Return to First-Earth

By L.E. Johnson

This is a somewhat twisted Cinderella story about a beautiful princess and her two terrible twin stepbrothers who bullied her to death, and the good that came of it many years later.

It travels through time, a fantasy adventure like no other, filled with wonderful stories of the great state of MICHIGAN and its fantastic legends...tales of Michigan’s Indians and local stories of Michigan places, historic railroad depots, Cat Lake, and places in Michigan’s Thumb of the Mitten, and the Heart of the Thumb, a little town called Marlette.

It is a tale of Good versus Evil in a time before ours, and before the prehistoric Ice Age descended on our Earth and basically killed off everything but left the glorious rivers and lakes and streams and ponds that made Michigan the Water Wonderland.

It has Navy SEALS, a Sheriff’s Posse diver, sunken treasure, prehistoric animals, Michigan and Detroit’s historic automobiles. It also has a little bit of Disney’s magic, with wizards and dwarves and Cattas, and some dragons. It is a very fun and happy book to enjoy and read again and again.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781546248606

L.E. Johnson

The author was born in Detroit, Michigan, in October of 1949, the third of four children of Harold and Marjorie Johnson. Harold was from Albion, New York, where his great-grandfather had come in on the opening of the Erie Canal and settled at a place called The Bridges, New York. Harold came to Michigan to work in the automobile plants during the Depression, where he met and married Marjorie Dawson, who was in the city attending Beauty School. In 1957 they returned to her hometown in Marlette in the Thumb of Michigan and bought the family farm started by Grandfather William Dawson in 1882. Lois graduated from Marlette High School in 1967, Salutatorian and Class Treasurer. She pursued her college education at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education in 1971. Although she was offered the newly-formed position of Director of Alumni at OU, it was only a half-time position then, and she instead went to work for Warren Consolidated Schools as a Math/Science teacher at Grissom Junior High on 14 Mile and Ryan, beginning her first real job walking the picket line, on strike. Pink-slipped at the end of her first year teaching, Lois returned to the Thumb and spent the next 27 years teaching Math, then Social Studies and Reading, to 6th graders, taking Early Retirement in 1998. She earned a Master’s Degree from Central Michigan University, and 18 hours towards her Specialist’s. In the early 1970’s she purchased 50 acres of the family Centennial Farm, turning it into a Michigan Non-Profit Wildlife Sanctuary, where she now raises beautiful free-ranging peacocks on one of the most lovely spots on earth. In 1985, Lois happened to visit a stunning old Victorian House in town, where she was amazed to learn that it had been built by her mother’s Great-Uncle, Thomas Usher Dawson, Marlette’s leading businessman in the 1890’s. That started her on a quest for family information that ultimately led to the town’s newspaper office, The Marlette Leader, where she found the old copies of the newspapers. It was that visit that eventually sparked enough interest that she convinced the newspaper editor, John Frazier, to help her start The Marlette Historical Society and Museum. They then microfilmed the old newspapers, and had three Marlette buildings named to the State Historic Sites Registry: the Victorian House of Thomas Usher and Jennie Dawson; the Marlette First United Methodist Church, and the 1890 Marlette Depot. They wrote grants of $800,000 for a museum, bought the old depot and did everything necessary for its restoration, thanks to two additional grants from the State of Michigan and MDOT. 1987 was the 150th of the State of Michigan, the 125th of the City of Marlette, and the 100th Year of the High School, which they commemorated with a 432-page book, in conjunction with the High School Yearbook, IMAGES. Lois then followed up on that book with an 820-page Millennium Edition. She adopted 12-year old twins in 1989. She was named to Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers in 2000 and again in 2005, an honor given to less than 3% of America’s Elementary Teachers. She wrote of her father’s friendship with the World’s Greatest Santa Claus, Charlie Howard, in the book, My Dad Knew Santa Claus. Charles Howard, of Albion, New York, who unbelievably held 5 million children on his lap, was the famous Macy’s Santa who started the World’s Only School for Santas and the wonderland for children, Christmas Park, the unequaled Santa Claus Headquarters of the World. Howard died in 1966, when he was entered into the United States Congressional Record as the Dean of Santa Claus. It is an adult story for the child in each of us.

Book preview

RETURN

TO

FIRST-EARTH

L.E. JOHNSON

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AuthorHouse™

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

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Copyright © 2018 L.E. Johnson. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 07/30/2019

ISBN: 978-1-5462-4861-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-4860-6 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

A Somewhat Twisted Cinderella Story

The Logan Twins

Return To First-Earth

Chapter 1    The Two Who Survived The Total Destruction (Annihilation) Of First-Earth

Chapter 2    Why The Thumb Of Michigan?

Chapter 3    The Jade Music Box

Chapter 4    The Jade Box Displays Its Charm

Chapter 5    The Music Box Begins To Reveal Its Secrets

Chapter 6    The Lockbox Reveals A Voice From The Past

Chapter 7    A Difficult Dilemma

Chapter 8    Aunt Ronni Takes On The Seals

Chapter 9    Preparations To Travel Down A River Of Steel

Chapter 10    Lighthouses Along Michigan’s Rivers Of Steel

Chapter 11    The Tiny Little Tear In Time

Chapter 12    The Death Of First Wizard Trex

Chapter 13    The Divers Depart From Marlette

Chapter 14    The Murky Waters Of Catta Bay

Chapter 15    Ghosts

Chapter 16    Cinderlink Prepares To Meet Cinderella

Chapter 17    Cinderlink Arrives At The Little Bay Off Cat Lake

Chapter 18    The Deafening Sounds Of Silence

Chapter 19    Amazing Technology From The 2¹St Century Saves The Day

Chapter 20    Hearing From S.e.a.l.s. Sooner Rather Than Later

Chapter 21    A Much Needed Rest

Chapter 22    Troubled Dreams?

Chapter 23    A Peaceful Sunday On The Bay

Chapter 24    Bigfoot

Chapter 25    Tying Up Loose Ends

Chapter 26    Diamonds Are Forever

Chapter 27    Home At Last–Mission Accomplished

About The Author

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A SOMEWHAT TWISTED CINDERELLA STORY

O NCE UPON A TIME there was a little girl named Cinder…Cinderella. Cinderella Lucretia Lebotnik. Cinder was a dragon. A very, very beautiful dragon. And she was pink. Really really pink.

Cinder was a beautiful child, at least for a dragon. She was sweet and kind and nice to everyone she ever knew or met. She grew more lovely every day that she lived. Everyone loved Cinder. Everyone, that is, except her two stepbrothers. They were Two-Heads. Two-Heads are known for their meanness and bullying. Tom and Tam were especially mean and nasty, and being Two-Heads made them twice as nasty.

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Cinder’s own mother died when she was born. Actually, dragons hatch from eggs, and Cinder was no exception. Her mother was sitting on the eggs when Cinder started to peck her way out of the shell. Then something horrifying happened—the entire egg exploded when tiny Cinderella’s fire started up by mistake, and Cinder’s mother, Lucretia, was blown up and killed in the explosion, along with all the other little egglets. It was a dreadful time for everyone involved.

Cinder’s father was totally devastated. He was the King of all Dragons, the 1st Dragon, Dragon One…and the Lebotniks were the most royal of all in First-Earth. He loved Cinder’s mother very much. But he thought he just couldn’t raise his little girl properly without a mother, so he married again. Perhaps not wisely. His new wife and queen dragon was a Two-Head, and of high royal blood herself, from a faraway land. But Two-Head births can be difficult, even in a hatchery, and the stepmother was frail and had difficulty raising twin Two-Heads, for they were born mean and got better at it every day. She did not live very long, I’m afraid. Cinder’s father doted on our Cinder, and the unruly, horrible boys were left completely undisciplined and totally rotten.

And so time passed. Cinder continued to grow up, graceful and beautiful and sweet. The boys hated her, as stepbrothers will. One day her father the Dragon King realized that her 16th birthday was fast approaching, and he decided to have a huge Sweet Sixteen Ball for his darling Princessa daughter.

The party arrangements went on all around them; official invitations went out to all of the relatives and anyone at all who hadn’t been burned up by all the dragonfire. The food was piling up all around (dragons can be a bit messy, you know, and the food really was just piling up). The music was arranged to perfection. All of the best dragon bands were on the grounds practicing up a storm. And then the big day arrived. King Lebotnik had commissioned the most beautiful of gowns for his lovely daughter Cinderella to wear, with glass slippers to somehow fit her gargantuan dragon shaped feet. The outfit was exquisite, delightful, beyond belief, extraordinary…and she wore a gold and platinum tiara with every jewel, every diamond imaginable…white diamonds, black diamonds, the rare red and green diamonds, and yes, her favorite, the pink diamonds, and the rubies, and emeralds and jewels beyond belief. Practically every space on the flowing dress was stitched with precious stones. Gently covering the gown starting at the shoulders and flowing softly down the back was a white velvet cape made of indestructible (and fireproof!) metal-based tiny beading (called billybeads) that attached the gems into the design. A gorgeous and stunning peacock covered the entire back and draped down behind her as she walked, every peacock feather in its place, every eye in each feather spaced and designed to completely replicate and show off the exquisite beauty of God’s most gorgeous bird. Cinder wore around her thick neck the stunning Gem of the Earth, a gift from her father on her birthday, the infamous Johnstone—the most perfect diamond in the entire universe, mined by the dwarves from the first Johnstone Mine—not only was it already faceted to perfection, it held deep inside a perfectly formed indescribable sight, a tiny dancing gold and platinum unicorn. It was stunning perfection as it came out of the Mountain, just as if it had been done by a jeweler. The Gem of the Earth hung from a finely delicate (well, for a dragon anyway) steel blend platinum/gold/sapphire forged chain of incomparable beauty and insurmountable strength. (I think it might have been stolen from the dwarves before the great Wars, as dragons are apt to do.)

Cinderella was truly a vision of dragon loveliness as she started gracefully down the steps of the dragon palace, slowly and carefully, turning to the left and to the right, smiling delightfully at everyone there, for her father the King had invited everyone to the ball. They cheered and clapped and laughed and smiled…she was so pretty and gracious to everyone…it could not possibly have been a more beautiful and perfect night for our Cinder…and then the terrible twin Two-Head stepbrothers showed up with malicious intent in their eyes. Everyone had pretty much forgotten about the boys. No one was at all prepared for their vicious attack on their half-sister, shocking everyone there so they did nothing. They were insanely jealous and out of control, and before anyone knew exactly what was happening, the horrible two-headed bullies came at Cinder from either side, biting and snapping and burning and hitting…it was a most horrible sight to see. No one had any idea what was happening, and before anyone there could do anything at all to aid our lovely Cinderella—she had flown away as fast as she could, chased by the horrid Two-Heads.

Cinder was crying so hard she could barely see. It was pitch black outside the palace and starting to storm. She had never been allowed out at night, and she was scared out of her mind. The boys kept chasing her, and knocking her over and torturing her to pieces. And she just kept going, on and on and on in the dark, for literally miles and miles, over land and over water, over low hills and higher mountain ranges. She had no idea where she was or where she was going, she just flew as fast as her aching and tired little body would take her. Tom Two-Head and Tam Two-Head came at her again and again and again, enraged as they were with pure jealousy and vile hatred, attacking her and biting her and pulling at her, trying to force her down. And then after what seemed like forever, she crashed. She had been flying over water, a place called Cat Lake, and she fell into a tiny bay off the lake called Catta Bay, miles and miles from the Lebotnik Palace, and she went down and down, her fires went out, extinguished forever and ever—and our precious Cinderella was gone.

THE LOGAN TWINS

RETURN

TO

FIRST-EARTH

CHAPTER 1

THE TWO WHO SURVIVED THE TOTAL DESTRUCTION (ANNIHILATION) OF FIRST-EARTH

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T HE GIRLS DIDN’T ACTUALLY know how they arrived at 11187 Pardee Street or even exactly when it was when they arrived. It was all a bit vague in their minds, but they had a really good feeling about it. They had simply stepped off the train at the old railroad depot after a journey aboard the Midnight Express. Looking around, it was like a breath of fresh air after what little they remembered of the ride there over miles and miles of gently rolling hills breaking up the otherwise flat farm land. The fields were green and lush with recently planted crops of corn, sugar beets, soybeans, wheat and oats. Even the hayfields were blossoming and fragrant. Does and their new fawn twins and triplets were standing near the woodlots. It was Michigan at its loveliest. The newly restored railroad depot was very welcoming as they got off the train. There was a car waiting for them at the depot…Russ Kraft driving one of his elegant vintage automobiles. He was doing a favor for the girls’ aunt, and he delivered them to the 125-year old Victorian mansion with great finesse.

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Russ was driving a 1909 Brush, a one-cylinder car with a two-speed transmission and a 10-horsepower engine, with a cruising speed of 25-30 mph. Russ explained that this amazing ’09 Brush was a two-passenger model with a mother-in-law seat in the back, and the frame was oak, while the axles were an unusual hickory wood. An accessory windshield and top were bought after purchase from an after-market company. The headlights were carbide lamps, and the taillights and running lights were oil lamps. It was a car that made heads turn wherever it went, and this was no exception. He told them that this 1909 Brush had resided in a museum for many years, leaving it in superb condition. The girls had plenty of room with one of them utilizing the back seat. They were taken to their aunt in style.

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As they stepped up to the imposing Victorian house belonging to their Aunt Ronni, the twins noticed how very pretty the house was…the towers and cone-shaped turrets with two-story triple bay windows…simply stunning architecture. In fact, with two full floors plus both a full attic and basement, the entire house was punctuated with brick, fieldstone, shingles and wood trim. The attic dormers in the asymmetrical-shaped Queen Anne Revival style building finished the look, and it was as picturesque as it sounds. It was the only residence in Marlette named to the State Registry of Michigan Historic Sites, a tribute to Marlette’s leading businessman during the 1890’s, Ush Dawson. Aunt Ronni graciously began to show them around.

Once inside the spacious foyer, the grand staircase wound its way upstairs, around through one of the towers and past the bay windows, like a reptile sunning and stretching itself languidly in the soft summer sun. An old shipbuilder from New York State, back in 1893, had actually made the beautiful, hand-carved stairway for the original owner, Mr. Thomas Usher Dawson and his wife, Jennie.

"This house is simply lovely! It’s like our newfound Aunt