EXTRACT FOR
The Mystery of the Hay Painting
(Craig M. Sampson)

It had been many years since Karen Winters had found herself on the path she was currently following now but looking back she was amazed at how sometimes the roadblocks you encountered in life ended up being all for the best. Her life these days was full, both professionally and personally, but if you had asked her that question just a few years ago she might have told you a completely different story. Karen looked out the window of the small room in her house that she had carved out for this business as the rain began to fall again. For a place that rarely got any rain anymore, today sure seemed like it had not gotten the memo.

It was days like this that made her think back to how she had gotten here, and how different her life might have been if all had gone according to the master plan that she had drawn up for herself. It was not that the gray, rainy days made her sad or regretful, exactly, but just that it was a day like this that all had changed dramatically for her. And as she sat and watched the light rain begin to pick up and become a real downpour, she was so glad things had not worked out the way she had envisioned. What a catastrophe that might have been!

Karen shot through her undergraduate program at Aberdeen in just three years. She had not pushed herself particularly hard to do so, it was more that she was just gifted intellectually. When she began her program at Aberdeen, she did not have a real clear-cut idea of what she wanted to do with her life, but after her second year, it suddenly came to her. There had been a couple of moments that year, those once-in-a-lifetime experiences that make it seem like there could be no other options. The details are not important here.....better left for another time and place. Just rest assured that they were crucial.

It was also in her second year of law school that Karen's life took a sharp left turn. She had adjusted to the massive amounts of reading, research, and demands of her study group better than most. So, it was not the workload, nor was it the obscene tuition that she was forking over each semester. Everything was going along fine for Karen until she came back late one night from the library with a few of her classmates to find her roommate hanging from a makeshift noose on the balcony of their small apartment. Karen had known that Suzanna was struggling, but as with most law students, it was hard enough to just keep your own head above water, much less try and pull someone along that might suddenly pull you under with them.

After that, Karen could just not continue. She tried moving a couple of times, but the memory of Suzanna always returned to haunt her. When it began to spill out of her dreams and into her waking life, Karen just pulled the plug. She had no idea at the time what it was she was going to do, but all she did know was that being a lawyer was not in her future any longer....it was just too painful. She went home for a few months, saw a couple of therapists that her parents set up for her, and in time the visions and the nightmares disappeared. Karen had never been one to put a lot of stock in therapy, but perhaps it had made the difference for her. Or maybe it was just time. Or maybe just being away from school.