Here is a first draft of the beginning of the book:
Chapter One
THE DYING
The sky is an eerie combination of orange and blood red. From a high, saw-toothed precipice, I can see down into a deep canyon. Though the wind is cool and caresses my face, I am flushed with fear. Something is out there, something terrifying. I look for a place to hide. Maybe I should descend into the canyon and hide deep within a crevice so it cannot find me. I take a single step, then I hear it. The sound of its screeching is so loud that it blocks out all other sounds. It lunges for me--
huge, feathered wings at least four times my height, enormous talons, and a face with a claw-like beak. I am not fast enough to find an escape. I am like a small mouse, preparing for my final breath. I crouch down, hoping that the monstrous bird will not be able to grasp such a small prey. But grasp it does, with great skill and agility. I feel its razor-sharp claws cut into my sides as it plucks me from my perch, and with one rapid swoop it carries me to the sky.
Looking down, I can see miles of valleys whooshing by. A raging river looks like a thread dangling between the mountains. The wind, once so gentle, becomes so fierce that it instantly dries the blood dripping from my torso. The giant bird chooses a landing site to devour its prey. Feeling its full weight upon me, we drop to an overhang on the side of a cliff, and its talons rip into my abdomen. Who is screaming louder, the winged monster or me?
4:45 a.m. My screaming became the sound of the alarm clock in my room. As I lay in bed, slowly becoming aware that I had been dreaming, I ran my shaking hands over my belly to make sure it was still intact. Three months pregnant. I suppose nightmares are common for pregnant women, but this one was so terrifyingly real.
I had set the alarm clock so I could get up in time to record our new company commercial, which was airing during the Good Morning America show--cue the music from 2001: A Space Odyssey, playing against a backdrop of a picture of our small, blue-green Earth. As the camera comes in closer and closer, the Earth fills the screen. Then, silence . . . and at the bottom of the screen appear the words, "Selling it. Century 21." It gave me goose bumps just thinking about it. My company was an umbrella of businesses, mixing real estate, securities, insurance and financial planning. The real estate commercial which was airing nationwide was sure to bring in copious new clients for all of our agents.
My seven foster children were still fast asleep in their beds down the hall. Bob, my husband, and I had tried unsuccessfully to have our own children for several years. In the meantime, we fell in love with a 14 year old girl who had been abandoned by her parents. Having been told by my mother to move out at the tender age of 14, I felt an affinity for her. She came into our home and changed our lives forever. Over the past several years, many children from various dysfunctional situations had come to share our lives and home. We had loved them all, but continued to try and have our own baby. After a couple of rounds of fertility medications, we finally had become pregnant.
My stomach ached a bit, but I assumed it was a residual reaction from the dream, or my very full bladder. I hurried to the bathroom, but as my bladder emptied, the pain increased until it reached a sharp crescendo. It was then that I knew that something was terribly wrong.
As I stood, I could see sparkles dancing in front of my eyes. My hearing became muffled, then went deaf. My body was falling through space, as if the mighty bird had dropped me, only this time I hit the cold tiles of the bathroom floor. Everything faded to black.
I didn't know how long I had lain there, but when I regained consciousness, I knew I needed to find help. Still unable to see or hear, my mind remembered the way to my night stand where the phone sat. I crawled, slowly and painfully, into my bedroom. Did I pick up the phone? Did I dial? Consciousness faded away as I hit the floor.
I was in a bright room. It was a huge place, an emergency room, and people were scurrying about all around me. I could see the panic etched on their faces. A man placed a cold paddle on my lower tummy and pushed hard. My screaming drowned out all the other noise in the room, but no one seemed to hear it. I asked him not to do that again, because it really hurt! Didn't he hear me scream? Without acknowledging me, he continued to push in an even rougher fashion. With six months of weight training behind me, I raised my right foot to his chest and applied a strong, firm thrust. I heard him cry out as he flew across the room, crash-landing into several metal carts.
A doctor appeared beside my bed, explaining that I was bleeding internally, that my abdomen was full of blood, but they didn't know why. I told her I was 12 weeks pregnant, and the look on her face was not reassuring. The level of panic in the room increased, and someone shouted, "We're losing her!" Bags were placed around my arms and legs and blown up tight. I was told it was to help push any blood up into my torso to protect my vital organs and brain. I was bleeding to death. I heard the heart monitor go flat line, and a "whooosh" of air around me.
Suddenly, everything was still. I was no longer in my body. I looked down and saw the gurney with my body on it being pushed down the hospital corridor with several people running alongside it. Then I felt myself being pulled through a tunnel of light...
