Shadows Through a Window Excerpt

A day late and a dollar short. I know I promised that I would post an excerpt of my published novel yesterday but I ran into a few snags on the personal level and was unable to do as promised. So, I am posting it today. This is a blog post but you can also view the preview at http://createspace.com/Preview/1091899

This morning started like any typical morning it is May 28, 2009 and as I prepare for a hard day at work I wanted nothing more than to sleep in but I had the alarm clock set to go off at six o’clock which is very early but my first meeting started at nine in the morning and I needed to be at the hospital by eight. I had back to back meetings scheduled all week and was thankful that today being Thursday was looking forward to tomorrow which would end my hectic week or least that is what I thought. As I spent the day ending each of my meetings on a good note meaning the Nursing staff was happy with the news that they were given…changing people’s shifts and schedules isn’t easy especially when you are trying to run and operate a unit that is as busy as my unit. You see, my unit is the type of unit that deals with people who are labeled by society as undesirable. They are people who have mental disorders and deemed unfit to live in a “normal” environment. Most of my patients suffer from delusions and are often lost in their own fantasies whether real or imagine. But, regardless of what is wrong with them they have been shunned by their own families and society has labeled them as outcasts or crazy.

Well, the day went on hour by hour as usual and I am happy to say that for the most part my staff and the patients haven’t gotten into any trouble. Most of the patients here in the Psych ward refuse to take their medications meaning the nursing staff has to take drastic measures to ensure that the patients get their medication whether they want it or not. As I sit at my desk watching the clock tick away second by second wishing the day would just hurry up and end the phone rang and it was the EMS crew calling to say that they were bringing in a new patient. Well, I didn’t think much of this since it seemed that new patients were arriving almost on a daily basis. Just as I hung up the phone in walks Shon a colleague of mine.  Shon and I spent the last few years of medical school together at Harvard. We dated each other for about year before calling it quits on the boyfriend girlfriend relationship and decided that we would be better off as friends. But either way Shon has stuck with me through the years and through thick and thin. I think that Shon thought I was a little insane when during the last year of my residency I decided to seek out abnormal Psychology meaning I started to attend meetings with a Paranormal Group that was studying at Harvard. All this came about when I was on a drive across the country to visit my home Portland, Oregon. The reason I decided to drive was because I wanted to stop at every major attraction along the way simply because I enjoy collecting key chains. But anyway, enough about cross country drives and key chains. The total drive from Boston to Vancouver had taken four days. The final day of driving I had driven twelve hours and I decided my final destination would be just over the bridge that joined the two states of Oregon and Washington. I found the most perfect place in the world outside of Oregon and in Washington State. The Heathman is the most breath taking picturesque place I had ever been too! You see, the Heathman Lodge…Located off of the main highway along the Columbia River Gorge offered anything that an outdoors person could possibly want hiking, fishing, camping etc. The reason I decided to stay there was it reminded me of growing up in Oregon and visiting my grandparents in Washington. As a child I can remember going camping and fishing with my family what seemed like every weekend. So, as you can see I have a fondness for the outdoors. But, as I grew older the camping and fishing trips with my father started to seem less and less until I eventually moved out and started medical school in Boston. My father succumbing to Sudden Cardiac Arrest unfortunately passed away leaving me alone to enjoy the memories of him sitting around the campfire...drinking a cold beer while smoking a cigarette, telling stories about Bigfoot ( Sasquatch ) and I can remember feeling that as I long as I was with my father I was safe.