Small Town Dreaming: Until That Love Found Me

By Irene Jones

Cleo has left her home and job as a DJ in the big city. She had to make the choice. But the memories of her old life come to mind when she has a quiet moment. She tries to never let it affect the life she chooses to live now.

She tries to avoid dwelling on what could have been. Some things will happen in life that you cannot control. You will forget about the past. And then…it comes full circle yet again.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098384548

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©2021 Irene Jones

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Print ISBN: 978-1-09838-453-1

eBook ISBN: 978-1-09838-454-8

Table of Contents

Part 1

Chapter 1: The Shadow that Watched

Chapter 2: Anxiety Is Underrated

Chapter 3: Small Town Living

Chapter 4: Small Town, Small Problems

Part 2

Chapter 5: Music and the Dance Floor

Chapter 6: Let the Music Play On

Chapter 7: Back Down Memory Lane

Chapter 8: Butterflies Make the Soul Happy

Chapter 9: Working from Home Paysthe Bills

Chapter 10: Time away Didn’t Change You

Chapter 11: Focused

Chapter 12: The Neighbor

Chapter 13: Keeping My Focus

Chapter 14: An Interesting Week

Chapter 15: Time Waits for No One

Chapter 16: Facing my Fears to Love

Chapter 17: Embracing True LoveWithout Judgment

Chapter 18: Worried about What They Would Say

Chapter 19: Back Down Memory Lane

Chapter 20: Is It Meant to Be?

Part 1

Chapter 1:

The Shadow that Watched

It was becoming a new way of living and seeing things for me. I live in a small town outside of Seattle, Washington, called Shadow Tree, with 1239 people. I own a small newspaper company called Good Things Do Happen, a three-employee company. I learned growing up that good indeed does exist in this world. I have invested in what inspires me, to make people believe in goodness. I have a little Shih tzu named Humble, because he is always so nice to people when they see him. I can’t remember the last time I took a walk down to the stream that flows through the town. Well, today was one of those days.

The trees are so tall and green along the trail. Once I get closer to the flowing water, I something caught my eye, but then it wasn’t there anymore. I continued to walk until I reached the stream. It’s like out of a book, so peaceful and calming. The town is mainly quiet, but down here it is like another place and time. I was working on a new story for my paper about a blessing one of our senior residents had a month or so back, so I used the quiet by the stream to think about the story some more.

I started on my way back up the trail, and I again saw something that looked like a shadow, but not quite visible enough to explain. I’m not a drunk, so I don’t see things. When things seem strange in this town, it usually means that one of the seniors has decided to rollerblade or try to do the newest dance craze.

While I was editing the story, I got a call from someone asking if I had heard the news. No, I have not. I was out on a walk down by the stream.

Are you sitting down? asked the caller.

Now mind you, I was working in my office, and sitting is 80 percent of my job. I asked what was going on, and the caller said a child had gone missing from the Seattle area. Then the caller added, It’s your niece.

Now I was standing up. What? How did this happen?

It seems to be a custody issue. Mind you, I haven’t talked to or seen my brother and his family in years. It’s not because we don’t get along or anything like that; it’s that he married a woman who abuses him mentally and emotionally. Unfortunately these things happen, but I assumed all was well.

As I was making a call to my brother, one of the town’s residents, Mrs. Cowens, came in to chat, which is part of the usual routine. Mrs. Cowens used to be an elementary teacher in Los Angeles, California. She retired about five years ago and has been doing volunteer work at the elementary school here in Shadow Tree, Washington. I call her Mrs. C.

Mrs. C, I must make an important phone call, so give me a few minutes.

Mrs. C sat down and started snooping around through some old newspapers on my desk. Expecting my brother to answer the phone, wouldn’t you know my sister-in-law answered as though not a thing was wrong?

Hello, yes may I help you? she asked, not knowing it was me.

I said, Yes, is my brother Keith in?

She hesitated, then said, Oh, Cloe, I guess you’ve heard. I’m so upset. I can’t sleep or eat, and I keep getting these phone calls—

I interrupted her in the middle of her sentence and asked again, Is Keith available?

No, he left with the police. He will be back shortly. I will let him know you called.

Knowing her, he will never know I phoned, so I need to take a city trip. The streets of Seattle always have a clean and innocent look to them. No complaints about it from me, because I’ve seen the worst. On my drive to my brother’s, I noticed they had built a new strip mall close by where he lives, which was needed, since the population in the area is growing.

When I got to my brother’s street, there were news vans everywhere, including on the neighbor’s lawn, and a camera guy was in a tree. What was going on with my missing niece?

As I looked for a place to park, I saw a familiar face in the crowd, one that I wish I hadn’t. It seems this devastating issue has brought the closest neighbors out, the ones who only come out when it’s someone else’s tragedy. Keith saw me as I finally found a spot to park. He walked up to me with tears in his eyes, then grabbed and hugged me tightly, as though he was about to lose me too.

Keith, I said, What’s going on? How did this happen? See, Keith and I may not speak to or see each other for years on end, but it’s like we just saw or talked to each other yesterday. His wife was trying to get her fifteen minutes of fame.

Keith walked me inside the house to talk privately, since that looked like the only place we could talk quietly. Inside his home was the cleanest and most organized home I have seen in a while. He brought me a glass of ice water, then we sat down and he began to explain. It had been more than twenty-four hours since my niece had disappeared. My brother had called all of her school friends and checked with the neighbors, but no friends or neighbors had seen or heard from her.

It wasn’t like her not to call or come home after school. My niece is not an ordinary teenager. She is in a class all by herself. She has the brain of Einstein and the intuition of any physic. Calling her missing seemed wrong. I would say it was more like she had chosen to leave. My brother and I know how independent she is and how she could talk a millionaire into given her some of his riches. We narrowed down what she had been doing for the last few weeks. Keith said she had been exploring different areas of Seattle and its surroundings lately, like finding open fields and tall trees with rivers surrounding them. Meech, my nickname for her, which is short for Michelle, has always had a wild imagination.

We looked around her room for something out of the ordinary as Keith and I tried to wrap our heads around what could have caused this to happen. It was getting late and the news vans still lingered, waiting on a story. What seemed odd was a lady with fiery red hair, standing in the distance. When I looked back to ask my brother if he knew her, she was gone. That was the third time today that my attention caught something strange, or at least something that looked strange to me, anyway.

Keith’s wife finally made her way