Thief River Falls

by Brian Freeman

It had been raining for hours, one of those endless fall rains that sucked all the color out of the world and turned your life into a black-and-white movie.

This was her castle in the middle of nowhere, a place where she could pull up the drawbridge and keep out the world.

guess I’d say that if someone’s inclined to do evil, they don’t need me or my books to carry it out. They can get plenty of inspiration from the real world.”

Laurel was the calm head whenever Lisa found herself in the midst of a panic attack. Lisa didn’t think she would have survived the last two years of the Dark Star without Laurel’s help. She couldn’t count how many times she’d gone to her friend to talk, cry, scream, and pray.

It was strange how Lisa’s life had always changed with phone calls.

“How did she look at you?” “Like she knew who I was.”

Children had the gift, the second sight, the sixth sense. Sometimes she wondered if most writers were really just children who’d never grown up.

“If you were so scared, why did you let him go?” Purdue asked. It was such a simple question. Why? She’d asked herself that same question a thousand times.

He shook his head. “Why are you helping me?” The thought sprang into her mind: Because I need to be saved every bit as much as you.

“That’s what my mother taught me. If someone needs help, you drop everything, and you help them. Just like you hope they would do for you.”

His voice was clipped, but that wasn’t unusual. Curtis never used two words when one was enough.

He didn’t trust people who weren’t emotionally invested in the outcome of a problem.

That sometimes in a thriller, the hero died.

Mrs. Reichl had a honey-sweet voice that never let you realize you were being interrogated.

Actually, the girl idolizes you. She talks about you and your books all the time. You’re her—well, who’s all the rage with teenagers these days? You’re her Ariana Grande, I guess.” “Impressive pop culture reference, Mrs. Reichl,” Lisa said. “I do have grandchildren.”

In the face of severe trauma, the brain could conjure entire worlds that didn’t exist as a way of blocking out reality. Hallucinations of people and places. Delusions that the mind refused to give up.

“Well, to be perfectly honest, these visits are selfish, too. I like spending time here by myself. I have a chance to catch up with old friends. I can reflect on what’s ahead for me, too. Not that I’m looking to rush it, but I’ve seen enough people unprepared that I’d rather get my head around it. People always assume that priests are just fine with death, as if going to a better world means you don’t regret leaving the one you know. How silly.”

Wilson Hoke was an annoying little man, one of those sycophants Denis never trusted because they would constantly dance around what they really wanted to say. Denis had no time for pussyfooters. Physically, Hoke was something of a Bill Gates lookalike, always in a wrinkled pin-striped suit, with a meek voice, messy brown hair, black glasses, and a thin little smile.

He was a ruthless, arrogant son of a bitch who treated the town of Thief River Falls like his personal empire.

If his life had now been touched by the murder of his daughter, he would be the blackest kind of avenging angel.

How’s that for a quid pro quo?”

But you know how it goes. Girl gets emotional abuse from her father, then turns around and finds a man who makes it even worse. That was Nick Loudon.”

No, her daughter wasn’t ready, but Keri just shook her head. Some battles weren’t worth fighting.

She still had that same patient, infuriating look on her face.

Laurel saw something different in Noah’s face. Maturity. He’d aged more than just a year in the time he’d been gone.

She wants to tell him that life is about leaving, but that love is about memories.

“The brain is a scary thing.”