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.
I dressed and sat back down in the study to wait on Gina. Thirty minutes went by and that horrible feeling came over me, the one where you just know something bad has happened. It was pure terror, like standing on a gang plank about to be cast into a raging ocean, or with rope around your neck, about to be hung from the gallows.
I forced myself to stay seated for an hour. I couldn’t sit still and do nothing. I grabbed my jacket, walked by Karla reading, seated at her spot on the far end of the couch, and told her I had an emergency to deal with and that I would be back as soon as I could.
As I was backing out of the garage, I felt Gina’s phone vibrating in my pocket. I pulled it out and answered, “Micaden, the scorekeeper.”
“I’m not coming. They have me. I’m in the trunk of James’ car headed somewhere. I had grabbed Wade’s folder and had just come into the garage when the two of them drove up. James pulled into Wade’s parking spot inside the garage and I couldn’t get away. I tried to run toward the street but James grabbed me and Wade watched as James shoved me into the trunk and slammed the lid shut.”
“Do you have any idea where they are taking you?” I asked.
“My guess would be Club Eden, the cabin at the lake. Micaden, I am so scared. I know I am going to die.”
“Gina, don’t talk like that, don’t even think that. I’m coming to get you, I’m already rolling. I can be at the cabin in ten minutes or less.” I said.
“I think we are already here. I can feel the bumps, probably from the rough driveway leading up to the cabin.”
“Stay brave my dear friend. I’m coming for you.”
“Oh hell, she’s got a phone. Give me that.” I heard James say as silence erupted.
They must be at the cabin. They have her out of the car by now asking her who she was talking to. I pushed the accelerator through the floor as my truck approached 90 miles per hour as it raced through the intersection of Lawson Gap and Mountainboro Roads.
Within another three or four minutes I was at the entrance. The gate was open. I turned in and floored it again, the rear end fishtailed almost to the ditch. As I came out of the final curve before reaching the cabin I could see they had already left. It was easy to conclude that once they knew Gina had been on the phone their plan was compromised. They would have concluded that it was too risky to stay at the cabin. I pulled up where Fred had parked his Camaro last week and started to back up to turn around, when my eye caught a glimpse of a sparkle in the road, about where the Camaro’s bumper would have been. I got out and walked to the spot and within a few seconds saw a ring. It was Gina’s wedding cluster. She no doubt had intentionally dropped it when Wade and James opened the car trunk. She wanted me to know she had been here.
I put it in my pocket and ran back to my truck. At the gate, I didn’t know which way to turn. Surely Wade and James would not return to the spot on Little Cove Road. I had to think before I headed in either direction. I finally decided to drive to James’ place on the brow at Sky Haven Estates. There were plenty of woods and ledges behind his house. When I arrived, James’ wife Rachel was backing out of their driveway. I pulled in behind her, got out, and asked if James was here. She said he wasn’t, that he had just called and said that he and Wade were going fishing and might play a round of golf. I asked her where James was when he called. By this time, she was clearly nervous about me and told me to leave or that she would call the police.
I obeyed and left. For the next eight hours, I rode the roads around Boaz and every countryside I could think of. I went to Pebblebrook on Martin Road thinking that James and Wade might think they could find some privacy on the backside of the Ericson’s development. No luck. I even drove to the State Park in Guntersville and up the mountain to the golf course. I rented a golf cart and rode all over the course. I knew I was doing absolutely no good. I didn’t have a clue where James and Wade might take Gina. But, one thing I knew for sure, Gina would never survive this ordeal. Club Eden was the master of disposing of bodies. And, getting away with it.
Finally, as the sun started to set, I headed back to Hickory Hollow. I had never been so sad and lifeless. Just like my heart hurt for Wendi when I learned of her death, my heart was broken over Gina. For the first time, I realized that I had developed deep, almost intimate, feelings for her. It was an emotion I had never incurred. It wasn’t a sexual intimacy, but it was something far more than a brother-sister connection. Gina had become a friend like I had never had, not even Karla and I had that type relationship. And now, just like I had lost Wendi, my first love, I had lost Gina, a love that I didn’t even know existed until it was too late.
The Pencil Driven Life 