November Novel Essential Information

Novel Title: Ramifications

Time Setting: 2017

Genre: Thriller

Minimum Word Goal: 120,000

Timespan: July–September

Location: Brisbane, Queensland

Main Characters: Lachlan Blackwood, Dominik O'Shea

Background Information:

Lachlan has lived nothing short of a troubled existence. His mother had been conceived at the age of seventeen and raised by her mother off the income of waiting tables. He was conceived, in turn, when his mother was sixteen, prompting her to drop out of school.

His mother had gone to Schoolie's Week in Brisbane and met a handsome surfer — which is all he knows about his father — and the following year after he was born she went back again, found the same surfer, and conceived his sister.

The year after that, she returned to Brisbane and never returned. Still police have yet to figure out what happened, and they don't even have any remains to go off of, leaving Lachlan and his sister to be raised by his grandmother, who sought to find her daughter until she found out that it was likely her daughter would be dead.

His grandmother then met a handsome, single shipping company owner, whom she moved in with, giving her grandchildren a chance at an opulent life in Sydney.

Lachlan, however, disliked his grandmother's boyfriend from the start, and quickly became a delinquent, even doing a stint in juvenile prison before he was fifteen.

In prison he met a young gangster whom he became friends with before joining in the gang with and bringing his sister — his most beloved companion — with him.

Their disappearance drove his grandmother to suicide, which depressed his sister, who ended up dying of a drug overdose within a year of their grandmother's suicide despite Lachlan's efforts to prevent as much.

Being as the gang boss' son had caused his sister's death, Lachlan tried to kill him, only to have the whole gang turn against him. None of the other gangs in the area were interested in taking him on either, as they believed it was a trap.

Recently, however, Lachlan encountered members of a Brisbane-based gang that is one of the biggest and most troublesome in all Australia; he impressed that gang's boss to the point of being accepted as a member and, for his own safety, moved to Brisbane.

Dom's life started out rather privileged. His father was a prestigious Australian prosecution lawyer whose family had come from Ireland, and his mother was a Serbian-born fashion model.

Born thirteen years after his brother — who is the younger of his two older siblings — Dom was considered an accident by his parents, and also somewhat of an annoyance to his siblings, which led him to act out from an early age.

His actions included breaking dishes and windows in fits, breaking out of his bedroom to intrude on whatever his parents happened to be doing at the time, and even sneaking into his mother's suitcase when she was preparing to go on a tour to the US on the same day he was supposed to be returning to boarding school.

Being found out at the Melbourne Airport, however, he was shipped off to boarding school anyways, where he continued to act out by disrupting class, bullying fellow students, vandalising cars, picking fights, and starting the biggest food fight in the school's history.

His parents' efforts at discipline, such as shutting him up in his room for long periods and leaving him at home while they went on exotic vacations, only made things worse, as he would take out his rage on the opulent mansion and its contents.

He even got arrested for driving his father's Ferrari without a license, and brought his parents and siblings home from a trip early by setting the house alight and destroying a good portion of it.

Finally, when he was sixteen, he ran away from his boarding school and got a ride with a somewhat bohemian group that headed to Gold Coast in Queensland to live out of their van and surf.

This introduced him to drugs and liquor, which he made use of to take the edge of the painful loneliness and neglect he felt.

Within a year of arriving at Gold Coast some of the group leaders were arrested for having stolen the van, leaving him and several others whom they'd picked up along the way to live on the streets.

It wasn't long, though, before he ended up at an old church that was used as the base for a homeless shelter. The people there were loving and kind unlike any other people Dom had met, and because of that — and the fact that the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen in his life volunteered there — Dom soon was spending a lot more time there.

With the help of his friends at the Shelter he quit the drugs and the drinking and soon became a volunteer at the Shelter himself, as well as becoming a Christian and having the privilege of marrying the young woman he'd fallen in love with.

Just two years ago Mags, the Founder and Director of the Shelter disappeared, leaving leadership of the Shelter to fall to him as the only other full-time volunteer. Her remains were found washed up on the shore of the Brisbane River within a year and after three days of prayer and fasting by the Executive Board of the Shelter, it was determined that Dom would be her replacement.

Dom and his wife have since run the Shelter as full-time volunteers, living in a donated house off of a donated income, and his wife has been subtly encouraging him to reconcile with his parents so that they can know that he's still alive.

The novel begins on November 1.

Secrets and Shadows: Day 20

Word Total: 120,023

Year to Date: 870,088

Summary of Events:

Keeleigh went to the Baptist church cemetery and found the graves of Zygfryd and his wife Helen side by side, as well as the graves of Henryk, Olga, and Irena, Olga's daughter. Olga was woken up by Mama's cry of surprise at her and Papa discovering the Christmas tree and went down to watch everyone else's surprised reactions. Keeleigh arrived at Myshaniuk Farms and met Adelejda, whom she showed what she had for information before Adelejda started to tell her about the war. Emil confronted his father on his suspicions of their departure and had them confirmed.

Excerpt of the Day:

"Keeleigh saw pain on Mrs. Myshaniuk's face as she stared at the bright sunflowers, which seemed such a stark contrast to Mrs. Myshaniuk's dark memories.

"If it's too much, you don't have to," Keeleigh said. "The Village is closed for the season, so I can come back at any time."

"It's hard to think of those things," Mrs. Myshaniuk said. "But I do not want to let myself ever forget them. They are my last memories of Poland."

"You've never gone back?" Keeleigh asked.

"No," Mrs. Myshaniuk replied. "Zygfryd, Olga, and I all wanted to go together when Communism finally fell, but health restrictions prevented us, so we never did."

"I'd like to go," Keeleigh said. "Maybe you could even show me where you lived."

"I doubt the house still stands," Mrs. Myshaniuk replied.

"Even still," Keeleigh said. "I think it would be fascinating."

"One of us has to go anyways," Mrs. Myshaniuk said.

"One of who?" Keeleigh asked.

"Zbigniew and Klementyna's children," Mrs. Myshaniuk replied. "Besides, Zygfryd and Olga weren't able to, and now that Poland's free . . ."

Keeleigh wasn't making any sense out of Mrs. Myshaniuk now, but she wanted to know so dearly. However long it took Mrs. Myshaniuk to tell her, she would be more than willing to take the time to hear all the secrets of the Niemcyk family.

—

"Where are we going?" Emil asked.

"Canada," Papa replied. "There will be little risk of war coming there. My Aunt Louisa lives there with her family, and she always wrote that it was a lovely country. We will be safe there, and we will come back when Poland is free."

Emil nodded and rose silently. He slipped out of Papa's office without a word and headed upstairs, his vision blurring with tears as he tried to get to his bedroom before they fell off the precipices of his eyelids and fell down his cheeks.

He closed the door and leaned against it at last, clenching his eyes shut and letting the tears seep down. How could he possibly leave Poland? It was their homeland! They ought to stay until Poland was free, seeing it through all the bitter stages of war and whatever came thereafter; they shouldn't let the shadows of war drive them away!

A knock sounded on the door. Emil swiped at his eyes viciously before opening the door.

Olga stood on the other side. "What is it Emil?" she asked softly.

"We're leaving," Emil replied.

"Warsaw?" Olga asked.

"Poland," Emil replied. "We're going to Canada."

"But why?" Olga asked slowly.

"Because it's safer there, for the little ones," Emil replied.

Moisture filled Olga's eyes and she looked at him with fear, but then turned and walked away. Emil closed the door and sagged down it again to let the tears flow. They couldn't let the shadows of war drive them away."

Next post will be on October 30.

Secrets and Shadows: Day 19

Word Count: 114,008

Summary of Events:

Keeleigh decided she would go visit Adelejda on the last Saturday in October before going downstairs and talking to her mom about the trunk a little bit. Olga was teaching her siblings when Emil and Zygfryd came home injured from their efforts to go get a Christmas tree; she helped tend to their wounds. Keeleigh started off her trip to visit Adelejda by going to Opal to see if she could find Zygfryd and Olga's graves; she first tried the Catholic church's cemetery, and then the town cemetery . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

"Keeleigh wasn't sure how far back she'd have to go to find the graves of Zygfryd and Olga, but she presumed — considering the longevity of the great aunts and uncles she knew of — that if she didn't find them by the time she hit 1999 as the death year she'd not be likely to find them.

There were quite a few joint graves, where the husband and wife shared a tombstone, with one who'd died recently being buried beside the other who'd predeceased them by a few years, much like Aunt Kornelia and Aunt Malwina.

Both of them had bought pairs of plots and gotten combined stones which they'd pre-engraved with their names and birth years, and now had their death years engraved in them, with their having died.

Uncle Igor had done the same thing when Aunt Joan had died, although he'd done a set of identical stones, and his was currently stored in his garage, pre-engraved with his name and birthday.

Keeleigh couldn't imagine what it was like for Aunt Kornelia, Aunt Malwina, or any of the other members of the couples she was seeing here that'd outlived their spouses and gotten a joint stone to go visit the grave of their spouse and see their own name on a stone, awaiting the day when they died.

When she got as old as them she'd probably do like Uncle Igor, buy a plot for herself right away, and a stone, but have it a separate stone, so that she wasn't staring at a seeming predictor of her own death anytime she decided to visit the grave of her husband.

That was a long time from now, though, and thinking of having a dead husband wasn't exactly the sort of thought Keeleigh considered pleasing. She didn't even have a live husband at this point in time, she didn't want to think about having a dead one.

Keeleigh stopped herself suddenly when she noticed the death year on the headstone she was looking at was 1996. She'd gone too far, but she was pretty sure she hadn't seen any Niemcyks or Kamińskis.

Turning around, Keeleigh worked her way back and double-checked, just to be sure, and found that, indeed, she'd found no Niemcyks or Kamińskis. So they weren't here either.

About the only other place they could've been buried was the Baptist cemetery, as it'd been the next-nearest result for cemeteries near Opal.

Keeleigh had to confess that thought surprised her. All her great aunts and uncles that she knew were Catholics, and devotedly so. Was it because they'd decided to become Baptists that Zygfryd, Olga, and Adelejda had been disowned?

Shifting her jaw, Keeleigh wondered, but she knew she'd find out the answers later when she went to visit Adelejda; for now, however, it was time to get back into her car and head for the Baptist cemetery, which was a good fifteen minute drive from here."

Secrets and Shadows: Day 18

Word Count: 108,037

Summary of Events:

Keeleigh's grandparents stopped over to drop off some dishes from Thanksgiving and Keeleigh invited them inside to visit that turned into a heated conversation between her and Grandpa. Olga had decided to give her siblings some schooling because they weren't going to school, and was unnerved when Papa came and gave them a show of affection like he'd never done before. Keeleigh was talked to by her dad about the conversation she'd had with her grandparents, in which he somewhat forced her to reveal more than she'd planned on. Emil saw Ladislav leave after another visit and went down to talk to Papa, only to find his office unlocked and him not there, so Emil set out to find the papers that Ladislav had brought that day . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

"Having hardly opened the drawer more than a few inches, Emil stopped. There was a small box, about the size of a ring-box, but not a ring-box, that had Poland's coat of arms embossed onto its leather cover.

Possessed with curiosity, Emil drew it out and opened it. Laying on the white satin-clad cushion inside was a medal. A war medal. Emil didn't know what kind it was, but he knew for a fact it had to be his father's.

He checked the red satin-lined top of the box and saw no writing on it, but he noted that with the red upper part and the white lower it looked like the Polish flag.

Lightly he fingered the medal, it was cool and hard, its details still crisp, their textures easily felt by his fingertips.

He then carefully lifted at the cushion and found that it came out. Underneath it was a folded piece of paper that looked rather official.

Lifting it out carefully, Emil unfolded it with reverence and found that it was a commemorative certificate declaring that his father had received the medal for valorous service with the Polish Army during the Great War. He'd received the medal in 1917, just a year before the war had come to an end, and the very same year Emil himself had been born.

With equal care, Emil folded the paper back up and put the cushion back in before returning it to the drawer.

Before he could open the drawer any further, Emil noticed that there was an envelope with Papa's familiar hand having spread ink across it brusque and straight, spelling out that there was five thousand złoty in the envelope.

What was Papa doing with that much money? Emil's stomach twisted as he recalled what he'd eavesdropped on just a couple days before. Was that money for them to leave Poland? He certainly hoped not.

Carefully he drew the drawer open until he saw the stack of papers he'd been seeking. The heading at the top of the sheet was an official letterhead that contained the garish Nazi swastika slapped across it.

Most of the sheet was typed, although there were some blanks that were filled in by a hand that wasn't Papa's, but even still, Emil couldn't read it because it was all in German. He shuddered at the thought that German writing was before him.

Carefully he lifted the top page off the stack and found that the next page was also German, and all of the blanks were filled out too. Emil wondered what it all meant. Were those papers to get them out of Poland?"

Pronunciation:

Złoty: zwohteh

Secrets and Shadows: Day 17

Word Count: 102,043

Summary of Events:

Keeleigh thought about her talk with Grandpa at Thanksgiving before getting called by Olivia about the trip to visit Adelejda; which Keeleigh didn't tell her she wanted to do alone. Emil came home battered, having been accosted by Germans; Olga tended to his wounds and was highly embarrassed when he revealed that he'd figured out she liked Henryk Kamiński. Keeleigh and Olivia were out to lunch together and Keeleigh finally told Olivia she wanted to visit Adelejda alone, which Olivia eventually agreed was a good idea. Emil came home from another day out and about to find that his younger siblings were forbidden to play because it would disturb their mother, so he went up to her bedroom to ask her why . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

"Mama lifted her gaze from the foot of the bed to Emil, looking weary and drained even by that simple motion.

"I wish to be alone Emil," she said.

"I asked you a question," Emil said. "You always expect us to respond to you when you ask us a question, therefore you have no right to deny me an answer."

Mama waved her hand feebly at him.

Indignant, Emil stepped forward to be right at Mama's bedside, his arms crossed over his chest.

"I will not leave until I get an answer," Emil said. "Why do you not wish to be disturbed by the pleasant sound of your children playing?"

"There is no joy Emil, only discord," Mama replied. "Now leave me."

It was something of an answer, but Emil didn't believe it was true, and he was frustrated by Mama's whole despondent countenance.

Sighing, he left the room — deliberately leaving the door open after him — and hurried back downstairs to Papa's office, where he put his ear against the door, his hand hovering, ready to knock.

"Yes, I have to do what is best for my family," Papa said, apparently in reply to a question. "It's getting too bad here, I hardly feel it safe to let my adult sons walk the street, as much as I know their capabilities."

"Well, we'll have to see what we can do," Ladislav Kamiński's familiar voice said. "I'm sorry to hear that this is what you believe is best."

"I have children Ladislav," Papa said. "I am doing this for them, but it isn't what I want to do. If I get the opportunity, I want to come back and do what I can — and I'm sure Emil will be intent to accompany me unless a fair maiden should catch his eye."

Ladislav chuckled. "I don't think he'd let them if he knew."

"I'd much rather he go for a good Polish girl anyways," Papa said. "But not while there's all this prospect of death looming for so much as the wrong sort of glance."

"Indeed," Ladislav agreed. "It can't have been an easy decision."

"I'm still not at peace with it," Papa said. "In my mind I wholly believe it is best for my children, and that is what is foremost. But in my heart I cannot reconcile the idea of deserting my homeland for which I've fought before. I feel like a coward Ladislav."

There was silence. Emil considered knocking, but yet he didn't dare.

"I think there is a bravery in what you seek to do Zbigniew," Ladislav said. "You seek to secure a future for Poland, to hide your family away from the danger so that if all the Poles herein are annihilated, there will still be Poles to create a new Poland. More people should join you so that this is not the end of Poland."

Uncertainty and confusion swirled in Emil. He lowered his hand and stepped back from the door to stare at it. Was Papa planning on their leaving Poland?"

The novel will resume on Monday.

Secrets and Shadows: Day 16

Word Count: 96,047

Summary of Events:

Keeleigh enjoyed Thanksgiving with her mom's side of the family, which involved some discussion about the Village and all that'd happened to it in the last two weeks. Olga learned of the establishment of the Judenrat by the Germans, as well as that the Germans were being rude and unkind to nonJewish Poles. Keeleigh's Thanksgiving with her dad's side of the family was a bit more uncomfortable, mostly because of her grandpa . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

"She glanced over at Grandpa and found his gaze was fixed on her, sharp and keen light blue eyes with a twinge of grey to them. His expression was serious as he looked at her, and Keeleigh felt like he was looking through her, right at her brain, and seeing all her knowledge on the trunk that was hiding in the garage at home.

"You are quiet Keeleigh," Grandpa said, a bit of an accent to his moderately deep voice, even though he'd left Poland at the age of four or five.

She nodded in reply.

"Have you been in the company of any cats lately?" he asked.

"No," she replied, offering bit of a smile.

"Then what keeps you so quiet?" he asked.

"I don't feel like I have all that much to say," Keeleigh replied.

Grandpa nodded, keeping his gaze fixed on her as if his eyes had suddenly lost the ability to rotate in their sockets. It was unnerving how fixed his gaze was.

"You were helping Diane and Beverly with Malwina's things, were you not?" he asked, pronouncing his late sister's name with a V sound, instead of a W, as most everyone else pronounced it. He and his sibling did the same thing with Aunt Jadwiga's name, but everyone pronounced Gustaw like Gustav.

"Yes," Keeleigh replied quietly; there was no point in lying.

"Jadwiga tells me that they lost something," he said. "Something awfully big to lose."

Keeleigh nodded.

"It is also something that is very important," Grandpa said.

"I thought it was just a trunk," Keeleigh said, hoping she sounded innocent.

"It was your great grandmother's trunk," he said. "It came with us from Poland."

"Oh," Keeleigh said. "I recall seeing it, but I don't know where it went."

"It was foolish of them," he said. "They should have read the will before starting through the things, and then it wouldn't have bene lost."

But yet, too, Keeleigh wouldn't have been able to get her hands on it — but she wasn't going to say that out loud.

"Not that Malwina herself cared much for history," he continued. "She didn't even teach her children how to speak Polish. But in some things that is for the better."

"What do you mean?" Keeleigh asked.

"Knowing Polish would mean they would realise the importance of the trunk — which I very much believe that they have lost, as they have ceased to look for it — but knowing Polish might also make them too curious about the trunk," he replied.

"There's secrets in it?" Keeleigh asked.

Grandpa's thin lips got thinner and, even with his slight jowls, Keeleigh could tell his jaw had tightened.

She wanted to press Grandpa for more, but Keeleigh got the distinct sense from the bitter frigidity of his gaze that pressure would not be welcome."

Secrets and Shadows: Day 15

Word Count: 90,050

Summary of Events:

Keeleigh and her brother talked about what she'd learned so far and her plans to visit Adelejda Myshaniuk on her own. Emil and the rest of the family watched the German forces enter Warsaw with solemnity before Jarek started talking about how he was going to annihilate all of the Germans in revenge. Keeleigh was working in the hardware store at the Village again for the last day of the season when a woman approached her, intent to purchase something in the store . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

""What are you looking at purchasing?" Keeleigh asked.

"One of these saws," the woman replied. "My husband likes woodworking, and he also likes antiques, which he uses to decorate his workshop."

"The biggest one is three dollars, I believe," Keeleigh replied.

The woman pulled out a twoonie and a loonie.

"What kind of money is that?" Keeleigh asked.

"It's three dollars," the woman replied.

"How?" Keeleigh asked.

"It's a one dollar coin and a two dollar coin," the woman replied.

"We don't have one and two dollar coins," Keeleigh said. "We have bills."

"No we don't," the woman replied. "Canada replaced their one dollar bill with a coin in the nineteen eighties and their two dollar bill with a coin in the nineteen nineties."

"But it's nineteen twenty six," Keeleigh said.

"Oh," the woman said. "Would it be better if I gave you quarters, nickels, and dimes then?"

"Maybe," Keeleigh replied.

The woman took back the loonie and twoonie and drew out her change purse again, from which she brought out several quarters, one of which landed with Queen Elizabeth's face upward.

"Who is that?" Keeleigh asked.

"That's Queen Elizabeth," the woman replied. "She's the Queen of England and Canada."

"No, it's King George, the fifth," Keeleigh replied.

"That's her grandfather," the woman said. "You see, he died in nineteen thirty six, and then his son Edward took the throne, but wasn't even crowned because he wanted to marry a divorcée, which wasn't permissible for a king, so he abdicated the throne and his brother, Albert, who took the name George the sixth, became king until nineteen fifty two, when he died and his daughter, Elizabeth, took the throne as Queen Elizabeth the second. She's reigned ever since and has even officially passed Queen Victoria as the longest reigning monarch in British history."

"But she isn't queen now," Keeleigh said. "George the fifth is king."

"So you can't take these either," the woman said.

"No," Keeleigh replied. "We only take money with King George the fifth on it. I'm sorry."

"I've never seen any money like that," the woman said. "I have seen some George the sixth coins, though. The never minted any for Edward. He wasn't even officially called Edward the eighth, although that's what he was."

"But that's all there is for money, it all shows him," Keeleigh said.

"Not anymore," the woman replied. "But as soon as I find some I'll bring it to you and get that saw."

"I shouldn't think it would be that hard," Keeleigh said. "We'll see you soon then."

"I'm glad you're that optimistic," the woman said, taking up her quarters and heading off.

Keeleigh smiled somewhat wanly. She felt like the woman was genuinely upset that she wasn't able to use modern Canadian currency to make the purchase, but being as they weren't technically supposed to sell the artefacts in the Village proper, the fact that they were considering themselves to be wholly in 1926 helped immensely."