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A Door in the Middle of Nowhere


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A Door in the Middle of Nowhere

A Door in the Middle of Nowhere

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Folklore comes to life in A Door in the Middle of Nowhere, a work of suspenseful fiction that incorporates elements of the supernatural. When Maddie Murphy, an electrical engineer hailing... Read More

Folklore comes to life in A Door in the Middle of Nowhere, a work of suspenseful fiction that incorporates elements of the supernatural. When Maddie Murphy, an electrical engineer hailing originally from Bell Island, Newfoundland, and her husband, Mark Beckham, run into marital boredom at the five-year mark, they decide to take a couple of months away from their Toronto jobs and lives. They purchase a summer home in fictional Lockston Brook, near the towns of Trinity and Port Rexton, Newfoundland. They get it at a great price. However, they aren’t quite prepared for how the mysterious past of their new abode will impact their sense of what is real and their relationship. Bill French, their nearest neighbour, drops by to welcome Maddie and Mark and tells them of the rumours that swirl about the former occupants, the Janssen family, who had moved from Burlington, Ontario, to take up residence in Lockston Brook, and their boarder, all of whom disappeared without a trace the previous summer, leaving everything behind. The family didn’t mix socially, and the teenaged son was disliked by his peers. Bill French also sheepishly mentions the peregrine falcon that alights on the dead birch tree next to Maddie and Mark’s new home. It is unusually large, and it only appeared when the Janssens moved to Lockston Brook. Maddie has seen it while getting up in the night to use the bathroom—a solitary creature from whom she senses great loneliness that she dismisses as imagination.

As Maddie and Mark clear away the detritus and mementoes of other lives to make the home their own, they wonder about who the former occupants were. And why did they abandon everything? When they reach the basement and clear away shelves of ancient preserves, tools, and retired flowerpots, they tear down the plywood supporting the wall to discover a door that shouldn’t exist in the back basement wall—it shouldn’t exist because that wall was built against a tall rock face that rises behind the house. More curious still, it’s an interior door. When curiosity overcomes trepidation, Maddie and Mark open the door to reveal a few steps and a landing leading into a house identical to the one they just moved into—only this version isn’t covered by dust and appears to have been lived in very recently.

Rousing their nerve, Maddie and Mark investigate. In the bedroom of the missing teenaged girl, Samantha Janssen, Maddie discovers a disconcerting ability to see previous events through the girl’s eyes. In experiencing Samantha’s thoughts and emotions, Maddie soon understands that Samantha was not safe from her predatory brother and neglectful parents. The girl’s only security came from the boarder, a man named Gerome Falconer. Samantha’s predicament casts Maddie back to the terror of being preyed upon by her maternal uncle when she was a child on Bell Island. In seeking to understand Samantha’s story, Maddie is guided by a ghostly image of Gerome Falconer, one only she can see, to a journal written by a Gerome Falconer who she presumes is an ancestor of the boarder who disappeared with the family. Beginning in 1843, it tells the story of a fourteen-year-old English boy, John Smith, who was kidnapped near the docks of London, England, and brutalized during the War of 1812 on a British Navy ship. Rescued at sixteen by a dashing privateer from Baltimore, Maryland, Duncan Galloway, the boy won’t disclose his roots and insists he be called John Smith. The Galloway family, well-to-do and kindly disposed to John Smith, take the boy in while they send for word of the boy’s family. John Smith learns of the tragic death of his father, for which he blames himself for disregarding his father’s instructions on the day he was kidnapped. Although a British title and wealth await him at home, John Smith begs to remain in Baltimore, unable to face what his recalcitrance has wrought on his family and himself. At Duncan’s urging, the elder Galloway concedes, and John becomes part of the Galloway family, where he pursues his dream of becoming a ship’s captain.

Maddie and Mark set out to learn as much as they can about the previous owners of the house they live in. Gerome Falconer turned up in Lockston Brook as a man in his mid-thirties before the Janssens came to town. Maddie’s husband, Mark, doesn’t share his wife’s ability to perceive visceral images and emotions. Engaged at first, he begins to reject the story when Gerome Falconer reveals that he and the unnaturally large peregrine falcon that perches outside their property are one and the same. He adamantly resists the tale of a man who came back to life to avenge the misdeeds of child predators. For herself, Maddie, with the memory of her own terrifying childhood experiences, is drawn to Gerome Falconer, who she continues to think of as John Smith. He appears to her as a ghostly image in the room he once occupied, where she can see him writing in the very journal she holds in her hands.

Maddie explores local folklore, consults old newspapers, and talks to local people to see if Gerome Falconer did indeed walk the earth. What she learns draws her deeper into the mystery. In a trip to St. John’s, Maddie meets with a retired folklorist at Memorial University of Newfoundland she had previously encountered at a barbecue at Bill and Sadie French’s home in Lockston Brook. There, a Ph.D. candidate has done some research and uncovered evidence that Gerome Falconer may have been on the island at different locations since the 1830s. The falcon was observed to haunt those who would hurt children, and the predators would disappear mysteriously. Each time, within months, the falcon left the area, as did Gerome Falconer in any sources referred to. As folklore and reality blend, Mark rejects the story and berates Maddie for believing it. He suggests they sell the house and go back to Toronto earlier than planned. Maddie refuses to go along with him.

While in St. John’s, Maddie goes home to Bell Island for her grandparents’ sixtieth wedding anniversary—to a place she both loves and of which she is terrified. When witnessing her Uncle Peter using his charms on a younger cousin, Maddie is horrified to realize she wasn’t his only victim. And she learns her sister was another. A secret Maddie has never shared with anyone has now become a shared secret, one she never felt safe enough to share with her husband.

When Maddie returns to Lockston Brook, Mark begins to distance himself from her and the journal, accusing Maddie of becoming obsessed. For her part, Maddie finds solace in this “other” reality and the writings of Gerome Falconer. Going alone to that house that shouldn’t exist, through Samantha’s eyes, she uncovers the fate of the family and the boarder, events that both repel and draw. After an attack by her brother that leads to his death, Samantha is free but troubled. Gerome Falconer feels he has failed in his duty to protect her. He buries Samantha’s brother in the backyard. When the parents return home, Falconer lures them to the backyard, where a doorway appears in the middle of nowhere. Only mist can be seen on the other side. After promising the parents they can return if they wish, they step through and are gone for good. Samantha then escapes the house in which Gerome Falconer finds himself suddenly trapped. He watches her run across the lawn and into the mist that surrounds the property, an act he has never been able to persuade himself to do.

As their relationship unravels, Maddie begins to grasp that her marriage to Mark has never been a satisfying one, that struggling to save it may not be in her best interests. For his part, Mark has ceased to believe that Maddie is experiencing the things she says she is. He leaves her alone in the house.

In the realization that her marriage has failed and is at a crossroads, Maddie wonders if she can trust what she feels, that there are answers to be had in this realm she has discovered. Were she and Gerome Falconer brought together so each can heal from trauma? Or has she only been lured? When Maddie reads the journal up to the current date, she realizes Gerome Falconer is aware of her presence.

Maddie flees to the landing, only to hear Samantha’s voice beyond the walls of the house. She is crying out to Gerome Falconer, telling him that it is safe beyond the mist. Above her, she hears the sound of wings and then the footsteps of a solid body—Gerome Falconer is no longer a ghost. Does she run, or does she trust that a better future beckons? At the last moment, Maddie must decide.

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<span style=”mso-ansi-language: EN-US”><span style=”FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US”><span style=”FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman”><span style=”mso-ansi-language: EN-US”>
<p class=”MsoNormal” style=”MARGIN: 0in 0in 8pt” align=”left”><span style=”mso-ansi-language: EN-US”>Folklore comes to life in <em>A Door in the Middle of Nowhere</em>, a work of suspenseful fiction that incorporates elements of the supernatural. When Maddie Murphy, an electrical engineer hailing originally from Bell Island, Newfoundland, and her husband, Mark Beckham, run into marital boredom at the five-year mark, they decide to take a couple of months away from their Toronto jobs and lives. They purchase a summer home in fictional Lockston Brook, near the towns of Trinity and Port Rexton, Newfoundland. They get it at a great price. However, they aren’t quite prepared for how the mysterious past of their new abode will impact their sense of what is real and their relationship. Bill French, their nearest neighbour, drops by to welcome Maddie and Mark and tells them of the rumours that swirl about the former occupants, the Janssen family, who had moved from Burlington, Ontario, to take up residence in Lockston Brook, and their boarder, all of whom disappeared without a trace the previous summer, leaving everything behind. The family didn’t mix socially, and the teenaged son was disliked by his peers. Bill French also sheepishly mentions the peregrine falcon that alights on the dead birch tree next to Maddie and Mark’s new home. It is unusually large, and it only appeared when the Janssens moved to Lockston Brook. Maddie has seen it while getting up in the night to use the bathroom—a solitary creature from whom she senses great loneliness that she dismisses as imagination.<br /><br /></span><span style=”mso-ansi-language: EN-US”>As Maddie and Mark clear away the detritus and mementoes of other lives to make the home their own, they wonder about who the former occupants were. And why did they abandon everything? When they reach the basement and clear away shelves of ancient preserves, tools, and retired flowerpots, they tear down the plywood supporting the wall to discover a door that shouldn’t exist in the back basement wall—it shouldn’t exist because that wall was built against a tall rock face that rises behind the house. More curious still, it’s an interior door. When curiosity overcomes trepidation, Maddie and Mark open the door to reveal a few steps and a landing leading into a house identical to the one they just moved into—only this version isn’t covered by dust and appears to have been lived in very recently.<br /><br /></span><span style=”mso-ansi-language: EN-US”>Rousing their nerve, Maddie and Mark investigate. In the bedroom of the missing teenaged girl, Samantha Janssen, Maddie discovers a disconcerting ability to see previous events through the girl’s eyes. In experiencing Samantha’s thoughts and emotions, Maddie soon understands that Samantha was not safe from her predatory brother and neglectful parents. The girl’s only security came from the boarder, a man named Gerome Falconer. Samantha’s predicament casts Maddie back to the terror of being preyed upon by her maternal uncle when she was a child on Bell Island. In seeking to understand Samantha’s story, Maddie is guided by a ghostly image of Gerome Falconer, one only she can see, to a journal written by a Gerome Falconer who she presumes is an ancestor of the boarder who disappeared with the family. Beginning in 1843, it tells the story of a fourteen-year-old English boy, John Smith, who was kidnapped near the docks of London, England, and brutalized during the War of 1812 on a British Navy ship. Rescued at sixteen by a dashing privateer from Baltimore, Maryland, Duncan Galloway, the boy won’t disclose his roots and insists he be called John Smith. The Galloway family, well-to-do and kindly disposed to John Smith, take the boy in while they send for word of the boy’s family. John Smith learns of the tragic death of his father, for which he blames himself for disregarding his father’s instructions on the day he was kidnapped. Although a British title and wealth await him at home, John Smith begs to remain in Baltimore, unable to face what his recalcitrance has wrought on his family and himself. At Duncan’s urging, the elder Galloway concedes, and John becomes part of the Galloway family, where he pursues his dream of becoming a ship’s captain.<br /><br /></span><span style=”mso-ansi-language: EN-US”>Maddie and Mark set out to learn as much as they can about the previous owners of the house they live in. Gerome Falconer turned up in Lockston Brook as a man in his mid-thirties before the Janssens came to town. Maddie’s husband, Mark, doesn’t share his wife’s ability to perceive visceral images and emotions. Engaged at first, he begins to reject the story when Gerome Falconer reveals that he and the unnaturally large peregrine falcon that perches outside their property are one and the same. He adamantly resists the tale of a man who came back to life to avenge the misdeeds of child predators. For herself, Maddie, with the memory of her own terrifying childhood experiences, is drawn to Gerome Falconer, who she continues to think of as John Smith. He appears to her as a ghostly image in the room he once occupied, where she can see him writing in the very journal she holds in her hands.<br /><br /></span><span style=”mso-ansi-language: EN-US”>Maddie explores local folklore, consults old newspapers, and talks to local people to see if Gerome Falconer did indeed walk the earth. What she learns draws her deeper into the mystery. In a trip to St. John’s, Maddie meets with a retired folklorist at Memorial University of Newfoundland she had previously encountered at a barbecue at Bill and Sadie French’s home in Lockston Brook. There, a Ph.D. candidate has done some research and uncovered evidence that Gerome Falconer may have been on the island at different locations since the 1830s. The falcon was observed to haunt those who would hurt children, and the predators would disappear mysteriously. Each time, within months, the falcon left the area, as did Gerome Falconer in any sources referred to. As folklore and reality blend, Mark rejects the story and berates Maddie for believing it. He suggests they sell the house and go back to Toronto earlier than planned. Maddie refuses to go along with him.<br /><br /></span><span style=”mso-ansi-language: EN-US”>While in St. John’s, Maddie goes home to Bell Island for her grandparents’ sixtieth wedding anniversary—to a place she both loves and of which she is terrified. When witnessing her Uncle Peter using his charms on a younger cousin, Maddie is horrified to realize she wasn’t his only victim. And she learns her sister was another. A secret Maddie has never shared with anyone has now become a shared secret, one she never felt safe enough to share with her husband.<br /><br /></span><span style=”mso-ansi-language: EN-US”>When Maddie returns to Lockston Brook, Mark begins to distance himself from her and the journal, accusing Maddie of becoming obsessed. For her part, Maddie finds solace in this “other” reality and the writings of Gerome Falconer. Going alone to that house that shouldn’t exist, through Samantha’s eyes, she uncovers the fate of the family and the boarder, events that both repel and draw. After an attack by her brother that leads to his death, Samantha is free but troubled. Gerome Falconer feels he has failed in his duty to protect her. He buries Samantha’s brother in the backyard. When the parents return home, Falconer lures them to the backyard, where a doorway appears in the middle of nowhere. Only mist can be seen on the other side. After promising the parents they can return if they wish, they step through and are gone for good. Samantha then escapes the house in which Gerome Falconer finds himself suddenly trapped. He watches her run across the lawn and into the mist that surrounds the property, an act he has never been able to persuade himself to do.<br /><br /></span><span style=”mso-ansi-language: EN-US”>As their relationship unravels, Maddie begins to grasp that her marriage to Mark has never been a satisfying one, that struggling to save it may not be in her best interests. For his part, Mark has ceased to believe that Maddie is experiencing the things she says she is. He leaves her alone in the house.<br /><br /></span><span style=”mso-ansi-language: EN-US”>In the realization that her marriage has failed and is at a crossroads, Maddie wonders if she can trust what she feels, that there are answers to be had in this realm she has discovered. Were she and Gerome Falconer brought together so each can heal from trauma? Or has she only been lured? When Maddie reads the journal up to the current date, she realizes Gerome Falconer is aware of her presence.<br /><br /></span><span style=’FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: “Times New Roman”; mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA’>Maddie flees to the landing, only to hear Samantha’s voice beyond the walls of the house. She is crying out to Gerome Falconer, telling him that it is safe beyond the mist. Above her, she hears the sound of wings and then the footsteps of a solid body—Gerome Falconer is no longer a ghost. Does she run, or does she trust that a better future beckons? At the last moment, Maddie must decide.</span></p></span></span></span></span>

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Dimensions 8.5 × 0.619 in