Summer Crushed/Prologue

In your early twenties, you married your wife. You were happy together and enjoyed a few years of adventure before you both settled into a cozy home nestled in a small midwestern town. You worked from home as a contracted software developer and your wife worked as a manager for a regional branch of a much larger company. Your budget for a home was modest, but more than most people could easily afford. The house you and your wife picked was one you both thought would be perfect for a new family.

But sadly, that new family of yours never came to be. Try as you might, you and your wife were never able to conceive. Eventually, you both saw it as a blessing instead of a bitter curse. There was more time for trips, more money for hobbies and you both found yourself living a content life.

About a year ago, the elderly couple next door announced they were retiring down south and would be putting their house up for sale. In the process of helping them load the moving van, you overheard your wife and the elderly woman talking about the young family that would be taking their place. They had a young daughter who would be going to school just down the block. It was nice knowing that a couple around your age would be moving in. Maybe someone to chill out and have beers with by the pool in your backyard.

When you finally met the new neighbors, you were delighted to find that they were just as easy to get along with as your old neighbors. Though, their daughter seemed a little shy, close to behind her father's side and offering only a soft "Hi". Her name was June. And in the months before summer, when June had warmed up to you and your wife as neighbors, you would often find her running over to greet you when you stepped outside. Sometimes followed with a request to use your pool when the weather had finally warmed up.

Everything was perfectly normal between you and your neighbors. But this summer might change all of that, for better or worse.

Continue to chapter 1