Broken Gateways Book One Low Stangeness

By Andrew Pain

When Miriam's best friend Heather, pregnant and near delivery, is almost kidnapped and rescued by a stranger the two friends are plunged into a world of confusion and conflicting philosophies. They learn new levels of what people will do for what they believe, and learn the things they believe might not be the truth after all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Andrew Pain
• Release date: Nov 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301879533

Andrew Pain

After working as a Paramedic and riding a motorcycle around part of the world, Andrew Pain is now turning to another of his passions, and writing.

Book preview

Broken Gateways

Book One

Low Strangeness

Smashwords Edition

Written by Andrew Pain

Copyright 2012 by Andrew Pain

Miriam went through the rack of baby clothes. It was all pinks and blues, the number of green or purple outfits seemed smaller every time she looked. She stopped at one outfit wondering if she shown it to Heather, but decided she had and continued. Why her friend was so determined not to learn if the baby was a boy or a girl until the big day? It made shopping so much harder.

She looked over at her friend. They met in college, random roommates that just seemed to click together, blazing their way through campus. Miriam had been thinking grad school, but Heather, with her education degree, wanted to start teaching. And there had been Todd, too.

Heather and Todd met somewhere on campus. Miriam was introduced later, at some party where Heather wanted to clue her in to needing to find somewhere else to sleep that night. It hadn't been the first time either of them had asked that of the other, and Miriam hadn't minded, but after that Todd and Heather were inseparable. Only occasionally was it the three of them. Miriam and Todd hadn't gotten along. The tension the two felt around each other was enough Heather tried to keep them apart.

After graduation Heather and Todd moved in together, leaving Miriam feeling a little abandoned. There was talk of marriage, Heather actually landed a teaching job. Miriam was looking at grad school, trying to decide between medicine and physics. When Heather shared the proud news of the impending child Miriam acted as happy as her friend. She was stunned when, only a month later, Heather called again to tell Miriam Todd had left.

He left nothing but a note explaining he wasn't ready for the responsibility, wasn't able to deal with it all. He would support Heather and the child as best he could, but it had to be from a distance. Miriam cried with her friend, but felt nothing but anger towards Todd. Wasn’t ready? What was that even supposed to mean?

Miriam moved in with Heather, and took grad school courses part time. Heather continued teaching, and the two of them did what they could to get ready for the baby. Repainting a room and buying the thousands of things you apparently needed for newborns. It was exhausting work, and there never seemed to be enough time.

Todd sent money, irregularly, and the amount was different every time. He never included an address, and had cut off his social networks. Maybe he had a new name somewhere. Miriam figured he just wanted to keep partying, but Heather held out hope he would come back to her and their child.

Months passed, Heather got larger. She hadn't been petite to begin with, after all. Miriam was the short dark one. Heather was always described as tall, leggy and blond. Miriam prided herself on having the nicer chest, but as the pregnancy progressed she wasn't sure it was true anymore. Heather told her even though they were larger they were always sore, but Miriam noticed more men looking, especially before she was showing much.

Her due date was only a week away, and Miriam wondered if she should be out. The maternity clothes were unflattering. Miriam's tight jeans and tighter shirt definitely attracted more eyes today. Heather had called Miriam while she was at the library to say she wanted to get out of the house, so two of them went shopping for baby clothes. Greens, yellows and purples were the norm, since neither knew if the baby was a boy or girl. Miriam was getting tired of it. All the really cute stuff was pink or blue, but mostly pink, so she was hoping for a girl.

Turning from the clothes and looking towards the toys she saw a man in the next section over. That was womens intimates, and Miriam caught him looking over. He averted his eyes, looking around the store as if he was trying to pretend he wasn’t in lingerie. Miriam took a moment to look him over. Khaki pants, not tight enough to show off much but the shirt was some athletic thing that showed the muscles on his chest and arms. Short hair. His hands looks strong too, and then she realized she was a little jealous of whomever he was shopping for. Of course, he was probably nicer to look at than talk to. Miriam gave a sigh and went back to the baby clothes. He had been checking her out before she looked over, so he was probably a dick – checking out other woman while shopping for his girlfriend.

Heather was loading more diapers into the cart. Her house was already full of them and Miriam wondered how many of these things she would really need. It seemed every time they went shopping, even if it wasn't specifically for baby stuff, one or two bags of diapers ended up in the cart. Miriam picked up a squeaky toy and went over to her friend, giving it a squeeze behind her.

Scaring a pregnant lady can’t be a good thing, unless you wanted to help catch. Heather said, dropping a third bag of diapers into the cart.

Ew, no thanks. Miriam tossed the toy back. The man from across the aisle had moved, and she noticed he was still looking over. There is some guy in the underwear section checking me out.

Heather shot a glance that way then turned back to her cart. He isn’t looking now. And while in the women’s underwear section? Maybe he’s imagining what you’d look like in some of those outfits.

He is probably shopping for his girlfriend, and shouldn’t be checking out anyone. Robert, Miriam’s last boyfriend, had real problems with that sort of thing. Miriam had to admit that his checking out other women had, ultimately, actually bothered her less than catching him with them.

Heather started to push the cart to the check-out lines, and they were quickly passing through the doors to the parking lot. It was a bright day, and Miriam fished her sunglasses out of her purse. She got out her keys too, long trained habits of leaving bars late at night making her have the door key out long before reaching her car.

There was a sound of screeching tires. Miriam turned her head to see a white van, a big cargo one, skidding to a halt behind them. Miriam grabbed Heather’s arm, starting to pull her out of the way even as she realized the van would stop short of them. Must not have been paying attention, but then why was he going so fast to make his tires squeal?

A large door on the side of the van slid open and three men jumped out. They were all in black with masks over their faces. They moved to Miriam and Heather, one taking a moment to shove the cart out of the way. The other two grabbed Heather and tore her from Miriam’s grasp, pulling her back towards the van.

Miriam stumbled a little when she lost her grip on Heather’s arm but didn’t fall. Her key-chain had a small can of pepperspray she had gotten in back in college. She didn’t know if it was still good, but she brought it up and sprayed it at one of the men, who had turned to her. The spray caught him in the face and he brought both hands up to block it even as he cried out and stepped back.

Miriam turned towards the two who were dragging Heather towards the van. She didn’t want to use the spray again, it would hit Heather too. Even while pregnant she was struggling fiercely, her extra weight alone was enough to give the two men trouble. Neither was looking at Miriam, so she walked over and kicked the closer of the two firmly between the legs.

Something hard hit her foot when she made contact. The man looked uncomfortable