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    Long Way Home
    Long Way Home
    Long Way Home
    Ebook60 pages26 minutes

    Long Way Home

    By Catt Ford

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Andy’s Mom sends him to his childhood home to check on the house for Christmas -- and he can’t avoid memories of the past, especially when Jake shows up on his doorstep to spark a fire in the unheated house.

    A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2008 Advent Calendar package "Christmas Dreams."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamspinner Press
    Release dateDec 1, 2008
    ISBN9781615812646
    Long Way Home
    Author

    Catt Ford

    Catt Ford lives behind the orange curtain in southern California with a partner and two familiars in the form of cats whose fur is as black as their evil little hearts. She is a graphic artist by day and a storyteller by inclination. Catt enjoys the research required for writing a believable story. She is a rabid card-carrying fan of bull riding and also enjoys swing dancing. She gets drunk on words and sometimes overimbibes, but loves to write about love and happy endings. Blog: catt-ford.livejournal.com

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      Book preview

      Long Way Home - Catt Ford

      The Long Way Home

      SOME Christmas. Guess it was going to be a white one after all, even though I hadn’t been dreaming of it.

      The snow had been too light and dry to stick yet, swirling over the tarmac ever since I left the city. I rolled down the window and caught the unmistakable hint in the air that told me more snow was on the way. It didn’t matter much; the state was good about keeping the thruway cleared. I’d make it home all right.

      It would be the first time since I’d graduated college that I was going home and my parents wouldn’t even be there. I always found some excuse to avoid going, and surprisingly, my mother accepted them no matter how lame.

      But this year, they’d gone to Florida for the winter and my mother hadn’t bought my line when she called. She had a feeling that something was wrong at the house and ordered me to go check on it. She always claimed that she was psychic, and she was right just often enough to hang onto her reputation for womanly intuition.

      When I told her I didn’t want to go, she asked what I was doing that was more important than doing a favor for my mother.

      Well, when you put it like that, I’d said.

      "I do. Andy, get your butt up there and call me to let me know you made it all right. Be careful driving."

      I will, Mom.

      Which is why I found myself counting exits instead of sitting alone in my apartment in the city. The snow was coming down harder now and starting to stick. By the time I made it home, it was four inches deep.

      Pulling into the driveway, it was hard knowing that they wouldn’t be there, my mother coming out to urge me to eat a snack to hold me until dinner, my father gruffly slapping me on the back and shaking my hand….

      The house looked like it always did and it hit me how much I’d missed coming home. Not just to see my parents, but the feeling of being in a place I was completely familiar with. It was strange, as if I’d lived there in a previous life long ago, which in a way I guess was true.

      I should have taken my bag inside and gotten settled right away, but just being home made me want to see the old fishing hole again. Instead of coming straight down, the snow was dancing sideways, as if promising that it would hold off long enough for me to walk there and back before dark if I started out now. I pulled my cap down to cover my ears and turned up the collar of my coat. With my hands dug into my pockets, I set out cross-country through our apple orchard, taking the shortcut from when we were kids.

      The bare trees cast pale blue shadows across the new snow and the pond was frozen over, a flat disc of silvery grey surrounded by the wizened sumac at the edge. Where the creek flowed in the ice was thin and black, showing the sluggish current beneath.

      The big flat rock still jutted out over the water like it always did. We used to sit there in the sun to dry off after swimming. I brushed off a spot and sat down cross-legged like I used to, squinting into the misty glare, wishing I could see Jake jump from the rope just one more time. It still hung there, rigid and glittering with ice,

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