What Could Have Been

The latest round of American Title III voting is underway. Go to Romantic Times and vote for your favorite dialogue. I've read through the remaining four entries and have to say it'll be a tough choice. Dang, I want all these folks to win, including those of us who have been voted off, of course : )

A couple of folks have asked what I entered for the dialogue portion. Well, here, take a look.

First, a little set-up. HAUNTED is a paranormal chick lit/womens fiction. Whatever you want to call it. It's about two friends, Georgie (aka Peach) and Min, trying to learn the details of Min's supposed accidental death. Had I not been exiled, had I made it to this round, this is what you would have seen for my entry:

“That’s why I’m still here, Peach. I thought it was the shock of the accident that held me back. You know, the spirit wasn’t ready to leave its earthly body, blah blah blah. But it wasn’t just the accident. I need to find out how it happened. Why it happened.”

I didn’t like where this was going. It was my turn to get up and pace. “And what happens then? What happens when you find out?”

“Then I can go on,” she said so softly, so hopefully I could have wept for both of us.

I stopped beside her chair. I could see individual hairs on her head, even the few gray ones only her stylist would’ve noticed. Threatening tears scraped my throat as I swallowed them down. “Go where, Min?”

She stared out the window as if all she’d ever wanted was in the breeze dancing through the willows. “I don’t know what to call it. Heaven. Nirvana. But I know I’m supposed to be there with Zayde Joe and Aunt Li and the others.”

My knees wobbled and I sank into a chair. “You want to go to them.”

She gave a small laugh. “Not that I have a choice.” Her eyes met mine. “But yeah, I do. It’s like there’s a knot of rope in my stomach, Peach, and on the other end are all these people from my past tugging and telling me it’s time to come home. But I can’t go. Not yet. I have to find out what really happened that night.”

“And when you find out--” My voice caught and I took a shaky breath. Tears pricked at my eyes. “When you find out I’ll lose you again.”