The Melody

By H.A. Larson

Jessie is twenty and feels stuck living with her parents in the Nebraska countryside after a failed year of college. Her mom is always brooding and angry, and they just can't seem to get along. Things begin to change when she runs into Matt, who graduated high school the year before Jessie, and they begin a romance.

After their first date, she wakes up with a melody stuck in her head. Lovely at first, it becomes a constant source of frustration and a true menace at times as she struggles to deal with its persistence and the constant tension within her family.

One day, a stranger comes into the cafe where she works and recognizes the song as she hums it. Could it have something to do with Christie Anderson, who's been missing for twenty years, and who just happened to be her mom's best friend?

Can she unravel the bitter threads of her life and solve a mystery before it's too late?

• Language: English
• Publisher: H.A. Larson
• Release date: Nov 20, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370330652

H.A. Larson

I publish my own paranormal/horror thriller ebooks. In addition to writing, I love to cook, bake, and figure out how to make things from scratch. I dream of living in a foreign locale, I have a passion for beauty and makeup, I am a world traveler-in-training, I spend a lot of time in nature, I'm a closet rock star, and I consider myself an amateur photographer. I much prefer a book over television, and I am a music fanatic.

Book preview

The Melody

H.A. Larson

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2017, H.A. Larson

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one

Jessie stared at the moving landscape in silence.  Her brother Jake was driving with his usual grandmotherly concentration, so she had time to take in the slow-moving scenery.  At twenty, Jessie was still living in rural Nebraska with her parents and her two younger brothers.  She graduated from high school two years ago, tried community college for a year, decided she hated it, and came back home.

Her dad wasn’t surprised, as she was never the studious type, but her mom had been disappointed.  Her mother was always disappointed in her for this, that, and the other thing, but Jessie knew her mom had high hopes for her for selfish reasons.  She wanted to live vicariously through her daughter so she could live the life she had always wanted for herself but never gotten.

She sighed and glanced over at Jake.  Jake had his learner’s permit, and so Jessie’s job today was to be his chaperone while he practiced driving.  She had wanted to go into town to buy some essentials, and like he always did when anyone was going anywhere, Jake had jumped up and asked to drive.  She had rolled her eyes, a typical gesture when it concerned her brothers, and told him no, but her mom had chimed in from the kitchen, Take him with you Jess!  

Jessie had let out a large, audible sigh, but her mother had been undeterred.  Sometimes Jessie really hated being the oldest child.  Her brother Joey was seventeen, and mostly kept to himself, except for when he was taking their mom’s side.  She had never had to chaperone him when he was learning to drive, but that was only because her mom didn’t trust her driving until this last year.  Either that or she didn’t really care anymore.

Her reverie was broken when the country landscape turned into town, and she sat farther upright to guide Jake where she wanted to go.  Clayton was still every bit the small Midwestern town that typically only lived in the minds of people who caught reruns of old 1960’s television programs.  Time had stood still here, and because it was the closet town for many miles, it was still thriving where other small towns had all but withered away.

As he turned down Main Street, Jessie instructed her brother to pull up to Martin’s Country Store.  Main Street was the heart of Clayton and, as was normal for a pleasantly warm Saturday, it was busy.  Along with Martin’s, there was Connie’s Restaurant, Jensen’s Hardware, The Clayton Bugle, the Post Office,  The Clothier, The Green Grocer, Clayton Savings & Loan, and Jerry’s Bar.  

Martin’s Country Store was similar to an old five and dime, and sat on the corner of Main and Central.  Central was the other busy street of Clayton that was filled with various shops and businesses.  If you followed Central to the South end you would find Clayton Consolidated Schools.  It was consolidated after it acquired the students from the withered out towns of Binney and Barton.  With all of the extra tax money, Clayton had expanded and improved their school.  Because of this, Clayton Consolidated was a fairly large campus with three buildings.  One was the elementary school, another held the gym & auditorium, and the last was the junior & senior high school.  It was where Jessie had graduated a few years earlier, and where her brothers would as well.

Her first stop was Connie’s to pick up her paycheck.  She worked there full-time as a waitress and today was payday as well as her day off, which Jessie thought was just perfect.  The overhead bell tinkled lazily as she walked into the diner.  Her boss was in the back, waiting on a table of hungry people.  She walked up to the counter that ran along the left side of the establishment and sat down to wait.  Her boss, Connie Mabry, was about as great of a boss as one could have.  In her fifties, Connie was witty, wise, and just brash enough to be the life of the room.  When she had left college a year ago, Connie gave her a job and was a mother figure to her in ways that her mom wasn’t.  

Just then, Jessie’s co-worker and friend, Annie Burke, came out from the kitchen and spotted her.  Jessie! she greeted her happily.  Annie was always happy, and it was what made her endearing.  Annie was a year older than her, and had moved to Clayton six months ago to move in with her boyfriend Eddie.  Eddie had graduated with Jessie, and worked at Jensen’s Hardware.  It was a guaranteed job for him, seeing as his grandfather Chet had started the store back in the late 1950s.  Chet still puttered around the store, but it was mostly Eddie and his dad Frank that ran the place. 

Hey Annie, she greeted in return with a smile.  It was hard not to smile around Annie.  

Waiting for your check? Annie asked her.  Jessie nodded.  As if on cue, Connie joined them, Jessie’s check in her hands.

Here you go, she told Jessie as she handed over her paycheck.

Thanks Connie.

Sure thing kiddo, Connie answered with her standard nickname for anyone under the age of thirty.  She continued, Have you got any plans for this beautiful Saturday?

I’m going to put my check in the bank, and then get some things from Martin’s.  Other than that, not really.

You should come over to my place tonight, Annie interjected, We’re having a few people over to hang out.

What time? Jessie asked her as Connie went back to waiting on tables.

7 o’clock.  See you then? Annie asked.

Jessie nodded as she got up from the stool and headed towards the door.  See you then, she affirmed as she walked out the door.  She made her way across the street to Clayton Savings & Loan to put her check into her account.  Her brother met her as she walked out the door.  

Jess, can I have $5, he asked.

For what? 

I want to get some snacks, he answered.

I’m going to Martin’s right now, just come with me and I’ll buy you a couple of things.

A smile came over Jake’s face, and Jessie softened a little bit.  He was an inch shorter than her, which she knew wouldn’t be the case for much longer.  She put her arm around his shoulder, and together, they walked to Martin’s.

Joel Martin greeted them as they walked in.  In a town this size, everybody knew everybody else.  Hi Jessie, hi Jake.

Hi, they both replied simultaneously.  Jake went off to look for his snacks, and Jessie went over to where the makeup, perfume, and other toiletries were kept.  Suddenly, from her right, came a familiar voice, Jessie?  She stopped and turned towards the sound of the voice. Standing there was Matt Johnson.  The sight of him gave her butterflies.

Matt had graduated the year before she did.  He had been on the football, basketball, and baseball teams, but wasn’t much into school work.  What he lacked in studiousness, he made up for in looks.  He was proverbially tall, dark, and handsome; and Jessie had had a crush on him since the sixth grade.

Blushing slightly, she responded with, Hi Matt.

I haven’t seen you in awhile Jessie.  What are you up to these days? he asked her.

He seemed at ease, and she relaxed.  Not much really.  I tried college for a year, but I hated it.  So I’ve been working at Connie’s for the past year.  What about you?

I finished tech school in Omaha this spring.  I’ve been working in Barton as a welder since then.

Cool.  Not really sure of what to say next, she added, Well, I should go get my things.

Yeah, me too, he said.

Bye Matt, Jessie said as she started to turn away.

Hey, um, what are you doing tonight?

The butterflies in her stomach returned as she looked back at him again.  A friend of mine is having a party, she told him.  Boldly she blurted out, Do you want to come with me?

He smiled, Yes.  Should I pick you up?

She nodded, and gave him her address.

Happily he said, See you tonight! as he walked away.

With a big grin on her face, Jessie whistled as she walked through the aisles collecting her things.  As she walked to the front of the store, Jake met her at the register with his basket of junk food.  Not caring that Jake had more than five dollars worth of junk food, she paid for everything, and then waved goodbye to Joel as they left.

She was in a great mood, and suggested they stop at the ice cream shop located on the opposite end of Central from the public school.  Jake might be fifteen, but when anyone mentioned ice cream; his eyes would light up like he was still six.  

Ice cream sounded incredibly good on a day like today.  It was mid-June, and it was a warm 85 degrees.  Yesterday had only been 70 degrees in comparison, but that was the Midwest for you.

From Martin’s, they exited right, and walked to the intersection of Main and Central.  Making a right onto Central, they could vaguely see the Frosty Cone on the northwest end of the street.  Between each side of Central was a small mall that had been put in about ten years ago.  It was a pretty green space filled with trees, flower beds, benches, a small jungle gym, and a water fountain.  They decided to take a shortcut through it.

The water fountain was positioned on the far north end of the mall, and it could be seen easily by cars driving along 1st Street which lay perpendicular to Central.  Jake stopped at the fountain and peered in at all the coins that lay on the bottom.  

I want to make a wish, he stated suddenly.

Sure, Jessie answered.  She fished around in her purse until she found a quarter, and handed it to her brother.

As Jake paused to make his wish, Jessie stared at the inscription that ran around the southern rim of the fountain.  In memoriam of Christie Anderson: loving daughter, granddaughter, niece, and best friend.  You may be lost to this world, but not from our hearts and minds.  Below that in smaller print was written:  Gone 6/15/94, memorialized 6/15/04.

Jessie, like many people, had seen that inscription many times over the past ten years.  She could remember when her parents went to the fountain’s unveiling.  They had