Girl Gone North – John McIlveen

After the initial shock settled in, Ian and Myrna became uncharacteristically lenient with Addison, at least in Marty’s and Emma’s opinion. Whether it was because they were sympathetic to her condition or they figured she couldn’t get more pregnant, Marty and Emma couldn’t make sense of it, but Addison wasn’t complaining, and that in itself was a welcomed change. On Wednesday, Ian and Myrna mentioned that they had tickets for the Boston Symphony Orchestra that Friday night. They would still go, despite the recent turmoil in which the family had become embroiled.

In Ian’s view, attending was a necessary diversion … therapeutic, even. Addison bowed out, saying she’d rather slit a wrist, and after a quick but silent exchange with Emma, Marty misleadingly confessed that he had already made plans with Dan Shute and other teammates. Unperturbed, Myrna had called her parents, who quickly agreed to join them and Franny and insisted they first meet for dinner at Polcari’s. This freed Friday evening up for Emma and Marty and presented a night filled with promise until either Addison returned from Steven’s or the rest of the family returned from the show.

Upon Emma’s return from classes Friday afternoon, Jinny informed her that she had received a phone call from someone she assumed was her sister. A jolt of fear pulsed through Emma’s shoulders, raising gooseflesh everywhere. It was an evening call from Thalia that had brought news of her parents’ demise, but Emma figured if it were an emergency, Thalia would have left a message. If it, in fact, was Thalia, Emma’s hyper-paranoid mind argued.

What if the call had come from a hospital or police station? “I wouldn’t fret none,” Jinny said, sensitive to Emma’s history and anxiety. “She didn’t sound troubled. She didn’t say much, but she had the Louisiana tongue. I asked her name, but she said to tell you she’d call Saturday night.”

Haverhill House Publishing LLC This book is a work of fiction. All characters, events, dialog, and situations in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual people or events is a product of the author’s imagination or is used fictitiously purely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced without the author’s written permission. GIRL GONE NORTH © 2023 John McIlveen 978-1-949140-44-6 Hardcover 978-1-949140-40-8 Paperback Cover art and design © 2023 Errick Nunnally Haverhill House Publishing LLC 643 E Broadway Haverhill MA 01830-2420 www.haverhillhouse.com For my sisters Donna & Cathy A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves – a special kind of double.

~Toni Morrison I smile because you are my sister, I laugh because there is nothing you can do about it! ~Author Unknown “Until the philosophy which hold one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war.” —Bob Marley Blackbird singing in the dead of night Take these broken wings and learn to fly All your life You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

—Paul McCartney PART 1 A GIRL AND HER FAMILY “I’m looking forward to a better past.” —Nash Rambler “Wood makes a house – love makes a home.” —Nash Rambler OceanofPDF.com STRINGING VINES Thalia Rose Holden Lower Ninth Ward – New Orleans Saturday, May 6, 1961 If someone had told Thalia at that moment, on that idyllic day, that stringing vines with her father as a breeze from the Mississippi cooled the sweat on their backs would be among the most cherished memories of her life, she wouldn’t have believed them.

But, if she were told at that moment on that idyllic day the following six months would turn their lives inside out, she wouldn’t have believed that, either. Thalia looked at Daddy, kneeling beside her on the freshly turned earth, directing a tomato stake into the ground. She watched his arms, his biceps traveling up and down as if something living was beneath his skin, looking too busy for the simple task of twirling that little stick into the tilled earth.

Daddy, in turn, watched as his daughter mimicked his example, but the stake was having none of it, penetrating the soil only six inches before coming to a dead halt. “You hit a rock,” Daddy said.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 494718f1e663f6bb
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 2,637,291 bytes (2.515 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9781949140446, 9781949140408
• Pages: 615
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 760.25 minutes
• Total Words: 152,050
• Total Characters: 869,623
• Average Words per Page: 247.24
• Average Characters per Page: 1414.02

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