Eternal Spring (A Young Adult Short Story Collection)

  “We all know you’re not here to see celebs, Ana.” Maya stretched her long legs out into the aisle, alternating between pointing and flexing her toes. “You spend more time keeping out the Kardashians than keeping up with them. Your idea of a reality show is the Republican debates.”

  “Well, you have to admit they’re this year’s must-see TV…drama, backbiting, trainwrecks, Cinderella stories…”

  I tuned out my friends’ bickering and stared out the window. The bus turned a corner on the winding mountain road as we entered Sedona city limits, and we got our first glimpse of the Red Rocks.

  Was this place for real? Surely it had to be a movie set. Or maybe the local artists colony down the road in Jerome spilled their watercolors and infused the landscape with a symphony of burnt sienna, mahogany, rust, teal, and aqua. The effect was spectacular, like the leprechaun’s rainbow come to life. Colors that vivid couldn’t be formed by nature. Could they?

  There’s an old saying that God created the Grand Canyon but lives in Sedona. I now knew it was true.

  No wonder my Grandma Rose loved coming here for New Age retreats. They say Sedona has one of the largest concentrations of spiritual energy vortexes and the conditions are perfect for meditation, prayer, and healing. Grandma Rose was here a decade before I was born for the so-called Harmonic Convergence, when thousands of people around the world gathered at sacred places simultaneously to combine their psychic energy to keep the Earth from slipping out of its “time beam” and spinning off into space – and create a new era of harmony and love in the process.

  I wasn’t sure if I bought into it all. It seemed a little too woo-woo for me. Grandma Rose claims she’s psychic – my dad claims she’s crazy. But looking around at the scenery, I could totally see why she’d believe it. And ultimately the Earth didn’t slip off its orbit and spin into the Great Unknown. Besides, she’d helped me solve some crimes in the past, so maybe there was something to it.

  But I wasn’t here to debate my grandmother’s spiritual beliefs. I was here to see Craig.

  Er, I mean, I was here to dance. Focus, Dani, focus.

  Chaîné, chaîné, chaîné, chaîné…

  I spun off stage left in a series of quick turns alternating feet in progression, as if forming the human chain that gave the dance step its name. I couldn’t see them, but could hear the audience erupt in applause. Someone passed me a Dixie cup of coconut water. A couple swigs was all I had time for before running on for the coda, which brought all the dancers back to the stage to dance in unison.

  Two minutes later, we hit the final pose of George Balanchine’s abstract ballet Rubies and the audience roared. I smiled as I looked out at the audience in the open-air amphitheatre. What a view! We must have danced really well to command their attention. I’d be very distracted if I was in their place, surrounded by Red Rocks as far as the eye could see.

  I stepped forward with the rest of my line to curtsey and spotted Craig in the crowd. He did remember! He must have gotten the text and wanted to surprise me. Maybe he wasn’t so “Mr. Hollywood” after all.

  My smile grew extra wide as I tried to catch his eye, but he leaned over to whisper something to the girl sitting next to him.

  Even though she was wearing shades to try to remain incognito, I could spot those fake boobs anywhere. Amber Alexander.

  Damn.

  I stepped to the side of the stage to let the next line come forward for their curtain call and craned my neck to catch a glimpse of Hollywood’s newest vampire royalty. They got up to leave, but were stopped by a swarm of fangirls who wanted their autographs.

  So much for Amber’s sunglasses.

  We ran offstage as the applause started to die down. The festival organizers expected us to change and join the audience to watch the other schools’ performances, but I had other plans. I needed to find Craig.

  I stripped off my tutu and bodice and threw on my “Life without ballet is pointeless” t-shirt and a pair of yoga pants over my tights. I would’ve preferred to dress a little more put together, but that’s all I had in my dance bag, and there wasn’t time to run back to the hotel first. At least my stage makeup wasn’t streaked, even though it was so cakey you could call me Betty Crocker.

  Just as Craig finished signing, I emerged from the cave-like makeshift dressing rooms into the late afternoon sunlight. He flashed a megawatt smile at his adoring masses, put his arm around his costar, and ushered her towards the exit.

  “Craig!” I called. “Wait!”

  I ran in their direction, nearly tripping as I scaled the stadium seating, taking the steps two at a time. Good thing my muscles were still warm or I might have pulled something. And that would be bad. Very bad.

  “Excuse me,” I said as I zipped past audience members, weaving so as not to barrel into anyone.

  “Cuidado!”

  I guess I did need to be more careful, I thought as I helped a toddler back to her feet, her mama rattling off a string of what I can only imagine must have been an entire palette of colorful Spanish curse words.

  Oops. I apologized profusely and grand jetéed over a row of seats. Almost there…

  Craig and Amber could not leave. Not yet. If this was my birthday surprise, he was going to have to do a lot better.

  “Pardon me,” I said. “If I could just get by--”

  “No.”

  I looked up and saw a brick wall blocking my path. Well, no, not literally. It just seemed that way. A beefy guy wearing a black satin Midnight cast jacket crossed his arms and peered down at me.

  “I just have to see Craig,” I explained.

  “Ms. Alexander and Mr. Walsh are leaving now, so if you’ll just go back to your seat...”

  “But you don’t understand.” I pulled myself up to my full five-foot-three and tried to look as important as possible. Not easy given my casual clothes. “Craig’s my…boyfriend.”

  “Sure he is.” Security Dude looked me up and down, and then smirked. “And Ms. Alexander’s my fiancée.”

  “But it’s my birth—”

  “Dani, let’s go.” Maya came up beside me and took my arm. “This next group is supposed to be really good. They’re from the Navajo Nation.”

  Analisa appeared on my other side. “We should watch,” she agreed, leading me away from the big guy. “I saw them last year. They’re amazing. I think their town is on the other side of the state border with New Mexico, but I’m not sure.”

  “But…” I trailed off when I saw the expression on Analisa’s face. This obviously wasn’t open for debate. “Fine.”

  We climbed back down to a group of Mountain Shadows students and took seats next to my art student roommate, Bev, as the opening strains of music wailed and the next group ran onstage to take their positions. “Madame is watching,” Analisa whispered. “You’ll get in trouble if you don’t stay here and support the dancers from the other schools.”

  Maya nodded. “And after this session is over, we’re supposed to head over to the art gallery. Then tonight are the one acts from the drama students.”

  “But what about supporting one of our own? Craig’s from our school and he’s here to act. Why can’t we see him?”

  “Chasing after him isn’t exactly supporting him,” Analisa said. “Besides, you really think that rent-a-cop is going to let you onto the set? Seriously?”

  “Shh!” The dance was starting, and the audience members wanted to watch. I’m sure the Navajo dancers were amazing, but how could people be more interested in that than a major motion picture being filmed just down the street? Not just any motion picture. Midnight!

  Madame Renaud, our French teacher-slash-chaperone, glared at me.

  Fine. I’ll behave. I sat back, listened to the beat of the drums, and let the dancing carry me away.

  To be honest, I didn’t really know where I stood with Craig. Our relationship – if you could call it that – has always been like a ride on the Coney Island Cyclone. Just when I thought he liked me, somethin
g always came up. It’s not like he’d asked me to prom yet anyway. And I’d texted him several times and he never responded. I could try calling, but what would be the point? He seemed to have forgotten my birthday entirely.

  Besides, I was enrolled in the summer intensive program at the Manhattan Ballet Conservatory, and Craig was going to graduate and go off to Yale, and I’d never see him again. Well, other than on the big screen.

  Kissing Amber Alexander.

  But he kissed me, too. Me. That had to count for something.

  Right?

  Robyn’s breath hitched. Jackson and Eric. Fighting over her!

  “Stop it!” She ran into the middle of the fray. “Stop! Both of you!”

  They ignored her, and continued to tussle, Eric seeming to take control as he lunged for Jackson’s jugular. Robyn screamed and threw her hands up in defense.

  “I don’t give a damn what you think, Jackson,” Eric growled. “You must pay.”

  “Please!” she yelled.

  Eric paused for just a moment, his paws locked around Jackson’s neck, and looked her way. His eyes contained a vocabulary of their own, but just what he was trying to convey, Robyn didn’t know.

  “You have to choose,” Jackson finally said, struggling to break free of the werewolf’s powerful grasp.

  “I can’t,” she said, tears welling in her eyes. “I care about you both.”

  “You must,” Eric agreed, still poised to kill his rival.

  “Fine! You want me to choose,” she said. “I’ll choose. If you promise not to kill each other, I’ll choose.”

  Robyn was a Taurus, and like her brothers and sisters of that sign, a very confused being. Emotions warred inside her, pulling her in both directions, battering their fists at her until she made the decision that would break one man’s heart. How could she choose?

  But how could she not?

  Analisa sighed. “We don’t even know where they’re filming.”

  “Sure you do,” Bev said from over on her side of the room where she was playing a video game on her iPad. “You’ve read that book cover to cover, Dani. Where do you think it would be?”

  It was a few minutes past ten. Lights Out was in about twenty minutes, but my friends were hanging out in my hotel room, Maya lounging on my bed while Analisa stretched diligently on the floor over by the bathroom.

  I bit my lip as I tried to remember any places Jackson, Robyn, or Eric had visited in Midnight. I hated to admit it, but I hadn’t paid a lot of attention to the setting. I was way more concerned with finding out which supernatural being Robyn was going to choose – the vampire or the werewolf. Of course, Bethany Beyer planned to drag her characters through the whole series and make us wait until the fourth book. Damn her. “Oh wait, Snoopy Rock?”

  “Yes,” Bev said all drawn out slowly, her frustration showing, like she was talking to a two-year-old. She didn’t have to be so snippy about it.

  An hour later we’d arrived at the Snoopy Rock trailhead. Sneaking out was surprisingly easy since there were no dorm monitors, and the hotel staff didn’t seem to care who came or went as long as everyone had a room key. The chaperones were probably already asleep, so nobody stopped us.

  The hard part was getting here without a car but we decided to walk, using the Sedona map from the hotel’s front desk as a guide. Now once here, I wasn’t certain what to do. Or where exactly in the vast desert wilderness they might be filming. It’s not like there was a sign out front that read ‘Midnight set this way.’

  “We can turn back,” Analisa said, a slight uptick in her tone.

  Maya laughed. “Don’t be such a wimp, San Miguel.”

  “Let’s go,” I said, stepping over a prickly pear cactus onto the trail, although I was going to hike out to the rock even if they didn’t come along. We’d already made it this far, so it would be stupid to turn back. A waste of sneaking out. Besides, even if Craig wasn’t in the cast, I’d still want to watch them film if I could. Midnight was my favoritest book ever!

  “Fine,” Analisa grumbled, and fell into step beside me, with Maya and Bev following right behind.

  I couldn’t believe we managed to get my roommate to join – usually she spent her waking hours doing her very best J.D. Salinger impression and avoiding the rest of the world – but I think she was just as eager as I was to see how the director was going to portray the vampires and werewolves. Bev may pretend to be this cynical urban rebel nonconformist, but I saw the full set of Midnight books loaded on her e-reader app. She wasn’t fooling anyone.

  In the distance, a coyote howled. The full moon glowed brightly overhead, lighting the path and making our flashlights unnecessary. It looked like a scary Halloween moon, and I almost expected a witch to fly silhouetted across it on a broomstick at any moment. And to think it was April, not October! If I hadn’t known Craig was just acting the role of a vampire, I’d probably be worried.

  Vampires aren’t real, vampires aren’t real, I silently chanted to the steady beat of our feet crunching in the gravel.

  “Yes they are,” Bev said.

  Oops, maybe I said that out loud.

  “Don’t encourage her,” Analisa said through gritted teeth.

  “But vampires are real,” Bev insisted. “The portrayals you see in the movies or in most books — most of those are poseurs. Fangs? Not so much.”

  “No fangs?” I asked.

  “Well, I guess technically they do, and they’re called canines. All humans have them.”

  I scrunched up my forehead. “Then how do they drink blood?”

  “Donors,” Bev deadpanned.

  “Ew, seriously? So gross.”

  “I vant to bite your neck,” Maya said in an over-the-top old skool Count Dracula accent. Well, actually more like Count Chocula. Or even the Count from Sesame Street.

  But definitely not what Jackson would say.

  “That’s full of crap,” Bev insisted. “It’s not like that.”

  Analisa sighed. “Let’s just keep going.”

  I could see a large outcropping of rocks up ahead, but from this angle it didn’t quite look like the shape of the famous Peanuts dog. Were we on the wrong track? I didn’t want to hike all night and never get there.

  “They say Sedona is one of the best towns in the country for vampires,” Bev said a few minutes later.

  “There’s no such thing as vampires,” Analisa said.

  We fell into an eerie silence as we kept moving forward. With the full moon overhead and the lunar-like boulders jutting up from the center of the earth, I could easily imagine vampires living here. Maybe they could run one of the many crystal shops around town. Ooh, or the fortune tellers. Of course, nobody would be able to read their minds. I mean, since they’re vampires and all. But that could end up as a professional advantage.

  I was imagining what it would be like to get my aura cleansed by an immortal bloodsucker when all of a sudden there was a pinch at the back of my neck. Shivers raced up and down my spine and a chill of terror settled in my gut as I heard a blood-curdling shriek.

  From me.

  Bev was right – there were definitely vampires here, and not of the movie set variety, either. Of the creepy undead variety. Although if they looked anything like the vampires in Midnight, then maybe I wouldn’t be too upset. I mean, after all, Robyn Bell seemed thrilled to be caught in the middle of the love triangle between a vampire and a werewolf.

  What did she know that I didn’t?

  It was only after my friends erupted in giggles that I noticed Maya standing right behind me, her fingers mere centimeters from my skin threatening to tickle me.

  “What the hell?” I asked.

  “Relax,” she said. “You’re way too tense.”

  “It’s not funny,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “You’re right,” Maya said. “It’s not funny. It’s hilarious.”

  Analisa stepped between us, always the moderator. If this whole dance thing didn’t work out, maybe she c
ould be a judge. “Let’s just keep going.”

  Bev plopped down on a rock. “We need to take a break. I’m tired.”

  “Good call—what the?”

  My question was cut off as I tripped. But not over my own two feet. And not Maya’s, Analisa’s, or Bev’s either.

  Over someone else’s feet. Someone who was lying facedown in the dirt.

  One quick glance at her shoes made short work of explaining how she got there. Or rather, the red soles did. Loubies instead of hiking boots? Dude. No wonder she fell.

  And unless they were the knockoff Oh Deer kind, I had a sneaking suspicion those telltale red soles also explained who she was even before turning her face up.

  Analisa leaned over. “Oh my God!” She gulped. “It’s – it’s a person.”

  “And she’s not moving.” Yes, that’s me. Captain Obvious for the win!

  “Is she dead?” Bev asked.

  “I…don’t think so,” I said, although I had to admit that despite my previous adventures in amateur sleuthing, I’d never seen a dead person before.

  I bent down to check for a pulse and realized I wasn’t sure where to find one. I turned her head to the side.

  Yup. Those red soles were for walking the red carpet, not hiking the Red Rocks.

  Amber Alexander.

  Maya kneeled next to me, cradling Amber’s head in her lap as I placed two fingers against Amber’s neck. I don’t know. I guess I felt a pulse – a sort of shallow thump-thump-thump.

  Unless that was mine. My heart was beating pretty fast. Maybe Analisa was right. We should have stayed back at the hotel. I had this really unfortunate habit of trouble following me wherever I went. You couldn’t take me anywhere.

  Although, with Amber Alexander out of the picture…

  Analisa swatted my hand like a fly. “Here, let me see.”

  And that’s when I spotted it. Two small round punctures in the side of her neck. Apparently her shoes weren’t the reason for her fall.

  I jumped. “Ohmygodohmygodohmygod vampires!”

  “Someone call 911!”

  My friends all started talking at once, a melee of confusion, excitement, and fear as they gathered around the unconscious actress. I kneeled next to her and tried to remember the CPR I’d learned in my babysitting certification course a couple of years ago but my hands were so shaky that I couldn’t perform the chest compressions. I leaned over and felt a faint hot puff of air on my cheek. Thank goodness.