In this intriguing debut novel—a journey that reveals how memories shape our lives and connect or separate us from others- Jamie, a young woman ascending from an oppressive relationship embarks on a desperate quest to escape. However her refuge is to return to the home she despised and left in the dust years before. Only her childhood journal and the family who raised her, can guide her search for answers to questions from decades ago that have molded her choices and left her with the stinging consequences she now must face.
As vivid memories of a tragedy that cost her both parents, come flooding back, Jamie discovers a truth that she kept locked away - something only she knows about the night they both died. Could re-living the memories that have shaped her life and relationships be the key to finding real, lasting happiness? What else may it bring to her door?
All in all the walk was no more than five miles one way. Seeing that today she would have to change up her route, she went only a short distance toward the highway before turning back. She knew that the road didn't end at the Kirby farm, but she had been encouraged not to go further down the road especially alone because the road was unkempt.
As she passed first Link's house, which soon would be her own she thought of the work that Josh had put into it. Everyone knew it was a labor of love. Even the best meaning friends would not put forth such effort. The mantle looked amazing, just like it did in the photos of Link and Mary that she had gazed over again and again, missing them.
Yet she was unsure of what she was feeling for him. Despite her better judgment she found herself daydreaming of living in the house Link left her although she was not alone. Josh was always about in those dreams.
Each step past the Kirby farm filled her with joy as she realized that she might not have much of a past, at least that she could remember. But she would always have a family in them and in her own child who would be born before the spring. Her hand rested atop the rounded crest or her protruding belly. Walking had become a little more difficult but always enjoyable, and today was no different. The sun was descending in the west and she faced it with her sunglasses and scarf on for protection from the glare and the wind.
Since she had no idea how far the road would remain clear enough to safely walk, she determined that walking as far as she could go would have to do. She knew it was possible to make up any difference in time by doubling back yet again near the house Josh wanted her to start calling her own instead of calling it Link's.
There was a large stand of cottonwood trees on the right hand side of the road that seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see. In fact from the window of her room that was all she could see in this direction. Although at night from time to time as the sun was setting, she saw something else that didn't seem like it was natural at all. It was difficult to look in that direction as it was due west of the Kirby house. Even in this time of year when the trees were nearly bare.
As she rounded a sharp curve in the road, she saw it. An abandoned house that she recognized as her first home. There were a lot of memories of shelling peas with her mother and Mary there on the steps, and a few of her father coming home after work, and pulling up in the driveway. That was all she could summon. It was what the therapist called traumatic amnesia. Something tragic happened to her parents and she blocked most of her memories of her life for a few years after that. Now she had lost even more from the accident. There was only a short span of her life that she recognized as one hundred percent hers. Everything else felt like she'd read someone else's words although she knew the journals were her own. She recognized the first few of them and knew the handwriting was definitely hers throughout.
The road beyond the curve was indeed a little grown over, but a truck evidently had been through this way because she could see the brush pushed down as far along the road as she could see in the bright light. A tractor had recently been used to rake the road near the house too. There were brush piles lying about on either side of the road, and she could see grooves in the gravel like those that continued all the way from the highway up to this house.
She stood in the chilly wind for a moment longer gathering her thoughts about what secrets may lie inside. As she turned to walk back to her car she felt relief from the direct sun angle, but it made her a bit dizzy. She took a few more steps and noticed that the sunlight shining directly on the freshly raked gravel road made a rock recently nicked by the rake of the tractor sparkle brightly.
Several more paces now and the dizziness didn't correct. So she stopped and stood still for a minute taking a few deep breaths as the baby chose a most inopportune time to kick up a storm. Once her balance returned she started walking at a normal gate and quickly made her way back out of the curve. Looking toward the Kirby house and her own beyond it the sun fell fully across the road in such a way that the road appeared to be made of diamonds.
The dizziness returned but this time from the pit of her stomach as flashes of herself as a child, running down this road came back to her. She and Josh were running toward her own home, the steps she just left moments before. It was nearly all she could do to stand as the memories came flooding back.
Ginger King is the author (and or contributor) to more than four books, the Carolina Wine Country Cooking series and contemporary women's fiction with a kick. Her debut novel Diamond Road (December 2014) marks the first in a four part series called The Lost and Found Series.
Carolina Wine Country Cooking is all about cooking with or pairing with wines from the Carolina vines. These cookbooks include recipes using the famous North Carolina Muscadine as well as European varietals produced in the state. Some titles in the series also include photography, poetry, and short stories inspired by the great tapestry that the NC people and landscape add to the experience of Carolina Wine Country.
The Lost and Found Series - Diamond Road (book one of the series) is about the life and memories of a young woman, escaping an abusive relationship and reuniting with those she turned her back on years before. The stories in this series are centered around loving in difficult situations and the choices, consequences, forgiveness and patience required to move forward. They will resonate with anyone who has wanted a fresh start in life ,suffered tragedy, been abused/stalked or estranged from family. The next title in the series is Hope in Carolina and is scheduled to be published in 2015.
Ginger is also a contributor to her publisher’s anthologies, for example Second Helpings, which is a compilation of holiday short stories and authors recipes. Ginger worked with other food writers from around the globe and the World Food Travel Association on a culinary travel guide titled Have Fork Will Travel. Look for her regular column in Yadkin Valley Living Magazine and other writings for regional NC magazines across the state.
2 comments:
Thank you so much for hosting.
It was my pleasure :)
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