Two Flagg Suspense: The Stocker's and Two Brothers, Three Lives

By Patrice Ragan Flagg

In this two Flagg suspense/thriller, I take you on an intense, suspended, journey. In two thrillers;

The Stockers: Nick; a teenage boy with endless dreams and possibilities. With a great family relationship and a unique band of friends. Horror creeps into their lives targeting their corner of friends, families and community,terrorizing, threatening and antagonizing their existence. The Stockers, a very dysfunctional family is everyones main focus. The tangled, twisted ending with shock treatment unfolds. The bond of family and friendship. The love story that dominates and conquers even horror!

Two Brothers, Three Lives: suspense. Jessie a teenage mother makes the decision twice to give up her two children to adoption. Coming from a very dysfunctional family she cant bear to bring these children home to her very abusive Father. She cant leave her Mother either. Her two regreetfgul encounters with two separate boys, led her to decisions she would have to live with a lifetime. The acceptance, wonder, the continuance of their separate lives with wonderful new families followed through time. The lives of all three people separated in a dramatic beginning. With a little wonder by two, much from another, finally satisfied. A remarkable story of mistake, heartache, love, families, judgment, friendship, trust, with happy endings.

You cannot let this story pass you by and you can get both stories in this Two Flagg Suspense/Thriller!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 24, 2003
• ISBN: 9781469116143

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Copyright © 2003 by Patrice Ragan Flagg.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,

including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage

and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the

copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents

either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used

fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or

dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Xlibris Corporation

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Contents

THE STOCKERS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

TWO BROTHERS, THREE LIVES

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The Eyes of our Children, so precious and strong,

sympathetic, so prolong;

could evoke in song;

so happy to belong:

They talk; we must listen;

Hear them pronounce, let them glisten:

Make us proud;

Let them speak out Loud!

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A special thank you to a few very special mothers who made a difference in my life. Throughout my writing you will hear their wisdom. Throughout my life I have lived and will always live their presence. I wish to thank them for their being.

Two of them are no longer with us.

Phoebetta Mullen-Gilbert: My aunt. She had 16 children; she always treated me so kind, and she always had words of wisdom that taught me so much. Herself she spread out amongst many, never judging, always grateful, always understanding; letting little faults slide. She is the epitome of love and has always been surrounded by it. I want to mimic her in so many ways. I love you and thank you and I wait to see you again.

Constance Pisano: A friend, a neighbor. She, known as a possessive parent, kept a close reign on her children. I plan on doing the same. I loved her; she treated me with respect and kindness in my precious childhood. She encouraged me often to be myself, and let my self speak out. She wrote poetry; I loved to read her writings. She encouraged me too, to write. I think of her often and wish I had her poetry to share but unfortunately I do not. I will always remember her as an inspiration and a blessed friend. It’s been so long. Can you believe I settled down and had 3 boys? I wish you knew them. I believe you do. I wait to see you too!

Geraldine Ragan: My mom. My best friend, my kids’ Me-Mom, my shelter, my side-r, my forgiver, my rely-er, my; I can sure count on her! She is a tough cookie. She has a heart of gold. Strength is her being. She, the mother of 11 children (4 died at birth, 2 died, one at 21 and the other at 33), how she survived it. I could never endure her pain. Her faith kept her going. She would pray for strength and she would find it. I would be so mad at my Lord, not my mother; she will wait for her answers. She would give to others, slighting herself. She taught me a lot but mostly, on being true to my word. She never went back on anything she commits to. She is truly my hero and a great mom. I love you so much, and Mom, no matter, I know you’re not afraid to die, to see Dad and your children again. I miss them so much; I wait to see them too. But to lose you . . . what would I do?

Terese Henner: For being so good to my mother – Thank You!

A special thanks to Mary Anne Rotella for the picture. Thanks friend!

THE STOCKERS 

CHAPTER ONE 

Stubborn, Nicolas decides to go out anyway against his mother’s wishes. She doesn’t understand, she doesn’t hang out, or want or need to have fun.

It’s the corner that needs me and I need it. Monica, so cute and airy, and her girlfriends. I know they’re hanging out, got to get there before it’s too late. Dinner time or something, who knows, but they’re hanging out and I must go right now. Mom knows I’ll be home for dinner. She’ll gripe but she’ll get over it. I’m out the door, down the drive, around the corner, through the woods.

School breaks for the summer, there’s so much time, but not too much to do. Camp, daily sports with my friends, this is so routine, it’s what I do every summer. I want something new, but what it is, I don’t know. Just something. Hanging out with friends, girls thinking I’m cool and liking my jokes, me making them smile; this is new—girls—and I like it. So many years I thought girls were not for me but now, it’s a different story. There’s Monica with her blond hair, green eyes; she likes the bike I ride. I find myself wearing cologne even when just going to the store and back home. Girls can sure change your life. Here, I am, making my mom angry just by my always needing to hang out with them. Anyway, I take a shortcut all the time; through the woods it’s so much easier. I could do this blindfolded to the corner, my hangout and back. My friends and I know every inch of these woods, every hideout.

While walking through the woods, I hear a scream; just some of my friends messing, I guess. I’ll check it out. There’s silence for a few moments. YO, what’s going on? What’s UP? Who’s up? Hello! No answer. That’s strange, let me check it out some more; these woods, they’re so familiar. No one is hiding from me. Someone’s messing with me; that’s cool. I’ll play. Joey, Mikee, Louie, Tyler, where are you? Come on, stop messing, I don’t have much time! To the creek. I know their hangout it’s around 4:00, our favorite fishing time before dinner. Tyler, Joey, Mikee, Louie!!! Looking around so quiet, so eerie, not quite right, something is just not right. I can’t find anyone. I guess someone is playing around. I heard someone running, now it’s gone. I guess I imagined more, maybe a deer. Not too much time, got to go; got to go hang around, to the Corner.

The Corner is a familiar place for all of us. Some of us have been friends for years; I have spent years in school together with Mikee and Tyler. Even our brothers and sisters know each other, and have gone to many parties together. Our folks are friends, that’s why we’re that close. The girls, now this is pretty new, but cool. Monica, Melissa, Donna, Rachel and Valerie are all knock-outs. Not sure which one I really like. Monica, I call her Jade, beautiful jade-green eyes. Melissa, with her beautiful eyes and gorgeous body, is witty. With Donna, what I like are, her dark eyes, long dark hair her charm. With Rachel, her blond hair, blue eyes, her personality. And Valerie, my, my, what eyes, and dark skin. There’s something within her that I can’t describe. I can’t compare, so different are they, in so many ways. I know them all and right now, I want them all. Right now, girls, girls, girls, are always on my mind and I don’t really like it. I have sports all the time, and I love playing soccer, hockey, football, baseball, basketball. Always sports so far but now, these girl-feelings is just a fleeting thing, I hope. What’s so wrong with it? They have solutions for everything. Girls can talk about things easily; find ways, other than sports, to make a good time, which I find incredible. Life besides sports, amazing. I never had any other interests. Well except of course, for the drums. Now there is a real change in my life and I like it. Louie, Tyler and Joey don’t see it; I find myself always explaining, finding excuses. Mikee, he’s there with me; girls are right up there with playing hockey and of course the guitar! You see, Mikee and me, we’re musicians and we dream of someday being in a very popular rock n’ roll band.

It’s Tuesday morning and I already had some plans for the day. Take out the trash, breakfast with Mom, Dad, sister Kathy and brothers Anthony, and Joey Jr. (we call him J.J.). Mom wants to know our plans. Anthony, my older brother, has just bought a motorcycle; he’s going cruising. Mom and Dad are so worried about his decision to have a bike; he is 18 years old and I guess at that age, it’s his decision and he forked up the money to buy it, what could they say? Anthony just graduated high school and he has some time off before he starts his summer job and before going to college. I think having a bike is really cool and I can’t wait until I can purchase one myself and be riding. Kathy, my sister, is 15; she’s real pretty and, a real pain in the (you know what). She always gets her own way, but she takes care of me a lot too. I can’t say a bad word about her because she’s always looking out for me. She will be a junior in high school next year. J.J., my little brother, is eight and real spoiled. You know, the youngest gets whatever he wants. I take care of him a lot. He’s always touching my stuff and that irks me but I guess I also did it to Anthony. What he’s doing is just some sort of payback. J.J. will be going into the fourth grade, and I’ll be an eighth-grade graduate next year. High school, here I come. Mom is a fashion designer and Dad is a car salesman; they both work hard to give us what we want and they love each other too. They are always doing everything together. It’s nice, I guess, I just find they work, take care of us, go to all of our important stuff. They don’t have much time for themselves. They go to dinner sometimes, during their birthday or anniversary usually. Other than that, they bring us along, without a word of regret. That’s amazing!

Our day usually starts out with breakfast. Mom’s real into the breakfast scene. I must say I don’t think I would want it any other way. I’m always ready for the day when I head out the door. I feel real energized. We all have our chores which I guess is only fair; we get paid—very well-paid in the long run. This Tuesday is my day to go to Camp for a few hours. I’ll attend tennis lessons, go swimming, and play some basketball. It’s real fun, especially now with my newly found interest. I look around, checking out the scenery. Most of the real good-looking girls don’t sign up for camp though. I don’t know what they do, probably stay at home looking at themselves in the mirror, and if I had the chance to look at them all day, I would.

Mikee and I are in this camp together. We are both pretty athletic and somewhat popular. Most of the time we are picked right away in basketball, and we’re always in on the volleyball games and swimming races. Camp is real fun and we take it seriously and we are not too interrupted with girls there. Meanwhile, camp is over around 2:00. We go home, and on the way, we stop by the Corner. There we can usually find friends gathering before dinner, usually in bathing suits or short shorts, halter tops, or cut offs and tanks, real laid back. Today is not different than any other, or is it?

On the way home from camp, Mikee and I arguing about the pass he mapped out in basketball. It was meant to go one way I saw it another way. This is nothing new, we’re always undermining each other; that’s what best friends do, I guess. On their way to the Corner Mikee gestured to cut through the park, and so we did. Not too sunny, not too cloudy, it was a perfect mixture of a nice day when all of a sudden we heard screams again—the same frightening scream that I heard last time; this time it spooked me.

Mikee asked, Did you hear that?

Yes, I replied. I explained how I heard them before and we both agreed to go check it out.

With our knowledge of the park, (it has been our hangout for years) we knew where the screams were coming from: down by the creek where the bend in the river had been formed by tremendous gatherings of granite and a beautiful waterfall. It was a place so familiar to Mikee and me that we knew exactly where we were going and what we were hearing. A girl’s voice—a scream; not too clear but if definitely was a girl. We searched and searched a familiar place and did not see a thing. Maybe it was someone skinny-dipping and when they knew we heard them, they took off.

Maybe it was some sound coming from an animal, Mikee suggested.

Come on now, that was no animal, be real. But you’re right; maybe it was just a friendly scream because there is no one obviously here. No one is around. We looked everywhere, and we knew where the sound was coming from. Okay let’s go, let’s get hanging out; I can’t stay long. It was Tuesday. Mom had an important meeting and I was pegged to sit with J.J. until Dad got home around 9:00.

At the Corner, an intersection of row homes in an Urban Community, a tight nit friendly neighborhood. There stood a shoe repair store, our hangout, known as Potter & Clearfield. On the Corner were Jade and Melissa and, wow, what they were wearing. They just came back from swimming and they were looking tan and their hair all wild. They were just wearing cut offs and bathing suit tops. I tried to hide my stare and compose myself, but my hormones were just going wild. Joey, Louie and Tyler were there too, wanting to get up a game of stickball. Okay I’m in, I said. Mikee was in too. We cut up a few balls and started playing. It was a good time. I hadn’t played in awhile. It instantly took my mind off the girls; that was good. Louie mentioned a party Friday night at Valerie’s house; it was her thirteenth birthday, and her father, a singer in a Rock and Roll band, was playing, and the whole gang was invited. I said, That sounds good. Mikee agreed. Jade and Melissa were going, so were Donna and Rachel. I was set for the week knowing I was jamming Friday and with excellent company.

CHAPTER TWO 

Dinner was the normal hotdogs, macaroni, cheese and chocolate milk. We usually have a dinner made on Tuesdays, once a month at least. It was a meeting night for mom, preparing dinner was Kathy’s specialty. She made it; it was fine, just what we all expected. It was my turn to watch J.J.; we usually shared that responsibility and I thought that was cool. On weeknights, I was allowed out only until 10:00 in the summer, and that is right out on the steps with neighbors. Usually I can stay out until 11:00 as long as Mom can look out and see that I was safe. Mikee, my best friend, lived a few doors away. So that is where we usually hang out, in each other’s house. I played the drums and Mikee the guitar. Valerie’s party was something we were looking forward to because her dad was an excellent singer and we might get a chance to sit in a song or two. He appreciated our talent, made us feel like we were worthy, not worms. Although we have only played for about two years, we could carry our own—we could jam. So this week we would practice a lot! Dinner was over and I was hanging out, watching TV. Suddenly I heard one of our friends mentioned on TV, Joey’s sister Katrina hadn’t been seen in a few days. Wow I know her. She’s not like that to take off for days; that I know of. She is just around 15. Kathy, who goes to school with her, said yes she is. She didn’t think she was like that either. I sure hoped she was okay, but where could she be?

Did Joey say anything to you? Anthony asked.

I replied, No, I was with him today. He didn’t mention it.

Well, I hope she sees the news. I hope she knows how worried her parents are and comes home safely!

Anyway, Dad came home around 8:30. I was relieved of my duty. I went to find Mikee. We hang out, checked out my new Rocker magazine, and talked a little about Katrina. He hadn’t heard anything either. Our thoughts were the same; we hoped that she was okay.

It was Friday at last. We had breakfast with the family. Mom was there and I said to her, We’re having a camp fire today and Mom, I told you about Valerie’s birthday party?

Mom said, I think you mentioned it about thirty times already, have fun. I washed and ironed your new jeans and shirt; they are hanging in your closet. Listen, I still want you home by 11:00. Call me; we will discuss it later from the party. Let me know how things are going. If the band is playing until 12:00, maybe, I will pick you up then.

Yea, Mom, thanks!

I went off to camp. It was a real hot one; the swimming only cooled me off briefly the minute I came out, and it was time to get back in. I need to forget basketball, though I really wanted to play to get a little work out. Laps were impossible because the pool was so crowded. I did get about a two-mile run-in. It was more of a brisk walk really; it was brutal. Thank God its over and the camp fire was postponed, time to get home, get ready for Valerie’s party.

While getting ready, I listened to Union, (one of my favorite rock-and-roll bands). I had all the exciting thoughts of jamming and of girls. Girls, girls, what a feeling! I took an extra long shower, and sprayed on cologne. There were a few phone calls verifying our plans. Mikee’s mom was picking me, Louie, Tyler and poor Joey up. I didn’t think Joey was coming. His family was devastated. There was no word on Katrina’s whereabouts. My heart really ached for them. They were beside themselves with grief, where could she be? She was last seen when she had a tiff with her sister and left the house in a huff. She had some things like a jacket and pocketbook but nothing that she could use long-term; she didn’t seem to have run away, she didn’t seem to be the type who would run away. No one knew where she was and the days were following each other and time was critical. It really put a damper on that night, that was all everyone was talking or thinking about—Joey and his missing sister Katrina. Everyone was searching and coming up with no clues.

The party was nice. Valerie was thirteen that day and what a knockout she was. I could only imagine what she would look like at eighteen. Her father is so cool. We had so much fun, food, and punch (non-alcoholic of course). It was good, and these real hot peppers (they knocked my socks off), were awesome. It must have been