The Journey to Saraland

Cherilee Kinman

Description

The story of a woman’s personal experiences as she rises from a dark past to embrace her true identity and find the happiness she deserves.
Sara Lynn Riggs is doing her best to convince everyone around her that she is not the basketcase they have made her out to be. At one time she felt normal. But that was before her beloved Trey McAlester died at age twenty, and her fateful decision to fall in love with his older brother, Jake, a short time later.
Now decades later and with the brief love affair behind her, Sara is continuing to work on herself and be the best mother she can be to her youngest daughter, Katie Lynelle, while trying to stay in touch with reality. But when she receives a call that Jake now has Alzheimer’s disease, is in a nursing home, and sometimes asks for her, Sara, who is haunted by her memories of days gone by, is led on a journey within where she can only hope the truth, love, and healing await.
The Journey to Saraland is the story of a woman’s personal experiences as she rises from a dark past to embrace her true identity and find the happiness she deserves.

Sujets

• Apocalyptic
• Thrillers
• Fantasy (canción de Mariah Carey)
• Apocalypticism
• Science fiction
• Drama
• Suspense
• Fiction
• Western
• Paranormal
• Fantasy

Informations

• Publié par: Archway Publishing
• Date de parution: 16 mars 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665740456
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE JOURNEY TO SARALAND
MYSTICAL HAPPENINGS AS THE UNIVERSE ATE BLUEBERRIES
Cherilee Kinman


 
Copyright © 2023 Cherilee Kinman.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This is work of fiction and fantasy. Any resemblance to any persons either living or dead is completely, totally, and purely coincidental and is in no way to be interpreted as anything other than paranormal fiction. This work is created for entertainment purposes and for commercial and trade purposes only and may not be construed as any other thing. This work does not reflect the author’s views, beliefs, or values. This work is a harmless fantasy created in the hope that readers will enjoy it.
 
 
Archway Publishing
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.archwaypublishing.com
844-669-3957
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6657-4044-9 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-4043-2 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-4045-6 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023904712
 
 
 
Archway Publishing rev. date: 10/17/2023
CONTENTS
Preface
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
PREFACE
The Journey to Saraland took ten years to write. I wrote one chapter per sitting at the computer. Between chapters, I experienced bouts of mania and depression. I promised myself I would never write unless I was in my right mind. I kept that promise, so there long periods of time passed between chapters. I did have a notebook and an outline. I knew I had thirty chapters and what points had to be made in each. When I sat at the computer, what came out, came out. It has been edited very little.
I have bipolar disorder and severe PTSD. The medicines are so much better these days. If you have one of these terrible conditions, please take your medication as prescribed.
Everything the main character does in this story is wrong. In that way, it’s a cautionary tale for those who suffer from mental illness. (Just take your medicine and keep on keeping on.)
These are my excuses as an author.
I make no excuse for the story.
Thank you for reading!
PS. Thanks to my editors …

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This book is dedicated to the readers.
Thank you.
 
CHAPTER 1

T he phone call was strange and sudden. Sara’s mom seldom called, and when she did, it was to deliver some message about Sara’s grown children. Maybe one of them needed Sara to run an errand or something of that nature.
Not this time. This time Bernice had a casual tone, as if she had called to chat. Totally out of character. Sara felt an immediate and odd concern.
“Hello.”
“What’s up?” Bernice asked.
“Nothing. What are you doing?” Sara replied.
“Nothing. Dotty McAlester called me while ago. She said Jake was in the nursing home.”
“No way!” Sara exclaimed.
“Yes way. That’s what she said.” Bernice was determined to keep the conversation casual, though she doubted the possibility.
“What else did she say?” Sara asked.
“Well, she said he’d had Alzheimer’s for a while now.”
Sara felt completely heartsick. “You’re kidding me! What’d she call you for?”
“We talk sometimes,” Bernice said.
Sara was silent.
Bernice continued, “Anyway, we just talked a while and stuff.”
Sara was still silent.
“Are you OK?” Bernice finally asked.
“Yeah. I just can’t believe that!” Sara exclaimed. Her voice was soft and faraway.
Bernice trudged on as was her duty. “Well, Dorothea said he was really silly and all, but she wanted to let you know that sometimes he asks for you.”
The silence deepened, and Bernice allowed it to settle for a short time. Then she said in a loud voice, “Well? Are you there?”
“Yeah! No way! I just can’t believe that!” Sara shouted back.
“Well, anyway, she wanted your phone number, so I gave it to her,” Bernice said sounding sadly resolved.
Sara’s heart was pounding hard in her chest. “Oh my god. What else did she say?”
“We just talked for a while, really, and she said he was bad off and could use some company,” said Bernice.
“Oh my god,” Sara repeated. Then, trying hard to be her normal self, she said, “You’re kidding! Now I know you’re lying to me.”
“No. I’m sure she’ll call you herself,” Bernice said. She decided to be blunt. Sara was bound to force it on her anyway. “Sara, you will try to be normal about this, won’t you? I mean, he’s just an old, sick man in the nursing home. No big deal, right?”
“Oh, yeah. I’m OK. I just can’t believe you got that message from his mom. I can’t help it. I’m touched by that. You know me,” she said.
Her mom replied, “Well, you do get touched pretty easily, Sara, so take care of yourself.”
Now, if silence really was golden, Sara and her mom experienced a truly golden moment, which Bernice put to a halt by saying, “Well, it would be OK to visit, but Dotty said he doesn’t know anyone anymore, so it’d be like when you took little Francie to visit her mom. Just a sick person. Nothing wrong with it if you get something out of it, I guess.”
“Yeah,” Sara said bleakly.
“Well, I guess I’ll let you go then,” Bernice said.
“Wait a minute! You can’t expect me to be like a normal person if Dotty McAlester calls me! You have to tell me everything she said! Like, for instance, what about his wife? Does she want me to visit him? What about that? Did Dotty say anything about her? And how long has he been in there, anyway? Don’t you dare hang up on me now!”
Sara’s mom laughed, and so did Sara. The laughter helped ease the atmosphere, but Sara was nervous to the core. So her mom informed her that no mention had been made of Jake’s wife, or kids for that matter. She also said that Dotty said Sara had looked really nice the last time she saw her. She had also inquired about Sara’s health. She said she was proud to see Sara doing so much better. But that was all.
Sara finally let her mother say goodbye, but she hated it. She would much rather have tossed this information around with someone for a few hours.
Anything would be better than being left alone.
CHAPTER 2

S ara’s mind shut down as she laid the receiver into its cradle, not in the present but in a time thirty years past. For some reason, that scrawny, slutty little thing, Babette—a perfect picture of her, that is—flashed into Sara’s mind. Sara wondered if he had asked for her too. Then, stopped as though dead, she smiled warily. The smile slowly widened, and then she laughed out loud. It was a fun laugh, soft but easing into a full rollicking, self-deprecating, and immensely humorous laugh.
She shook her head at herself in the mirror that hung, dust-covered, on her dining room wall. Tears popped up, but she swallowed quickly and purposefully, and, just as she had laughed out loud, she now spoke aloud to herself.
“Sara, you dumb shit! It’s Jake. Jake, damn it, not Trace. Trey, Trace, Tres, beautiful Trey. You idiot.” She slapped herself a little and said, “No problem, nutcase. Jake never even knew Babette!” Gesturing not wildly but absurdly to herself in the mirror, she said very pointedly, “So no problem. He won’t ask for someone he never even knew, OK? Remember that, Sara Lynn Riggs! My goodness. If I’m not the very basket case I’m made out to be, I’ll kiss your ass!”
She jumped as if startled by gunfire. “Oh my god! Katie! Holy shit!” She looked around the cluttered, filthy kitchen and house … “Keys, keys, keys! Damn it! Where in the hell are my keys? OK, oh god. Go slow bus! I’m on my way!” she shouted.
She only had to meet the school bus at the end of her gravel driveway, but it was hard for Sara because of her fear of someone or something was continually out of proportion. Reality paled when faced with the possibility. Conversely, the possibility paled when faced with the reality. Such was the way of Sara’s life.
As she settled in behind the wheel of her pickup, cigarettes in hand, keys in the ignition, relieved to be in the proper place in plenty of time, Sara’s mind wandered. As she put the pickup into reverse, her mind shifted to that easy, sluggish place, a place of neutrality, where she was awake but also in a dream. She heard the voice loudly and plainly for a voice that was just inside her mind. The voice said very clearly, Sara, I want you to behave as though I were with you, as though I were always with you.
She slammed on the brakes and parked under the old elm tree near the end of the drive. It was a big, shady tree, and it was the normal place she waited for Katie.
As she killed the motor, she said very quietly, “I refuse to admi