Literary Lunes Magazine: December 2011 Issue

  Chapter 1 – And then there were ninjas

  It was a dark and stormy night. Well, not really, but sixteen-year-old Jolyn Kingsley wished it was. The sunny, blue sky and chipper music on the cab’s radio did nothing to cheer her sullen disposition. She sighed as she leaned her forehead against the cool glass of the window, watching New York City fly by at whatever speed the cabbie was driving. He was some Indian guy named Habib who seemed to have a million questions for herself and her eleven-year-old sister, Brynn. Brynn, the good, sweet girl that she was, happily smiled and talked to him all the way to John F. Kennedy International Airport.

  Goodbye, city that I love, Jolyn thought as she pushed her oversized Dolce & Gabana sunglasses up on her nose. The cabbie turned into the long, winding road that would take them to one of several terminals at the airport. Beside her, Brynn chatted away about butterflies and unicorns. Jolyn rolled her eyes behind her glasses.

  Finally, the cabbie pulled up in front of the British Airways terminal and they all climbed out of the car. Jolyn’s platinum blonde hair whipped around in the wind, slapping her face. She breathed in one last smog filled breath and silently said goodbye to everything she knew and loved as she grabbed her carry-on bags and followed her sister into the building.

  Jolyn ran a hand over her hair to smooth most of the flyaway strands and the automatically reached for her younger sister’s hand. Brynn said goodbye to the cabbie and gave a little wave before turning to walk with her sister towards the counter under the British Airways sign. Three women in dark blue blazers with red and blue striped ascots and blue hats stood behind it, all of them busy with other passengers. The girls got into line and waited.

  “Hello, dears, what can I help you with?” the only brunette at the counter asked a few minutes later.

  “We’re checking in for our flight,” Jolyn told the woman, whose nametag read Jeannette. It sounded French, but she had a perfectly English accent. Jolyn shrugged; maybe one of her parents was French or just liked the name. It wasn’t like Jolyn was a very American sounding name.

  “And your parents?” Jeannette asked. Jolyn’s throat immediately constricted, throbbing painfully, and she glanced away to blink tears out of her eyes. Brynn answered for her.

  “Our mother died five days ago. We’re going to stay with our uncle in England,” Brynn explained to the counter lady. Tears shone in her bright blue eyes and one slipped down her cheek as she spoke. Her sweet voice must have broken the stewardess’s heart because Jolyn noticed tears shining in her eyes when she lifted her head to see if there would be any trouble.

  “Oh, you poor dears,” Jeannette crooned. “Let’s get you settled then.”

  The girls handed over their tickets and were given boarding passes a few minutes later. Jeannette directed them to their gate and said their plane was scheduled to arrive on time, in about an hour, at 6:25pm. Jolyn thanked the woman and took Brynn’s hand as they walked away from the counter towards the gate they would board at.

  Jolyn flopped down in a plastic blue chair; her black and white Louis Vuitton carry-on slapped the floor at her feet and she bent over to open it and pull out a worn copy of Little Women. Jolyn always pretended her mom had named her after Jo March from the book, which was one of her favorite books of all time. She really needed the escape it offered now. Living in Jo’s life was a lot easier than living in her own. Brynn settled next to her as Jolyn opened the book and Jolyn began reading out loud, picking up where they’d left off before bed last night. The action was bittersweet; their mother used to read to them all the time.

  Half an hour later, Jeannette came over to ask if there was anything she could get for them. Jolyn wondered if she was this nice to all passengers or if this was because they were newly orphaned and headed off to a strange new land. Reading Little Women made Jolyn think about Jo and how she would have handled this; like anything else in her life, she would have looked at it like a new adventure. Jolyn decided that’s what she needed to do, too. This was an adventure. She repeated her new way of thinking while Jeannette ran off to fetch them sodas.