Dream Drifter
an excerpt

DREAM DRIFTER
Copyright November 2007

How can such deep imprinted images sleep in us at times,
'till a word, a sound, awake them?
-Lessing

CHAPTER ONE:
LESLIE

Words, when written, crystallize history;
their very structure gives permanence to the unchangeable past-
-Roger Bacon

Any man who will look into his heart and honestly write what he sees there, will find plenty of readers-
- Ed Howe

Leslie Morrison stood out on the spacious deck overlooking Highway 62. Traffic was light at five thirty in the morning. Only the occasional whine of an eighteen wheeler carrying their tons of cargo to and from their destinations penetrated the morning stillness. She took a timid sip from the steaming mug, then another. This part of the morning was Leslie's favorite part of the day, before the traffic flow increased, daytime noises of such as the huge rock crushing machines and dump trucks from the near by rock quarry began to march through the day.
She stretched and yawned, carfeul not to spill the contents of the mug. Taking another sip of the cooling coffee, she thought about the day's events. After she dropped her daughter, Jana, off at the elementary school, she would go the library where she was the librarian for the Berryville school district. Her say would be spent checking out books, newspapers and magazines and re-shelving those which were re-turned, straightening up the small reading cubicles and tables where students and teachers alike sat. In the afternoon Jana would walk over after classes were through for the day and help her mother finish up unless she had homework. Then the evening would get spent preparing dinner for the two of them, clothes washed, dishes washed and getting the grocery list ready and maybe watch the ten o'clock news before turning in. It sounded rather ordinary and boring, but that was the way she liked it. No big suprises, no deaths.
About three years ago, Leslie moved from Little Rock, Arkansas, to the outskirts of Berryville, Arkansas. She had grown up in the Ozarks, but wanted a change of pace, to see great and wonderful things in other parts of the world. Before moving to Little Rock she had written her first novel, not really expecting it to get published and certinally not expecting it to become a best seller, in three countries besides the United States. She also didn't expect people would die because of her novel. Upon insistance from her Agent, Alisha Jenkins, who also happened to be her best friend since Kindergarten, convinced her she needed to move to Little Rock. The publishing company was there, it was big city life, and still country enough. Together the women bought a small farm and Alisha became a married woman, her husband, John moved there too. Life was good for Leslie, she went from talk show to talk show, promoting her novel. Book signings and lecture halls would be filled to capacity to hear this remarkable woman speak about " how she did it".
When she began to write the second novel, that's when she started to see and hear of strange goings on in and around the city of Little Rock. And it damn near got her killed in the process.