Shadowline Drift: A Metaphysical Thriller (17 page)

Then Naheyo had done a strange thing
: she’d handed him a small bundle in a red cloth, drawn closed with a thin gold cord. The same cloth he’d seen in her room—it seemed so long ago now. At the shaman’s urging, he’d opened it and found a mirror—small, round, with a smoothed beveled edge. He’d lifted it out. He’d not seen any other mirrors at the compound, and noted it, women without mirrors, and no way for him to track the visual changes in himself. Their last night together, in the forest, Jake had asked Pilar about that.

“
Mirrors,” she’d said, “only let you look backward. Without them, you have to look ahead.”

Why did Naheyo want him to look back? At what? He
still had no idea. She’d motioned for him to return it to the cloth and hand it back to her, and then practically pushed him into the canoe that would take him away from the compound. To Catalous, and then, with Toshi, to Manaus. To a phone, and the States, and this moment.

The next day, she
’d sent Pilar on her way as well. In their phone conversations, Pilar had shrugged off the expulsion, saying only that Naheyo wanted peace in the compound again.

“
Boston is nice this time of year,” Ashne said, breaking into his thoughts.

“
Yes,” Jake said. “Warming up.”

Another truck pulled
into the parking area. He thought maybe, after Boston—watching the driver-side door open, a muscular man step out of the truck—maybe a beach somewhere. With Pilar, if she wanted to go. A place where no one wanted anything from him. A place to empty his mind.

“
This will go on all day,” Ashne said. “I appreciate you coming with me. It means much. It—you’d best be on your way.”

Jake nodded
, but stood awhile longer watching the muscular man pull open the back doors of the truck. A helper appeared now as well, and the two men started hauling pallets from the truck—no sacks of small chickens or rabbits, but large carcasses of cattle, the pallets hitting the ground with a hard
thunk
. The large metal doors of the incinerator opened. A man driving an electric pallet loader emerged and drove slowly toward the truck.

“
I’m taking some time off,” Jake said. “A few months.”

“
Good.” Ashne turned to him. “I—well, how does one say thank you for something like this?”

Ashne embraced him
then, and it startled Jake. Other than his father and brother, no man had ever hugged him as an adult—not when he was small, when a grown man would have had to bend over or kneel down. He stood awkwardly with his arms at his sides. Then he reached around and embraced Ashne in return.

His friend
turned him loose. “Best be going.”

Jake
, feeling the chill in the air now, shoved his hands into his jeans pockets. “I’ll call when I’m ready to come back to work.”

“
Good. There is still much to be done.”

It wasn
’t true, what he’d told Ashne at the airport—that he was the same man he’d always been. He was someone else now. Not just a taller man. That was nothing, really, for all that he’d craved it for so long. The change was deeper, something fundamental. The way he saw the world and his place in it. A comfort level. He couldn’t give it a name, but knew it was true.

Jake
shrugged, then clapped Ashne’s shoulder. He turned away from the low gray building and the smoke billowing from its chimney.

I
f you enjoyed this book, please take a moment to write a review, no matter how brief, on the site where you purchased it and/or Goodreads.

T
hank you.

Alexes is always happy to hear from readers and welcomes new friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Email:
[email protected]

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/lxsraz

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/AlexesRazevichAuthor

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

             
Alexes Razevich was born in New York and grew up in Orange County, California. She attended California State University San Francisco where she earned a degree in Creative Writing. After a successful career on the fringe of the electronics industry, including stints as Director of Marketing for a major trade show management company and as an editor for Electronic Engineering Times, she returned to her first love—fiction. She lives in Southern California with her husband.

Also by Alexes Razevich

K
he loves her simple life on a farming commune, until she discovers that her gift for pushing the crops is a death sentence. Fleeing across the treacherous wilderness, she makes her way to the city of Chimbalay, searching for the
orindles
who might save her. But Chimbalay has its own dangers. The Powers are there--the secret rulers who have chosen Khe to be the mother of a monstrous new race.

N
either "man in space" Science Fiction nor classical fantasy, Khe deftly blends elements of both while satisfying those searching for something different in a dystopian novel. Readers looking for solid world-building, and fresh, fully-realized characters will especially enjoy this book.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00987OLVU

Acknowledgments

M
any thanks to Meg Xuemei, Randall Jackson, Richard Casey, and Susan Marschner for their friendship and their help in bringing this story to life, and to Christina Frey, editor
extraordinaire
.

M
uch gratitude to Tony Honkawa for his patience and his vision.

M
uch love to Chris, Colin, and Larkin Razevich, who are the lights of my life.

Cover art by Tony Honkawa,

Tony Honkawa Designs

C
opyright © 2014 Alexes Razevich

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual events, locals, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidently and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the author. Requests for permission should be sent to [email protected].