Have You Read Mary Lynn Plaisance, Writer Extraordinaire? And My Friend! Here's The Latest of Hers I just Finished! The Voice Behind the Small Attic Door

 

I have a stack of TBR Books for Mary Lynn Plaisance on my piano top... They await until I can figure out just how to get back to reading paperbacks with my new eye prescription inserts. So far, even adjusting to Kindle is not as easy as it once was... Soooo, when I got an email from Author's Den about one of Mary's books, I zoomed out to Amazon* and read it in a day...

Fortunately, the suspense starts right at the beginning, so that by the time I was reading into the night, I was fully aware...and had met...

Piddle Paddle Waddle.”

Marion and Walter brought their distraught daughter to their home from the church. Susan was clearly in shock. The doctor was on his way, a psychiatrist and neighbor, and a friend of the family for decades. She needed to be sedated. The tragic event after the wedding was a nightmare, and they wondered how Susan would make it through such a horrifying experience. When Dr. Jenkins arrived, he ordered the paramedic to give Susan a shot of valium to calm her shaking body. The paramedic unit stayed parked in front of the house well into the night. Susan had been crying since they left the church and no one could calm her down. Still in her wedding dress, Marion and Walter brought her upstairs to the room she had as a child. She would rest much better in her quiet room upstairs than in any one of the rooms downstairs filled with grieving family members. Marion and Walter needed time to think about what they would do for Susan. As they closed the door to her room, they saw that she fell asleep holding on to her big, white, stuffed bear that she named Titus. She had him since she was only five years old. Her stuffed white bear was the same size as her when she was five years old, and he was her special friend ever since then. When anything went wrong, she held Titus close to her heart. Standing in the upstairs hallway, Dr. Jenkins told Marion and Walter, “Today will stay in Susan’s mind for quite a long time. None of you will be able to console her. Just let her do what she wants, short of harming herself, and time will take its course in her recovery. There’s nothing more to do.” Marion and Walter were still in tears. “I don’t think she will ever be well again,” said Marion. “She wanted to get married since she was a child. She always played bride and groom, but there was never a groom. Her room was filled with toys, and she had so many little party dresses of all colors, but she loved the white dresses most. She was always the bride.” Marion’s tears could not stop flowing down her cheeks while she spoke.

“Like I said, this will take years for her to get over, if ever. She will need therapy.I’ll help you if you want. If not, I can leave you with the name of a good therapist who may be able to help her later. As this event sinks into her mind, it will take a while for her to accept what happened. She will be in denial, and then she will get angry. After the anger comes depression, before she can accept what happened. All of this is normal when anyone goes through grief.” 

Marion cried more than before. “Thank you Doctor Jenkins. Please help Susan. She knows you.”

“I’ll do all I can to help her. Give Susan these pills when she wakes up, as needed. Just give her time. Lots of time.”

“Thank you so much, Doc.” Walter grabbed the doctor in an embrace of sorrow. There were no words to say. Nothing like this had ever happened before, and this was surely unexpected.

Marion and Walter went downstairs to talk to the family and Susan’s friends. They ate what the caterers brought to their home from the wedding reception. Everyone shared stories of the morning and mingled to find some comfort. Both sides of the family were still in shock. After four o’clock, the caterers took their equipment, and friends and family cleaned up everything in the kitchen and living room. Dr. Jenkins stayed for a while longer to make sure Susan was okay. Harry, Velma, and Gladys stayed to help overnight.

The thought of such a bazaar accident was beyond comprehension. Nothing like this ever entered anyone’s mind.

Susan stayed asleep in her room. Susan’s room with the small attic door...

~~~

Susan had been looking forward to being married since a very early age. Part of that was because her parents owned a boutique where she was surrounded by beautiful, fanciful clothes. And she even had the opportunity to wear dresses in their commercials! Dozens of dresses she had worn for parties were now tucked away carefully in their attic.

In fact, Susan's parents doted on their only child and had given her anything she wanted, so that, as she grew older and had met the man of her dreams, they even bought a home to live in pending the marriage ceremony.

Author's Wedding Day!

And, indeed, the wedding was

beautiful with Susan in her $30,000 dream dress that was made to her exact specifications, even if she did have trouble getting into and out of her limousine... And everybody would enjoy those funny pictures and all the photographer was taking--as he had done for every moment of the event!

But once Mike had helped her push the tull to allow the door to close, he anxiously ran around to his side of the limo...

Nobody saw the car coming... And then it came into view, curving wildly, fast, and clearly out of control. And, actually, there was no driver... Susan saw the car push Mike away from the car and she swiftly turned trying to get out, while her mother rushed up, trying to keep her in the car... Trying to protect her child from seeing that her, now, husband...was...dead...

Nobody knew how to deal with such a tragedy. Emergency vehicles swiftly appeared to help in many ways, one of which was to help take the family to their home. Many later gathered at Susan's parents home and the food from the reception site was carried in... 

Titus and Susan

But Susan was asleep with Titus, her protector and friend since the age of 5 when he came to first visit and stayed. She had always hugged him tightly as she fell asleep each night. But, now, she clung to him day and night, sleeping mostly, and never leaving her room, ignoring food and anybody who wanted her to come out.

Her parents' bedroom was near Susan's and, as her father got up the next morning, he heard talking from Susan's room. He knocked, then looked in. Susan was hugging Titus and sleeping...

Hearing talking continued, but Susan, even if awake, said she wasn't talking to anybody.  When asked about calling any of her friends, she said she had lost her phone. Was she talking to herself?

Finally, one morning she woke up as if after a long sleep. She greeted her mother and told her she had to hurry this morning because she had a test...Susan, according to her doctor who came immediately, sadly indicated that she had apparently pushed out all recent memories and was back, safe, in school... But, even then, she began to talk back to her father with snide remarks. Soon both parents found her now abusive, after there never having been situations like these in the past. 

And the talking went on...

The intriguing part about this Louisiana Author is that you will never know what to expect when you open one of her books.  Readers will quickly pick up on the suspense as the book starts. We have already raised the question--well, who is the voice that lives in the attic? Perhaps Susan had an imaginary friend and in her loss of memory has begun to talk to that individual from her past... I love how the author pulls us along as, seemingly, events begin to not happen as planned. 

What we do know is that something happened to Susan after her husband was, essentially, run over by an empty car! Has she had a breakdown? Trauma that has affected her mind and reality?

Well, to know what happened to Susan, you'll have to meet Piddle Paddle Waddle... You'll find her in the video above if you look carefully... So, I just have one question for all of you? Are you a kind person, who does acts of kindness?

If not. Beware...

GABixlerReviews 

*A number of proofreading issues was found in the book format; however, they did not interfere with my enjoyment