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Started: 09:20:45 - Feb 28, 2009 by: davisstories
The romantic suspense BLIND CONSENT will be released in Electronic form in April. Here is a blurb and a few excerpts. Read more at Davisstories.com
BLURB
The town of Tanglewood Falls offers breath-taking views, yet the serendipity is misleading. The impoverished people and their forgotten community have been unwittingly exploited. Their act of trust and blind consent altered their existence and the secret has remained buried, until Ryan returns to explore his heritage. For twenty years, heâs been haunted by confusing images, recurring dreams rooted in his past. Heâs driven to understand their meaning, to obtain answers to his lost memories. Ryanâs search for truth collides with the folklore of the simple people and the belief that their beautiful Annie is blessed. Together, they unravel the mystery, but at a price. They become targets of those responsible for what happened to the town. As the truth is exposed, Ryan must grapple with his own reality; the fact that his past, his nightmares, and Annieâs secret, everything is entangled in the desperate act of one lonely man.
EXCERPT 1
Ryan stared at the horizon and watched the stars vanish into the ocean. His eyes shifted to the dancing flashes of moonlight glittering across the water. From a bench positioned next to the boardwalk, he listened to the pounding in his head as the waves crashed against the beach. He glanced at the climbing tide and observed the sand castles from past visitors erode away.
He caught the moonâs reflection off the sign ten yards to his left, Dupâs Hamburgers and Fries above the closed concession stand. He watched as the clump of ketchup squirted onto his arm from the gorgeous blonde standing by his side. She apologized and admitted her mistake, but Ryan always suspected the accident was by design. She was like no woman he had ever seen, touched, or smelled. In a heartbeat, he knew she was the one.
He had never experienced such peace, such happiness, as when they were together. The strongest memories, those that still flooded his senses, were when they made love; completely blinded by their attraction for each other. Everything was still there: the taste, her scent, and the pleasure.
He jammed his hands against his ears and pressed hard to drive out her voice, her laugh. He pushed against his eyes until the pressure caused flashes of light. He wiped his face with his sleeve, scanned the black sky, and tried again to grasp the reason. He rubbed the skin on his knuckles until the flesh turned red.
I was the one that set things straight. Is this your answer? You canât be that cruel. Is this some form of divine justice?
His quest for an answer was returned by silence, except for the sound of the waves against the shoreline. The rhythmic noise hammered his eardrums. The terrible images of what he had experienced tonight flashed like a beacon inside his brain.
He searched the horizon for an answer, for relief, but there was nothing. In rebellion for his loss, his agony, Ryan replied to the silence in the only way he knew how. He gazed into the speckled night sky and with a harsh crackling tone, he yelled at no one. âIf this is your idea of justice, then the hell with you!â
After an eternity, the faint hue of gray at the edge of the stars signaled the approaching sun. He watched the white surf form a backdrop for the spectrum of colors bathing the debris line on the beach. He smelled the brackish odor of foam mixed with seaweed and water soaked driftwood cast onto the shore.
The first rays of morning light announced the arrival of a fresh beginning. The ballet of natureâs constant struggle with itself began as the gulls circled above the shoreline searching for morsels to fill their empty gullets. A fiddler crab raced toward the surging tide and braved the onslaught of diving predators. The crab and two gulls played a harsh game darting back and forth along the waterline. One bent on escape, the others fighting against hunger. After several missed attempts, one of the gulls swooped down and captured the fleeing prey. The winner tried to race off with its bounty, only to have the second bird execute a midair dogfight. After several attempts, the thief ripped the prey free and chased the crab as it plummeted into the temporary safety of the water. The fiddler floated at the surface to tease the hovering tormentors at his momentary victory, while the gulls squawked and squalled blaming each other for their loss. The brief splash and swirl of a fin marked the price of the crabâs mockery. The dolphin flipped her snout at the losersâ overhead and tossed down her morning meal.
Ryan examined the cruel reality of natureâs riddle played out in the surf. The undeniable truth that some must perish so that others can survive. The commotion somehow pushed back the grief and blocked out the memory long enough to catch motion between the series of tuff covered mounds of sand.
A family slowly drudged through the loose grains of silica, hands bulging with baskets, blankets and toys to support their outing. Once they broke beyond the edge of the dunes, the sight of waves rolling against the shore caused the two children to drop everything. They yelled and screamed as each raced for the prize; the opportunity to be first wet.
The small toddler in the rear tried to pursue her siblings but stumbled twice against the soft sand. The clambering of young voices ripped Ryan back into his world. The sights and sounds of the children provided an abrupt awakening to his loss and his forgotten responsibility. âEmma.â
EXCERPT 2
Julie tossed the bundle of string beans into the hand woven basket. She pressed both hands against the moist soil, pushed up on one knee, and slowly rose up off the ground. The shift in her center of gravity from the bulge at her waist caused her to teeter for a moment. She knocked the dirt off her palms, rubbed along the lower portion of her back and moaned. âLord, sheâs getting heavy.â
Julie pulled the ecru colored blouse down over her exposed belly and tugged at one of the threads dangling from the frayed edge of the hem. She turned toward Bear Mountain and sniffed the fresh rain blowing east across the distant fields blanketed with yellow wild flowers. She followed the flock of crows fleeing from the dark clouds as they raced toward the four-acre farm.
Julie watched the white flash pulse behind the clouds. She placed her left hand on the taut bulge in her abdomen and pointed at the approaching storm. âI think weâd better stop and get in the house. That storm is coming up mighty fast.â
May looked up from her kneeling position between the rows of beans. âI think youâre right. Weâll finish the rest tomorrow.â She picked up the basket of produce and the two siblings headed back toward the two-bedroom house with the cracked mildew stained siding. From behind, May watched her pregnant sister waddle along the dirt path. May pulled in line with Julie and examined her innocent face. As each step shot pains up Julieâs back, May considered what was in store for the naive girl. âHave you told him yet?â
âPlease, May. Letâs not go over this again. Iâm tired. My back is killing me, and nothing you say is going to change the way I feel about him.â
âSweetheart, youâve been left by yourself with a child. Itâs you that will bear the burden for one moment of poor judgment. He got what he wanted, left his seed behind, and where is he now? He sure ainât beside you, is he?â
âIt took two of us. I knew what I was doing when it happened, and Iâm not sorry for it. Not one bit.â
Glancing at her sisterâs stomach, May vented her frustration. âWas this in your plans, to be saddled with a baby to take care of on your own? What were you thinking, child? Did you think heâd leave his wife and come stay with you? Hell, youâre not even twenty years old, and that selfish bastard is almost twice your age.â
âStop it, May. Itâs not like that. Heâs a good man. Things are just messed up at home for him right now. I know he cares for me. When things change, Iâll tell him, and then youâll see. Heâll be there for both of us. I know he will.â
âYou know I love you. Youâre the only family I have left, but youâve been blind. Youâre just too damn young. You have no idea of whatâs in store for you and that child, how hard it will be for the both of you, for all of us. Heâs used you, and when you do tell him, heâll scurry away like the skunk he is. Now open the door for me. I just felt a drop of rain. Letâs go fix dinner.â
The two females arrived at the house and Julie pulled back the rickety screen door. âYouâre wrong, May. What we have together is . . .â
CRACK
The air exploded. The wooden doorframe splintered into several large fragments. The impact tossed both women into the air like debris from a bomb blast.
May opened her eyes to droplets splashing in the cool mud beneath her face. She wiped the mixture of dirt and water from her mouth and pushed up on her hands, but collapsed right back into the brown puddle. She tried again, but both her legs refused to obey. Everything below her waist was numb except for a searing pain at the base of her back, like her insides were on fire.
She struggled to roll on her side, but something blocked her movement. She screamed as another series of sharp pains charged into her brain. She reached around and felt a wooden projectile protruding out of her back, one inch above her buttocks. With one hard jerk, she yanked out the fragment and the piercing pain caused everything around her to blank out. After several minutes, the stinging sensation above her hips brought her back. She glanced at the blood soaked tip of the six-inch wooden sliver still locked in her fist. Then she saw the charred flesh along her forearm.
âJulie?â
She looked in the direction where Julie had been moments before, but her sister was gone.
âJulie!â
She wiped the rain from her eyes and searched the front yard. A flash of lightning removed the darkness and she saw her sister. Julieâs body was smashed against their eight-year-old 1974 Pinto. Her arms and legs were entangled in the clothesline that stood a few feet from the screen door before being struck by three hundred thousand volts of natureâs wrath.
May crawled through the dirt, into the house, and across the pine-grooved floor. She reached up and pulled down the phone from the small table. She dialed the phone and waited for someone, anyone that could help. âBeth, Itâs May. Julie is hurt. Sheâs been hit by lightning. Please get help. I donât know about the baby. Just get them here. Please, Beth.â
May dropped the receiver and scanned the room. She needed something, anything to set Julie free. She reached up to the kitchen table and grabbed a knife. She pulled herself back outside, crawled on her hands to the body lying rigid against the car, twisted like a pretzel in the knotted clothesline.
âJulie! Baby, wake up.â She looked up into the dark sky. âPlease, let her wake up,â but there was nothing, no movement, no breathing.
She pressed her ear against her sisterâs scorched chest. There was no sound, no heartbeat. âOh dear God in heaven. Not my baby sister. Not Julie. Sheâs all Iâve got left. Donât take her from me, please Lord.â
Her tears disappeared, mixed with the falling rain. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught movement in the midsection of her sisterâs torso. It wasnât breathing, yet there was something turning inside, something still alive.
She stared at the scorched face of her young sister, then at Julieâs stomach, and finally at the knife in her hand. She gazed up at the dark clouds swirling angrily above her.
âSweet Jesus, why? Not like this. Help me to understand your way, please. What am I supposed to do?â
But there was no answer, no reprieve from her only option.
âI canât let her die this way, Lord. Not both of them.â
May stared at the only life left inside her sisterâs burned body. She looked at Julieâs face and begged for forgiveness at what she was about to do to her own flesh and blood. âForgive me, Julie. Please forgive me, but I have to do it. Dear God in Heaven, I have no choice.â
She scanned the black clouds and pleaded. âLord, give me the strength to do this terrible thing. Please show me the way.â
She looked at her baby sisterâs face one last time. âI love you, Julie.â
May pulled up the soaked blouse, exposed the young skin, and pointed the sharp edge of the knife above her sisterâs baby. âGuide my hand, Lord, and save this poor child.â Then she did the only thing she could do. The horrible thing forced upon her on an isolated farm in an insignificant valley perched at the center of a horseshoe shaped range of small mountains. With tears streaming down her face, she did what no civilized person should have to do to save their nieceâs life.
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