Down Home

Chapter One



Milwaukee, Wisconsin

February

Her attention was solely on the check she was holding in her hand and she had to fight her instincts that were screaming at her to “run and escape!” so that when she exited the building, she walked right into the unsuspecting gentleman that had chosen that unfortunate moment to walk into the building that housed The 1st savings bank of Milwaukee.

“Sorry!” she gasped, and remembering that the check clutched in her hand was all the money she had, pulled her wallet out of her shoulder bag, folded the check and placed it behind her driver’s license, the place where she hid all her important documents, or were hidden from the man that abused her for over six years, now her ex-husband as of 3:07 yesterday afternoon.

She closed the wallet, placed it back in her shoulder bag, and then continued to the car she had since she graduated high school. After settling in behind the wheel, the recently divorced 28 year old took the check back out of her wallet to stare at it some more, before starting to head towards her destination. She turned the key and instead of starting up right away, the car began to tick, as if giving an ominous warning. The woman sighed, realizing that she would need to make an unexpected stop to the dealership first.



Salem, Wisconsin

May

She was going crazy; if she wasn't crazy already. She had not slept the past three nights, and could not force herself eyes to nap while the sun was still up during the day. How was someone supposed to sleep when all they saw when they closed their eyes was the same nightmare over and over again? Waking up gasping for the air she never could full let into her lungs. Not only her trauma, but she also had her daughter Hailey to worry about. Realizing that she had no clue what time of day it was, a startled gasp escaped from her lips when she turned her head to check the time, and realized that she must have fallen asleep because she had ten minutes to reach Hailey’s school before the children were released for the day.



Jane Addison pulled her maroon ford pickup truck into the parking lot of the Salem Grade School parking lot amazingly as the release bell rang. She was listening to her favorite country song, Raw & Real, a song that was written and sung by her friend Kayla Hawkins, when she spotted the long and rare fire red hair of her eight year old daughter, Hailey as she exited the grade school with one of her best friends.

Jane stuck her head out the truck’s driver side window and waived her over. Hailey rolled her eyes, then headed towards the truck. After Hailey was seated and buckled her seatbelt, Jane started the truck and exited the parking lot, heading towards Ace in the hole, a local stable where they boarded their horse, Scotch.

Jane glanced into the rear view mirror and attempted to hold a conversation with her daughter.

“Going to head over to the barn and make sure we have Scotch’s things packed before heading home? Maybe if the barn isn’t too busy we can always ride.”



All Jane heard from the backseat was a mumbled “ok.” from the daughter that at one time would have rejoiced at heading out to the stable with her.

Jane looked back through the mirror and realized that Hailey had fallen asleep, and sighed. If her nightmares were keeping her up, Hailey could be having the same problem. “I guess that means we should start going to see the therapist again.”

Glancing at her cherry red cell phone sitting on her dashboard, Jane picked it up and dialed Dr. Harrison’s office number to schedule an appointment.