Chapter One Excerpt
There are crossroads in everyone’s life. Some people come to a threshold and have the opportunity to seize the moment, and yet they fail. Claudia Lakes knew all too well the consequences of missing the mark. She had relived the horrible events of her life so often that it was forever seared into her memory. She was on a flight to Massachusetts. It was not a pleasure trip; it was one of necessity. Claudia was what most would call a friend to the end, and this journey might very well be the last one for her and her best friend Olivia.
The cold air in the plane sent a chill down her spine. She pressed the call button. A flight attendant responded with two blankets and pillows. Claudia wrapped a blanket around Olivia’s shoulders, careful not to touch her bandaged left arm, and placed the other blanket across her legs. She pushed Olivia’s long, sandy-brown hair aside and fixed one of the small pillows behind her head.
“There,” Claudia said. “How does that feel?”
Olivia did not respond.
“Would you like me to push your seat back?”
No answer.
The flight attendant approached wearing a broad smile. She glanced at Olivia, then at Claudia. “How’s your friend doing? Can I bring her something hot to drink?”
“Yes, thank you. Some hot peppermint tea; with honey and a lemon. How does that sound Olivia? Would you like some hot tea?”
Silence.
With a pang of sadness, Claudia watched Olivia stare out the window at the overcast sky. Olivia was not well, but she was unaware that she was ill. She was in no pain, yet, her doctors wished she were, for at least then they could understand why she would not speak. And although Claudia knows the source of the dark secret that caused Olivia’s silence, she would not reveal it to anyone, not even the doctors.
Claudia pushed her seat back, sipped her tea and sighed. She closed her eyes. Her mind drifted from one thought to another: thoughts of her childhood, college, church, and home. She wished she had made better choices in her life. Moreover, she wished she could undo the years of pain and agony. All she ever wanted, prayed for, and hoped for, was a chance to make amends. The bags under her weary eyes made her look much older. She had long since stopped looking in the mirror. She did not need anything to remind her how much she had aged.
In her youthful pride, she envisioned a life of grandeur. She was on the road to success and would not be denied. She was a dreamer, full of ideas and promise. However, as the years passed, she began to think differently, more soberly. She was well beyond the prime of her life, which caused her to reconsider her philosophy on many issues. Time had abruptly halted her ambitions. These days, all she wanted was to live a life of tranquility, but she knew peace would not come. All she ever desired was to love and be loved. Yet, she had lived long enough to know that it would not happen.
She learned one cannot spend life in regret. One must move on. However, the trouble with moving on is living in the present. For Claudia, forgetting the past was easier said than done. Change must begin with hope, but finding hope is not always easy.
***
Each morning, when Claudia glanced out of her kitchen window, hope faded. She lived in the same house most of her life and although she was haunted by the place, she was afraid to leave. Hell is the opposite of heaven, Claudia knows, because hell was where she resided. There was a presence that scared her, confining her to the house. In earlier years, her home was full of joy and laughter. Her beloved garden was once beautiful, with an array of roses, gardenias, iris lilies, and an assortment of vegetables and fruit trees. Now it was all weeds.
Long ago, Claudia used to spend many hours working in her yard, until she planted a lemon tree. That act caused the horror and to this day, twenty-eight years later, the nightmare and anguish continues. She always wanted to be free of the tree and free of the misery it caused. But freedom comes at a cost. And she was not yet ready to pay the price.
While Claudia and Olivia’s friendship was a blissful time in their lives, in retrospect, it was the beginning of the end of happiness, as they knew it. Neither of them could have foreseen that their days of innocence, love, and joy would end in sorrow. The ties that bound them so closely together would entangle them for the rest of their lives….
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