Lost and Away - The Body - Nemo's Premonition

Ethan just jumped.  That's how he was in life and in swimming.  You just go in.  Head first, no thoughts.  Just go.  He loved it.  He liked the shock of cold, and the slap against his skin as his body met the glassy surface.  Once he got down deep enough he would dig his hands into the soft dirt and sometimes bring up something for Violet.  This time he found a smooth black rock.  Once he broke the surface, Ethan spotted Violet still on her boulder.  He smiled at her and she gave him a wave.  He swam past the group, still splashing around and having fun.
   Nemo waded past him spitting out sequences of numbers again.  "F-fourty two-eighteen-one hundred-s-seven-sixtynine."
   "How's it going Nemo?"
   "L-long day.  It's a long day."
   Nemo was so pale that he looked slippery and translucent beside Ethan in the water.  A dribble of snot sat comfortably beneath his nostrils and no matter how often he snorted, the poor kid's congestion never went away.  Ethan slapped Nemo's back, half expecting his hand to stick to the slimy looking skin, and laughed.  "Oh, don't be so down.  The sun is going down, and tonight we celebrate!  Right Vi?"
   Violet ignored him.
   Nemo adjusted the big black rimmed glasses on his face.  He didn't need them, to anyone's knowledge, Nemo just liked'em.  "What are we c-cel-brating?"
   Ethan shrugged.  "Nothing."
   Nemo  began laughing hysterically.  But they way he laughed was strange and foreign.  It was high pitched and wheezy like an odd cross between a hyena and a jackass.  He braced two hands on Ehtan's shoulders and said, "N-no, we're celebrating s-something.  We celebrate.  Eight-twentyfive-eighty-two-five."  And he kept on wading through the water and reached up toward Violet on her boulder.
   Her hands quivered a little, and her eyes seemed to focus on Nemo real hard.  She looked back at Ethan and then quickly back at Nemo as she helped heave him up out of the water.  Ethan could tell she was afraid, and to be honest Ethan was a little spooked too, but that's what Nemo did.  He creeped the gang out. 
    

Lost and Away - The Body - Violet

It was one of those cool days.  When the sun was covered by a thick layer of clouds in the evening, and the world seemed a certain shade of blue.  But the water was warm.  I dipped my feet in and remember feeling a keen sense of relief.  I looked over a few feet away  at Ethan.  He stood on top of one of the boulders by the water fall.  He raised his hand up over his head and shouted,
   "I am king!  And you my subjects!"
   Everyone in the water shouted back at him; some in agreement, some cussing him out.
   I let my feet play in the water and watched the gang of misfits splashing  around in our hidden paradise.

   I tried my best to relax, but I could never get rid of that nausea at the pit of my stomach.  It just never went away.  Ethan said it was because I refused to take Jin Kim's medicinal herbs.
   "Don't call him Jin.  He's Doc.  He goes by Doc here," Ethan told me when we first all met.  But I didn't take it then and I wouldn't take it now. 
   I lied back against the stone, which was smooth and warm.  Sometimes, out there I felt safe.  It was easier to pretend I was somewhere else, someone else.  Sometime else.
   But when Dakota came running that late afternoon, I knew something else was in store for us all staying in Big Tree. 

Lost and Away - The Beginning - Jericho

My sister had a leash on me so tight I could barely stand to be around her the first few years we stayed at Big Tree.  It was a funny feeling because I knew there was love somewhere there, but at the same time I hated the living guts out of her.  She was just so uptight, and it seemed like she was always afraid.  I would wander outside sometimes, when everyone went outside to revel under the stars and drink till they passed out, I just liked to watch 'em all.  Everyone seemed so free.  I didn't understand what was in the mason jars that they drank from, and I didn't know why Ethan would drag Violet away into the shed some nights.  All the bigger kids were an enigma to me.  But I enjoyed watching them all.  Most nights though, Violet would see me, her eyes would get big and she would shove me back inside and tell me to go sit with the other little kids.  I didn't know what she was so worried about all the time.  We'd been there for nearly 9 years.  This was our home, and she still slept with a knife under her pillow.
   There was only one thing I was afraid of here in Big Tree.
   Doc.