Excerpt: Broken Wing

A light fog drifted in front of the headlights as the sky took on the dusty dark blue that indicated the sun would rise soon. Jessie Bradshaw stifled a yawn as she drove and reached over to pat the furry head poking between the seats from the backseat. The dashboard clock read six am as the radio switched from the steady stream of country music to an energetic morning show. As the two DJs banter back and forth while sharing news and trivia, Jessie drove past the highway sign indicating that Asheville was another sixty miles ahead. From there, she'd exit interstate 40 to travel another eighty miles along smaller highways then some back roads to her final destination.

The upcoming exit sign indicated a Biscuitville was nearby. With at least two hours of driving left to go, and a sudden craving for some southern breakfast from the famous regional chain, she pulled off to take a break. Despite her exhaustion, she made appreciative moans as she ate fluffy homemade biscuit with the perfectly cooked pork sausage patty nestled in the middle. The large bowl of cheese grits nearly made her cry. For the first time since leaving Maryland, Jessie felt like she'd made the right decision. It was a simple thing, and perhaps an overly sentimental reaction, but the stop at the restaurant reminded her of her childhood and made her feel like she had finally come home. She visited the restroom then took Causey for a walk, grateful the restaurant sat near a large grassy area. With her own legs stretched a bit from the exercise, she headed back to the car feeling a bit refreshed. After picking up a large coffee from the restaurant's drive through, she headed back to the highway.

It was nearly nine when she finally reached the small, often overlooked town of Cascade Falls. Once little more than a cabin in the midst of the forests that color the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Jessie's great-grandfather came to the area in the early 1900s seeking a refuge and a safe place to raise his family. As the years passed, the family homestead grew as family friends joined the Bradshaw family. By the time Jessie was born, the town boasted a close knit population of some 1300 people. As Jessie drove through the downtown area, she passed the large municipal building which housed the town's small but well-stocked library, local police force, courthouse, and other city services; the local fire station was nestled beside it. The Bradshaws had always done their best to take care of the town and its citizens, and their efforts had resulted in a town with little crime, well maintained streets, and many of the services and amenities boasted by cities multi-times their size, including a well-equipped police force and fire department, and small, but fully appointed schools. At the same time, its small size, along with deliberate actions by the town itself, kept away most of the chain stores and restaurants, with all the stores and eateries locally owned and operated. In return for caring for the town, the Bradshaws also control the town, but they do so with a fair-minded and generous hand, mostly leaving the citizens alone to live as they please, but ready to step up and provide aid and protection to those under their charge. In the current generation, it was Jessie's oldest brother who was most responsible for running the town and like his father and her grandfather once did, he took the job very seriously.

Jessie chuckled as she remembered trying to explain to one of her college roommates how their town operated. The girl had laughed and said the whole set up sounded like something out of one of a novel, with the town in the fist of a single family that had been in the area for ages. Jessie couldn't help but agree that in some ways it did, but she also knew that her family didn't just tolerate Bradshaw "rule," but welcomed it and thrived on it. Thanks to them, the town was, in many ways, nearly autonomous, having little interference in day to day matters from the county, state, or even federal governments. And it wasn't as if the Bradshaw clan abused their power to get away with crime or other inappropriate actions. Indeed, the only people in town that Jessie would say were ruled by an iron fist would be the Bradshaws themselves. Jessie's own father had died before she was born, and her mother died when she was ten, leaving the chore of raising her to James, who was still in college. James doted on his younger siblings, but he was also a tough taskmaster and a firm disciplinarian. He would protect them from harm, but he made sure they learned that all actions had consequences, and refused to having any of his siblings growing up spoiled or feeling some unearned sense of privilege.

Now near the outskirts of town, Jessie was grateful to see the fence that marked the edge of her grandfather's house. She'd been yawning with alarming regularity for the last thirty minutes, the exhaustion of her drive from Chicago finally taking its toll. As the house came into view, her heart lifted as she was flooded with memories of her childhood romps through the old house and its surrounding fields during the summer when she'd spent nearly as much time there as she had at home. As she got closer, she was saddened to see how overgrown the lawn was, and how shabby the house looked.

"Oh Causey, the old girl is really showing her age isn't she?" Causey stuck her head out the driver side window and stared as the house as if evaluating its appearance before giving a gruff bark. Jessie couldn't help chuckling softly. She pulled into the circular drive, parking in front of the house's door. "Well, girl, this is our home now. I'm sure we'll find lots of work it needs, but for now, what do you say we get inside and get some sleep."

After grabbing her two suitcases from the trunk, she headed inside, Causey close at her heels. The smell of lemon and pine meet them as they opened the door, and Jessie was delighted to find that the cleaners she'd hired to come through the day before had not only done a good job airing out and cleaning the house, but had also been thoughtful enough to leave the heater on to take the chill out of the winter air. She quickly led the way down the central hall and upstairs to the second floor where the bedrooms were housed. The master suite was to the right, but Jessie passed it by, not wanting to face the sorrow of seeing her grandfather's things. Instead she headed left into one of the guest bedrooms, which has its own small attached bathroom. She quickly showered and changed into a nightgown before finally crawling into the warm bed. Before Causey finished settling on the floor beside the bed, Jessie had fallen into a deep sleep.