{"id":203,"date":"2020-09-26T18:23:28","date_gmt":"2020-09-26T18:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thenickwarnerchronicles.com\/?page_id=203"},"modified":"2020-09-26T18:23:28","modified_gmt":"2020-09-26T18:23:28","slug":"first-chapter-of-vol-ii","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thenickwarnerchronicles.com\/index.php\/first-chapter-of-vol-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"First Chapter of Vol II"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1. The Statue of Liberty<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

            Summer break was over. Martin and I had spent the summer at Clear Creek Ranch with Louise. Julian was in Scotland and sent a letter once a week. George was busy but called Louise every second day to check on us. April\u2019s whereabouts were somewhat unclear. In hindsight, I suspect she was in rehab. I did not know where Robert was and didn\u2019t care. As long as he was not with me. Louise enjoyed the ranch and the fact that we were taken off her hands most of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            High up on our horses, we enjoyed the creeks, the woods and the wildlife. The Black Swirl did not make a return. Chubby and his cronies, imaginary numbers and spelling rules were far away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Martin and I followed Rick everywhere. His wife, Kimberly, eyed us and showered Rick with criticism for getting too involved with us. Apparently, with little to no effect on Rick. We loved helping him with the horses, the repairs, the mending, the unloading of hay and other chores. Where he went, we went. He patiently showed us how to handle the horse tack and always had extra tools for us so that we could assist him. He assigned me Trooper, my savior, as my horse for the summer and let Martin always have his favorite, Dakota, a brown mare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Between horse riding, swimming in the pools down at the waterfalls, helping Rick and three deliciously unhealthy meals a day, I read The Feynman Lectures<\/em> and A Brief History of Time<\/em> but I didn\u2019t do any math except keeping the scores at the parlor games in the food hall in the evenings. The primes and their capricious behavior percolated on the backburners of my ever-busy brain. Martin burrowed through Edith Wharton\u2019s and Henry James\u2019s complete works and could not stop talking about the conundrums of upper class turn-of-the-century women. I couldn\u2019t bring myself to enjoy those but I read them anyway to please him.      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            It was a perfect summer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            When the driver came to pick us up, a sense of foreboding descended upon me. Martin and I were both going back to White Haven. We had aligned our courses. George accepted our friendship. Julian was on his way back from Scotland. Louise was in good health and decent spirits. There were no signs, no black raven crossing our path, no lightning or black cats. And yet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I told Martin about my premonition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cWhat is it about?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cI don\u2019t know. It\u2019s not specific.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cYou mean something bad is going to happen?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cThat\u2019s how it feels like.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            In our first LAYOS meeting after the summer break, Bridget announced we would go on a trip to Manhattan and see the Immigration Museum on Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. For some scheduling reason, we would have to go the following week and she asked us to get permission from our parents as soon as possible so that all arrangements could be made in time. After this summer\u2019s excitement, we were not enthusiastic about this trip, but, ten days later, we were on the Amtrak with Rachel and Jeremy and three new LAYOS kids. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The sense of foreboding became stronger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            We arrived at Penn Station and took the subway to Battery Park where we had to wait in line for boarding the ferry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cWell, well, well, look what\u2019ve got here,\u201d an unpleasant familiar voice said behind us. We all turned around and saw Chubby and his cronies in the line parallel to ours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cLong time, no see,\u201d he said and smiled. He had shot up at least six inches and looked meaner than ever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Bridget moved forward to us and asked, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cAre these the boys who bullied you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            We nodded. She walked over to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cWhat is your name?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cI\u2019m Dennis Snyder. From the Snyders.\u201d As if everyone in town had to know his family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cListen, Dennis, you leave Martin and Nick alone. Or you\u2019ll get into serious trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cYes, ma’am,\u201d Chubby said and stuck his tongue out the second Bridget turned her back to him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cNow we know what your premonition was about,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cMaybe. Possibly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            We boarded the ferry and a backward glance told us that Chubby and his gang hadn\u2019t made it. They had to wait for the next ferry. We relaxed a little and tried to enjoy the view of Manhattan in the September sun. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cWho are these guys?\u201d Jeremy asked us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cThe reason why we are in the LAYOS program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cWhat did they do to you?\u201d Rachel asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cThey beat Martin up. On top of the teasing, the hazing, the harassment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cHad to spend some time in the hospital,\u201d Martin said in a coarse voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Rachel gasped. \u201cIn hospital?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cWe\u2019re not much in terms of anti-bullying force but if you want, we can stick together,\u201d Jeremy offered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cI\u2019m in,\u201d Rachel said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cThanks,\u201d I said. Martin nodded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            We walked around the Statue of Liberty and climbed the stairs to the platform. Jeremy and Rachel stayed with us and Bridget always kept an eye on us. When we came back down to board the ferry to Ellis Island, we anxiously scanned the crowd for Chubby. He wasn\u2019t on it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            We made our way through the museum. Martin and I were excited to see the exhibits. We started to spin stories about Anatole Wozniak, the man who had won over Janet after she rejected George even though she was bearing his child. We imagined how Anatole\u2019s grandfather had waited to be processed in the Great Hall and wondered how they treated Polish immigrants in the year 1914. Not too friendly was our guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            When Bridget insisted again that we all stay together, our history spark died and we trotted behind her with our heads down. On the second floor, Martin had to pee and wanted to sneak to the bathroom because he was embarrassed to let the others know about his bodily needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cBut this is how they get to us, Mart! This is how the evil guys always get their victims,\u201d I whispered to him. \u201cThink of Jurassic Park<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cYou mean the fat guy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cYes, he does one stupid thing after the other and the dilophosaurus kills him.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cI know. I don\u2019t want to act stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cListen everybody,\u201d Bridget spoke up. \u201cPee pee break for everyone. There\u2019s a bathroom right around the corner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Martin and I smirked. We all walked into the hallway and took turns visiting the restrooms. I had just dried my hands when an alarm tone started shrieking from the speakers in the ceilings. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1. The Statue of Liberty             Summer break was over. Martin and I had spent the summer at Clear Creek Ranch with Louise. Julian was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenickwarnerchronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/203"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenickwarnerchronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenickwarnerchronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenickwarnerchronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenickwarnerchronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thenickwarnerchronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204,"href":"https:\/\/thenickwarnerchronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/203\/revisions\/204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenickwarnerchronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}