Moon Shadow: The Totally True Love Adventure Series (Volume 1) by R.L. Fox Read Free Book Online Page A

when I turn eighteen, but that doesn’t change the way I think. I’ll never go around acting as if we’re, like, heiresses or anything.
    “On the contrary I’ve always believed people are rich if they are able to meet the requirements of their imaginations, if they are able to do what they find interesting, like you told me. I see the world as inviting, and I can’t wait to throw myself into it and begin to build my own life, and help to build a better world.
    “Manny is doing fine, still hates his cage and all. I let him out as much as possible. I miss you, Dad. Love, Sarah.”
    And then I pretend, as always, like I’m addressing an envelope for my letter: “Mr. William Hartford, On the Road to Heaven, #1, Kingdom of God.”



6
Daniel
Monday morning, July 28
El Cajon Valley
    B eing back at home I suddenly feel about fourteen. For a long time I lie in my old bed seeking a dream that will draw me off to sleep again, return me to the Garden of Eden, that Neverland of essential nature, of teshuvah, where I might choose never to grow up, never to suffer the consequences of tasting the fruits of knowledge.
    The truth is that my old room still retains something of its air of impairment. After three days in my motel room, lamenting, regretfully, my mother’s death and then beginning to feel on the cusp of a way forward, again I feel exhausted, befuddled. My insides hurt, my bones, my desiccated heart. Finally, I drift off, falling into a deep sleep, and another dream arises.
    “Danny, Danny.”
    She’s mine.
    I can feel the undersea-soft texture of her skin, the smooth white-hot flesh of my virgin goddess, holy mother of sin’s paradise, pressing gently against my boyish brown body.
    I lie beside her on a rich purple tapestry in my bedroom, next to the tarnished frame of my under-sized bed.
    Bright sparkling rays of first light shine upon us, filling the room with natural splendor. It seems the crystal sunlight has washed from the Valley all the dark echoes of late night noises and the tragic aura of an early morning fog.
    It is good, I think, embracing my goddess in the fantastic light of day. There is no darkness, only the silvery sunrise, and as I hold her fast, kissing her tenderly, tasting the sublime sweetness of her blood and milk offering, I know I will never let go.
    I’ve found my new religion. I will be eternally nourished and protected. I am at one with the delicate being of my white goddess, basking in her warmth, rocking peacefully to the rhythm of her lunar-tidal motion.
    She passes her velvety fingers over my body, stroking me tenderly, caressing the bare erect center of my burgeoning wholeness, cradling me as though I were an infant—helpless.
    Suddenly there comes an unnerving sound, succinct like the crack of a leather belt, only louder, like an exploding cherry bomb or a gunshot: POP!
    I start violently. My God-fearing Jewish-Catholic scrotum shrinks. I look up in alarm and see the bathroom door fly open with a clatter, doorknob crashing against windowsill, the large door damming the flow of light and sending my tiny room into shadowy darkness.
    In the bathroom doorway, wearing a filthy trench coat, stands a toothless monstrosity with matted gray hair and bloodshot eyes in a face full of hideous ridges of pink flesh. Its lips are red and swollen, ears long and pointed. Hairs sprout from the palms of its hands. I smell its rank breath.
    In one outstretched hand, held high as in a Nazi salute, the monster is holding something. I can’t make it out at first, and then I see a red book. With wicked eyes set beneath thick brows, the creature glares at my white goddess and hurls the book at her. The book bursts into flames.
    My goddess screams. “Help me!” she cries.
    I break into a cold sweat, my stomach sickened. Vomit rises in my throat as my heart pulses wildly. I fear my goddess will be consumed with the fiery pages of the red book, but I can do nothing to help her. A raging tightness seizes my