Sea Change

By A.M. Gray

A woman and her kids try to start again. They buy a house in small town America and hope to be hidden, but life is never that easy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: A.M. Gray
• Release date: Feb 17, 2012
• ISBN: 9781466021617

A.M. Gray

I started writing fanfiction a couple of years ago as mrstrentreznor. I thought it was a wonderful concept to take existing characters and flesh them out a little more. Or to write the scenes that didn’t get filmed or written in the original work. I have given away more than a million words on fanfic; but I discovered that I had a million more in my head. And they were my words, my characters and my stories. I am an overeducated Australian single mother. I feel I should be witty and informative about how many children and household pets I have, but really the chickens lay eggs and I am yet to see what use the teenagers are. I also read a lot and play my music loud... really loud.

Book preview

Sea Change

By A.M. Gray

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 A.M. Gray

Cover by V.Webster

Cover image of an Ozarks street in Autumn

from Wikipedia commons.

Attribution: M.O. Stevens

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Sea change

Chapter 1

Sandy was driving. She had been driving for hours. They drove. They slept in the car. They ate fast food and used the clean bathrooms in the fast food outlets. Then they drove again. She would kill for some fresh vegetables or some fruit.

She was getting further and further away from so-called civilization. She thought that the city had been anything but civilized for her. She glanced in the mirror occasionally to check on her sleeping children. She really should stop for a break, but she can’t sleep anyway; may as well keep driving.

Ain’t that the problem? She can’t sleep.

She is barely functioning at all. She kept putting one foot in front of the other. She kept breathing in and out. It was enough for the moment. She did not have the luxury of enough time to fall apart.

She had not been on these roads before, and yet they are leading them to their new home.

In the wake of other people’s disasters, she tried to find a positive aspect. She had bought a house. She was hoping it was a home. It was a foreclosure deal. Someone else’s dreams had gone wrong.

It was in the town of Hardy, Sharp County, Arkansas. She knew Arkansas was a poor state. It was part of the bible belt of southern America. She was sure hoping people there would show more Christian charity than she had seen lately.

She had never seen the house. They were virtually giving it away. She had just enough money, to pay the outstanding council fees and the purchase price of $9,900. It was literally dirt-cheap. Just as well, because she had no more money. The agent expressed concern about the resale value, but it didn’t matter to her. She didn’t plan on selling any time soon. This was it. It was her proverbial wall, and her back was up against it.

The agent arranged everything with the minimum of fuss and surprisingly, the minimum of fees. She suspected that they had checked her records; agents can do that. They have access to credit ratings and such information, she was sure. At any rate, the agent was much more helpful at the finish than he was when he started. She asked for his discretion and he assured her that she had it. He said he would delete everything. She believed him. She was sure he had the luxury of being able to forget. Just delete everything. And start again with a fresh, blank, white page.

She suspected that he had paid the property inspection report fee for her, because she never got the bill. She