Andy (eBook)

Chapter 2

Walking around this quiet little town, where Zina and Andy were born and raised, one gets a feeling of peace. The idea that this would be a nice place to raise a family pops into your head. If you like going to a big city every so often, a much larger metropolis is only a 45-minute drive away. This town boosts a good university and a community college, 2 hospitals, a nice size performing arts theatre, and decent shopping. The homes on the tree-lined streets are well maintained and the community center and mall are popular places. The schools entertain an excellent reputation and many students of the graduating class are going on to college. The town is quiet and peaceful, people are friendly, and they acknowledge each other as they stroll down the sidewalk or drive by.

Near the edge of town are a few very old houses positioned on several acres, surrounded by woods. The homes once belonged to the founding fathers of the town and most folks would like to see them brought back to their original condition. Some of these huge dwellings, were 4 stories tall, and had all the bells and whistles of the day and they were built to last. Only a few of these homes are still occupied by descendants of the original owners. The foundations are still solid, but the gingerbread lacey wood trim and cornices, ancient wiring and plumbing are the things that cry out for updating. Some of the houses have been purchased by people who are restoring them to their old grandeur, but it’s a long and expensive undertaking, though the results are breathtaking.

Andy has lived here all his life. One can imagine that you see him over there in the field playing soccer with his friends. You can hear their shouts and laughter that stab into the twilight piercing the silence. When it gets too dark to continue playing, Andy will go home, have dinner, and do his homework. Afterwards if there’s time and he’s not too tired he will go to the garage workshop and putter around with the wooden bowl he is making for his mom’s birthday.

At 11 years old, Andy is a tall, wiry kid, with dark black hair and gray eyes. He looks as if a good strong wind could blow him over. He’s smart for his age, and like his dad, he has a great disposition. Andy loves playing soccer, basketball, swimming and practicing karate and is a slave to woodworking and building things. He loves working with his hands, he hopes one day to become an architect. Andy is always making things especially for his mom, a wooden stand for towels, and a napkin holder which she keeps in the kitchen on the counter, and a stand for her flowers.

Andy Jones is a pretty normal kid and lives with his father and mother June and Jake Jones and his sister Fran. They are a typical family and have a comfortable life. Everything is ordinary except for the fact that Jake is not home a lot because his job requires extensive travel often overseas. Jake is an investigator for a large insurance company. Andy misses him a lot when he’s away and wishes he would be able to attend school events and some of Andy’s sporting events, like the other kids fathers do.

Jake is a nice guy and good-looking, he has brown eyes and brown hair. His outstanding features are his fabulous smile, pleasant disposition and the gift of gab. Jake’s forte is his investigative abilities to analyze a case by examining it thoroughly and researching it. He doesn’t stop until he has what he is looking for. He is one of the best insurance investigators around. His job is exciting and diversified because he works on many different types of cases, anything that may be insured from jewelry, to buildings to people. The only drawback is that most of the work takes him away from his family.

When Jake is in town Andy doesn’t want to leave his side. Andy sometimes gets annoyed when he and his dad go places together because it doesn’t take long before dad is engaged in conversation with the prettiest woman in the store, or post office or restaurant or anywhere else they go. Once when dad had a few friends over to watch a football game and June wasn’t home, Andy overheard the men kidding his father about how women just seemed to flock to him.

“Jake I don’t know how you do it,” Bob said, women seemed to come out of the woodwork when you’re around.”

Jake just laughed and said, “It was that way as long as he could remember. Even my mom would always be on my side when my father chewed me out for something.”

They all laughed at that. “They don’t mean anything to me though because I love June and my family, and she does so much for us.”

Andy’s mom, June is a financial consultant and works from home. This allows her to set her own schedule so she is there when the kids get home. June is a beauty with dark hair she keeps cut in a pixie style, big brown eyes, and a good figure even after two kids. She wears very little makeup and dresses fashionably. June works out three times a week and walks every day. June is the anchor of the family, always available in a crisis and open to listening to any problems the kids might have. Andy knows his mom misses his dad as much as he does. He asked her once why Jake had to travel so much. June told him that Jake wants to make enough money so he could give us a good life and security.

Andy loves playing jokes, especially on his older sister Fran. He finds great fun in bugging her, and her friends especially when they have their “girls’ only meetings” in her room.

Andy and his best friend Derrick are constant companions. Derrick lives next door with his mom and his sister Zina. Their father left a few years ago and has never come back. Andy and Derrick are in and out of each other houses all the time and play pranks on their sisters every chance they get. What one didn’t think of, the other did. Both Andy and Derrick are good students and outgoing young boys.

Andy and Derrick built a “fort” in the woods that borders the back of their houses. The fort is made of mostly discarded pieces of wood they found in the garage, left over from one of Jake’s old projects. The small structure has a simple flat roof, a window, and a door. It’s large enough for several boys to fit in there at one time. Andy designed it and he and Derrick built it last summer. They sometimes spend the night there when the weather is good. They rigged up a hose to bring in water and with the aid of several extension cords connected together, electricity. That led to the pretentiousness of putting an old TV in there along with some discarded furniture. It’s rudimentary, but Andy and Derrick love it and spent a great deal of time in their “No Girls Allowed” hang out.

Fran, Andy’s sister is 16 months older than Andy, but to her he is a baby and she is almost grown up. She is a budding teenager with pretty long brown hair she often wears in a tail and has a developing figure. The one thing both Fran and Andy have in common is their love of reading. Fran is a good student also and popular with the kids in her class. She is a junior cheerleader, Girl Scout and into makeup and outfits.

The school years pass by quickly and for the most part are uneventfully for the Jones family. They still live in the same house in the same neighborhood; both kids are now in high school. Derrick and Andy are as tight as ever and Fran and Derrick’s sister Zina are best friends.

Andy is 17 and in the 11th grade, he has become a tall handsome boy, still on the thin side, but strong from his swimming, karate and other sports. He is full of energy and has a lot of interests and many friends. Sometimes his friends tease him and call him nerdy, he thinks that’s because he needs glasses to see far away. That doesn’t bother Andy he has good grades and the girls all chase him so he doesn’t care. Now that Andy is older, he and Fran have become friends. They have similar interests and listen to the same music. They ride to school together on most days.

Andy and Derrick often talk about how different their lives will be when Andy goes off to college. Derrick plans on staying home to go to nursing school at the local college, that’s still a year away, but they know they will miss hanging out with each other. Unlike a lot of kids who change their minds about what they want to do in life, Andy had kept his interest in building things and had gotten good on the wood lathe. He works with the wood shop instructor to assist him in the school vocational program. Andy wants to become an architect and restore old houses. Derrick and Andy promise each other they will always remain friends.

Fran and a bunch of her friends are in the rec room playing music and planning what they will wear and where they will go on Prom Night. Fran is attractive and has a lot of friends she graduates from high school this year and wants to become a professional dancer and her good looks will help with that. She has no interest in going to college. She loves to dance, it’s her passion, and she thinks it would be a good way to meet handsome guys. In her fantasy, Fran and her dream boyfriend would become a famous dancing couple and fall in love. Fran’s new boyfriend Tommy is good looking, but not a good dancer. Fran is making him practice with her because she wants him to develop his foot...