Dad’s summer turned out to be a very productive one. He wrote two bestsellers, including The Pink Full Moon, which became so popular he was constantly getting phone calls for books tours and appearances on talk shows.
There was some chatter about turning it into a movie, but dad was really trying to discourage it. The story was loosely based on our family life and he didn’t want that to be exploited for the screen. Since I had never been to a movie theatre myself, I didn’t really understand it all, but regardless it all sounded very exciting!
Mom and dad tried to explain to me what is was like to be a celebrity in the public eye all the time. They wanted me to fully understand that the paparazzi were never a friend and to avoid them as much as possible. They said I had been born into a family of a certain celebrity status and it was part of the reason why we were living on the island. It was mostly to protect me, they said.
When the phone calls and the stress from his new books became too much, we could always find dad fishing behind the barn.
It was his own quiet spot, as he called it and when he was out there, we tried not to disturb him. He tried to get me to fish with him, but I had much better things I wanted to do, then stand there in silence staring at the ocean.
Shortly after Boots left the island dad picked up a great new toy. It wasn’t the best telescope out there you could buy, but he said he didn’t need much, just something to keep an “eye on things”.
I asked him once ‘what things’, but he told me not to worry, and that I could use the telescope anytime I wanted. As long as it was only during the day. I had a lot of fun with that telescope until the day I found something odd in the ocean. I called my dad up to take a look himself. He said he thought it was a statue of a woman, not the dead body I thought it was.
Dead bodies float or sink depending on how long they have been dead he corrected. When they sink, they don’t sink standing up without any movement. That did make me feel a bit better. Dad said that when I got older, we could go scuba diving way out there and take a look. In my head I was thinking no thanks!
Shortly before my birthday, mom started to feel really unwell and it reminded me of how ill she was way back in the winter time. She tried to keep it hidden, but with the amount of times she was throwing up, and as closely as I was watching her, it was hard to miss. I began to worry again.
Before long, my big day had arrived. Party time! Well at least whatever kind of party can be had with three people, a dog and an uninterested cat.
Mom woke me up in the morning with a birthday hug.
Then she spent the morning baking me the best chocolate cake I had ever seen, that kept my mouth watering all day long just at the thought of it. No amount of chatting my mom up could get her to move up the party time, which was to be four o’clock. Just in time to ruin our dinner, so my dad said, but not even he could change her mind.
Mom said she wanted just one more day with her son as a little boy. She reluctantly brought out the cake at four, where I made a wish, blew out the candles and then, felt funny all over. Tingles began to radiate all over my body, while brightly coloured sparkles illuminated all around me.
Then with a spin and a jump, a teenager I was!
A few days later it was dad’s birthday as well. The night before, mom and dad decided to have a bit of alone time to celebrate more privately. As a teen I now understood what that meant, so I feigned exhaustion and headed up to bed. If I was about to become an old man, I would want to make the most of it as well. Not that they hadn’t spend their entire days making the most of it! I popped on my music, while they headed out to the hot tub down on the beach. Not something I wanted to hear, if I didn’t have to, as the all day lip locking was bad enough!
The following night, out came the cake for my dad.
So, in approximately two weeks time, all our lives aged and the dynamic of the household changed. My mother, no longer the face of young youth, yet still very beautiful. My father now into his later years and me, well, no longer a child. Free to do what I wanted to do and start making plans for my future, whatever that may be.
Oh by the way, this is me:
Jin Charles Bell, now teen!!
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CC Used In This Chapter
Poses
Bad Boy by IMHO
Photoshoot Poses by mia8
Monster Inc Pyjamas by lillka
Jin’s Hair-Joey by Cazy
Stories By Bee 