Beats and Breaths-Lifelines

Chapter 1

Shannon-Alice couldn't get off the roof. Mostly because she didn't want to drop the large bushel of roses clutched in her arms. It was her mother's birthday, and she had been growing the glowing purple flowers on their straw roof since Oxtober.

It wasn't particularly hard; obtaining the seeds or getting on the roof. A large stack of garbage lay heaped in the green, dewy backyard. A toe on the right stepladder, and a small handful of straw.

A sturdy, bushy oak tree grew across the field that was their front yard. Weeds choked out the rotten, dripping, dead tomato plants that her mother had planted and couldn't cultivate.

Frederik, her brother, sat in the crook of his favorite branch, observing the fluffy white clouds and sketching the shapes in his journal.

"Frederik!" Shan called. A strand of her red-brown-blond hair fell in her face. He looked up, and she could see his scowl clearly through his own streaked hair. Shan could also see his constant companion, Leo, on his head. Leo was a Leopard gecko.

"No!" He shouted, rather snottily, "I'm not getting you off the roof again!"

"Just take the flowers! It's Muma's birthday, and i've been growing them for a long time now-"

"So is that what's roots are sticking through the roof!" He laughed, and shook his head, "You got up there, now get d-"

A quick, faint bell sounded from the center of town. The siblings looked at each other, all pretences forgotten. Shan reluctantly dropped the flowers off the roof, and Frederik hopped out of his tree, Leo clinging tight to his wavy hair.

The inside of their house was not much tidier than the outside. The floor used to be hard-packed dirt, but now roots reached out to trip you and clover-flowers wilted as they reached for sun that just wasn't there. Unhelpfully for the flowers, their house was always fairly dark, even during the bright days of Augnon. An old wooden stove, along with a puttering fridge and a rusty sink, stood in their bedraggled kitchen corner. A large stack of dishes and containers, full of moldy food, sat in the sink, building dust. The single bedroom, separated from the kitchen by a faded, mossy, puke-yellow curtain, also doubled as a living room. 3 cots were pushed in the corner, and hanging over them were 2 hole-ridden hammocks. A hard, green couch was squished in the other corner. Another small curtain, pink, was pinned up to separate it from the claustrophobic bathroom with a toilet pot and a grungy bathtub.

Frederik pushed open the splintery front door and grabbed his brown cloak. Shan snagged her yellow one.

Muma, Lily, and Juo were sleeping peacefully; their soft breaths coating the sticky walls. Frederik glanced over his shoulder at his mother and 2 siblings. Their lives depend on us. He thought sadly.

"I'll bring back some sticky buns, Muma." He said softly, and shut the door with a final click.