Introduction

"Hiiii, this is Gladys Sharp. Your president. Of the Homeowner's Association."

Or at least that was my former life. I can hear her voice clear as bells, the sound of myself finally on top of the world for a short-lived peak.

But that's too depressing a way of looking at it.

It's Tuesday. On Sunday, I became Gladys Sharp Lafontant. It happened so quickly and I didn't feel like a different person at all. I just drove five minutes with an extra person in the passenger seat from my mother-in-law's house to the little backwoods house I've been staying at that's officially my home now, and started marriage almost without thinking about it.

I'm pregnant. I don't think anyone ever thought that would happen to me, not as time went on and my peers decided I was too crazy for a man. I have a Dwayne. It's surprisingly pleasant to have a Dwayne now. We had to learn to like each other to make the best of the same community service sentence, but it wasn't that difficult. Both of us had crushes on each other within 12 hours of meeting. It was the fateful morning after that both set us back and brought us together in the longer run.

My former life is gone. I really can't face the people back at El Rancho Camelot subdivision. Janis and Debbie keep in touch, but that's essentially it. I don't want pity. Gladys Sharp is known as the crazy woman these days, which is why I took my husband's name. Maybe strangers won't make the connection as quickly, but even if they do, I need a new start at least for myself.

I recently had a weird dream that I went back to the suburbs to finish developing the land and the same drama with the forest animals only repeated itself. It wasn't one of my better dreams.

Dwayne is surprisingly pleasant to have around, like I said. He's calmed me more than any therapy has, just by being nice to me. Getting used to me was the most annoying part for him. He still figured out how to make me happy and more relaxed early on. I'm easy for Dwayne to "read". He gave me a new cat. That was the turning point in our relationship. The new cat is a shelter rescue, and not a purebred, but more attached to me than Prince Tiberius was. His name was Smoky, but he isn't even grey. He's a mixture of yellow and orange, and I named him Silas Marner. I feel a little like Silas Marner from the book of the same name.

I hope Tiberius is safe somehow. I haven't found him.