kirsti kimball

Jax Harper: Next in Line (Chapter 1: A Rude Awakening)

As our unbeknownst hero walks down a dark Quincy Lane in his holier-than-thou hometown of Shepherd’s Pointe, he is put into an almost trance-like state from hearing the drip-drop of a nearby sewer pipe draining anything but water into Shepherd’s Creek. Jax Harper reaches into his ragged, gray hoodie for his earphones to help drown out the sounds of the night. He puts one in his left ear and continues his trek. “I hate this place,” he thinks to himself while passing yet another strip of bare trees on the way home from his job as a busboy at The Pointe, his grandpa’s restaurant. His family would take Jax there every Friday after school when he was a boy; he always thought it was funny how a place once filled with happy memories could become so gloomy and exhausting to be around.