The Legend Returns Excerpt
I opened my eyes and looked out over the mirror stillness of the water. Not a breath of a breeze disturbed the calmness of the bay. Just then, from the very edge of my vision, I saw the surface of the water break into a long ripple. I looked in the direction of the disturbance and saw the ever widening ripples on the water, expanding and looking like the rings on a freshly cut tree trunk. Something under the water had broken the calm surface. Perhaps it was a fish. Even as this fleeting thought went sailing through my mind, I knew it was not just a fish coming up for a tasty fly. The pattern and the length of the ripples looked hauntingly familiar.
My mind did a fast rewind to this past winter. I was down by the bay, standing on the shore next to a big rock. Willie was about fifteen feet out, just under the ice. We were talking away, and I must have said something out loud. My dad, who was standing behind me, spoke up and asked me how Willie was. I hadn’t heard him come up, and he scared me so much I nearly fell in. For a second there, I thought he had seen Willie out there, and then I remembered that he thought Willie was just an imaginary friend.
“Tell him I said hello,” Dad had said.
Willie said hello back, and then said that the big bass my dad had tried to catch last year was going to be on the lookout for him this year. I nearly blew the whole thing when I relayed this message to Dad.
“How in the world did you know about that, Ryan? You were at Aunt Cindy’s when I went on that fishing trip,” Dad said, scratching his head in wonder.
“I... uh... I guess Willie told me,” I said, thinking the whole secret would be out in just a few short seconds. But Dad just laughed, and let the whole thing drop.
I hated keeping secrets from my folks, even for such a noble reason.
Thinking about Willie brought my memory back to the day my best friend left on his long journey across the sea, and I saw him slip, for the last time, beneath the water’s surface. Staring into the centre of the large circle of ripples I whispered, “Willie.”
My name is Ryan, and this is the story of how I discovered a legend,
and the biggest secret of my entire life! Just after Christmas, I saw these weird tracks in the snow, so I just had to check them out. You won’t believe what I found!
Deep underground, in a hidden cavern, I met the best friend a guy could have.
The coolest thing of all was we used real magic to talk.
He told me all about his life, and why I had to keep his secret. I know keeping secrets from my family is wrong, but this is different. I just can’t have my parents or my annoying older brother figuring out what’s hidden in the old chicken coop.
If anyone finds out about this legend, he might disappear from the world forever.
“Everyone thought he was some kind of imaginary friend, but he was a lot more than that!
In fact, he wasn’t imaginary at all, even though he was the stuff of legends.”
School is finally out for the summer, and Ryan is looking forward to long sunny days on the beach with his best friend Cory, and his old friend, Willie.What Ryan hadn’t anticipated was how difficult keeping Willie’s secret would be. Torn between doing what’s best for his old friend, and being honest with this friends and family, Ryan has to think fast. The world isn’t ready to know about Willie, but it might already be too late.
Author Bio
In 1995, Lockard Young started banging away at the computer, and before long he had completed five chapters of a book. Because the characters were named after his children, he thought it fitting to read the tale to them. Enthralled by the story, they demanded more and so Lockard wrote. The end result was a story entitled, Ryan’s Legend. A book was born, and so was a hobby. A plumber by trade, Lockard lives with his wife in the countryside of rural New Brunswick. In addition to a number of stories he has “in the works,” Lockard also has an impressive poetry collection, inspired by his trip to South Africa.
Learn more about the author:
Lockard Young
