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Unclouded Day
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Unclouded Day (edit title/settings)

by William Woodall (?) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

Brian's life is a hard one. Abandoned by his father, abused by his alcoholic mother, and mocked by his classmates, his only treasures are his beloved little brother and his old guitar.

Then Brian finds a magical amulet in his attic, and things begin to change. Soon has more power and... read more

Summary edit see section history

This story begins on a typical day for the Stone family- Mama is suffering from a nasty hangover, and Brian is trying to think of a way to keep out of sight and protect his little brother Brandon. Things quickly become anything but normal, however, when Brian finds a silver necklace in one of... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

This story begins on a typical day for the Stone family- Mama is suffering from a nasty hangover, and Brian is trying to think of a way to keep out of sight and protect his little brother Brandon. Things quickly become anything but normal, however, when Brian finds a silver necklace in one of his grandfather's old Army trunks in the attic and discovers that it can do magic. Excited by this possibility and yet fearful of letting his mother find out about it, Brian decides to slip outside and experiment with the amulet for a few minutes while Brandon is still asleep. He soon discovers that the amulet has incredible powers, but when he returns to the house in half an hour or so, he finds that Brandon has woken up already and that Mama has blacked his eye. Brian uses his new-found amulet to heal the child, filled with guilt over leaving him alone.

Over the next few days, Brian discovers all sorts of things about his powers. He turns gravel into gold nuggets which he sells for cash, and changes their dilapidated house into a gleaming showplace. He makes friends with several of the snobs who looked down on him before, and learns not to fear his mother so much. But disaster strikes when he discovers that the amulet only works for seven days, and that any living thing he changed with it will die. That includes Brandon, and Brian in desperation snaps the chain of his necklace, thereby giving up all the things he's done with it. But Brandon is still deathly sick, and Brian discovers that he has no choice but to follow the amulet to the Heart of the World and drink from the Fountain there if he wants to save him.

He leaves town on his dirt bike, following the compass which he found inside the amulet. He tells no one about his journey. He stops for lunch the next day in Falls Chapel, where he encounters Sadie Jones, an old lady who claims to have drunk from the Fountain herself many years ago and who invites him to come to her room at the nursing home the next day, when they can speak privately. Brian agrees, and spends the night at a bed-and-breakfast nearby. As it turns out, while staying at the bed and breakfast he runs into Rachel McCray, a girl he knows from school. She agrees to keep his secret, if she can come along on the journey to the Fountain. Rachel suffers from Batten's Disease, a fatal genetic disorder which will kill her before she turns 20 years old unless she discovers a miracle.

But in the meantime Brian's mother discovers him missing and calls the police, who find him at the bed and breakfast. Brian escapes and meets up with Rachel early the next morning, and together they visit Sadie Jones before leaving town. Miss Sadie tells him some of her experience with the Fountain, and warns him that there will be a price to pay for the power he seeks.

Brian and Rachel leave town in her sister's car, traveling north into the heart of the Ozarks. They eventually have to abandon the car when the compass leads them onto a dirt road which is blocked by a fallen tree, and they find themselves forced to walk through rugged hills for two days. On the second night they sleep in an abandoned hunters' cabin, which catches on fire during the night and nearly kills them both. Brian has to rush back inside to rescue Rachel, who slept on the top bunk bed and suffered worse from the smoke than he did.

The next day they find themselves at the mouth of a cave, and for the next two days they have to crawl underground with nothing to eat but pears. At one point they nearly drown in an underground river, and Rachel loses her medication and starts having seizures. They are attacked by bats and their flashlight goes dead. Brian has no choice but to carry her on his back. Before long he is exhausted, broken-hearted, and nearly in despair.

Finally, they reach the Heart of the World and drink from the Fountain. This heals all their hurts and also gives them the power to heal every wrong thing in the world. They escape by swimming out through a flooded cavern into the bottom of a sinkhole, then climbing the walls. They hitchhike into Jasper, where Brian calls one of his friends to give them a ride home.

They stop at the hospital where Brandon is a patient, only to discover that he has died before they could get there. In his misery, Brian forgets how much power he now has. But Rachel remembers, and manages to convince the morgue-keeper to let them see Brandon's body. Together they lay hands on the child and pray, and breath life back into his body, causing a minor sensation at the hospital.

Brian also finds that he is able to erase his mother's alcohol addiction, and that Brandon's near-death and his own disappearance have provided the moral shock necessary to get her and his father to make a real effort at change.

Over the next few months, Brian and Rachel use their powers to turn the area into a beautiful but subtle memorial of what could have been if the world had never fallen. But they also find that they must pay the price for this, and that within a few years they'll have to leave and never return so that no one will notice that they no longer age.

Near the end, Brian discovers that Brandon has had a vision of the Heart of the World before he woke up in the hospital, and that he seems convinced that someday he'll be expected to go find it himself, for a reason he's not sure of yet. But his memory is vague, and Brian is never able to find out any more.

A few years later, Brian and Rachel get married and leave Falls Chapel together, to travel the world and plant blessings in other places.

Characters/People edit see section history

  • Brian Madaug Stone: Brian is 14 years old. He's good at being strong and hiding his hurt when he needs to, but sometimes he wishes things could be just a little bit easier. He likes to hunt, and to play guitar, and he loves his baby brother above all things in the world.
  • Brandon Stone: Brian's baby brother. He isn't quite four years old, and tends to catch colds if he goes out in bad weather.
  • Rachel McCray: Rachel is also 14 and knows a little bit about Brian's family, but she has her own problems to deal with. She suffers from Batten's Disease, a fatal genetic illness which will certainly kill her within five years. Nevertheless, she still has the courage and the compassion to think of others.
  • Mama: Brian and Brandon's mother has a drinking problem, and a nasty temper to go with it. But she has secrets that she's never told anyone.
  • Adam Crenshaw: Adam is 16 years old, a popular football player and not really such a bad kid, even though he's never liked Brian very much. But Adam is the best friend money can buy, as Brian soon discovers.
  • Patti Sue Jackson: Adam's girlfriend, and a farmer's daughter who has barely noticed Brian at all in the past. But when Adam decides to make friends with him, Patti Sue is glad to join in.
  • James Croydon: Owner of Tabitha's House Bed and Breakfast, Mr. Croydon doesn't like kids and is perfectly willing to eavesdrop on conversations when he has the opportunity.
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “The world has taught you to think it's not safe to be too glad, and that tears are more real than laughter. But that's not so. Joy is what the whole world was made for, even if people don't remember that very often nowadays. But you of all people should never forget it.”
    Sadie Jones
  • “The strong of heart shall drink of Me; the life-giving Life, and the Beauty that makes beautiful.”
    Inscription upon the Fountain at the Heart of the World
  • “"You're beautiful, too," he told her, and she smiled like a girl who hasn't heard such a thing very often.”
    Brian Stone
  • “His middle name was Madaug, after his great grandfather, and he’d made the mistake of letting that fact slip out a few years ago. It was supposed to be pronounced Madug, not Mad Dog, but people always seemed to think it was hilarious to mangle it like that. Yet another thing he felt like choking his mother for. Or maybe biting her, come to think of it.”
    Brian Stone
  • “Many times, he’d looked at those distant mountains and wished he could run away to some shining land where there were no tears and no miseries, where fathers never disappeared, and mothers never gave their children black eyes, and all things were forever bright and beautiful.”
    Brian Stone

Setting & Locations edit see section history

Setting is in the Ozark and Ouachita mountains of northern and western Arkansas.
  • Falls Chapel, Arkansas: Falls Chapel is a pretty dull place, to Brian's way of thinking. The most interesting things in town are the Wal-Mart and a few minor historical sites. But the town holds a secret that no one has ever suspected.
  • Black Rock: An outcrop of stone in the woods behind Brian's house, this is his favorite retreat when things get bad at home.
  • Jasper, Arkansas: Another place Brian thinks is pretty dull, but they have some great pizza.

First Sentence edit see section history

Among the native tribes of America, it has long been told that deep underground, in a cavern green as emerald at the heart of the world, that the blessed of God might find a fountain clear and cold, and that anyone who drank of that water might live far beyond his years, young and beautiful till the end, and that his dearest wish might come true.

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

  • Redemption: The core theme of this story is redemption- that God can take the most unpromising people and situations and use them for something great, if they will agree to let Him. Every person in this story has character flaws and all of them have made mistakes; sometimes terrible ones. But nevertheless, God is able to redeem them no matter how deeply they may have fallen, sometimes in very unexpected ways. Sometimes desperate problems call for desperate cures, and that's certainly true in this case.

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

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