Tuesday Tales: From the Word BRIGHT

Welcome to the last Tuesday Tales post for the month of April, and the last one from Finding Melinda. Next week, I’ll be starting a new book. This week our word prompt is BRIGHT. I’m a few words over 400. Enjoy.

After a surprisingly deep and dreamless sleep, Melinda awoke to a beautiful Saturday, the perfect kind of day for a football game. Glancing at the clock, she saw that it was only seven, and yet she was invigorated. Was it because of the game or the company she would keep?

She got out of bed, padded to the kitchen, and made herself a cup of coffee. Following her daily routine, she went out onto the balcony to enjoy the bright morning sun and her first cup of coffee of the day. Leaning back, she felt the twinge of her most recent bruise, thanks to the stone that had struck her last night.

After dinner, she and Marc had discussed countless reasons why she might be in the danger she was in, but while all of them were plausible, none really made sense. Perhaps it was time to put things into perspective and examine what she knew to be fact rather than continue to speculate.

She was Melinda Crites, a thirty-year-old teacher. Her adoptive parents were dead, but she had two loving siblings who still considered her part of their family. She had no idea who her father was, whether or not he was even alive, but the man had contributed Basque ancestry to her through his DNA. Her biological mother had been the victim of a hit and run accident and had died, but only after giving birth to fraternal twins, herself and Darcy, children separated at birth like hundreds of others for the sake of some psychologist’s research into the development of twins raised apart. Unfortunately, those involved with that scandal were dead. God would be the one to see they got their just desserts. But she was luckier than many. Thanks to the DNA kit Danny had given her, she’d learned the truth about herself, and while the discovery had been painful at the time, she was slowly getting to know who she was. She was still the old Melinda but discovering her roots had given her a new purpose in life.

Meeting Darcy, her twin brother, had been one of the most satisfying experiences ever. Not only did they look alike … right down to the Basque nose and the shape of their eyes, but they also liked the same things. She’d been surprised when he’d cocked his head the way she often did. The best part had been that sense of wholeness she’d felt, almost as if the missing part of her she’d always imagined there had been found. But that didn’t explain why someone was after her, why someone wanted her to stop looking for the truth.

That’s it. Stay safe, and don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales.