EXTRACT FOR
Gayle Goes Back Home
(David Monroe)

It had been ages since Gayle Vernon had been back home. Well...not really ages as most people would think of the expression, but to her, it sure felt like it. Gayle had once thought she had a pretty damn good damn life back in Porter but then one day her world began to fall apart when she discovered not all was as it seemed to her. Porter was not a small place but not really a large community either. For Gayle as a young girl and then adolescent, it had been just right. She had lots of friends from childhood that continued as she entered high school. But as she and her friends neared graduation she began to notice some cliques forming that gave the impression that she was definitely not welcome into. In general, that was not a big deal to her as she had other interests that were more consuming and intriguing to her than some little gathering of people who felt they were better than others.

That was until several of her closest friends fell into this dynamic and began to act as if they did not even know her, even though they had been friends since they had been very young. Initially, it was just hurtful, but when it progressed to the point of finding out that one guy, in particular, Gregory Flanagan, and his current girlfriend, Samantha Evans, both of whom Gayle had considered close confidants at one time began to spread rumors about her. Back earlier she and Greg had been a couple in a brief but heated relationship and it ended badly over an argument that Gayle now saw as just one of those immature adolescent spats that were common as you were growing up.