A.T. Weaver's Blog, page 10

Lizzie

So I have figured out I’m doing this free read wrong. So here are the prologue and the first two chapters of Cousins Four – Lizzie

 

PROLOGUE

Two weeks before Christmas – 2013

Tears streamed down Lizzie’s face and sobs wracked her body as she hung up the phone.

Sara immediately drew her into her arms. When Lizzie’s sobs quieted, Sara asked, “What’s wrong, Liz?”

“That was Mom. Gran wants everyone to come to the resort for Christmas in two weeks. They just found out Gramps has cancer and the doctors don’t expect him to be here next year.” Fresh tears streamed down her face.

Sara kissed her forehead. “Oh, Baby. I’m so sorry. I know how close you are to him.”

“I think the last time we were all together was ten years ago when Uncle Dave and Jesse brought the twins home.” Lizzie sniffed. “Come to think of it, we weren’t all there then. Scott had already left home and Cassaundra and Catherine haven’t been to the resort since Cassaundra and John got divorced.”

“I’ll call the airlines.” Sara brushed the hair off of Lizzie’s tear-dampened cheeks. “You call Seamus.”

“I wonder if anyone contacted Scott. We’re the only ones who know where he is. Maybe I should call him.”

“It wouldn’t hurt.”

 CHAPTER 1

New Year’s Day, 2007

Lizzie stood at the stove fixing breakfast when Jerry came downstairs. “Good morning. Coffee’s in the pot,” she said as she looked over her shoulder.

Jerry poured a mug of coffee and sat at the table.

“You were very quiet at Gran’s last week,” Lizzie said. “Is something wrong?”

“Lizzie there’s something we need to discuss.” Jerry ran his hand through his hair. “I want a divorce.”

Lizzie turned off the burner under the bacon, wiped her hands on the kitchen towel on her shoulder and turned to face him. “What did you say?”

“I said, I want a divorce.”

“That’s what I thought.” Lizzie sat across the table from him. “When did you decide this?”

“A couple of weeks ago.”

“Is there someone else?”

“In fact there is.” Jerry stood and walked across the room. “I swear, Lizzie, it only happened once.”

“So when was this once?” Lizzie asked.

Jerry again ran his hand through his usually neat hair. “Remember the fundraiser in October when you were ill and I went alone? We’d booked a room so we wouldn’t have to drive home so late. I got a little drunk. The last thing I remember is someone helping me up to the room. The next morning, I woke up in bed with this woman. We were both naked and she told me what a good lover I was.”

“Based on one time, you’ve decided you want her instead of me? That doesn’t sound logical. Why did it take two months to decide?”

“It isn’t that I want her instead of you. She’s pregnant.”

“Pregnant! In this day and age?” Lizzie nearly shouted. “Isn’t she on the pill? Who is she?” She took the towel from her shoulder and twisted it. “Is she part of the campaign group? Do I know her?”

“She’s not part of the campaign.” Jerry looked down at his feet. “It’s Catherine,” he said quietly.

“Catherine? My cousin Catherine?” Lizzie stood and threw the towel on the table.

“Yes.”

“Well, she finally got what she’s always wanted.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ever since I can remember, she’s always wanted whatever I had. When we were five it was dolls. Then when we were ten, her mother bleached her hair so it would be the same color as mine. When we were in high school, I made the cheerleading team and she didn’t.” Lizzie shook her head. “I even went to prom with the guy she wanted to go with. Of course, that was after she’d told him she wouldn’t go with him because she hoped the captain of the football team would ask her. She ended up going alone.” Lizzie sat back down and remain quiet for a couple of minutes. I guess I should be more upset. But, I’ve known for months this marriage wasn’t working. All I feel is relief. “I won’t fight you on this, but I think you’d better pack a bag and leave.”

“Where am I supposed to go?” Jerry whined.

“I’m sure you can find a hotel room. After all, Los Angeles is full of hotels.”

CHAPTER 2

February, 2007

Lizzie and Mr. Ellis, her lawyer, entered the conference room where Jerry and his lawyer waited. An older woman sat at a side table with a laptop computer in front of her.

Jerry, impeccably dressed as usual, stood and pulled out a chair as Lizzie entered. “Hello, Lizzie. I hope we can make this as amiable as possible.”

“That’s up to you, Jerry,” she responded.

Jerry’s lawyer handed folders to Lizzie and her lawyer. “I think you’ll find everything agreeable. Mr. Martin agrees to buy out Mrs. Martin for her half of the equity in the house. He also agrees to pay her half of the value of all furnishings. Mrs. Martin retains ownership of her car and Mr. Martin will finish the payments on it.”

“Wait a minute,” Mr. Ellis said. “The house was purchased in 2005. We asked for an appraisal of its current value and it has appreciated by over $100,000.00. Mrs. Martin requests half of the appreciated value in addition to her half of the equity.”

Jerry jumped up. “You have to be kidding! You want an additional $50,000.00? Where am I supposed to get that kind of money?”

Lizzie raised an eyebrow and grinned wickedly. “I’m sure your future wife or her mother can come up with it. I also want the furniture my grandmother gave us. Part of it is family heirlooms.”

Jerry sat back down. Anger blazed in his eyes. “They’re Catherine’s family heirlooms also.”

“Maybe so,” Lizzie said. “But if you ask, you’ll find she wants nothing to do with them.”

“Besides,” Mr. Ellis injected, “according to community-property laws, anything Mrs. Martin brought into the marriage belongs to her. Mr. Martin has no claim on it, only things purchased after the marriage.”

It took two more meetings with the lawyers before things were finally agreed on. One trip to court, and Lizzie was free. She moved out of the house and in with her parents.

* * *

A week after Jerry and Catherine were married, her mother burst into Lizzie’s bedroom. “You’ll never guess what Uncle John told your dad. Catherine was never pregnant. She lied to Jerry so he’d leave you. She has her sights set on being the Governor’s wife someday. She actually told him nothing happened the night he woke up with her.”

Lizzie collapsed onto the bed in a fit of laughter. “Serves Jerry right, the pompous ass. I told him she just wanted what I had.”

“I have to admit, I never understood what you saw in him, but I didn’t say anything. He was your choice, and I vowed never to interfere in my children’s love lives.” Her mother sat in the easy chair. “Catherine also refused to move into the house. Jerry’s had to put it up for sale at a figure about $50,000.00 below the appraised value.”

When her laughter finally died down, Lizzie sat up. “Mom, I’ve been talking to Uncle Jesse. He sent some of my designs to his cousin at the New York branch of the company. His cousin Seamus will give me a job if I move there.”

“New York! Why would you want to move there?”

“I want a change of scenery. I don’t want to be running into Jerry and Catherine every time I turn around.”

“Did you love him that much?” her mother asked.

“I thought I did. I was surprised I wasn’t more hurt when he left.” Lizzie lifted her long, blonde hair off her neck. “I think I was really kind of relieved,” she continued. “Marriage wasn’t all I envisioned. Our society tells us how great sex is. If what I had with Jerry is anything to go on, I’ll do without, thank you.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way. Your father and I have always had a good sex life.”

“Mother! I don’t need to hear that.”

“I’m just glad you didn’t have any kids,” her mother said.

“Well, it wasn’t because Jerry didn’t try to talk me into it. He thought it would increase his popularity with voters if he had a family.” Lizzie paused. “He probably would have insisted I stop work and stay home. I’m not ready to give up working at the Glassworks.”

Trying to decide

I’ve friended so many authors on Facebook I can’t remember who’s who. I’m trying to decide if it’s worth it. I pay for and download books and try to read and review, but get no readers or reviewers in return. Wish I could figure out what I’m doing wrong.

NaNoWriMo

I’m signed up again this year. Don’t have a title for what I’m going to work on. Trying something new – a time-travel. It will have two romantic threads – one m/m and one f/m.

My impression of American Football

FOOTBALL

It is football season – American football that is. I have never understood how a game played primarily with the hands can be called ‘football’. But then, I don’t understand the game at all. I’ll try to give you my impression of a televised, professional football game.

Now the way I understand it, a football game consists of four, fifteen-minute periods separated in the middle with a half hour break. This means the game should last one and one half hours – not so.

In the first place there is the pre-game show in which the announcers tell you what is going to happen in the game based on statistics (guesses). This is similar to political commentators telling what the President is going to say before a speech.

Then we finally start the actual game. There are eleven players on each team on the field for the kick-off in which one team kicks the ball to the other team which catches it and runs toward the goal post at the end of the field until they get stopped. Then the clock stops and the twenty-two players on the field leave the field and twenty-two others take their place. This happens every time the ball changes hands. Finally after approximately thirty minutes, the first quarter is over. I’m not sure if the teams change sides of the field here or not. But they play another quarter which takes another half hour.

Then we have half time. This consists of several things:

The teams retire to their respective locker rooms where the coaches proceed to tell them what they did right or wrong in the first half.
The commentators tell the people watching on TV why what they said was going to happen didn’t and what will happen in the second half. (Again like political commentators).
Scantily-clad young women prance around the center of the field. This has no bearing on the outcome of the game. I can only assume they are there to warm up the men in the audience.

Now it’s time for the second half which is a repeat of the first half.

It is now about three hours since the pre-game show started and we still have the post-game show in which the whole game is analyzed and re-hashed via re-plays.

English As It Is Spelled

When my grandmother died, we found this poem by Isabel Smythe among all of the birthday and Christmas cards in my grandfather’s old smoke stand.

This year – I firmly made a vow

I’m going to learn to spell.

I’ve studied phonics very hard.

Results will surely tell.

 

“A little bird sat on a bough

And underneath there stood a cough.”

That doesn’t look just right somehow.

I guess I should have spelled it cou.

 

“I thought I heard a distant cough

But when I listened, it shut outh.”

Oh, dear I think my spelling’s awf.

I guess I meant I hard a coff.

 

“To bake a pizza – take some dough

And let it rise, but very slough.”

That doesn’t look just right, I know.

I guess on that I sutbbeed my tow.

 

“My father says down in the slough

The very largest soybeans grough.”

Perhaps he means, “The obvious cloo

To better crops, is soil that’s nue.”

 

“Cheap meat is often ver tough.

We seldom like to eat the stough.”

I’m all confused – this spelling’s ruff.

I guess I’ve studied long enuph.

 

Cora’s Heart

Cora has been hurt too many times, and by one man in particular . . .Abandoned by her mother and widowed in her mid-twenties, Cora Sylvan has learned the hard way that you should take nothing in life for granted. So everything is planned out to the last degree – from how to run her farm on a shoestring to how to survive a major earthquake.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing in those notes to cover the return of the infuriatingly handsome Mac Wildwood, her husband’s cousin, the man she loved and lost. And Mac, it seems, has a secret plan of his own up his sleeve. Cora Sylvan safeguarded everything – but she didn’t protect her heart . . .

* * *

“What if ….” This has been Cora’s mantra for many years. She even has a diary in which she lists all types of catastrophes. She has a storm shelter stocked with everything she’d need in case of an emergency (except an earthquake). She has made her farm into a self-sustaining business since the death of her husband. When her shed containing all of the hand-spun wool, knitting projects and canned food she intends to sell burns, she is at the end of her rope. Her life has been a series of disappointments and there is one more left to come.

Love, betrayal and an erroneous belief are all combined into a moving love story.

Murder in the Library

A man is found murdered in the locked library in his home. Surveillance cameras show that no one other than the deceased entered the library. The deceased left a clue for the police, only they cannot figure out what the clue means.

* * *

I often download free books. Sometimes, I find I can’t get into them. No so with Steve Demaree’s Murder in the Library.

I have always loved a good mystery, and this book did not disappoint. It reminded me of the old Perry Mason and Agatha Christie ‘locked room’ mysteries. I was totally surprised at the ending. I love the descriptions of the next door neighbor and her dog.

I look forward to reading more about Cy and Lou.

 

Is it just me?

I don’t know if it’s me or if other people notice it. I’ve read for years – after all, I’m 71 and started reading when I was 5, but I’ve never noticed so many typos, missed words, and grammatical errors as I have in the past year. Are editors getting lax or have I just become more cognizant of such things? And I’m not just talking about self-published books. Some have come from publishers who have editors on staff.

Cousins Four – Scott

The last time all four Johnson cousins-Lizzie, Mike, Catherine and Scott were together was Christmas thirteen years ago. Now their grandmother has called them home for what looks to be their grandfather’s last Christmas.

SCOTT

Scott left home right after high school graduation. His first stop was Chicago where he met and fell in love with Dan. After a tragic accident, he moved on to New York. It’s there Lizzie finds him performing in a drag show as Dealya Goodhand. Scott swears her to secrecy as to his whereabouts.

Bringing in the Hay

I told a man at church today that someday I’d tell him about me driving the tractor.

Bringing in the hay

Most people who’ve known me a long time, know I spent a lot of time on my grandparents’ farm as a child. But my ex-husband’s family considered me a ‘city girl’. My second daughter was born April 1, 1973. Fourth of July weekend, we went to visit my husband’s oldest sister and her family on a farm outside of Huntsville, MO. Jim, the brother-in-law, had baled hay in the field. Can’t remember how many fields, but there were several. And a lot of hay. The weatherman started forecasting severe thunderstorms headed our way. Now anyone who’s ever been on a farm knows what happens to baled hay if it gets wet and is put into the barn.

Here is a list of those present:

On the male side – my husband, his three brothers-in-law, Dale who was just short of 16, Darryl who was just short of 13, my son who was 11 and one other who was almost 11. Two or three younger ones who don’t count.

On the female side – me, my mother-in-law, my husband’s three sisters, Susan who was almost 16 and Lori almost 15. Of course there was Michelle who was 6 and Megan 3 months.

Now everyone knows – the men do the field work and the women cook the meals. Jim had three tractors and the plan was for Dale, Darryl and one other man to drive the tractors and the rest of the males to ‘buck the bales’.

You also know that no kitchen is big enough for five women. So I offered to drive one of the tractors and let Darryl buck the bales. You should have seen the look on Jim’s face. I told him, “Jim, I learned how to drive a tractor when I was 10.” So I went out and drove one of the tractors.

Yes, we made it before the rain started.