The Other Place (The Glass Book One) by Nathan Hystad

Author:Nathan Hystad [Hystad, Nathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Woodbridge Press
Published: 2022-09-05T16:00:00+00:00

Ransom

The air conditioning coughed and chugged, trying its best to keep them cool as they neared the Colorado state border. Mrs. Whittaker sat in the front seat, her gaze drifting like a feather in the breeze.

With a quick check in the rearview mirror, he confirmed Chrissy was fast asleep, her head resting on the side of the door. He slowed down to just under the speed limit and passed a steady stream of parked semi-trucks.

“They’re all dead, Lizbeth,” Ransom said.

“So it seems.”

“What in God’s name is happening?” Ransom asked.

“I doubt God is involved with this, my boy.”

“You’re probably right. I’m glad we found you,” he told her.

“Your daughter is a special girl.” Lizbeth craned her neck and watched Chrissy. “She reminds me of myself at that age.”

Ransom’s inclination was overpowering, like there was a mission he needed to complete. Luckily, around this old woman, it seemed to be more focused, less distracting. “Have you had visions? Premonitions?”

He recalled Chrissy’s words. The other place. I’ve seen it before. It’s like here. But different.

“In a manner. I’m no prophet, though, Ransom, if that’s what you wanted to hear.”

“What is with the Glass? Those creatures…”

“Perhaps it’s another dimension,” she said.

“But these sheets… the barriers. They’re genuine. I’ve touched them. They’re solid. As real as you or me.” He glanced at a dead man, flopped out of his truck door and basking in the late afternoon sun.

“Who are you, Ransom?” Lizbeth asked it with such innocence in her tone, yet her gaze bored into him.

“I was an actor. Now I tend bar.”

“No. Not that foolish stuff. Who are you?”

Her question caught him off guard. “I’m…”

“Everyone is so tied to their occupations or religion. We’re animals, Ransom, and energy. It wasn’t supposed to end like this.” She waved a skinny arm, as if painting a line in the sky. “You aren’t limited to the bar you worked at. Or acting.”

“What about you?” Ransom asked, turning the focus off himself.

Lizbeth laughed and folded her hands on her lap, while her eyes misted. “I grew up the oldest of seven kids in another era, one most people long for. With the big cars, and the teeny bop music. They romanticized the world then, as if it was all white pickets, football on Fridays, and drive-in movies on the weekends.”

“But it wasn’t for you?” Ransom asked, sensing a heaviness in her voice.

“No. They forced me to care for my siblings while my father drank at the local watering hole, my mother turning a blind eye to his transgressions. He died when I was sixteen. Marabelle was only one.”

“I’m sorry,” Ransom told her.

“Don’t be. He was an asshole. Didn’t deserve the love the kids gave him. I was wise to it, but when he left us, things became worse. We didn’t have money, and Mom couldn’t afford to care for us without help. As I said, it was a different era, where men earned a living and women stayed home, doing laundry and cooking meals. She was a good woman.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.