TUESDAY INTROS./TEASERS: AN ACCIDENTAL LIFE — MAY 8

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, from Tuesday/First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea; and Teaser Tuesdays hosted by Should Be Reading.

Just grab your book and share the opening lines; then find another excerpt that “teases” the reader.

Today I’m sharing again from one of my own creations.  An Accidental Life is a story that begins during one long hot summer in California’s Central Valley.

Summertime is hot and dull in the Central Valley of California and four teenage girls from very different families are determined to spice it up. With a single-mindedness that foretells disaster, they push aside all the rules and explore the underbelly of valley life. Drugs, sex, alcohol, adventure, anything to challenge the norm, yet all experienced without the benefit of maturity. As the girls become increasingly uncontrollable, their mothers–from dramatically diverse social backgrounds–are forced to work together to save their daughters. Like a tornado moving across the landscape, lives are wrenched from their foundations…

***

Intro:

Once upon a time, Karin Larson had believed in endless possibilities.  In her childhood, all the adults had asked her the same question: What do you want to be when you grow up?   Picturing a giant list from which she could choose, Karin had played with the task, picking out one thing or another, while watching the reaction of the grownups to help her know if her choices were right or wrong.

Much later, Karin had come to realize that selecting one thing meant giving up something else.  A possibility lost…perhaps forever.  Sometimes, not making any choice at all was just a different way of choosing.

Karin often wondered about those alternate paths.  As a single mother and a social worker for the past fourteen years, she was a responsible and professional person.  She had achieved some expertise in her field.  On the surface, an observer might see her as a calm, reasonably attractive woman in her mid-to-late thirties.

So why did she wake up every morning of her life wishing she were somewhere else and anyone else?

Today was no different from any other.  Karin heard the alarm and cringed.  Then, to stave off the inevitable, she pretended to be on vacation in some tropical island.  She could almost feel the breeze off the ocean, and the scent of suntan lotion wafted toward her.  She could feel her body relaxing into the chaise lounge, while a handsome man approached with a tall, cold drink with one of those little umbrellas on top.  “Mom!” Bridget’s voice interrupted her reverie with its irritatingly teenage quality, that tone that demanded immediate attention.  As she pushed open the bedroom door, she continued.  “I can’t find that book I’m supposed to take back today!  Have you put it somewhere?”  Her tone, almost accusing, brought Karin rudely back to reality.

***

Teaser:  He watched angrily as Molly sat there in the dimness of the bar, talking to that man…that creature who had swooped in and picked her up.  She was turning out to be a regular whore!  That night in the bar in Clovis, and now, this.  What had happened to his beautiful Molly?  She was becoming someone just like all the other women who had disappointed him.  He must take action, and soon!

His agitation increased, but he hovered near the edges of the pub, staying out of sight, blending into the woodwork.  That was his best quality, being able to render himself virtually unnoticeable.  In the end, though, they would all notice him, and then they would be sorry for everything!  p. 316

***

What’s the verdict on this opener?  Are you teased by the “teaser”?  Come on by and share your thoughts.  Meanwhile, I’m off to check out your snippets.
 

NAMELESS, FACELESS FEAR….

Young social worker Molly Atkinson is spooked by the news from her neighbor, but tries to distract herself and relax, in this excerpt from An Accidental Life.

 

Jim’s report had disturbed Molly greatly.  Long after he left, she paced about in the small living room, her agitation level increasing as she moved about the space.  Finally, exhausted by her day and the emotional stress of finding out about her neighbor, she ran hot water into the tub, pouring in the scented bath beads.  She closed and locked the bathroom door and while the tub filled, she noticed the steam forming a vaporous cloud.  It reminded her of a scene from that thriller, Fatal Attraction; the woman played by Anne Archer is wiping the steam off of her bathroom mirror and sees the deranged character played by Glenn Close reflected there.  She could almost feel the bloodcurdling scream erupting from her own lips, as she visualized a similar fate.

Sinking down into the water at last, she closed her eyes and tried to erase the frightening images…A young woman, about her age, or maybe a little older…found dead in her apartment earlier that day.  Murdered.  No suspects.  That meant that the perpetrator was still out there, maybe lurking about.  Without a suspect, there was no motive.  It could have been someone who knew the young woman, but it also could have been a random act.  Feeling extremely vulnerable, Molly got out of the tub and wrapped herself in the big toweling robe.  Drying her hair with a separate towel, she slid between the comforter and the crisp sheets and pointed the remote at the little TV on top of her bureau.  The eleven o’clock news was playing and there, sure enough, the newscaster was recounting the tragic demise of the young woman next door.  Still no suspects listed.

She changed the channels, searching for something to distract her, but every channel seemed to be featuring a thriller or some kind of horror flick.  Finally she tried to read and when that didn’t work, she reached for the prescription bottle containing a sedative:  one her doctor had given her last year while she was still in graduate school and having a hard time falling asleep.  She knew she shouldn’t keep taking them, but their comforting presence now beckoned to her.  She slipped one under her tongue, washing it down with her bottled water.

STALKING….

Photograph by Craig Robinson, Berlin Photographer

Hovering, waiting, pondering what to do next—a stalker contemplates his next moves, in this excerpt from An Accidental Life.

He finished his work for the day, and headed toward his car in the nearby city lot.  He hadn’t seen any sign of Molly all day, but he wasn’t worried.  He would see her soon enough.  It was almost time for them to be together.  He now had the code to her security gate…it hadn’t been that difficult, with his telescope, as he had watched Chase punching in the numbers on the keypad.  He knew exactly where each number was positioned on the pad and had followed the motions as Chase casually entered them.

He’d always been really clever about some things, but few people gave him the credit he deserved.  Even in his job, he rarely received any kudos.  Everyone just expected him to plod along, being there and doing his job, without any fuss.  After all, it was a “no frills” kind of position; the kind where nobody really noticed you unless you weren’t there.

Just like everything else in his life, beginning with his childhood.  He grimly pushed thoughts of his parents out of his mind.  Jerome and Dorothy had received an unpleasant surprise when they’d conceived him!  They had been in their forties when he came along and he’d always been aware of their feelings toward him.  He was a burden.  Even though he gave them no trouble, always following the rules.  Somehow he always fell short of their expectations.  He remembered his father’s punishments for any imagined infraction, and cringed at the memory of that leather belt, the one with the hard, sharp buckle; his father always pulled that one out when he felt that his son was remiss in some way.  But worst of all…The nights he’d spent alone down in the basement, with only the one dim light standing between him and total darkness.  Those were his “time-outs”.  He shuddered at the memory.

But none of that held any candle to his feelings of rage when the girls he met in school laughed at him, or ignored him.  Like Molly.  But he had known that if he could just get Molly’s attention, she would see him in a whole new light.  She might even admire him for his ingenuity.

He smiled to himself as he imagined them face to face at last.