Only Clarette was able to keep from staring at him, agape. She went to the kitchen to boil a kettle of water. Only then did she realize Jonathan had spoken--in French.
In the weeks that followed, Winifred asked questions, and Jonathan answered.
"How long have you known French?"
"My whole life."
"Because of Clarette? Does she speak it when I'm not here?"
"No, she always speaks in English."
"Then how do you know it?"
"I just do."
"And could you always speak English, too?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't you? Don't you know how worried I was?
"Because I've been confused."
"What confused you?"
"Molly and Elijah and Jillian and the others."
"What do you mean? Who are molly and Elijah?"
"The kids who went into the Moon Woods."
"What are the Moon Woods?"
"A place I remember."
"You've never been to a place called the Moon Woods. What on Earth are you talking about?"
Jonathan shrugged, then sauntered to the living room and grabbed his reading tablet. When he returned, he handed her a display of Google results for the search term "Idle County Seven." Most of them were headlines dated eighteen years earlier, in 2010. Some were from a publication called The Circle Gazette, others were from the Wind Prairie Tribune, and yet others were from the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
"Seven Idle County Teens Disappear Without a Trace,"
"No Ckues Yet in Idle County Seven Disappearances."
"Celebrity Victor Zobel Organizes search for Missing Teens."
"Police Find Evidence Teens Left Town.
After confiscating the reading tablet and putting all of Jonathan's internet usage under close monitoring, Winifred did her own research. Jonathan's search history showed that, since learning to read at age four, he had visited at least two hundred web sites relating to the disappearance of these seven teenagers...
~~~
The Confessions of Jonathan Flite
By Matthew Beier
Personally, I think the title, using "Confessions," is somewhat misleading... Jonathan Flite had nothing to confess. What he did have was something so unbelievable that even his mother was unable to accept him for what he possessed... But then, she had been in turmoil since Jonathan had been born, especially when he didn't start talking at the normal age. And when he did first speak, it was in French...
The concept for this book is so unique that readers must immediately realize that the author must be someone special, especially at this age. The idea is so well out of the realm of possibility that readers will perhaps have a difficult time even accepting the premise. However, before the book is completed, you will not open have read about a very cold case, a town with seemingly supernatural activities, but a realization that Jonathan who had spent most of his life in some sort of asylum, was all along quite sane...
You see Jonathan was born with all of the memories of the seven teenagers who had disappeared in Moon Wood, including Molly, whose picture is provided...
What? Yes, I wrote it correctly... But I must say that I totally empathized when Jonathan decided not to start talking...I mean, would he be using his own memories which were just now being formed of his new home, his mother...
Or would he speak of the awful memories that explained what happened to each of the teenagers...?
Can evil infiltrate into a physical location and stay there forever? And would the dead rest--those who had "disappeared" from that location? Although these individuals were not being taken by a serial killer, there was a specific reason ...and research being done...that required the use of humans...This book starts at the beginning of the century and moves from time period to time period, ranging back and forward to the year 2034- which is, in essence, the present... But the story also began earlier...near the beginning of the last century when a woman named Elizabeth Grime was born and a man named Simon Villard received a journal from Father Benedict Wise for his 13th birthday and later was ordained a priest... A couple of chapters go as far back as 1947...
You see, all of this is now being researched by a psychiatrist, Thomas Lumen who had once lived there. He had already been doing research of the area based upon his own personal experience, but then heard about Jonathan Flite and went to see him... BTW, I've enjoyed Stephen Fry as a TV psychiatrist and feel comfortable he'd make a wonderful Dr. Lumen although making this book for the screen would have to be for a TV series! However, the special effects of some of the scenes would be spectacular...one of them something like this
The first disappearance started some years afterward and continued from then on...until a major attack on Geneva, Switzerland on August 12th, 2037.
Can evil infiltrate into a physical location and stay there forever? And would the dead rest--those who had "disappeared" from that location? Although these individuals were not being taken by a serial killer, there was a specific reason ...and research being done...that required the use of humans...This book starts at the beginning of the century and moves from time period to time period, ranging back and forward to the year 2034- which is, in essence, the present... But the story also began earlier...near the beginning of the last century when a woman named Elizabeth Grime was born and a man named Simon Villard received a journal from Father Benedict Wise for his 13th birthday and later was ordained a priest... A couple of chapters go as far back as 1947...
1947 - Omitted from a preliminary draft of Idle County: A Living Mystery, by Dr. Thomas Lumen, dated April 18, 2028:
In trying to tell this story, I run into the obstacle of describing just what Elizabeth Grime saw and heard when she and Theodore Tarnish came face to face with Simon Villard in the old cemetery. There was a full orange moon, she remembered, and everything, even the ghosts, were cast under a fiery glow.
I cannot do the story justice, nor can I convey just how astounding it was to hear Elizabeth tell it, in her attic, during the lightning storm. It was one of those nights I will never forget and never be able to describe properly to anyone.
Simon Villard had beckoned to Elizabeth and Theodore. The approached him immediately and wasted no time in asking him what he had done to Joshua Grime. Villard never stopped smiling during Elizabeth's harangue. She asked him not just about her husband but about a number of other disappearances around the area, and there was never a point at which he denied being involved. When Theodore Tarnish tried to attack him, Villard left him with a sprained wrist and bruised neck...
You see, all of this is now being researched by a psychiatrist, Thomas Lumen who had once lived there. He had already been doing research of the area based upon his own personal experience, but then heard about Jonathan Flite and went to see him... BTW, I've enjoyed Stephen Fry as a TV psychiatrist and feel comfortable he'd make a wonderful Dr. Lumen although making this book for the screen would have to be for a TV series! However, the special effects of some of the scenes would be spectacular...one of them something like thisThe first disappearance started some years afterward and continued from then on...until a major attack on Geneva, Switzerland on August 12th, 2037.
 |
| "I appreciate your giving me a chance to help," Dr. Lumen said in a low voice, gesturing with his head toward the common room. Winifred turned to see Jonathan and his friend Mason playing cards by the window... "I know all this seems silly to you," Dr. Lumen continued, "but you might feel differently if you were in my shoes. Idle County gets into your bones. The place is just weird enough to make you doubt everything you know..." !!! |
"So, the fact that the FBI actually took the time to come out here and question Jonathan about Geneva means nothing?" Dr. Lumen said over an even breath. "Based on what he told me today, and what I know about Idle County, I'm convinced his memories are legitimate, in whatever way that might be possible. And if the FBI is trying to make some sort of case against Victor Zobel, it means Jonathan could know something incriminating. And that's a cause for concern. Victor Zobel is a powerful man..."
Winifred [Jonathan's mother] watched Dr. Lumen... The wisp of patience she had developed for him was menacingly beginning to coalesce into something resembling respect. If anything, the man was concerned for Jonathan in a way Dr. Freede had never been. This hit her like an empty treasure chest.
Scenes definitely include the supernatural but these dead people have not become zombies... you might say they are instruments of vengeance... I dare you to read this one. This relatively young author, in my opinion, has an amazing career ahead of him... Highly recommended...
GABixlerReviews
Matthew J. Beier is a novelist, publisher, photographer, and screenwriter based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since as far back as he can remember, he has been fascinated with visual art and storytelling, especially when they go hand in hand. Born in Duluth, Minnesota, he fostered a knack for these art forms at a very young age, whether by painting with watercolors to deal with his emotions or by drawing pictures to deal with the stories in his head (and sometimes writing their narrations with the help of his mother).
After learning to read in first grade, Matthew lost himself in the worlds of The Boxcar Children,Encyclopedia Brown, My Teacher Is An Alien,Goosebumps, and every other epic, adventurous, or mysterious story he could get his hands on. When he was nine years old, the film adaptation of Micheal Crichton’s Jurassic Park (and, subsequently, the novel itself) changed his life forever. After seeing the film and reading the book the following year, Matthew developed a passion for storytelling that branched in two directions: writing and movie making. He started making dramatized home movies with his siblings and friends at age twelve, when his parents were finally able to buy a Sony Handycam; during other spare moments, he began writing fiction, dreaming that he might someday be able to string enough words together to make a novel.
These interests influenced Matthew’s study of photography and writing in high school and led him in 2003 to Chapman University’s School of Film and Television (now Dodge College of Film and Media Arts) in Orange, California. There, he spent three semesters studying screenwriting, film production, and English before spending a final semester abroad at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, where he studied popular media and art history.
In 2012, Matthew opened Epicality Books, LLC, an independent publishing and publishing services company. His current novel, The Breeders, is on sale now, and he is hard at work on his next book, The Confessions of Jonathan Flite, and its sequels.
Winifred [Jonathan's mother] watched Dr. Lumen... The wisp of patience she had developed for him was menacingly beginning to coalesce into something resembling respect. If anything, the man was concerned for Jonathan in a way Dr. Freede had never been. This hit her like an empty treasure chest.
No matter what your beliefs, this literary horror story forces readers to consider whether there is something out there that only takes so much, and then decides to eliminate the accumulation of evil that has occurred. Jonathan Flite suffered for the majority of his life because of the method by which these horrendous activities, which continued occurring in Idol County, were done... The author certainly puts forth a lot to consider if you read this novel. I've only highlighted parts because I don't want to give anything away on this one. It's literary horror at its finest and, for me, reminded me of the early books by Dean Koontz when his books were mistakenly categorized as comparable to Stephen King...
Scenes definitely include the supernatural but these dead people have not become zombies... you might say they are instruments of vengeance... I dare you to read this one. This relatively young author, in my opinion, has an amazing career ahead of him... Highly recommended...
GABixlerReviews
After learning to read in first grade, Matthew lost himself in the worlds of The Boxcar Children,Encyclopedia Brown, My Teacher Is An Alien,Goosebumps, and every other epic, adventurous, or mysterious story he could get his hands on. When he was nine years old, the film adaptation of Micheal Crichton’s Jurassic Park (and, subsequently, the novel itself) changed his life forever. After seeing the film and reading the book the following year, Matthew developed a passion for storytelling that branched in two directions: writing and movie making. He started making dramatized home movies with his siblings and friends at age twelve, when his parents were finally able to buy a Sony Handycam; during other spare moments, he began writing fiction, dreaming that he might someday be able to string enough words together to make a novel.
These interests influenced Matthew’s study of photography and writing in high school and led him in 2003 to Chapman University’s School of Film and Television (now Dodge College of Film and Media Arts) in Orange, California. There, he spent three semesters studying screenwriting, film production, and English before spending a final semester abroad at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, where he studied popular media and art history.
In 2012, Matthew opened Epicality Books, LLC, an independent publishing and publishing services company. His current novel, The Breeders, is on sale now, and he is hard at work on his next book, The Confessions of Jonathan Flite, and its sequels.
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