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)
What Really Happened?
Maria’s address book was soggy but readable. Bishop Parker found a sister, Betsy, in Manchester, England; he made the transatlantic phone call and broke the news. Betsy said she'd been wondering when the call would come. She could be here on Sunday. The funeral was set for Monday.
At the bishop's suggestion, Dan stayed at the Fawke's. On Thursday he tried to write down his thoughts in a journal, just as the bishop suggested, but no words came. He cried occasionally and was sometimes frantic. Marilyn somehow lifted his car keys. She told him she couldn't quite remember where she'd put them, but was busy now, so she'd look for them later. She also kept him under tight watch. She gave Jesse and Peter strict instructions he was not to be let out of sight for a minute, and above all was not allowed to go home.
He watched TV on Friday with all the attention of an overcooked carrot. Peter tried once to tempt him with a computer game but barely elicited a grunt. Peter read in TV Guide that two obscure soccer teams were playing on a cable channel. He saw his chance, switched channels and then sat on the remote. He made an ineffectual show of looking for it when Dan objected. Color came to Dan's cheeks when the midfielder scored. By the end of the game, he was talking. And there was conversation at the dinner table, too.
On Saturday Dan was ready to discuss the logistics for the funeral. Aunt Betsy would be here the next day and would stay at Dan’s. There was the matter of getting some clothes for the funeral—which took Peter and Dan to Dan’s house. And, once in Dan’s bedroom, they were safely out of Marilyn's earshot.
"We're just here to get clothes for the funeral, right?" said Dan. "I don’t want to stay long."
"So why are you sitting down?" asked Peter.
"I don't know. Seems rather weird here. Empty."
Peter was silent.
"Joyce told me some interesting things yesterday, you know," began Dan.
"No, I don't know. Are you ready to talk about it?"
Dan was silent for a while. Peter stood by the door.
"The light flooded in recently." He smiled wanly. "Joyce and mum have known each other for about two months." He looked at Peter. "Do you know a hospice is a place where people go to die?"
Peter sat on the bed. "No, I didn't," he said softly. He averted his gaze, looking at the dirty laundry on the floor instead.
"Well, it turns out mum had liver cancer. Inoperable. Spreading. As of Wednesday night, she had about three months to live."
"So why hide it?" asked Peter.
"She was afraid I'd leave. That I'd go live with dad. That I wouldn't be around to help her." Dan laughed sadly. "The argument was really bad, Peter, really bad. She said I was just like my father. If she only knew what I found there..." His voice trailed off.
"This is what you were going to tell me Wednesday night?"
"Yes."
"Well?" said Peter after a long silence.
Dan sniggered. "I wonder if she ever knew. Maybe she did. I'll never know." He'd been looking at a dirty sock on the floor, but now turned his gaze on Peter. "Peter, did you know my father is gay? That he's living with his lover? I stumbled in on them making love!"
Peter leaned back on the bed, his arms behind him and his head flipped back. "Oh, my!"
"Joyce said mum called and was absolutely frantic and felt all was lost. Anyway, the State Patrol guy says they'll never know exactly what happened. She should have made it around the corner just fine. He said someone stopped there to clean his windshield and heard someone crying out from down in the creek." Dan's voice was flat and emotionless. "He said they traced some of the tracks in the snow where the other cars hadn't driven over them. It looked like she didn’t even try to make the curve. He asked me if she was epileptic or anything. I told him about the times I found her passed out on the kitchen floor."
"So they think that's what happened?"
"Before he asked me that, he let slip that they think from the angles and stuff like that, she was accelerating, but going slightly around the curve, weaving a bit, like she was angling toward the one spot without a guard rail."
"But it could still be an accident, Dan. Like she passed out."