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 21
February 1971
January had been the worst month for me in Alabama so far. Two giant snowstorms had disrupted every aspect of my normal routine. And, everyone else’s around me. The City of Boaz was poorly equipped to deal with over twenty inches of snow. Unlike in Chicago, where a snowstorm is little different than a summer rain, in Boaz, everything came to a virtual halt. During the middle of the second week and then again at the end of the third week, school had been dismissed seven days on straight. First Baptist Church of Christ held no services for what seemed like two weeks. The Wednesday night service before the second big storm wasn’t normal at all. Olivia was mysteriously absent.
It was hard to believe that over seven months had passed since Dad and I had arrived in Boaz. In a little over four more months we would be back at home, and I would be making pizzas for the summer at Papa-Mama’s and hanging out with my three amigos. That part I looked forward to, but I was already starting to worry how I would cope with being separated from Olivia. I had to take Dad’s advice, ‘live one day at a time. If you spend too much time hoping or worrying about the future, you will miss out on the here and now and every wonderful detail offering themselves to you as life-altering memories.’ It made sense and it was ludicrous at the same time. In one-way Dad was correct, my time was limited here in Boaz and I needed to enjoy every day.
The two giant snowstorms had played havoc with the High School’s basketball schedule. It was now the first week into February and the regular season still had two more games before the County Tournament. Tonight, Boaz was playing Albertville. It was an out-of-town game. Dad let me drive but as usual, made me promise that I would have a buddy come along. He always felt it was safer to travel in pairs. Ryan Grantham and I had become friends during the youth group’s trip to Gatlinburg over the Christmas holidays. I had known him since my first visit to First Baptist Church of Christ last June. His father, Peter Grantham, was the Associate Pastor. Ryan and I had always been cordial to each other at church but never hung out. During the Tennessee trip, we shared living quarters and for the first time had really talked. I was surprised that he was a closet atheist. We shared many of the same views when it came to life, love, and the supernatural.
I had shared a few of my thoughts concerning Olivia with Ryan. For some reason I knew I could trust him. Ever since the first of the year, when Olivia was selected as one of the B team cheerleaders, I had been her number one fan. I had attended every B team football game on Tuesday nights, whether they were at the Boaz Football Stadium or out of town. I also hadn’t missed a single in-town B team basketball game.
Ryan and I were sitting in the stands watching the B team warm up and all I could think about was how right I had been concerning the one and only kiss between Olivia and me. That was over a month ago. She had initiated it because she was out of her mind in grief. The trauma of the horrible car wreck that had killed four of her friends, two, which were classmates of mine, had caused her to do something that she would never have done in her right mind. All during January I had fought this beast. Olivia didn’t care about me as a boyfriend. This hadn’t meant we didn’t remain friends. But, it was all confined to church, mostly our time during youth group, both in the church basement and at the Lighthouse. There, she was friendly and even took time when she could to sit and talk. It was a different story at school. In the only class we shared, Poetry, she was aloof. I think she was faking her attention and interest in whatever Mr. Johnson was saying. As I was watching Olivia and the other cheerleaders present another routine to gel up the crowd Ryan nudged me.
“Jesse Dawson does the perfect splits. Don’t you think?”
I almost didn’t hear him until he repeated his statement but added, “I bet she can thank Ericson for that.”
“Grantham, what the heck are you talking about? You’ve got to get over this crush you have on the delightful Dawson.” I said, barely giving Ryan any attention. It was Olivia that had my heart, and every second of my gaze.
“Benson, you are the smartest guy in school, yet you can be so out of touch. It’s like you hear only what you want to hear.” Ryan said spilling half his popcorn on the empty bench in front of us.
I heard him. I also knew Ryan was a straight A student with the highest GPA of anyone in high school. Rumor was he had almost a photographic memory. Even though I had heard him I repeated, “what’d you say?”
“You are an even worse comedian. Listen, rumor is Ericson has been banging little Jesse Dawson for months now. But, no more. Her mama put a stop to their dating. Seems like Jesse thought she was pregnant. I guess Romeo John will have to move on and find him another innocent Juliet.”
“This is why I stay away from rumors. That’s all most of them are. There’s no truth in them. You should try ignoring them.” I said, now worried about Olivia. If what Ryan was saying was true, then she could be vulnerable. There was no doubt he was aggressive and manipulative.
“I admit a lot, maybe most of the rumors that fly around school are simply made up crap, but I’m darn sure this one is true. Rita, you know my little sister, is good friends with Tesse, Jesse’s twin. Tesse told Rita that Jesse had all the fun and had asked Rita what was wrong with her. Tesse was more worried about not being attractive enough, not having someone like John as her boyfriend, than she was about the trouble Jesse was into. Tesse said that Jesse and John had been going at it since last October.”
The Aggie B team walloped Boaz but our A team won in a squeaker. As fate would have it, John Ericson was high scorer for both teams with thirty-six points. As Ryan and I made our way off the bleachers and onto the gym floor, I regretted looking for Olivia. There, just outside the concession area and next to the hallway leading to the visiting team’s dressing room, stood Olivia talking with the night’s leading scorer. I felt a punch in the pit of my stomach. Was he already wooing Olivia into the back seat of his car? I decided, someway I had to warn her, to talk some sense into her. Could she be so naive to think that Jesus would protect her from making the worst decision of her life?
I dropped Ryan off at his house, drove home, and spent the rest of the night tossing and turning. I wanted with all my heart to be Olivia’s one and only boyfriend, but as I finally dosed off right before dawn, I felt like I was just a father-figure to her. She had never and would never see me as her once in life love.
The Pencil-Driven Life 