The following is an excerpt from a novel, I am currently working on:
"Jack’s Journey
Chapter 1
The pre-dawn birdsong shattered the dream. The night was old when Jack had crawled into bed. The broken dream did not come often. It was from an earlier time. A time when the kids were young, at home, and the money flowed like the oil that spawned it.
Half-drunk, Jack got up to close the window muttering to himself. “Damn birds.”
The moment he sat up his brain screamed. He hurled himself back onto the bed and fought to return to the safety and comfort of the dream. Twisting, like a plastic bag caught in a wind, he gave up the effort.
“Might as well get this sorry day started.” He croaked. His throat was dry. His head pounding from the one-too-many brews he had tossed back last night.
As he dragged himself to the kitchen to make coffee a memory emerged. The recollection fought its way though the wall of throbbing cotton, that was his mind. Gradually, it emerged, a story his grandmother, Nanny, had told him when he was about five years old.
Nanny had revealed to him, the reason the birds sang in the early morning.
“The birds wake up the earth with their morning song. Their harmony calls the day into being.” She said quietly. Nanny always had a story, a warm hug and cookies. She had left this world almost 30 years past."
