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 Secrets, written in 2018, is my third novel. I'll post a chapter a day over the next few weeks.
Book Blurb
Fifteen year-old Matt Benson moves with Robert, his widowed father, to Boaz, Alabama for one year as Robert conducts research on Southern Baptist Fundamentalism. Robert, a professor of Bible History and new Testament Theology at the University of Chicago’s Divinity School enlists Matt to assist him as an undercover agent at First Baptist Church of Christ. Matt’s job is to befriend the most active young person in the Church’s youth group and learn the heart and mind of teenagers growing up as fundamentalist Southern Baptists.
Olivia Tillman is the fourteen year old daughter of Betty and Walter Tillman. He is the pastor of First Baptist Church of Christ. Robert and Matt move to Boaz in June 1970, and before high school begins in mid-August, Matt and Olivia become fast friends. Olivia’s life is centered around her faith, her family, and her friends. She is struck with Matt and his doubts and vows to win him to Christ. Over the next year, Matt and Olivia’s relationship blossoms into more than a teenage romance, despite their different religious beliefs.
June 1971 and Matt’s return to Chicago comes too quickly, but the two teenagers vow to never lose what they have, even promising to reunite at college in three years after Olivia graduates from Boaz High School.
The Boaz Secrets is told from the perspective of past and present. The story alternates between 1970-1971, and 2017-2018. After Matt left Boaz in June 1971, life happened and Olivia and Matt’s plans fell apart. However, in December 2017, their lives crossed again, almost miraculously, and they have a month in Boaz to catch up on forty-six years of being apart. They attempt to discover whether their teenage love can be rekindled and transformed into an adult romance even though Matt is 63 and Olivia is 61.
In 2017, Olivia and Matt are quick to learn they are vastly different people than they were as fifteen and sixteen year old teenagers– especially, when it comes to religion and faith. Will these religious differences unite them? The real issue is the secret Olivia has kept. Will Matt’s discovery destroy any chance he and Olivia have of rekindling their teenage relationship?
Chapter 19
February 1971
I had never changed my clothes, brushed my teeth, combed my hair, and walked five blocks so fast in all my life. Betty, Mrs. Tillman, opened the front door before the doorbell’s tune ended. “She’s in the living room. Thanks for coming Matt, she really needs a shoulder to cry on. Go on in and I’ll check on you in a few minutes.” Olivia’s mother turned and walked away, and I figured her last statement was her subtle way of telling me, ‘Oh boy, I’m watching you every second, don’t you dare try to get fresh with my little girl.’
I almost tip-toed over to the large archway that led into the living room. Olivia wasn’t there. She must have gone to the bathroom or something. “Matt, come on in.” Just for two seconds my mind played one of its jokes on me. I thought Olivia was invisible. She was now an angel. She was here, I could hear her voice, but I couldn’t see her. The punch line was wordless. Olivia set up from the couch that backed toward the archway. She had simply been laying down when I walked in and she had made her statement.
Olivia got up and ran over to me and surprisingly put both arms around my waist and pulled me close. She started to cry but whispered, “hold me Matt. I need you to hold me.” I didn’t resist. Was this Heaven or what? I’m glad no one else was there to witness my awkwardness. My arms seemed unnatural, overlapping hers. I was glad she resolved my problem by withdrawing her arms and moving them up around my neck. My arms then felt just right around her waist. She buried her head into my neck. I couldn’t help but catch the smell of a fragrance I have never forgotten. I really don’t think it was perfume. It was just Olivia. She was an angel. She wasn’t quite human. She was my goddess. I began to worry Olivia’s mother would return and see me so close to her daughter. She might scream or look for a gun. My mind alternated between dread and evaluation. The later activity was more enjoyable. With my hands connected behind Olivia’s back I could feel her shape. My mind flashed back to her cheerleader tryout. I was feeling one of the curves that I had seen from a distance. Not since that day had I realized how wonderfully shapely Olivia was. I was just turning my attention to what I was experiencing with my chest, nestled only a hair’s width from Olivia’s already well-developed bosom when I heard a man’s voice, “Olivia, why don’t you and Matt sit down. You are probably too weak for any activity.” I thought it was an odd statement but then I heard a burst of laughter. I turned, and it was Wade imitating his father. And, doing a darn good job at that.
I immediately released Olivia and stepped to the side as Wade walked over and embraced Olivia. During the next few minutes I gathered that he had spent the night at Club Eden with the other four members of the Flaming Five. He had not heard about the car accident until a few minutes earlier when he arrived. My thoughts seemed to always come unprepared, like I don’t have much control over a lot of them. I kept thinking, ‘Wade, why were you not at church this morning? Did Pastor Tillman approve, or does he pretty much let you do what you want?’ It was a strange and virtually irrelevant question.
Wade left, and Olivia and I sat down. She sat on the couch and I chose a wingback chair near one end of the huge coffee table. “Sit by me. I need you close.” Olivia was unlike any time I had ever seen her. Again, I didn’t resist. As soon as I sat down she took my right hand in her left and placed her right hand on my knee. “Matt, I don’t know if Kyle and Kent were Christians. I told you about Tina being saved just last week. I’m not worried about Brenda. She was committed to Jesus, active at Second Baptist Church in their choir and youth group. As far as I know neither Kyle or Kent went to church. I failed them. Kent was in my class, had been all my life. God is showing me that I have to care about all those around me.” As I sat and listened to Olivia make this somewhat disjointed statement, it was clear what was coming.
“Matt, please. Let’s talk about you. It’s been a while since I asked you to accept Jesus as your savior. I’m not your judge but it seems like if you had changed your mind and given your heart to Him that you would have told me.”
“Olivia, first let me say, and this isn’t like me at all. Ever since I first met you I have been a different person. I’ve never liked a girl so much in my life. I’m very torn because I want to please you. I know it is selfish of me to say but I have been tempted to fake a relationship with Jesus just to try and win you over.”
“Matt, in a way that touches my heart, makes me all giddy to think you care that much for me. Right now, right here and now, forget about me. Why can’t I persuade you to get serious about your life and where you will spend all of eternity?” Olivia said reaching up with her right hand and pulling my face more towards hers. I wanted to kiss her but didn’t think it was the right moment.
“Sweet Olivia, know I am being serious. Double know that I would eagerly accept Jesus as Lord of my life if I didn’t know what I know, if you could just give me a little evidence.” I really didn’t want to talk about Jesus. I wanted to get back to consoling Olivia. Surely, she wasn’t fully consoled. Yet.
“Matt, you keep trying to figure God out. You think He is like you and me. He’s not, He’s God. His ways are not our ways.”
“That’s what I keep hearing. I also hear that He is all loving and all powerful and all present.” I said hoping to persuade Olivia that she needed to talk about Kyle and Kent, and Tina and Brenda.
“You are correct. My God is these things.” Olivia replied pulling her hand away from my leg. She set up straighter as though she was trying to show me how confident she was in what she was saying.
“Olivia, how does a loving God, one that loves His children beyond what the most perfect parents could do, why does this God allow such pain, heartache, and suffering?” I had thought about this type question many times. The only answer I had ever come up with, actually I borrowed it from a book I had read, was that either God was incapable of preventing horrible car wrecks where teenagers died a violent death, or he flat out didn’t care.”
“Matt, I’ll let you in on a little secret. Your question gives me more trouble than anything I’ve ever encountered when it comes to God. I’ve talked with Dad about this several times. He says that ‘because of the Fall, you know, the sins of Adam and Eve, we live in a sinful world. Bad things happen. When God created humankind, he gave us freewill. We are free to make choices.’ I guess we have the perfect example right before us. Kyle chose to drink beer and drive. God didn’t stop Him. I must let my faith take over. I must not try to figure God out. I must trust God that He has a plan, and it is all good. God loved us enough to let us choose wrong, to reject Him. But, I must admit, at times, like right now, Dad’s answers are not very satisfying.” I could tell Olivia was troubled. I sensed I was seeing Olivia at a very vulnerable moment. She was showing me her human side.
“I know reason, our use of reason is of the devil, from what I keep hearing, but I believe it is the most important resource we have to live our lives. We couldn’t survive without exercising our reason. You use yours every day. You wait on a car before crossing the street. You naturally used your reasoning ability to conclude that it would be unsafe to attempt to walk to the other side, the car is coming too fast.”
“I cannot argue against that.” Olivia said putting her hand back on my leg next to my knee.
“Olivia, I learned a long time ago, from Dad, that religion was part of life and that it was okay, actually, it was imperative, that I utilize my reasoning ability when considering religious claims. That’s what I do and that’s why I don’t believe in God. Consider this, if God is all knowing and all powerful, he knows everything that is going to happen. That means, in a real sense, everything is predetermined. At least from God’s standpoint. If that is so, then He does not have the power to change His mind and to cause something different to happen. So, he is not omnipotent.”
It was weird timing but right as I completed my statement my left leg got a cramp. I couldn’t stay seated. I immediately regretted being so lax about my running routine. I think Olivia thought I was about to have a seizure or something. I hobbled around, stopped, jumped, rubbed the back of my leg. The pain subsided within a few seconds.
“Cool move Matt, but as I’ve told you a dozen times. I will never give up on you. I intend to win your heart to God.” Olivia said. She didn’t realize that she had already won my heart.
I was still standing when Mrs. Tillman came in with a tray of cookies and some lemonade. “Matt, help me convince Olivia that she needs to eat something. I know sweets are not what she needs but it beats nothing.”
For the next thirty minutes Olivia laughed like she didn’t have a care in the world. I sat back down beside her and fed her cookies. She even let me hold her glass up to her lips. I played airplane with the cookies and she relaxed. So much that she joined me. After she dropped a cookie on the floor and sat up on the edge of the couch to reach for it, she picked it up and blew on it as though cleaning off some dirt or dust. She then turned to me with the chocolate chip cookie. “This little cookie lost its way.” She lifted her arm high and then slowly hummed her best airplane gliding sound as she gently landed the cookie on my lips. She then urged me to chew and swallow, making me take two sips of my lemonade. When I stopped chewing she leaned towards me, put her left elbow on the couch and with her right hand pulled my face towards hers.
The kiss didn’t last near long enough, but it was anything but a quick little peck on my lips. The two of us were obviously new to this activity. We both turned our heads, leaned our heads, the opposite of what we should. We both giggled but she kept steady with her attempt to reach my lips. I will never forget our first kiss. It was real intimacy. I could have lived in that moment forever.
It probably was over in less than a minute. She turned and sat back beside me. Neither one of us said a word for minutes. But, we did hold hands. I thought a lot during that time. My mind raced from ‘I wonder when we will kiss again?’ to ‘this doesn’t mean what I hope it does. Olivia is not in her right mind, having suffered such a traumatic event.’ One thing I knew as Pastor Tillman came in and told Olivia that it was time for her to get ready for church, I no longer needed to concern myself with whether Heaven was real. I now knew it was real. I had been there, and I would forever long to return.
The Pencil-Driven Life 