A trip down memory lane takes a detour when the ghosts show up.
Curtis Aisling travels to New Mexico to borrow much-needed money from his sister, a caretaker for 92-year-old Veronica Meeks. In the final stages of what the locals call “the reminisce,” Veronica is no longer aware of her surroundings, but when Curtis sees things no one else does, he’s certain the unresponsive woman isn’t as disconnected as she seems. Each vision, detailing a significant moment in Veronica’s long life, pulls Curtis further back until he fears he could become lost in her past.
Curtis Aisling has literally dodged a bullet. At least he thinks he has. But he wonders whether that bullet still has it out for him when he leaves his ex-fiancé and Los Angeles behind for Coronado, New Mexico to borrow some much-needed money from his sister.
The small dilapidated desert town of Coronado has exactly one mansion, belonging to 92-year-old Veronica Meeks. Curtis’s sister, Dia, and her partner, Araceli, are Veronica’s live-in caretakers and while they are delighted to have a visitor, Veronica doesn’t even know he’s there. In the final stages of what the locals call “the reminisce,” she is no longer aware of her surroundings. But when Curtis starts seeing things that no one else does, he’s not convinced that the old, unresponsive woman is as disconnected as everyone thinks.
At times what should be empty rooms within the huge house appear filled with furniture, and music emanates from a dusty radio that has been packed away for ages. Tales of Veronica’s associations and connections with the occult lead Curtis to believe she is causing the ghostly occurrences. But when people begin to appear in those phantom rooms—people from her past including Veronica herself—he’s no longer certain it is her doing.
Each vision pulls Curtis further and further back, each one detailing a consequential moment in Veronica’s long life, until he begins to fear he could become lost in her past.
And then there’s that bullet…
Excerpt
Dia returned her attention to the old woman and took her bony, veiny hand. “Veronica, honey, this is my brother Curtis. You’ve seen his picture in our bedroom, remember? He came for a visit.” She looked up at Curtis. “Veronica was quite smitten with you the first time she saw your picture. Couldn’t take her eyes off it and she would just smile and smile.”
Curtis knelt next to his sister. Greeting the old woman seemed pointless, since it was obvious by her vacant stare that she wasn’t aware of her surroundings. But his sister was right; introducing himself was the proper way to behave regardless of her condition. “Hello, Miss Meeks. I’m Curtis Aisling.”
The old woman’s wispy gray hair was short and pulled back by small butterfly barrettes. Her thin face was pinkish-white, wrinkled, and haloed with brown age spots. The eyes that seemed to be looking at something no one else could see were a cloudy gray-blue. Her small frame was covered in a clean pink nightgown and she wore blue slippers.
“How old is she?” Curtis asked.
Dia stood up to help Araceli gather the tray with Veronica’s barely touched lunch on it. “Ninety-two.”
Remaining crouched before her, Curtis continued to look at the old woman. He found it difficult to imagine that the slack face in front of him had once been young, but he searched for signs of it anyhow. If there was life in her dull gaze, Curtis was sure he would find it there. A strong hot breeze rattling the palm fronds behind the gazebo hit him in the back. That’s when Veronica blinked and looked right at him.
“Finally,” she whispered.
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Reviews for "The Reminisce"
Reviewed by Mary Wazelle
1/31/2018
The sign of a good book is when the reader feels invested in the characters and how they fare within the context of the plot structure, and author Cherryholmes creates a world that shows a snapshot of life in a dying New Mexico town, one that is fraught with ghosts, memories, and feelings of the past that come creeping around uninvited.
The characters of Curtis, his sister Dia and her lover Araceli, and their employer, the elderly Veronica, help paint a picture of how the strange mind of Alzheimer's patients can be both strange and exciting on separate lines, sometimes crossing each other to intersect at the point of where memories become reality. It's a hauntingly sweet story that draws the reader in and doesn't let go until the very end.
You Just Have to Let Go and Follow the Unexpected Events of This Spellbinding Novel
The book Reminisce by H. L. CherryHolmes has an interesting, fascinating mix of characters and storyline. Let’s start with a hunky guy, kind of a ne’er-do-well type, getting by on his charm, whose finance takes off her engagement ring which Curtis Aisling surreptitiously pockets and takes to a pawn shop. in the shop, he finds himself dodging a bullet that should have killed him and he also loses what he came to pawn.
Having nowhere to go with very little money in his pocket, he reaches out to his sister Dia for her support so he can pick up the pieces of his misguided life. Off he goes to enchanted New Mexico, to a deserted town, where his sister and her partner work as live-in caretakers in the grandest home in town taking care of the 90 something woman named Veronica Meeks living there in the late stage of alzheimers. The invalid hasn’t spoken a word for months and when Curtis meets her she talks, but only he can hear and his sister doesn’t believe him.
The mansion holds mysteries and secrets. Very unexpectedly, Curtis’ presence unlocks the past in a panoramic, episodic way that takes him into the memory of a younger, flawlessly beautiful Veronica revealing the jagged edges of her life. At first Curtis is clueless about these excursions into Veronica’s past but soon enough he begins to understand he is gifted with prescience, a gift he never knew he possessed and doesn’t particularly know what to do with or want. Curtis also begins to fear he is being subsumed by the older women with whom he has a connection that he can’t explain. As visions come to him, he time travels into Veronica’s past and meets up with the characters of Veronica’s earlier years, meeting them in various empty rooms of the mansion which suddenly come alive with people, music, intrigue, and secrets that only Curtis can see.
I won’t give away anything else about this book. You will want to read it and savor the interesting parade of characters, read about the ability to rewind time, and the transformation of a man into a much bigger version of himself. The book enthralled me and I found myself staying up almost the entire night eagerly turning pages. This book is a wonderfully entertaining read which will also acquaint you with New Mexican brujas who unexpectedly turn up in the story adding extra dimensionality to the plot and subplots!
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