17 year old Jedidiah, a.k.a the skateboarder Dragonfoot, faces amputation, bullies and first love.
Born with a gruesome deformity that causes him to drag his foot, 17 year old Jedidiah embraces the nickname Dragonfoot. He sets his goal to become a champion skateboarder, but amputation, a mission trip to Peru, and two girls that God puts in his path challenge his dream. The story is told from four points of view: Dragonfoot’s, a girl who suffers a gang rape, the preacher’s daughter who hides a secret, and the guardian angel who fights for Dragonfoot on another level. Jedidiah opens his heart to both girls. Can he rescue the one who needs him without losing the one he needs? And can he open his heart to God as well and accept His will? This is Christian fiction that addresses difficult adolescent issues such as sex and drugs, but deals with them through a Biblical perspective.
Excerpt
Chapter 1
Sixteen year old Jedidiah did a visual search of the ground around the tent, aware more of the delicate sounds of a whimpering Allison than the noisy monkeys close by.
“Half of tracking,” he said to her, “is getting in their minds. Where do you think they’d go?”
Allison looked upwards and thought for a moment. “Chaska has a sister, another shaman, who comes here, or Chaska goes to her village about once a month.”
“Is it close? Do you know how to get there?”
“Um, we visited it once, like when we first got here. That was years ago.”
“Think. Do you remember which direction it was?”
Allison looked toward the path that led to the school. “Beyond there.” She closed her eyes. “It was a long walk and we had to cross the river at a narrow part where there was a rickety little bridge with no railing.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
Jedidiah’s take charge manner would have impressed Allison if she had remembered the cowering boy who dragged his foot around the playground, but the panicked young girl’s focus was elsewhere. She stepped behind him and let him lead her through the jungle.
He found the only path that looked recently trod past the new school. He leaned down to check for footprints in a boggy spot.
“One set of bare footprints and two sets slightly larger. Not American shoe prints, for sure,” Jedidiah said. “Domingo goes barefoot, right?”
“Yeah, he and Dougie both . . . all the kids really.”
They pushed on, following the trail as it snaked through the rain forest. It had been the highway between two villages for years and yet the ever fertile jungle had daily tried to reclaim it. Fresh machete marks were apparent along the way.
Jedidiah swatted at insects as he sweated off the repellent he had sprayed on that morning. It was fortunate that it was not the hottest season. Allison took no notice at all.
An hour of hiking meant that the sun was lower, the jungle darker, and the signs harder to read. Jedidiah’s thirst made him think how stupid they were to head off with no provisions.
