JAG MARLEY (Character from "A Safe Place to Land")

Four Years Ago

Indianapolis, Indiana

Jag Marley finished packing his few belongings and plopped himself down on the floor, leaning back against the bottom bunk he had slept on during the past seventeen months. He would be turning thirteen years old next week, and he figured this was his fourth "home" in those years. But this foster mother couldn't handle him on her own anymore, so he was being moved on to some couple's home.

As always in the past before a move, he wondered what the new foster parents would be like. Would they be kind like his first foster parents? Would he ever find kindness like that again?

Who cares? Even the nice ones don't keep me for long.

He knew he should be more respectful and try behaving better, and then maybe his guardians wouldn't be in such a hurry to get rid of him. Ditching school, drinking, staying out past curfew, and mouthing off to everyone in authority were not helping him find a forever home.

On the other hand, it had been a long time since he had lived anywhere he'd wanted to stay forever.

He thought about his biological mother and stepfather, whom he hadn't lived with since before his seventh birthday, and knew that the worst of his foster homes hadn't been half as bad as his original home. He should consider himself lucky for having escaped what he knew now to be abuse and neglect.

Whatever, he muttered to himself. Hearing the doorbell ring and assuming it to be his social worker, Jag picked up his bags and his guitar case and shuffled out of the room.

 

 

Find out more about Jag's past and how it affects his present in the Kindle eBook, A Safe Place to Land, by Laurel A. Ness.  To be released August 11, 2015.