Chapter 1 - The Black Dress Dream

“Please I need to get off.” Melissa Anne had dashed up the aisle and begged the bus driver as soon he began pulling away from the terminal. “I need to get off.” Her hands were pressing against the doors; she tried to slip her fingers between the rubber seal that prevented the elements from entering the bus while it was in motion.

The driver stepped on the brake pedal.”Ma'am, I'm not supposed to let anyone off once the bus is in motion.”

Melissa's panic increased. “I need to get off now,” she screamed. “Let me off this fucking bus.”

The driver set the parking brake before releasing the air lock that held the doors closed.

Melissa dashed out on to the ramp and was nearly run over by the 181 which was heading out on its journey to Atlanta, Georgia. A white faced driver stared down through the large windshield at her.

“Fucking son-of-a-bitch,” he muttered. He mashed his hand down on to the horn.
The piercing noise of the horn brought her mind back to remember the real reason her heart was pounding so goddamn hard in her chest. Melissa Anne ran back in to the terminal and made her way to the taxi stand.

His words, his face, nothing was any different than it was the day before.

“Please leave. I don't want” He closed the door in her face.

Melissa Anne in love and confused stepped on to the 2 foot high coping shelf that lined the edge of the roof. The man that somehow no longer loved her was directly below where she stood now. She took a few seconds to image what he was doing in the fabulous penthouse apartment she had called home for the last two years.
The twenty-three year old Tennessee woman who went from rags to riches in the blink of an eye looked down so she could align herself perfectly before stepping off. In the time it takes a dog to yawn she plummeted some 40 foot downward landing head first in to the windshield of Martin Broughton's chauffer driven Mercedes SL.