Читать книгу JUNKIE II - Shawnda Christiansen - Страница 4

SPOILER ALERT this book picks up where the film left off, for Sheriff Corbin. His character in the film JUNKIE was inspired by a real police officer, but the story you are about to read is entirely fictional.

I had a lot of fun writing this second book. The fact that the scenarios are entirely fictional afforded me a lot of luxuries. The sky was pretty much the limit, and I climbed even farther.

I am passionate about this story. It was a lot of fun to take yet another lost soul, and help him find his true north.

Thank you for reading it. I hope you enjoy it.

This book is very near and dear to my heart. During the year preceding the release I got a phone call advising me that my father was in cardiac arrest. CPR was being performed but if I wanted to see him again, I needed to get to the hospital immediately. Sadly, the hospital was a 1-hour drive away.

I blasted out of the house and stopped momentarily for a quick prayer. I said “Please give us more time. Please.” Then I hopped into the car and flew down the highway. My cell phone battery died so I had no way of knowing if he had made it or not during the 1-hour drive. All I could think was, how do I exist in a world without him in it? Miraculously, I got the extra time I prayed for. I immediately made up my mind that I was going to sit down with him and tell him everything I’ve wanted to say but never said, but the coming days

brought with them some very hard news about his health.

He needed a surgery that he wasn’t likely to survive. He chose to have the surgery, quality of life meant more than quantity to him. In the process of all of this I spoke with my dear friend and counselor Patty (aka Beth in Broken Wings). She reminded me that the fences of our past take years to mend. Years. The bigger question was, how did I want to use the time we had left?

Being the superhero that he is, he pulled through the surgery and I finally had my proof. This was something I had always known since I was very young. It was a big family secret. My father was an invincible super hero.

One night I dreamt I was making 100 baloney sandwiches, people were calling me to try and discuss my next film project “Subject Unknown” but I was too busy with a festival to take any calls and ended up shutting off my phone. While cleaning, the sink backed up and a large green snake rose out of the drain. I thought to myself, what a crazy dream. There’s nothing in this world that would make me too busy to take calls about my film.

The following night, as I was drifting off to sleep I saw an image pop into my mind of my father, and my dearly departed step-mother. They were standing together in Hawaii with smiles on their faces. I jolted awake and cried. Something inside of me knew that he would be joining her soon.

The next day, life did what it does. He died.

He wasn’t invincible after all.

In the coming days we planned his celebration of life for 100 people. I moved into his home, the sink backed up. I called a plumber who ended up snaking the drain.

I have learned, through this shocking upheaval of my life, that I’ve spent a lot of years seeking security, and achieving my goals when what I should have been focusing on is health, family, love, happiness, and spiritual connections.

This book had been written for close to a year before my father died, I was waiting to publish it because the film had not been released yet.

My dad was excited to read it once it was back from the editor. I’m sad to say he never got a chance to.

I had let the final draft rest for so long, that when I sat down to proof- read it I was startled by the fact that my character was also dealing with the death of his father.

As you can imagine, proofreading it just one month after my own father died was hard but I am glad that I did. It was a great counseling session for me and has led me to add this final, unedited piece for you, the reader.

When I was a substance abuse counselor, I developed a special process group. It challenged my clients to consider the possibility that they may only have a few moments left to live, then they had to answer these questions:

Who would they call? What would they say? Why are they waiting?

So now I’m asking you….. Who would you call?

What would you say? Why are you waiting?