Dave Casler
PO Box 98
Ridgway, Colorado 81432
Young Adult Novels by Dave Casler...
I've been told by publisher after publisher that there's no market for Young Adult novels. I think they're wrong! So I'm putting my novels on-line for you. Forget the publisher! Read to your heart's content--it's free! And, I'd like to hear from you, too! Contact Page.
You're reading About Dan. Be sure to check out About Phillip here.
Dan is a normal kid who loves his soccer. Except everything goes wrong. Everything.
About Series Home
About the About Series
Index to All Chapters
Here are all the chapters, disguised as asterisks. Hover your mouse over an asterisk to see the title of the chapter. Click on the asterisk to go straight to that chapter.
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(About Dan Home) (Last) (Next)
Marilyn's Concerns
The knock came again, insistent. He turned on the porch light. Peering through the peephole he saw Peter. He swung the door open and was startled to see Marilyn there too. Both had light dustings of snow in their hair and shoulders. The snow was starting to stick on the sidewalk behind them. Got cold quickly.
"Hi, what's up?"
"A two letter word starting..."
"I know, I know," said Dan. " Come in."
He looked around the messy room as if seeing it for the first time. There were no horizontal surfaces, including chairs, that weren't deep in debris of some kind. So he motioned them into the kitchen. Marilyn sat down; Peter stood in the doorway.
"Dan," said Marilyn, "Peter told me about the note. It seemed weird to him and really weird to me. May I see it?"
It was on the counter where he'd left it. He handed it to Marilyn, who examined it closely. Peter was still standing in the doorway. Dan looked at each in turn, a tiny fear gnawing at him.
"What's going on? Why are you so interested?"
"I don't know. Just call it instinct. I thought maybe it was the start of something, like a letter to you. No, it looks like it was meant to say just what it said. See how it starts here in the middle of the paper." She pointed. "It was meant to say just this."
She put the note down on the table in front of her and made a temple of her fingers. "Did she leave say where she went?"
"No," replied Dan.
"Do you have any idea where she might have gone or why?"
Dan took a deep breath. This wasn't going to be easy. There were very few people in the world to whom he'd spill his guts.
"Mom and I got into a very, very bad argument after school today. I left here to go to my dad's condo." He decided to edit the story. He could tell the rest to Peter later. "When I came back here, she was gone."
"Perhaps she went..." But she was cut short by the phone ringing. The phone was on Dan's desk.
"I'll get it," said Peter. He jumped up to search for the phone.
"Forsythe and Cook residence." Dan could just hear. Peter was coming back rapidly. "No, she's not here.... This is a friend. Dan is right here. May I say who's calling?"
Peter handed the phone to Dan. "It's someone named Joyce." Marilyn looked disappointed.
"Hello," answered Dan.
"Dan, this is Joyce Linford. Is your mom home yet?"
"No, she's not here."
"Dan, I'm worried about her. She called me around five and said she'd be coming up to see me. She was quite distraught. She never arrived. I called a few times, but got the answering machine."
Dan glanced at the base unit to see the message light blinking. He hadn’t noticed it before.
"Uh, you live in Nederland, right?"
"Yes. I'm worried because it's been snowing here all afternoon. The upper canyon is bad. I called because I’m worried about road conditions. I wanted to ask her to consider coming tomorrow."
"Yeah, it’s snowing here, too. Don't know what to tell you. I left here just before five or so and went over to my dad's. I wasn't gone a really long time, but she was gone when I got back."
"Look, would you do me a favor?"
"Uh, ok."
"Please give me a call when you hear from her? Any time, day or night. I'm worried about her."
Sounds like Peter’s mom. "Uh, sure. Can you tell me how you know her? I've never met you."
Joyce laughed a nervous little laugh. " I'm the pain management specialist from the hospice. She calls me once in awhile."
"Is that like a psychologist or something? I know my mother's been having some problems, but she would never tell me what was going on."
"Well, Dan, please take good care of your mother. She's a really neat person. I'm just worried about her. Let me give you my phone number, ok?"
Dan grabbed a napkin. He wrote the number and hung up.
"What's a hospice?" he asked Peter and his mother.
Peter shrugged his head but Marilyn looked ashen. "Uh, well, it's a special kind of, sort of like a place, you know, where they take care of long term patients," she said.
She’s hiding something. He was just about to say so when the phone rang again. Dan picked it up and answered.
"Hello."
"Is a Dan Cook there?"
"That's me."
"This is Officer Blair of the Colorado State Patrol. Are you in a position to talk?"