A Short Excerpt

Today I thought it might be fun to pair one of my old photos with a short excerpt from my soon to be released novel, Frankie’s Heart. So here goes…

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She watched the tent people going about their lives with great sadness; people sleeping under trees, or hanging laundry from low branches, children playing in the tall weeds along the tracks, each one of them involved in their own storm. But what could she do to help them? She was only one person.

God, what should I do?

The answer came softly, quietly. It told her the common sense solution to people’s basic needs was food, clothing and shelter. She couldn’t give them all shelter, but she could certainly provide food. She returned to her car and checked her wallet. She had fifty-three dollars. It wasn’t much, but it was a start.

She drove to a nearby pizzeria and ordered two sheet pizzas, then went across the street to a mini mart and bought a case of bottled water and two bright red kick balls.

Forty minutes later she returned to the park. Heart pounding, she carried the pizzas to a picnic table near the tents and sat down. She opened a pizza box, took out a slice, and ate it slowly. It stuck in her throat like concrete. She could feel eyes staring at her from under trees and from inside tents.

Let me not offend them, God. Let me see them the way you do…

The first person to approach her was a little boy. He inched closer to the table, watching her eat with his large, solemn eyes.

“Hi!” she said.

He didn’t answer, only inched closer.

“My name’s Frankie. What’s yours?”

“I like pizza.”

“You do?”

He nodded.

“Well I have a lot of it here. Why don’t you go and ask your mother if you can have a slice?”

He turned and tore across the park, disappearing into a tent. Moments later a woman marched toward her with the boy and two other children in tow.

“Jade said you was gonna give him some pizza,” she said, almost accusingly.

“That’s right.”

“Be all right if my other kids had some, too?”

“Help yourself.”

The woman sat. She was not much more than a girl, really, maybe nineteen or twenty years old. Her pleasure was almost palpable as she sank her teeth into a slice of pepperoni pizza.

Noticing Frankie watching her, she asked, “Why are you doing this?”

Frankie smiled and shrugged. “Why not?”

 

Excerpt from Frankie’s Heart

Coming July, 2018

From Black Lyon Publishing