Read Tales from Dargo Island: The Complete Trilogy Online
Authors: Jerry Hart
Tales from Dargo Island: The Complete Trilogy
Tales from Dargo
Island: The Complete Trilogy
Jerry Hart
Published by J.W.
Star Publications
Copyright © 2013 by
Jerry Hart
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
permission from the author.
This book is a work
of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the
author’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed
as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or
organizations is entirely coincidental.
Cover artwork: Wil
Whalen
Kindle Edition:
August 2013
Table of Contents:
Book 1: Dargo Island (The First
Tale)
Chapter 10: A Whole Lot of
Exposition
Chapter 12: Forgetting Something
Chapter 14: I Need Super Healing
Chapter 16: A Princess Suffers a Fool
Chapter 17: Estevan Learns Stuff
Chapter 21: Winning Dargo’s Support
Chapter 24: I Discover Something
About Myself
Book 2: Dargo’s Dark Dream (The
Second Tale)
Chapter 1: Something Unleashed
Chapter 5: Dargonius’s Chamber
Chapter 11: Less Time than we
Thought
Chapter 12: A Visit Interrupted
Chapter 13: Desperate Measures
Chapter 14: Trouble on the Mainland
Chapter 17: Playing with the
Elements
Chapter 19: Dargo Gets to Work
Chapter 20: A New Dargo Island
Chapter 26: Dargo Takes Flight
Book 3: Rapatha (The Final Tale)
Prologue: The Perfect Hiding Place
Chapter 2: Nature of a Nature Demon
Chapter 5: The Heart of Dargo
Island
Chapter 6: Speaking with Ghosts
Chapter 12: Back to the Island
Chapter 13: Speaking with Dargo
Chapter 16: Fairies of Dargo Island
Chapter 19: The Land of Constant
Starlight
Epilogue: The Tale of Rapatha
Island
Believe it or
not, I’d never seen a tornado in real life until I was nineteen, and I’ve lived
in Texas for fifteen years. I’d only ever seen them on TV. Though the one I was
looking at now was on the news, it was also down the street. As were two
others; they were closing in on me, and I still couldn’t see them.
I’d gone
outside my house a few times like an idiot—along with my neighbors—to see if
the twisters were visible, but thanks to the trees and many roofs we could see
nothing. We may not have had to wait long because a fourth twister looked to be
forming over our heads at that time. The sky was so silent and eerie. I
expected wind that sounded like trains, but got nothing like that. Just creepy
silence.
And then the
hail started just as I was returning to the house.
My roommate,
Christy, was already hiding in her closet, but I couldn’t just hide in mine and
wait. For one, it was full of clothes and boxes. For another, I was simply too
terrified to sit and wait for death to come.
As I walked
back to my room on the far side of the house Christy called from her room,
“Josh, are you sure you don’t want to hide with us?”
“I’m fine. I
don’t think the tornadoes are heading this way anymore.”
I was lying,
but it made me feel better. When I walked into my room I immediately turned up
my TV and listened. The tornadoes were indeed headed for us. All three!
I hopped into
my closet with all the pillows from my bed waiting for me. I kept the TV on and
the door cracked so I could stay updated. I could almost hear the train-like
wind now…or maybe it was my imagination. God, I could feel the walls closing in
on me now. Was I going to die this day, one day after my nineteenth birthday?
That’s what I get for being born in May.
The house
shook, and I closed the door and pressed against it. I knew I couldn’t keep the
tornado out like that, but it made me feel a little better, gave me some
control of the situation. Incidentally, I still hadn’t seen the tornado but was
about to be killed by it. What a way to go. At the very least it could have
been a “now I’ve seen everything and can die happy” moment, but I couldn’t even
get that.
I heard glass
shatter and knew it was my bedroom window, just over my bed. If I hadn’t jumped
in the closet in time I would’ve been cut to shreds. I heard a terrible sucking
sound just past the door and figured my TV and computer, and possibly my bed,
were being pulled from the room. If I did survive this, life would suck.
At that moment
a strange thought occurred to me: Did I truly want to die today? I mean, if I
survived but the house didn’t, where would I go? I’d moved out of my parents’
house because they were always being so protective of me, treating me like a
child. My truck was so crappy, in and out of the mechanic’s shop three times
this year. I was dreading what the tornadoes were doing to it at that moment.
My problems
were trivial but they were significant to me. I was afraid of the future, of
all the problems I would face, especially of the ones I wouldn’t be able to
handle.
The room grew
louder—the tornadoes were right outside. My death was seconds away, along with
the death of my roommate. I accepted my fate but prayed for hers. She was going
to have a baby in two months...
I closed my
eyes, ready for the end.
It didn’t come.
I opened my
eyes, relishing and fearing the sudden silence. I wondered if I’d gone deaf. I
snapped my fingers in front of my face. I wasn’t deaf. That could only mean one
thing: The tornadoes were gone.
I waited a
minute before opening the closet door. As I suspected, the window had shattered
but my belongings were still in their places. I crawled over the bed to the
window to see the sky, but the damn two-story house next door blocked my view.
I opened my
bedroom door and saw more glass on the linoleum floor. Luckily I’d put my shoes
on the second the alarms went off. The glass crunched beneath my feet as I
walked through the living room.
“Josh Debelko!”
Christy called from her bedroom behind me. “What do you think you’re doing? Are
the twisters gone?”
“I think so;
I’m checking.”
I was at the
front door when Christy said, “Boy, you are brave. Be careful; I’m going back
to my closet.”
She rubbed her
belly before closing the door. I chuckled at her compliment and looked through
the front door’s window. The street looked calm, with only a little debris
scattered around. I was relieved to see my little blue Chevy S10 still in its
spot by the mailbox.
I saw other
neighbors being just as curious as me. No one left the safety of their tiny
porches, though. I guess I would be the first.
I walked the
path to the driveway, making sure not to step on the beautiful, sensitive
grass. I kept my eyes on the sky; it was eerily quiet again, the clouds slowly
spinning above me.
I got a
horrible feeling in my gut.
I looked back
to the neighbors and saw them running into their houses, screaming and
pointing. I looked up and saw a funnel headed toward the ground. One of my
neighbors was standing in the street, too scared to move. I ran toward her,
pushing her out of the way just before I was lifted off my feet.
When I woke up
I had no idea where I was. I felt a hard surface behind me, and my head hurt. I
tried to move my arm, to touch my head, but someone stopped me and told me to
lie still. I couldn’t see them, couldn’t open my eyes, so I merely groaned. I
felt water droplets on my face and figured it was drizzling—
I suddenly
remembered the tornado.
I sat up before
anyone could stop me. My eyes were wide open now. I was surrounded by
neighbors, including my own roommate. I felt warm wetness on my lip that I knew
was not rainwater. I touched it and saw blood on my fingertips. Not surprising;
my nose always bleeds when I’m truly scared. I was only surprised it didn’t
start earlier when I was hiding in the closet.
“I don’t think
you should move,” Christy said.
“I’m fine. My
neck and back are fine.”
Two neighbors
helped me up. “It’s not that....”
I looked at
Christy, noticing the worry in her eyes. “What is it?”
“You...you were
dead.”
I let that sink
in for a moment. There was no way I’d heard correctly. I studied myself,
feeling my legs and stomach. I could feel my touch. Nothing hurt but my head. I
was alive. How could I have been dead?
“Are you sure?”
I asked. Christy wasn’t a doctor, after all.
She looked to
one of the women who’d helped me up. She was a doctor.
“I checked your
vitals myself,” said Dr. Harris. “You were technically dead.”
She was staring
at me like I was a medical miracle. I held out my left wrist. “Am I okay now?”
I hoped I
didn’t sound sarcastic because I truly was concerned. I took a few deep breaths
and felt the air in my lungs. I was alive.
“Clearly, you
are, Josh,” she laughed.
“Doctor!”
someone screamed behind the crowd that surrounded me. Dr. Harris made her way
through and kneeled down. I didn’t see why until I managed to push people out
of the way.
Someone was
lying on the ground, his eyes wide open. I could tell they saw nothing.
“He just
dropped,” said the girl who’d called for the doctor. “He was fine!”
Dr. Harris
checked his pulse. And then she began CPR.
“He was fine,”
the girl repeated.
He was fine,
and I wasn’t. Now I was fine and he wasn’t. He was alive and I was dead.
Now I was alive
and he wasn’t.
*
*
*
The paramedics
took the boy’s body half an hour later. His girlfriend (I assumed it was his
girlfriend) was around my age. I knew that much, at least. I didn’t know their
names, despite the fact I’ve lived in this neighborhood for two years. I only
knew Dr. Harris because she came over every weekend to hang out with Christy.
I helped my
roommate clean up the glass in the living room, and then we sat on the couch
and took stock in the fact we’d survived our first tornado together. Christy
was one of my best friends. We used to work together at a movie theater; I just
couldn’t leave that place. Christy is a year older than me and married, though
she and her husband were separated.
I constantly
told her that she and her husband Barry would get back together soon. Not only
because she was seven months pregnant, but because Barry was a good guy. He was
staying with a friend until things got less crazy.
I checked the
news again. I assumed the storm front passed us by but wanted it confirmed.
My heart
skipped a beat when I saw a demolished building in a familiar location, just
off the freeway. It was the movie theater.
“Is that our
theater?” Christy asked.
I looked at
her, completely out of it. “I’m jobless,” I said quietly.
“And people
could have been hurt,” she reminded me.
“Of course.” I
coughed, even though I didn’t need to. I felt selfish. “But how am I going to
pay rent now?”
“We’ll get by.”
“Today’s just
not my day,” I said, taking a moment to be selfish. “I died and lost my job.
Can it get worse?”
“How do you
feel?”
“Alive, I
guess. My head still hurts.”
“Maybe you
should go to the doctor.”
“I would, but
our neighborhood doctor said I’m fine.”
“She sure
looked at you weird, huh?”
“The way you’re
looking at me now?” I joked.
“Sorry. It’s
just crazy seeing you here. You were totally dead. You looked like you were
asleep, but I knew you weren’t.”
“I’m really
surprised Dr. Harris wrote me off as okay after what happened. I should be in a
hospital, even though I hate them.”
“Well, she said
she’d check on you later today. Did you see the way she looked at you after
that guy died, though?”
“I—”
The doorbell
interrupted me. I could see Dr. Harris through the door’s window. Christy let
the doctor in. She was a pretty, middle-aged woman with light brown hair
streaked with white. She and Christy played a fantasy role-playing game every
Saturday night with a few other friends. They often invited me to join them but
I liked my games of the video kind.
“How are you, Josh?”
the doctor asked.
I stood and
nodded. “Good. Headache, but that’s it.”
“That’s good.”
She looked back and forth between Christy and me. “If you’ll allow it, I’d like
to examine you one more time.”
I remembered
the last time I was “examined.” It was a physical for high school and I didn’t
enjoy it. “Can I keep my clothes on?”
At first she
didn’t appear to understand, but then she laughed. “Yes, you can keep your
clothes on. In fact, I insist you do.”
“I’ll check on
Mrs. Darcy next door,” said Christy. “She’s old and all.”
Dr. Harris
smiled as Christy left us alone in the living room. She then sat next to me on
the couch. I held up my arm again so she could check my pulse, but she ignored
it.
“There’s
something I have to tell you,” she said to me.
“Am I okay?”
“You
are...now.”
“Now?”
“You did a
brave thing, saving me from that tornado.”
“It was
nothing.” I could feel myself blushing. “It seemed like it was going straight
for you, though.”
Dr. Harris
looked off into the distance. “It was.”
I looked at her,
curious. Of all the things I expected her to say, that wasn’t even on the list.
“Um...what?”
“I made a
powerful enemy a long time ago,” she finally said.
I was really
confused now and didn’t know what to say.
She looked at
me then and said, “I don’t understand how you’re still alive.”
“You didn’t
save me?” I asked, noticing the change of subject.
“I wish I could
say I did. I’ve done a lot of things that got me into trouble in the first
place.”
I was really
lost, but continued to listen, even though I was a little scared now. “What did
you do?”
Instead of
answering, she looked at the TV. “I loved that theater. Too bad it’s gone.”
She sounded
distracted and was clearly changing the subject again, but I decided to play
along. “I work there. Well, I used to.”
She looked at
me. “I’m sorry, dear.” She perked up. “If you’re in need of a job, I may know
someone who can hook you up.”
I perked up
too. “What kind of job is it?”
“Security, for
a very...nice community.”
“Oh.” I didn’t
know what to say. I’d never thought of being a security guard before. I didn’t
know any personally and was only familiar with ones that worked in malls, or
the ones in movies that always got killed.
“Are you
interested?” Dr. Harris asked, reminding me she was there.
“Yes, please.
Is the community close?”
She thought for
a moment. “It’s closer than it seems.”
“Okay. I’d
appreciate the help.”
“I’ll get right
on it.” She patted my hands again before walking to the front door.
“Doctor?” I
called before she could leave. She turned to me. “Am I going to be okay? You
worried me earlier.”
She smiled and
nodded. “You’re going to be fine, Josh. I promise. And call me Shae.”