Amelia (Ami) Jane Gray: The Lost Island

1

Dedication

Amelia (Ami) Jane Gray and The Lost Island

Written By: Darla Stone

Dedicated to: Grady

Your light left this world all too soon.

1

Prologue

The forest blew by them as they moved swiftly through the trees. The pair were looking for an escape. Each was carrying an all too precious package. We must hurry. This area is too exposed, and I think we were followed. The male of the pair stated, with fear lacing his voice.

They must not get them. The woman exclaimed with just as much fear.

A soft cry came from the bundle she was carrying. Shh, there, there, little one. It will be all right. She was carrying an infant but not just any infant; the male and female were entrusted with a pair of children: one boy and one girl, both brother and sister to the other. An arrow suddenly flew by the male’s head.

They are here. We must hurry to the next tree line. The male and female took off running again, their cloaks flowing behind them like a superhero's cape.

Neither was sure of how long they ran, time and distance having no bearing on them. The only certainty was their one duty; to keep their charges safe. When they stopped again, they’d entered a small town. It was early evening, and soon there would be the cover of darkness on their side. Until then, they would need to find shelter.

The couple came across an abandoned-looking house. The grass in the front was overgrown, and there were no signs of life inside. The couple circled around to the back of the house and made their way inside through the unlocked back door. Their observations of the dwelling were correct. It was truly abandoned.

Why would anyone leave their home like this? The woman asked with all seriousness and concern.

The furniture was still there, but the pieces held years of dust. Cobwebs hung from every corner, and even the air smelled old.

I do not know, but we will need to stay here for now. When it is dark, we can move again. He said to his female companion.

I am not sure we have that long. The little ones will be hungry soon and will need to be fed, the female commented.

They will be alright. We will find the little one's some food as soon as we can. He reassured her.

When night fell, the couple and their precious bundles left the shelter of the abandoned house. The air was cold and biting. If they kept their young cargo out in this cold for very long it wouldn’t be safe. Swiftly they moved from shadow to shadow until they came across a church with its parishioners departing through the front door.

There, look there. A place of worship. We will find help there. He said, confidence brimming in his voice for the first time since they’d emerged from the forest earlier that day.

Are you certain? she asked nervously.

Yes, the magic is guiding us there was his reply, and they moved quickly toward the building.

They stopped at the bottom of the steps to the church. The priest at the top of the stairs looked down upon them. He was an older man with salt and pepper hair. His pure black shirt and white collar marked him as the man of God for this place of worship.

May I help you, my children? The priest asked the couple.

Are you the spiritual leader for this place of worship? the man asked.

Yes, my son, I am. The priest replied with so much warmth and kindness that the mysterious couple visibly relaxed.

Please, we need your help. May we come in? the female asked pleadingly.

Of course, this is a house of God. All are welcome here. The priest made a gesture for them to move inside.

Once they were all inside and seated, the priest asked, How may I help you?

That was when the bundle the male was holding began to cry. He raised the child to his shoulder and began to pat his back in a soothing manner.

The priest's eyes widened as he gazed upon the male's hand. On his ring finger was an onyx and gold ring. Etched into the onyx was the image of a dragon. The priest uttered words he thought he would never say again.

May the strength of the dragon find you and keep you safe.

The male looked up into the priest's eyes and replied instantly, May the wings of the dragon bring you to your freedom.

The man held out his hand palm side down. The priest slipped his hand under the man’s to grab his forearm. The man immediately gripped the priest’s wrist, flipping over his hand. His eyes settled on the familiar ring adorning the priest’s finger.

By the order, how are you here, brother? the male asked.

That isn’t important at the moment. Why are you here? It was the question the priest raised. The male looked around the sanctuary.

Is there a place more private that we may speak? The male asked, and his sense of urgency was not lost on the priest.

The priest nodded, Yes, come. This way to my office.

The pair hurried to follow the priest through the sanctuary. They entered the office and took a seat. The mysterious male began his tale.

They discovered who the little ones are. My mate and I will take the girl and raise her, but they must be separated and the boy must be hidden. I have just enough magic left to place a spell upon him so that when the time is right, he will find her and will once again be reunited. Until then, no one beyond the three of us must know where they are. The male explained.

And they could also use some nourishment. He added as a side note the bundle he carried became fussier.

I can see that. The priest replied with a smile. Give me a few moments. There is a small market next door. I will go and pick up some supplies for you. Let us not allow these little ones to leave without full bellies. When the priest stood to leave but was stopped by the male.

Brother, be careful. We may have been followed here. I do not wish harm to come to you. The priest acknowledged his warning with a nod and left the room. The woman, still filled with worry and concern, turned to her male counterpart.

What is a member of the order doing here? How do we know we can trust him? she asked, fear continued to lace her voice.

Trust me, my darling, the magic drew us here. This is where we are supposed to be. We will have to blend into this world and raise the girl you hold in your arms as our own. The boy will be well hidden, and everything will be alright. Even now, she soothes herself with your medallion. Have faith, my love. With the reassurance from her mate, the woman sat back in her seat and decided to leave it in the fates' hands.

Amelia, I always wanted to name a little girl Amelia.

2

We Did It

Amelia (Ami) Jane Gray:

Welcome, welcome, everyone. We are gathered together today to celebrate a momentous occasion, your graduation from this institution of learning. As your Dean, I am honored to be here with you today. Before I begin, let us all give a round of applause to celebrate our newest graduating class's achievements.

It began like almost every other college commencement speech, nothing special about the address itself. What made this graduation special was that my two best friends and I were the ones in our caps and gowns. We were the ones graduating today from the University of Massachusetts- Amherst. We lived on a beautiful college campus these last four years as we attended classes and studied hard. My specific major was Journalism and writing about world events was what I considered to be my dream job. Oh, don’t get me wrong, that wasn’t all we did, but hey, I can’t give away all my secrets, can I ?

It took me four years of holding down a job to put myself through school, where it allowed me to come out on the other end, where everything culminated in our graduation. I’d been seated in the third row to the right of the aisle. Fortunately for me, I was seated next to my chief fashion consultant and boy bestie, Drew or to the masses that were at our graduation, Andrew Christopher Gregory.

Like usual, I’d forgotten to accessorize my outfit. Specifically, sunglasses and we were under some of the best weather we’d seen up to that point.

As I leaned slightly to the side, I whispered, Drew, I’m having a fashion crisis. I need sunglasses, stat. Not to mention, I can’t see a thing.

Without saying a word, Drew reached into his gown and pulled out a pair of tortoise colored Ray-Bans. He quickly handed them over to me and refocused his attention back on the speaker at the podium. Gratefully, I slapped them on, and my eyes immediately thanked me. Drew was one of the kindest people I’d ever had the privilege to know. His chestnut brown hair only served to perfectly set off his hazel eyes. At six feet two inches, he would’ve been described as tall, dark, and handsome. Drew, however, was entirely off-limits to the ladies. His bread wasn’t buttered that way, and he would’ve told you that himself.

Drew didn’t come off as the stereotypical gay man or overtly flashy, and if you’d possessed what those in the LGBTQ community called gay-dar, it wouldn’t have been self-evident either. That was, until you gave him a platinum credit card and a mall. Then it was game on!

I learned that particular lesson during our first year at school when Alpha Phi held it’s back to school party. I’d been going through a complete fashion freeze meltdown when I came to the discouraging conclusion that my current wardrobe left me with nothing to wear. While I ransacked my wardrobe, my then neighbor, now BFD (Best Friend Drew) asked if I was going to attend Alpha Phi’s party. I’d apparently left my dorm room door open, and to my surprise, Drew wandered over. My answer was ‘ no ’ due to an embarrassing lack of suitable clothing and he jumped right in as he completely took pity on me. The pair of us whooshed off to what was deemed a ‘ quick shopping trip’ .

Quick was, of course, a relative term, as we spent the remainder of the day in Boston as it took us two hours to get there. Our trip took us to the Prudential Center with stops at Lord & Taylor, Kate Spade, Sephora, and Aldo. I’d acquired my outfit along with a six-hundred-dollar shopping bill charged to my credit card.

You can’t put a price on looking good, first impressions mean everything, was Drew’s reply when I nearly choked on the bill.

I worked as a waitress at ‘The Pub,’ and my tips were okay. I needed to use the majority of my funds for school, so it’d taken me the rest of the term to pay off my credit card bill. I liked working there, and my work schedule was Sunday through Wednesday, which was conducive to my class schedule and the extras I did, like yoga and karate. That little black dress, however, was a real bonding moment for Drew and I. It was how the two of us became instant friends.

Our last three years, Drew and I rented an apartment with our other friend Jackie Peabody. I met Jackie when she’d shown up at my workplace one night with her then-roommate Ivy Maddison. Ivy was one of those girls who was only at school to find ‘ him .’ You’ve heard of the type, the guy that would ‘ take care of her ’, so she wouldn’t have to work.

The night they came in, was during the Patriots football season, and the bar area was packed—wall to wall bodies and barely room to breathe. Several guys from the UMass football team were there, and long story short, Ivy, and one of them got together. That left Jackie stranded with no way home. When I finished with my shift, I offered her a ride in my beater of a car.

On our way back to campus, we chatted about school and our then-current roommate situations, and to my delight I figured out that we held a lot more in common than I’d originally thought. I’m not sure who decided who liked whom first but shortly after that night, I introduced Jackie to Drew, and it’d been we three amigos ever since.

Drew made my fashion orders this morning very specific. It entailed the same dress that Drew insisted I buy freshman year but this time it was paired with much more sensible shoes due to the outdoor ceremony.

Everyone’s families were in attendance. Brothers, sisters, moms, and dads—all apart from mine, Alexander and Marissa Gray. I’d grown up as an only child and my mother and father were my worlds. That was until I turned thirteen years old and transformed into a teenager. ‘ I never did understand why teenage hormones did whatever it was they did, but it’d be best if we skipped over the majority of my teen years ’ .

We weren’t a wealthy family by any stretch of the imagination. Mom worked as an administrative assistant, and Dad worked as a line worker for the Gillette Plant. Before my high school graduation, we’d gone out to dinner as a family—nothing special or expensive, just a nice family meal. The following day was to be my last gymnastics competition. I’d turned eighteen and was sadly too tall to continue. On the way home was when it happened. A huge dog that’d broken loose from its leash was on the road. Dad swerved, the car careened into the electrical pole, and my parents were gone. The police said that I’d only survived out of sheer dumb luck because the pole broke in half and smashed the car when it came down, just missing me by mere inches.

Shortly after the accident, I placed the house on the market and sold it along with all its contents. Just before the start of my freshman year of college, the sale was finalized. I only kept two items that belonged to my mother and father.

One was my father’s gold ring, which showcased a solid piece of black onyx with an etched dragon in the center. When I was a little girl, he told me about how the ring was a family heirloom that belonged to his grandfather, my great grandfather.

The other was a pendant that belonged to my mother. It was a beautiful fire opal medallion roughly the size of a silver dollar, and on the front was an intricate carving of a bird. I placed the ring on the chain that held the medallion, and they’d hung around my neck ever since. It was my way of attempting to keep my parents close to me even though they’d passed away.

With the remaining weeks of summer that were left, I stayed with our family friends, the Smiths. My father and Mr. Smith developed a quirky friendship over the years while I was growing up, and the Smiths became an extended part of our family.

Both of my parents worked hard to scrimp and save their money in order to ensure that I’d been able to go to college and get a good education. I was eternally grateful to them for that. They’d saved enough so that the main portion of the tuition was paid for. All that remained was the room and board and books that needed to come out of my pocket. My job, fortunately, allowed me to cover that cost as long as I was careful with my tip money.

The price that was paid for the house covered what was owed on the mortgage with a small portion leftover. I’d stuck that into a savings account for one of those ‘ in case of an emergency ’ situations. That enabled me to leave college debt-free and with a degree in Journalism! My only regret was that my mom and dad weren’t there to see what all their hard work eventually paid for.

Before we begin calling you up for your diplomas, I would like to thank our guests of honor and congratulate you all on a job well done.

Thankfully, the remaining speeches were short, sweet, and to the point. We’d gone up to the podium row by row, and name by name. Each of us received our diplomas with handshakes from each of our professors and then the Dean of Students. The cursory cap toss came when the final student received their degree, and they finally pronounced us as the graduating class.

The graduation festivities continued as we made our way to the apartment in which the three of us shared. The Gregorys and Peabodys each included me in their overwhelming congratulations.

Newton and Prudence Peabody, Jackie’s parents, were two incredibly generous and wealthy people. They insisted we all go for a celebration meal on them. It wasn’t that they were trying to be showy or rub it in anyone’s face because they possessed money. It’s just the type of people they were, especially under these circumstances. Think modern-day hippy/surfer vibe with Fortune Five Hundred money, and you have the Peabodys.

However, that didn’t exactly sit well with Drew’s father, not that he’d ever have said anything. Mr. Gregory himself was no financial slouch. He worked as an investment banker and made a good enough living, so he was able to support Drew’s mother, Drew’s two younger brothers along with Drew’s college tuition. Mr. Gregory was a proud man and because of that, he liked to pay his own way. I assumed Mr. Gregory was too well mannered, and perhaps Mrs. Gregory’s elbow in his side dictated that he would keep his mouth shut.

So, in the spirit of the day, we all accepted the invitation and collectively went out. The food and drinks flowed until late in the evening. All of us, including Mr. Gregory, had a great time, and when it was time to part, hugs were given to each of us.

Jackie inevitably spent a moment longer with her parents as they discussed something that I wasn’t paying attention to. Mrs. Gregory was busy crying over Drew and repeatedly stating how proud she was of him. I definitely thought Mrs. Gregory imbibed one too many glasses of wine, but at least she wasn’t driving, so I shrugged and felt happy for my friend.

Finally, Drew, Jackie, and I made our way home, and I collapsed on our sofa for a brief moment. The day was finally at an end. As I looked at my two besties, I wished them a good night and ushered myself off to bed. I tucked myself in and reflected on the day as a whole. A huge smile then spread across my face.

WE DID IT!

3

The Best Surprise!

Jacqueline (Jackie) Louise Peabody:

I’ve always been incredibly blessed. My parents were two of the best people I knew! Newton and Prudence Peabody, the people who gave me life and whom I loved dearly, couldn’t have been better parents. We spent weeks as Mom, Dad and I planned the best college graduation present for myself and my besties. My besties were Andrew Gregory and Ami Gray, of course.

It’d taken some severe sneaking around to both Ami and Drew’s work to secure their time off and a few covert phone calls, but I’d confirmed with my parents at dinner that everything was all set. You see, my family was what was known as old money.

Some guy in our family tree named George Peabody was a brilliant investor or something along those lines. He’d partnered with Junius Spencer Morgan, and the rest was history. My dad said our family simply possessed the Midas touch, so we’ve been very well off my entire life. Mom was raised in a very middle-class family and she got her degree in teaching. It was my mom that made sure I stayed grounded in life. Well, as grounded as a rich girl with two hippy parents could be.

Even though they were entirely loaded, my parents made sure I appreciated nature, animals, and my surroundings. Mom showed me generosity came in many forms. It didn’t always come from donating money. Because we were so well off, she’d made it a point every Christmas to volunteer down at the local homeless shelter serving meals to what she called the guests.

When I was ten years old, she’d taken me with her to see and learn about giving to others who were less fortunate than we were. She figured it was the best way to teach me to care for everyone, not just those who were well off. Mom said, We are all a part of the human race. If one person suffers, we all suffer. It’s not something that can be fixed overnight, but we can make the suffering a little less on this day. From then on, I’d made it a point to continue that with her every year. It was a tradition that my mom and I continued to share to this day.

Once I turned twelve, my parents thought it was a good idea to home school me and travel the globe as we sailed to the different countries. So, Dad, being Dad, bought a forty-foot yacht and named it the Lady Antebellum. However, he hadn’t thought through the vessel's size. When he finally realized how large a vessel it was, and that he only held the slightest knowledge as to how to sail, my father then relented and hired Captain Jonathan Lang or as we called him Captain J.

Deckhands came and went throughout the years, but Captain J was the best and remained steadfast at his post. He and Dad hit it off famously and ever since then they’d been salty sailing buddies. Captain J, to say the least, had a very snarky sense of humor and a somewhat mischievous twinkle in his eyes. Some of the best practical jokes and one-liners I knew came from him.

That wasn’t to say he didn’t take his job seriously, though. Quite the opposite. When it came to the safety of the Lady Antebellum and her crew, Captain J treated the vessel like it was his baby. Captain J also wound up with my dad as a student and taught him about plotting the course for the yacht with the maps he used. We sailed the entire east coast of both North and South America, then on the return trip cut through the Panama Canal and sailed the entirety of the west coast of North and South America. Mom made sure we took the time to stop in different countries along the way so that she could teach me about the different cultures.

We then sailed the Lady Antebellum from California to Hawaii, and from there, we sailed to Japan and enjoyed some of the best sushi of my life. From Japan, we sailed to Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Namibia, Morocco, Spain, France, Italy, and Greece. My passport held more stamps than the U.S. Postal Service would’ve seen in a year.

My favorite port of call was St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. From its warm, white, sandy beaches to its fertile, green hills and crystal-clear azure waters. It was safe to say, that St. Thomas was one of the most diverse as far as tropical locations went.

After our extremely long excursion, just before I began my freshman year of college, we finally landed in Massachusetts. It’d taken my father forever but he eventually pulled the Lady Antebellum into drydock two years ago and she was completely renovated and updated. During that time, she experienced the equivalent of a facelift for a yacht, and now, with my parent’s help, I planned it so that we would take her from the port of Miami to St. Thomas, sail her around the Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, Puerto Rico, down to Barbados and then back up to St. Thomas.

Where we would stay a week at Frenchman’s Cove while we explored the island and just generally soak up some vitamin D, before we returned to the port of Miami. In total, the trip should take about three weeks.

Meanwhile, Captain J was working on hiring a new deckhand for the journey. He said, don’t you worry, I will get it sorted. That was code for everyone he’d interviewed for the job so far, wasn’t fit to walk your grandmother’s dog. I trusted that Captain J would find someone fit for the job by the time we arrived in Miami.

My father booked the airline tickets, and upon Mom’s protective urgings, I’d found a limo service that would drop us off and pick us up at Logan International Airport. There were three days left before we departed on our trip, and all that was left to do was finish up these handcrafted invitations that I’d been working on since we got back from celebrating with our families. My plan was to slip each one under Ami and Drew’s bedroom doors, and when they woke up in the morning, they’d find them in their rooms.

Ami, Drew, and I’d become family these last four years. They don’t know it, but each of them in their own way saved me from becoming one of those shallow, vapid girls that wound up being arm candy for some football hero. Mom and Dad did a great job keeping me grounded growing up, but Ami and Drew kept me there through these college years. I owed them both so much. They’d become my touchstones and pushed me to get my Economics degree when I was ready to throw in the towel.

When times were tough, they were there. We all celebrated and cried together. We ate a lot of pizza and ice-cream, cried at movies together, watched boys come and go, and through it all, there was always the three of us. There were no better friends that I would consider family. The night I’d met Ami, she could attest to the situation I was in and how grateful I was that fate brought us together. I was so excited and couldn’t wait for them to see their invitations, it was going to be the best surprise ever!

4

The Fat Lady Sings

Andrew Christopher Gregory:

I laid down in my bed and started to watch Chicago PD on cable. I found it hard to believe that these last four years had ended. We graduated, and now, I held a degree in Marketing with absolutely no job prospects lined up in my field.

It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to do something in fashion, but with little to no artistic skills, the ability to get what was in my head down on paper to design and show the clothes I imagined was near impossible. It was my guidance counselor in high school and my parents that strongly suggested I choose something else.

Jane and Robert Gregory, my parents, insisted on something more stable as a career. Being gay was fine as long as I was financially sound. After many ‘reasonable’ discussions because we didn’t argue or fight in our family, and along with a lot of back and forth on the subject, we’d finally came up with a course of action. We landed on Marketing as a major because it was somewhat creative and besides that, if I landed a job in the right company, I could possibly make some good money.

Sadly, I was utterly clueless. My life always held some sort of plan to move me forward. High school was all about being well-rounded and popular, or as my father always said: Colleges won’t accept the outcast, it’s time to man up and focus on your end goal. He meant well and just wanted what was best for me, but that wasn’t exactly helpful.

When I came out to my parents at sixteen, they said, We understand being gay is what you are, just don’t lose focus on your grades.

It was like I’d announced, we’re having pizza for dinner and getting no reaction. I mean, come on, it was pizza after all, tangy tomato sauce, gooey cheese, and a pillow-like crust that was divine. Where was the love?

I supposed my college tuition made it tight financially with my two younger brothers around. The twins were a bit of a surprise, to be honest. One minute it was like, ‘ surprise , you are pregnant .’ Then the next was ‘ surprise, it is twins ’ . The icing on the cake was finding out the twins were identical. I swear I saw my dad go weak in the knees when the doctor told us.

I was thirteen when they were born, and they were the most amazing little people in my world. The nurses discovered that Toby sported a mole on his left butt cheek, and Tyler was inclined to suck his thumb, which was the only way Mom could tell them apart for the first years of their lives.

At the age of nine, they turned into terrors. Their latest stunt was to swap places at school on the teachers to see if they’d get caught, which of course they did. Naturally, that brought my parents to their school the day before my graduation because they needed to sort out that whole issue. I loved my brothers and laughed out loud when I got an email from my mother as she explained what’d happened. Ami and Jackie adored my brothers, as well. Jackie said that Toby would be the instigator for the rest of his life, and Tyler would follow right along. Quite frankly, my parents had it relatively easy with me.

My brain pondered more about my life and it kept me awake as it did many nights before. I considered going to bug Ami and see if she wanted to watch a movie, although, I knew she was exhausted when we’d finally got home after today’s festivities. Thank God I met her freshman year. I’d met the clothing challenged girl due to our relative locations in the freshman dormitory. She moved into the dorm room across from mine. We each got stuck with roommates that were just okay but not something that we would make lifelong friendship out of.

When the announcement came that Alpha Phi was holding their beginning of the year party, I’d heard a crapload of commotion coming from her room. I couldn’t help it but being the curious person I was (Ami would’ve said I was being nosy), I’d let myself in, and lo and behold there were clothes thrown everywhere. Ami was searching through her wardrobe for an outfit. It was then that I decided to take pity on the girl. She possessed no fashion sense whatsoever, but with her long, lean figure and those legs that traveled on for miles, she could’ve easily been a runway model, who worked for Vera Wang or Stella McCartney.

They talked about the ‘ perfect face shape ,’ and she had it. The icing on her figural cake was her piercing ice-blue eyes. I would’ve hated her if not for her only downfall. It was her hair; jet black, thick and out of control