I will tell you one more thing. About a week ago, a moment happened that made me consider writing all this down. Something that threw the whole thing into a new perspective. I’ve learned that most everything in life comes down to perspective in the end. I was cooking breakfast. It was a Saturday morning, and most weekends I get up and make French toast. It’s Andrew’s favorite. He was sitting at the kitchen counter, half watching me, half drawing with his crayons. That was when he said it.
“Momma?”
I stopped, spatula in my hand, feeling my eyes well a bit as I processed exactly what had just happened. I could tell by his voice that he didn’t need anything, not really. He said my name three dozen times a day in that same bored, sweet tone. He might have needed some more milk, or a different set of crayons, or maybe a new sheet of paper to draw on. It didn’t matter. The word, though. That meant everything.
Let’s get one damn thing straight. I’m not his mom. I don’t deserve that name, not yet at least. But I have to say that in that moment, I felt as if I could be, that maybe everything that happened, from Mom and Dad to Andy and me, had all been for something. That maybe, just maybe, something good had made it out of that cave intact.
I took a deep breath, and I answered.
“Yes, baby?”
About this book
This is a FLAME TREE PRESS BOOK
Text copyright © 2018 D.W. Gillespie.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
FLAME TREE PRESS, 6 Melbray Mews, London, SW6 3NS, UK, flametreepress.com
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Thanks to the Flame Tree Press team, including: Taylor Bentley, Frances Bodiam, Federica Ciaravella, Don D’Auria, Chris Herbert, Matteo Middlemiss, Josie Mitchell, Mike Spender, Will Rough, Cat Taylor, Maria Tissot, Nick Wells, Gillian Whitaker. The cover is created by Flame Tree Studio with thanks to Nik Keevil and Shutterstock.com.
FLAME TREE PRESS is an imprint of Flame Tree Publishing Ltd. flametreepublishing.com. A copy of the CIP data for this book is available from the British Library and the Library of Congress.
HB ISBN: 978-1-78758-048-0, PB 978-1-78758-046-6, ebook ISBN: 978-1-78758-049-7 | Also available in FLAME TREE AUDIO | Created in London and New York
About the Publisher
FLAME TREE PRESS
FICTION WITHOUT FRONTIERS
Award-Winning Authors & Original Voices
FLAME TREE PRESS is the trade fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing, with editorial offices in London and New York. We launch in September 2018 with our first list of new titles, focusing on excellent writing in horror and the supernatural, crime and mystery thrillers, science fiction and fantasy. Our aim is to explore beyond the boundaries of the everyday, finding new pathways for the imagination, with tales from both award-winners, original voices and debut writers.
Other titles available include:
Thirteen Days by Sunset Beach by Ramsey Campbell, Think Yourself Lucky by Ramsey Campbell, The House by the Cemetery by John Everson, The Siren and the Specter by Jonathan Janz, The Sorrows by Jonathan Janz, Kosmos by Adrian Laing, The Sky Woman by J.D. Moyer, Creature by Hunter Shea, Ten Thousand Thunders by Brian Trent, Night Shift by Robin Triggs, The Mouth of the Dark by Tim Waggoner
Join our mailing list for free short stories, new release details, news about our authors and special promotions: