Ascendance Contest Continues!

Ascendance is available now! 

For the contest this week you can be entered once a day with comment with your name and email address on the blog and also once for following the blog. In addition if you share this on Facebook and/or twitter that will gain you additional entries. Please comment that you have shared.  Drawing will be held and announced on Saturday Nov 10th. 


Using my cellphone as a flashlight, I searched the walls until I found a light switch. When light flooded the main foyer, I stood in awe. This put my mom’s house to shame. The wide-open area housed a large oak tree. The leaves had fallen, scattered around the scarred wood and tile floor and the staircase that curved around it to the second level. But the trunk was wide enough around to look like one of those ancient trees you could drive a car through. Branches stretched across the room and around corners into other areas.
I touched the base and let the power wash through me. Peace, utter, nondisruptable peace. The tree napped, earth telling me it was time for most trees to rest and renew. My watch beeped 3:00 a.m., and I figured I should probably sleep too.

I carefully made my way upstairs, opening doors, revealing a mass of rooms, one after another. This place
wasn’t a house, it was a mansion. At the end of the hall to the left, a door made me pause. The faded old sign on it read:
Peace to all who enter, in heart, spirit, and soul.—Dorien

The black ink was faded, but the scrawl still had an elegant flair. My dad wrote this. Was this his bedroom? I opened the door, found the light, and stared at the room. Sadly it didn’t appear much different than any of the other rooms I’d passed. My bright yellow bag stood out as modern and loud compared to the very traditional furniture.

A little red bug that looked like a large ladybug landed on the bag and crawled around a bit. The dust made me sneeze a dozen times. The bug didn’t move. I wondered how it had gotten inside, but I opened the window and carefully let it crawl into my hand so I could let it outside. The damn thing bit me before it flew out into the darkness toward an overgrowth of weeds in the back of the house. Obviously not a ladybug, then. Must have been an Asian beetle or something. At least with the window open, the soft breeze eased the musty smell of the house.

The bed was already stripped of linens, but covered with a dust cloth. I carefully peeled it back, then dug in all the closets until I came across sheets that didn’t smell like they’d been put away for years, and made the bed. The bathroom needed dusting too but was otherwise clean.

I stripped out of my clothes and slid into bed, too tired to think about anything else. Sleepiness took over even while I missed Gabe’s arms around me. Some adventures just weren’t lollipops and rainbows, and that was okay. I closed my eyes and let sleep take the self-doubt away.