Here is an excerpt from Wyatt.
Wyatt sat by the edge of the creek on a large boulder
watching the trout. They were just out of reach, their
spotty sides shimmering in the afternoon sunlight. He was
distracted and a bit disappointed that his work had
followed him out here, and on such a beautiful day.
Wyatt was thinking about his name at the moment. He
realized that he didn’t hate it the way he used to. A leaf
fell into the water and circled around like a little boat
caught in a storm. He cast his line and the fish scattered.
He chuckled and went back to his thoughts.
His name had been difficult for him to accept because
of where it came from. When he was a boy, he’d gone on
a search for the truth about his past. It seemed strange to
dislike something that was such an integral part of who he
was. “What’s in a name?” he said and looked thoughtfully
at the water. If not for his past, he probably wouldn’t have
given it a second thought. It defined him, even though
most new age gospel would have said you shouldn’t let it.
Wyatt figured anyone who ate tofu couldn’t be trusted
anyway.
He was working on a new case and it wasn’t going
well. He’d had three recent successes and at twenty-three,
he had been gearing up for a promotion. Instead he got a
transfer. He learned a hard life lesson. Sometimes, if you
rise up too quickly, someone will beat you back down. He
never saw it coming. He hadn’t meant to be a threat to
anyone’s position, but Rob Harrison seemed to feel
otherwise. The transfer was hard and the new case was
proving to be slow and unrewarding. An unsolved murder
that was now classified as a cold case. He watched the
spinning leaf, wondering if that would be his career.
He tried to shake it off and he pulled in his line and set
down the pole. He took out an energy bar and ate it,
although it tasted like sawdust and peanut butter. The sky
was completely clear, not a wisp of cloud and Wyatt
sighed. It was a shame to waste this beautiful day
worrying.
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