Awake

By Eric Barnes

AWAKE is a story that follows the adventures of Sam, a boy who wakes to find his world completely changed. His house, his mother and all that he owns has vanished leaving him sitting in his bed in the middle of an empty field. After receiving a P.O. Box key from a neighbor, Sam is sent on a wild journey to a big city four hours north of his little hometown. He meets a ten-year-old girl named Betty who becomes his sidekick on his big adventure. The two kids soon find a large treasure and it comes with a big pile of trouble on the side. Sam and Betty find themselves on the run being chased by government agents. It leads them back to the city where Sam lived four years earlier. Before his father had left his family. As Sam and Betty uncover the mystery they find that Sam‘s dad secretly worked for the government developing time travel technology. As the story unfolds Sam realizes that his father had not abandoned him, but not before he and Betty are captured by secret agents. Along the way Sam and Betty get help from a teenager named Hans, an elderly woman named Martha and a scientist named Dr. Philips. In the end Sam is reunited with his family and learns about time travel the hard way. AWAKE is a story about finding friendship in unlikely places, and learning to trust people.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eric Barnes
• Release date: Aug 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476494210

Eric Barnes

I was born in Seattle Washington at the age of zero. I graduated with a degree in education from Western Washington University but have spent the past 20 years of my life being educated by my two children. I tell them often "a good education is expensive." My greatest achievement is nothing I have done at all but what God has done for me. I am a follower of Christ and am currently serving him as a Pastor in East Wenatchee, WA. All other things about me are plain and mundane unless of course, you think star gazing, talking about football, and debating theology are awesome. In that case you would probably find my life quite exhilarating.

Book preview

Awake

By Eric Barnes

Copyright 2012 Eric Barnes

Smashwords Edition

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Chapter 1

Sam lay fast asleep, snuggled up under his warm comforter. His slumber was suddenly interrupted by a cold breeze blowing across his cheek, which lay exposed to the morning sunlight. As he began to stir, he noticed the morning seemed brighter and colder than normal.

His head was foggy. As he sat up and stretched to get out of bed he wondered if someone had opened his bedroom window. I need to tell mom to turn up the heat he thought as his feet reached for the floor. A strange chill jolted up his legs as he felt something wet and slimy slide between his toes as they touched down. Sam quickly snapped awake with a strange awareness that he had never experienced before. His bedroom, his house, everything was gone. He sat on the edge of the bed, his feet pulled back up on the sheets, and his knees tucked under his chin as he observed the odd phenomena unfolding before his eyes. All around him, where his house had been the night before, was now an empty grassy lot sparkling with dew in the morning sunlight. Sam sat shocked, not knowing what to think as a breeze blew across him causing him to shiver.

Sam lived out on the Great Plains, in a small suburb, just north of a town where most of the people worked at a steel manufacturing plant. His house used to be located between two houses, one old and one new. The new house on the right had also disappeared, but the old house to the left was still there. Across the street sat a large apartment complex called Golden Pastures, where retired people lived. Everything seemed so familiar and at the same time so all-together different to Sam. I must be dreaming he thought to himself, and this gave him some comfort as he stretched his legs back down and placed his bare feet in the wet grass. Maybe the Johnsons would have some answers, or maybe they might just turn out to be rainbow colored flying pigs, anything was possible at this point in Sam’s mind.

Mr. and Mrs. Johnson lived in the retirement apartments across the street, and were kind of like grandparents to Sam. He would often spend time with them after school when his mom had to work late at the restaurant. As he gingerly crossed the pavement and entered the front door of Geezerville (the name Sam had given Golden Pastures in his mind) everything looked so familiar. Mrs. Granderson sat knitting another scarf in the lobby. Jenny, one of the cleaning girls who worked at Geezerville, greeted him as if nothing was amiss. Jenny was always nice and Sam liked it when she smiled at him. Mr. Johnson complained that the cleaning ladies were all unattractive, but Sam liked Jenny and thought she was pretty. He noticed that she had gotten a hair cut as they passed.

Sam turned the corner toward the elevator and almost ran headlong into Mr. Johnson on his motorized scooter. Mr. Johnson was flying down the hall, breaking the 0.3 mile an hour speed limit signs posted on every wall.

Hey kid, I‘ve been waiting for you. Let’s go! he said as he hit the brakes, and drifted into a u-turn leaving black skid marks on the carpet and a burnt rubber smell in the hall. Sam had a hard time keeping up with Mr. Johnson as he sped toward the elevator.

Mr. Johnson, why the rush?

Mr. Johnson didn’t respond, but Sam knew it was because he was almost totally deaf and he never really listened to anything Sam actually said. They made their way to the elevator, but not without pushing Mrs. Olson and her walker out of the way as they hurried in. As the door of the elevator closed Sam saw Mrs. Olson waving her fist in the air and heard her yelling at them in Norwegian. Sam didn’t speak Norwegian but he was pretty sure the words Mrs. Olson was using were not age appropriate ones. Mr. Johnson murmured something about an old bag under his breath, as he reached out and repeatedly hit the number two button.

Mr. Johnson, I don’t think hitting the button over and over will make the elevator go faster, Sam said.

But Mr. Johnson didn’t respond, he just kept pressing the number two button. Mr. Johnson was a crotchety old man who loved to wave his fist in the air and be angry at stuff. Most of the time, it was quite entertaining for Sam. Sam especially loved watching TV with Mr. Johnson. They would watch game shows in the afternoons after school, and Mr. Johnson would waive his fist at the TV and berate the contestants. Sam often thought to himself that the game shows would attract younger viewers if they added Mr. Johnson to the set, and the players had to compete with him calling them numb skulls or nincompoops or Sam’s favorite poorly dressed Philistines. Sam wasn’t sure what a Philistine was, but he loved the idea of an old man, wearing a bright green vest, a yellow bow-tie and brown wool pants hiked up over his belly calling people poorly dressed.

The elevator doors opened, and Mr. Johnson hit the gas on his scooter almost knocking over Mrs. Barnes who was waiting outside the elevator. She didn’t speak Norwegian so Sam knew exactly what she said as he ran past apologizing for Mr. Johnson‘s driving. Sam chased Mr. Johnson as he sped down the hall toward his apartment. Sam arrived at the Johnson’s door out of breath. For the moment, he had forgotten he was dreaming as he walked into the Johnson’s apartment to the smell of freshly baked cookies.

Mrs. Johnson was a kind woman, short and plump with snow-white curly hair. Her face was round and gentle, and her eyes were always peaceful and a little tired. She wore bright pink lipstick and it was always a little smeared off her lip and sometimes on her front tooth. Mrs. Johnson loved Sam and loved his calming affect around the house. She seemed serene and content as she came out of the small kitchen with oven mitts on both hands and said hello young man as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

Mr. and Mrs. Johnson were as opposite as opposites could be. Mrs. Johnson loved everyone, and always spoke kindly of people, even grumpy old Mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson hated most people but there were some people he hated worst of all. Over the past four years that Sam had been spending time with the Johnsons, Sam had compiled a Mr. Johnson’s Most Hated People list. They included in this order…Pink people (Sam had no idea who these pink people were, but there were lots of them on TV), Jimmy Carter (who Sam thought might be the leader of the pink people), Saggy Pants Kids, and some guy named Charlie.

Sam sat down on the couch and Mrs. Johnson brought over a plate of cookies. They were ginger snaps, but Sam knew that he should be careful. While he loved cookies, Mrs. Johnson sometimes ran out of ingredients and would sometimes make weird substitutions. A couple of weeks ago she ran out of chocolate chips and raisins, so she baked her cookies with orange vitamins. It took a few minutes to figure out why his cookie tasted like orange chalk, but after one bite he slid the rest of the cookie between the couch cushions. Sam picked up a ginger snap and inspected it, as Mr. Johnson went into a rant on the government, China, and how Jimmy Carter was going to bring the country to ruin.

Mrs. Johnson chimed in, I think Jimmy Carter is a nice man, and a Christian.

Sam didn’t know anything about Jimmy Carter, except that he was a president, and that Mr. Johnson thought he was still the president. As the daily argument over Jimmy Carter erupted between the Johnsons, Sam’s thoughts returned to his current predicament. He nibbled the edge of his cookie, it tasted like it had pepper in it, and so he quickly stuck it between the couch cushion to keep the orange-vitamin-cookie company.

It seemed odd to Sam that nothing was out of the ordinary at Geezerville, but that his house and mom and all his stuff had vanished. He also couldn’t remember what day it was, or what time it was, or anything about what he had planned for that day. After a couple of minutes, Sam figured he had reached a dead end and that he should continue trying to figure out what his dream was all about.

Sam politely excused himself and thanked Mrs. Johnson for the cookie and got ready to go back and see what this strange dream would offer next. Both Mr. and Mrs. Johnson stopped their discussion and walked toward Sam. Mrs. Johnson reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of wrapped candy. She always gave Sam a piece of candy when he left, but he had never eaten one. Mostly because he had seen her put used Kleenexes into the same pocket she kept the candy, and he could not get rid of the image of little germs crawling off the Kleenex up the little slot of the candy wrapper. Mr. Johnson also reached in his pocket and from under his big bushy eyebrows his angry eyes stared straight into Sam’s.

He handed Sam a key and said, You need this boy. Sam took the key and turned to the door. As he opened it, he looked back into Mr. Johnson’s eyes, which continued to stay locked in a terrifying stare.

Don’t stop until it’s over… he added ominously as Sam turned back to leave, …and don’t trust anyone….especially Jimmy Carter.

Chapter 2

Sam slid the piece of hard candy in his pocket as he left the Johnsons and headed toward the elevator. The elevator door closed and he looked down at the key in his hand. It was a small silver key with a small key chain and had a tiny gold disc attached to it. On the disc was etched the number 316. Sam left Geezerville, walked across the parking lot, and sat on the curb facing his bed that was sitting lonesome in the empty lot across the street. As he studied the scene, he noticed the neighbor’s house was painted an ugly green color, instead of the ugly orange it had been when he had gone to bed the night before.

He really didn’t want to go to his neighbor’s house. The lady who lived there was a little strange to say the least. When Sam and his mom had moved into their house four years earlier, his mom had made cookies for the neighbors and asked him to deliver them. When Sam had gone up to the front door, rang the bell and