Shadow Hunter

Night, that insidious thief of light, plundered her reality and stole the resolve so hard won by daylight. Bailey Howard leaned her forehead against the cool window of the air-conditioned bus and swallowed the bitter taste of panic. She would gladly kill for a glass of chardonnay right about now. Wine wouldn't have been her drug of choice, but the wish for booze was better than wishing for the line of coke she'd really been craving. And had vowed to never have again. She opened her eyes to the inky darkness reflecting back her own haggard image in the glass. What in hell was she doing on a damn bus, having spooky shivers in the middle of a heat wave? Buses were certainly not her style. What would her New York buddies have to say about such a thing? She'd been out of the loop for the last five months, holed up at the Renaissance Malibu Rehab Center. So Bailey would be willing to bet none of those New York people would recognize her at all by now. Just as well. They were history. Her history. But as the wordhistoryran through her head, she remembered a more distant past. A time when she couldn't wait for the lazy, hot summer to bring her back to her grandmother's house in the Arizona mountains of the "big" Navajo reservation in the Four Corners area. Well, it was a hot summer once again. But she dreaded going to Anali's rustic cabin in the trees this time. Dreaded having to see her grandmother when there was every possibility she would not even be able to recognize her only granddaughter's face. God, how Bailey hated this. She didn't want to think of putting her grandmother into a nursing home and then packing up her belongings, along with all her memories. It wasn't fair. How could life be so cruel? She took a slow breath and tried again to peer out through the black night, but only managed another irritated glimpse of her own reflection in the glass. As a topper to one of the worst times of her entire life, she might've known the damn airlines would manage to screw up. They'd landed the plane at the Flagstaff airport so late that none of the car rental places were still open. The Labor Day holiday weekend meant none of the motels in the area had any vacancies, either. So here she was. With an intrepid band of passengers, heading down the dark highway through the midnight hours. Her airline shuttle bus was making its way toward Farmington, New Mexico, on the far edge of the Navajo reservation and the closest city to her grandmother's home. Bailey planned to complain loudly about the screwup. Maybe she would even sue. The very minute she got off this damn bus. Giving up on the black void outside the window, she stretched her legs and pushed the small of her back against the seat in an effort to ease her cricks and aches. If it were only a bit warmer. Or if only she had a blanket. Thunk."Ow."Thunk. Thunk."Damn it," she yelled, turning around to address the woman in the row behind her. "Can't you keep that kid from kicking the seat back? I'm trying to sleep." The toddler's mother, a Mexican-American girl barely out of her teens, looked embarrassed. "Sorry. Tara needs a bottle to sleep and I didn't bring enough. I didn't think we'd be traveling so long." Bailey got up, trying to stay warm. "Don't you have some emergency supplies? You can't expect to travel with a kid who's..." she waved her hand at the baby "...how old?" "Tara's almost a year old. My husband's unit was called up, so we're going to stay with his parents until he comes back to the States." Tiny Tara, who must've had the biggest chocolate-colored eyes in existence, heard her name and began screaming and wriggling in earnest. "Sheesh, Tara. This is so not cool." The mother stood with the crying baby in her arms. "I've got a box of apple juice I can put in a bottle. Maybe that will work. It'll only take me a second to fix it up." Before Bailey knew what waConrad, Linda is the author of 'Shadow Hunter ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780373275205 and ISBN 037327520X.