Expect the Unexpected

Raven glanced at his watch.

Odd, he thought, the helicopter was running late today. He had a full diary of events today and was eager to get through them all and get back home. Like his daughter Skye, he too, had noticed how tired and strained Kenya was looking lately.




Kyle was taking up a lot of her time, constantly demanding attention.




And naturally, she pandered to his needs too. He'd never seen such a demanding child, really. Even Skye didn't take up that amount of time. And he was pretty sure that he hadn't been that demanding at that age either. It made Raven think twice about trying for a third.

Yeah, it had crossed his mind a little. But only briefly, as he realised how this would look to Kenya. Permanently tying her to the house, never giving her the chance to fulfil her own dreams .... as far reaching as they may be ....

An Oceanographer .... really .... it was ludicrous, but ... it was Kenya's dream .... and he wasn't about to stand in her way.




So, whilst he waited for the helicopter, he decided to help Kenya out in the search for her dream job. If all else failed, he had some contacts.... he could drop them a line or two, make a couple of phone calls.... pull some strings.

Admittedly, all this was going against his better judgement, but this was his wife. He'd ripped her and the kids away from a nice steady home life, and dropped them unceremoniously into a new town, expecting them to fit in.

There was something else on his mind too. Something that had been bugging him for a couple of weeks now.

The 'Prison Outreach Program'.

At the time, he thought he'd made the right decision in passing that new law and integrating this new program. Now, he wasn't so sure. It had gone down badly indeed, and it was just a matter of time before it caught up with him.

Until then, he had other matters to attend to.

The sound of a car horn honking, made him tilt his head. A car? Where was the helicopter?

Sure enough, standing outside, was a long black shiny stretch limousine. It's windows all blacked out, and that same blonde heckler who'd booed him a few months back.





What was going on here? Had there been cut backs that he hadn't been informed about? That program had been a costly one that took it's toll on the taxpayers money. Maybe this was his punishment? A downgrade on transport.

That suited him fine, at least the fuel costs were less. The chopper used an obscene amount of fuel, travelling to and from venues.... and it was overly ostentatious too.

"Good morning."

He was met with stony silence.

Not a good sign.

Instead, she rolled her eyes and tilted her head upwards, scanning the skies.
How very very odd.




"The chopper under maintenance?"

"Just get in the car."

Oh, boy. This was a good start to the day.
It could only get worse from now on.

Those were prophetic words as Raven slid into the leather seating, the door slammed shut and they moved off.

He was stunned at the lack of his whole entourage. Instead, he sat alone, with just the driver and the blonde woman in the front.

Jabbing the intercom, Raven spoke to the driver......

"What's going on here? Where is everybody?"

The reply back was tinny, thanks to the poor reception on the intercom, but it was chilling nonetheless.

"Just do as we say, and you won't get hurt....."

With that, all the locks clicked into place..... shutting him in ..... and Raven suddenly felt cold chills.......

Skye

The Valdin Homestead

Skye Valdin sat, pondering and ruminating, gazing intently at the chess board.




Or at least that's the impression she gave to anybody who just happened to pass by.




Instead, what was really going on in her head, was a completely different story.




Since their move to Cloverdale, she'd tried to settle in as best as she could, but she missed all her friends, her family, cousins.... uncles... aunts etc. Although they were all a phone call away, she never felt so isolated in all her short life.





She never really resented her dad's sudden decision to 'up sticks' and move. Well, not on the surface anyway. After all, if this was what his job required, then who was she to argue with him. After all, she's just a kid. And her opinions didn't seem to matter. To her brother however, this was a great adventure. He'd happily crawl all over the garden, dragging weeds and the pretty flowers that their mother had just planted, out by their roots, and flung them all over the place. Giggling happily.
Nope, this was just a great big adventure for Kyle. For her mother however, Skye was just that little more observant. And although Kenya never really showed it much, Skye knew that Kenya was also missing her family and friends.





Plus, she hated school. Admittedly, it wasn't half as bad as the last one back home. All the taunts about her green skin and black fathomless eyes. The innuendos about how her dad got elected as Mayor of the city - *he must have 'probed' his way through all the candidates at City Hall* etc.





She didn't want to draw attention to herself by complaining, so she threw herself into her studies. Besides, her own company was just fine thank you very much.




Mind you, there WAS a boy at school. He was always getting picked on because he was always sickly. And he had red hair. He had a big sister who always looked out for him. On the dot, she'd be there at the gates, waiting for him. She'd even had a few dust-ups with some of the kids too.

Skye knew what it was like to be 'different'. But, try as she may, she stood out. So, even though this kid was getting picked on mercilessly at school - the only place his sister couldn't defend him - Skye was torn.

Yeah sure, she could have defended him. He reminded her so much of her own kid brother Kyle.





But then, what would have happened if she HAD stood up to this boy? She'd have been the focus of all the bullying. The last thing she wanted.

Besides, she'd already caught a glimpse of two new boys who'd just arrived at the school. Twins... both red hair.

Red hair.

What was this? An invasion of the red-heads or something?





And they both looked like trouble. So she was glad that she was leaving 'little school' soon, and moving onto the 'big school' as she'd called it. Hopefully, she'll settle in a lot more there. Besides, these two looked as though they could handle themselves anyway. One to cover the other one's back.

It was their big sister that worried Skye. She looked a little mean and stand-offish, and Skye hoped that she wasn't a bully.





Skye also realised that her thirteenth birthday was drawing closer ..... and there hadn't been a peep from anybody. No general hints, nudges, odd little questions about what she was into etc.

Nothing.

At first it irked and annoyed her. But, as her birthday drew nearer, she felt a wave of hopelessness about her.

Her dad was always too busy at the office .... and there was NO WAY she was going to sit quietly whilst he was in conference. She squirmed about too much, and her gangly legs would swing non stop.

It was bad enough seeing all his 'yes men' hanging onto every word he uttered. But to do something that would embarrass him in front of them.... and earn that famous 'glower' that he'd perfected all his life....

... nope. She'd rather stay at home and pretend to play chess.





It wasn't as if she wasn't familiar with this classic board game. In fact, she was only two skills short of Junior Master. She could beat everybody hands down. Such was her intelligence.





But here she was, sitting at the chess table ....





wondering if anybody had remembered her birthday.... but there again, hoping that her mom and dad hadn't gone through all that trouble for her too. As she was particularly nervous around strangers.