Sierra Hearts (Part One) Read Online Free PDF Page A

soft as velvet. Her eyes drifted across
the remainder of the room. Intricately made wood furniture dotted
the room, the kind people passed down to their family. All of the
pieces looked old. There was a broad dark wood bookcase in the
corner with an ornamental curving top that reminded Jenn of icing
on a slice of cake. In the corner there was a straight chair with
feet that looked like claws and armrests that spiraled. Last, but
certainly not least, was an ornate coffee table that sat between
the fireplace and the sofa Jenn found herself. It looked like it
was one large piece of wood that had been polished until it was
smooth with rounded edges. Jenn followed the lines in the grain of
the table from one edge to the other, completely mesmerized by its
hypnotic ability to calm her. This was so much different than the
sleek designs of the apartments of some of the people she knew in
LA. All of these things added a bit of personality to the room and
made it feel more like someone actually lived here. If the pieces
could talk, they would probably tell stories or share family
secrets the way a kind grandparent does. In short, it didn’t look
like an IKEA showroom.
    She tried to remember the last time she had seen
Danny. Their families had always been friendly. Jenn’s mother and
Danny’s mother were always close, and when Jenn and Danny were
children, the two families would exchange Christmas cards and
family photos. He was a few years older than her and had been a few
grades above her in school. It wasn’t like they had classes
together or ran in the same social circles, but they knew each
other enough to say hi in the hallway at school. He had graduated
high school before she did, and afterwards Jenn had lost touch with
him. He had joined the army and gone to Afghanistan. Maybe that
explained why he had turned from scrawny to buff.
    Danny emerged from the kitchen with two steeping
mugs in his hands. He offered one to Jenn. She gripped it with two
hands, letting the heat warm them. Danny took a seat on the sofa on
the opposite end from where Jenn sat.
    “So,” he began, “how is LA?”
    Jenn, despite her best efforts to suppress it, let
out a big belly laugh.
    “LA? LA is kind of a hot mess. But part of the fun
is knowing it is a hot mess. To live in the now and enjoy the
sprawl and different groups of people all pushed up against of each
other,” she said.
    “Some of the people there—”
    She almost choked on her words. She fought back the
images of Max that all of a sudden came streaming through her
mind.
    “Some of the people there are jerks, but all in all
no more so than here. It just is a different flavor.”
    “See any movie stars?” Danny said, obviously teasing
her.
    “Ha! No.”
    Danny grinned and sipped his tea.
    “Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to see a
movie star in person,” Danny said. “Maybe it wouldn’t be that
great. I mean, to only know someone by their picture on a big
screen, what if in seeing them in person you notice they aren’t as
tall as you thought they were or their hair is starting to thin out
or maybe they walk funny or something.”
    “Yeah,” Jenn said. “It would be weird to see someone
you thought of as perfect suddenly as a human being.”
    “Exactly, exactly,” Danny said. There was an awkward
pause now. Jenn wasn’t sure what else to say. She heard a loud crash that resonated and echoed in the room. It sounded like
a freight train had come of the rails and smashed into the side of
the house. Something was wrong. What had made that sound?
    “What was that?” Jenn asked, more than a little
frightened.
    “I’m not sure,” Danny said. He stood up and went to
the front door. He opened, carefully. Jenn tiptoed over to him. She
did her best to avoid puddles that were forming on the floor from
melting snow.
    “It looks like a branch from that tree over there
broke off and fell,” he said. Jenn squinted to where Danny was
describing. She could just barely make