Novel Excerpts–The Boaz Stenographer, Chapter 38

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 Stenographer, written in 2018, is my fourth novel. I'll post a chapter a day over the next few weeks.

Book Blurb

Walt Shepherd, a 35 year veteran of the White House’s stenographic team, is fired by President Andrew Kane for refusing to lie.

Walt returns to his hometown of Boaz, Alabama and renews his relationship with Regina Gillan, his high school sweetheart, who he had ditched right before graduation to marry the daughter of a prominent local businessman.  Regina has recently moved back to Boaz after forty years in Chicago working at the Tribune.  She is now editor of the Sand Mountain Reporter, a local newspaper.

Walt and Regina’s relationship transforms into a once in life love at the same time they are being immersed in a growing local and national divide between Democrats and traditional Republicans, and extremist Republicans (known as Kanites) who are becoming more dogmatic about the revolution that began during President Kanes campaign.

Walt accepts two part-time jobs.  One as a stenography instructor at Snead State Community College in Boaz, and one as an itinerant stenographer with Rains & Associates out of Birmingham.

Walt later learns the owner of Rains & Associates  is also one of five men who created the Constitution Foundation and is involved in a sinister plot to destroy President Kane, but is using an unorthodox method to achieve its objective.  The Foundation is doing everything it can to prevent President Kane from being reelected in 2020, and is scheming to initiate a civil war that will hopefully restore allegiance to the U.S. Constitution.

While Walt is writing a book, The Coming Civil War, he is, unwittingly, gathering key information for the Constitution Foundation.

Will Walt discover a connection between the Foundation  and the deaths of three U.S. Congressmen in time to save his relationship with Regina, prevent President Kane from being reelected as the defacto head of a Christian theocracy, and the eruption of a civil war that could destroy the Nation ?

Chapter 38

For some strange reason Snead State’s maintenance crew had chosen tonight to paint my classroom.  Dean Naylor had left a message with Melvin, the lead painter, that I could hold my class on the stage in the Auditorium.  Since our stenographic machines were locked in a storage closet across the hall I decided we would do something a little different tonight.

After everyone arrived, we walked down the long hallway to the Auditorium.  It had become harder and harder over the semester to keep a clear line between me as the teacher and the six wonderful students I had grown to love.  Each of them seemed to be in a battle, none of their own choosing.  Tonight, I needed to show them how much I cared about what they were going through and to reinforce what I had tried to communicate all semester.  They could talk to me about anything and I would listen.

We walked into the auditorium and down the side aisle to the steps up to the stage.  “Joshua, see if there are any chairs back stage.”

There were none. “Why don’t we sit out in the auditorium and you stand up here behind the podium, give us one of your long and rambling fishing stories, and we’ll take notes.”  Michael said.

“I like your idea but let’s tweak it just a little.  We could all give a talk.  Since we’re not having moot court tonight, we’ll do something different, but it will help develop the primary skills needed to become a great stenographer: excellent concentration, detail oriented, listening, and writing.”

“I don’t want to give a speech.” Felicia said.  “All I could think of talking about would be my problems.  No one wants to hear that.” “I do.”  Valentina said.

“Me too.”  Chimed in Amanda.

“It’s not like there’s any big secrets among us.  Is there?”  Joshua asked.

“You all know my story.”  Christopher said as we all moved down to the floor of the Auditorium in front of the stage.

“Okay, this is what we’re going to do.  One of you will start us off with a short talk, just tell us a story.  The rest of us will take notes.  Of course, using our best shorthand.  Then, I’ll call on a listener to go onstage and retell that story.  We can do this until everyone has both told and retold a story.  Also, one other thing, at the end of the class, you can vote on two winners.  The one who told the most interesting story and the one who best retold a story.”  I said.

I could tell by Michael’s body language he wasn’t thrilled over my lesson plan.  “This isn’t speech class.  This is note-taking.”

“Michael, you are the best storyteller here.  Now, get up there and spin out one of your fantasy yarns.”  Amanda said.

“No way.”  Michael responded.  I knew something serious must be on his mind.  He normally was the clown of the class, always, seemingly happy.

“I’ll go first, Valentina said, getting up and walking to the podium.

For nearly five minutes she shared how Stella Gilham had rescued her from a deep depression and near suicide when her cousin was kidnapped and later died trying to escape.   It was as though Valentina had a purpose, a life lesson to share.  She ended her talk with, “We each have the power to help transform a life, but we must get our hands dirty, we must live our lives in humanity’s trenches.”

Christopher did an excellent job retelling Valentina’s story, although he cut it down to under two minutes.

Over the next ninety minutes I heard five more inspirational stories, all couched within lives who were all struggling in ways I had never faced.  And some way, either through the original story or the retelling, hope emerged, sometimes in awkwardly funny ways.

Amanda told how she worked two part-time jobs to feed her alcoholic mother and three younger siblings.  She described her typical day that included less than five hours sleep every night.  She shared how her mother had given up after her husband, Amanda’s father, had been murdered three years ago.  If it were not for her paternal grandparents, Amanda and her family wouldn’t have a place to live.

Christopher told a story of how he had been ridiculed all his life by his father and his two brothers.  They made fun of him because he loved to read and didn’t like an outdoors life of hunting and fishing.  Christopher had praise for his mother who whispered encouragement although she lived a life of fear from domestic abuse that could arise at any time.

Michael finally acquiesced and shared a short but powerful story about his lifelong battle with diabetes. He shared incident after incident of the problems he had faced from excessive thirst to the frequent need to urinate.  He encouraged the rest of us who were healthy to be, as he put it, “excessively thankful every day.”  

Joshua piggy-backed onto Michael’s story, relating how his father was a diabetic and suffered from fatigue, dizziness, weight loss, blurred vision, and slow wound healing.  Joshua told a funny story of how when he was ten years old he and his father went fishing below the Guntersville Dam.  He described how his father became disoriented and how a rather large woman led him to the back of her van that had a dog cage with two large collies.  The dogs were adorable, and the woman made Joshua’s father ride inside the cage with the dogs as she drove them all the way home to Douglas.  What made the story so funny was Joshua’s facial and body expression he made to depict how confused his father was over being “kidnapped by the giant woman whose children were collies.”

I was beginning to think that Felicia wasn’t going to participate.  With less than fifteen minutes left in class, she reluctantly walked to the podium.  Her story was shocking.

To my surprise, Felicia confessed she had a six-year-old child.  She spoke of how she had shown her what real love is.  And, she told of how young Emma had opened her eyes to the ignorance and bigotry of Christianity.

Emma was now in Kindergarten at Boaz Elementary School.  The shock came when Felicia told us that Emma was born as Colton, a precious little boy.  Sometime around his third birthday he began expressing himself as a girl.  Felicia said Colton had always loved dolls and girly type clothes, but it wasn’t until he was three years old that he began to verbalize that he was a girl.  

Felicia described the horrible issues confronting her and Emma as she started school.  Her kindergarten teacher and the principal, at first, ignored the problem of Emma wanting to use the girl’s bathroom.  They simply ordered Emma to use the boy’s bathroom, accusing her of playing a silly game.  When Felicia learned of the ridicule Emma was facing she confronted the teacher and the principal.  It had taken a multitude of meetings and a stern letter from a Birmingham lawyer to finally persuade the school to develop a special ‘bathroom’ plan for Emma.

Unsurprising to me, Felicia shared how she had gone for counseling and consultation with Pastor Warren at First Baptist Church.  She said, with her face turning red from what I suspect was rage, “Felicia dear, for parents to think a 3-year-old is old enough to make life changing decisions is mind blowing.  This entire transgender debate is a revolt against the sovereignty of God because He and He alone gets to decide what sex we are.”  As Felicia stopped speaking she walked back down from the stage.  Just as she was about to take her seat, she said, “I forgot to say, what Pastor Warren said was exactly what he had to say.  All my life I have bought into his God and Bible talk, but now, dealing with this very real issue, I believe there has to be real answers for why this is happening to my little Emma.”

We stayed ten minutes over because everybody wanted to know who won.  I think that was because, as motivation, I had promised twenty-five-dollar prizes to the two winners.  It was perfectly fitting that Felicia Shea won the best story award, and Christopher Minor won the second prize for a hilarious re-telling of Joshua Boggs’ kidnapped by collie dog story. 

Felicia, as was becoming routine, lingered after everyone else had left.  I could tell she wanted to engage me in conversation, but I had planned on meeting Regina for a late supper.  Before I could explain why I had to leave she asked me, “Mr. Shepherd, I trust your judgment.  Why is it that fundamentalist Christians never have an answer other than God is in control or something like that?”

“To me, it reflects their worldview and their disinterest in researching.  Probably includes their fear they will learn something that directly conflicts with the Bible and their beliefs.”  I said, closing my briefcase.

“Can I ask you a favor?”  Felicia said.

“Sure, as always, ask me anything.”

“Would you try to find out what researchers have found out about transgender children?”

“Felicia, you are more than capable of finding this out on your own.”

“I know, but I want to hear it from you.  I trust you.  And, you surely have more time than I do.”  She said with a smile that reminded me of how Regina looked as a teenager nearly fifty years ago.

“Okay, I’ll consider it as soon as I can.  Sorry, but right now I must go.  You take care and I’ll see you next week.”  I said.

“Got a hot date with my auntie?”

“Something like that.  You know how she hates someone being late.”

“Have fun and don’t let her baby blues put you in a trance.” “Ha. Ha.”  I said as we walked out of the auditorium.