Photo by Heather and another excerpt from Devils Dump 11-14-17

(Photo by Heather Trent and I do believe that is Ryan Trent looking out at the water ... I almost edited and used this one for the cover of the book but didn't think it was sinister enough ... then I noticed Ryan ... LOVE YOU :)

Here is another excerpt from Devils Dump to peak your interest.

Mark whisked his son into his arms and carried him into the house calling out to Angela. Josiah immediately clamped his hand over Mark’s mouth … startled Mark looked at his son … he was surprised to see tears glistening in Josiah’s eyes.

“Hey there buddy, what’s wrong?”

“Mama sleepy daddy. We whisper okay?”

Josiah’s favorite time of the day was when daddy came home and today he didn’t want to wake mama, he just wanted to be alone with his daddy. He loved his mama very much but sometimes she made him feel scared. It wasn’t always like that … they used to play and have fun while Daddy was at work, but they didn’t play anymore and there were times when his mama didn’t seem like his mama anymore.

Mark couldn’t quite figure out the expression on his son’s face…was it fear, sadness, a mixture of both?  He decided to talk to Angela about their son later. He remembered the groceries he’d picked up before leaving town and asked Josiah if he wanted to go out and help carry them into the house.

Josiah nodded yes and headed outside with Mark but he was still thinking about his mama; she was different now. She was always looking out at something Josiah couldn’t see. When he tried to talk to her she acted like she didn’t hear him and recently there were times he went looking for her and couldn’t find her anywhere. Other times she just went to bed and slept until just before daddy got home. He was looking forward to next year when he could go to school and play with the other kids but for now he was happy helping his daddy.,

When the groceries were put away Mark picked up Josiah and asked him if he’d like to hear a story. Josiah loved when his daddy read to him so he squirmed to get down and ran to get his favorite story book. It was all about the Bible which Josiah sometimes found boring but he really loved the story of Jonah and the Whale, and never tired of hearing it. It made him giggle to think about somebody living inside of a big fish. His daddy always said a whale isn’t a fish, but it sure looked like a fish to him.

After finishing the story, Mark picked up his sleeping son and carried him to his room, kissed him on the forehead and tucked him in for what would probably be a short nap. Then he went looking for Angela. He was surprised to discover she was not in their room sleeping, as Josiah obviously believed she was. He went down to the family room and she was not there either. He didn’t want to call out to her because he didn’t want to wake his son, so he searched the house which finally led to a note propped up on his desk …

Mark didn’t often get angry … he was even tempered and tried to think of calm peaceful solutions to every situation. Right now he was angry … not just angry he was furious. Angela had gone for a walk leaving Josiah alone. The note said she was just going to go walking around the gardens and woods close to the house, but he searched those areas and she was nowhere to be found.

He was so angry he wanted to go looking for her but unlike,   Angela, he was not going to leave Josiah. He just couldn’t comprehend how his wife could have left their son alone like this. They were isolated out here with no close neighbors and nowhere close for Josiah to go if there had been an emergency.

It was three hours before Angela finally walked through the door. Josiah was already up from his nap and Mark had prepared dinner. When he heard the door open and close he was ready to let loose on her but when she walked in the kitchen, all smiles and breathless, Mark stopped short … she was beaming. For the first time in longer than he could remember Angela looked like her old self. (Josiah didn’t know that Mark had been noticing the changes in Angela too) She ran over and hugged and kissed him and bent down to do the same with Josiah.  Mark decided to wait until their son was in bed for the night before confronting his wife.

After dinner and some playtime with his mama and daddy, Josiah went to bed happy. His mama was back!

Before Mark had a chance to say anything, Angela told him she had found something wonderful and couldn’t wait to tell him about it. She was actually bursting with excitement. She was also oblivious to the fact Mark was upset.

“Mark, you won’t believe what I found on my walk. I really hadn’t meant to go so far but something kept pulling me deeper and deeper into the woods. I had been walking about twenty minutes when I found … something … I can’t really put it into words. I think it must be one of those meteorite things everyone in town has been talking about.”

“Angela, what are you talking about? Are you saying we have one of those craters on our property? If that’s the case we have to call the authorities, it might be radioactive.”

Explosively Angela yelled, “NO! You can’t tell anyone; this belongs to me … to us alone. It’s beautiful, it isn’t some ugly thing that fell from space and yet it has to be. At least it must be, but I know, I promise you I know, it isn’t harmful. Please Mark, come and see it before you decide.”

She had stood and reached to pull him from the couch but he refused to budge.

“You may think it is fine to go wandering all over the place and leave our son here alone, but it is not okay and you can’t let this happen again. I don’t know what you were thinking. Josiah is four; you can’t just abandon him to take care of himself. He thought you were upstairs asleep … how do you think he would have felt if he knew you weren’t even here?

At least Angela had the good sense to hang her head in shame.