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Amazon
June Ahern
Category:
Action/Thriller
Publisher: createSpace
ISBN-10: 1477488413
Type: Fiction
Pages: 286
Copyright: July 10, 2012
ISBN-13: 9781477488416
Price: $1.95 (eBook)
Flower Power explodes into fire power when a lonely young woman becomes embroiled in drug running and a plot to bring down the Black Panthers during the Summer of Love
Liz MacKay becomes embroiled in drug running and a plot to bring down the Black Panthers during the Summer of Love shortly after she arrives in San Francisco. In Scotland her young son is kidnapped and murdered and soon afterward her husband abandons her, blaming her for their son's death when her lies reveal she knew more about the crime. In disgrace Liz leaves her hometown in hopes of a fresh beginning, where no one will know of her shame. She arrives in San Francisco during the Summer of Love and is pulled into the scene: The groovy young people and free love in the Haight/Ashbury. Liz joins a commune. Her new family is a curious mix: Black Panthers trying to change the world, a Vietnam vet seeking inner peace, a flamboyant hairdresser ready for fame and love, a flower child and her drug dealer boyfriend who changes girlfriends often. The dark underbelly of the Summer of Love is soon exposed and Liz finds herself having to make life or death choices.
Excerpt
SNAP, SNAP, SNAP. The rapid sharp sounds of the inmate’s bubblegum ricocheted around the waiting room.
“Brenda Rose!” growled Officer Sue DeLosa between clenched teeth, followed by a threatening glare. Brenda Rose Browne, or BR as she was known at Chowchilla’s Women’s Correctional Facility, scowled defiantly at the stout officer and continued rotating her jaw like a cow chewing cud. DeLosa widened her stance and casually placed a hand next to her billy club. The prisoner rolled her watery blue eyes at her fellow inmate, Liz Mackay, sitting opposite on a matching plastic chair.
Liz ignored both women and fixed her eyes straight ahead on the blank wall. The gum chomping and snapping didn’t irritate her as it did the guard. She’d learned to live with many irritants and restrictions over the years she’d been incarcerated.
What did annoy Liz was the escalating stale odor emanating from the women’s bodies in the cramped windowless room. The space was more of a wide corridor with three doors. At one end a door led to the cellblocks and eight feet away opposite it another led to offices and the outside. Behind the third door in the middle was where the parole board conducted hearings to determine prisoners’ lives. The three women had been waiting for almost an hour while the board settled in and reviewed their cases.
Liz tilted her head back to rest against the wall and tried to calm her growing anxiety. She wondered why she agreed to face the parole board again. No matter which board she faced, it would be the same: parole denied. Anger at her attorney, Toni Bordeaux, also nagged at her. The previous day they had had a serious argument. The words played over and over in her mind and Liz began to doubt her decision.
* *
Liz studied the woman she’d had known for seventeen years. Toni’s shiny, black hair was now peppered with grey and cut close to her skull. Her dark brown face looked nearly as youthful as when Liz first saw her. Toni was wearing her usual dark, tailored pantsuit, and simple, yet expensive jewelry. On her lap was an opened briefcase that held a large file full of papers associated with Liz’s case. “When did your penance turn into self-punishment?” demanded Toni.
She tapped her pen impatiently, waiting for Liz to respond.
“I don’t care what you say, it won’t make a difference,” she said angrily.
Toni leaned closer to Liz. “Give him a chance,” she pleaded. “Just play nice…”
“No! And if you don’t like that, you’re fired!” Liz then pushed her hard, attempting to escape the wiry lawyer’s grip.
Toni didn’t let go easily. The two women stood locked in a combative stare for a moment longer before Toni dropped her hand, releasing her client.
* *
Before each parole hearing Toni met with Liz––Elizabeth Mackay, prisoner number EM61468––so they could rehearse what Liz would say and shouldn’t say to the parole board. At the first parole hearing, she begged her attorney to come in with her to speak on her behalf. Toni explained that the board would take her presence as a challenge to their power. They didn’t like to hear inmates’ attorneys argue legal matters, while they focused on what they thought was best for society. She advised Liz, “Stay cool. Keep your answers short and simple. Just say ‘yes’ to their questions. Don’t elaborate. Ricky’s got no family or friends to oppose your release. It’s going be an easy hearing.”
Each time the board of people scrutinized Liz’s every facial expression and word as she answered the probing questions.
“Did she understand the gravity of her crime?” Her answer was always the same, “Yes.” What she didn’t say was she understood in the second after the killing occurred it was a serious situation.
“Was she deeply sorry for the grief her actions had caused others?” Although she answered with a “Yes” she wasn’t sorry for stopping him from hurting others. They wouldn’t want to hear that.
“Did she think she could be a positive part of society if they decided to set her free?” The question always stumped her. Liz felt as lost to her purpose in life as she had been many years ago. She looked at the board and answered, “Yes.”
* *
Now faced with another chance at parole, Liz considered what to do. What Toni advised her, didn’t settle well with Liz. She was shocked Toni wanted to include a person who had disappointed both of them. He didn’t belong in their lives, let alone at her parole meeting. Toni should know how Liz felt for she knew Liz better than anyone. The woman was not only her attorney, but also her best friend.
Later that day, alone in her cell Liz had a change of heart. What Toni said rang true. She was punishing herself beyond reason and realized she’d become like her martyred mother, Clare. “God bless her poor suffering soul,” Liz whispered.
Clare never got over her husband’s abandonment and carried her pain around as if it were a cross to bear. Although it seemed her mother was never happy, Liz had been content for a time in her life.
She realized that she had suffered enough. Punishment for her crime had been served. Liz put the past back where it belonged. What she had done in Glasgow could never be changed. There was no way to travel back in time and make different decisions: ones that would have saved her son.
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