Second Chances by Valerie Maarten
Excerpt
Premise: After 20 years of the pain and suffering from the loss of a loved one, Dain and Kadi must confront the ghosts that haunt their past, present and future. Will they, in turn, be able to embrace their Second Chances?
The set-up: With a heavy heart and a
blackened soul, Dain McKnight lays-in-wait to finally confront the man that was
convicted of murdering his sister, Hanna.
He sits in the dank bar across the street pondering on the multitude of
ways to torture a man as he bides his time.
Dain McKnight’s jaw clenched and unclenched
in a violent rhythm of madness. His
large hand cupped the glass he held, threatening to shatter it into a zillion
shards. Still, the low rumble of voices
in the dimly lit bar couldn’t drown out his fatalistic thoughts. The primal instincts for blood had dwelled
dormant inside him…until he heard the news.
He took another swig from his glass.
The burning sensation went down, slow.
The bartender broke into his thoughts,
clearly intimidated by Dain’s dark, mysterious behavior. His eyes instinctively lowered in
submission. “Do you want another?”
Dain grunted. He slid the empty glass over in the man’s
direction. Yet, his eyes never left his
line of sight. The brown, two-story
brick building held all his attention and the brunt of his wrath. Inside that building lived the man who brutally and savagely murdered his sister Hanna, 20 years ago. Now here he was, free and living amongst
society as if nothing had ever happened.
Yet Hanna still lay cold in her grave with no such reprieve.
Dain clenched his teeth again, his jaws
flexed violently as the muscles in his neck strained to break free from beneath
his skin.
The bartender returned with another double
shot of whiskey and placed it on the table in front of him. His eyes wandered curiously at the window to
try and glean what held his glare so intently.
All he could see was the normal comings and goings at the Trinity House,
a half-way house that housed reformed drug addicts and paroled prisoners.
Dain ignored his presence and essentially
dismissed him with a $50 bill that he slammed down on his tray. The bartender shrugged and returned to his
tasks.
An older gentleman who had been sitting at
the bar since Dain’s arrival appeared to have finally drunk enough to conjure
up the courage to approach. He staggered
and side-stepped the whole way. In an
almost comical way, the drunken man gave a slight bow in a gesture that
indicated that he had come in ‘peace’.
Still, he swayed back and forth as he tried to maintain his
equilibrium.
“If it’s a young lady who’s got you
drowning your sorrows away, let an old man give you a word of advice…” he gave
Dain a friendly, toothless grin. “Get
another one. No woman is worth so much
pain.”
Pain.
What does he know about my pain?
He frowned and gave the man a menacing stare, though he didn’t waiver. He seemed too deadened by all the alcohol
that he had consumed throughout the course of the day to be afraid.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,
Old Man,” Dain said in a low grumble.
His voice was low, his tone even.
Which was the opposite emotion of what he felt inside. Inside, he felt bold, brazen and on the verge
of being unable to contain the ‘Monster’ that lived in his darkened soul.
The man was oblivious to Dain’s contempt and
sat down in the empty chair across from him.
Dain’s eyebrow went up slightly.
“I’ve spent a lot of days in that chair,” he
pointed to a dark, lonely corner at the back end of the bar. Dain stared for a moment, allowing his eyes
to adjust to the dimness of the room after having stared out at the glare of
the street for hours on end. “No woman
is worth the sorrow I see in your eyes, boy.”
“I assure you, she is worth it.” He leaned
forward so the man could see the hatred that lurked behind his eyes. “I am prepared to kill for her.”
The man scotched back in his seat, feeling
the power of Dain’s declaration. For a
long while he was unable to speak. There
was a moment of clarity in his eyes. In
that instant, he was as sober as a Judge.
“You don’t mean that, son.” He
pleaded. “You have a second chance,
right here…right now. All you have to do
is take it. Don’t throw your life
away. There’s nothing worth that.”
Dain leaned back in his chair, pondering the
words of the man before him. He was a
complete stranger to him and yet he had cared enough about him to warn him
against the destructive thoughts that haunted his mind, knowing that it would
ruin the rest of his life and destroy his family. But the need to avenge the death of his
beloved sister was too powerful. He
wanted nothing less than to make the man who was responsible, endure the same
pain and suffering he had caused her.
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Oriental Ham Soup
ingredients
- 4 cups water
- 2 cups sliced bok choy
- 3/4 cup carrot cut into thin strips
- 3/4 cup chopped onion
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons dry sherry
- Dash pepper
- 8-ounces fully cooked ham, cut into thin strips (1-1/2 cups)
- 1/2 cup spinach or regular egg noodles
- In a large saucepan or Dutch oven combine water, boy choy, carrot, onion, soy sauce, dry sherry, and pepper. Bring to boiling. Add ham and noodles.
- Simmer about 10 minutes or until noodles are tender and vegetables are crisp-tender. Makes 4 servings.
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