Excerpt from "Justice," The Novel

These few lines come from a novel I'd written many years ago about a small town in West Texas named, Justice.

“...Last night I dreamt that there was a woman who started painting with water colors under a tree. She was painting a squirrel that was gathering nuts. Although the painting started exceptionally well, it developed problems because the squirrel kept moving around. Before long, she had made quite a mess of her painting. However, being persistent, she kept trying to cover her mistakes. Soon she was to the point of tears and cried out, ‘God, hurry and help me fix this before that rain cloud comes’. Shortly, drops started to fall and she became desperate for God to help her fix her horrible painting. When it started sprinkling heavier, she became mad and yelled at God, ‘Why couldn’t You help me, just this once?’ In utter despair, she threw the painting out in the grass and sat under a tree crying. After a time the storm passed. Soaked to the bone, she went out to reclaim her disaster. To her delight, the rain had completely washed the canvass clean. Then she heard God’s voice, ‘You asked me for help, now I’ve given you a clean start.’”