The Book of Beings: Beginnings (Episode One) Read online

“Okay,” she responded again in that measured way. “The thing is, I need you to come back in to the clinic.”

  “Oh?” My voice kind of squeaked as I spoke. The world around me suddenly got very small. I began memorizing the pattern of the scratches on the Plexiglas next to me in the phone booth.

  “The thing is,” she started in again, “someone did something to you that made you pregnant without your knowledge.”

  “Well…” I was running what she had said through my mind. I’d been trying to avoid putting it that way when I was thinking about it, but clearly what she said was true.

  “And you’re under 18. You’re under the age of consent.” She said this like it made the next step obvious, but I wasn’t following her. “We had to report this to Child Protection.”

  I hung up the phone. I stepped out of the booth. I walked away as fast as I could.

  I ignored it when the phone started to ring behind me.

  Beginnings,

  Volume One (Episodes 1-4)

  from The Book of Beings

  is available now.

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  For more information

  visit bookofbeings.com.

  Follow The Book of Beings on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.

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  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I want to thank my beta readers: David Taylor-Schott, who always read everything first, last, and most often; Amy K, reader and coach extraordinaire; Mark Schlenz and Jane Freeburg at Companion Press; the members of the Ecovillage at Ithaca Writing Group, including Monty Berman and Phebe Gustafson, but especially Valorie Rockney and Susan Wolf, who was unstintingly generous with her thoughtful and detailed criticism; Diane Goodman-Daniel; Amelia Sauter; the members of the Rancho Embarcadero Writer’s Group, including Fred Soltysik, Sue Massanari, Brent Zepke, Skona Brittain, Lisa Conti, Tom Forester, Barbara Cunningham, and John Bowman; Hope Hernandez, my biggest fan; Martin Trujillo; Santa Barbara Write Away, including Gwen Dandridge, Yona Schulman, Nicole Archambeau, and Kerstine Johnson, with extra special mention of Sigrid Erro (who read the whole thing faithfully even though she does not like romance!), and the divine and fastidious Helene Gardner; Layla Musson, Vani Saccoccio Winick, and Tiffany Meier. Thanks also to my proofreader, Josh Brayer, to John Arnold for letting me steal a part of a plot from him, to Jeremy Taylor for advice on the forging of emails, to Michelle Detorie for endless conversations and support, and to the entire community at Ecovillage at Ithaca, where I wrote the first draft of this book. If I had not had its woods and fields to walk in when the plot became fuzzy in my mind, the story might never have been finished. I am grateful to everyone who has contributed to the book, and to the book itself for deepening relationships and bringing me friends and colleagues I might never otherwise have found.

  If you’d like to volunteer to be a beta reader for future episodes of the book, please email us at [email protected].

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  LIZ SEACH is the pen name used by a writer, educator, and mom who lives in the Santa Ynez mountains. The Book of Beings is her first work of fiction.

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  You can reach Liz at [email protected].