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I havnt shown anyone this yet so I would love some input. Sorry I just stuffed it here I couldnt think of a better place to put it. I want to know how this begining catchs your attention. It gets a lot weirder later on in the story. Ive been working on longer descriptions, does it work, Longer or shorter?


Chapter one

When Jane heard a sturdy knock on the front door, she strolled up to open it with a friendly smile on her face. It froze when she saw the visitor. She always knew he could find her if he tried, but she had hoped that he was smart enough to realize that she didn’t need finding. He stood there with that irritating expectant smile, a tight smile that seemed to expect something. After a second this was covered with concern. He was about to say something when Rose came to the door.
"Hello," she said breaking down the silence, "who are you?" She asked, in that frank way only young children can.
"I'm Max," said Max, "I'm a friend of Jane's and I haven’t seen her since she left New Zealand over a year ago."
"Her name's not Jane, its 'Gemma', you can’t be a very good friend," said Rose innocently.
By then Jane found her voice and mockingly said, "you are right dear, I don’t think he is a very good friend," she looked pointedly at him, "now we have to have one of them horrible adult conversations, so could you be a dear and go play in your room, when I’m finished we can make traffic light jelly for your birthday party."
After Rose left, Jane lead Max away from the house and back to the gate, "a friend’s kid?" He asked.
"No. A husband’s kid. Rose is my step-daughter." She said absentmindedly, "I knew you could find me, but what took you so long, I figured it would have taken a few months at the most."
Max didn’t answer though, he was to busy spinning at the first statement, "Your step-daughter?" He asked with disbelief. Then, "husband?"
Jane nodded slowly, she understood the surprise, she had always said she never wanted to get married or have kids. She had always lead people to believe that she was destined to become a great artist and writer. With her hand on her belly she wondered if she should give him another shock.
"I thought you just got married to get into the country, it’s the only reason I found you."
He looked like he was about to launch into a long speech explaining how he did it, so Jane interrupted.
"Ok, um, well done. Do you have anything you want to say?"
"Anything I want to say?" he asked pointlessly.
"Yes."
He looked at her, his eyes were always tired and although he was only twenty-four, they were ringed with lines and dark bags hung from them. Too many long hours sitting in front of his computer; and too many days stressing obsessively over something. One calamity after another. He was so wrapped in his own problems. He used to stress her out just by being stressy near her. It had never helped.
"Look did you come all this way to prove a point, I wouldn’t be very surprised, but you must have some other agenda. Not that it will change anything, I'm not coming back."
"I miss you."
"So do a lot of people, it can’t be helped."
"Why?"
"I just couldn’t stand being me any longer and I couldn’t change with all you people watching me. I'm happy, if you can imagine it. Truly happy, not just from one moment to the next, I was never truly happy back then." She just had a terrible thought, with narrowed eyes she watched him; “did you tell anyone that you found me?"
"No" he said, "I wanted to make sure first."
"Oh," she sighed, "thank ******** god. Please I beg of you, as a friend, please let me alone. Let me be happy. I'm needed here, not just loved, but needed. It was so hard to be alive there, for my parents and family, and you. Everything I ever did was for them. Pretending was killing me, it hurt all the bloody time. I'm happy here. Please for my sake let me be. If you really were a good friend you would let me live."
Jane was rambling now, the desperation spilled out, old clichés popped up and she stared at him, fear in her eyes.
"I don't understand, "said Max, tears were in his old eyes, "So many people loved you, they loved you unconditionally. You could have got help and they would still have loved you. How could you be so selfish?"
"How could you be so selfish? I don’t owe you my presence; I don’t owe them it either. I love them too. I feel no guilt, I am doing more good here than I could ever there. You don't need me. Rose needs me. Mike needs me. If I stayed I would have hurt you all so much more in the end," she rambled on, her words tumbling out faster and faster.
He shook his head in denial, Jane put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed, "I love you, but you have to let me go. You can live without me. Please let me be happy."
He nodded. He looked like he was going to hug her.
As she stepped away, she looked into his eyes. "You promise?"
"I promise."
"Goodbye Max. Enjoy life every now and then; for me."
As he walked away and got into his car, a rough looking Ute parked down the driveway. Max watched as a tall man with long blond hair stepped out, he looked about thirty. Jane smiled radiantly at him and they hugged, she looked more comfortable with him than she had ever looked in the year that Max had been her best friend. She had changed a lot and not at all. Although she was not short she always looked small. The line between her eyes had relaxed. She had cut her hair shorter and dyed it a darker brown. Her cloths were plainer, although she retained an eternal scruffiness. She had always been a beautiful girl, full of unpredictable energy. She still looked younger than her twenty-one years, but she seemed to be at peace, that edginess that he mistook for energy had been replaced.

Max looked at the Ute, the husband advertised his business: Mike Archer, Arborist, tree_docter_hellton@hotmail.com, Ph... He smiled sadly, she still liked climbing trees. She had once dragged him up one. With tears in his eyes, he looked at her one last time. Mike was on his knees, with his hands on the slight swell of her belly that Max had not seen until just now, she looked over at him and saw his Questioning look. She smiled and nodded.
"Goodbye Jane,” he whispered as he drove out of the small township of Hellton, where Mike and Gemma Archer and their daughter lived happily.


Jane recovered from her distress almost immediately when she saw her husbands face again, that charming jokers grin, it made her feel better the first time ever she saw his face. It was an odd face, strangely beautiful, could be described as fay. His shoulder length strawberry blond hair was tied back with a rubber band. He looked a little older up close than twenty-nine; his face was rough and tanned from working outside in the weather. His eyes were creased from smiling and squinting. Only his green eyes were as young as his mind, Young and a little damaged. Always he greeted her with a hug and a real kiss, none of those half hearted pecks on the cheek. As was a new custom of the last few weeks he knelt to inspect the bump, it had only just started showing and he had to make sure it hadn’t grown while he was at work. As he led her inside he asked who the guy in the fancy car was.
"Someone from New Zealand; will never be back." Said Jane with snipped words.
Mike nodded; he had learnt not to ask about her past.
"Dear, you came home just in time to help us make jelly." Said Jane as he picked Rose up and hugged her. "Its time to make the red and pour the orange onto the green."
"Cool, just let me have a shower to get the sawdust smell off me."
"But I love that smell."
"Ah so that’s why you married me, I always wondered why a young girl like you could love an old fellow like me."
"Aright, you old fellow, you better hurry or we wont let you have any of the leftovers."
He put Rose down and whispered loud into her ear, "I think I better do what Mother says, boy, isn’t she bossy?"
Rose laughed and helped Jane push Mike into the bathroom.
"Rose," Jane whispered, "I’m going to go in there and make sure he washes behind his ears, why don’t you get all the things we need to make jelly."
Rose nodded, feeling very important. She liked having a Mum again, someone to help her look after Dad. He was so sad and dusty for so long after her first mum had gone.
Jane snuck into the bathroom, and sat on the side of the bath. She loved to watch his lean body under the water. He was naturally toned from climbing trees and using a chainsaw since he left school at sixteen. When she met him about a year ago, he was a mess, unable able to look after his daughter, drinking all day. She was just as lost when they met in a local pub. She had hitched into town and was looking for a bed to sleep the night in, after that night she never slept in another bed.
"How was work?" She asked as if to justify her presence.
"Well you know how we have been working on the Rodgers old oak."
"Yes I love that old thing, so dramatic."
"Yes, she was, now she's firewood. I found a nasty rot in that branch that hung over their roof. I tried to cut it out but it went all the way to the roots. I think last time it was pruned they didn’t paint the wound."
"Oh what a shame, that was the last good sized tree on that block."
"Its ok, I've still got plenty of work here." He said as he stepped out of the shower naked and dripping wet. He walked towards her arms out.
"But you're all wet."
"So are you," he said as he pulled her close. "I love you, Gemma."
"I love you more."
"Not possible."

By the time they got to the kitchen, Rose had neatly set out everything they might need and a few things they might not need, she liked to watch them find a use for them anyway.
"Mum?"
"Yes?"
"Can I have a pet turtle for my birthday?"
"A turtle?" Jane raised an eyebrow at Mike, He seemed amused.
"Yes, I like turtles, my friend Bell from school has two, they are called Fluffy and Barbie. I don’t think I'm going to call mine something silly like that, I want to call mine Gollum, like in the book we are reading. I really want three, so I can have more than Bell, but one is ok. Bell said they were really spencive."
"Is that so?" Asked Jane, "don’t you think Samson the Lion might want to eat them?"
"No Sampson the Lion doesn’t even like to eat mouses, why would he bother getting wet to eat Gollum?"
Mike butted in here, "I think we could arrange a pet turtle called Gollum, couldn't we, Mum? Only one of course, cos they are so very spencive," he winked cheekily.
"Apparently so. So are you exited about turning Seven?"
"I am now that I'm getting my Gollum."
"You know when I was young I had a rat called Gollum."
Mike suddenly hugged her; he loved every rare time that she admitted to having a past. He knew that sometimes she wanted to talk about it, but when she tried she just couldn't. All he knew is that it hurt her and she was happy now. Finally he was too. They were a likely pair. When she smiled at him from across the bar, he forgot for a moment that he was here to drown out the pain. If he had been anymore sober he would have realized he was too old for her and never had even bothered. Luckily for him, she didn’t like to pay for things like a bed to sleep in. They lived together for five months before he felt clean enough to propose and to take his daughter back from his sister.
"Oy, you are meant to be pouring orange jelly,” said Jane as she mixed the red mix into hot water with a fork and a bread knife. Rose giggled and took a photo with a disposable camera that Jane had given to her a few weeks ago. It was the last photo on the reel; she had been saving it for days. She was an odd child, sometimes an old soul, wise and tricky, sometimes her own age, naive and innocent. She was much darker than her father, with big brown eyes like her birth mother; her black hair was long and ringleted. For a long time he had found it hard to look at her without seeing her mother, but now he is grateful that she left some of herself behind.
Jane said "Finally, we can take it to the Photoshop tomorrow and you can pick out a photo album for your birthday present."
Rose nodded solemnly as she took the mixing fork to lick.
"AHAH!" said Mike rather loudly, "I've finally figured out what was wrong about this picture."
Jane and Rose looked at each other; Jane made the crazy sign around her temple.
"We need some tunes, since when is cooking fun if you can't dance at the same time.”
Soon all three were swinging about air guitaring to Pink Floyd as the jelly set in the fridge.


Chapter two

Some months later... Gemma lay in her bed and watched to rain run down the window, she had begun to think of herself as Gemma then. She felt huge, and she wasn’t far of. The twins would be here in about a week. Mike had left for work three hours ago. Normally she would get up when Rose did and make her breakfast and help her get to school, but it was getting increasingly difficult to even get out of bed. Lately Mike’s big sister Issy would come over to help. She was twelve years older than Gemma. At first she had strongly disapproved of Mike getting married to someone so young, but she soon saw what good Gemma had done for him. She had needed the help to, house wifery is all good and well, but it soon got hard to clean things when the bump became a hump. Or double hump as she had come to call it. Mike still couldn't keep his hands of it. They squiggled and kicked when ever he came near, as if to say hello. She was restless, she watched TV a lot, read lots of books that she had always meant to read. Soon she would be too busy, might as well get some relaxing in now. The weather was getting cold, leaves were falling, she could smell winter coming.

She pushed herself up the look outside at the rain. It had started raining at three o'clock in the morning, first very lightly then it sort of crept into her awareness as if it had always been raining. The ground was dark and the pine needles in the forest were a rich orange. She rolled herself out of bed and wandered down to the kitchen in a pair of jeans and a long wraparound woolen jersey. Issy looked up from her drink with a smile.

Issy was drinking tea at the big wooden table. Her rough hands ran over the marks and scars with familiarity. It was an Archer family heirloom. It had belonged to her grandparents. She remembered watching her grandmother spread a white table cloth every dinnertime, to make it more ‘civilized’. When she had died, the big old house went to Issy, half the furniture to Mikes little house. Her twin brother lived in the forest, like a hermit, in a little shack. All he wanted was the old guns. Mikes twin sister lives in the city.

At thirty-three Isabel Archer was a thickly built woman with broad shoulders and hips. Her hair was a dark coarse blond cropped into a tidy bob. Her eyes were green, they were the only thing that linked her to Mike physically. They were as fay as his, dark green like the forest.

She lived near the forest too, in the old Archer homestead, an elegant old farm house built when the Archers were the richest folk in the village. Over the last few hundred years much of this wealth slipped away with the old ways that it was part of. It was built of age silvered pinewood and grey stone.

Issy preferred the way Mike and Gemma left it as it was.

She watched Gemma with concern.
"Girl, you look about ready to pop."
"Thanks," muttered Gemma dryly, "Little miss 'one baby at a time'."
"Mike really should have warned you about our twins."
"I'm sure it still would have been just as surprising. You are so lucky that it’s only girls who marry into your family who have twins."
"Great isn’t it? Rose had a brother too, but he died in birth, I think that was what tipped Charlie over. She was always a little moody. She was ok until she had to bury that little boy. Mike was a broken man after she died. You saved my little brother, as much as he saved you. When I first met you, I thought you were far too young and damaged for him, but you brought each other back into the world; and gave Rose her Dad back and a Mother to love her."
Gemma smiled at her, she had heard much of this before, it was the first time that Issy had admitted that she knew how much of a mess Gemma was when she came into their life. "How did you know that I was so bad? I had always hidden it so well before."
Issy laughed, "I'm sure Mike has told you how intuitive us girl twins are, Delia said very much the same thing when she met you, although she had more faith in you than I."
Gemma nodded, she had experienced the girl twin intuition a lot lately, Rose had become more and more strange; walking to the phone before it even rang, predicting the weather, only yesterday she had asked Gemma to pack her rain jacket into her bag before she went to bed.
"Sometimes I wonder what could do that to a person that they have to run away from home and family and country, hitchhike alone and sleep in stranger's beds."
"Need to go for a walk," Gemma said quickly and stood up.
As she was putting on her gumboots, Issy called out, "Take the forest path."
It was natural for her to do what Issy say's, but she was hesitant about walking down the forest path on her own. It reminded her of her parent’s house; it also sat next to a pine forest. Although this one was much older than her old forest, the smell and feel reminded her of a distant childhood. She realized she would have to exorcise this fear sometime and decided to just do it there and then.

The rain dripped from the rim of her hat as she stepped out of the windy open and into the cold embrace of the pines. They were gnarly and twisted with age, the dark bark stood out in stark contrast with the brilliant orange needles. There was very little under growth, the heavy carpet of needles made sure of that. There was little to mark the path only a frayed white ribbon here and there tied to a tree.

The Archers had lived near or in this forest for many hundreds of years, it seemed to steer their lives and no matter how far an Archer man traveled, he always settled here to have his twins, most never even bothered to leave. In the end they always found a way to serve the forest. Archer women were a different story; although they seemed indifferent about where they lived they seemed to draw energy from the forest. It was a very intense family to live among and she often felt like they were watching her, as if they expected something to happen.

The first thing that she passed was a small clearing where to family boneyard lay, the trees around it seemed bigger and they bent over the stones as if in reverence. The roots crept in towards the beds like they sucked at the bones to draw their energy. Gemma saw that the newest grave was for a child born seven years ago, Rose's twin brother serving the forest in death if not in life. She walked on faster, the graveyard was creepy, it had more life in it than any of the ones she remembered from back home, and it was a good deal older as well.

The walk did make her feel a little better, the smell of rain calmed her mind and as the cold crept through her clothes she imagined a deep hot bath afterward. On her way back she noticed the mushrooms were popping up to greet the rain, they grew in magical looking fairy rings. She tried not to let them remind her of sitting in them for hours as a child waiting to be taken away. Through the trees she caught framed glimpses of the house; it wasn't any thing special, built in the sixties. The white paint was yellow from layers or pine pollen and peeling from the weatherboards. Her garden made it almost charming, when she had arrived nothing much had been done to it and only a few plants remained. She pruned and trained the rambling pink roses as much as they would allow. She found a whole lot of cheap flower bulbs and filled in the spaces. Mike wasn't so interested in gardens, he looked after the big old fruit trees and oaks, but when he saw how her flowers came out in spring and summer he liked the way they made the place more cheery. Now she was thinking about finding some flowers or berries to give the rest of the year some color. As she stepped out of the forest a strangely warm breeze rushed out past her ankles. The air was lighter outside and she almost expected her ears to pop.

Lol, it gets a whole lot more twisted later on. Im just try to establish a setting before just jumping straight into the deeply weird end. And I need to do a bit of reading on the woads. They will be mmmaking some aparances.

Would you be offended if i fixed some errors in it? (grammatical and other wise)

Thank you.

It took me ages to spit out that one. I went through it like 5 times and its still not done... I need an editer.

Hey Last man standing! You gunna do some grammer on this thing?