Step on a Crack

For as long as she could remember, Sarah has had a frightening nightmare. In it, she inexplicably kills her mother. After this nightmare she feels compelled to steal something. Not just anything, but some particular item which seems significant. Yet over the years she couldn’t figure out the relevance of any of these stolen items. No one knows of Sarah’s problem and she has no solution, despite reading dozens of psychology books hoping to find the answer.

Then Aunt Kat, her mother’s sister whom Sarah has never met comes to visit which begins a frustrating weekend. Her mother falls and breaks her ankle and suddenly Sarah’s nightmares begin to change to include sleepwalking. In desperation, Sarah seeks help and turns to Josie her odd but brilliant schoolmate.

Together the girls try to trace the source of Sarah’s problem. Books, the stolen items, clues in the new nightmares, all seem to lead nowhere. Even the cryptic pronouncement of a psychic referring to a “grave beside a tomb” means nothing. But finally, everything begins to fall into place. Sarah begins to discover hidden things about herself which make her wish she had never begun the search.

Few of us actually know all the things which make us who we are but Sarah’s past hid more than most.

Image credit: lindaaslund

You Can’t Get There from Here

Reggie had always wanted to be an actress. And long ago she had decided that acting school would do more for her than college so her discovery of Adam Bentley’s Acting School came at just the perfect time. She had graduated from high school and for several reasons her home, as she had known it, had disappeared.
Reggie idolized Adam and found his theories of and training for “organic acting” fascinating. She felt she was gaining a new awareness of herself and her craft through her lessons. Finally, she moved into one of the spartan rooms reserved for resident students in the surprisingly lush brownstone that housed Adam, his school and the theater where the plays he wrote were presented. Only resident students could act in those plays and Reggie soon found herself with a part. She was thrilled. How marvelous not only to be learning but to be able to use her new abilities before and audience.
However, her role as Vicki was hard to play. It confused her and her perceptions of her relationships with others, including her family and the other students at the school. Only her relationship with Adam, her teacher, seemed stable. What was wrong with her?
It took her brother Jamie, to spot Reggie’s problem and to realize how truly serious it was.

Cover background image: masochismtango