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 Schoolteacher, written in 2018, is my fifth novel. I'll post a chapter a day over the next few weeks.
Book Blurb
In the summer of 2017, Katie Sims and her daughter Cullie, moved from New York City to Katie’s hometown of Boaz, Alabama for her to teach English and for Cullie to attend Boaz High School . Fifteen years earlier, during the Christmas holidays, five men from prominent local families sexually assaulted Katie. Nine months later, Katie’s only daughter was born.
Almost from the beginning of the new school year, as Katie and fellow-teacher Cindy Barker shared English, Literature, and Creative Writing duties for more than 300 students, they became lifelong friends.
For weeks, Katie and Cindy endured the almost constant sexual harassment at the hands of the assistant principal. In mid-October, after Cindy suffered an attack similar to Katie’s from fifteen years earlier, the two teachers designed a unique method to teach the six predators a lesson they would never forget. Katie and Cindy dubbed their plan, Six Red Apples.
Read this mystery-thriller to experience the dilemma the two teachers created for themselves, and to learn the true meaning of real justice. And, eternal friendship.
Chapter 45
The next three days were the worst of my life. I hurt for Cindy and her three loving children many times more than I had when I lost my own mother and grandmother. I could only imagine the depth of Cindy’s pain. I suspect no one knew better than me how beautiful a relationship she and Steve had. It was truly storybook wonderful. That is, until the horrible Patrick Wilkins raped and impregnated Cindy.
She never had said much about her family. About all I knew was she grew up in Montgomery and had met Steve when he was there as an eighteen-year-old private straight out of Army boot camp. Cindy had been working at the little blue-collar diner part-time waiting tables as a high school senior. Long story short, this seemingly random meeting launched the first phase of a life-long love affair culminating with their marriage and move to Boaz.
Cindy’s parents, two brothers and three sisters with their families, a host of aunts, uncles, and long unseen friends descended upon Boaz late Thursday afternoon just as Cindy arrived home after being discharged from the hospital. I stayed by her side every moment, through late Sunday afternoon and the saddest funeral imaginable. If things were not bad enough for my dear friend, her family made it worse. Over half of them camped out, literally, in the yard and the fields that surrounded Steve and Cindy’s house. At one-point Saturday afternoon I think I counted four campfires, all with the head or leg of some wild creature smoking and sizzling over the coals. The scene was surreal, like something out of a werewolf movie.
“You have to ignore them. They mean well but they’re as ignorant and backwards as the folks on ‘Deliverance.’” Cindy had always referenced this movie filmed in the uncivilized world of North Georgia, during the rare times she had mentioned her family. “Just being here is their way of showing me we are family and that they love me. I guess you might figure why I was eager to move with Steve from Montgomery. It’s funny how I told people I was from Montgomery. I was from the country, just outside Hope Hull, a little backwoods sort of place just south of Montgomery.” For some strange reason, Cindy found comfort in talking about her growing up years and relaying to me her story of escape. She gave all the credit to her knight in shining armor, Steve. She said, “if it weren’t for him, I doubt if I would have ever discovered love or learning.” By 2:00 p.m. Sunday she had told me, three different times, how Steve had encouraged her to pursue her dream of becoming a teacher. I found it odd that she and I had never talked about our college experiences, even what schools we had attended. After hearing her repeated story, I could almost see her attending Snead College in Boaz for two years before the two of them moved to Auburn for her to complete her education degree. The smells from the outdoor campfires made me nostalgic to travel, at least virtually, to their little Carolyn-Draughn married student’s apartment and sit with them to eat the bacon Cindy said she fried every morning before she left for school and Steve left for a day working as a lineman with Lee County Electric Coop.
The funeral was so sad and depressing I could not talk or write about other than to say God has a sense of humor. Humor, of all things, to show up during the songs, eulogies, and preaching that someway attempted to celebrate the life of one family’s hero. I never would have dreamed that Alysa would have had the strength to deliver such a message. It was her stories of her and her father’s many hours fishing and exchanging tall-tales with Cindy after they returned home from trips to Guntersville Lake that had the overflowing crowd in an almost roar. I suspected the recently-turned fifteen-year-old was headed for a near-nervous breakdown but for over twenty minutes she lit-up the room. It was probably all that saved Cindy. Steve had given her walking, living, breathing memories to fill her mind and join God in fighting the demons who were ever-ready to destroy her hope.
Late Sunday evening, after the clan from Hope Hull headed southward, Cindy cornered me out by the pool. “Come in here, we need to talk.” I was surprised she was so stoic as she led me into the pool house.
“Okay.” I didn’t have the heart to refuse whatever she asked.
“I need to tell you what happened. First, I’m sorry for lying to you. I said I was staying home last Wednesday night. But, the more I thought about you and the unfairness of you settling for money instead of real justice I decided to go snooping on my own.”
“Cindy, I know exactly how you feel, but I accepted the resolution. I settled for money to stop traveling down the path we were on. We were and are still in enough trouble to destroy us.”
“When I crawled up next to the brick wall overlooking Warren’s study I first just lay there, didn’t look over. There were two people talking, outside on the patio. Now, I’m sure it was Warren and Paula. I could hear them as clear as day. But, that doesn’t mean I understood what they were saying. It was something about getting him to Paula’s house. Neither of them ever said who they were talking about. Warren at one point said, “he needs to know the truth and you are the right one to tell him.” Paula had said, “how do you know he will show up.” Warren responded, “don’t worry, we’ll get him there.”
“Sounds like the two of them were talking about Steve. Isn’t that what you think?” I asked.
“Absolutely. Now I do. But, at the time, you can see where it didn’t make any sense.”
“What happened next?”
“That’s where all hell broke loose. As they were going back inside, I had a panic attack. I must have ruffled enough to make a noise. I hadn’t considered the likely implications from all the leaves on the ground.”
“Did they come up the stairs and find you laying there?” I asked.
“No, they went inside. When I heard them silent and the door closed I slowly made my way back to my car. Before I could get my door open, Paula was all over me. Apparently, they hadn’t gone back inside and by the time they were up the stairs I was walking away. They both followed me, but Warren hung back in the trees as Paula came for me in the parking lot.”
“The fight could have turned out much worse. I was lucky Steve, my dear, came driving up.” It was then that Cindy broke down. For the first time since she had seen her three children in the hospital early Thursday morning, her emotions poured from her soul. She cried and hollered and cussed God and screamed for His deliverance. I held her the best I could, squatting down in front of the old rocking chair she was sitting in. It was at least fifteen minutes before she continued.
“Steve saved me from the hellcat Paula. I couldn’t manage with my left arm in a sling. When he pulled her off me she was ready to start pounding my head. She might have never stopped.”
“I hate to say this, but it now makes sense.” I said pondering what Wayne had told me as we had driven separately to the hospital early Thursday morning.
“What do you mean? Tell me.” Cindy said.
“The scene, the crime scene at Paula’s. I know this is hard to hear but you deserve to know. Wayne is certain there was at least one other person involved. He now doesn’t think Steve killed Paula and she killed him. The autopsy showed both their wounds were made at close range. Their bodies were found over twenty feet apart.” I said not wanting to go too deep into what Wayne had shared with me.
“So, it sure looks like Warren and his gang were involved, probably killed my Steve and the bitch Paula?” Cindy said.
“That’s what I’m thinking. Also, from what you have said you heard from behind the brick wall, Warren and crew double-crossed Paula. It was all a set-up. They used her to get Steve to her house.” I said.
“What I can’t for the life of me figure out is how they would do that. Did Warren simply call Steve up at the hospital and maybe say with a disguised voice, ‘Steve, Cindy is pregnant with Patrick Wilkins baby and Paula is trying to kill her.’ That doesn’t seem right.”
I would rather have taken a bullet to my own head than tell Cindy the truth. But, I knew I had to be honest with my best friend. “Cindy, I have to confess, and it breaks my heart.”
“Katie, what’s wrong. You’re crying.” Cindy could tell I was about to die.
“I told Steve some things I now regret with my whole heart.”
“What are you talking about? What did you tell Steve?” Cindy was looking like she was headed toward a full explosion.
“While you were being x-rayed, he called me. During the conversation he asked me what was going on between you and Paula. He was concerned. He had just seen the two of you about to claw out each other’s eyes. I felt that if I told him just enough he would be satisfied and wouldn’t go off and do the thing that you feared. I told him there had been rumors, and that Paula believed you and Patrick had an affair and you were pregnant with his baby.” That’s all I could say before Cindy pushed me away, stood, and walked to the windows looking out toward the pool.
“You broke your promise to me. I thought you were my best and dearest friend. How could you have betrayed me like that?”
“Cindy, I did it because I love you, because you are the best friend I’ve ever had, and I didn’t want to lose you. Paula had just attacked you for the second time. She wasn’t going to stop. No matter what Warren had promised. Steve deserved to know. He could protect you.” I said recognizing that my good and solid argument wouldn’t persuade Cindy one bit.
“But, he couldn’t protect himself. Your broken promise got Steve killed. Do you see what you have done?” This was worse than what I was expecting. Cindy now blamed me for Steve’s death.
“I don’t want to argue with you, but I don’t think that’s what happened. Steve promised me he wouldn’t go after Paula. I truly believe he was sincere. He realized how that could destroy the two of you and your family.” I said.
“And, that’s exactly what happened. He apparently sat by my side at the hospital until he could take it no longer. Then, he went to Paula’s. There, he died. Because you told him. Because you broke your promise to me.” What was I to say in response. Cindy was hellbent on her version of the truth.
“Think about it, you heard what Warren and Paula were talking about. The man they didn’t mention by name was Steve. Warren, and most likely, with help from the other four members of the Faking Five, lured Steve to Paula’s. Then killed both and tried to make it look like it was a simple double-murder.”
Cindy’s next words were a shock. I would never have dreamed or bet she would have made such a statement. “Get out. Now. I want you out of my house and out of my life. You are a lying bitch who killed my husband.”
I wanted to stay and try my best to persuade Cindy that she was not herself, that she was saying things she didn’t mean. My efforts would have been fruitless. So, I walked outside the pool house, back inside the main house to the living room and grabbed Cullie.
On the drive home, I never felt so alone. I betrayed my best friend. The damage was irreparable. Cindy had just buried Steve. He wasn’t the only one who was put in the ground. All the way home Cullie kept looking at me, saying, “Mother, you look like you’ve just died.”
The Pencil-Driven Life 