by Terri Reid
Mary was instantly alert. “What happened?”
“Well, Jeannine was in the dream,” he said. “She looked great. I told her that I wanted to go to the bright place. Then we were talking about you. I told her I had fallen in love with you.”
“What did she say?”
“She said that I needed to go back and not visit the bright place,” he said. “And she promised that someday she would give me a guided tour. I was about to argue with her when I heard your voice.”
“Was I softly calling you?” she asked.
“No, you were yelling at me,” he chuckled. “I remember it so clearly. You said, ‘Dammit, Bradley, get back here.’ How could I refuse?”
Mary reached up and kissed him. “You’re a very smart man to listen when I call,” she said.
“It got me to thinking about Jeannine though,” he said. “What if she is dead? What if Jeannine has been dead all this time?”
He shook his head. “Why am I even worrying about this?” he asked. “You’d tell me if Jeannine were a ghost, wouldn’t you?”
Mary turned and hugged him. “Of course, I would,” she said. “Unless she was a client and I was sworn to secrecy.”
Bradley laughed. “Yeah, what are the odds that would happen?”
Mary turned and saw Jeannine standing at the top of the stairs. “Yeah, what are the odds?”
A note from the author:
The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) offers these sobering statistics:
One in every four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime.
An estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year.
85% of domestic violence victims are women.
Historically, females have been most often victimized by someone they knew.
Females who are 20-24 years of age are at the greatest risk of nonfatal intimate partner violence.
Most cases of domestic violence are never reported to the police.
Witnessing violence between one’s parents or caretakers is the strongest risk factor of transmitting violent behavior from one generation to the next.
Boys who witness domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse their own partners and children when they become adults.
30% to 60% of perpetrators of intimate partner violence also abuse children in the household.
If you are caught in a circumstance of domestic violence or know someone who is being abused, get help. There are many wonderful organizations that can help victims of domestic abuse and their children.
A portion of the sale of this book will be contributed to VOICES (http://www.voicesdv.org) the local domestic violence shelter and advocacy group in Freeport, Illinois. If this book has made you think about domestic violence, I would encourage you to seek out your local organization and see how you can help them.
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About the author: Terri Reid lives near Freeport, the home of the Mary O’Reilly Mystery Series, and loves a good ghost story. She lives in a hundred year-old farmhouse complete with its own ghost. She loves hearing from her readers at [email protected]
