Awake and Dreaming

In the summer of ‘77, sixteen-year-old Jamie Ray leaves her high school sweetheart to reside in upscale Ocean Park, Maine with her wildly admired psychology teacher, Dr. Leighton, and his family. While working as a nanny for the Leighton’s and their best friends’ children, Jamie writes to uncover answers to unspeakable questions rising up in her consciousness. Her mission is to relieve guilt over abandoning her fiancé and to explore the mysteries of her developing sexual identity.

The moonlight illuminates the room while my pen screams across this page. I’m hunting for an emotional remedy between my lines. Shadows move over the words and across my mind.

As Jamie settles into the rhythm of her summer existence, she confronts an inner labyrinth of arousing and personal ambiguities, rendering her vulnerable and ultimately exposed.