Chapter Eight Excerpt – Angel of Mercy

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This excerpt is from The Chronicles of the Grey Raven. Book One, Angel of Mercy, now available on Smashwords and Amazon and Amazon UK
CHAPTER EIGHT

Friday, January 17th, 2014

It’s Friday night and I’m sitting here having just watched The King’s Speech on Netflix. Sean set it up for mom when she first moved back here. He’s gone out with mom, Sven and Gerry to Oran Mor at the top end of Byres Road. It’s a restaurant, bar and entertainment venue inside a converted church. Sven remembered the church from years ago as we walked past yesterday and says it’s the best use of church premises he’s seen in years. He’s an old pagan though so I guess he would say that. There’s an open microphone night every Friday. Sven wanted mom to take her guitar but she just wants to have a few pints and get pleasantly pissed. Sean’s promised to arrest her if she gets too drunk, which mom thought sounded romantic!
I was going to go along but this journal has really got me going so I’ll sit here for a while in the peace and quiet to write some more, and as I read back, there are many incidents I’ve left out but that would take a book. There were many other friends who helped make me what I am today. Jake and his wife Victoria, Albert and Alan, Gerry from Glasgow, Aiyana and Sybil.
My school friends are still my friends, but I learned that some people will make friends simply because of your position in life. My dad was deputy editor of McIvor Style and because of its liberal bias, he came in for a lot of flak from the right and as a result, I was subjected to cyber bullying and hate posts. The link between Elizabeth and I was always a tenuous one in public, she never actually mentioned my name but in private we had many talks. Elizabeth would often walk into Melanie’s house and watch us paint or just chill out and watch a movie with us.

Elizabeth McIvor turned up to my graduation and almost stopped the entire ceremony. There was a stunned silence as she walked into the hall with her friends. People turned to look as the teacher tried to read his speech and then they sat down. When I walked across the stage to receive my diploma there was extra applause from the McIvor section. Afterwards in the reception hall she chatted with me like we were old friends. It sent out a message that I had come under her wing, in a subtle way it was my coming out, there were pictures taken of me with my high school diploma and Melanie took ‘one for Cat’ again. We went out for dinner that night, Elizabeth had booked an entire restaurant months in advance because, “I knew you’d pass.”…

…Anna dropped me off in her Dodge Viper. I think the car got as many looks as my dress. Tommy was there to meet me and I respect him enormously for that because it drove a wedge between him and this guy he’d been seeing, which was probably a good thing because that guy wound up getting diagnosed with AIDS twelve months later.
A few months later, Catherine Zeta Jones was at a red carpet function wearing the same dress and while she certainly looked sexier, I got to wear ‘that’ dress before her!
I guess to sum my high school years up, there were great days and not so great days and I felt loved and protected by Cat’s friends. Through it all however I held onto the hope that one day I’d get the news that Cat was alive and pray that no one would ever find the skeleton belonging to a thirty something woman washed up on a beach somewhere. But I wouldn’t swap those years for anything. As I mentioned earlier, in Chicago I matured and grew up. Melanie’s statement all those years ago about everything working out wasn’t as trite as I first thought, it was actually spot on.
Now it’s off to Oran Mor!

When my stepmom’s plane went down a part of me died, Cat was my world. In her place she left us to her friends, the Grey Ravens. Over the years I slowly came to realise her death was a mere facade. When we were reunited I learned the truth about Clan Grey Raven and her remarkable history. Some people will always love. Some people never lose hope. Some people never die…
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