The primary aim of the "Novel Excerpts" blog category is to showcase my creative writing, specifically from the novels I've written. Hopefully, these posts will provide a glimpse into my storytelling style, themes, and narrative skills. It's an opportunity to share my artistic expressions and the worlds I've created through my novels.
The Boaz Scorekeeper, written in 2017, is my second novel. I'll post it, a chapter a day, over the next few weeks.
Before Gina had made the goldmine discovery from her audio-recorder, I had pretty much decided that Wade Tillman would be my next target. I guess I became greedy believing that I needed to keep Wade as a resource. Who knows what Gina and I might eventually discover. I had to leave him alone for now. That left Fred and James. For weeks, I had alternated between Wade and James as my last target. I couldn’t find a reasonable trail to follow along towards an acceptable conclusion so I decided to postpone that decision. Fred, by default, became my third target.
Like John and Randall, I spent three weeks planning and stalking. And, this wasn’t the only routine I had fell into. On the morning of ‘D Day,’ my mind returned to High School. For some reason, my motivation to mete out justice found needed resources in otherwise simple events that had taken place almost half a century earlier.
To me, Fred had always been the oddball Flame. To say the least, he was extravagant, especially with his clothes. From the time I tutored him in Junior High I had always noticed that he wore the most expensive or highest quality items of anyone I had ever known. And, on top of that, he bought things he didn’t even need. I would rarely see him wear the same shirt more than once. Before his senior season he made a big deal out of the team’s uniforms. Fred argued that they were too cheap. Fritz finally convinced Coach Pearson to have a New York company design a new uniform using silk. Fritz paid for them. After this, rumor was that Fred’s parents put him on a budget, but I could never tell it influenced how he dressed.
Extravagant as Fred was, it certainly didn’t negatively impact his ability as a point guard. Out of the Flaming Five, Fred was the best ball handler, dribbler, and passer. He truly was the team’s leader, bringing the ball down the court and initiating offensive plays. Just like James and Randall, Fred was good enough to play at a major college. But he didn’t. Rather, he chose to focus on banking and finance knowing that he could someday afford anything he wanted once he directed First State Bank of Boaz and Club Eden. In this regard, Fred was wise beyond his extravagance.
Just as Fred handled the ball the most of all the Flaming Five, he also handled the lead role in the Senior play. Fred was the perfect leading man. The Drama Club had chosen The Wind in the Willows. It had been half a century since the play so I went online to refresh my memory. Here was the best quote about the wonderful play that I could find:
“As the eccentric owner of Toad Hall, Mr. Toad has never been held accountable for anything. He buys himself a horse-drawn caravan and decides, willy-nilly, to explore the countryside. When nearly run off the road by a motorcar, he becomes enamored and abandons his caravan to purchase his own motorized vehicle. In a short period of time, he crashes six different cars and has paid a ridiculous amount of money in fines. His extravagance and irresponsibility eventually end up costing him Toad Hall, which he must fight to reacquire. One would think such a loss would have a sobering effect, but the end of the story sees Toad throwing a sumptuous banquet for his friends, once again, the master of ‘the finest house on the whole river.’”
In the High School auditorium Fred and the rest of the cast flawlessly performed all three showings of The Wind in the Willows. But, things didn’t go so well for Fred when he and the other actors put on the presentation for the Boaz High School student body the following Monday. For years this had been a tradition. It was meant to be a comedy no matter how tragic the subject matter. Mr. Martin, the Drama Club director, sat back and let the actors pretty much improvise any way they wanted to.
Unbeknownst to Fred, the whole crew had done a little pre-presentation planning. James Adams would become the leading man. In the actual play James had been Mr. Toad’s (Fred) subdued servant sidekick. In the reconstituted play James, as Mr. Snake, would parody Fred. James had even arranged for the Sand Mountain Reporter and both radio stations to be present. The Monday morning presentation of The Wind in the Willows made history. It is still known, at least around Boaz High School, as the funniest play ever presented by the Drama Club. Throughout the play, James wore one of Fred’s outfits, clothes that Fred’s parents had allowed James to borrow. It seems James conned them into believing that once Fred saw how unimportant James was in Fred’s clothing that he would learn the needed lesson that clothes in fact do not make the man.
But, looking back, I’m convinced that Fred got the final word. Near the end of the play, as Mr. Toad was barking out orders to his sidekick (Fred) about the big banquet he was throwing, Fred walked to center stage and said, “James, for the rest of your life you can wear identical clothes as I do but you will never lead the offense like I did. Whatever role you hold in the future, I will be Mr. Toad and you will only be my sidekick.”
Fred had another rival of sorts. Wade had always been extremely jealous of Fred. Of all the Flaming Five, Wade was the worst off financially. Even though his father, Walter, earned a good income as pastor of First Baptist Church of Christ, it was only enough, at best, to finance an upper middle-income lifestyle. It was not until Wade was an associate pastor at First Baptist Church of Christ that he learned that his Father had tons of money from his share of Club Eden. Yet, he chose to conceal it while living a humble life before his flock. Growing up, all Wade knew was that he was not near as well off as Fred and the other three members of the Flaming Five.
In addition to Wade, James wasn’t so fond of Fred. Off the court, James despised Fred, but someway could be a team player on the court. I think James harnessed his jealousy and whipped it into a race to be the best shooting guard Boaz had ever seen. I also think James believed he out ‘extravagantized’ Fred when he accepted a basketball scholarship to Auburn University.
My mind had had enough of Mr. Toad. It was ready to give Fred a new set of clothes. Again, ones he would wear only once, but this time he would wear them forever.
The Pencil-Driven Life 