Fine as Frog Hair

By Ashley Fontainne

Can the past heal the future?

Ninety-one-year-old Marvin Hermesch is determined to find out.

After sneaking out of the retirement home on a hot and humid Sunday afternoon, Marvin embarks upon a journey. His memory is deteriorating fast, and he’s having difficulty recalling the face of his deceased wife, Ruthie.

As his short-term memory slips, it awakens memories buried deep from his younger days and vivid nightmares of his youth, including the horrors of World War II.

Armed with an empty journal, some water, and his trusty old truck, Marvin heads to his childhood home in the backwoods of Grant County, Arkansas for one last journey; one final battle.

Marvin fights to regain control of his mind and body by confronting the tragedies of the past in hopes of healing the future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: RMSW Press
• Release date: Aug 31, 2016
• ISBN: 9781533760227

Book preview

OTHER WORKS BY ASHLEY FONTAINNE

The Rememdium Series:

Tainted Cure – Book 1

Tainted Reality – Book 2

Tainted Future – Book 3

Tainted World – Book 4

The Magnolia Series (written with Lillian Hansen):

Blood Ties

Mystery/suspense novels:

Night Court

Whispered Pain

Number Seventy-Five – soon to be a feature film

http://www.number75themovie.com

Eviscerating the Snake Trilogy:

Accountable to None

Zero Balance

Adjusting Journal Entries

Paranormal/suspense:

Growl

The Lie – soon to be the feature film Foreseen

http://www.foreseenmovie.com

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Chapter One

MARVIN SHUFFLED DOWN the sprawling concrete steps as fast as his old legs would allow. The smell of gardenias and magnolias hung heavy in the humid, late Sunday afternoon air. The fragrant aroma embedded its natural perfume on his damp shirt—a welcome reprieve from the stench of disinfectants and bleach. Sweat sprinted down his back and face while making his way across the thick grass to the back parking area.

Stopping at the edge of the blacktop to catch his breath, he wiped the dampness from his forehead. Glancing around to ensure no one had noticed him slip outside, ninety-one-year-old Marvin Dean Junior Hermesch let a true, genuine smile form—a first in nearly three years. The only thing standing in the yard was the brick inlaid sign proudly proclaiming the name of the place, Rolling Brooks Estates. The faux-gold, trimmed lettering was overly ostentatious and didn’t reflect the continual nightmare of the poor, elderly souls trapped behind the doors, stashed away with nothing to look forward to except death.

When Marvin arrived at his new home two years prior, he’d gasped at the beauty of the building and grounds. At the time, he thought the lovely surroundings would help ease the pain of selling his home and moving into the assisted-living facility full of complete strangers. The three-story, red brick exterior sported six enormous, white columns gracing the porch encircling the entire place. A well-manicured yard dotted with weeping willows made the area look more like a scene from Gone with the Wind than a retirement home.

The beauty was a fake façade—a siren’s call beckoning weary travelers of life with false promises of rest and sanctuary. The place was nothing more than a fancy, large mausoleum, complete with thin and frail corpses shuffling around inside. The residents were dried up husks of their former selves, betrayed by their own bodies and minds. The life sucked out of them little by little each passing day of incarceration.

Squaring his once strong shoulders, Marvin took a deep breath, letting the sweet aroma of the flowers invigorate his soul. They reminded him of his birthplace; made his heart thump with excitement, knowing the backwoods of Grant County was today’s destination.

Marvin refused to spend the remainder of his life withering away while the staff and other residents watched him wilt from afar. He was just a name and number—a frail body occupying Room