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Category:
Historical Fiction
Pages: 370
Copyright: Feb. 24, 2014
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
Being sixteen can be hell, and life at Liberty High isn't doing Sarah Daniels any favors. Bullies, boys, an abusive mother, and now this: an old journal left to Sarah in her aunt's will. With each passing entry, she grows closer to transforming the skeletons in her mom's closet into proven facts. Everyone has a story. For Sarah, one boy's journey across Great Depression America will set her free.
Excerpt
Finding November
J. E. Dyer
Copyright 2014
This is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, brands, and media are either the product of the author's imagination, or used in a fictional manner. The contents of this book may not be reprinted or redistributed, in whole or in part, without prior written consent from the author.
Chapter 1
Sarah Daniels walked down the main hallway of Liberty High with her best friends in tow. Her waves of auburn hair hid her sky-blue eyes. As they hurried to history class, the big blue 'Congrats class of '93' banner strung from the ceiling rippled in their wake.
"Just six more months," Tanya said, shaking with excitement. She brushed her long blonde bangs behind her right ear. "Then we're seniors."
Sarah looked past the peeling paint on the old walls to the banner as they passed under it. "Yeah - I can't wait."
"Why so glum, chum?" Annie asked from Sarah's left.
Annie's perky tone made Sarah smile. Even back in grade school, she had been the corny type of personality that could pull your spirits back from the darkest pit of despair. Annie's dark red curls bounced around her fair features.
"Dunno." Sarah glanced toward her and quickly lowered her eyes back to the floor. "Just not looking forward to history, I guess."
Annie's emerald gaze studied her as they wove around a gaggle of students in the main hall. Sarah sensed Annie's motherly instincts probing her for the truth.
"Eh," Annie said, jabbing an elbow into Sarah's arm. "I can't stand that dry crap either."
"So," Tanya said, changing the subject, "wanna come out to the mall with us tonight, Sarah?"
She shook her head keeping her eyes on the heart pattern in her sweater. "I can't."
"Lemmie guess," Annie said, "homework." She drug out the word, sounding more like a foghorn than anything.
"It's not just that, Anne --"
"God, Sarah," Annie said. "When are you gonna live a little?"
"Yeah," Tanya said, tossing an arm around her neck. "There's more to life than those books."
"Such as?" Sarah asked in her own defense.
Tanya shrugged and slid her purse up on her shoulder. "Well, there's boys, and shopping - and boys!"
All three of them broke out in laughter.
"And you say I've got a one-track mind." Sarah shifted her stack of books and binders.
"It's the only track that matters," Tanya said, turning her blue eyes to the ceiling tiles.
A small cluster formed ahead of them in front of the red lockers. A husky senior loomed over his much smaller prey. The boy's blue and white letterman's jacket gave away his anonymity.
"Where do you think you're goin' you little freak?" The boy's white leather sleeves swung out to impede the progress of the frail black girl.
"Please," she pleaded, "I just want to get to class."
"Oh, God." Annie whispered in Sarah's ear. "It's Chet Brown - again."
The crowd of other flannel-clad grunge-heads and jacket-toting jocks formed a human barrier around the helpless freshman.
"Please," the girl repeated in a squeaky tone. She pushed her thick glasses up the bridge of her small nose.
"Nobody wants your kind here, freak," Chet said, glaring at her through his maniacal green eyes. "Why don't you go back to wherever it is you came from?"
"Leave her alone, Chet," Annie said, shoving a flannel longhair aside.
The girl seized the opportunity and scurried out of the ring down the hall to safety. Sarah's stern glare met Chet's predatory eyes.
"What are you lookin' at?" Chet slapped the sleeve of another of his linebacker buddies. "C'mon, Mike. Let's get to class."
"God," Tanya said, stomping a heel into the tile floor. "What an asshole."
Sarah glared at the copper-haired brute. One of these days.
"He'll likely end up on the back of a garbage truck after graduation anyway." Annie trotted to catch up to Sarah as she turned toward the door to Mr. Leckner's history class.
The fourth period bells resounded down the corridors of Liberty beckoning all to their seats. The girls walked into class and took up their usual places around one another near the archaic windows.
"Good morning, everyone," Mr. Leckner said. He stood nearly as tall as the blackboard that he cleared with an eraser. His long bony arm eradicated the remnants of the prior period's discussion in a single swath. "Ready to see how you did on yesterday's quiz?"
A collective grumble came in response. Leckner swept his gray bangs out of his glasses and strode over to his small wooden desk. "Let's get to it, then."
He picked up a manila folder and walked around the room. "Jack," he said handing a paper back to the small boy at the end of Sarah's row, "The Puritans came to America, not the Purifiers." The class chuckled as he continued disseminating their results.
Annie pecked Sarah's sleeve with the end of her pen. "Movie - tonight?" she mouthed.
Sarah shook her head. "Can't," she said in silence.
"There you go, Amy," Mr. Leckner said, placing a sheet of notebook paper on the girls' desk. "C-plus. Needs improving."
"Come on," Annie mouthed, showing her disgust.
Sarah dropped her defeated stare to the legs of her seat.
"Sarah," Mr. Leckner said, handing back her quiz. "Aces as usual. Well done."
"Thank you."
"Annie," he said, passing the sheet over Sarah's head, "if you'd spend as much time with your nose in your book as you did in other people's business, you just might pass my class."
Annie huffed and snapped the top of her paper toward Sarah. A large red D glared from the sheet's upper right corner. Annie slammed the paper back down on her desktop and crossed her arms.
"See, Sarah," Tanya whispered, leaning in over her desk. "You deserve a break. You get A's all the time."
"All right, class," Leckner said, tossing the folder onto his desk. "Today we're going to discuss your semester projects."
"No way," a perturbed jock in the back corner said. "That sucks."
"Yes way, Mr. Allmon," Leckner said, picking up a piece of chalk. "Whether it sucks or not is entirely up to you."
He scribbled the word 'genealogy' on the board and turned to the class. "You will have the remainder of this year to research one family member - other than a parent - and write a report on them."
Several utterances of disgust and angst fluttered around the room.
"Hey," Leckner said, "I'm giving you guys six months to do this. Stop whining." He jotted down the highlights of his instructions as he spoke. "They will need to be a minimum - that's minimum, Mr. Allmon - of five pages double-spaced. Properly cite all of your references, blah, blah, blah - you know the rest." He set the chalk down and walked back over to his chair. "I want your topics turned in by the end of next week."
Great, Sarah thought branding the instructions into her notebook with her pencil. Just what I need right now.
"Okay." Leckner thunked his copy of the textbook down and flipped through its pages, "let's turn to chapter fourteen and start the next lesson."
Sarah's eyes scanned the pages, but her mind drifted off to the mountain of chores she'd face when she got back home. Her mom got put on mid-shifts again, and that translated into a small hummock of dirty laundry to tote across the street from their cramped apartment among other things.
I hope she left me enough change in the cup to do the full basket this time. Her mom worked hard to provide for them, and Sarah realized it. Scrubbing toilets up in Clarksburg corporate buildings for a few hundred bucks a week motivated Sarah to stay focused on college. I'll have to nuke something up in the microwave again, and then settle in with an hour of my friends in Beverly Hills.
"Come on, Sarah," Annie said, tugging on her sweater.
"Hmm?" A tingling sensation radiated from the back of her neck.
The bell stopped ringing as Annie stood up from her desk. "I'm starving. Let's go."
"Sorry." Sarah gathered her belongings and trailed behind Annie and Tanya as the class filed out the door.
A young man flattened down his blond cowlick and strode toward her locker as Sarah stacked her books inside.
"Hey, Sarah," he said, remaining on the other side of the door.
"Hi, Collin." She grabbed her small crocheted purse and unzipped it.
"Mind if I join you for lunch?"
She shut the locker door and zipped her small bag. "I don't know if…" His big blue eyes found hers. They had a way of melting her into a puddle of goo. "Sure, I guess."
"Hi, Collin." Annie scooted behind him and silent-clapped excitedly. Her patented big grin covered most of her face.
The aroma of pizza intermingled with tacos as they inched through the line deeper into the cafeteria.
"So," Collin said running his hand through his dusty blond mop. "I was wondering if you'd like to come to my recital later tonight."
Sarah tossed a pain-soaked smile at him. "I'm sorry."
"Got another date," he said. "I understand."
"No, it's not that," she said, stuffing her sweaty hands into her pockets, "tonight's just not a very good night for me."
"Oh." Collin's tone perked up. "How about we make a rain check for some other time?"
The blood heated her youthful cheeks. "Sure. That would be great."
Annie tugged her sleeve and pointed at the trays of food coming out the other side of the line. "Looks pretty good…"
Her friend's words blurred into the sound her tape deck made when it got jammed. The murmur of the crowd faded into the growing void and Sarah's vision went black. Her head collided with the cool tiles on the floor with bruising force giving rise to a cloud of colorful stars. Every muscle in her body clenched before the emptiness completely consumed her.
Chapter 2
The TV on the wall slowly faded into focus. Sarah sat up on her bed and rubbed the knot on the back of her skull. Several small tubes and IVs had been taped to the back of her hand and right forearm.
"What happened?" The dryness in the back of her throat made it challenging to speak.
A blonde bimbo clung to a cookie-cutter hunk in the soap opera. The couple stood helpless in a massive hole on a deserted island debating their melodramatic demise. Sarah gingerly turned toward the tall windows beside her bed. The sun's intensity amplified the dull throbbing that radiated from her concussion.
"Think they'll ever get off that dumb island?" The nurse strode across the floor in silence toward the IV drip. Her black ponytail bobbed on the back of her head. "Who would do something that stupid to start with?"
Sarah massaged the center of her forehead with her good arm. Her blurry vision returned to the petite nurse standing next to her triage cart. The embroidered name on her lavender scrubs read: Kate.
"That's quite a knot you've got there." Kate adjusted the bag of ice behind Sarah's head. She pulled a thermometer out of her cart and stuffed it into a disposable sleeve. "I just need to take your vitals, hon. Then I'll get out of your hair."
She nodded and sat up in the bed. "Where am I?"
Kate turned a concerned glare up to her.
"I mean - which hospital is this?"
"United Medical, dear." Kate held the small stick up in front of Sarah's lips. "Under the tongue and close the mouth. You know the drill."
Kate's brown eyes watched the box on the other end of the cord nonchalantly. Once the unit beeped, she took the thermometer out.
"Ninety-eight, six. Completely normal." Kate grabbed the black pressure cuff and leaned over Sarah's torso. "Just another minute or two, kiddo."
The pressure released, and Kate pulled the Velcro on Sarah's bicep apart. She jotted down the measurements on her clipboard and glanced up at Sarah. "Alirghty. That's it for now." Kate tucked the sheets in around Sarah's exposed thigh. "Need anything for the pain, or something more to drink?"
"Nope," Sarah said in a weak tone. "Thanks."
Kate pushed her cart back to the door and jotted her notes on the dry-erase board. "I'll be back around in an hour to check on you, hon."
"Sounds great." Sarah eased hear head back down into the flat pillow.
The sound of the heavy door to her room woke Sarah from her brief respite. Having a bulge on the back of her head did little to help her get comfortable for any amount of time.
"I got here as fast as I could, baby." Her mom rushed to her bedside and showered her forehead with kisses. Her black hair glistened under the fading daylight.
Karla wore her usual dark blue slacks and matching button-down blouse. Her name sat over her right breast pocket stitched into a white oval patch. "Thank, God you're okay." She took up the void in the chair next to Sarah's bed. "You had me worried sick."
"I'm sorry, momma." Sarah's muscles tensed up bracing for the impending verbal assault.
"I'm just thankful you're okay."
Three light raps broke the tension in the room. "Dinner's here."
A plump woman in white scrubs toted a tray of covered dishes to Sarah's eating surface and sat it down. "Feel up to havin' some apple pie tonight?"
"Sure," Sarah said, removing the covers from her feast. The bland steamed veggies and grilled chicken had no aroma.
"There you are, honey," the orderly said. "We'll be back in an hour to clean up, 'kay?"
Sarah nodded as she poked at a lump of broccoli. It beats the TV dinners, I guess.
"Hello?" A sing-song voice bellowed from the doorway. "Anybody home?"
Sarah smiled at the sound of her friend's voice. "Annie!"
Annie trotted over to Sarah's side and gave her a warm hug. Tanya and Collin meandered in behind her. "How are you feeling, girl?"
Sarah held up her tube-infested arm.
"That good, huh?" Tanya took up a seat on the windowsill. She turned her blue gaze to the approaching young man.
Sarah's eyes lit up. Her pain ceased to exist. "Collin. I didn't expect to see you here."
His brow peaked in confusion. "Why not?"
"Don't you have a recital tonight?"
He set his hand on her feet and smiled. "It can wait."
Sarah tossed him a flirtatious grin. "You'd better go to that recital."
"It's across town in an hour," Collin said, rubbing her foot. "I can still get to it in plenty of time. I had to see you."
Sarah's eyes darted to Annie whose clenched smile said what her mind thought: Oh, my God, girl!
"Well," Sarah said, clearing her throat, "thank you for coming. It means a lot to me."
Annie snitched a piece of chicken and crossed her legs. "So, what are you doing your project on?"
Sarah's nose wrinkled at the foul stench of the history assignment. "No clue. You?"
Annie shrugged. "Probably my great-grandma or something."
"I can't think about it," Tanya said, brushing her blonde bangs out of her face. "It messes with my mall karma."
"How about you, Collin?" Sarah couldn't help smiling. Why must I smile at him constantly? Stop it!
"My grandpa served in the Army during the war. I guess I'll do mine on him."
She lost herself in his baby blues. "Intriguing."
Three gentle raps on the door snapped their bond.
"Sorry to interrupt your dinner." A muscular man in blue scrubs strode to the end of her bed. "I'm Dr. Avery."
"We were just getting ready to take Collin across town anyway," Annie said. "Come on guys."
Collin stopped at the corner of her bed. "See you later?"
"Uh huh." She clamped her eyes shut. Uh huh? That's the best you could come up with?
"Great," he said, tapping the bedrail nervously. "Bye."
"Bye." She leaned toward the door as he strode out. "Good luck!"
Once the door had been closed, the doctor brought his clipboard up to his grey eyes.
"What's going on with her?" Her mom perked up from her news hour coma.
Avery shrugged. "Honesty," he adjusted the stethoscope around his neck, "I've never seen anything like this."
Karla buried her face in her quivering palms. "What good is that supposed to do me?"
Sarah nibbled at her chicken and roll. Here we go.
"I understand your frustrations, Ms. Daniels, but --"
"Do you?" Her short black ponytail bobbed as she spoke. "Do you think you really understand? I've got a crotchety old boss breathing down my neck every night while I scrub toilets. I barely make enough to get the two of us by month to month. Do you really understand?"
Avery's chest deflated as he moved his clipboard back to his left hip. "Sarah, I want to keep you here overnight to run a few more tests."
"What do you think's wrong with me?" God, is this a heart problem, or a brain tumor? She wrung her hands in her lap.
His salt-and-pepper hair cocked to one side. "Right now all I know is that you had a seizure, but what caused it remains a mystery."
"That's the best you've got," her mom muttered.
"We've gotta run some more tests before we can do anything else. If it's something serious then we'll have to move fast."
Sarah's mind raced around every turn of concern that her imagination threw at her. Something serious? Like what? I can't die yet. I haven't even kissed him! She slouched back into the bed's numbing embrace begging God for just enough time to at least hold his hand or something.
Chapter 3
Saturday morning came and Sarah went. Dr. Avery released her after all of the tests came back negative and no other information could be gathered.
She shut the crooked wooden door to their efficiency apartment with a loud creak. "Home, sweet home."
Their cozy two-bedroom, one-bath home sat overtop of the old Jane Lew pharmacy. Its bones had been built to last and the original oak flooring remained intact.
Sarah strode to the bay window overlooking Main Street in this sleepy little hamlet. "Booming as ever."
Her mother marched to the kitchen sink on the far side of the floor. "Damn it, Sarah."
The sound of slamming dishes snapped her from her daydream. "What?"
"We don't have anything to eat on unless you do the dishes." She threw the faucet on and yanked the towel drawer open. "If I've told you once, I've told you a hundred times."
Sarah walked over to the edge of their hand-me-down floral print sofa. "I'm sorry, mom. I just forgot."
Karla spun around snapping a hand to her hip. "Just forgot? I slave all night long up to my elbows in shit, and you can't even remember to do one simple chore?" A porcelain plate trembled under her white knuckles.
"Momma, please." Sarah strode over to the archway that separated the two spaces.
A glint of polished white in the corner of her eye gave Sarah enough forewarning to brace for the impact. The dinner plate shattered on the fleur-de-lis wallpaper next to her head and fell in pieces at her feet. A searing heat throbbed just below her right eye. Sarah dropped to the floor and covered her head sure that another missile would follow.
"God!" Karla stood hunched over the dual-basin sink. "I just - ya know?"
Karla's boots echoed off the hardwoods as she strode toward the wall. Her mother's calloused hands took Sarah by the forearms and lifted her from the shards. Sarah trembled in her mother's embrace.
"Look, baby," her mom said in a consoling tone, "I'm sorry. Okay?"
The odor of Ajax lingered on her work shirt. Sarah clasped her hands loosely around the small of her mom's back.
"I'm sorry." Karla placed a hand on both of Sarah's cheeks and forced her daughter to look her in the eyes. "I - I'm just really tired right now."
Sarah nodded and pulled away from her mother's grasp. Karla took her chin between her thumb and forefinger and turned Sarah's head to one side. A thin line of crimson rolled down into the teardrops at the side of Sarah's nose.
"We'll have to clean that up."
Sarah staggered to the bathroom at the end of the hall. "Fine."
She took a small cluster of toilet paper and held it under the running water.
"I'll have to leave again here in a little while to work another mid-shift," her mom said through the clanging of the busted plate. "I'll leave a few dollars out here on the table if you wanna go down to T&L."
Sarah blotted the streamer of blood from her face. "Okay, mom."
The shards of the weapon fell into their garbage can with a dull thud.
"There's a basket of laundry that needs run across the street tonight, too. Can you do that for me?"
She tossed the soiled paper into the small wastebasket next to the toilet. "Yeah." She lowered her tone to a whisper. "Why not? I just got out of the hospital."
Karla tromped across the living area in her steel-toes. The front door groaned on its rusty hinges. "I'll be back around the usual time tomorrow. If you need anything --"
"The number's on the fridge, I know."
The door closed and with it the apartment fell silent. Sarah peered into her reflection in the broken mirror. Its long crack ran from the upper left corner and cut a path across her shoulder and chest. What did I do? A burning sting percolated behind her dejected eyes. How can she be so loving one minute, and a raging lunatic the next? Her broken spirit manifested itself in clear streams down both cheeks. The notion of running away bubbled at the surface of her thoughts.
"I can't do it." She touched the pock mark on her left cheek and smiled.
Sarah had come down with the chicken pox when she was ten. Her mom had sat by her side for four days straight. She lied on the couch in her strawberry pee-jays forced to watch Tom and Jerry reruns and game shows. Sarah had itched at the pock on her cheek until the scab came off.
"That was a bad idea," she muttered through another sniffle.
Sarah rotated her face to get a better look at the cut on her right cheek. She winced at the depth of the wound.
"I hope that one doesn't scar."
The phone rang in its charger in the kitchen forcing her to swallow the pain. Okay, pull it back together, Sarah. She walked in and pulled the wireless receiver out of its cradle on the counter. "Hello?"
"Hey," Annie said on the other end, "it's me. You okay?"
Sarah wiped a wet finger on her jeans and strode to the couch. "Yeah, doing better." She crawled over the arm of the couch and flopped down on her belly. "What's up?"
"Just giving you one last chance to come hang out with the cool kids at the mall later. Interested?"
Sarah sank her head into the musty floral cushion. "I can't. My mom's on mids and I've got a lot to do tonight."
Annie growled playfully through the phone. "Is she aware that we're trying to give you a social life?"
"No."
"Didn't think so. So, I guess I'll point out the elephant in the room. What's with Collin?" Annie's voice teetered on the brink of a gossip-spun frenzy.
Sarah rolled over on the couch and studied the crown molding trim along the high ceiling. "I dunno just yet."
"Bullcrap. We've been friends for how long?"
"I know, I know." She stretched out her legs over the back of the sofa releasing some of the nervous tension. "He's cute and everything, but how am I gonna fit a boyfriend into what little life I have?"
"That's exactly the point, Sarah." Annie's tone took a turn into Mothertown. "You need to get out - get away for a while."
"You know I can't. I'm all that she has."
"You're treated like a friggin' slave, Sarah. Don't you see it?"
Sarah bit down on her lower lip. Hold your tongue.
"Well, anyway," Annie said, coming back on her side of the boundary, "I'd better get going. You know how Tanya gets when she hasn't had her fix for the night."
"Yeah," Sarah said with a giggle. "All right. You girls have fun."
"We will. Bye, kiddo."
"Later, chick."
She pressed the 'talk' button on the receiver and tossed it to the far cushion. "Urgh! Why does mom have to be so damn difficult?"
She looked up at the small clock setting atop the TV: 3:27p.m.
"Fine," she said, grabbing the phone off the cushion. "I'm going."
Sarah took the three wrinkled bills from the table, the cluster of quarters from the coffee cup on the counter, and slid it all into her pocket. After she put on her coat, Sarah heaved up the basket of dirty laundry and headed out the door.
The Laund-o-Matic sat across the street from her apartment in a dumpy worn-down turquoise building. The sight of a small beat-up red Geo Metro parked near its front door made her smile. She's such a sweet little old lady. Sarah never got around to asking the old woman for her name, but she ran into her at least twice a week in here. The dumpy old lady sat in the far corner hunched over another one of her romance novels. She turned her head at the sound of Sarah's approach.
"Evenin', dearie."
Sarah smiled acknowledging her and set the basket on a vacant dryer. "Hello." She sorted out the clothes and tossed a pile of them into the front-loader across the aisle.
"You should go, honey." The plump lady licked her thumb and turned another page in her novel.
"Excuse me?" Sarah fished a pair of quarters out and fed the machine.
"It's a great big world out there," the woman said, turning her hairy chin up from the book. "It'll do you some good."
"It's not that simple." Sarah thumped the bottle of detergent on the dryer's lid. "You wouldn't understand."
The elder chuckled and spun her body toward Sarah. Her sunken balls of coal studied Sarah from behind thick spectacles. "I understand enough." Her chest heaved through a harsh lung spasm. "I understand that I'm an old fart and can still hear the racket from across the street sometimes. I understand that stairs don't cause black eyes, or gashes on people's faces."
"I'm sorry," Sarah said, "I didn't mean --"
"I know whatcha meant." The woman took her book in one hand and jabbed it at Sarah. "Life ain't easy, honey. We've all gotta choose our own destiny."
Sarah collected her last load and stuffed it into the neighboring washer. "Yes, ma'am." Her belly announced its neglect from beneath her coat. "Listen," she pointed out the window toward the street, "I'm gonna run to get a quick bite to eat. Would you mind?"
The old lady held up an open palm. "Gotcha covered. Go put some meat on them bones."
"Thank you." Sarah set her back against the glass door and backpedaled out into the frosty evening.
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