Chapter 1

The four year old Toyota turned off the highway and onto the unpaved private road which led up the cape to the house. Lynette Dennison, black, 36, looked over to her daughter Cherie. The fifteen year old had taken the divorce hard and even though it had been husband Herb who had proven unfaithful not once, but repeatedly, the relationship between mother and daughter had been strained these last few months as they adjusted to life without a husband and father.

Now, however, Lynette felt, they had a chance to start over. Selling the house in the city and moving out here on the isolated cape had been a literal as well as figurative breath of fresh air for them both and both were showing signs that the tension of the failed marriage and broken family was beginning to ease.

Lynette knew that things might be tight financially, but she was confident they could manage. The divorce had left her with sole custody of Cherie and with the town house. While the sale of the city residence had covered the cost of the house here on the cape, her writing of children's books would support them, but barely.

"How's the new book coming?" asked the pretty teen.

"I'm just outlining at the moment. It's about a little girl who's afraid of the monsters she is sure are in her closet. She calls them the "things in her closet." She's frightened to even come near, but eventually she faces her fears and opens the door to find..."

"Simon Cowl," laughed Cherie.

"Okay, smart ass," smiled the attractive mother.

"Hey, Mom, I was thinking I'd like to collect some shells along the beach and decorate that wall in my room, the one with the smaller window."

"Sounds like a plan."

"And really, I don't mind riding the bus to school."

"I'll probably take you up on that, but for the first week or so I'd like to take you each morning ... just until you get settled in."

"The village school is going to be a lot different from Shakerton HIgh."

"Well, you had over two thousand kids at Shakerton. Cape Simmons has what, about three hundred?"

"Yeah, but I think I'm gonna like it. The teachers seem okay and..."

"And... ?"

"And I met a girl last week when I registered."

"Oh, made a new friend already?" smiled Lynette.

"Yeah ... her name's Tina."

"Well, as soon as we get settled in why don't you invite Tina over for dinner? Or better yet, why don't you invite some of your classmates over for some eats, music and dancing? It would be a good way to break the ice, you know, get to know them."

"Cool," replied the teen, smiling.

The car made the final turn out of the trees and scrub grass enabling them to see the house. Pulling up and parking the car, Lynette smiled. Both she and Cherie had fallen in love with the old two story cape house the moment they had laid eyes on it. Built in the early nineteenth century, the exterior was the traditional narrow slated wooden siding. Last painted too many years ago, the once attractive blue/gray paint was weathered and beginning to peel in places. Lynette knew it would need a fresh coat of paint, preferably before winter, but the point on which it stood was truly magnificent offering a sweeping view of the sea and the jagged rocks and narrow beach below. Lynette had found the constant distant breaking of the waves on the rocks calming and found, even after only a few days, she missed it terribly when away.