Journey to the Kingdom BOOK I By RS Luebben

Chapter One The snow fell at such a pace that you might think that time had stopped. When you are a child such days seem almost magical. If only you could freeze that moment of youth and innocence forever.
I was walking with my best friend Kaitlyn to get my brother from school. Our classes at the Junior High are right next to the Elementary. As my Mom worked during the day, and Kaitlyn was our neighbor, we all walked home from school together. I heard some saw my brother Reagan, but he was surrounded by a group of kids. I wondered what was going on so rushed over.
"Hey, how come you never talk? You some kind of weirdo?" I heard one of them say. He didn't see me come from behind as I shoved him aside. I then stood by my brother.
"Sounds like you talk enough for everybody, I'd be glad to shut your mouth for you." My blood was boiling. Kaitlyn raised her eyebrows as if to say, "Here we go again." All the other kids seemed to take more interest in what was happening as the crowd grew. Kaitlin and I were both standing in front of my brother with scowls on our faces.
"My dad said I can't be cruel to animals, so I guess I can't fight two dogs like you." The bully spat back at us.
"I'm not the one with his tail between his legs. Go run to your daddy." Not my most clever comeback but it will do.
He pointed his finger at us, "You're lucky I don't hit girls, otherwise I'd wipe that smile off your face."
"Anytime you want to try, my face is right here." I stuck my chin out. "If you ever speak to my brother again, you won't have to worry about hitting a girl because I'll knock you out before you have to worry about it."
"Yeah, yeah, up yours." And he made a rude gesture. He walked away with his friends and all the others started to disperse. Kaitlyn turned to me, "So it's always adventures with you, in the best sense of it. What a jerk, he definitely deserves to be punched by somebody."
"That somebody is me. You all right?" I ask my brother. He shook his head to say he was. We all forgot what just happened and started for home. "Do you think Billy saw you just now?" Kaitlyn asked.
I was a little embarrassed at the thought. "I don't know. I guess I don't care if he did. Hope he doesn't think I go around punching people."
"Ah, people will forget about it." She tried to assure. Kaitlyn knew I had a crush on Billy since we were in kindergarten. I was a bit shy and not one to go chasing after someone. "I'm not terribly worried about it." I half believed myself.
My brother walked behind us just listening to us talk all the way home like always. It didn't take long to get home. Reagan signaled that he wanted to stay outside, so we put our school stuff inside and went back outside. We were all covered head to toe in our winter gear. Reagan started to roll some snowballs on the ground and it seemed he wanted to make a snowman. We started to join him but he used his snowballs to throw them at us. "Hey!" I shouted as one of them hit me near the face. I paused for a moment and then threw one back at him. Then quickly brought Kaitlyn into the war as we playfully tossed snowballs back and forth.
The snow was coming down harder now as it was nearly dark by 5 now, such are the winters of Minnesota. Both our parents would be getting home soon, so we messed about in the backyard for a bit and then started to head in.
"I'll call you after I eat dinner, Ok, see you tomorrow." Kaitlyn waved and ran home. Reagan was already inside and had his winter boots and jacket off in a flash. He headed over to the Tv and put something on. I headed into my room where I had a small tv and thought I'd watch a scary movie if I could find one.
Mom arrived shortly after, and it was much longer until dinner. My brother's plate was covered in ketchup as always, and he ate quietly at the other side of the table. "Anything happen at school today?" My mom probed.
"No, not really," I said not really thinking about it.
"Oh, curious, Kaitlyn's mom said some kids were picking on your brother. Yeah, she and I already spoke on the phone." Mom said calmly. "Also said you chased off the bullies. Don't worry, I'm not mad at you. I kind of want to punch that kid as well, but it's just one more thing that infuriates me about that school. I'll be having words with someone tomorrow when I drop you guys off, I can assure you of that. Those people already hate me, the number of times I've had to fight for things for your brother. They'll probably walk the other way if they see me."
"So if you are not mad at me, do you think Kaitlyn and I can see a movie on Friday?" I tried to sneak in.
"Sure, but only if you take your brother."
"Can't we go just once without him?" I tried.
"Are there going to be boys?"
"No, I just wanted to do something with Kaitlyn. Possibly sleepover at her house." "I'll think about it."
We finished up and went about our own things. I was just chilling in my room when Mom came in, "Who's mess is that in the basement?" She accused.
My defenses went up, "Mine and Reagan's, I was going to clean it up but didn't have time."
"I'm at work all day and I'm tired of having to clean for everybody. Help me out and clean up after yourself." She demanded.
"I will!" I snapped back more harshly than I meant to.
"Don't take that tone with me. I'm not asking that much. If you want to go to the movies with Kaitlyn, then I suggest you go down there and take care of it." "I will but will Reagan join me." I was pushing it.
"What's your brother got to do with it?"
"He makes more of the mess than I do and then you yell at me for everything." I defended.
"You're older, act like it. Go clean up the mess, I'll talk to your brother." She shut the door.
The next day we were walking back home after watching a disappointing movie. My brother and Kaitlyn were with me, and we were cutting from main street to take a shortcut through the park. There were lots of people doing the same, and we all just minding our own. It was dark but the park had plenty of streetlights, we never felt any danger for we did this plenty of times. We could see three homeless men around a barrel that had a fire going. I'd never seen homeless people in the park before. I could hear people ahead of us making comments toward them as they walked by. "Bleeding hearts probably tell us how they can't get jobs, and then they're probably first in line at the unemployment line. I hear they make more money begging for money, a bunch of scam artists." Someone shouted as they walked by them. Another shouted, "Get out of the park, have to tell the police about you three." It was rather despicable to see.
As we approached we tried to walk by quickly past but one of the men asked, "Hello, I'm sorry to bother you but I seem to have misplaced my glove. Can you three help me." We all froze without knowing what to do, Kaitlyn managed to ask, "What's it look like?"
"Oh, I guess it's just an ordinary black glove, nothing special." He thought about it.
There seemed to be a lot of people passing by so it seemed Ok to help. We looked around on the snow for a minute before I noticed Reagan had his hand raised holding a glove.
"He seems to have found it, Oh, thank you so much. You don't know how cold these nights can get without it. I appreciate it." He said grabbing the glove from my brother. He smiled and continued, "I don't wish to trouble you three any longer, it's best you be off before it gets colder out here, thanks again."
We went about our way but something about the men seemed different. I almost felt like we were supposed to meet them. I put the thought out of my mind and we hurried home. Kaitlyn didn't say much on the way home, mostly just trashed the movie.
A couple of days later before school, I asked Mom if we had any canned goods or extra blankets around. I didn't tell her about the homeless men the other night.
"What for?" She queried.
"I see homeless men in the park sometimes and I thought we could donate to help them out. It's cold and only getting colder."
She thought about it, "I suppose I shouldn't discourage you from helping others, is this in the park?"
"Yes, there are lots of people around usually and they seem harmless."
"They always do until they're not, just be careful and don't take this stuff to them alone. I would prefer if you'd wait until I get home and we'll go together." She grabbed some bags and started to put some canned goods in from the cupboard. After school, I talked Kaitlyn into going with me to see if we could find the three men and drop some stuff off for them. "Why do you want to take it to them, I think we can just donate stuff at the grocery store?" Kaitlyn asked.
"Ever since we met them, I can't get them out of my head. It's like if I don't do this I won't be able to move on." I finally shared.
"To tell the truth, I've felt the same. I have some bags to take them that I had my Mom prepare." She admitted.
My brother was with us when we spotted them in the same place we saw them the other night. They were still standing over a barrel with a fire going. Some teenagers were walking past them, they had some drinks in their hands. One of the teenagers shouted over to the homeless men, "Hey you guys thirsty? You can have my drink.", and the teenager walked towards them and threw the contents of the cup at them, soaking one of them in liquid. The teenager laughed and walked away.
We went over with our bags and the soaked one turned, "Hey, how are you three? What brings you over here, you're not going to throw what's in those bags at us?" He somewhat joked.
"No, we brought this for you three. It's just some canned goods, a sweater or two." I started. "and blankets," Kaitlyn jumped in.
"That's very kind of you three. We can't thank you enough, I knew you three were good kids. I could tell. I told the other two that we found the right ones this time." He said turning away.
"Right ones? For what?" Kaitlyn asked puzzled.
"We've been looking for people of true worth to share our magic with, but it's hard to find these days for sure." One of the other homeless men joined.
"Magic? Surely your joking?" As fear started to enter my voice. I've heard some homeless people had mental illness and I just figured it was that, but it didn't calm my uneasiness now forming.
"No, there is no joke. We've been to many places, at many different times, and we've searched through timeless ages. Tested many, but few have passed the tests." The third homeless man entered.
"That sounds interesting, and we'd love to hear you tell us all about it, but we've got to get back home now. Perhaps another time. I was pushing my brother in the direction of home.
"There's nothing to fear, we aren't going to harm you." One of them said. They cut us off from leaving and surrounded us. I wanted to run but my feet didn't move. The three of them pulled out small bags from their pockets and reached in. They had some sort of dust that was falling from their hands as they brought their hands toward their faces. They blew the dust at us and we all coughed on it. I close my eyes and when I opened them I felt suddenly as if I was falling but couldn't tell where to. The park faded away and it was darkness all around us. I could see my brother and Kaitlyn who seemed to be experiencing the same emotions as me.
Something was coming into focus and the sensation of falling suddenly stopped. We were standing on a grassy hill, No snow was to be found. It was warm and birds were chirping away. The three homeless men were nowhere to be found, in fact, no one other than us were to be found. "What just happened? Where are we?" Kaitlyn blurted out, as they looked just as shocked as I felt. "I don't recognize anything about this place."
"No, I don't either." I joined. I went over to my brother and hugged him but he jumped back a little. I could see he was full of fear. "It's going to be all right, Kaitlyn and I are here. Will figure this out and get back home, don't worry." I tried but he didn't look convinced. The truth was I didn't believe what I was saying either and was freaking out just as much.
We saw something reflected in the distance, and without having to speak about it we all just naturally started walking in its direction. I didn't know if we were walking towards something good or bad but it was at least something.