CHAPTER 1 – Who I Am

BAR NUNN, WYOMING

AUGUST 8TH, 2012 5:32 A.M.

"Will!"

Will's eyes fluttered open then quickly closed as he turned over in his bed. It was still dark in his bedroom.

"Will! Time to get goin'. Chores aren't gonna do themselves." His father said as he ascended the stairs to William's bedroom. His father approached the door and gave a soft knock,

"Son?" He looked around the boy's sci-fi crazed bedroom to find he was talking to his son's backside covered up in a blanket. Not to his surprise, the boy was still asleep. Mr. Van de Kamp grinned to himself as he knelt down beside his bed and started rubbing William's shoulders.

"Son, it's time to get up." No response.

"Mom's made breakfast." Nothing stirred.

"C'mon, I just opened your door. There's no way you still haven't smelt that bacon."

With a groggy muffled voice Will responded, "For once I would love to be like, a normal kid and sleep in on my summer vacation."

"School's not for another couple of weeks though."

"I know, that's my point," said Will as he turned around to face his dad.

"Well, let's get a move on. We got a lot to do", said Mr. Van de Kamp as he gave his son an encouraging pat on the shoulder then exited the bedroom and closed the door.

Will sat up towards the edge of his bed with his eyes closed as he allowed the blood to circulate faster throughout his entire body. While sitting there, he slowly opened his eyes more as he looked around his bedroom.

From the ceiling he saw the Glow-in-the-Dark stars still glowing. He and his father had a blast putting up each and every sticker last year. Dangling from the ceiling was his solar system project that he was very fond of. On his left side he then looked over at the telescope pointing out the window. It wasn't the best telescope in the world, but he managed to recognize a few stars on some nights. Directly across from him was his desk and toy chemistry set. Behind the desk had his posters; one giant glowing alien head, an Albert Einstein with tongue sticking out, and a Constellations Identification chart. On the back of the door, William had hung a body length mirror. He got up and scuffled his feet as he approached the mirror. He groped for the light switch on the wall next to the door and was instantly blinded. From what he could see in the mirror he straightened out his twisted grey shirt and unruffled his flannel pants. After rubbing his eyes for a minute he looked into the mirror and noticed a string of dried spittle caked on his face. He combed his fingers through his bowl-cut brown hair.

Why couldn't I have been a normal kid and have gone to space camp? William thought.

He rubbed the dried spittle off his face as he stared into his baby-blue eyes. He watched his own pupils adjust to the light when he noticed and felt a slight tremor around him.

"William, what in the heck is takin' you so long?" called his father from downstairs. The tremors immediately stopped.

"Well, that was weird," William said as he quickly changed into a pair of comfy jeans. He then grabbed his shoes and proceeded downstairs to breakfast.

"Mom, Dad?"

"Yeah, son," said Mr. Van de Kamp as everyone at the table helped clean up breakfast.

"I… really want to go to a camp this summer…"

"What kind of camp, honey?" asked his mother who was drying dishes.

"Well… I… really wanted to go to space camp before school started," said Will as he placed his dish in the sink.

"Son, I thought we talked about this," responded his father who was wiping the table.

"But don't I have money saved up in my account from grandma and grandpa or something?" he said while looking at his father.

Mr. Van de Kamp stopped wiping and looked up at Will, "Will, I know this has been something you wanted for a while, but honestly this family can't really afford it right now."

"All we've got," he continued as he pointed outside, "is the farm and whatever God thinks we need at the moment."

Disappointed, Will closed his eyes in frustration and stormed out the house door, not realizing the house was shaking slightly when he left.

"What was that?" Mrs. Van de Kamp asked.

"I think Will was blessed with heavy feet," said Mr. Van de Kamp.

Frustrated, Will decided to focus his energy with the task at hand, which was raking. There were many grassy hay piles which were blown everywhere from last night's storm. He knew this was something his father would want him to do first.

Fortunately, Will thought, it's just around the shed area.

The Van de Kamp home felt like it was out in the middle of nowhere, with large open fields and a forest along the backside that seemed to give their property the illusion of boundary. The chore took William an hour to gather all the piles together before stopping to rest. He leaned against the rake as he stared at the sun beginning to kiss the ground in which he stood upon. That only meant one thing… it was only going to get hotter from here on. But still, the sunrise was always a sight to see. Will wondered,

Why would God to create something so painfully beautiful? Is this sight a gift for me? Or is this a sign of things yet to come? Isn't there something more to life than this for me?

A piece of wood snapped in the distance, which alerted William back to reality and towards the direction of the sound. He thought he heard it by the shed near the woods. He felt the presence of someone or something strangely familiar close by but he couldn't put his finger on it. Like someone was watching him. A strange buzzing from within the woods caused the hairs on his arms to stand on end. Like the sense of home but in a more eerie way. From what his eyes could see, he squinted to hopefully get a better look from where he was standing. His heart started to pound a little harder as he started to walk forward.

"Will!"

William turned around to find his father walking up to greet him. Will turned his head back to the shed and the buzzing and odd feeling immediately went away.

"Yeah Dad."

"Hey, look. Um… I wanted to apologize. I didn't really handle your request too well."

Will searched for his toes because he knew how awkward his father got when it involved money. Will's Dad continued,

"And I know how much this science camp means to you. I… just… need your help a little longer. And, well, I hate disappointing you. I want you to be happy." There was a brief silence between the two and an awkward shuffling of feet.

"So how about this… Let's figure out a game plan. A way for you to get to that camp by next summer…"

"…next summer," Will responded with an audible disappointed murmur, still looking down.

"Hey," said Mr. Van de Kamp as he reached for Will's left shoulder, "it will happen, ok? Don't give up on me now." He took his two calloused fingers to gently lift Will's head up so that he could look into his clear blue eyes,

"I am proud of you. And I know I should say it more often, but you are a blessing from God." Will dropped the rake as they both embraced for a hug. Will's eyes started to tear up as he buried his head into his father's chest. The smell of his father's choice of deodorant and wood permeated to his nostrils, but that was his smell. That was Dad.

"These are tough times, and I have been expecting too much from a… good lord, how old are you now?"

William couldn't help but chuckle to relieve the tension and a single tear fell from his eye. "Eleven"

"Eleven! Holy mackerel! Time flies so fast. I want to believe that you're 16 sometimes. Has anyone ever told you how extremely mature you are for an eleven year old?"

"Precocious, astute, brilliant, nerdy, weird, short…"

"Hey now, let's not get too carried away." They both stood back from each other has William tried to hide his moistened eye. Mr. Van de Kamp looked around the shed area and remarked,

"Not a bad job. I'll take care of the rest. Why don't you go inside, mom wants you to run an errand for her." Will turned around and was about to jog back to the house when his father called out,

"Oh, and one more thing son!"

Will stopped in his tracks to look back at his father.

"Yeah Dad?"

"I love you."

"I love you too Dad."