Forbidden: Book One of Wild Sky Saga (12 page)

“I love you,” Maddy
smiled.

“Love you too.” Aira closed the door. Maddy waved goodbye to Avery and Joshua and drove
away.

“Hey,” Aira said softly. She looked around waiting to see if Israel had pulled
in.

“Where’s Israel?” Joshua
asked.

“I’m not sure,” Aira said a little
confused.

The bell rang so they walked up to the school doors. Aira kept looking back until they got
inside.

The day seemed to drag on. Aira watched the clock, stared out the window and looked at the door
repeatedly.

At lunch Aira sat with Joshua and Avery. She couldn’t understand where he could
be.

Jaidas kept looking at her from another table. Kaitlyn kept begging him to talk to her, he was getting irritated and basically got fed up. He got up out of his seat and went and sat down at Aira’s
table.

“Jaidas, what the hell are you doing?” Avery asked, ready to rip his head
off.

Jaidas just shook his head. He rubbed his chin and leaned his head down onto his arm on the table and looked at
Aira.

“I can’t be without you, I tried. I don’t know, I just... I’m eighteen. Avery, stop looking at me like
that.”

“I didn’t even say anything,” Avery spoke up defensively “But now I will. Maybe you should have figured this out a long time
ago.”

Aira couldn’t stand the bickering. She got up and walked out. Jaidas didn’t say anything. He looked at Avery whose eyebrow was raised at him. He sat for a second then stood up and
left.

A couple of hours went by. Israel walked into his house through the kitchen door with his blanket wrapped around him, a book and some papers in his arms, and a few twigs stuck in his hair from sleeping on the
ground.

“Hey, Mom,” Israel said half asleep as he sat down at the
table.

“Well, you look like you had a good sleep,” Abby spoke, sweetly
kidding.

“Ya, I … Mom, what time is it?” Israel asked seemingly
concerned.

“It’s just after two I think,” Abby
answered.

“Mom, I gotta go, I’ll be back later.” Israel jumped up, grabbed some papers from his book, his keys, ran out the door, and drove to Aira’s house. Israel knew she would still be at school, and he made it there about twenty minutes before she would get
home.

He pulled up, shut his car off, sat there for a few minutes and then got
out.

He walked up to Aira’s door and lightly
knocked.

Barry answered the door and stood
there.

“Ah, I know Aira isn’t home yet. I didn’t sleep so...” Israel couldn’t seem to get words out as Barry stared at him. Israel felt like a guilty little boy. “Is David around by any
chance?”

“Ya. I just picked him up.” Barry seemed somewhat bewildered, but he slowly opened the door to let Israel in. “He’s down in his room playing video games.” Barry smiled and watched Israel make his way down the hall. He knew that David was very close to Aira, and with Aira seeing Jaidas for the past few years, it was hard on David. Jaidas always looked at David like he was a problem or pretended he wasn’t even
around.

Israel stopped where he could hear video games blaring through the door, knocked and waited. He looked back down the hall, Barry was still staring at him. Israel looked back at the door. Barry was making him nervous, so he just opened the door and walked
in.

“David?”

David could hear Israel, but continued to play his
game.

Israel didn’t really know how to approach
him.

“Ah… it’s me, Israel.” Israel looked around David’s room. He noticed all the superhero pictures all over the walls. There were magazines, books of different super heros, and drawings David must have done all over the
desk.

“So who’s your favorite superhero?” Israel
continued.

“I don’t know,” David replied, not even turning
around.

“Do you like to
read?”

“I guess,” David replied again as he shrugged his shoulders, still ignoring
Israel.

“I brought you something, if you ever feel like reading a great story… I would say it’s pretty heroic. It’s always been one of my
favorites.”

David
listened.

“I’ll leave it here.” Israel put it on David’s nightstand. He looked over at David, smiled, and watched him play for a minute. “Alright… I’ll see you later,
okay?”

David didn’t say
anything.

Israel walked out of David’s room and closed the door. He walked to the front door, while Barry watched
T.V.

Israel continued to walk out as Barry spoke up. “Don’t make yourself bigger to them than you’re willing to be.” Israel stopped, then walked out the door. The moment David heard the front door close, he paused his game and ran over to the loose papers Israel had left. He picked them up, and read “David and
Goliath.”

David sat down on his bed, and began to read it. It was a famous story written in the Bible about a young boy named David who took on a giant named Goliath. He had used a slingshot and a single stone, and defeated
him.

Israel was still sitting in his car when Joshua pulled up with Avery and Aira. Aira smiled with relief to see
him.

She quickly took off her seat belt and they all got out of the car. Israel had gotten out of his car as they pulled in, and he stood there smiling. He walked up and hugged
her.

“Dude, where were you? I had to do the presentation myself.” Joshua asked, bugging him, but a little
annoyed.

“I didn’t sleep much last night… I guess I slept in. I’m sorry, I didn’t forget.” He sounded so apologetic, directing it towards both Joahua and Aira but looking at Aira. He put his hands on each side of her jaw gave her a few quick kisses, and in that moment Israel could feel his father calling him home. Israel pulled away a
bit.

“There’s something I have to do. I’ll see you guys later,
okay?”

“Okay,” Aira replied a little worried. She was always ready to have her heart
broken.

“Don’t worry,” Israel spoke. He could feel her concern. “I’m not going anywhere,” he smiled and then walked to his car. He gave Avery and Joshua a light farewell wave, got into his car, and drove
away.

“Is he okay?” Avery asked. She thought he was acting a little
strange.

Aira didn’t really know what to say. “I think
so.”

“He’s fine, why do girls always read something bad into every little
thing?”

“It’s our job,” Avery said. Joahua laughed, shaking his
head.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?” Avery
asked.

“I’ve got
homework.”

“Okay,” Avery answered back while they both slipped into Joshua’s car. Avery blew two quick kisses to Aira and closed the
door.

Aira walked up to their front door and watched as they drove away. She walked inside, put her bag down and sat on the couch across from Barry. There was silence for a moment, and then Barry
spoke.

“I might like this one, but it’s not
probable.”

Aira smiled and shook her head at
Barry.

“Where’s
Mom?”

“She went into Chilliwack to do some shopping, I took the day off. She needs to get
out.”

“Are you hungry?” she
asked.

“No, I have to wait. Your mom put us on some kind of diet… it
sucks.”

Aira laughed and stood
up.

“Okay… I’m gonna go study.” She walked up to her room and Barry continued to watch his
show.

As Israel drove home, he had a quick vision of Aira being wrapped in a vine of thorns, bleeding and weak. He was trying to get them off of her while looking up through the trees to the sky, but he couldn’t. He had seen these same visions constantly, which was why he had come
back.

Israel drove a bit faster to get home. When he pulled into his yard, he parked his car only half way down the driveway, got out of his car and started to walk towards his house. He could hear the sound of crows cawing. They were loud, almost as if they were trying to call attention to themselves. When he looked up he saw two crows in the trees to his right, and one to his left. Israel watched them for a second and started to walk again. The crows then flew off the trees towards him and began attacking him. Israel waved his hands around aggressively to get them off of him. By the fourth time they flew down at him, one of the crows managed to pull hair from Israel’s head. Israel put his hand on his head and watched them as they were flying away
–

Bang! Israel heard a shot from a gun, and the crow dropped from mid-air to the ground. He looked over, and on his porch stood his grandfather, Nehemiah and Samuel’s
father.

Israel was still holding his head, and smiled a bit as his grandfather started to walk towards him with a walking stick wrapped in olive
branches.

His grandfather swung his shotgun back over his shoulder. “Still got a pretty good shot!” he said while he walked over to the bird. He stuck his walking stick into the bird and it instantly disintegrated into
ash.

“Grandfather,” Israel spoke with love. His grandfather opened his arms and hugged
him.

“My boy, you’ve grown handsome… like your grandfather.” He laughed a bit. “Come,” he said, patting Israel on the back. Pulling two olives from his walking stick he offered one to Israel and they walked
inside.

They spent the rest of the day talking and catching up until
dinner.

David laid under his blankets with a flashlight, still reading what Israel had left
him.