Owlet blog tour stop #18 read-along excerpt

Following is the continuing read-along excerpt for stop #18 on the Owlet blog tour.  Enjoy!

***

“Iris, there’s something I have to ask you. Promise me you will not think of me as a mad man, my dear.”

“Of course.”

“You are almost seventeen. When I was your age I lived very differently. I met your mother at seventeen and only a few years later we had you. The island I told you about...the one that you will be visiting...”

He isn’t crazy. Just listen.

“Does the island in your dreams have anything else unique about it? Something you can remember?” He waited patiently.

“Yes. Plenty of things.”

“Do you remember the doorknob from the house in your dreams? The windows? The shutters? Bird houses? Flowers, possibly?”

Go on. Tell him. Trust him. He loves you.

“The shutters are black and there aren’t any flowers but there are planter boxes under every window.”

Iris gasped as he suddenly stood up and ran behind his desk, shuffling through the drawers. Papers, plastic containers and paperclips practically flew in the air as he kept hunting for some invisible prize. Then, a different sound stood out; the sound of a chain.

That sound is familiar. Remember.