EXTRACT FOR
The Masseuse's Assistant
(David Monroe)

It had been a long and trying year for Sally Spooner. Though as she looked back now, and despite what the calendar said,  it was beginning to feel like it had to have been longer than just a year based on how she felt. Had it just been 12 months ago that she had been cruising along in her career and personal life? As she lay face-down on the massage table now and Wilma, her massage therapist, was finishing up her weekly treatment, she knew that was true. Her recover had begun but Sally knew it was going to be a slow climb back. She sighed at the touch of Wilma's fingers as they moved deep into the knotted and achy muscles of her back and neck and reviewed where she had been and tried to visualize herself getting back on track just as her therapist had recommended.

Following a few years in the Midwest after her college graduation, in a job that had seemed good at the outset but soon became apparent to her as a dead end in the long-run, Sally began to send out feelers for a better opportunity. There were plenty of possibilities with someone of her skill-set and abilities but she was also looking for a geographic location that was more appealing than had been Illinois. She laughed to herself figuring that should be simple...no offense to the locals here, she thought, but it sure is not for me. After a few months of searching, Sally came upon an opportunity that seemed too good to be true. There had been an employment posting in one of the professional journals she subscribed to for someone with exactly her background and experience and it was set in the small town of Heceta Beach. OR a little over an hour west of Eugene, right on the coast.

Though she had never lived along the ocean, Sally had always been drawn to the water on vacations and she thought it was just what she needed. She sent off her application right away and after a phone interview and then a brief live one, Sally found she was packing up he stuff and heading west. Her little apartment overlooked the magnificent views of the water and the gentle, relaxing tide each night helper her fall off to sleep with ease, replacing the noisy and annoying sounds of the city she had endured back In Illinois that often plagued her with insomnia. And the job itself was  incredible. She had taken a slight pay cut initially when she came onboard, but after a few months they were so pleased with her performance and approach to the work that that situation was a short-lived negative.