1st Five Pages May Workshop - Duperre Rev 2

Name: Amber Duperre
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Title: The Golden Lake

Pitch

Sixteen-year-old Arabella Adler has unwillingly and miserably lived with Nana since her dad disappeared three years ago. When she learns there’s a way to find her dad, she believes she can get her old life back.

Arabella transports to Tipoua. In a world where animals and humans coexist peacefully, she lands in the middle of a war. A powerful witch, on a quest to rule Tipoua, is controlling animals via dark magic. She is also closing in on the human village and killing anyone that defies her. Arabella, who discovers elemental magic inside herself, is introduced to ancient mermaids and a handsome warrior who will teach her to use her abilities. She is promised that for helping defeat the witch, she will be brought to her father.

Arabella rebels. Defeating a tyrant wasn’t on her agenda.

She has a change of heart when she grows to care for people and animals on Tipoua. But her world is upended when Arabella learns that her father has died. The witch offers an enticing bargain: if she works for her, she will bring Arabella’s father to life. Now Arabella has to decide: get her family reunion or preserve life and culture on Tipoua.


Pages

My life changed forever the day the hummingbirds showed up.

In upstate New York, seeing hummingbirds in the summer is a normal occurrence. Not for Nana and me. Every year, we filled and hung twenty hummingbird feeders in her square backyard- one of the many chores she made me do. Every year they went untouched. Until the third anniversary of Dad’s disappearance. That day, they came.

“Arabella,” she yelled from the backyard.

“I’m coming,” I answered, and rolled my eyes. Carrying the last feeder I’d just filled into the backyard, I was happy because I was finally finished. I could go visit Mom.

I found Nana standing in the hot summer sun in her favorite brown leather dress that stopped two inches above her knees. I thought of my friends’ grandmas. The friends I had before everything changed three years ago. Some of them knitted, some clipped coupons, but none made and wore short leather dresses. None were as physically fit as her either.

A buzzing sound permeated my head. Like a hundred bees at once. I screamed and ducked. The bird feeder slipped and I quickly supported it with my left hand just before it plunged to the grassy ground.

Nana stretched her arms out like Frankenstein’s monster. Twelve ruby-throated hummingbirds perched on her arms, their green and red feathers shimmering in the sun’s mid-afternoon light. She turned her head to look at me.

I jumped, spilling sugar water onto my shoe. Nana’s eyes, her piercing green eyes that reminded me of the conniving nature of some household cats, were full of joy. She was smiling. That never happened. “Arabella, they finally came,” she said, sounding relieved. She turned her attention to the birds, her back facing me.

Hoping for a better look, I walked around to Nana’s front. Her eyebrows were drawn together and her mouth made an “O” shape. She nodded, as if the birds told her something important.

“Are they…. Are they talking to you?” I asked, running my hand through my long brown hair over and over again-- my nervous habit. This was too weird. Her bright eyes stared deep into mine. I didn’t look away like usual. I was too stunned.

“It’s about your dad.” She turned her head back toward the hummingbirds. Like she’d given me enough information. Like she hadn’t just dropped a bombshell the size of Texas on me.

“What are they saying?” What I really meant was, what’s going on with you? Birds don’t talk to humans. All I heard was chirping. Is Nana losing her mind, too? I can’t handle that. “Is it about his disappearance?”

No one knew much about his disappearance. What could birds know about Dad? He disappeared by the river on the other side of town three years ago. It made no sense because he’d never gone to that river before and he had no reason to, as far as Mom and I knew. After that, he was never seen again and he left no trace, no explanation. Eventually, the cops stopped looking for him. It became a cold case. I didn’t think he was dead. He was alive; I could feel it in my bones. His body never turned up. And Mom… She was never the same after he disappeared.

“I know you and I haven’t gotten along these last three years,” Nana said. I let out an exasperated huff sound. Understatement of the century. “And I know you have questions I never answered. About your father. About his disappearance. But I had good reason. I was protecting you, and I hope someday you will understand.”

The next words out of my mouth came louder than necessary. “Protecting me from what? Of course I had questions. There was a chance he was alive.” My voice cracked on the last word. I paused, feeling like I would hyperventilate if I didn’t. I paced back and forth, forcing my body to take slow breaths. “But you didn’t care. All I needed was some guidance. We could have found him. But you wouldn’t help. You shut me out at the worst time in my life.”

All the emotions I felt back then came rushing in. Like an angry dark cloud engulfing me and dragging me down to the ground. Losing both my parents, pushing away all my friends, being forced to move in with Nana, who treated me like a stranger and a maid. I took more slow, deep breaths. A drop of sweat ran down my cheek. A lump formed in my throat. I cleared it and continued. “I will never understand.”

“Let me explain. The hummingbirds said I finally could.”

“The hummingbirds? Are you kidding me?” I thought about turning and walking away. Going to sit with Mom at the home like I did every day and forgetting this ever happened.

Though I didn’t believe hummingbirds could tell Nana what to do, I couldn’t help but wonder what she would say. Curiosity and the need for some kind of explanation, any kind of explanation, got the better of me. I stayed put.

“I was prohibited from explaining certain things to you three years ago. But I also didn’t know everything. That’s what the hummingbird feeders were for. I was trying to learn more, so I could give you something, anything, to ease your mind. And they finally came.” Her eyes moved from me back to the birds and she smiled the most genuine smile I’d ever seen. I hadn’t known the frown lines on her cheeks could make that shape. A tear ran down to the corner of her upturned mouth. “Today is the day, Arabella. On the third anniversary of his disappearance, you can find him. You can be reunited with your father. He needs you.”

I drew in a quick breath. I was silent for a minute, absorbing the information. “Huh?” Nana’s words swirled in my mind like chunks of fruit in a blender while my brain tried to comprehend them. “He…he is alive?” I asked, tears welling up in my eyes. I felt dizzy.

“Yes. And you need to find him. I can’t leave. I have more work to do here. That leaves you.” She paused, searching my eyes. “Your first task is to visit your mom. Bring your cell phone. I’ll give you instructions from there.”

“How do I know you’re not lying?”

She turned her attention to the birds. “The hummingbirds said to tell you, ‘They say that blood is thicker than water. But water has always run through my veins. You and me, my darling girl, we’re thicker than blood and water.’ They said that would convince you.”

My legs wobbled and I almost dropped to the ground. How did she know that phrase? Dad always said that to me. But that was our thing. It was private. It never made sense but he’d said it to me my whole life. When you’re young you don’t always question things. When I got older, I just took it as a phrase of endearment. No one else knew that phrase, not even Mom. Definitely not Nana.

 “Okay. I’ll go,” was the only thing I could say. Dazed, I turned and started walking back toward the house. I unscrewed the lid on the feeder I was holding and doused a small cooking fire Nana had built. Skewered over the fire was something small. It looked like a charred squirrel. God, I hoped it wasn’t squirrel.