The Black Shepherd - Chapter 8
**Chapter Eight** **Thursday May 8, 2008** **8:51am** The final weeks of Tyson's freshman year wound up a total blur with intensive studies cluttering what free time his schedule normally allowed. Finals began the fifth of May, and in the days...
The Black Shepherd - Chapter 7
**Chapter Seven** **Saturday April 19, 2008** **6:50pm** "Wow." Tyson's aching legs buckled underneath him as he was lowering himself to the passenger seat of Elena's Honda, and after falling into the cloth seat he gulped down a few breaths of...
The Black Shepherd - Chapter 6
**Chapter Six** **Friday April 11, 2008** **1:15pm** Not normally the type to get in a funk, Tyson struggled with the dejected feeling that Elena's words--and the words she hadn't said--had left him with. He felt foolish and embarrassed. Worse, he...
The Black Shepherd - Chapter 5
**Friday April 4, 2008** **6:38pm** "Happy birthday to you!" The Spriggs' dining room became dim as the candles were extinguished, and a small applause sounded about the table. Patricia gave her husband a short kiss as she the chocolate cake aside,...
The Black Shepherd - Chapter 4
**Chapter Four** **Friday March 29, 2008** **11:50am** Basic Economics was a very different experience in the wake of spring break. Seeing Elena as Miss Rokem again, and from the third row of a classroom versus the front row of his car, made spring...
The Black Shepherd - Chapter 3
**Chapter Three** **Thursday March 20, 2008** **11:47am** A cool drizzle and a gloomy procession of clouds made no attempt at matching Tyson's mood as the shepherd cruised east on I-60. His days of waiting were at an end. The day of their second...
The Black Shepherd - Chapter 15
**Chapter Fifteen** **Friday July 4, 2008** **6:27pm** "Some Fourth of July," muttered Roger. Rain hammered the shingles of the Spriggs house. Streams of cold water rushed down the curbs. A warning for flash flooding ran across the lowest quarter...
The Black Shepherd - Chapter 14
**Chapter Fourteen** **Monday June 30, 2008** **10:28pm** Roger was in bed. Anessa was staying the night with a friend. Bella was nowhere to be seen. Tyson was sat alone at the couch of the TV room when his mother emerged from the upstairs hall,...
The Black Shepherd - Chapter 13
**Chapter Thirteen** **Saturday June 28, 2008** **10:40pm** The house was possessed by stillness, dark until Tyson, whirling a key ring 'round a clawed finger, stumbled across his father reclining in the upstairs television's luminescence. The...
The Black Shepherd - Chapter 12
**Saturday June 28, 2008** **11:36am** Thirty-five days. It had been thirty-five very long days. "Goddamn, I missed you," said Tyson, and he gave his 944's steering wheel a loving caress. Punching the pedals, working the gearshift, the abrasive...
The Black Shepherd - Chapter 11
**Chapter Eleven** **Saturday May 24, 2008** **11:05am** "Mom," said Tyson, standing at the edge of the kitchen. Patricia, only minutes awake, sifted through a cupboard in a light knit robe. "What?" she grumbled dryly, not bothering to look...
The Black Shepherd - Chapter 19
**Chapter Nineteen** **Tuesday July 22, 2008** **7:39pm** "There." Tongue lolling from his muzzle, Roger straightened over the garage workbench which held his most recent project. It was nothing advanced--a four-foot floating shelf comprised of a...