Ash the Phoenix

Prolouge

"Honey I'm Ho-ome."

Mom.

"Hide quick, in the closet."

Mom walked in just as I shut the door to the closet.

"What's that sound?" inquired Mom.

"I don't hear anything," I said innocently.

"Listen" she whispered.

Shoot, I'd heard it. Ash was moving around in the closet. "It's just me I answered." knowing the real answer.

"O.K." she responded.

I knew she didn't believe me.

Chapter 1

It had all started on my way home from school. Tracey, my best friend, was walking with me. We parted on Cherry Road, two blocks from my home.

"See ya, Tracey," I said.

"Bye Chris," she said. My real name is Christina. I hate that name so much. We parted. I decided to take a detour. I took a right instead of a left. I ended up in a dark alleyway I'd never been down before. There was a store called "Surprises in Everything." I went in to browse. It was a dimly lit place, with that musky old smell. It felt like my closet because it was so small and cramped. I heard an owl in the room branching off the store. It was spooky and mysterious. I broke a sweat even though a window was open and a breeze was blowing through.

There was a shelf labeled "Birds' Eggs." Now I just love birds. Big, small, black, white, all of them. There was a large egg. It was beige with red streaks through it. I questioned the old man at the counter.

"How much for it?" I gestured to the egg.

"Fifty-nine cents."

I rummaged in my pocket and drew out fifty-nine cents. I handed it over. He got up. I got a good look at him. He was the oldest person I had ever seen, except perhaps for my Granny Meg. He had a beard that must have been twenty inches long. He had grey hair, his eyes seemed to be aglow with a mysterious light that kept changing colors. He wrapped my egg in tissue paper and put it in a box. I took it. As I walked home I looked back towards the store. It had disappeared! Vanished into thin air.

Chapter 2

I stumbled the rest of the way home, amazed at how a store could vanish. When I got home, I placed the egg on the windowsill in my room. I went down, carefully locking the door behind me. When I came upstairs from lunch I unlocked the door and walked in. The egg was moving! A crack appeared in it. I rushed to it slamming the door behind me. The egg was warm at my touch. It cracked in half and a small head poked out. It was crimson with some orange in it. It was the strangest bird I'd ever seen. With scraggly wet red feathers. Its beak was orange. It flopped on to my hand. It was cute but ugly at the same time. Its egg had turned green.

Chapter 3

I made a hole in my sock drawer for a nest. It was made from my socks. I then went to the library to research my bird.

I peddled my bicycle down Cherry Road toward the library. It was a beautiful day. The trees were just blooming and bulbs just sprouting. I parked my bike outside and went in. It was an old building with ivy creeping up the walls. It was rumored that it had once been Samuell property. Samuell was the last name of a long line of the richest people in town. It was also rumored that a Yankee had bought it and sold it to a Roddney. The Roddneys now run the library. Felix Samuell is now trying to regain the library and land. He had enormous plans fir making a very expensive house. His plans? Knock down the library, build a house with a large pool in the back yard, and invite everyone in the town so they'll like him.

"Hey Chris!"

"Wh---" I broke out of my thoughts and looked around to see who had called.

"Over here. Chris, my gosh, are you blind? It's me, Kevin. Behind you!" said Kevin.

I spun around. "Oh, hi Kevin. " I was sort of embarrassed. I hadn't seen him.

"What ya'doing?"

"What does it look like?" I demanded.

"Getting out books?" he asked with a question mark in his voice.

Kevin was a boy in my class. We lived on the same street and we used to play together when we were little. He was shorter than me by three inches. He had blond, hay-colored hair and bright green eyes with little flecks of gold in them. He was pretty nice, but lately he was trying to be cool. Examples? He's trying to get his mom to let him pierce his ear, he wears a chain around his neck, and sometimes spikes his hair. He even talks weird. Today he's wearing jeans, a T-shirt that says "I Rule" on it, and a cap on backwards.

"Chris, come back to earth," he says sassily.

"Buzz off, would ya?" I said. "If you wanted to help me you would either go away or, help help me find a book for school, imbecile."

"Could we play soccer instead?" He knew I loved soccer.

"After I find this book. I'll meet you at your house, O.K.?" I said.

"Sure, fine. Bye," and he left.

"Can I help you find a book?" The librarian had come over.

"No, thanks though," I said, happy that Kevin was gone. I walked over to a computer (I love computers), sat down and opened up the on-line catalogue. Subject: magic birds. Enter. Wow, only five books on magic birds in a library that has 10,000 books! Not to mention four out of five of the books were out! Then, I got a real surprise. I looked at the title of the book not checked out. It was titled Surprises in Everything by B.C.E. Wait a minute, back up, did I forget to mention the guy who sold me my egg had a name tag that said B.C.E on it? And didn't B.C.E stand for Before the Christian Era? Well, the guy did seem to be pretty old . . .