by L. L. Akers
The jigsaw puzzle was huge. It covered a third of the dining room table. It must’ve taken hours and hours to put it together. Weeks, even.
“So you like puzzles, huh?” Olivia asked nonchalantly, hoping to break through just a little to Graysie while Grayson slept.
“Nope. Mom did,” Graysie snapped loudly. Then she guiltily looked up at Olivia and gave her a short apology.
Well, that’s progress, Olivia thought. She wasn’t expecting even a one-word apology. “It’s okay. I was just wondering. I noticed it's been sitting here since the first time I came over.”
Graysie sighed and looked back down at the puzzle. She ran her hands over her face, across the top of her head and down her long, red curls. Such a serious gesture for such a young girl. It hurt Olivia’s heart to see her in turmoil over a simple puzzle.
“That's because this was the last puzzle she was working on before we left for our trip—my dad’s business trip—where...”
She paused and cleared her throat quietly.
“It's exactly as she left it ten years ago. I slid it onto a flat box and wrapped it in thick paper to try to get it here in one piece when we moved,” Graysie finished.
Olivia noticed the puzzle wasn't quite complete. There was one empty hole, where the wood from the old farm table peeked through—just a small rip in the beautiful scene, above the flowers and below the blue sky.
“Did you lose some pieces?” Olivia asked, and ran her fingers around the edges of the hole.
Graysie reached into her lap and pulled out a small velvet bag. It looked tattered, as though she’d handled it too much.
“No. They're in here.” She dropped the bag onto the table. “Mom had plenty of time to finish it, but she kept insisting it wasn't ready. She wouldn't even let me see the pieces.”
“Well, it’s been a really long time now. Don't you think she’d want you to finish what she started? It's a beautiful picture.”
Graysie’s eyes filled with tears.
“I'd love to finish it. Or at least see the missing pieces. But mom always said it wasn't ours to finish. Dad used to tease her about it. But she never changed her mind. It sat unfinished on this same table for weeks before she died. We've never even taken the extra pieces out of the bag.”
Olivia tilted her head and squeezed her eyebrows together. “Did she ever say who was supposed to finish it?”
“No. Only that it wasn't ours to finish—hers, mine or Dad's. Sometimes she just said weird things like that. I had no idea what she was talking about, and at the time, I really didn’t care. I didn’t care about her puzzles then. It’s a waste of time to put something together, only to tear it apart again.’
She shuddered, trying to stop a sob from breaking through.
“Now that she’s... gone... it seemed really important to her. She used to sit in this exact chair at this table and stare at it for hours, never saying a word. So I just can't put it away unfinished. It's like it's waiting for...I don't know what...its happily ever after—or something,” Graysie said and then rolled her eyes, as though she meant it as sarcasm.
But Olivia could see she meant what she said. This mystery of this puzzle seemed to be the last link to her mom. It was important to her to follow her wishes, and to figure out why. It must’ve been hard to sit and stare at it for days, weeks... years...since she was a little girl. Especially when she didn’t understand what her mother meant for them to do with it.
Graysie continued, “I know it kills Daddy every time he sees it. He probably still sees Mom here, crouched over it for hours, putting the pieces together. He keeps asking me what I'm waiting for. But honestly, I don't know. I just want to figure out what she was waiting for.”
Graysie's eyes were almost overflowing with the unspent tears. Olivia wondered how many late nights she had sat here, caressing the velvet bag in her hand, wanting so badly to open it and spill the pieces, finishing her mom's puzzle and put it away, if only so she and her father didn't have to stare at it during every meal. They must have agonized over it, re-living the pain of her death every day.
Closure. Maybe this is what would help Graysie with at least a little closure.
Olivia placed her hand over Graysie's. “Maybe finishing it will help both you and your dad?”
“I can't!” Graysie yelled. “Don’t you see? I promised her I wouldn't. So did Daddy. It seemed silly at the time, but it was our last promise to her.” Graysie swallowed down a sob. “And I almost never kept my promises to her before—when she was alive.” Her voice broke on her last word. She took a deep breath and said, “I can’t break this last promise.”
Olivia waited a moment to allow Graysie to regain her composure.
“But Graysie, I didn't promise your mother. Let me put the final pieces in. Finishing it doesn't mean you'd have to put it totally away. Maybe we could glue it to a backboard and frame it. We could hang it in your room. Wouldn’t you like to see it there?”
Graysie looked up with hope etched on her face.
“So, you’re sayin’ if you finish it, I’ll have kept my promise to Mom. Right?”
Olivia nodded. “Yes, you will have kept your promise. And I’d bet she’d love to have you hang her last puzzle in your room where you could see this amazing scene every day.”
Graysie nodded her head, her eyes too full to speak. Olivia could see she was ready. Ready to put the pieces to the unfinished puzzle together, and start healing.
Olivia slowly picked up the pouch, giving her time to change her mind. Graysie’s eyes never left the bag. Olivia dumped the pieces out onto the table, and turned them over, one by one. Seven pieces. She looked back at the big picture, covered in the field of flowers under the summer sky...blues and greens, black and orange, some white... These pieces didn't seem to belong at all. They were mostly red—with just a teensy bit of orange, black or blue around the edges. Maybe these weren’t the missing pieces after all?
She picked up the first one, turning it this way and that...comparing the jagged edges to the pieces surrounding the hole. Surprisingly, she found a place it fit.
She picked up another and found a place for it too, although it still looked out of place and had no discernible shape... Five more pieces and then the picture was shockingly complete.
Olivia gasped, staring at the finished puzzle.
Graysie stared at the puzzle too, her brow furrowed. She looked up at Olivia with wet eyes. Her chin trembled. Her face a mask of confusion.
Olivia met her gaze with a slow shrug of her shoulders, and a small shake of her head...her own eyes glistening too. “I swear, Graysie. I didn’t know.”
“Would you...umm...turn around?” Graysie asked in a meek voice.
Olivia hesitated, but then slowly turned in her seat. She pulled her hair off to one side over her left shoulder. Her long nightgown, held up only by thin straps, bared the back of her right shoulder.
She felt naked under Graysie’s stare. She paused for just a moment and then slid back around in her seat, letting her dark waves fall back down to cover her shoulders.
Graysie had stood up while Olivia's back was turned. And now her hand was held over her mouth in astonishment. Her eyes were huge. She lowered her hand and pointed at Olivia.
“It’s almost identical. How can that be?” Graysie wailed.
“I don’t know, honey. It’s just a coincidence, I guess.”
Graysie shook her head. “No. It was you! Mama made us wait for you!”
The missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle had formed a scarlet-red dragonfly, proudly poised on the top of the button-like black carpet crowning the beautiful orange petals of the flower. It wings were still, as though it had found a place to rest.
Without the dragonfly, it had seemed the focus of the picture had been the beautiful flower field and the amazing sky. But with the missing pieces in place, it was clear the dragonfly was what held the scene together.
Graysie was shaking. Standing there in front of Olivia, in her
long sleeping T-shirt that hung to her knees, like a little girl lost...shaking and crying.
Olivia scooted her chair back and opened her arms wide, hoping this time, she would finally accept her embrace.
Graysie rushed into her, nearly knocking her out of the chair, and landed heavily on her lap. She buried her face, like a child, into Olivia's shoulder and wrapped her arms around her, squeezing with all her might.
“She knew, Olivia. She somehow knew it would be you. You're the missing piece...” she choked out around her tears. “Mama wanted you here. You complete us.”
Olivia held the adult-sized girl in her lap and cradled her. She rocked her like a baby as the girl finally let her grief out in loud, wracking sobs.
She stroked her fiery red curls and cooed to her, as though she were her own child, and then she whispered in her ear.
“No, Graysie. It’s you and your father that complete me, sweetie.”
The End.
Sign up FOR MORE
The Let Me Go Trilogy is complete, but there will another Let Me Go book in 2016. Find out if Ember will always be Fatefully UnFree, or if Dusty and Grayson can work as a team to find her.
And surprise! A new series begins now!
Gabby, Olivia and Emma have proven they’re survivors, but what will they do when the lights go out while they’re on a ladies-only trip at Myrtle Beach?
Jake, Grayson and Dusty are about to find out how strong their wives really are, and life as they know it may never be the same.
To be alerted of new releases, sign up for my newsletter @ http://eepurl.com/Cr4Fj
Want a sneak peek? Turn the page!
Unreleased Title: Sample Copyright © 2015 by L.L. Akers, All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America, First Printing 2015; Unedited Draft for Sample Only. Please do not share this e-book/sample.
SAMPLE CHAPTER
“Shit... meet fan,” Gabby announced as she hovered over her sister, casting a long shadow.
She was fuming that Olivia was just sitting on the beach, paperback in her lap, enjoying the sights and sounds of the ocean, while she and Emma had walked several blocks in both directions, asking questions and looking for food and water. They’d found no answers, and no more food or water. She’d wanted to venture out further, but Emma hadn’t wanted to leave Olivia behind for too long. They’d agreed on the way back it was time to get out of Dodge.
Olivia looked up at her identical twin sister. “What now? Fire and brimstone raining down from the sky?” She looked from Gabby to their little sister, Emma, and then took a long swig from a bottle of water.
Great. Now we’re down to six bottles, Gabby thought.
Emma tilted her head and impatiently stared back.
They all knew it was time to leave. To start home... even if they had to walk. Olivia was just being stubborn, refusing to believe this could possibly be the event that her own husband has been preparing for... that they’d all helped to prepare for. Apparently she had thought it had all been for fun and games for them to learn to shoot and can veggies and the other dozens of survival skills that her own husband, Grayson, had insisted they try. A fun hobby... something to do to bring them together as a family. She never thought this would really happen.
Gabby flipped her long, chocolate-colored hair over her shoulder and put her hands on her hips. She looked to her little sister, Emma, who stood beside her for support. Emma was their little mini... four inches shorter, but sharing the same slender build, long dark hair and sapphire-blue eyes. If it wasn’t for the height, they could pass as triplets, even with the eight year age gap between her and the twins.
“Olivia, I’m serious,” Gabby said. “I think this might really be it. Those loud noises we heard the first night... when the power went out? Some of the other guests said it was transformers exploding. This is more than just a power outage. If you’ll get up and look, you can still see smoke.”
Olivia shook her head. “It’s been less than forty-eight hours, Gabby. Give them time to find the problem and get the power back on. I’m not leaving our vacation. Don’t be silly. What are we going to do... walk two hundred miles home?”
She faced the ocean again, watching the waves come in and break against her feet. She wiggled her toes, poking her red toenails up out of the sand, as though she didn’t have a care in the world... just another day at the beach.
Gabby wanted to slap her. They needed to get moving. Grayson had always predicted if this ever happened, it would probably be only two or three days before all hell broke loose and people lost their minds—and their humanity. Then it would be TEOTWAWKI... the end of the world as we know it. And Emma’s husband, Dusty, had agreed. He was a cop for God’s sake. How much more validation did Olivia need?
“Yes, that’s exactly what we’re going to have to do. Walk. Because there aren’t any working cars, Olivia! That’s what you’re not getting... electricity, cars, clocks, watches, motorcycles, air-condition...it’s all gone. And water... the hotel is out of water! All we have is what’s left in the room! And here you sit in the hot sun, drinking from our reserves! We’ve got to get home,” she insisted.
Olivia lifted her wrist and looked at her watch. “My watch is working fine.” She pointed out to the ocean, where the sun was beginning to drop fast, spreading its pink, orange and red coloring across the horizon. “And we’ve got more water than we need right there.”
Gabby huffed and took in a deep breath, blowing it out in frustration. Emma put her hand on Gabby’s arm, letting her know she’d try.
“Olivia, your watch is a Rolex. It doesn’t have a battery. And we can’t drink saltwater. You know that. We just came from the resort snack bar and restaurant. We stood for over an hour waiting to get in and just before our turn, they hung up a closed sign. They’re out. No more food or water. We’re going to have to walk farther to find some. All we have is what’s in our room—our unbearably hot, stinky room. The maids aren’t coming. No more water is coming. No more food. We’ve got to go find it for ourselves. May as well do that on the way home. We’ve got to leave now. Things are getting worse. You can’t change it by denying it. Your own husband has been telling you this could happen... now you want to pretend it didn’t? Grayson would be so disappointed in you.”
Emma pursed her lips and slowly shook her head. “And what about Graysie—your stepdaughter—stuck at hour from home in college? I’ll bet she’s not just sitting there with her head—or feet—in the sand thinking someone is going to turn the power back on. She’s probably walking home too.”
Olivia abruptly stood up, the back of her legs knocking her chair over in the sand. “Fine! I do believe it, okay? But I have no idea what to do about it. How the hell are we—three women—going to walk all the way home? Two hundred miles! Have you two lost your minds? We aren’t nineteen years old like Graysie. And this isn’t just a lap around the mall.”
She waved her hands around. “This is...it’s... insane. We’re talking hot asphalt, dusty roads, hills... you seriously think we can make it all the way there on foot?” Olivia’s voice wavered on the last sentence and her chin trembled.
Gabby smiled and hugged her twin sister. “We can.” She shrugged her shoulders. “The only other option is to stay here, and you know the guys are probably worrying themselves to death about us little ladies. And I know Rickey is safe with Dusty, but I’ll bet he’s worried about his mama.”
She gave Emma a sympathetic look.
“Let’s pull up our big girl panties and show them we were listening for the past two years. We’ve got our bug-out bags. We’ve got guns. We’ve got mad skillz. I think we can do it.”
Olivia stopped walking. She turned to Gabby and Emma with a worried look on her face. “Umm...I need to talk to you about those bug-out bags.”
SAMPLE CHAPTER
The sign on the door read: ‘If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down.’
Graysie rolled her eyes at the sign. Her stepmom, O
livia, had said the same thing when their power had gone out for days, over a year ago. It’d been funny then—but not now.
She scrunched her nose up to enter the bathroom. The lid was down. She hopped in place as she looked for something to lift it with. With this smell, she didn’t want to touch it. Great, we’re out of toilet paper, she thought. She’d known two rolls wouldn’t last long with three suite-mates in her dorm, and sure enough the cardboard roll sat naked and dejected on the holder. So nice of them to save her some...
She used the edge of her shoe to lift the toilet lid and nearly gagged. So much for the sign... no wonder it smelled so bad in here. Someone hadn’t flushed down their ‘brown.’
She grimaced as she looked around the bathroom for their bucket. The college administrators had offered water to anyone that could provide something to put it in. Thank goodness one of her roommates had a clean fetish and kept a bucket in their room to wash her car. Without the offered water, they couldn’t flush at all. As she looked at the messy bathroom, she wondered why that fetish didn’t apply here.
She spied the bucket in the corner, filled with damp towels. Are you freaking kidding me? Someone had used the last of the water to bathe. She gathered her long, curly red hair in her hand and brought it over her shoulder, and then shook her head in disgust as she turned around and sat down. She couldn’t hold it any longer.
She breathed out a sigh of relief as she let her bladder go and then cringed as she took in a new breath; the smell was awful. Only forty-eight hours and already it was unbearable. Between the stale, hot temperature of their room, the lack of a clean, working toilet, and the lackadaisical demeanor of the other students, she was ready to do something. Anything. She had to get out of there. If she could just make it past the security guard, she’d just walk home. It was only an hour drive to her dad’s house. How long would that take to walk?
But again—the security guard. She couldn’t believe the administration was trying to keep them here. They’d said, ‘for your own good.’ Good God, she was nineteen years old. That was old enough to join the freaking army, yet not old enough to be released during an emergency without parents’ permission? Who made that rule? Graysie didn’t believe they could really hold them there. One old fart with a gun against a whole dorm? Yeah, right. It probably wasn’t even a real gun anyway.