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“Isn’t Mrs Murtle blind too?”
“That old biddie,” she dismissed immediately “She’s about to keel over any rave”
I shook ossip
“Besides, it’ll do ood Man candy always does, especially thekind”
I laughed “I didn’t know you were perving on him”
“I a to do it or not?”
“I don’t know, Elaine It’s aard”
“Look, if you don’t apply, I’rowled
I laughed “I’ll think about it”
“Call him now”
“Oh, hell”
Fast as lightning she dipped her hand into my purse and extracted
“Elaine,” I cried out as a ringing tone sounded
It echoed in the silence of the library and hoeird, but I feltimportant was about to happen Elaine thrust the phone into ht it to my ear It felt as if I had waited my whole life for that moment, and finally it was there I exhaled the breath I was holding
“Mr Carson?” I croaked
“Speaking” His voice was deep and smooth, but wary
“My na about the … uh … reading job Can you tell me a bit more about it?”
“Are you blind?”
I blinked with the directness of his question “Well, I don’t carry a white cane around for fun”
“Fine I’ll go through the job spec when I see you When are you able to come to my home?”
“Er ”
“Tomorrow at nine o’clock,” Elaine whispered in my other ear
“To,” I told him
“Do you know the address?” he asked abruptly
Elaine tapped on my hand to indicate that she did “Yes”
“Nine,” he said and rang off
I put my cellphone back into my purse, still in a daze
“Isn’t this exciting?” Elaine asked with a giggle
Three
Kit
The ht off the newly-fallen snow lit up the house alhts when the o to sleep andout on the front porch with my wolves
I watched the a feverish green and their thick coats glistening with health The strong muscles underneath were clearly defined: a testament to their impressive power They were restless, as they alere during full moon
As I was…
I saw Koa, the biggest of the pack lift his nose to the sky and howl, long and deep, a wild cry that still had the ability to give me chills, even after all this time One by one the others followed I closedcalls caress hshadows And there were raveyard of my soul
When I first wound up at the edge of thismess Driven nearly mad with the raw brutality and senseless violence I had seen in the Military, I was a disaster waiting to happen Like one of those torturedcomplex, and blasted everyone,thely
PTSD A … looked like it should be a box with a pretty red ribbon around it I’ll tell you what it is It was raw screa the day, and chased you into your dreaan to question everything about humanity Even my own
Yeah, I thought about putting the barrel of a gun into my mouth
Only the ie of my mother in her house surrounded by her white picket fence house and flag flying proudly in her i out behind me
I had two options: Dive into therapy and deal with all the things I had seen, or get the hell out of dodge and hide from the stupid idea of confron
ting the nightmare Only an idiot could come up with such a shit idea – how did one confront what I had seen? The innocent children blown to bits, your uts in your bare hands
Guess which option I took?
They gave h! The plan was siot intoI knew Crossed two state lines and would have driven right through Durango Falls too Not in ain it A town forgotten by time
Fuck, I could smental breeders I had lived in a small town like that when I was a kid I knew all about their sossip, their nasty little secrets, and the incestuous bonds between them all It was the kind of place I’d rather die than live in
But thirty n:
For Rent Or Sale
Old Man’s Creek
House and all thirty acres!
Thirty acres! The road was snarled up eeds so I couldn’t even drive into it I had to get out of , rutted road
It was oat’s trail than a road
But it was also suloriously beautiful: the land, the creek, the forest behind it, even the old house in its sad state of disrepair called to lass panes and looked in through theIt was all wood, with a big stone fireplace, sparsely furnished, and perfect for my needs, but most of all it was so reht spot to waste my life for a couple of weeks Out here I could hunt and fish and recover Get ht before I moved on
As I walked around the property, clearing overgrown creepers and brambles out of my way, it never even crossed my mind that I’d make a life here, but a couple of weeks turned into alike hard, physical labor and living off the land to heal a man’s body
I flushed the head meds down the toilet
Oneinto golds, russets, and browns No amount of books, Youtube videos, websites, docuraphs could have prepared me for the beauty of what appeared before my eyes Even as I immerseddown a harsh winter on my own However hard life was, it would be ten times harder once the snows came