DDsE, Book 7

By Sue Perry

Being sixteen is Tupac Eminem. Ella has no one to talk to except her new diary, which she has to hide from Ma and Pa Warden, the foster parents she’s stuck with since her family got flattened in a car accident. Now that she lives with the wardens, she has to switch to a new school, where people act like her tragedy is contagious. Her new suburb is just as boring as the last, and offers no hope of secret passageways or magic. But life is not all bad. There’s an interesting boy at the new school – although his family turns out to be impossibly dangerous. And there’s a feral cat, living in the suburb’s only open space, a pitiful excuse for woods. Sometimes the cat invades Ella’s mind. She tells her diary, ‘I’ve gone a special kind of crazy, a split personality. And my other personality is a cat, not a person.’

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sue Perry
• Release date: May 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463546017

Sue Perry

... Concert stage, dark except for a deep blue spotlight. Singer drops to one knee and his narration evolves from murmur to rant. "This is the story of a man who got what he wanted but he lost what he had. He got what he wanted but he lost what he had. He got –" ...It goes on forever. It's mesmerizing. Uncomfortable. Confessional.Pretty sure this memory is from the time I saw James Brown, decades ago, but the lost identity of the singer isn't the point.I've spent my life gazing across some fence or other, admiring greener grass over yonder. I've acted on so many impulses to jump the fence. No complaints, but it has sure taken me a long time to appreciate where I'm standing right now. And nowadays that blue spotlight chant fills my head whenever I contemplate a new jump.Sometimes I jump back.I was a low–budget television producer until I wrote a psychological thriller, "Was It A Rat I Saw", which Bantam–Doubleday–Dell published in hardcover in 1992. Soon after that I became the mother of twins, jumped into graduate school, and became a disaster scientist. I dabbled in academia, government research, and consulting.I stopped writing fiction for nearly two decades, until I noticed how much I missed it. I resumed writing novels with the literary fiction "Scar Jewelry" about a family with secrets that started in the era of Los Angeles punk and persist for decades. I'm in the midst of a speculative detective series FRAMES, with "Nica of Los Angeles", "Nica of the New Yorks", and "Boredom Fighter" so far. I've just completed a nine-novella series, the young adult paranormal horror romance, "DDsE".Funny. Back in the day, I had a single book idea at a time. Now I'm flooded with them, can't keep up with them, though I write just about every day.I live in southern California. I had to leave for five years to confirm this is where I belong. I live with multiple cats, comfortably close to my twins and granddaughter. Like my life paths, my friends and family are all over the damn place. I like to visit them, spend time at the ocean, explore cities, and go out to hear live music.

Book preview

DDsE

Book 7

Sue Perry

Copyright 2019 Sue Perry

Published by Sue Perry at Smashwords

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Book 7 Table of Contents

Ella's Diary, Entries 260.–304.

Acknowledgements

About Sue Perry

Dedication

For Dean.

260.

DD – 119 changelings, including us. Lourdes and I had been luckier than just about all the others, because we met a while ago. We knew we weren't freaks all alone. Plus we had Galalena's journals, Aunt Axi, and Franklin to teach us stuff about the history of changelings. The other 117 had never heard the word before. The name for what we are.

None of the other changelings had the information we had to explain their strange uneasy feeling that they had to go – somewhere and they had to do – something. Such a huge relief when they found the rest of us on this hill. I thought I was crazy... a sociopath ... delusional ... in a dream that I couldn't stop dreaming ...

Weird to have so many strangers hug me. But I got used to it fast. Which was even weirder. I'm not a hugger. Neither is Lourdes, but she was into it now! And she was smiling. She is Tupac beautiful when she smiles.

With all the changeling shimmering, I didn't notice the sun had set until our animals that are nocturnal predators left the hill. I almost missed that development, too. I was wandering, looking for changelings I hadn't met yet. Wowing about how all our animals got along. Wolf and squirrel, duck and crocodile, bear and kangaroo.

Lourdes pulled on my backpack. Already know the answer but – do you have any food in there? Whatsoever?

No. Last night we got the final crumbs. We had licked our fingers and dragged them in the seams to catch stray bits. Remembering reminded my stomach how empty it was. The instant I noticed I was hungry, though, other changelings started reaching into pockets and packs for food to share.

Lourdes grinned. Changeling power.

I grinned back but I couldn't reply. I was so filled with warm fuzzy feeling.

We still went hungry, though. Somebody held out an apple but we couldn't grasp it. Same with a plate of sushi. Same with leftover pasta. The other changelings were not on the hill with us, not actually beside Mono Lake, we just all kind of imagined being in the same place. Our bodies could sort of be together – we could hug, remember. Now I understood why all the hugs were so gentle. We were touching long distance and everybody's food stayed wherever they actually were.

This is a deeply disturbing discovery, someone said.

You mean, 'Dis a deeply disturbing discovery,' somebody goofed. And some of us laughed.

But it was amazing, too, and soon we were all wowing about it. – sE

261.

DD – I got overwhelmed before I could finish meeting everybody. I perched on a rock and watched all around. I guess I was smiling because whenever anyone looked at me they smiled back. But the mood on the hill was changing. We smiled when smiled at. Some of us looked around. I could feel the frowns building as the changelings wondered. Okay now what. We found each other. And ..?

Five kids of various ages surrounded me. I'd been watching them for a while. Surrounding was how they approached changelings they were about to meet. They circled like a pack of dogs and their moves were smooth, like they knew where the rest of their pack would step next. Interesting. I couldn't tell whether they were boys or girls. Also interesting.

Awwhwh, they all groaned. Inside their changeling shimmer I saw a pack of five coyotes. The coyotes were on a flat grassy area I didn't recognize, tearing at something furry. Dark fur.

My head snapped one way and the other, searching for Grayfast on the hill. There. Alive and safe with Scatterlegs, I made a noise like a tire blowout.

The pack seemed to understand. One of them told me, We're nonviolent but our animals are bloodthirsty.

The second one continued, They're surprisingly gentle between meals.

The third one explained, Don't worry, and the fourth one finished the sentence, they won't hurt another changeling's animal.

The fifth one whispered, We're almost sure about that.

They spoke without pauses between their sentences, as though a single person was talking.

Between words, their mouths hung open like dogs taking in smells. I had so many questions about what things were like for them but before I could ask, they pounced with their own questions.

What happens now? ... Why did you bring us all here? ... Why did you name us changelings? What does changeling mean?

Everybody keeps asking me stuff like that and my answers are all the same. I've got no answers. Other changelings had mostly been disappointed about my lack of answers but the coyote kids laughed. They made a huff huff sound like – what else – barking.

My stomach stopped fluttering which made me realize it had been. Meeting changelings was exciting but until now I kept feeling like I was letting them down in ways I didn't get. These were the first ones