison started the act, by singing "Oh! Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?"
On cue, the three girls behind her shouted in unison "Danny Gokey!"
Allison then danced to the other end of the stage, causing the windows to rattle. "Absorbent and yellow and porous is he?" she jumped up in the air, making all the tables in the bakery go "bump".
The other girls followed her, mimicking her movements. "Danny Gokey! "
Allison struck a girly pose, causing several of the audience members to applaud. "If nautical nonsense be something you wish?"
"Danny Gokey!"
Allison spun around, her vibrant reds flying up in the air. "Then drop on the deck, and flop like a fish!" as she sang, she jumped off of the stage and flipped around in a supposedly helpless manner.
This made the audience practically fall over laughing, as the three other girls repeated the action. "Danny Gokey!"
"Ready?" Allison called, climbing back up on stage. "Danny Gokey! Danny Gokey! Danny Gokey! Danny…Gokey!" they ended the song in a cheerleading pyramid, two girls standing on Allison's outstretched arms, while the other one balanced one foot on each of their shoulders. They jumped down and stepped to the side, where a podium had been rolled up behind them.
But, behind the podium…was no sign of David, who was supposed to be holding a sign with the words "GO GOKEY!". A series of gasps rose up out of the stage area, followed by the dinner guests. Danny's face turned even redder than before. "DAVID!"
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Out by the lake, a short young man, named David, and a much taller boy by the name of Taylor, were playing tag. "You're it!" David shouted as he touched his friend's arm.
Taylor laughed, chasing after David, who'd already taken to running the other direction. In his hurry to catch up, Taylor didn't realize that David had stopped running, and ran straight into him, sending them both tumbling in the rocky sand. "You're it!" he chimed.
David got up and hopelessly brushed himself off, and then helped Taylor up too. The boy turned to see what David had been staring at.
"Who, what's that?" he asked, hiding partly behind his diminutive friend.
"It's a pirate's ship!" David exclaimed, smiling.
"Oh sweet, a pirate ship!" Taylor sing-songed. "I've never been in a real-live pirate ship before! Well come on, let's go!" he grabbed David by the wrist and ran toward the boat resting on the shore, finding a small entrance and barely managing to squeeze in.
"Wow!" David whispered, staring around. "Come on, let's see what we can find!" they went into the next room, gazing around in awe.
Little did they know, they were being followed.
David saw something glisten in the little light managing to make it on board. He picked up a four-pronged object. "Wow, this is neat!" he said, examining the object closely.
Taylor stared. "Yeah, but…what is it?"
David shrugged, pulling out a small black bag and putting the object inside. "I'll bet Metro knows, though!"
David picked up another object. It was hollow, with a little end, then a turn in the middle and a big end.
"D-D-D-David?" Taylor stuttered.
"I wonder what this is," David wondered aloud.
"Da-David!" Taylor called, trying to get his friend's attention.
"Yeah buddy?" David turned around to see the skeleton of a man's body, sitting on the ground as if staring. He screamed in terror and ran behind Taylor.
Taylor pointed to another one, not too far off. At that point, they both screamed.
"Let's get out of here!" David shouted, stumbling toward their exit. The two ran=2 0nonstop in blind terror, until they arrived at David's house, panting.
David chuckled. "Heh, guess-guess we showed them…" he said.
Taylor chuckled, too. "Yeah…"
David invited his friend in, and soon the two were seated in front of Metro the cat, their discoveries in hand. "Maybe you can tell us what these are, Metro." David suggested. "You used to live on a boat."
"Meow." Sure, whatcha got?
David placed the pronged object in front of Metro. "What do you make of this?" he asked.
"Meow." Yup, that one's a dinglehopper. Sailors use them to straighten out their hair.
David's countenance dropped slightly, but he was still smiling. "Well, so much for that," he jo ked. The strange object almost looked like a fork, but it was much too large. "Okay, so what's this?" he took out the hollow object.
"Meow, meow." That's a snarfblatt. Sailors make music with those, it really is something!
Taylor looked confused. "A scarf-what?"
David's eyes grew wide, and he smacked a hand to his forehead. "Music, oh shoot!" he looked at his watch. "I was supposed to star in Danny's talent show! He's going to rip my limbs off! I've gotta go, see you later, Metro!" David dashed out the front door, followed closely behind by Taylor.
What our worried friends did not know, was deep in the depths of the Duncan Doughnuts, they were being monitored closely by none other than the nefarious Moises Aries. He cackled. "Yeah, you'd better run, you wouldn't want to miss Danny's precious party!" he scoffed. "Party indeed. When I was in college, parties meant hip-hop music, gettin g wasted, and not to mention the ladies…"
The monitor went black, and a set of green eyes appeared. "Moises!"
Moises recoiled. "Not that, you know, I'm not happy now!"
"Aha." The image of David and Taylor rushing toward the Cake Nation reappeared.
"Don't call me that," Moises muttered through clenched teeth, and then called "Jason! Miley!"
The two teenagers appeared in the doorway.
"Keep a sharp eye on that dip-sticked cry baby. He just may be the key element to my master plan," he laughed louder and louder, until he sent himself into a coughing fit.
Back at the Cake Nation, Taylor watched in terror as David received20a scolding from Danny.
"What were you thinking, man?" Danny reprimanded.
"Danny, I'm sorry, I just kinda forgot…" David sniffled, not appreciating Danny's sharp words.
"You forgot!" Danny was steaming. "How could you be so careless, man?"
"And reckless!" Sterling added. He stepped forward to be eye-to-eye with his cowering co-worker. "The whole party was ruined because you're too retarded to show up! My one chance—my last chance, at a good career, decent pay, and an actual life—ruined! Utterly destroyed! Now, everyone in Erie thinks I'm just a big joke!"
"And worse!" Danny interrupted. "Now, people are afraid that the food is as bad as the performance! I haven't had a single customer since!"
David's eyes started to tear up, and he looked as if he just wanted to run away and sob.
"But Danny, he didn't do anything wrong!" Taylor interjected. "We were on our way to the Cake Nation," Taylor's tone grew dramatic, and David covered his face with his hands. "When all of a sudden—BOOM!" he lunged at the un-expecting Danny and Sterling. "The Flying Dutchman! And he tried to eat us! But we got away! But then, that dumb old Metro came up, and started telling us a gazillion things, and we just had to—"
"Metro?" Danny interrupted.
Taylor slapped his hand over his mouth, catching his mistake just a moment too late.
"You were headed toward the lake again, weren't you?!" Danny seethed.
"No, I wasn't! I mean…maybe…" David took a step back, tripping backward into a chair.
Danny=2 0loomed over him, pure anger in his eyes. "Oh David, how many times to I have to tell you? Those—those—sailors don't appreciate Eric people in their territory. Things can get extremely violent!"
"But Danny, they're not all like that!" David retorted, his voice cracking.
"Oh, but they're dangerous! You remembered what happens with high school boys, don't you kid?"
"Danny I'm 19 years old! I'm not just a kid anymore!" David shouted.
"Don't talk to me like that!" Danny boomed, sending David deeper into the chair. "As long as I'm your boss, you'll do what I say!"
David's lip quivered, as he tried to retort but instead broke into tears and darted into the kitchen to be alone.
"Humph, know-it-all," Sterling muttered from behind a magazine.
"Think I'm too strict with the boy?" Danny asked his rude counter man, flopping himself down in a chair.
"Really Danny, I don't actually care if you throw him out on the streets or keep his annoying Honduran majesty here. But if you want my opinion, you should teach him who's in charge. No running off to play games when you have previous engagements. I'd keep him under a watchful eye 24-7."
"Of course," Danny replied, thoughtfully.
"He should be properly disciplined."
"Yes…"
"Constantly supervised."
"Excellent idea, Mr. Sterling! You can start right now!" Danny walked off to his office.
"Danny!" Sterling threw his magazine onto the cash register. "Nuh-uh! No way am I going to watch an irritating, immature, no-good—"Sterling stopped short. On their way out of the back door, in the kitchen, were David and Taylor. "Hmm," he followed them, quietly, through a trapdoor in the floor of the kitchen, leading underground.
Sterling was shocked to see shelves lining the walls, covered in nets, hooks, glass jars, and all manner of sailing paraphernalia. Taylor and Metro were playing with a shiny metal object, which Sterling recognized as a large fork. David sat alone on a rock, looking depressed as he stared at the items lining the walls.
"Dave, you okay?" Taylor asked.
David sighed. "Yeah, I suppose. It's just that," he huffed, standing up. "Danny still thinks I'm a kid! I mean, he treats me like a baby, and—and…" his voice trailed off and a tear ran down his cheek. "It's just not fair."
"Well, I'll be sure Danny hears about this," Sterling murmured to himself. He turned to leave, but upon doing so tripped over a fish net, and fell down to where the three were standing.
David jumped back. "Sterling!?" David wasn't sure whether to be angry, or to beg him not to tell Danny about his hideout.
The irritated 'Knight' stood up and dusted himself off. "David! What is all this crap?" he asked.
"It's…um…just a collection…" David stuttered.
"Oh, just a collection," Sterling said, sounding momentarily relieved. "Just wait ' till Danny finds out about this!" he bellowed, waving his arms madly above his head.
"Wait Sterling, you're not gonna tattle on us…are you?" Taylor asked.
"Oh, please Sterling!" David begged. "Danny would never understand!"
"Oh no, you don't!" Sterling put a hand out in front of him, blocking out the heartbreaking face that David was making. He grabbed the little teen's arm and began dragging him back toward the entrance. "You're gonna tell Danny about this yourself!" Sterling said.
David dug his heels into20the ground, trying to free himself from the determined man's grip.
"Please Sterling!" he stopped resisting, though, when he saw a movement. "What was that?" he whispered, slipping his hand out of Sterling's.
"DAV-ID!" Sterling shouted after the retreating figure.
But David didn't listen as he, Taylor, and Metro went toward the giant shadow looming over the water.