2

In the ten years that Greenfield grew suburbs, Molly had become as convoluted and unfamiliar as the circuitous labyrinth that is the sub-division carved out from the farmland that used to surround the Brown home. The squinting in the half-light of dusk at the scribbled directions on the Wendy’s bag to her old house kept Molly’s focus from slipping to her fluttering panic at coming home. She could do this. She had to do this. There was no way that Annie was going to think even for a minute that she was right after all these years. Molly would keep it together and prove that Annie had never understood her, even if she liked to think she was understanding about school and oh so generous. But it was Molly’s money. Only the purse string’s belonged to Annie. Nettled and peeved, Molly’s spine stood a little straighter at just the thought of Annie’s presumption. Annie was her sister and the trustee, not her Mother. She’d had a mother, she didn’t want a replacement.

Molly turned the last left onto Jewel Lane and felt all her emotions suspended at the sight of her old house. Same house, same color, same sidewalk but with a few more cracks leading up to the same cherry red door. Different house numbers, totally different address, same basketball hoop above the garage. The landscaping was basically the same but so much more voluminous, changing the shadows and the tenor of the place into something darker and less innocent. Strangely Molly felt at home. Not because this was the place of happy memories and childhood or because her loved ones lived here but because Molly felt like her old home—the same but so different. In the drafty place in her heart she felt something spark and sizzle for a moment as she put the car in park. She could do this.

1

Molly could remember when Greenfield wasn't much more than a green field and a few stop lights along Main Street. She was excited when at age 11 McDonald's came to town, astonished when at age 12 Burger King showed up across the street (aren't they the same thing except one has happy meals?), and relieved when Wendy's made their way in by the time she started driving at 15. Now Greenfield's fast food industry was showing a little class! But it was really Wal-Mart that put their little town of almost 4,000 on the map. Strange that in college Molly’s freshman roommate joined the Responsible Growth Project and was even part of a human chain in protest of Wal-Mart building in her home neighborhood while for Molly, Wal-Mart meant late night shopping (open til midnight!) access to goods she'd have to drive 45 minutes up the freeway for otherwise, and, should she some day get married, a place to register besides the hardware store.

What used to be a short drive down Main Street, right at the second light and out of town 5 miles, over what is sometimes a creek but usually a wash, left and then the first (OK, only) house on the left with the circular driveway was now no longer recognizable as the way home. The Brown’s wholesome, down-home white ranch was now at the end of a cul-de-sac. In the ten years since Molly went away to college Greenfield grew suburbs. Her triumphal if not confused return in her silver Saturn to the home she grew up in required snaking her way through the slightly fashionable although prosaically named suburb of Blue Creek. The Brown’s were lucky in that their suburb was named before the city planners got pretentious. Some of their good friends and longtime residents of Morrison County got stuck with Azure Spring, Indigo Heights, and Cimarron Pond.

Ready or Not...Here I Write

Welcome

to the experiment/exercise/adventure that is My First Novel. I want to get it out of the way so that I can finish the other novels I've started that I care too much about. I also want to build good writing habits.

Here's how this will work: Everyday I will write 300-400 words, except Saturdays and Sundays. Saturdays will be a day of Edit and Sundays a day of Rest. I will post the original versions here daily. On most Saturdays I will post an edited hunk somewhere else (maybe Scribd or some kind of work shopping site) and let you all know about it here. Writing will begin on Sept 28 and end before my daughter's first birthday, May 27. No posts on Christmas, Thanksgiving, or my Anniversary (Dec 27).

I will not over think, over analyze (or analyze at all, really), or be overwhelmed.
I will keep my sense of humor.
I will have fun, not guilt.
I will finish.

Comments are greatly appreciated!!!