Dawn's Light by Terri Blackstock Read Free Book Online Page A

previous FEMA disbursement. From the older neighbors in Oak Hollow, she'd learned a dozen ways to cook with corn. It had grown unappetizing, but the family had learned that food was for energy and not for entertainment.
    Now that the kitchen was cleaned up and the floor scrubbed of all the mud and dirt that were tracked in daily, Kay went outside to the side of the house, where she'd hung her laundry to dry. She found Judith there, pulling down her own family's clothes. Her friend's brown skin glistened in the humidity.
    “Girl, it took you long enough,” Judith said. “I was beginning to think you were gonna leave these all night.”
    “It's not even dark yet,” Kay said. “I can cram a hundred more things onto my to-do list between now and dark. What on earth did we do with our time before?” She sighed and glanced at Judith's nursing scrubs. “How do you do it? Working full-time and coming home to all the stuff you have to do?”
    “We make do.”
    When they'd opened the new hospital in Crockett, Judith had taken a nursing job there. The need was so great that she'd agreed to put in eight to ten hours a day. Amber Rowe, Kay's other next-door neighbor, babysat her kids for her.
    Judith's husband, Brad—a lawyer—had recently become district attorney in Crockett. He, too, worked long hours. Though they were all busy, Kay and Judith had grown close over the last year.
    “So how's our Beth doing today?” Judith asked as she folded a pair of jeans that were as stiff as cardboard.
    “Not good. Still acting strange.” She filled her in on Beth's paranoia and her morbid questions.
    “Sounds like it could be post-traumatic stress disorder,” Judith said. “I'm no psychologist, but she's sure been through enough to have it. Remember how she sulked around for days after she saw Mark beaten? How she took the rabbits into her room to protect them? Maybe it was manifesting itself even then.”
    “But she seemed better in the last few weeks.”
    “Does she have bad dreams?”
    “Yes, but don't we all these days?”
    “That's the thing. We all have reactions to trauma. Some negative reactions are normal. But PTSD has lingering symptoms. People with it sometimes have flashbacks. Sometimes they have anxiety attacks as they relive the event.”
    “ Which event?” Kay's mind raced through all the traumatic things the family had been through in the last year. No wonder she was asking about murders and missing persons. Her sister had been a missing person, and then little Sarah—one of the children they were caring for—was kidnapped. Doug had been shot in their own home, and Zach—Jeff's best friend—was almost killed. Then Mark was beaten half to death before Beth's very eyes.
    It was a wonder they weren't all losing their minds.
    “Do you know she hasn't even gotten excited that the Pulses have ended?”
    Judith dropped her last armful of clothes into the basket. “Now that is bad. Sometimes patients with PTSD can't think about the future. They have a sense of doom.”
    “We were thinking of finding her a counselor.”
    “Great idea. Do you know Anne Latham over on Bayor Street?”
    “Not very well.”
    “Well, get to know her. She's a family therapist, or she was before the outage. Maybe you can get her to counsel Beth. I hear she was pretty good, back in the good ole days.”
    Armed with hope, Kay made a note to talk to her soon.
    Before she could head back home, Kay saw Mark walking up the sidewalk. He'd dressed up a little for his night with Deni. With his jeans, he wore a white button-down dress shirt. He grinned as he came toward her.
    Kay grinned back. “Big date tonight, huh?”
    “Got that right. She in a good mood?”
    “From what I can tell.”
    She thought of asking Mark if tonight was the night for the big proposal, but she decided to stay out of it. When the time was right, Mark would propose. She led him into the house, and called up to Deni.
    What she wouldn't give for a working camcorder