Castle of Sand       

By:

Luciana Malfoy

Introduction

          Somewhere on the rural outskirts of Southern California, nestled deep within the small town of Corona, a house sits atop a small bump of land that some might classify as a hill but others may view the dirt mound to be too pathetic in size to claim that title. Nevertheless, the house, like its former occupants, seems a lonely gem amongst a sea of hardened rocks. Its white exterior a little weathered and its architecture nowhere near perfection but that’s all part of its charm. As the neighbors would tell you, if by chance you come to sit with them on their moonlit porches one summer night, that particular house has seen its share of happiness and tragedy in its day, as did the ones that dwelt there years before. But it’s still standing, and that’s all that matters. In fact, it’s been there longer than any other home in the neighborhood. Long enough to have spawned some interesting stories, told by the neighborhood children to scare any gullible newcomers that moved in. Some of these stories were merely rumors, of course. Others held a bit more truth to them as they were passed down from generation to generation.

But none stood out quite so much as the one that was birthed in the summer of 1985. It concerned Amanda Stevens and her two younger siblings, who were left in the house after their mother passed on from breast cancer. With no father to speak of, Amanda was shouldered with the responsibility of raising the two youngsters on her own, a rather hard feat for a twenty-five year old, which was Amanda’s age at the time. With no time for love, she worked daily to keep them fed and spent the nights tending to their needs as best she could, not seeming to care that she was on her way to becoming an old maid at a young age. To the dismay of her relatives, Amanda was in no hurry to find a surrogate “father figure” for her siblings as she was determined to raise the children as if they were her own and did not want any outside influence on parenting. She was blinded by her stubborn nature and didn’t realize until one fateful day, however, that her brother and sister truly ached from the void that the loss of their mother and father had caused. Not wanting to face the void within herself, she attempted to shut the world out while trying to figure out a way to make everyone else happy. By doing this, she became more detached and unwittingly caused their lives to suffer even more. But one day, something happened that caused Amanda to rethink her path in life and her determination to remain alone. Two strangers walked into her life. One offered her heart’s desire and the other was a thorn in her side. Was everything as it seemed for Amanda? Should we always judge a book by its cover? I wish I could tell you the simple answer, but then we wouldn’t have a story, now would we?

Now no one today quite knows for sure if it’s all true but that doesn’t seem to stop the tale from being told around a crackling fire by the young and old alike. Some may come to hear the tragedy, hoping that come the end everything will turn out alright for its main characters but secretly harboring the desire to see them fall to their own faults and streams of bad luck just so those with that selfish desire don’t have to face their own tragic lives alone. Some are attracted to the romance, for it is love and passion that people search a lifetime for with only some being lucky enough to find it. And some, I suppose, come to hear the tale because they have nothing better to do and then find themselves, much to their embarrassment, gazing hopefully up at the stars when the night is through.

But the centerpiece of this story is not a typical fairy tale family nor is it elves or pirates or wizards. No, this story revolves around a bitter young woman and the hopeful wishing of two children, Madison and Robert Stevens, to be exact. While these two young kids were molded from the same video games and pop music as most, they were also cunning little mischief makers who were determined to put an end to their drab existence, no matter how they had to go about it. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is the story of two wishful children who, one day, found the answer to their prayers at the bottom of the barrel of dreams and in the most unlikely of persons, and their realization of all involved that the road to happiness is never without its obstacles.

Author’s Note: Well, the title to this story may change as I go along, I don’t know. It’s just a weird title but at the moment I couldn’t think of anything else. Anyway, there’s the intro. I’ll start writing the first chapter and hopefully have it up by 01-03-04 if I get moving. The rating might change as I go along but it will be PG-13 most of the time.