Chosen to Control

The Earth Stone (Not Redone Yet)

Chapter 7

The Earth Stone





“Wake up you lazy bum!” Jonathan slowly opened his eyes to see his younger sister Erika jumping on his bed and yelling. “Come on, wake up! We are going to Colorado! Wake up!”

“Its too early, let me sleep some more,” said Jonathan. He rolled over and put his head into his pillow. He began to fall asleep again when he heard and felt his back crack.

“I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO LEAVE! NOW GET OFF!” Jonathan yelled at the top of his lungs at Erika. She began to cry and Jonathan just left her alone and walked to get his breakfast. “Mom, what’s for breakfast?” asked Jonathan.

His mother replied, “Whatever you can make yourself. And hurry because you need to pack your carry on luggage. You don’t want to keep Brittney waiting now do you?”

“I guess I don’t. Well let me get some toast.” He then walked over to the toaster, grabbed to pieces of bread and put them in. Then he grabbed a cup, opened the fridge, and poured his milk. After that he put the milk back, and got some butter. Then “Pop”. The toast was ready. He sat down and began to think of the good times he had with Brittney.

When they were little, he would wrestle her. He would always win though. He also remembered all their inside jokes. He mainly remembered what seemed like the worst day of his life, the day Brittney moved to Colorado. Jonathan has always tried to be rough and tough so he didn’t cry, but little did anyone else know, that night he cried himself to sleep. He tried not to show it, but he was extremely excited to go see Brittney.

Jonathan’s family’s flight was at 9:40 AM. It arrived right on time. They checked all their bags and remembered everything. The flight was very good for Jonathan. The movie they played was T-3: Rise of the Machines. He thought this movie was the best movie ever, especially because of all the people dying and all the guns shooting in every direction.

While Jonathan was watching the movie, his bratty younger sister was tugging at his shirt and screaming at the top of her lungs because she was so scared of the movie. Whenever she would do this, Jonathan would say, “Aw toughen up you little wimp. Get over it. It is just a movie, and people do die. Sometimes in even more painful ways than you can think. They sometimes crush each bone in your body starting with…” “Jonathan! If you say one more word I am going to break your lip!” his mom screamed.

He then stopped and enjoyed the rest of the movie and killing. They the got off the plane and had to get to their connection flight that would take them to Aspen. The flight was so short; he couldn’t even recall fifteen of his best memories with Brittney. The flight landing was rather brutal. The plane bounced up and down and side to side about three times. When that happened, yet again Erika screamed.

Getting off their plane was a real hassle. They were towards the back and one person couldn’t seem to find their carry-on luggage. So they waited. As it turned out, the person’s carry-on was on the person’s seat. On their way through the door on the plane, Erika tripped and ate the pavement. She started to cry, Jonathan didn’t care and he kept walking. He barely even noticed. His whole mind was concentrating on Brittney.

When he went through the sliding doors, there she was. Brittney’s long black hair glistened in the light of the airport. It was very hard for Jonathan not to look at the curves she had developed over the years. Jonathan ran and hugged her. She looked at him and laughed at him.

“Oh my God! You have gotten so much cuter! Come on! We have to hurry. The mountain is waiting for us to scale it,” said Brittney.

“What do you mean scale it?” asked Jonathan.

“We’re going to climb the mountain. It’s really not that steep.”

“Are you sure this is going to be safe?”

“You are such a chicken, toughen up.” Brittney then punched his shoulder.

“I am afraid of nothing, absolutely nothing, including death.”

“Well, then you wouldn’t mind falling to your death?”

“How steep is this mountain?”

“Most of the climb is at a 90 degree angle. However…”

“What do you mean by however? This cannot be good.”

“There might be some ice in between the rocks because of the melting snow. And…”

“Oh, now there is an and, as if it couldn’t get worse.”

“In about two parts, the mountain goes out.”

“What do you mean the mountain goes out?”

“Just imagine climbing up the mountain, and then the mountain slopes like a ceiling. It goes out at an angle.”

“This makes the climb harder doesn’t it?”

“Well no, the only thing is that more gravity is exerted and on different part of the body.”

“Great absolutely…”

“Brittney! Brittney!” yelled Erika. She jumped into her arms.

“Hey Kido, how have you been?” asked Brittney.

“Jonathan! How can you be so close-minded? Your sister fell back there! Why didn’t you help her?” asked Jonathan’s mom with a very angry voice. She then noticed Brittney, said hello for a second and continued to scold Jonathan.

“Brittney, what are we going to do here in Aspen?” asked Erika.

“Well, your brother and I are going to be doing a lot of things. We’re gonna go rock climbing and snowboarding. You can come with us when we go to the pool at my house and you can also come with us to dinner,” said Brittney.

“But I want to do fun things with you Brittney. Forget my brother, what’s so special about him?”

“Well I am a girl and at my age girls start to like boys, and we like to hang out with cute little children. I’ll tell you what. You can come on my snowmobile first, before Jonathan does.”

“Really?” When she asked this, Erika’s eyes seemed to glisten in the lights.

“OK, let’s start heading to the car, you don’t want to miss dinner. I am telling you it is going to be about the best surprise you have ever had,” said Brittney.

All of Jonathan’s family brought the bags to Brittney’s car. Jonathan’s dad asked why Brittney was driving and she reminded him that Brittney’s birthday was a month before. She just turned sixteen meaning that she could drive.

They got to Brittney’s house. It was a large house. It looked on the inside like a hotel Jonathan had stayed at when he went to Disney World. Brittney took him to his room. He was going to share his room with Erika. However there was only one bed. Brittney directed him to the ladder in the corner of the room. He climbed up after Brittney.

On top of the ladder was a bed very low to the ground. It was next to a window facing the backyard of her house. It had to have been the best site in the house. He and Brittney sat there and admired the view for a few moments. Brittney then climbed back down to help her mom with dinner. Jonathan just sat there looking at the view. He thought he could even see a few elk or deer.

“Jonathan, dinner’s ready!” called Brittney. Jonathan jumped down and ran to go eat. Before him he saw hamburger patties and some steak. “Eat up,” said Brittney. Jonathan reached for a hamburger and put it into a bun. He put some ketchup in it. He also grabbed a few chips and put them on his plate. He took a bite out of the burger and said, “This burger is really, really good. It is better than any other burger I’ve eaten. It is just so juicy.”

“Do you want to know what it is made of?” asked Brittney’s mom.

“Um… isn’t it made out of cows?” asked Jonathan.

“That isn’t a hamburger, and that isn’t steak,” said Brittney looking at Jonathan’s family eating, “it is actually an animal from around here. It’s a moose!” She then looked around and saw all of Jonathan’s family spitting up their food. Brittney was laughing so hard she almost fell off of her chair.

Everyone though agreed it tasted better than cow and continued to eat it even though it was unusual to them. After dinner, Jonathan’s family was so tired because of the time change that they went to bed early.

The next morning, Brittney woke up Jonathan and told him to get dressed for they were going rock climbing. Jonathan didn’t hesitate because he thought it would be a good adventure to go rock climbing on an actual rock, rather than those fake ones at the mall. They had a quick breakfast and hopped in Brittney’s car. It took an hour drive. When they arrived there Brittney said grimly, “This is going to be a tough climb.”

“What makes it so different than before?” asked Jonathan.

“It snowed last night.”

“And your point is?”

“The snow makes the rocks slipperier. It also makes the rocks loose so it is likely that if you grab a loose one you can fall.”

“That does sound bad…”

“It’s OK though because I can climb up the side and hook a rope around the edge, that way it is safer. Do you still want to do this? It might be a bit riskier.”

“Brittney, Brittney, Brittney. I thought you knew me well enough to know that I never turn down a challenge.”

“Let’s do it!”

Brittney took a chairlift to the top, put a pole in the ground, tied a rope around it, and threw a rope down to Jonathan. While she was doing this, Jonathan was cursing himself and his big ego. He thought that if he hadn’t been trying to show off, he would be safe and on the ground.

Brittney and Jonathan both put on their harnesses, tied the rope around them, and began to climb up the mountain with Brittney in the front. She was about ten feet in front of Jonathan. They climbed with relative ease until Jonathan grabbed a loose rock. Thankfully, he didn’t fall because of the pole. He looked inside of the hole and saw a little stone glowing in a brown green grey color. He reached in and grabbed it. When he pulled it out, he saw a necklace around his hand.

He recognized these necklaces. He knew it was a necklace like Stephanie’s and Bobby’s. He put it around his neck and placed the stone in it. It then snapped shut and seeing the position he was in, he kept climbing so that he wouldn’t think of the stone and fall off.

Brittney began to approach the part where she had to climb across with her back facing the ground. She began to climb across really well. Then she grabbed a loose rock and she began to fall. Thankfully though the rope caught her, but as soon as that happened, a rock in the area of the other one fell. This rock was sharp and useless as a grip, but it was sharp enough to cut through rope. It cut through the rope and down Brittney fell. As she fell she screamed. “BRITTNEY!” Jonathan yelled. He then said as she was falling, “If only a rock could come out and catch her.”

At that moment, his stone glowed and a piece of the mountain stretched out and caught Brittney. Jonathan mumbled to himself, “I think I know what element this stone controls.” He then said, “Mountain, form a slide down to Brittney, from where I am.” He cut the rope with his necklace and jumped to the slide. All the way down he was trying to slow down as to not fall from the ledge he created for Brittney.

As he approached closer to Brittney, he noticed she was bleeding. Red blood filled the area around her neck. He clasped Brittney in his arms and asked her how she was. She did not respond. Jonathan reached for his cell phone and dialed nine-one-one. He then created another slide for him and Brittney to go down to the bottom of the mountain. He stood there carrying Brittney waiting for the ambulance to come. The wind then began to blow and all he could notice was her black hair flowing in the wind.

He saw something fall on Brittney’s cheek. It was a tear, a tear coming from Jonathan’s face. He looked at her and began to remember their whole childhood together. He began to repeat to himself over and over again, “It cannot end this way.”

The ambulance finally arrived. They loaded Brittney in the ambulance, and with the ambulance came both Jonathan’s and Brittney’s families. He ran and hugged them all. They hugged him back. They got into the car and drove to the hospital. They didn’t ask Jonathan to explain the story for they had figured it out for themselves that Brittney had fallen.

For the rest of Jonathan’s stay, he stayed in the hospital by Brittney’s side. It turned out that Brittney had some internal bleeding in her head. She also was in a state of a comma. She finally woke up after three days and asked Jonathan one question. “Where is Erika?” Erika walked in and then Brittney said, “Sorry, but I am not exactly in shape to give you a ride on the snowmobile.” The day after Brittney woke up; however, Jonathan had to go home.

His flight back home was much quieter though. When he arrived in his house at eight o’clock at night, he received a phone call. It was Jessica. She said on the phone to Jonathan, “I just came back from Alaska. Call Patty, Stephanie, Kemelly, Bobby, Andrew, and Nick. Tell them to come to my house tomorrow right after lunch.”