Paradise Palms: A Murder Mystery in a Time-Traveling Trailer Park. Kindle|CreateSpace

Myra

Myra sat bolt upright. She put her hand on her chest. What had happened? The clock read only one-thirty, but she felt like she needed to be there, at the park, and now. She rushed to get dressed and grab her camera and iphone. She didn’t know what time everyone else would get to the Paradise Palms and didn’t want to miss anything. Even if it was just anticipation and waiting, she wanted to be there for every bit of it. Surely they all would be there already.

She put on her jacket, put everything in the pockets, and left her room. She took only a moment to rub the crud from her eyes and curse herself for sleeping so late. She hadn’t intended to sleep so long. She rushed down the stairs of the hotel and outside to her car. It took her three times to stop her hands from shaking and open the car door. She sat down and put her seat belt on and backed the car out of the parking spot.

It took too long on the dark road. She had to drive slowly. She hated it. She ground her teeth and sat all the way forward on the seat to make sure she didn’t miss anything. There was no snow or ice on the road, but that didn’t make any difference. Somehow night driving had never been the same for her. She wanted to drive faster. The anticipation was killing her. She’d given her number to the detective, but she’d failed to get his. She could have called and found out what was going on right now.

The Paradise Palms was only a short distance ahead. She could see the light from the sign. Pressing on the accelerator, she sped to it. She would slow down right before the turn. She lifted her foot to step on the brake and as she did, the world shifted before her eyes. The hood of her Celica was severed and the car nearly stopped dead. It skidded slowly forward and down the gravel drive of the trailer park.

The air bag hadn’t deployed as the front of the car had completely disappeared. Myra looked bleary-eyed out the windshield. Something about the park didn’t look right. The buildings were all different. She could see a radio tower in the middle of where the park should have been as well as three small buildings, one that looked like a house. What had happened here?

Before Myra could gather her wits, the woods shifted, replaced by jungle. Myra felt her heart nearly stop. She rolled down the window of her car and looked outside. The bright stars, the massive moon, the chatter of insects, it all overtook her. Then she realized what must’ve happened. She wasn’t in the Paradise Palms. She wasn’t even in Minnesota anymore. It may be Minnesota, but a land that had been forgotten for sixty or seventy million years.

She heard a man scream in the distance and a gunshot.

Gunshot? Myra got out of her car and rushed to the sound, then realized what she was doing. No. She had to stay with the car.

Again the man screamed, but this time it was cut short. It was then that Myra began to panic.