Breaking Down

by H.B. Bolton

Breaking Down (Upper Middle-Grade Fiction) a short story
Fourteen-year-old Keira hasn't picked up a paintbrush since the summer her grandfather taught her, and she isn't ready to start now. Not on the long drive to Grams's farmhouse, not with Gramps only four months gone and the whole family pretending everything is fine. But the old house is falling apart in ways that make no sense: porch boards rotting overnight, cobwebs spreading across the ceiling, the leaves in Gramps's paintings turning from summer green to autumn brown while the paint is still wet. When Grams collapses and ages ten years in ten minutes, Keira realizes the paintings in her grandfather's basement studio aren't memories of the world. They are the world, and Gramps spent forty years quietly touching them up to keep everything alive. Now the only person who can take his place is the one person nobody told: Keira, a girl who never really liked fishing, who only ever liked standing next to him. Breaking Down is a story about grief, inheritance, and the stubborn work of keeping the color in things after the person who mixed it is gone.

Available for free on Goodreads.

15 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2012

About the author

A magical part of H.B. Bolton’s childhood was being swept into worlds of enchanting characters, fantastical creatures and extraordinary powers—simply by picking up a book. As a mother and a teacher, she was compelled to create imaginary worlds of her own in order to share them, not just with her children, but with all children. H.B. Bolton lives in Florida with her supportive husband and two highly spirited children. Shh, can you keep a secret? Not only does she write books for the young-at-heart, adventurous sort who yearn to dive into a good young-adult fantasy story, she also writes spellbinding, heart pounding women's fiction. These particular books are written under the name Barbara Brooke, but that's another story, altogether.
Books by H.B. Bolton:
The Serpent's Ring (Relics of Mysticus, Book One)
The Trickster's Totem (Relics of Mysticus, Book Two)
The Dragon's Egg (Relics of Mysticus, Book Three)
Breaking Down (a free short story available on Goodreads)
Hungry (a free short story available on Goodreads)
http://www.hbbolton.com