The Promise

By Jean Fairfax

Life as she knows it is about to end. She’s only sixteen… how could everything be going wrong in such a short time?

Jamie Lynn Montgomery thought losing her father was the worst that could happen, until her mother decides to remarry. The boy she loves has feelings for her best friend, and she knows she can never compete with tall, blonde, and beautiful when short and dumpy looks back in the mirror (she was always better at football than flirting…). As a musical prodigy of the flute, of all things, she is expected to audition for a prestigious conductor in a month which leads to her biggest problem. She’s misplaced her ability to play music and is being sent away to Maine until she has a serious “attitude” adjustment about her mother’s upcoming marriage. Thanks, Mom.

Alone and dejected in Maine, a state she has not been to since she was four years old, Jamie finally finds peace when she sits on the rocks at Cape Elizabeth watching the waves crash against the rocks. But even there she isn’t safe, as one day she hears the very thing her guilty conscience has her running away from—a flute moving in and out on the breeze! As she goes to investigate her tormentor, she comes face-to-face with a tall, dark, handsome, and mysterious smile that drives all thoughts of anger from her mind.

This trip, once a punishment, becomes a new opportunity for Jamie as she begins investigating this mysterious Michael, and why he only ever seems to show up near the rocks of Cape Elizabeth. Who is he? Why does he have so many secrets? Most of all, why is he so determined that she keeps The Promise she made to him so long ago? Jamie won’t stop until she finds out.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
• Release date: Oct 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781662931369

Book preview

ONE

I, Jamie Lynn Montgomery, being as sound of mind as any sixteen-year-old ever is, leave all my worldly possessions to my best friend, Mary Sue Kingsley. Everything but my flute that is, because she says that kind of music gives her a headache. Personally, I don’t think she can carry a tune, but, hey, she's my best friend and I can forgive her almost anything.

It is also important that you understand another major problem I have just in case I'm not around to tell you about it later. Are you ready for this? Okay, here it is. My very own mother has found a way to end my life. Yes, you heard me correctly! End my life! That is precisely why I am putting my story down on paper for the entire world to see.

My mom hasn't come right out and said it, but I know she is going to get rid of me. I can tell by the looks she gives me and the way she shakes her head in frustration every time I'm in the room with her. Surely a few of you know what I'm talking about. Especially when she taped that straw to the refrigerator after dinner the other night and said it was the last one. I even looked in the drawer to check and, sure enough, it was the last one. However, I don't think that's what she was referring to, do you?

Now, get this, Mary Sue says she doesn't really blame my mom for wanting to get rid of me. I did say Mary Sue is my best friend, right? Anyway…Mary Sue says it's because I haven't been very supportive of my mom since she met George Chandler. My answer to this? Mary Sue doesn't have to live here and watch all the stuff they do and the fun they have without me.

I thought my mom and I were doing fine, after my dad died. It took a couple of years to stop crying and all, but we were coping. That is until George came along. Now she says she's going to marry him! I'm having a really difficult time with this whole marriage concept. Marriage, at their age, really?

I have tried to explain to my mom that I don't want, or need, someone to try and take my dad's place. Especially not George! He's so…so…whatever! And what response do I get from my mom? I get the look! I'm sure you know the look I'm talking about. That steady, unblinking stare that tells you one more word will end your life.

This may be hard for you to believe but I don't have many friends, other than Mary Sue Kingsley. You're probably thinking you understand why, Right? Well, this may surprise you, but I happen to be painfully, woefully, unbelievably shy. You can stop laughing now.

I was considering all my personal assets the other day and here is what I came up with. I am short and dumpy. For those of you who think that is a place you take your trash, think again? It simply means that I eat too many snacks.

Mary Sue, bless her heart, says I'm just a little insecure about who I am. That it is probably hormonal and that at our age we start to feel awkward and insecure. Did I mention that Mary Sue is the same age as me and she is gorgeous? Yeah, I didn't think so.

I do two things extremely well. I play the flute and I write in my diary. I can be anybody I want to be when I do these two things and no one can mess with me, right? Right! I will, however, admit my one big fault. I am just a little bit, you know, ever so slightly…sarcastic.

I need you to understand, right here at the beginning, that I only get that way to keep from being hurt. I guess you could call it a self-defense mechanism, or something like that. Look at it this way, if I can make people laugh with me, then I know they aren't laughing at me.

Mary Sue says it's my insecurity that makes me seem rude and stuck up and she's probably right. Mary Sue is usually always right. Mary Sue is also one of the most popular girls in school. I feel extremely fortunate that she decided to take me under her wing and make something of me. Unfortunately, she simply does not understand all the feelings I have about my father. That is one of the main reasons I am putting all this down on paper.

I think someone should know what is going to happen to me, considering I won't be around to tell anyone what my mother is planning to do. She is going to get rid of me the day after tomorrow. So, I feel it might be prudent to let whoever reads this know that I intend to take my flute with me, to wherever it is unwanted flute players go.

It is also important that you know how perfect my mother’s timing is. Today is the last day of school and no one, except Mary Sue, will miss me for the first week or two of summer. I know my mother will tell people that I have gone to visit relatives in Maine. That is so she can say it was an accident when I never come back. Unfortunately, none of my friends are bright enough to figure out what she is really doing. The worst part is they will believe every lying word she says.

Of course, you might be thinking that it would never have come to this if I had been willing to accept George Chandler as my new father. But I just can't! Don't get me wrong, it's not that he isn't a great person. He really is, in his way. It's just that I don't want or need someone to try and take my father's place. My mother has finally accepted that I have no intention of giving in and accepting George. That’s why she has decided to get rid of me instead.

I just hope I am lucky enough to go to the same place my father went when he died. I know that he, of all people, would understand my feelings. He always understood them when we were together. He loved us so much and there is no way he would want my mother to marry someone else, any more than I do. There is no way he would want her to be untrue to his memory!

Jamie Lynn Montgomery!

That is what my mother always calls me when she reaches the end of her rope and that is what she just called me from the doorway of my room.

Jamie, I've called you three times! The least you can do is give me is the courtesy of an answer.

She is standing in the doorway giving me her look of irritation. Mary Sue says I try to make people dislike me. Me…her best friend! I have not quite figured out how I'm supposed to be courteous to someone who intends to take away the only life I've had for the past sixteen years. I have no doubt my mother knows this. That’s why she's giving me a confused look. You know, the look parents give when they want you to think they don't understand what they've done wrong.

By the way, I don't think I mentioned that I also excel in drama class. I take that class very seriously. I especially excel in looking persecuted. That's what I just hit my mother with. I don't know anyone, except maybe my mother, who can look as persecuted as I can when I put my heart in it. So now it's a standoff. I know this because neither one of us has blinked.

All right, Jamie, let's see it.

See what? I said, giving her my innocent and confused look.

Let's see what you've written this time. Since you are already going to be late for school, we might as well get this over with right now!

You mean you've been reading my diary? I asked with a look of shocked disbelief and indignation. How could my very own mother have done such a thing!

It was not intentional, I assure you, she said, never taking her eyes off me. Perhaps you should learn to be more careful with it if you want to keep its contents a secret. Leaving it open on the kitchen counter isn't very smart.

I knew she was going to say that. I knew she would find an excuse to try and justify reading my most personal thoughts. Well, I'm not going to let her get off that easy. Not this time.

"Just because I was careless, one time, doesn't give you the right to read…"

"Three times, Jamie! Now, just let me see what it is you've written. It'll save you the trouble of having to be careless again. Understand this, young lady. I'm in no mood for your games and you're not going anywhere until we get a few things straight between us."

Does that mean I don't have to go to Maine? I asked, knowing I was pushing my luck.

It means that you might not come back from Maine for a very long time if you continue to act this way.

Now I want you guys to understand something right up front. I'm not a weak person, just a scared one. So, before you condemn me for my lack of courage in standing up for my rights, you had better think about what you'd do if you wanted to live past the next few minutes. Knowing what I knew, I didn't intend to waste one precious second of the time I had left. I handed her my diary.

Sure, go ahead, blame me because her eyes looked like Niagara Falls by the time she'd finished reading what I'd just written. I hadn't intended to be around when she read it and I felt a little guilty about making her cry. But still…it was my life.

Not this time, Jamie, she said, closing the book and handing it back to me. This time you can stay with your aunt and uncle until you've learned to accept the fact that I didn't die with your father four years ago. I don't think I want you back until you realize that I have just as much right to live and be happy as you do.

That's cold, I said, not even having to pretend about the pain I felt.

I'll give you something cold, she said, and that's when I realized her tears were from anger, as well as the pain I'd caused her. Cold is going to school and explaining why you're late. Without an excuse from me.

She didn't even wait for a reply to that one. She just turned around and walked away, leaving me with the problem of having to face old Dragon Breath Meyer without a note from her. She was right, of course, that was the ultimate in cold!

I won't go into all the sordid little details of what Dragon Breath Meyer had to say to me. Let's just say that he could turn one of the Hell's Angels into a quivering bowl of Jell-O and leave it at that. I didn't find out, until I left his office, that my mother had already called and talked to him before I got there.

When Kathy Mayfield, and they think I'm stuck-up, laughed and told me that she'd talked to my mother before I went into Meyer's office, I seriously considered clawing her eyes out. She, among others, will remain on my list for life.

All things considered I was lucky. After all, it was the last day of school and there really wasn't much Mr. Meyer could do to me on such short notice. Knowing him, though, he probably figured he'd have all next year to persecute me. Little did he know that he was missing his one and only chance because I probably wouldn't live long enough for him to get that pleasure.

We weren't having any real classes, so it didn't take me long to get all my grades and find Mary Sue. That was never a challenge. Why, you ask? Because she's about seventeen feet tall with gorgeous blond hair, big blue eyes, and a figure that puts Barbie to shame, that's why!

You probably think I'm envious, but you're wrong. I don't think there is any one single word in the English language capable of describing how she makes me feel. Besides, I have a very philosophical attitude about having her as my best friend. Being five foot four with curly, nondescript brown hair, mud brown eyes and a figure I've always attributed to one of Cinderella's stepsisters, requires a great deal of fortitude on my part.

Anyway…what's great about having Mary Sue for my best friend is that she's always surrounded by the best-looking guys in school. That means, of course, that I can at least share in their presence. I don't even mind when they step on me while trying to get her attention. It's enough to be able to say, He touched me! Especially Randy Harris. But, hey, he's another story.

When Mary Sue finally saw me, she waved all her admirers away, just like a queen dismissing her devoted subjects. Believe me, that takes real class, not to mention guts. I ask you, is that real friendship or what? As generous and giving as I am, I'm not sure I'd have the nerve to send any guy away. Then, again, I've never really had to worry about it. There has to be a guy in order to send him away, right? Anyway…I doubt they'd be heartbroken.