Staring out the taxi cab window, Samantha gazed at the horde of expressionless faces rushing past endless rows of New York office buildings. She couldn’t help but notice the variation of skin tones and languages that could be heard through the passenger window. Few, she was certain, were native to the massive city and she wondered of the sacrifices of friends and families made for the sake of happiness. Having moved to New York just months earlier, Samantha well knew the anticipation of a new life and the hope of forgetting the past.
The sights before her became a blur as Samantha thought back to the summer when her youthful fantasies of love had been destroyed.
Living in the small town of Willow Falls, Arkansas had not prepared her for the harsh truths of life. How could I have been so naive to think that someone as sophisticated as Michael Foster could actually have been devoted to me, Samantha thought?
They met in the theater department at St. John’s University, where she was taking courses. Ever since she was a small child she had wanted to be an actress. Unfortunately, her father had wanted her to get a degree in business, so to make him happy she took business courses, but was also able to study acting.
The summer of the end of her junior year Samantha was to appear in a play that the school put on every year. Past students of the theater department who had found work in the theater would return to assist with the play. Samantha was very thrilled about working with skilled actors, and when Michael Foster, one of the actors, started to show interest in her, she was in paradise. He had graduated top in his class two years before, and was now starring in a soap opera in California. He had also starred in plays in several states.
Chapter 1
The funeral was almost over, Katrina thought despairingly. Now there was no one but her, what was she going to do without her grandmother? If it hadn’t been for Renee Barlow, Katrina wouldn’t have survived the awful death of her parents eighteen years before. Renee had taken the heartbroken five year old Katrina into her home and her heart. Katrina waited until Paul Sloan, the Preacher at Rambling Hills Community Church finished the final prayer, then she let out the heartfelt sobs she had been holding back.
Here it was the first week of June, it should have been sunny and bright, but instead it was dark and gray, the rain was coming down slow and steady.
She felt someone put an arm around her, but she couldn’t look up to see who it was. But then she heard her best friend Angela Ramsey’s voice by her ear. “It’s all right Kat, cry all you want.”
Finally pulling herself together, Katrina realized that a parade of people were stepping in front of her to tell her how sorry they were that Renee was gone, she would be sorely missed by all.
When Katrina got back to her grandmother’s house, it was full of people; someone had set food out on the table in the dinning room. Katrina passed by the table without glancing at it, the last thing she wanted to do was eat. She wanted her grandmother to walk into the room and tell her it was all a big joke, she really wasn’t dead, but Katrina knew that wouldn’t happen, so she went back into the living room to visit with the people that had cared so much about her grandmother.
She was sitting on the sofa a short while later when Edward Lang, her grandmother’s attorney walked up to her.
“Katrina, my dear, I’m very sorry about Renee, she was a very special lady,” he said.
“Thank you, Mr. Lang. I think so too.”
“I hate to bring this up right now, but could we meet tomorrow morning around ten-thirty. I would like to go over Renee’s will with you; we could meet here instead of my office if you would rather.
“Thank you, I would appreciate that.”
“If you need anything before then, just give me a call,” he said before turning to leave.
Finally everyone was gone except Angela. Katrina was relieved; all she wanted was to be left alone with her memories of her beloved grandmother.
“Come on Kat,” Angela said. “Come stay with me at the lodge, please,” she pleaded. “I can’t stand the thought of you being here in this house all alone.”
“It’s okay Angie, really I like being here, I feel closer to grandmother here.”
“I know you do, but it would make me feel better if you were at home with me, just for a couple of days, at least until you decide what you are going to do. That was the hardest thing for me when mom and dad died in the car accident last year, remember? If it hadn’t been for you and Granny Ramsey I don’t think I could have gotten through it. Please Kat,” she implored one more time. “Come with me to the lodge.”
“All right, but just for tonight, I have to be back here in the morning, Mr. Lang is coming to go over grandmother’s will with me.”
“Okay, let’s get you an overnight bag packed then we’ll be off.”
That night lying in bed Katrina thought back to the day she had been told her parent’s were dead. She had been five years old at the time. Her father had to go to California on a business trip and he had convinced her mother to accompany him. He had even wanted Katrina to go with them, but Renee had talked them into leaving Katrina with her. She had told Thomas Barlow that she didn’t get to see her granddaughter as much as she liked. This would give Thomas and Molly some time alone, and Renee could have some time with her granddaughter. Katrina still remembered the loving kiss that her mother and father had given her before they had left. That was the last time she had seen her parent’s alive.
The next morning old Sheriff Ben had knocked on Renee Barlow’s door, telling her the plane that Thomas and Molly had been on had crashed before it had reached California. There had been 362 people on the plane and there were no survivors. Her world had turned upside down that morning, but she had spent the last eighteen years with the most loving woman in the world. And now she too was gone.
