Here’s something I’m working on – feed back always welcomed!

Prologue

Candi Owens slammed the front door to their apartment. In her rage, she forgot her jacket, but she would only be a few minutes. She needed the cool fall night to get her emotions back in check. As she stormed along the path that took her to the play area for the complex’s children. This time of night it was more likely to be frequented by rebellious teenagers than the young families.

Tonight, the park was empty. Candi headed for the park bench near the monkey bars. This was her spot during the day as she watched her five-year old son Noah swing his atrophied body from rung to rung. You would never guess he was relegated to a wheelchair. He may not be able to use his legs, but his arms were getting stronger.

“Watch me, Mommy!”she would call out to her mother. She had memories of her own mother sitting on a park bench like this just across town, encouraging her to pump her legs faster in order to swing higher.

How she missed her Mom these days. Being one herself made her realize how much work her mother did every day for her and her father – the ungrateful bastard. Now all those fights her parents had after she was in bed made sense to her. He loved being with someone else and not them. Once her mother disappeared, he left his only child to be raised by her maternal grandmother. All those years she thought she wasn’t worthy of being with him or her mother. Only recently she realized it was the other way around.

How her life had come full circle.

She had a cheating husband. She could handle it better if the bills weren’t stacking up – especially those medical bills for Noah’s condition.  At first, she thought she had chased him to these other women, but again, she realized he wasn’t worthy of her, not the other way around.

Noah was the sunshine in her life.  He gave her the biggest smiles, kissed her and reached out to touch her when she was sad. She will begin finding a lawyer in the morning. She had to think of Noah now. She had to leave her husband and find job to support herself and her sunshine.

“Thinking of your mother again?”

The question made Candi jump in her seat. She glanced up at the dark figure in front of her. He dropped the hood of his sweatshirt and smiled.

“Hi,” she smiled back. “Yes, actually, I was.”

“Did you and Darrell have another fight?”

“Wow. You must be psychic. I didn’t know you live in the area.”

The man shrugged and indicated the spot next to her. “Do you mind?”

She patted the weathered boards. “Sure, as long as you’re not going to bill me.”

He chuckled, “No, this one’s on the house.”

She heard rustling in the bushes not far off and turned her head to look. There had been coyotes spotted in town. She would rather not run into one. She shivered in the cool air. She should be headed back to Darrell and Noah. Well, Noah at least.

For a moment she thought she caught movement in the bushes, but it nothing emerged from the bushes, so she turned back to her bench mate.  Pain exploded in her head. Her hand reached up to investigate. She felt something wet – water? It was warm. Even as she was falling off the bench, into the cool damp grass, her unfocused gaze registered the man that was supposed to be siting, instead stood over her, holding a large rock in his hand, dripping blood.  Her blood!

It was the last thing she remembered.