Wildest Dreams

Chapter 1

1992 HEATH

I could see the skyline of the city from across the water. The lake separated our quiet suburban neighborhoods from the loud city. I wondered what it was like to live there. It was like a completely different world. City folk were not much welcomed here. They were considered harsh, loud, and derogatory. They cursed like sailors and spent their days sinning. My father often warned me to stay away. He was a priest so he knew best, "you can't change the sinners but the sinners can change you" he'd say. But I couldn't help to wonder, how bad could they be?

I was about to find out soon. Heath Lock was coming back to town after thirty four months in prison. He lived in the city with his father throughout his whole life then for no particular reason he had come to live with his mother at the age of eighteen. We had all known her to be a quiet sweet lady so the idea of her son coming to town had never bothered us. But from the moment he arrived he was nothing but trouble. He had gotten arrested for stealing candy and cigarettes at the local corner store. Then public intoxication and a string of other offenses. His mother would bring him to my fathers church every Sunday. And every Sunday I would stare at the troublemaker that had the whole town on edge.

His last Sunday in the church was moments before the accident. The details had been vague and the story had been retold a thousand times with a thousand different variations. But from what I could remember it had been a self defense case of him versus an old farmer. The farmer was drunk in the middle of a hunt so he started firing at him and his mom. His mother was shot and killed and out of anger he took the gun and killed the farmer. The judge had taken pity on him despite his previous charges and gave him just a little over three years.

Nobody knew why they were at the farm. Nobody cared, they were just happy the hoodlum was gone. But now he was back. The only reason it had bothered me so much was because my father would become his probation officer. That was his day job. Heath Lock was coming back to town and everybody had been loosing there minds.

Getting up from the grass I dusted myself off. It was hot, the June weather was unforgiving and ruthless. I had to get to the church soon. There was a food drive my mom was running and I was expected to help. Thats what you do as a priests daughter. I was held to higher standard then the girls my age. I was always modest and clean. All my dresses were well past my knees. I never went to dances or parties, never went out with boys or did anything that my father didn't approve off. The only friends I had were other girls who's parents were strict and very much into religion. I even wore a chastity necklace around my neck. My mother had given it to me when Cindy, a girl in my school got pregnant.

I didn't where makeup or show any skin below my neck. I felt like I was trapped but I never even knew what it ment to be free so it didn't bother me to much. Maybe one day I would get to make my own choices. Looking out into the distance I saw a bus. It had been driving from the city across the narrow bridge. The bridge was rickety, nobody ever used it. City folk never came here and we never left. So thats how I knew that Heath Lock himself had been sitting somewhere on that bus.

Turning away I began my walk all the way back into the center of town where the church resided. People littered the front of the church spilling out of the door. Suddenly they all looked up as if something was captivating there attention. It was the bus, slowing down until it reached the end of the pavement.

He was here.