Known And Strange Things: Essays

Adrian Marcel is a 30 yr old single father to his 2 yr old son. Jordan Bright is an 18 yr old introvert girl. He is a math teacher and she is his student. They are both broken in their own messed up lives. Both of them come with emotional baggage. Falling for his student was the least of things he wanted in his life. She never imagined her first love would be her math teacher. It's their journey of healing and mending one another's soul, here the villain is played by their pasts.

After failing the mission, the System gave me one final chance, and to succeed, I had to give birth to a child. The System promised that if the baby were born safely, it would reveal the truth to my target and give me one last glimmer of hope. However, six months into my pregnancy, just when things seemed stable, I was dragged onto an operating table in the middle of the night by my husband and family. My husband stopped the anesthesiologist from giving me any pain relief. “Let her feel the pain,” he said coldly. “We need to keep the kidneys as fresh as possible.” My parents instructed the doctor to draw my blood. “She’s the same blood type as our precious girl. Let’s take some for backup.” Even my childhood friend, the boy who had always been by my side, was the one to slice open my abdomen.  They wanted my kidneys to save my sister, who was dying from kidney failure. No one believed I was pregnant. No matter how much I begged, they went ahead with the operation, tearing me open. The baby couldn’t survive, and I died on that operating table. However, as my soul began to fade away, something strange happened. Those who had murdered me—my husband, my parents, my so-called friend—they all lost their minds.

Parting had never been so painful for lovers whose connections was so strong and whose bond was simply unbreakable. When Tristan, a simple man whose life was filled with plans and steady waves that never shook him had to leave his beloved Danica when a mighty wave had taken him off balance and pushed him into being a coward, he thought it was going to simply be as simple as it had always been. Danica would remain in the dark and wouldn’t hate him and he would never return to his dark life. It was a simple plan, he would leave, get settled and bring his beloved Danica with him where he would not be found by the beast of a man who was targeting to take his blood, his peace and his life along side. The universe had a different plan when running away simply was not enough and his beloved Danica got tangled up with the mafia boss of San Diego, his younger brother. And it was no longer as easy as he wanted. Not just because he was so far away, or because Danica was tangled with his brother, it became difficult when Danica’s revenge scheme instantly took hold of her heart and pushed her into doing the very thing that would tear them apart. “Its simply a part of the plan,” she had said when he had confronted her about the relationship she had with his brother. But it was more, it was more because love, blood and revenge tangled them together. Where Danica had to either choose to take revenge for her father’s death and harm the men she loved the most or simply forget, pick one of the brothers and love him while her father’s murderer move around freely?

I drag my suitcase out of the airport and walk straight into a massive billboard. "Welcome back, Jennifer Palmer, the great love of Ivan Olsen's life." The entire Internet praises him for having waited faithfully for ten years. A star-struck reporter shoves a microphone in my face and asks, "Ms. Palmer, are you moved that Mr. Olsen has remained celibate for you all this time?" I blink in confusion at her question. "Who's Ivan?"

Autumn Shade only wants one thing: to get away and live her own life. Tired of being forced by her father to take on the business, and follow in his steps, she leaves. She wanted to show her father that she was capable of making her own decisions and not screwing up. But just when she successfully leaves, she's caught up in another whirlwind which threatens to deem everything she'd known a lie.Justin Black and his friends see Autumn and they find that she was perfect for what they were planning, given that it was her father they wanted to take revenge on.Autumn learns a shocking truth about a scandal involving a murder and her father, and persistently denies it. But apparently they have proof.All Autumn wants to do is the right thing. If her father is innocent she gets to say 'I told you so' and if he's really a cheating murderer then she does what's right and gets out of this mess once and for all.But as usual, things get complicated. Actually, feelings get complicated, because the longer she stayed, the closer the broken boy held her.© 2020 by Everleigh Winters

The things we want are so very rarely the things we need. Clifton Heights, a modest Adirondack town, offers many unique attractions. Arcane Delights sells both paperbacks and hard-to-find limited editions. The Skylark Diner serves the best home-cooked meals around, with friendly service and a smile. Every August, Mr. Jingo’s County Fair visits, to the delight of children and adults. In essence, Clifton Heights is the quintessential small American town. Everyone knows everyone else, and everyone is treated like family. It is quiet, simple, and peaceful. But shadows linger here. Flitting in dark corners, from the corner of the eye. If you walk down Main Street after dark, the slight scrape of shoes on asphalt whispers you're not alone, but when you look over your shoulder, no one is there. The moon shines high and bright in the night sky, but instead of throwing light, it only seems to make the shadows lengthen. Children disappear. Teens run away. Hunters get lost in the woods with frightening regularity. Husbands go mad, and wives vanish in the dead of night. And still, when the sun rises in the morning, you are greeted by townspeople with warm waves and friendly smiles, and the shivers pass as everything seems fresh and new... Until night falls once more. Handy's Pawn and Thrift sits several blocks down from Arcane Delights. Like any thrift store, its wares range from the mundane to the bizarre. By daylight, it seems just another slice of small town Americana. But in its window hangs a sign which reads: We Have Things You Need. And when a lonely traveling salesman comes looking for something he desperately wants, after normal visiting hours, after night has fallen, he will face a harsh truth among the shelves of Handy’s Pawn and Thrift: the things we want are rarely the things we need. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing