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Fate Twister
Fate Twister
Category:
Young Adult/Teen
Publisher: Mgan Publishing Services
ISBN-10: 1500963313
Pages: 250
Copyright: August 30, 2014
ISBN-13: 9781500963316
Price: $4.99 (eBook)
Wayne Gamm grew up with witches in the sheep-farming mountains of mid-Wales. He had the power to change the world but needed a woman to give him confidence...
Fate Twister
Wayne Gamm was born on a remote sheep farm on a mountainside in north-mid Wales on a stormy night in June. The weather was not significant because it rains a lot in that part of Wales in most parts of Wales, in fact, pretty often.
The doctors, the midwife and even the family itself, wanted the baby to be delivered in the nearest hospital because they knew that he was going to be large and it was her first baby, but for reason's that will become apparent, his mother and grandmother thought that would be a very bad idea.
His father, Samuel Gamm, was the son of sheep farmers from Devon in England and he had met his future wife while touring in Wales as an itinerant sheerer. Wayne's mother, Gwynedd was a Welsh-speaker from the area. All of her family had been born on the farm, Yr Ardd Y Ddraig, The Dragon's Garden, for as far back as they knew - a family bible put that at at least three hundred years.
All of Wayne's ancestors on his mother's side, and that included Rhiannon, his maternal grandmother, or Nain in Welsh, were witches, or male witches, or warlocks, of the White variety, meaning that their intentions were good, rather than that their skin was pale.
The problem with the males of Gwynedd's line in her own words was that they were 'lose cannon(s)', meaning that they had difficulty focussing their energy or powers. Wayne followed after this fashion, although all witch babies have to learn some self-control, even the females.
So, Gwynedd and Rhiannon held out high hopes that Wayne would be able to focus, or concentrate, more than his male antecedents, but he showed little sign of it. It turned out that he had such great power, and so little control, that even his own family were wary of him.
He was feared and shunned at school and college by teachers and fellow-students alike although they didn't know the full extent of the Gann's family history. They only knew from experience, that things could be a little bit weird when Wayne was around.
The more astute noticed that when he was happy, good things happened, but when he had been upset, well, anything could befall anyone, not only the person responsible for Wayne's bad mood. Luckily, Wayne had a sunny disposition.
He was a happy person by nature, but this made it worse for him, because he didn't want to hurt people, so he would not accept that it was he who was causing the disruptions. They called him Fatetwister behind his back.
Wayne grew up dejected, rejected, lonely and in denial.
He discovered that girls were more friendly towards him, especially those who didn't know his background, because he was tall, dark and handsome. He was also quiet - the strong, silent type rather than brash like most boys of his own age.
This is the story of the first part of the life of Wayne Gamm, The Fate Twister.
Excerpt
Fate Twister
The Story of Wayne Gamm
by
Owen Jones
1 WAYNE GAMM
The screams coming from the secluded, old stone farmhouse sounded inhuman, which was just as well, because the only red-blooded creatures that could hear them were four-legged, although they fully realised what was going on inside. Mrs. Gwynedd Gamm was having her first baby and her mother was helping her deliver it. The ewes in the field understood the pain Gwynedd was going through, even if her husband, Samuel Gamm and his drinking companions in the pub in the local village of Dremaelgwn did not.
“Mam! Get this baby out of me right now! Arghhh!”
“Try to relax, dear, and push… keep up the pressure…”
“Maybe I should have gone to the hospital to have him… we knew he was going to be a big, arghhh, baby!”
“Now, Gwynnie, we discussed that, didn’t we, love? It was just not possible… far too dangerous. Just keep up the pressure, you’re doing a great job, for a first-timer.”
“Arghhh, oh, arghhh… uh, uh, uh, arghhh… Oh, mum, he’s huge! Arghhh, go in the kitchen, get the carving knife and cut me open… Go on, I don’t care if you make a mess of it! Mam, I can’t bear this any longer…”
“Yes, you can, Gwynnie, you have to, and you know that I can’t help you like that as well… no-one can… That’s why you have to have the baby here at home with no outsiders present.
“It was written, Gwynnie, you know that as well as I do. Hush now, Gwyn and concentrate, all women go through this and I promise you, that, one day, maybe in years to come, you will look back on this day with great pleasure.”
“I’m, uh, arghhh, never going to have another one and that’s for sure!”
“You say that now, my dear, but we’ll see what happens, won’t we, one day.”
She had tried squatting in a warm bath, straddling a camping toilet seat, going on all fours and sitting on her haunches, but it was all the same, so she just lay on her back on her bed and tried to concentrate on moving her big baby boy out of her, millimetre by agonising millimetre. Gwynedd could feel his progress, but it was not fast enough for her.
“Give me some more of those tablets the doctor said I could take, Mam, please.”
Her mother complied and then held a glass of cold water to her lips. Her face was dripping with perspiration.
Mother and daughter looked so alike that they could have been sisters, although on this day, it would have been a toss up, which one would have been guessed to be the older of them. There was only eighteen years gap between them and Gwynedd’s mother, Rhiannon, kept herself looking very young for her age, as all women would if they had the choice, like she did.
The cottage and its lands had been in the family for longer than anyone could remember and they had a family Bible with everyone’s name and the address of the farm in it that was 324 years old. Rhiannon, Rhiannon Phillips, owned it now and her daughter and new son-in-law lived with her, as was the local tradition. Mr. Phillips had long since passed away.
When asked what religion they belonged to, both Rhiannon and Gwynedd would say ‘Chapel’ automatically, and they didn’t feel that they were being hypocritical. After all, it wasn’t a bad religion, as religions went. It just didn’t go far enough for them, because Rhiannon, her daughter and most people they knew, believed in a lot more.
Not only believed, but knew.
However, saying that they were ‘Chapel’ kept everybody happy and made the census forms easier to fill in. They even did go to Chapel whenever they could, even if it was only for the hymn-singing, but then so did everyone else as well. Even the Minister believed in more than he would admit to everyone, especially his superiors.
Rhiannon and her daughter were both gifted with ‘second sight’, as it was called, meaning that they could see into the future, and sometimes even into the past as well. It gave them a different perspective on time.
They both believed in Y Tylwyth Teg, or the Fairies in English, and regularly talked to the ones they believed were tending their garden and mountain they lived on, and they believed in fate, a pre-ordained future, which was why Gwynedd’s baby was being born at home rather than in the hospital. They had both seen, in separate visions, that the baby, who would be called Wayne, would be ‘large and special’.
They knew that Wayne would be special in a fashion that could go either way. They had seen that he could be dangerous – a handful in more ways than one.
They weren’t sure of the details yet, but they had seen some awesome scenes, scenes that they did not want to become déjà vu. That was the last thing they wanted. They just could not be sure what would happen and that frightened them more than not having doctors or midwives around, to say nothing of the epidural painkillers.
“That’s the way, Gwynnie, come on, girl… I can see the top of little Wayne’s head! Keep pushing!”
“Arghhh, arghhh, he… is not ‘little’ Wayne, his head feels the size of a rugby ball… arghhh, and that’s not even the biggest part of him, is, uh, it? There’s another two feet to go after that as well! I hope his shoulders aren’t too broad yet. Oh, arghhh, never again, cut my tubes after this, Mam, phone up tomorrow, promise?”
“Come on, Wayne, help your mother to get you out, there’s a good boy. Work with your son, Gwyn, come on both of you, work together, you’re nearly there…”
“I’ve got him! Gwyn, I’ve got him! He’s beautiful, he’s perfect! Here, take your handsome son. Well done, both of you. My beautiful daughter and her handsome baby son.”
Gwyn said a few words to Wayne and cwtched him close, but no-one except Wayne knew what she had said, but he answered with a cry. After a few minutes, Rhiannon took him back, cut the umbilical cord, cleaned him up, wrapped him in a blanket and handed him back to his mother. Then she went outside to get better reception and phoned Wayne’s father.
“Sam, your beautiful son has arrived. Come on up and see him. He’s perfect and Gwyn is well too.”
He was more than a little drunk, but he did want to see his son.
“OK, Mam, I’ll be there now.” He clinked his glass with his two friends, finished his whisky and got in the van.
“We’ll be off now too then, Sammy, congratulations, we’ll call you tomorrow.”
“All right, lads, thanks for keeping me company. See you tomorrow. Goodnight, be careful on those mountain roads now.”
When he got home, which by pure chance was without having had an accident, he parked the car perilously close to the cottage and rushed inside.
“Oh, my dearest, Gwyn, you look a picture there, propped up in bed with our little shon, er… our Wayne. I’m sho proud of you both. Thanks, Mam, for getting them both through thish. You can’t guesh what I was thinking might be happening up here, you know, under the shircumshtances.”
“Let me try to enlighten you then, Sammy, have you ever tried to pass anything this big on the toilet? I thought not, so, be a good boy and say no more… But, he is a lovely boy, isn’t he? Mam, you were right, I don’t regret any of that pain anymore already.”
“Can I get you anything, my darling, I am yoursh to command?”
“No, I don’t want any more than I already have. Come and sit by us and put your arm around me, Sammy, but don’t breathe over us. I don’t want Wayne drunk on his first day out in the open.”
Samuel moved his stool to the top of the bed, reached over and put his arm around his wife’s shoulder. He held his breath, gazed into his son’s face and thought that he had to be the happiest man on the whole of God’s green Earth.
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