Storm Tamer, The

by M. Garnet

  She came back to her story every day, working deep into the night and within a week she had ninety thousand words. Being a person who had worked precisely on computers for years, she now had to do some research as what a beginner does with her first book.

  Now her days were full learning how to edit her book and who might be interested in publishing it and did she want to go to a publisher or put it out there herself since she already had a cover.

  She did a synopsis and sent it along with the cover out to several sites as well as creating a new Facebook site and putting it up for interested individuals.

  Needing to take a break, she found herself at a local coffee shop with her tablet, a bear claw, and a large coffee with extra cream. The small open booth was comfortable, and it was against a window that allowed her to watch the traffic flow by on the busy main street.

  Margo was surprised that she was satisfied to be sitting out in public and just relaxing. That was until a woman she knew slid into the other seat of the booth.

  "Margo, where the hell have you been? We have all missed you. You didn't even show up at last week's book club. We talked about the latest four flame book. Gads girl, you need some sun. I went by your house and saw that you replaced your window with the same type. I would have changed it out a bit but each to their own and all that. Your neighbor has to rebuild their whole place because of safety regulations. Well, say something?" Babs finally took a sip of her coffee and gave Margo's ears a rest.

  "Hello, Babs."

  "So, nothing to say? Are you sick?"

  "No Babs, it is just that I have been busy. There have been more important things to take care of around my house and my neighborhood." Margo picked up her coffee as she pushed her tablet to one side.

  Babs, whose life was living other peoples, reached over and picked up the tablet. "What are you reading, something hot?" She read for a moment and then her eyebrows rose. "This is SciFi. What happened to all the love stories we read?"

  Margo sighed and didn't have the energy to argue. "SciFi has love stories written in them most of the time. It is just a different genre."

  Babs was bored and looking around for another victim when she let out a small sound. "OMG, they must be making another movie somewhere in town. There is a whole bunch of important people who just came in and a really tall guy that looks like he just stepped out of GQ. I'm going to faint."

  "Why don't you go over and get an autograph?" Margo would try anything to get rid of the gabby Babs.

  The silly woman actually nodded and got up to move away. Margo didn't even look in the direction that Babs had indicated, she just took one more sip of coffee, wrapped her treat, and with tablet in hand got up to leave.

  She had made it to the door but paused with a large number of people moving in and out. At last, she was able to slip through the crowd and putting a hand on the door she glanced back over her shoulder.

  At that moment her eyes met those of a tall man who was surrounded by a large number of people at the counter. All she saw were his eyes on her, eyes that were gem-colored and reflected the color of tropical blue-green seas.

  Walking backward on shaky knees she was able to stumble and fall until she reached her car. She dropped her snapkin-wrapped breakfast and hunted for her keys to hit the unlock button.

  "Miss, a moment please."

  Margo now dropped everything and held onto the car. The woman who was standing behind her began to gather up her items.

  "Sorry, can I help you? I was just told to contact you. Mr. Maaker is in town to make some investments, and he would like to talk to you."

  All Margo could do was lean on the car, accept her things from the woman dressed in a business suit and look around. Margo blinked at the colors, the building was brilliant red, and her car was a gold color reflecting sparkles in the sunlight.

  "Look Miss. I believe it is Sanderson, Miss Margo Sanderson. Could I have a car pick you up at your home tomorrow afternoon around three for an afternoon meeting with Mr. Maaker?"

  Margo looked over the top of her car, not able to see into the restaurant because of the tinted glass. All of the other cars in the lot were bright in the sunshine, reds and blues and greens.

  She looked down at her rumpled old blue loose trousers and wanted to get home and change into some good jeans with a bright shirt. What was wrong with her?

  Taking deep breaths, she felt better than she had in weeks. She turned to face the woman who seemed to be waiting patiently.

  "What? Why?"

  The woman held up the woman's own tablet. "He has seen you’re the internet with blogs on your new book. I think he would like to be your publisher."

  Margo realized she was standing and wanted to say something intelligent but could only think of ocean green eyes that disturbed her.

  "Are you okay, Miss Sanderson?"

  Margo nodded. "Sorry. I am just surprised. This is my first book, and I can't imagine a big publisher being in town just to talk about my story."

  The young lady smiled. "Well, I don't want to burst your bubble. He will be talking to a lot of writers while he is in this large area. He seems to have an affinity for Florida authors. But I do want to hold out a thought for you.

  He did recognize you from the Facebook so he must have found the synopsis interesting. I think it would be good for you to meet with him. We can send a car around to your home around three in the afternoon tomorrow if that meets with your schedule. That is a time he has free to meet with you."

  "Yes, that would be fine. Three you said, yes, I'll be ready. Do you have my address?"

  The lady held up her tablet that showed a map of Oldsmar with Margo's home with the map on screen showing a pin on it with the correct address.

  Margo just nodded and opened her car door, afraid to say anything that would be stupid or the wrong words.

  Margo didn't sleep much that night, but it didn't worry her. Getting up early she went to her desk and began making a couple of CD’s of her book, printing out personal covers on sticky paper to put on the CD packets. She put her hand on her wooden desk to push back her chair and the feel of the wood reminded her of something. She caught her breath, as she rubbed her fingers on the wood and closed her eyes.

  In her mind she saw a large door with great old carvings deep into the heavy wood. She could see her fingers running down those curves and cuts made by some ancient artisan. She got a distant smell of ozone from a distant storm.

  Jerking her hand back, Margo knew there was something terribly wrong. She stood up and looked around, but everything seemed the same in her home. It seemed the same but it wasn’t. What was wrong? It was the tall man’s eyes.

  “Oh my God, I need to get out of here.” Margo wasn’t sure why the panic button had set in, but her instinct was to run. You pulled your hand back from a hot stove. You didn’t stand under a tree during a lightning storm. The body knew danger and flight was natural.

  Opening her garage door to the bright Florida sunshine, she popped the trunk and running back inside, began throwing clothes into the back of the car, not even packing. She grabbed her favorite roll on bag and un-zippered it in the bathroom and emptied the medicine cabinet and all the drawers into it.

  With the doors open, her dog was enjoying sniffing the lawn. She grabbed his leash, a bag of his food and headed to the car. She was dumping everything into the car when she saw her neighbor across the street. With a sigh she grabbed the leash and the dog food.

  With joy her dog followed her across the street, as she approached the man. By this time she had tears in her eyes.

  “I have an emergency. Need to go to Sarasota for a couple of days. I please need you to take care of my baby. I will call you after I get on the road and explain everything.”

  She dropped down to the happy dog and cried, as she hooked the leash to his collar. “You be a good boy.” She hugged the dog and got up, wiping tears off her cheeks.

  Without any other words she ran back to her car and was soon
down the road. A quick drive through the bank let her draw the max from her checking account that was only three hundred a day. Her next stop was the closest gas pump. In the heat of the Florida sun, the guy on the other side of the pump didn’t look any happier than she felt.

  A swipe of her card and she was on the road again. It took a half hour to get over to I75. That marvel of DOT that ran smoothly from Florida to Canada with smart routes around the big cities along the way and no interruptions. Slow vehicles and trucks on the outside and everyone else at top speed.

  Margo was thinking as she drove with the radio down low on local music. She had cousins in Kentucky, kept in touch through Facebook. She also had a close friend in Michigan with an open invitation. She had options.

  It was at that point that the first fat drops of rain slammed against her windshield. There was dark clouds moving in fast from the west, probably from the Gulf. Margo pulled over to the side of the road as big trucks roared past, covering her little car in their tire splash.

  Sitting there, she let a small smile creep onto her face. This time it would be different. She would have some control.

  The End.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  After raising a daughter, running an International Business, traveling the world and only finding time to write a few minutes in any twenty-four hour period, I now am retired in Florida and can write all day and all night, which I often do. Under the pen name of M. Garnet (Muriel Garnet Yantiss) I use all the experiences I gained and without any hesitation, draw information from my long list of friends and acquaintances worldwide.

  I write SciFi, Fantasy and Contemporary Mystery. But I like my stories to end happy ever after.

  A fan wrote me about liking a planet I wrote about in TWIN’S SLAVE that I dedicated the second story about the planet AN ASSASSIN FOR THE SLAVE for her. I have had others writing me about this storm planet and am now working on my third novel about the water and caves and intrigue that tempest brings to the planet of GigasVenee.

  Visit my web site at www.mgarnet.com to see other books I’ve written. I love to hear from you at mgarnet2@yahoo.com.

  Don’t forget to leave a message where you got this story to let others know about what you are reading.