Eshoni struggled to catch her breath. So far, all her ex had done was smack her around a bit as she screamed at her for having the nerve to even think of leaving her, but Eshoni was hurting. Still, it wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle. But then her ex switched from mild slaps to hard punches. One such blow landed between her eyes. Eshoni hit the forest ground hard. The treetops above spun around in a dizzying motion, blurring, becoming one with the sky. She could now only make out a few scattered words being screamed down upon her.
“How dare you… After all I’ve done for you… Why would you want to leave me after five long years invested in this relationship?”
Then her ex stopped screaming and picked up a rock. Fear now gripped her in an iron vice. She tried to sit up and scoot to the safety of some dense underbrush, but she couldn’t move. Her ex resumed her venomous screaming as she slammed the rock in a swift downward arc.
All went blissfully black at that point until she came to later on. She couldn’t tell how much time had passed, though she knew it must’ve been at least three hours due to the position the sun was now at.
Eshoni pulled herself up on shaky legs. She put a hand to her forehead and felt the stickiness. Although her head throbbed madly and her legs felt like they were made of rubber and threatened to buckle beneath her weight, she trudged forth. She was determined to find help before her deranged ex returned to finish what she had started. Eshoni figured she was probably waiting for nightfall to come and do away with her body so no one would ever find it. Yet once she realized she had lived, she would be frantically searching for her.
She wrapped her straight, jet-black hair, which fell to her knees, around her neck to keep it from catching on the branches around her.
She was grateful that she knew the area well enough to find her way down from the trail she was on and to the nearest house. This took ten minutes, though it seemed like forever. When a large red house became visible through the trees, she could see small children out playing with a large black Labrador. The dog chased down a ball one of the kids had thrown, just as a middle-aged man with dark, unruly hair rounded one corner of the house.
“I need help!” Eshoni shouted.
The Lab stilled in its tracks and began to bark. Confused, the man and children glanced around them.
“Over here.”
They spotted Eshoni, and the man hurried forth.
“I need a ride into town really bad,” sputtered a weak and breathless Eshoni.
“No problem, ma’am,” the man said, guiding her by the arm. “I’ll get you to a hospital fast. What happened?”
“I don’t want to go to a hospital. I just have a slight head injury, and all I need is a ride into town. Please, it’s very important.”
“But ma’am, you’re bleeding. You may need stitches.” They approached an old car that the man had guided her to, and then the man turned to face his children. “Tell your mom I’ll be back soon.”
“Really, I can’t go to the hospital,” Eshoni insisted as the kids ran into the house. “She doesn’t know where my sister lives. I’ll be safe there.”
The man looked confused as he opened the passenger door of his car. “Safe from who?”
Eshoni shook her head.
The man got into the driver’s seat and started the engine. “How did this happen? Did you have an accident, or did someone do this to you?”
“It was just an accident,” Eshoni said, perhaps a little too quickly. “Please just drive me to my sister’s house.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to seek medical treatment?”
“I’m sure. Her friend can take care of me. She’s a nurse. She’ll patch me up and then I can leave. I was supposed to leave the state earlier, but…”
“Okay,” the man said with a sigh of resignation as he pulled out onto the gravel road that wound its way through the mountain. “Let’s just hope you’ll be okay with only her help.”
“Yeah, let’s hope,” Eshoni muttered softly, more to herself than to the kind man who drove her off the mountain.
Lorella Taylor didn’t know what was going to happen in court that day. She only hoped the judge would hurry up and call her case number before she ended up puking or passing out or both. She took slow, deep, even breaths to try to calm her nerves.
Don’t let these people intimidate you, she silently coaxed. They’re only people, not God.
She looked over at her sister Sharon, two years her senior. Damn that kid of yours, she thought to herself. Then again, did she really have the right to be mad at a three-year-old? It was her fault for not keeping an eye on the kid.
Her niece, Rena, loved to visit with her “favorite” aunt, which she found to be quite an amusing title since she was the only aunt the child had. Her sister loved to pawn Rena off on her from time to time. “It gives me a chance to hear myself think,” her sister would say. “Every mom needs a break every now and then, you know? Doesn’t matter how devoted we are. We’re still only humans and not machines with an endless supply of juice operating them. Remember that if you ever have kids yourself someday.”
When she reminded her that she couldn’t possibly conceive a child with another woman, Sharon insisted she adopt or consider becoming a foster parent. “They’re not as quick to discriminate against gays and lesbians as they used to,” her sister had said.
“Maybe someday,” was Lorella’s reply. “Meanwhile, I’m only twenty-three. What’s the hurry?”
“The State of Nevada versus Lorella Taylor.”
Lorella’s head snapped towards the front of the courtroom. She and her sister rose as the case number was read. They approached the podium and faced the judge. Lorella was aware of the people behind her sitting in the rows of uncomfortable wooden benches. This shouldn’t be a spectacle for others to see, she thought to herself. This should be a private matter between her and the judge. Whatever happened to good old-fashioned privacy anyway?
The judge was a plump middle-aged woman with hair that was dyed blond. She needed a root filler really badly. “Miss Taylor,” the judge acknowledged as the bailiff handed her some folders. She pored through them a moment, then asked, “Why have you declined legal counsel to represent you with this case?”
Lorella chose her words carefully. “Well, your honor, I guess I just didn’t feel it was necessary for any lawyer to say what I can say myself.”
“Which is?”
“Which is that I honestly did not steal the bottle of cough syrup. My three-year-old niece, God love her, snatched it up and placed it in her pocket when I had my back turned. I realize that I should have kept a better eye on her…”
“Yes, you should have,” the judge interrupted. “And how can I possibly know you’re telling the truth?”
Lorella was at a loss for words. She felt like a fool, unable to think of the proper words to defend herself. Perhaps she should have hired legal counsel after all.
“May I say something, Judge?” asked Sharon.
The judge’s stern eyes swung towards Sharon. “Yes?”
“I can assure you that my sister did not deliberately steal the cough syrup. My daughter Rena’s only three years old, and like most three-year-olds, I can personally vouch for the fact that she does have a habit of grabbing things.”
“Then that’s all the more reason the child should have been watched closely, don’t you think?”
“Yes, judge,” said Lorella, “I do. And I can’t stress enough to you the fact that I’ve learned my lesson as far as that goes.”
“But it’s a lesson learned too late, I’m afraid. Even if you are telling the truth, which I have no way of knowing for sure, this is a crime that’s punishable by up to three months on probation.”
“But judge…”
“No buts, young lady, and do not interrupt me again.”
Lorella suppressed the urge to tell the judge off and run out of the courtroom. Who did she think she was, anyway? Her mother?
But the judge had apparently made up her mind, and instead of giving her the simple slap on the wrist she felt she deserved, she gave her the number of the area’s adult probation department to report to the following Monday. It was Thursday, so she’d have all weekend to wonder what kind of monster the probation officer she would be assigned to may end up being. All she could think about until then was the rather unpleasant stories she’d heard on and off regarding probation officers. All she could do was hope they’d been severely exaggerated.
“I’m so very sorry,” Sharon told her once they’d exited the courthouse and headed out into the fresh air. The day was overcast and suited her mood well.
“Don’t worry about it,” Lorella said, though not without dismay. “It wasn’t your fault, and I certainly can’t blame Rena. I’m the one who neglected to keep tabs on her.”
“Maybe so, but I still feel bad. I mean, three months? That’s a rather stiff penalty for a lousy bottle of cough syrup, don’t you think?”
Lorella nodded. “Yes, but it could’ve been worse. There are some places that’d put you in prison for years for petty crap like this.”
“That’s true. Just be glad we’re in Tonopah, Nevada, and not one of those places. Do you want me to drop you off at your place, or do you want to grab a bite to eat first? It’s just about lunchtime.”
“No, you can just go ahead and drop me off. I don’t think I’ll have much of an appetite between now and Monday.”
“Aw, come on. It can’t be that bad,” Sharon said as the two got in her minivan.
“I hope not. I guess it’ll just depend on who I get for a PO.”
“Yeah, I guess it will. Well, I’ll be praying for you.”
Lorella offered a weak smile. Could prayer really save her?
When her sister pulled up at her apartment complex a few minutes later, Lorella thanked her for the ride and the support.
The phone was ringing as she entered her small studio apartment. Dropping her purse on the dining table, she scrambled over to snatch up the receiver. “Hello?”
“Hi, Lorella. How’d it go today?” asked Trevor, her twenty-eight-year-old brother. Trevor was your all-American guy. This meant that he loved loud music, lived like a slob, was into sports, preferred sex over food, and would rather not have children.
“Not so good, I’m afraid.”
“Not so good? Why is that? They sending you to Alcatraz or something?”
“No, just to a probation officer for a few months. I tried to explain what happened to the judge, but she didn’t want to hear it. Said I should’ve kept a better eye on Rena, even if I was telling the truth, and of course, Sharon feels bad about the whole thing.”
“Damn, that sucks.”
“Tell me about it,” Lorella sighed with exasperation.
“At least it is just a few months of probation and not a few years of Alcatraz.”
“You got that one right. So how’s life up in Oregon?”
“Well, we forest rangers aren’t out and about as much now that it’s September, so the office that they had me stationed in is closed. With the risk of forest fires now being lower, we don’t need people constantly hanging out in that office. This is the one on the mountain I told you about before.”
“I remember. It sounds lovely up there. I know you’ve been there two years already and I have yet to visit, but I promise I’ll get up there soon enough.”
“I know you will, sis. Anyway, I’m with the fire department now full-time.”
“Wow, that must be pretty exciting. Which do you think you find more rewarding, putting out fires on mountains or putting out fires in people’s homes?”
“Fortunately, I haven’t had to put out any mountain fires, so I couldn’t say. I can only say that it isn’t always exciting to have to witness some hardworking family watch their house burn down, though knowing you helped to save their lives makes up for it somewhat.”
“I’ll bet it does. I take it you meet a lot of cops, guards, and probation officers in your field.”
“Yes, I have met my share of those in various areas of law enforcement. Why?”
“Are the POs really as bad as I hear they are?”
Trevor chose his words carefully. “Well, it depends on the officer. Some are pretty strict, but some are cool. At least that’s the way it seems to be. It’s not like I know tons of parole and probation officers, but the few I’ve met seem alright. There were maybe only one or two I wouldn’t want to be a client of. You don’t know who you’ve been assigned to yet?”
“No. I have to report to the probation department on Monday.”
“Well, little sis, if worse comes to worst, you could always run and hide out in the forest up here. Bly Mountain is just beautiful. A little cold and snowy during the winter, but very nice during the summertime.”
“Trevor!” Lorella exclaimed as the two burst into laughter. “It’s not the summertime anyway.”
“So? Wouldn’t you still love to be on the run in the midst of a vast and serene forest and living in a cozy cabin?”
“I don’t know about that, but we’ll just have to wait and see what I’m in for come Monday.”
“Well, I hope you get an okay PO because the best time to come up here would be in the summer. There’s definitely no doubt about that because the winters here are pretty fierce.”
“I don’t envy you on that one.”
“You get used to it. How’s life at the apartment complex?” he asked.
“Warm, but noisy.”
“I suppose the two kind of go hand in hand.”
“They usually do. Met anyone yet?” Lorella asked.
“No, I’m not seeing anyone at the moment. You still single?”
“Aren’t I always?”
“Oh, you’ll find your Miss Right. She’ll just come when you least expect her to and in the least likely place. Too bad I can’t introduce you to Noelle. From what I gather, she’s gay and single. Nice looking, too. A willowy brunette that’s just your type. She’s been a forest ranger for quite some time now, and she graduated from the police academy about five years ago. She works the mountain full-time in the summer from June through August. Guess she and her dad live in cabins up there, too. Anyway, good luck on Monday, and try not to worry too much until then. You didn’t kill anyone. I’m going to go call Mom and Dad now. Do they know what’s going on yet?”
“No, but I’m sure they’d love to hear from you all about the first criminal in the family.” Again, they erupted in laughter. “Meanwhile, I’ll take a walk over to their place in a day or two. Have you spoken with Sharon?”
“I called there, but Luke answered. Said she was at the pool.”
“Yeah, she lives for that pool.”
After Lorella hung up from her brother, she turned on her stereo to drown out the shouts, music, and door-slamming that were all too much a part of the evenings where she lived. Determined not to fret over her upcoming trip to the probation department, she lost herself in the mellow, relaxing music.
The only thing to happen the following Monday at the probation department was that she spent what seemed like hours filling out forms and listening to lectures on all the dos and don’ts that went with being on probation. Then she was given a name and a number. She was to report to Officer Madison Cady at her office the next day. That would be located in a different area.
Lorella dressed the next morning in a simple T-shirt and jeans and added a light touch of makeup. She wore no jewelry other than a beaded necklace she had made, along with a matching bracelet. Her hair fell like liquid copper a few inches below her slim waist. She decided to leave it down.
When she stepped off the bus the next day, she had to fight to keep from trembling.
Only another person, she told herself, not God. If worst comes to worst, I’ll take Trevor’s joke seriously and escape to the forest. Then I’ll hide out there for however long I need to.
Her probation officer’s office was located in a building that housed several state, county, and government offices of various kinds. She located the adult probation department and entered a waiting room in which four men and two women sat looking utterly bored. Lorella wondered if she was in for a long wait as she approached the desk.
An older, plump Hispanic woman spotted her and waddled over to where she stood. “Yes?”
“I’m here to report to my probation officer,” Lorella said.
“What is their name?”
Lorella told her.
The woman picked up a clipboard. “Sign in and have a seat.”
Lorella signed the form and took a seat. She tried not to fidget. To keep her hands occupied, she picked up a magazine on a nearby table. Not long afterward, another man entered, signed in, then glanced around the waiting room. His dark eyes lit up with recognition upon seeing the man who sat closest to her.
“Hey there,” he said with a semi-toothless grin.
The man, who had been sitting with his head lowered as if he’d dozed off, suddenly glanced up with light gray eyes. “Oh, hey, buddy. How ya been, man?”
“Oh, I’m okay,” the dark-eyed man said as he took a seat next to his friend.
“Where have you been and what the hell you doin’ here?”
Dark eyes: “Got busted again.”
“Aw, shit man, no way.”
“Yeah, way, dude. I fucked up.”
“Who ya seein’?” asked light eyes.
“Someone named Madison Cady.”
“Oh, you poor thing.”
“Why?” dark eyes asked curiously.
“She’s a bitch.”
“I’ll vouch for that,” said a young blond woman from across the room, sending Lorella’s heart right to the pit of her stomach.
The forest, she reminded herself. The Oregon forest will hide me and protect me from any monsters I may encounter here.
Just then, the door at the side of the waiting room opened and a short, stocky man in a baseball cap poked his head out. “Jeremy?”
An older man who had been silent all along rose from his seat. “Hi, Scott.”
“What’s going on? You still working graves?”
The man stepped across the threshold, and the door shut behind them, closing off his answer.
A few minutes later, the door opened again. This time, a very tall, large-boned, and somewhat muscular woman appeared. She seemed annoyed and in a hurry as she called out to a woman named Viola, who had a bad leg. Then she sort of relaxed against the open door as she waited for her to gather up her crutches. Viola rose and shuffled towards the door and then beyond. Lorella and the woman exchanged eye contact for a brief second or two as she closed the door behind her.
“That’s her,” said Light Eyes.
“That’s her?”
“’ Fraid so.”
“Damn, she looks like a mean old witch,” said Dark Eyes.
Yet to Lorella, something about the woman’s appearance had been an instant turn-on for her. Was it her imposing size? The way she moved? The way she talked? Her penetrating eyes? Maybe this probation thing would prove to be a bit interesting after all, she thought, now looking forward to meeting her PO face-to-face.
Viola shuffled out ten minutes later, then a few minutes after that, Madison reappeared, causing Lorella’s heart to take off on a nervous race. “Lorella Taylor?”
Lorella stood up shakily and approached the door. The woman didn’t exactly have a mean-looking face. She actually had a pleasant face, though it was sort of plain. Her brown eyes were the shade of rich mahogany and matched her hair nicely.
At five-foot-four, Lorella wasn’t all that short, but next to this woman, she felt rather puny. Madison Cady was easily six feet tall.
Madison motioned her ahead of her, and they headed down a corridor towards her office, passing a few others along the way. The stocky guy with the cap was talking to his client in one office, the next office was empty, and the next had a black woman tapping away at the keyboard of her computer.
Madison’s office was at the end of the corridor, small yet simple. In front of her cluttered desk were two chairs.
“Have a seat,” Madison told her.
Lorella sat down just as Madison seated herself at her desk. Seeing her up close, Lorella doubted most people would consider her to be all that appealing, despite the fact that Lorella’s attraction for this woman was growing by the minute. Her hair, parted in the middle with bangs pushed to the sides, hung straight to her shoulders. She was dressed casually and wore no makeup or jewelry. Lorella thought she might even be gay unless it was just wishful thinking on her part.
The probation officer picked up a large file folder and flipped it open towards the middle. “Lorella, huh?”
Lorella nodded.
“Nice name. Never heard that one before.”
Lorella smiled.
Keeping her expression neutral, Madison wrote something down in the file. She possessed an air of confidence and authority that Lorella both admired and yet felt intimidated by. A moment later, Madison glanced up at her. “Okay, Lorella, most of your visits here are going to be short and sweet. For now, please hand me your pocketbook.”
Lorella leaned over in her seat and handed the pocketbook over.
Madison took the pocketbook and dumped its contents on her desk. Then she rose and came around to where Lorella sat. “Stand up, please.”
Lorella rose, unsure of what was happening, and Madison studied the front of her for a moment before ordering her to turn around.
“Okay,” said Madison.
Lorella turned back to face the PO as she picked up a clear plastic cup from her desk, which had her name on its label. “Time for a drug test. Now, I’m going to trust you to go to the bathroom and do the test unobserved, but I can promise you that I’ll be right outside the door the whole time and that if I hear that toilet flush or any water running, I’ll be in there in a flash.”
“Okay, but I don’t think I can pee right now. At least I don’t feel like I have to.”
“Then I suggest you get on out to the water fountain and start guzzling. Here,” she said, snatching a paper cup from the corner of her desk. “Go fill this up and then bring it back here.”
Lorella took the cup and found the fountain located in the middle of the corridor. She filled up her cup, careful to keep her hand steady so as not to spill the water out of it, and returned to Madison’s office, where she sat scribbling away in the file folder.
Lorella sat down and began drinking the water.
Without looking up at her, Madison said, “So you’re self-employed?”
“Yes, I am.”
Madison put down her pen and sat back in her chair, focusing her eyes of dark chocolate upon her. “What exactly is it that you do?”
“I have an online store where I sell odds and ends.”
“What kind of odds and ends?”
Lorella gazed into Madison’s piercing eyes. “Mostly stuff I find at swap meets, though I do order wholesale supplies for drop-shipment as well.”
“And that keeps you going?”
Lorella nodded, taking another sip of water. “It doesn’t leave me a whole lot of extra money, but it pays the bills and keeps food in my stomach.”
Madison smiled slightly, but only for a second. “Guess that’s what matters most, right?”
“Right.” Lorella rose and glanced down at the contents of her purse scattered upon the desk under Madison’s watchful eyes. Then she plucked a card from the small pile and placed it closer to Madison.
Madison glanced down at it. “Ah, a business card.”
Lorella nodded and sat back down.
“Feel like you have to pee yet?”
“No, but I’m working on it. I’m sorry to hold you up like this.”
Madison shrugged as if to say it was no big deal.
“The guy I spoke with yesterday didn’t tell me you’d be testing me, or else I’d have had a huge soda on the way in.”
Madison gave a slight chuckle, then she said in a soft voice, “You really haven’t had any experience with this before, have you?”
Lorella shook her head.
“We’re not supposed to tell you and warn you in advance, I’m afraid. Drug testing is done at random because if someone’s got a problem, we need to know about it.”
“Oh. I guess that makes sense,” said Lorella.
“Am I going to have a problem with you, Lorella?”
“No, ma’am.”
“No drugs or alcohol?”
“None. I think I’ll go for a refill now,” Lorella said with a smile.
Madison nodded her approval.
When she returned with her second cup of water, Lorella saw that the contents of her purse had been put back inside it. The purse now sat on the edge of the desk. Lorella took her seat and focused her hazel eyes on the woman before her, whose expression now seemed somewhat somber with a mixture of curiosity.
“Tell me something, Lorella.”
“Yes?”
“Why did you do it? Normally, I don’t give a shit why people are on probation. I’m not the judge or their lawyer. My only job is to keep tabs on those on probation and see that they stay straight. Yet I can’t help but wonder what would possess a seemingly nice girl like yourself to swipe a bottle of cough syrup, of all things.”
“Well, I don’t expect you to believe this any more than the judge did, but it was my three-year-old niece who snatched it up when I wasn’t looking. She put it in the pocket of her overalls, and I never knew it. At least not until I was on my way out and the store manager insisted on checking her pockets. I laughed, thinking it was a joke, so you can bet I was truly shocked when I saw that it was anything but a joke. First, they insisted I pay for it, and I told them I wouldn’t do so because I never wanted the stuff in the first place, and insisted they take it back. Then they called me a liar, insisting I planted it on my niece. They wouldn’t believe me when I tried to tell them the truth.”
After Lorella finished speaking, Madison sat silently absorbing her words. A moment later, Lorella finished her water, then said, “I think I’m ready to give this test a try.”
“Okay,” said Madison, rising from her seat and leading her to a nearby bathroom. “Just remember what I said. No toilet-flushing, no running water.”
“Okay.”
Madison leaned against the wall just outside the door and folded her hands across her chest. “Just leave the cup behind the toilet when you’re done.”
After a few minutes of worrying that she’d still be unable to pee, Lorella was soon relieved to be relieved. So as not to flush the toilet or run the tap water out of habit, she chanted over and over to herself in her head… no flushing the toilet, no running water…
When she was finished, she opened the bathroom door. Madison was still leaning against the wall, arms folded across her chest.
“All set?” she asked.
Lorella nodded.
“You may wash your hands now,” Madison told her, moving away from the wall to watch her as she called out to someone down by her office. “Got one for you to test now.”
“Oh, okay,” she heard someone say. “Be right there.”
A woman came rushing towards them as Lorella stepped out of the bathroom and followed Madison back to her office.
Back in the office, Madison handed Lorella a clipboard with an attached pen. “This is something you’re going to have to fill out every time you see me.”
Lorella studied the page before her. It was the same general information form she’d filled out the day before. Once it was filled out, she handed it to Madison, who sat gazing out the window by her desk.
Madison turned to her. “Done?”
Lorella nodded as the woman who had collected her urine sample appeared in the doorway. “She’s clean.”
“Okay, thank you.”
The woman retreated down the corridor as fast as she had appeared.
“That was fast,” said Lorella.
“Yeah, they’re getting pretty good at these things.” She closed the folder before her, leaned on her elbows, and clasped her hands. “Okay, Lorella. I want you to report to me on the first and third Friday of every month between the hours of eight A.M. and four P.M., and to be prepared for random house calls from me. You got it?”
“I got it,” Lorella said, rising from her chair.
“Keep in mind that I’m one of the lead investigators of our rather elite absconder team here. Run and I promise I’ll find you wherever you are, and then I’ll personally drag your butt back here and see to it that you get the max for it, too.”
Lorella smiled, picked up her purse, and said, “I won’t run.”
Madison gave a slight closed-lipped smile and said, “Okay, see you in two weeks if I don’t catch you at home first.”
Lorella wound her way back down the hall and pushed open the door to the waiting room.
“Is she the bitch they say she is?” Dark Eyes asked her as she headed for the exit.
“No, I thought she was quite nice, actually,” answered Lorella, unaware that Madison had heard her because Madison had stepped out of her office to get her next client, and Lorella never looked back as she spoke.
Traffic was a nightmare late that afternoon as Madison made her way to the duplex she lived in on a busy street in the city’s middle to upper-class section. The area was mostly inhabited by the elderly as well as those on disability.
She parked her Jeep in the single-car garage and proceeded to approach her front door. Her next-door neighbor, an older woman who was on disability and home a lot, nodded to her as she spotted Madison.
“Hello,” the plump, blond woman called out.
“Hello there,” Madison called back.
“That damn cat of mine escaped again.”
“Oh,” Madison replied with a small smile. “Well, I hope you find him.”
“It’s a she,” the neighbor corrected. “And she’s going to get her ass whipped good when I finally do get hold of her.”
Madison smiled again and then entered her side of the long structure. It was a lovely duplex. It had a nice layout on a lot that was approximately one-third of an acre. Her unit was on the corner of the property where a side street crossed the busy main street. Each unit was basically L-shaped with a long, large living room running towards the right of the front door, with the dining, kitchen, and utility areas behind it. The bathroom was just across a small hallway on the left between the garage and the bedroom. The bedroom was just about the biggest bedroom she’d ever seen. It ran straight back alongside her back patio. The entire building formed a U-shape. She could look out one of the bedroom windows and see her dining room window just to the right of it, along with her neighbor’s bedroom window straight across from hers, although she was unable to see through the heavily draped window and into the room, not that she’d want to do so in the first place. Also, she had put up a large brown Venetian blind between the two patios to add a bit of privacy.
Madison glanced at the mail she had grabbed on her way in. Nothing interesting. She dropped it on the kitchen counter and began to fix herself some chicken salad and pink lemonade, which she then brought into the living room. She passed by a framed photo of a slender strawberry-blond with sparkling blue eyes and studied the young woman who smiled up at her. “Guess you and me are done for good,” she muttered to herself. “I’ll have to store you in the closet this weekend.”
She sat on her couch and picked up the TV remote, which lay on the coffee table in front of her. The large plasma screen came to life with color and movement, and she began to eat her salad. Just a few minutes later, however, an image of Lorella Taylor replaced that of the anchorwoman recapping the day’s news of mayhem and madness.
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