Blanket Rides

Since I am into tributes today, a tribute to my dad.

Darkness…I remember darkness, and the cold, smooth feel of the chills as they rippled down, down to the base of my spine.
Silence…I remember silence as I rounded each slippery corner, edgy lest the monster reach out and grasp me.
Exhilarated…I remember being exhilarated as I zoomed down the slanted staircase, crashing cozily into the blankets below.
Laughter…I remember my laughter as I asked to ride again and again. Blanket rides…I remember my father’s blanket rides filled with darkness, silence, and exhilaration glazed over with just the right amount of fearful anticipation of what may lay beyond every corner.

Intro. to my new novel...

Darkness is a difficult thing to grab. It is slippery, thick, and everywhere. My Darkness is different. He has teeth, a mind, and an intense loathing for the one he is designed to torture, me. My Darkness is a curse destined to follow me, everywhere. Escaping him is my deepest, most ardent obsession.
My name is Sadie… Not Sadie Smith or Sadie Jones, just Sadie. Failure, rejection, and loneliness are my constant companions. I keep them stored in my back pocket. If a good experience attempts to rear its head, one of these three shows up and beats it down.

My life has been wrapped in a shroud of mystery, and my death, it seems, has been following me wherever I turn, ready and waiting to grasp its spindly claws around my neck and pull me down. Down into slippery, all-encompassing darkness where My Darkness and I will live out the remainder of our eternal years together side by side, two tortured lonely souls.

My life shifted dramatically on Sept 27th for this was the day I moved in with the Rinehouse family, and for so many varied reasons, it is a day that time will never allow me forget. I have written this account as a beacon of directional light for those to follow, hopefully directing more than a few away from the fate that was mine.