Dennis Mathis

Leaving Purgatory Dennis Mathis

Nick Applegate, a retired math teacher, reads Tennyson, drinks George Dickel bourbon and suffers visions of violence. He and his wife, Joyce, used to teach at Durango High School. She was killed in a school shooting ten years ago. Now, Nick is building a log cabin on Missionary Ridge 12 miles outside the town of Durango, Colorado. There on the ridge, he encounters more than he ever expected. A mysterious man dressed in camouflage revives dark memories of pain and despair. Meredith, a lovely mountain woman who raises beautiful white goats lives just down the road. She offers a different path for his life. Both will play a role in his journey - a journey out of Purgatory. But it is Angela who guides him toward final acceptance. She too was a victim of the shooting. Despite her own grievous wound, she held Joyce in her arms as she died. Angela survived, but still broken. Her speech is slow and slurred. Nick feels like he owes Angela something. The seasons of a whole year pass. Nick struggles to finish his cabin, but now, near the completion of his quest, the sky turns grey with drifting clouds of ash. A conflagration is sweeping toward him and his carefully constructed cabin. Everything is threatened once again. His fears are no longer imaginary. They have become real.