Hollow Heart

By Jason Lefthand

Casey lost count of the number of times she stormed out of her house to get away from her neglectful parents, away from her cheating boyfriend, away from her life that was going nowhere. Out of all the times she walked along the same path, she never noticed the thing buried a few feet from her home. Then one day, she sees a hollow eye peeking at her from the ground.

Her life suddenly has purpose the moment she lifts the coyote skull from the dirt, and she hears his voice calling to her. She feels his love. And she gives it in return.

Casey runs away with him. She will go to the ends of the earth and encounter strange creatures in order to retrieve his parts that were scattered centuries ago, and put him back together.

Now, Casey has one final piece to find, a piece that will lead her to a lonely house, in a barren land, where the oldest god of the Navajo waits for her. As she stands before the doorway, she has one question on her mind. Is she willing to trade her life for Coyote's heart?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jason Lefthand
• Release date: Oct 10, 2016
• ISBN: 9781536540765

Book preview

By: Jason Lefthand

Copyright © 2014 by Jason Lefthand

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States Of America

First Printing, 2014

Scratched Metal by Ellenvd, used for the cover under CC BY 2.0/Modified from original.

A strong gust of wind blew through the automatic doors. A short woman and her tiny child, their mouths pinched shut, stepped out of the store and into the blustery parking lot. She had a shopping bag clutched to her chest. Dirt and leaves scattered inside, along the slick tile floor and settled up against a table stacked with clearance fabrics.

Casey saw them from of the corner of her eye, as they walked past the front window. The woman's hair whipped about as she rushed to her car with the daughter dragged along behind her. There was another gust, violent and uncaring. A small book lifted out of the bag and was swept away as if caught in a rushing river. The child reached out and cried, but the woman did not notice. The mom shouted something, as she strapped the child into her seat. She dashed to the driver's side.

As the car pulled away, Casey saw the child one last time, her lips folded down, her eyes desperately searched the sandy sky.

There was something oddly familiar about that, Casey thought. It was something she had not experienced in years. It wasn't the feeling of being unnoticed. It was something else. It was the lost story.

She smelled it. The air. It, too, brought back flashes of her old life in Tsaile, AZ. She remembered the butte and strolls around the small lake at the edge of the canyon. Tsaile was where she had abandoned her family, and her poor excuse of a boyfriend, Eric. Eric never chased her after she had left. He never really cared about her. He said he did, which was what uncaring guys often said in that flippant tone, but she never believed him. She knew now that nothing could have ever grown between them. That was years ago and she was a different person now. She was older, friendlier, and braver than the timid Navajo girl who stood by the roadside as she waited for Eric. He loved to swoop her into his pickup and they drove around the mountain until the gas gauge teetered on empty. When the mood struck him, he leaned in and groped her. It was the only love life she had known.

Casey found it curious how the dust reminded her of Tsaile, even though a lot of the reservation was coated in dirt, like an antique curio left to age on a shelf. She didn't try to reason with it. She smelled it again.

Excuse me, dear, the old woman cashier said politely.

Casey flinched. She had forgotten where she was for a moment. That happened more often as she went days without a real night's rest. James always kept her up at night, for various reasons, but she never minded. Casey's life was always about the man with the missing heart who loved her like nothing else.

I guess I dozed off there, Casey said with a little laugh. She held a small packet of needles and a spool of blue thread. Her fingers squeezed the thread as her memory