Summer Wings

By April Tremblay

It’s the summer before Jessa’s senior year in High School, and she’s looking forward to spending time with her animals, best friend, and the boy she likes.
When she has an unexpected encounter with the dark side of her vegetarian society, she’s challenged to find the strength to speak for those who can’t.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jul 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781365247170

Book preview

Summer Wings

Summer Wings

Copyright © 2013 by April Tremblay

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

First Printing: 2013

ISBN 978-1-365-24717-0

Verdant Forest Press

Massachusetts, USA

www.apriltremblay.com

CHAPTER 1

A cool, light breeze drifts across my skin as I lay in bed.  The morning birds sing along with the light traffic three stories down. Soft hoof beats clip clop here and there along the street, and voices call to each other in greeting. Today is an important day - the last day of school before summer vacation! The last tests, the last school lunches, the last worrying about what I am going to wear.

A soft gray nose bumps me and works its way under my hand, wanting me to pet it. I stroke the long soft bunny ears for a few minutes until…  THWACK! Thump THUMP! The other two-thirds of the rabbit trio under my bed make themselves heard and demand their breakfast.

I lean over and look under the bed – a pair of rubies set in white fur and a pair of sapphires set in black fur gaze back at me intently – trying to use their collective brain power to make me feed them their fresh greens and new hay. OK guys, one minute, geez!

Right on cue: Jessa! Morning! My Mom calls up the cement stairwell. The old brick walls of our former factory home causes her voice to echo, so she doesn’t need to be as loud as she usually is.

Okay Mom, I’m up! I swing my legs over the bed, careful that my little softies aren’t underfoot, and throw a handful of sweet timothy hay in the rack over their litter box. That smells so good Buns, sometimes I wish I could eat hay! Pippa, Ruby & Baldwin all jump in and start the feast, tearing at the hay to release it from the manger. I pull on my khaki cargo capris and old brown lace up boots as they munch away. Today is a good day for my favorite dark green tank top and old military style jacket with high buttoned collar– it is still a bit chilly this early in the morning. I pull my short red hair back into a half ponytail and hop out my window and in to the garden.

The roof garden is already alive with lettuce, parsley, kale and other cool spring crops. Last year I took over some of the garden responsibilities from an elderly tenant, Mrs. Haverly, who could not navigate the stairs any longer, and my parents let me move up here. On one condition – no having boys over alone. I don’t have any plans to, but, I am 17 and they have to feel like they are being responsible parents. The only person who really comes over any way is my best friend Peri, and she’s like a little sister.

The faucet on the irrigation drip is stuck again. I grab a pair of nearby pliers to help start the day’s watering since it didn’t rain last night. Stored rain water in tanks usually hold enough water from the spring to last the season and give us some water pressure. I pick a nice mix of greens for the bunnies when they finish their hay party, and head over to the chicken coop.

The Girls are the real reason I love working on our rooftop farm. Our ten hens lay the most beautiful eggs of all different colors and are the funniest creatures I have met. I can hear them chatting and complaining loudly already, all wanting to use the same nesting box. I can never get up early enough to make them happy.

OK girls, rise and shine! I open the hatchway door to the coop, and out bursts all ten ladies in a line down the ramp – wings flapping, tails held high and fluffy butts to the breeze.

Penny! Penny P, come over here, a light peach and rust colored puff of feathers picks and scratches at the dirt on the floor of their large area. I shake a little grain in my hand, Come here my girl, there you are. Penny – or Penelope – is my favorite new girl, she runs over to the door and I let her out of the enclosed run and pick her up.

You’re such a sweetie, did you have a good sleep?

Brrrrk, bukbuk, brrrrrrrrr. Penny coos and