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Sowjourn Publishers
Sowjourn Publishers
Category:
Mystery/Suspense
Publisher: Sowjourn Publishers
Type: Fiction
Pages: 200
ISBN-13: 9780996370806
This novel confronts the potentially explosive topics of racism, justice, revenge and faith.
As the only witness to the shooting of an unarmed Black male by the son of the White man who murdered her husband, Faye finds herself in a precarious position. Most Blacks in town assume the White shooter is guilty and they look forward to the realization he will finally have to face long-delayed justice. However, Faye, to her regret, knows that while he may be guilty of other crimes; he is actually innocent in this incident. Telling the truth will not only result in him getting away with murder based on the state’s Stand Your Ground law; it will also break the heart of her friends and loved ones. However, if she lies about what she witnessed and she is treated as a hero in the African-American community, will she be able to live with herself?
Excerpt
Leaving the parking lot of the Rawleysville Memorial Hospital, Faye Becker was glad she took the time to visit a fellow church member who was recovering from hip replacement surgery. Even though she was taught that good ole Christians never thought too highly of themselves and their charitable actions, she mentally congratulated herself for checking to see how Sister Gilbert, a fellow soldier for the Lord, was getting along. She debated whether or not her good deed for the day was magnanimous enough to treat herself to an already prepared dinner from a local restaurant. Truth be told, she was leaning toward picking up a to-go plate as opposed to going through the drudgery of fixing a home meal. Now, as she was trying to figure out what type of food she was in the mood for, she noticed something strange to her left. Instinctively, she pressed her foot lightly on the brake to slow the car down as she turned her head to the left to get a better look at what caught her eye. She carefully guided her car to the side of the road into a parking spot and turned off the ignition. Even though getting in and out of the car was quite painful because of her arthritic knees, she knew she couldn’t just sit there without doing something about the curious scene unfolding before her.
Even though she was alone in her car, she spoke out loud. “Isn’t that one of those McElroy boys over there by the tree with that Chapman girl?” As was usually the case because of her advanced age, her brain and eyes took their time responding to her question. Slowly she came to the realization that her speculations about the identity of the two people partially hidden behind the tree were correct. With her bad eyesight, she was surprised that she was able to see enough of what was going on behind that tree to sense something was not right. Observing a young male interacting with a young female was not something out of the ordinary. However, the fact that the male was White and the female was Black made their interaction more peculiar. Even in these modern day and times, the factor of race had a way of transforming the mundane into the bizarre, particularly in a small, conservative, southern town like Rawleysville. On top of the issue of race, the actual identities of the two people she was watching added a layer of intrigue.
Unfortunately for Faye, she knew more about the White male, Thomas McElroy, than she cared to. He was in his mid-twenties and had a reputation for molesting and sexually assaulting Black females. Because he was from a family that unashamedly flaunted its strident anti-Blacks sentiments, it was apparent where he got his racial hostility from. According to the Rawleysville rumor mill, which Faye heavily relied on to get most of her information on the activities of fellow residents, Thomas looked up more to his grandfather than his father. Although he was too young to ever have stepped a foot inside the family restaurant, he learned of the segregated eatery owned and operated by his grandfather called McElroy’s Café. It was due to his strong admiration for his grandfather that he blamed Faye and her husband, Jeb Becker, for the decision to close the family restaurant instead of being forced to serve Blacks inside their establishment. The already chilly relationship between the Becker and McElroy families got progressively worse once Jeb Becker became the town's leading civil rights advocate. Shortly after he returned from his second tour in the Vietnam War, he led desegregation efforts against McElroy’s Café. According to the persistent gossip mongers in town, Thomas was all too happy to carry the family torch of hatred against anybody associated with the Becker name.
Young Thomas was a high school athlete who earned letters in various sports. Since his freshman year, he was a regular on the all-county lists and many people believed he had a bright future as a big-time college athlete and later as a professional. His prospects for superstardom in athletics on the college and pro levels were dashed by his repeated brushes with the law. Because she wasn’t much of a local sports fan since her husband’s death four years ago, Faye was not impressed with Thomas’ athletic exploits even though he received extensive coverage by the local media. Under normal circumstances, she as an elderly African-American woman would not know much more about the Caucasian former high school star other than his name. Unfortunately for people like Faye, these were not normal times. Her days of normalcy were abruptly snatched from her when her husband was murdered. Gone were the days when she could look forward to welcoming her husband home after a hard day at work. As she slowly but steadily made her way towards the tree that partially hid Thomas from view, Faye painfully knew that her life was nowhere near normal with having to raise her kids alone because her husband was tragically taken from her. Her new normal was an imposter that tried to deceive her into thinking that nothing significant in her life had changed.
Because she could see beyond the facade of her supposedly new way of seeing life, she knew more about Thomas than his name. Her awareness of him was not only due to the fact his surname branded him as a privileged descendant from one of the founders of Rawleysville. Regrettably, she also associated the young White troublemaker with the one person she unashamedly detested. At least in this instance, she hated the truth behind the phrase, “Like father, like son” because whenever she thought of the twenty something year old male she was heading towards, she thought of his father. In addition to his reputed callous mistreatment of Black girls, Thomas also was guilty of being the next to youngest son of Jake McElroy, Jr. For the still grieving widow after four years, the McElroy name held significance to her because Jake was suspected but never convicted of murdering her husband, Jeb Becker. Not even trying to forgive or forget what the McElroy father did to her husband, Faye was all too eager to spread some of her hatred to the son who was now within a few painful steps. Her first impulse upon seeing someone from the McElroy clan so near was to use her cane to put a big time whipping on the White boy who would have to take the punishment in his father's stead. If she weren't a slightly overweight woman in her sixties with aching knees and bad eyesight, she would have saved God the trouble of having to dole out His brand of justice by gladly dishing out her version of revenge.
Feeling the nerves that she called her “anger veins” furiously pulsating on the sides of her head near her hairline, she decided to focus her attention on Sheryl Chapman. Familiar with the Chapman family because they attended 12th Street Baptist, Faye mentally stepped into the role of the Black girl’s mother and resolved to do for her what she would do for her own daughter. If she learned nothing else growing up in the predominantly Black side of town, she knew that it was vital for Black mothers to step in for each other for the survival of all of their children. At the risk of crossing paths with one of the sons of a family that has been hostile to her husband since the mid-sixties, she was going to do whatever was necessary to make sure the young Chapman girl was not in danger.
Like the devil and angel in the cartoons that were arguing over whose suggestions were more effective, she was trying to decide which voice she would use to address the Black girl she just temporarily adopted. She was either going to come off as Sheryl’s mad mommy or her soothing protective guardian. Not sure when she made her decision about the best way to speak to the young fellow church member, she heard the angry tone of the words as they came out of her mouth. "Sheryl, get away from that boy! He ain't nothing but trouble!" When she noticed that the girl's only response to her command was a wide-eyed look of fright, Faye immediately regretted choosing the harsh mommy tone.
She quickly concluded that this encounter between Sheryl and Thomas was not one between equally willing participants. This one-sided rendezvous had nothing to do with the mutual raging of hormones that often resulted in lustful youths getting romantically involved in some of the most inappropriate places. Motivated by an increasing sense of urgency to rescue Sheryl, Faye quickened her pace as much as her painful knees would allow. Heroically, she was willing to accept a little more arthritic pain if it meant she could prevent any further physical or emotional injury to the girl who probably didn't understand the depth of the dangers she was facing. She tightened her grip on her cane as she tried to ignore her knees that were imploring her to stop this torturous trek. In her mind, she wondered if she would need to use her faithful cane as a weapon to save her young fellow church member from the White boy who seemed destined to follow in his father’s murderous footsteps.
At that moment, Faye saw herself as the self-appointed super-heroine with a cane and sore knees. She summoned the resolve that she inherited from long since departed ancestors who also had to fight injustice to protect their own children. Her righteous anger surpassed her sixty plus years on this earth and encompassed the mistreatment of her people through many generations. Swept up by her surging adrenalin and propelled forward by her ignited passion to stand up for another potential victim with Black skin, Faye focused all of her attention on the White boy just a few steps ahead. With her heart racing, her skin prickling with goose bumps of excitement and her body tricked into thinking it was twenties years younger, Faye was determined to let nothing stop her. She mentally encouraged herself to accept nothing short of victory. "I am an on fire for the Lord Christian who is on a mission and I will not be deterred!" For the moment at least, Faye accepted that she would have to settle for a temporary setback. Her intended triumphant confrontation was halted by something she did not expect. Seemingly out of nowhere, Thomas managed to pull out an intimidating looking revolver and point it at Faye's head.
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