“You’re not getting any more candy. One piece of fudge is enough for the day.”
“I want candy.”
“I said no.”
The girl was stubborn. She reached up to pull a piece of the home-made fudge from the plate. Diane smacked her hand. Kelly looked at her mother incredulously and then giant tears welled up. The toddler ran into the bedroom and threw herself onto the bed. Diane followed, sat next to Kelly, and consoled the child. “You have to listen.”
“I’m sorry, Mommy.”
Dr. Ortiz and Joshua joined them for dinner that night at Ivar’s. As they dined on fish and chips, Diane told him what had happened. “Every day, she’s talking more and more.”
“It shows that the treatments are working. Have you seen her do anything else unusual?”
“Nope. She’s a typical toddler.”
Joshua sat rocking back and forth. A wall-screen near them flashed. The boy smiled and giggled. “She says that you are lost and must awaken.”
“Who?” Juan asked.
“The girl in the wall.”
About Ridley’s Mansion
Ridley’s Pierce’s mansion sounds like pure artifice, but the architectural style described is based upon the Alster Tower, located on Heart Island in the Thousand Islands region of upstate New York. The unique building was constructed around 1900 by George C. Boldt, the owner of the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. Though Alster Tower is dwarfed both in size and notoriety by the better-known Boldt Castle, I find the tower to be the greater architectural achievement. Unlike the fussy castle, whose interior is only now being completed after one-hundred years, Alster Tower was completed during the life of its owner and used by the family for many years. Standing next to it, one is dwarfed by boulders embedded in the exterior façade. Some were placed dozens of feet into the air. Despite the massive scale of the building, it appears both grounded to the earth and ethereal. Built at the outset of the industrial age, the building is an engineering triumph, pushed upward through sheer determination and grit. Few buildings better symbolize the excesses of the early Gilded Age. Information on visiting the Alster Tower can be found at www.BoldtCastle.com.
About the Author
Michael S. Nuckols' first novel, The Winter Calf, was inspired by his childhood in the hills of Virginia. The eerie story of a woman haunted by her lost son continues in the 2016 sequels, The Wasted Grave and The Whispering Souls. The Wasted Grave revisits Iris Littleton in the years just after the loss of her son. The Whispering Souls opens two years after the conclusion of The Winter Calf.
Michael has published two stand-alone novels. Frozen Highway tells the contemporary story of a militia leader threatening a former soldier and her family in rural Alaska. Similarly, The Last Buffalo Soldier follows a war-hero fighting discrimination in the segregated South of the 1950s through the end of his life in the 1990s. His short stories include Old Momma’s Alaskan Buffet and Primitive.
Michael currently lives with his spouse on a farm in northern New York State. He has lived in coastal Virginia, west-central Georgia, and, most recently, rural Alaska.
Look for the release of Book 3, Entanglement, and Book 4, Entropy, in the near future.
Be sure to check out Michael’s website at www.michaelsnuckols.com. Sign up for his mailing list to find out about new releases and free stories as they are available.
If you enjoyed Exogenetic, please help support his work by leaving a review on your favorite website. Reviews are critical to the success of independent authors and are greatly appreciated. Honest reviews also help other readers find works that interest them.
Exogenetic Page 23