Rising Star (21 page)

Matt kissed her again, this time hungrily.
“You want to go see our new ranch, my love?”
“You bet,” Selena said as a happy, contented smile crossed her
face. Now, she truly had everything she wanted. Sometimes, dreams
do come true, she thought happily.

Enjoy this preview of Dream of Echoes, an
Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards Contest Quarterfinalist. Coming
Soon…

Dream of Echoes

Chapter 1

November 6, 2010

I drove down Interstate
Ninety from Seattle, then I cut off onto highway eighty-two and
pulled into a gas station. I couldn’t get my credit card to work at
the pump and I had to take it inside.

“
Evening,” the clerk said
as I handed him my card. He was tall and slim, with really blond
hair, almost white. Even his eyebrows were a pale blond and his
complexion was almost ghostly. “The future is in the past,” he said
as he swiped my card.

“
Excuse me?”

“
True love is on the other
side,” he said as he gave me a big smile and handed me back my
card, displaying a row of perfect, even white teeth.

“
I’m sorry, I don’t
understand.” I thought maybe this guy was off his meds or something
and I turned to leave. I was almost out the door when he spoke
again.

“
Enjoy your journey,” he
said.

“
Okay, thanks.” I waved
politely and went on out to pump my gas. What a weirdo, I thought
as I stuck the nozzle into the gas tank. I could still see him
staring at me out the window beside his cash register. He seemed to
be unmoving, just standing stock-still and staring at
me.

I quickly forgot the
albino weirdo as I continued on my way, my mind drifting back
across my mound of problems. I crossed over the Columbia River and
into Oregon. The river here was wide and very deep with swift
currents and I knew the water had to be barely above freezing. Of
course, when wasn’t it? The Columbia was cold as hell no matter
what time of year it was.

I saw a marina on the
Oregon side as I crossed the old steel bridge. I quickly took the
exit and pulled my car into the marina parking lot. The marina was
empty this time of night, but there were lights on the docks that
shone across the few pleasure boats moored there, reflecting off
the river like huge yellow beacons.

I’d heard on the radio as
I drove down that tonight was the time change.

“
Don’t forget to set your
clocks back one hour before you go to bed,” the cheery voice of the
lady on my radio had been my only company as the miles flew by.
“Remember, it’s fall back in the fall, spring forward in the
spring,” she went on.

“
Perfect.” I had just been
forming an idea the last few miles and that old steel bridge looked
perfect for it. “I’ll do it just as the time changes,” I answered
the cheery voice on the radio. “And backwards.” I nodded my head as
I thought about it. I liked the irony. “Fall back in the
fall.”

I parked my car in the
empty lot, put my wallet in the glove box, threw the car keys and
my jacket on the seat and started walking. I took my shirt off as I
walked toward the bridge and threw it to the side of the road. The
cold breeze off the river sent shivers through me, but I kept
going, climbing the hill up to the bridge. I was slightly winded by
the time I reached it, the wind from the river making it harder to
catch my breath. There was very little room between the traffic
lanes and the old steel span of the bridge and I stayed as close as
possible to the steel girders as I walked to the middle. I began
climbing slowly up the steel span, which was easier than I’d
thought it would be. There were small steel connecting plates
running along the outer edge that made it relatively easy to
climb.

I was about halfway up
when I saw two eighteen wheelers coming down the hill on the
Washington side. It’s a steep hill and they were picking up speed
as they came at me. I flattened myself against the cold steel of
the bridge and hoped like hell they didn’t see me. I wasn’t
interested in explaining myself to anyone right now. I’d done
enough of that shit lately, thank you very much. The trucks blew by
me, side by side, big diesel engines screaming, and the wind from
them almost caused me to fall. The old bridge trembled under me as
they passed. I tightened my grip and resumed my climb. I pulled
myself to the top of the span, sat down and kicked my sneakers off,
watching as they hit the swift current below and
disappeared.

Would it be high
enough
? I had never done anything like
this before so I really had no frame of reference. I crawled to my
knees, then slowly to a standing position atop the steel girder. I
stood looking down at the swift current until I felt dizzy. The
wind was lifting my hair and it felt like the entire bridge was
moving. I stared at the dark, dark river below me for a couple of
minutes as I stood there, swaying in the wind. It looked pretty far
to the water from this height. I was beginning to think I had
screwed up by hesitating. The longer I stood there, the harder it
was to consider letting go and falling—falling on and on, my body
tumbling head over heels—then the smack of that water. It would be
like slamming into concrete, I was sure of it.

“
Shit, I can’t do it.” I
was about to sit down when I heard a man yell from the marina. I
looked up and he was outlined under the yellow marina lights,
waving at me from the deck of a boat. He yelled something
unintelligible, but I could only guess what he was thinking. I knew
what I’d be thinking if I looked up and saw a guy standing on top
of an old steel bridge in the middle of the night.

“
Dammit all.” I turned
with my back to him, and to the river. There was no traffic on the
highway in front of me now, not even the trucks.

I looked at my watch. It
was a nice watch, the last thing Stacey had given me and I didn’t
want to lose it. It was white gold with a calendar and a backlight
with a dark blue face. It was one minute past two a.m. on November
7, 2010.

I could still hear the man
yelling at me. I risked a quick look back and he was running up the
hill toward the bridge. I took a deep breath of the cold, wet air,
let go of the steel girder and fell backwards toward the cold, dark
depths swirling below me.