Garden Grove
I see you.
I see you all.
Tramping, cutting, and ripping out the trees.
Digging and tearing up the land, making your roads and burying big lines of pipes like arteries beneath the ground.
Your big ugly tractors beeping and growling with the early dawn and turning into big sleeping piles of rubbish with the darkening dusk.
I see the others too.
Those silly women playing childish pranks.
The teenagers drinking their alcohol and messing around with the big trucks and tractors.
Chuckle.
I bet those workers wonder why their trucks and tractors all smell like piss.
And I see you too old man. Just what do you think planting those old bones is going to do? Is that supposed to entice me to come out?
We came here to this little community to get away from all of this, the never-ending noise and trouble-making neighbours. We came here before there was a community here, when it was nothing more than scrub, grassy hills, and old forests; some of us to escape our destiny, and our past. We came here to escape me.
There is no getting away, the petty gossips and the troublemakers, the hate and the fear, it’s just human nature.
We never anticipated you though, old Rusty Plowshare, you and your crazy old family.
No, we never anticipated you.
I never anticipated you.
What draws so many strange events to the new Garden Grove development?
Garden Grove Meadows, “Where families come to live”, is a new housing development promising a better future in a growing bedroom community. The project seems to be the eye of a storm of strange events; plagued with vandalism, the work crew poisoned, altered blueprints, and human remains intentionally planted for the crew to find.
Who is trying to stop the development?
Something strange is happening at the new Garden Grove development. Vandalism, an entire work crew poisoned, and something waiting and watching.
Garden Grove Meadows is a new housing development that seems to be the eye of a storm of strange events. What do these have in common: vandalism, a human skull planted on the job site, tampered with blueprints, and a crazy old woman poisoning the work crew. What could possibly not be wrong with this job? What can be behind these strange events, none of which seem to be related to each other?
An ancient watcher is witness to the ground being dug up and turned into a housing development. An old man who watches the construction regretfully, and an old woman who poisons the construction crew. Could one of them be the watcher?
* * * * * * *
A human skull, sabotage, poisoned work crew, altered blueprints … someone wants to stop the development.
* * * * * * *
This book is inspired by actual events. No, it is not a based on a true story kind of book. All of the events and characters are entirely fictional and any perceived similarity to real persons or events is coincidental and unintentional. This story was inspired by actual frustrations endured at the seemingly endless and unavoidable noise of construction equipment at the start of a building project.
And the tractor. The actual tractor photographed for the cover photo had a hole in the windshield resembling a bullet hole, which was a big part of the inspiration for this story. The photo was altered to enhance that hole.
And now for a quick R.I.P. to the well-worn pair of runners who sacrificed their selves to the sole-devouring muck in order for this photo to be taken. You were a good pair of runners.
