Shattered Castles 1 : Castles on the Sand (31 page)

Jared was a geologist who worked for a while at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He composed songs as a hobby, many of them humorous, and performed several for us one evening during a dinner at his parents' house. He once threw a surprise birthday party for his wife and, while distracting her with a DVD of
The Bourne Identity
, kept darting out of the room to see if those of us who were guests had shown up yet. When Emily looked askance at this, he said, “Wouldn't it be so cool to be a super spy?” and tried to pass off his repeated exits as excitement. Emily either fell for it, or at least pretended to when we did finally show up. Apparently there was precedent for this kind of behavior.

Sometime between when Jared and I actually started to talk to each other, and when Trevor and I moved back to White Rock for Trevor's job, Jared survived a brain tumor. This came out in a conversation in which he and Emily were laughing about the experience, because that's the sort of people they were, able to laugh when most people would cry. The facts are as follows: Jared started to show symptoms of a brain tumor, which were misdiagnosed spectacularly by the ER doctor, who for some reason thought “food poisoning” would explain why he had seizures. The sort of tumor he had is not the kind a person ought to survive, but he did thanks to his intelligent, determined, and resourceful wife who set out on a crusade to find doctors who could help them (there's more than a little bit of Emily in Madison).

“If they called me by my first name, I called them by theirs,” was one of her vetting techniques, “and if they didn't like it, I knew they weren't worth seeing.” She also demanded that they know how to say, “I don't know,” and walked out on anyone who told her that her husband was as good as deceased already. Her quest eventually took her and Jared to northern California, where he had the tumor removed, and at the time I found out about this, he was in such good health that this story was a shock.

Oh, and his wife, Emily? She was also pregnant for part of that time, and had a newborn for the rest of it. It's thanks to her that he lived as long as he did, and a tribute to both of them that they could joke about it to the very end. The tumor eventually returned and took Jared from us when he was only thirty-six. His wife kept her spirits up in public enviably. I don't know anyone else who would post “The Ten Funniest Things About Being a Widow” on Facebook, but it's hard to think of a more fitting tribute to Jared. (It was a response to his list of the “Top Ten Funniest Things About Having a Brain Tumor.”)

I started to write this book back in January, and could soon tell that I was still processing his death. Jared wasn't the kind of close friend who inspired me to cry my eyes out at his passing, he was a long term acquaintance who features in so many of my memories that his absence leaves a trail of holes in the past and changes the universe so that it'll never quite feel right again. He and I joked about how Los Alamos County had remodeled all of the parks we'd played in as children. They took down the three story rocket ship that we used to climb to the top of and shake as hard as we could. They uprooted the Cinderella's coach that we could, with practice, scale the outside of and again, shake it as hard as we could (yes, okay, that was a very regular pattern; it wasn't a mystery why this equipment was removed). They got rid of the T-tunnel, which was a section of what was probably sewage pipe rigged up on the elementary school playground. Older students managed to yank its rebar anchor out of the ground and turn the whole structure up on end.

And now another childhood memory has been torn out and set aside. While it's easy to see Jared in John Britton, the truth is, he's in nearly all of the characters to one extent or another. Siraj, actually, has the most obvious similarities that I can see, with his sense of humor and ability both to remain deadpan while saying outlandish things and restate the obvious in a way that is so accurate, it's hilarious. John has his compassion and principles. Madison has his charity and resilience. Kailie has his unending desire to enjoy life (she's just doesn't know how to do that, in actual fact.) Carson has his faith. JP has his intelligence. Alex has his devotion to his family. Two out of three of them have his impeccable taste in compassionate, self-sufficient women.

More to the point, the story came about as I was processing what kind of change a good man can make to the world that is largely out of his control. John can't be the protagonist of this story because he arrives late to the situation. His lack of relationship with Madison means his hands are tied as he watches her make mistakes. Jared can't be a protagonist any more because he was taken from us early, but just as John was able to work with what little he had, Jared can continue to change the world.

He's the sort of person who made Earth a better place just by being the principled, loving, and dedicated man that he was, and by remembering him, we can all do our best to finish what he started.

E.M. Tippetts

July 5, 2012

Thanks for reading. If you’re wondering whether there are more stories I’d be willing to tell about Madison, her family, and how things ultimately turn out with her new boyfriend, the answer is yes. If enough people are interested, I’ll happily write a sequel.

If you enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Goodreads. Nothing drives book sales more effectively.

Other books by me include:

Time and Eternity

Paint Me True

Someone Else’s Fairytale

Each of those is a stand alone and not part of a series, and if you are reading the Kindle edition of this book, there are links at the very end, after the Acknowledgments. Right now I’m working on a sequel to
Someone Else’s Fairytale
, which has been my most popular book to date. For updates on that and other projects, go to my website:
www.emtippetts.com
.

I also write science fiction and fantasy as Emily Mah. To find out more about the short stories I’ve sold and to find my blog, go to www.emilymah.com

For this book, it’s
very
hard to choose whom to thank first, so I’ll go in alphabetical order: Emily Lyman gave me access to the poem Jared wrote in the dedication and the beautiful speeches that were given at Jared’s funeral - which I wasn’t able to attend, as I was living in London with two small children to care for. Mary Mah is still the best typo catcher I’ve ever met, outdoing even full time copyeditors. The typos in this book are all my fault, probably last minute additions that didn’t get proofed by her. Char Peery remains my most ridiculously loyal friend, reading rough drafts that make me want to cry and giving insightful, honest, and constructive criticism. This is why you see her in
all
of my acknowledgments.

Next I need to thank all of the Kickstarter backers who gave so generously to my campaign to get this book reviewed by Kirkus. They are, in the order they pledged: Samantha Ling, Stephanie Cowart, Linda DeMeulemeester, Rebecca J. Carlson, Neile Graham, Susan Kaye Quinn, Emily Lyman, Catherine Burkholder, Susanne Brokaw, Melanie Goldmund, Donna L. Sadd, Ike Tippetts, Rob Jagnow, Eowyn Langholf, Bradley King, Whitney Farnsworth, Emily Forrington, Emily Debenham, Cindy Avery, Daniel Whiteson, Stephanie Spier, Kathryn Parsons, S.S. Bazinet, Caroline Aubry, Riccardo Mainetti, Sarah Mah, Dean and Teddie Tippetts, Thomas Shepherd, Debbie Chrissinger, Stacey Millett Tippetts, Mary Lynn Pack, Emerald Christensen Griffin, Ian Parkinson, David C. Cassidy, Shelley Keesler, Sandra Mah, and Melody Anthony. I thought Kickstarter would be a humbling experience that would require me to spend a whole month begging for money. It was humbling, but not in the way I predicted. These kind individuals funded it in full in five days.

I’d also like to thank those who helped me with the cover design, Jenn Reese, of Tiger Bright Studios, who designed my two previous covers as well, and Sima Vaziry, who took my draft cover to the final version you see on this book.

Last, but definitely not least, are my readers who read my rough draft and told me
everything
I’ve done wrong. I’ve mentioned Char and my mother, Mary. I’d also like to think Jane Stewart, a new friend who wrote me a wonderful, detailed critique, and Trevor Tippetts, my longsuffering husband, who reads chick lit novels on his Kindle on the way to work. Now that’s love.

Other Books by E.M. Tippetts (www.emtippetts.com):

Short Stories Written as Emily Mah (www.emilymah.com):