Cornfields

Chip Thurmond, a 33 year-old high school English teacher in San Jose, CA, has a problem. Her name is Estella Santos, an obsessed, conniving, 17 year-old who sits in the back row of Chip’s 2nd period class. The girl, who fancies herself Juliet and Chip her Romeo, will stop at nothing in her pursuit of her inspiring English teacher. One afternoon she meets with him after school and fabricates a story about her dad molesting her. She pleads for Mr. Thurmond’s assistance, but is empathetically told the two of them will meet tomorrow with Estella’s school counselor. That’s not what Estella had in mind! That night she contacts Chip, telling him she’s run away and has nowhere to go. Can he please, please help her? She ends up on his apartment couch and when Chip rebuffs her advances . . . it’s game on for Estella. Early the next morning, Chip’s principal discovers on his cell phone pictures of Estella at Chip’s apartment, including one of her wrapped only in a sheet. Chip is placed on administrative leave pending his dismissal and thinking it best, Estella decides to disappear. Assuming his arrest imminent, Chip buys a trailer and heads east eventually landing in the little town of Jones Lake, KS where he hopes to enjoy anonymity while finding employment at the town’s small, rural K-12 school. Street-smart, fearless, and a little crazy, Juliet soon picks-up her Romeo’s trail. Her only wish in life it seems is for the two to consummate their love or die trying.  Jones Lake, Chip assumes, is a small, innocuous place where little happens, He soon finds out differently. Loaded with intrigue, romance, mystery, crime, and mysticism, the small town is full of off-beat characters, including: a homeless man claiming to be an angel; a troubled but beautiful teaching colleague plotting the death of her husband; an ornery chief of police who’s antagonistic toward everyone; a girl-next-door parent smitten with Chip; a cemetery caretaker who talks with the dead; and many more. And, as if it couldn’t get any worse, Chip learns from his previous school that Estella Santos has learned his whereabouts and is en route. Is it time to flee again Chip wonders or has he journeyed far enough? Is he ready to confront the must cunning, self-assured person he’s ever known and again risk his career. Or, maybe it’s just time to pack his bags and head to North Dakota?