Sabrina Falk
Publication Date: February 1, 2019
Genre: Contemporary
Anxiety has become the only thing Abigail Hartley can count on. She's jobless, dreamless, loveless and stuck living with her parents—it's not exactly the 22 she had in mind.
But when tragic news rattles the Hartley household and years of secrecy begin to surface, Abigail can no longer hide behind her fears. She joins forces with her sarcastic, pre-teen sister and heads to the only place that might have the answers she's looking for. One month in Georgia is all it takes to change everything Abigail knows about, well…everything.
There are four doors upstairs. The first is the bathroom; it has a tiled floor with a strange, retro-yellow flower pattern and a claw-foot tub. The second door is a closet that’s empty apart from a few towels. Mental note: this is a suitable replacement closet should I run into trouble. And the third door opens to something I wasn’t expecting. Mom’s old room—completely untouched.
It feels as if we’re stepping back in time. I envision my mother as a young girl sitting at the dressing table before me, combing her hair. The walls around us are coated with a paled pastel pink, adorned with floral wallpaper along the top of the room. There’s a window seat framed with thick white curtains, covered from end to end with decorative pillows. Her bed, canopied with matching pink fabric, gives home to a frail teddy bear sitting at the headboard. Everything’s pristine, except for the closet. One of the doors is crooked, the hangers are strewn about, and her clothes are in messy piles on the floor below. Looks like she was in a hurry to leave.
Maddy walks over to the window seat and clears a space to stretch out her legs. “This is weird. I mean, this is Mom’s room.” I nod and take a seat on the bed. The sudden movement disrupts the blankets, sending the teddy bear toppling over. I feel bad for a moment, then realize he’s been sitting there for a couple decades. It’s time for a new view. “I would have never pictured this.”
“I know. Mom’s just so—” Maddy searches for the words.
“New York.”
“Ha, yeah.” That sums her up perfectly. There’s almost no trace of small-town America left in our mother, and maybe that’s how she wants it. “Wanna see what’s behind Door Number Four?”
Maddy groans but follows. It’s the last room—Mae’s room.
I open the door. Dust, backlit by the window, drifts over to Mae’s unmade bed. All over the room are signs of her struggle to call for help the morning she died. The bedside lamp hangs from its power cord with the lampshade crushed into the floor. The bulb is shattered into the now blood-stained carpet. She must have stood up in the dark and cut her feet on the glass. It looks like she then braced herself on the dresser, because everything on it is toppled over.
I feel how alone she was, how afraid, with no one to comfort her. My heart grieves for her and a stray tear rolls down my cheek. The first tear that our family has shed since her death. That thought stirs a second tear, then a third, and soon my silent suffering is impossible to hide. I’m angry. Angry that Mom would let her die like this, angry that she convinced us not to care about her. No one could be so terrible as to deserve this.
Maddy’s arms envelop me. “Abby, what’s wrong?”
“It’s just a lot to take in.”
“Yeah, but it’s okay. We’re in this together. It’s our own little adventure.”
“Adventure, huh?” That’s one way of looking at it. Maybe an adventure is what the two of us need right now. Guess it’s a good thing we’re caught in the middle of one.
About the Author
Sabrina Falk is a Canadian Writer from Southern Manitoba. She received an English Language Arts scholarship at NCI in her graduating year. She is also the co-creator of Matt Falk’s Awful Podcast and played Melissa in the World Vision tour of POOF across Manitoba. She loves traveling all over the world with her family, but Southern Manitoba has always been her home.
Not Far from the Peach Tree is Sabrina Falk’s debut novel.
Tour
Schedule
February 2, 2019 – Stacking My Book Shelves! – Spotlight
February 2, 2019 – Chapters through life – Review
February 3, 2019 – Chapter by Chapter – Guest Post
February 4, 2019 – June Reads Books – Review
February 4, 2019 – Maiden of the Pages – Interview
February 5, 2019 – What Is That Book About – Spotlight
February 5, 2019 – Smada’s Book Smack – Review
February 6, 2019 – Love Books Group – Review
February 6, 2019 – Viviana MacKade – Interview
February 7, 2019 – LibriAmoriMiei – Review
February 7, 2019 – Whatever You Can Still Betray – Spotlight
February 8, 2019 – BookHounds YA – Guest Post
February 8, 2019 – Paulette’s Papers – Spotlight
Hello! Thanks so much for sharing your book with us. Always fun reading about another book to enjoy.
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