New Project - Novel Two

Courage to Weather the Storm

Outline

Alex is an 8th grader at St. Clare Grade School. His life is turned upside down when after a massive fight, his father leaves the family, leaving mom to struggle to keep everything together. Alex is crushed at first about his father leaving, until his father's secret past is discovered. With his best friends help, Alex aids his family into dealing with the loss of the father along with an increase in their faith.

Excerpt

He had never sounded so cold before. This wasn’t like him at all. What had made my dad change so much. Maybe I caused this change in him. Just watching him put the suitcases into the trunk, he then climbed into the driving seat of the dark red dodge neon and drive away. The thoughts in my head were racing like it was in the Indy 500. Just watching till the car disappeared. Somehow I knew this was a bad thing.

Taking a big deep breath, I turned and looked at my younger brother and sister. Roxanne looked like she was about to burst into floods of tears. Anton ran over to me and hugged me around my waist. He was never this clingy before.  It occurred to me that maybe he was unsure like I was why dad had just up and left.

“Alex, why did daddy go?” I hadn’t the heart to tell him dad wouldn’t be coming back. I knew I had to let mom explain things to him. The thing was where was she?

“Daddy, well, umm, he had to go. Mom will explain it better.” I told him as I walked them both into the house. I turned and hoped mom would be somewhere.

The thing that had baffled me was how dad didn’t even say goodbye to any of us. Then there was mom’s absence. Where was she? She was usually home when we got home from school.  This was completely odd.

I turned and closed the front door and walked along the hallway. I heard Roxy in the kitchen. I guessed she wanted a snack. Mom always had snacks waiting for us. I walked into the kitchen and she was opening a BIG bag of potato chips. “Roxy, I’ll make us all a sandwich.” I announced as I took the bag from her.

Quickly I put a clip on the bag of chips to seal the freshness in. Putting the bag back into the cupboard so I could make sure we had a healthy snack. I didn’t want mom complaining when she got home. I grabbed the wheat bread and cheese out the fridge. I began making myself a grilled cheese sandwich. Slowly I began buttering the side of the bread that hit the pan. It was something I was good at cooking.

“Do you two want grilled cheese? Or do you want something else to eat?” I asked as I started to put the pan on the stove to warm up. It was best when the pan was hot according to what Nana had taught me.