A novel of fantastical love, irish folklore and the adventures of one stubborn sixteen year old CIPA patient.
June
The second they pulled into the cobblestone driveway of their out of place metal structure of a home in the country, June swung open the door to their ridiculously expensive, submarine yellow Porsche and half crutched, half walked to the front door. Appeasing her mother out of forcing her back into the obscene wheelchair she had borrowed from the hospital.
“Juniper-Lee Auguste! Your father is not going to be pleased to see you walking on that ankle!” Her mother called after her as she killed the ignition.
June turned the key in the lock and stifled a yawn, “Since when is Dad home anyways?” With that blow to her mother’s soft spot she closed the door, not meaning to slam it, but slamming it none the less.
June was frustrated with her stupid disease, frustrated with her fighting parents and overall just frustrated with her hectic life. Punching in the security code on the pad beside the door without even trying to be careful of snapping a nail or breaking a finger. She ditched her crutches in the overly luminous, spacious hallway and hopped to her room, if only to avoid going back to the hell that is the hospital, and slammed that door too.
She threw herself down on her four poster feather-filled- all-over bed and tuned her stereo on to The Beat, letting the bass rumble in her chest. It was one of the few things that June thought she could truly feel. Her shrink, the one she was forced to see after telling her mother about the resin necklace, had said that it was normal to experience an overactive imagination being in her condition. Secretly she had heard him whisper to her parents that it could be a form of schizophrenia or manic depression taking root. Apparently it was not uncommon in CIPA patients.
She lifted the cloth that covered her bedside table and reaching underneath the wood she pulled out the resin necklace from the ledge where it hid. Inside the resin were three Juniper berries perfectly preserved. When the shrink tried to take it away, saying that she shouldn’t have anything to provoke further psychosis, June stole into his office and took the necklace back, replacing it with another resin necklace containing some sort of bug. She hoped he wasn’t paying attention enough to notice. Apparently he hadn’t been because June has had the precious gem back in her possession for months and he hadn’t called her on it.
The smooth resin was cold and heavy in her palm, how could she imagine such a feeling, it had to be real! She felt the familiar excitement bubble up inside of her. Even if this was schizophrenia, she wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world because to feel, to truly feel something, was the best thing she could ever ask for. She put the stone to her cheek, feeling, allowing the sense of touch to envelop her and open something special deep inside.
As the poster-covered door to her room began to creak open, June tucked the necklace under the covers, accidentally ripping another hole in the fabric. Pretending she did nothing wrong, June positioned herself laying back in her covers to hide the lump and leaking feathers and closed her eyes.
Her mother cleared her throat, and June pressed the pause button on her stereo remote. Her mother stared silently until June caved. “I’m sorry mom. It’s just.. Ugh! Hospitals get me in such a bad mood! I shouldn’t have said that about Dad though, sorry.”
Triumphant, yet still put out her mother strode over her bad and took a seat beside her, dangerously close to where the necklace poked June in her rib, “it’s okay sweetheart, but you need to understand that your father’s job is very stressful and very time consuming. I wouldn’t be able to stay home with you if he didn’t put in the hours that he does.” A lie, June’s family was one of the wealthiest families in this town. She would rather be poor with a father, than rich without. “He does the best he can.” Was she trying to convince me or herself? June had to ask inside.
“I know.” June lied, because it is so beyond the truth that he does the best he can. When it came to his precious work, maybe, but when it came to his family? June and her mother definitely ranked second place, if that. June had her suspicions of an affair, and although her mother never seemed to take notice, June heard her mother’s sobs every time she called the office to find he had gone hours before.
Once her mother turned and silently walked out. Glossy eyed, June again explored the world of touch through the only thing she could truly feel, blocking out the negative emotions that raged inside.
Hop e you don't keep us waiting too long 
