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    The Happiest Place
    The Happiest Place
    The Happiest Place
    Ebook50 pages34 minutes

    The Happiest Place

    By Cheri Baker

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    About this ebook

    Jack, a single father, takes his two young daughters on a road trip under the shadow of an apocalyptic threat. Haunted by his past and struggling under the weight of a terrible secret, he'll travel deep into California's redwood forest and toward a new understanding of love, loss, and family.

     

    This short story is 9400 words long.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAdventurous Ink LLC
    Release dateSep 3, 2019
    ISBN9781952200052
    The Happiest Place
    Author

    Cheri Baker

    Cheri spent her formative years hiding under the blankets with a flashlight, reading everything she could get her hands on, but especially books by Stephen King, Judy Blume, Agatha Christie, and Mercedes Lackey. Her experiences in management inspired her first novel, Involuntary Turnover, about an HR manager turned private investigator. Cheri lives in Seattle with her husband of 18 years. She's working on her fourth novel.

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      Book preview

      The Happiest Place - Cheri Baker

      The Happiest Place

      A Short Story

      By

      Cheri Baker

      Published by Adventurous Ink, Seattle

      Find all of Cheri’s books, her mailing list, and more at cheribaker.com.

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

      First edition. September 3, 2019.

      978-1-952200-05-2

      Copyright © 2019 Cheri Baker

      All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Adventurous Ink. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

      Book design by Patrick Baker

      Cover art by Cheri Baker

      Bear tugged on the bottom edge of Jack’s wool hunting jacket. He patted her small hand and shaded his eyes. Warm sweat trickled down his back and into the waistband of his jeans. The snaking line of park visitors ended at the princess pavilion a short distance away. Only a few more steps and they’d be in the shade. Beneath the cruel California sun, every glance or movement of the mouth risked too much.

      Don’t look down. She’ll see.

      Hot, itchy paranoia climbed up his throat. Did the girls know? Or did they suspect? Kids were perceptive, but the enchanted kingdom was a massive candy-colored distraction. At least that was the hope. But it seemed that every adult face told the exact same story, the one they’d promised not to say out loud. One line over, across the divider, a woman with a messy topknot tapped her son on the shoulder and pointed. He watched as a trio of little black boys walked by in identical Batman costumes. Her kid grinned and pointed to the bat logo on his t-shirt. The woman nodded, her eyes shining.

      Disneyland was a safe space, and taken together every safe space America formed a collective called the bubble. Diane had insisted they participate, because hadn’t parents been hiding things from their kids since the beginning of time? Santa Claus is real. Mommy and Daddy will always love one another. Jesus cries if you touch yourself beneath the covers at night. Was this lie any different from the others? Well, it was, and it wasn’t.

      Jack unclenched his jaw. His sunglasses were tucked behind the visor in his pickup truck. Forgetting them was a mistake, no matter how preoccupied he’d been. Now he had to walk around unprotected, all day.

      Daddy? Bear tugged again.

      Yes?

      Why is Elsa crying? Is she hurt? Bear, whose given name was Rebecca, wore a worried expression. Her lower lip jutted forward like a fat little shelf, and her pale yellow curls were mussed from

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