The Legend of Garrison Falls

By Kristy Morgan

After the death of her parents and a life altering event, Kathy Henderson, goes through life in a fog.

In a big small town where nothing ever happens, she is forced to protect herself in a robbery gone wrong. Stress can make people do things they wouldnt normally do.

Enter the exciting lives of the citizens of Garrison Falls, after spending a day here you wont know fact from fiction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jan 4, 2012
• ISBN: 9781462068463

Kristy Morgan

Kristy Morgan received Jesus Christ as her Lord and savior at the age of twelve. Morgan and her husband, James, have four children. She is also the author of Black Heart Revenge and the children’s book, The Adventures of Rocky and Skeeter: Rocky Goes to Jail.

Book preview

 1 

Slowly, as if walking through a foggy haze, Kathy Henderson ambled into the deli. The wind blew strands of her deep honey blonde hair across her face but Kathy barely noticed.

Chad stood close at hand ordering Kathy’s steps; willing her not to stumble. He watched as she made each foot fall with a robotic auto pilot motion. Lines of worry etched his face as he breathed a prayer for her mental health. He half expected her to lose it at any minute. The inevitable break down that had been predicted for the past year would soon make its way to the surface.

Kathy hadn’t cried once, not even at the funeral. She couldn’t. Inside she felt numb. So much had happened over the past year. And on top of everything else Gabe, her husband, was not acting like his usual self. Normally Gabe was a rock when it came to Kathy always a shadow that never left her side in times like these. So many times since their meeting back in high school Gabe had seemed to hold the reigns of her sanity. He loved her there had never once been any question about it at least not until now.

Gabe had made his intentions very clear. He would not be eating at Sub Heaven. Isn’t that what he had said? Instead he made his way to Burger Mountain. Meanwhile, Kathy sank further into despair. The world was turning on its axis and Gabe was reluctant to make the trip as if there had even been a choice. They were married till death do them part. He could recite every word of their vows same as Kathy. Gabe had stood in front of Pastor Steve Jansen and recited the words practically before the preacher had had the chance to recite them his self . . . He had stood there at the edge of the shore line as anxious as Kathy to start their new life together so why was he abandoning her now? Abandoning . . . At least that’s the way it felt in side, and so on top of every thing else that had lent itself to her broken spirit he was there as well . . . the love of her life, Gabe Henderson, the gatekeeper to her peace of mind.

Kathy had only buried her father a year earlier. And now on what seemed to be the darkest day of her life she had laid her mother’s body to rest beside him.

Joe and Sandra Mitchell had been the epitome of true love. Both seemed to exist for the other. So when Joe died suddenly in a motorcycle accident on his way home from work life had become a waste of breath for Sandra. All she wanted was to be with Joe and three days earlier she had fallen asleep never to wake again this side of Heaven.

Sandra Mitchell had spent a lifetime loving God, her husband and children. So Kathy was left with no doubt that her mother was safe in the arms of her husband while standing on the shores of Heaven worshipping their king together. So what was it that had Kathy feeling so lost? They were happy right?

Kathy was the youngest of three daughters and she loved her mother and father very much. She grew up in the kind of home that had been represented by the old TV sitcoms that her mother and father had loved to watch.

Kathy’s mother stayed at home making baked goods and home schooling Kathy and her two sisters. Meanwhile her father worked at the bank for three months shy of his thirtieth anniversary when he was killed by a motorist that had fallen asleep in the South bound lane and then crossed into North bound traffic. Joe Mitchell had been an honest man that loved his family immensely. The closest he had come to any sort of a wild streak was joining the Heavenly Hogs, a motorcycle organization that was founded by the Garrison Falls family worship center to be an out reach to gang members. The Heavenly Hogs had only managed to bring more beauty into her already perfect childhood.

Now Kathy melted into her puddle of misery and despair completely unaware of her own existence.

Kat? Chad tried to keep his voice as soothing as possible. He took careful hold of her arm and led her to one of the bench seats closest to the door at the front of the deli.

Kathy squinted up at Chad with unshed tears and confusion in her eyes. She couldn’t quite make out what Chad was saying. She barely knew who she was. Her life was poured out one day at a time after her father died while she alone kept vigil over her ailing mother. Kathy’s older sisters were Deborah and Jessica. Both had moved away from Garrison Falls to make new lives for themselves.

Deborah was a missionary over seas that visited as often as possible but their father and mother had both made it perfectly clear that the Lord’s work always came first in the Mitchell household and there were no exceptions. So Deborah would visit a couple times a year if possible and she had even come home to sit with their mother for two weeks during the spring so that Kathy and Gabe could get away.

Jessica had her faith as well but her life had carried her to a more structured ministry. She lived in a little community in Grand Haven, Michigan where she was the wife of a Baptist minister at a small church. Jessica had made a trip to Garrison closer to the end but had to return to Michigan when one of her teenage daughters had broken a leg during a skiing accident on a church get away. In the end the life styles of the other two sisters had left the care of their ailing mother to Kathy.

* * *

Don McCormick sauntered around Sub Heaven as he waved the shiny black pistol that he had bought just a week earlier at the pawn shop two blocks from where his house was located on Cherry drive. He had been out of jail just two months and couldn’t get a job anywhere. His probation officer, Tom Henning was adamant that Don get a job soon. The man was breathing down Don’s neck at every visit. What did Tom Henning know about life anyway? He could just imagine Tom’s reaction to a day in the life on Don McCormick. Tom would lie face down in a ditch or out in front of the local grocery store begging for food the first day. Tom had absolutely no understanding of the life of those people that he coached. What a hypocrite.

Yes Don’s reality was very different than that of Tom . . . . For that matter not one of the silver-spoon-fed social lights that made up the customers of Sub Heaven would have a clue what it meant to rough it.

In the bag! Don shouted through gritted teeth. Don’t play games people. I am not a patient man! Don stood a seething scowl etched across his face. He waved the pistol again for effect. He had no intention of hurting anyone. He just wanted what society had owed him . . . what it had robbed him of. He was left here in this town that cared nothing about his welfare with his piece-a-crap father while his mother walked away. He had nothing and no one. Now it was his turn. It was time for society to give back.

A frail old woman sitting with her feeble husband gasped as her hand flew to her mouth. I want pin numbers to credit cards and debit cards alike and don’t even think about doing something stupid people . . . like giving fake numbers, remember I have your addresses. Don scowled again as the same old woman looked at her husband with anxious tear filled eyes.

Don rolled his eyes. He couldn’t help but to feel sorry for the poor old sap . . . He was only one hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet. Don gave his condolences even if they were only imagined. What could he possibly do to the guy that life and the old woman sitting next to him hadn’t already done?

Kat, are you listening to me? Desperation mounted in Chad’s voice as he tugged on Kathy’s arm trying to pull her from the booth that they had been sitting in. We have to go! Kat! This man is robbing these people! Please! Snap out of it before we get kill . . . . Chad had been unable to finish the sentence. The last thing that he felt before crumbling awkwardly to the floor was a searing hot flash that started at the base of his neck and traveled up his skull.

 2 

Gabe Henderson crossed the parking lot of Sub Heaven headed straight for Burger Mountain. The two businesses practically shared a parking lot.

Gabe had grown up in Garrison Falls and as long as he could remember Burger Mountain had been a part of the scenery. It was just five years ago that Sub Heaven had bought the small lot butting up next to Burger Mountain. He never really liked the place. Always the upper class seemed to fill it with their determination to stick to one diet or another. Its not that he didn’t like those types of people more that he didn’t understand them. Gabe’s grandparents were actually members of the elite upper class and had always been nice to him. So labeling all of them as being pampas or eccentric had not been his desire. The attitudes of that class in particular weren’t at all what had goaded his tender sensibilities; not at all . . . More than anything it was the need to be perfect that seemed to plague the social atmosphere of the rich that lent to Gabe’s disproval of them.

Gabe had worked out since high school, where he was wide receiver for the football team. Diets had never made any since to Gabe, and he was especially determined today not to share his meal with Garrison Falls’ finest. Something about people seeming to not have anything more to talk about than their weight or the weight of others grated on his nerves. Besides they should know by now that diets didn’t work. How long did people have to order the same worthless dietary products from one infomercial after another before they would realize it wasn’t diets, but hard work and simply eating right?

Gabe stared out across the parking lot, past all of the hustle and bustle that was downtown Garrison Falls, and his breath caught. The scene was like something out of a magazine. Still, after all these years amongst the back drop of the smog and fog of the city, it stood majestically. The reason Garrison Falls had its name. The mountain rose from the earth and burst forth into the heavens, the epitome of beauty and strength. Gabe studied the mountain for a moment longer squinting against the smog to get a better look. He had been to the waterfall that plummeted some three hundred feet from the mountain’s crest to its base. The sound at the water fall’s edge was both deafening and relaxing at the same time. Now as he looked at the mountain and recalled the few times that he had visited the raging falls and the regal mountain he felt as though his life carried a similar theme . . . both beautiful and raging chaos at the same time.

Gabe’s mind drifted back to simpler times. The summer at church when Kathy had reentered his life, at a homecoming service, Kathy had been invited by the preacher and his wife.

Some of the members of the church would always start at least a month before the service would be held inviting old members that had not been in a while. The first attempt at inviting old members back to the church had been dreamed up by Edna Pruitt; one of the oldest members of the church . . . because of the success, the church had made it a social event. Everyone that was willing to come to a Saturday after noon lunching and had a phone would be given a list of names and by the end of the day most of the members that had fell out of touch with their church family had happily agreed to return for homecoming. Out of that number a third would usually stay. In the years after Mrs. Edna had incorporated the idea into the church’s history and since she had past away. The church had grown from one hundred members that were actually present to more than three hundred present.

Gabe and Kathy had sat across the table from each other by chance. Gabe had grown very close with the pastor of the church after he had counseled him through his divorce with Denna. Never once had Pastor Darren judged Gabe in his decision to leave the marriage after Denna had been unfaithful and absent on most occasions. Instead he had prayed with him and in the end respected Gabe’s decision.

Kathy sat next to the pastor’s wife, Lydia, and chatted with her about their commonalities in band. Kathy and Lydia had met in high school, during their time in the band, and had never lost touch.

Kathy pulled her attention from the easy banter that she shared with Lydia and regarded Gabe. The years seemed to melt away when she looked at him now. Odd, in high school she had never felt so shy around him, now though she had an easy connection with Gabe, but at the same time she could feel something different growing between the two of them.

Gabe recognized the same feelings registering in Kathy’s eyes that were budding in his own heart, as they talked about the past and the expectations of the future with their mutual friends. After that visit to homecoming, Kathy and Gabe did not miss a Sunday service. They also communicated during the week and made plans to go to dinner and a movie. Things had moved at an even pace between the two of them. Gabe could feel his heart swelling with the intensity of the emotion he felt for Kathy.

One day, on Gabe’s way to pick up Kathy; he had stopped by and looked at some rings. Gabe wanted the time to be perfect, so he had planned