When Morning Comes

Prologue

May 18, 1994

      Madeline opened up her eyes and was almost blinded by the great expanse of light pouring into her bedroom. It was blinding as well as a reminder that it was Monday. Most people would have groaned, but Maddie didn't. 

     Mornings. They were beautiful. 

     What was that line from "Anne of Green Gables"? Every morning is fresh with no mistakes...or something along those lines. 

     But mistakes? Maddie had made her own fair share in the last several years. Mistakes that had plunged her into dark places she never thought she would experience. Dark places made of rage, regret, shame and fear. However, she fell into those dark places with someone else and both had to fight to get out.

     Maddie got out of bed and went to her open window. A beautiful spring day in Seddleton, Virginia. No. A beautiful spring morning. Morning and day were two entirely different concepts. You could not get to day without going through morning. And you could not get to morning without getting through the night. 

     And night was what Maddie had always feared the most. Darkness had been her one enemy as a child. Afraid of every unfamiliar noise. Afraid of the monsters that she had seen in the movies that would come and haunt her. Afraid that the darkness would last forever. Yes. Darkness had never been a friend. So when the sun began to peek into her window, Maddie would finally breathe a sigh of relief and sleep would come (even if it was just a few hours).

     There was no relief more beautiful than finally escaping the darkness. Especially when it's a darkness that we have created ourselves. No one knew that better than Maddie. Dark places are not created over night. They start with one act, then followed by another, then another. Acts of cruelty and deceit. Soon you find yourself so consumed by darkness that you are unaware of what you have created around you. Then it takes something so extreme for the darkness to crack open and make you realize how far you have plunged into the deep.

     Pain and heartbreak are hardly miracles, but in Maddie's case, they saved her. Her road of healing from her own darkness had not been easy. Yet it had opened her eyes and her heart. And she was able to forgive the one person that had hurt her so badly and she forgave herself for hurting him as well. 

     The sun was finally over the trees. Maddie heard the front door open and she smiled. What a beautiful morning it was.