Write to Life blog

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 26

When I got back to the house Regina was sitting at the kitchen bar with her water and a bottle of Coor’s Lite beside my plate.  Sunday’s had become somewhat of a routine.  We either went together to church, normally First Baptist Church of Christ, although, sometimes we visited a different one, or we just hung out here at Shepherd’s Cove.

“Shoot me if I ever drink another beer.”

“I take it you woke up with a splitting headache.  Any nausea?”  Regina asked, going over to the refrigerator and pouring me a glass of tea.

“No, thank goodness.”

“Are you okay after last night?”

“I’m fine and I don’t want to talk about it right now.  I have something else on my mind.  It’s kind of personal.  Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure, and don’t ever ask me that question again.  You can always ask me.  Anything.”  Regina said putting a slice of pizza on my plate.

“Okay, thanks, here goes.  I took a large bite of our Supreme, the best pizza in Boaz.  “What are you doing?”

“Is that your question?  Uh, I think I’m sitting here with you eating pizza.”

“No, silly.  With me.  What are you doing here with me?”

“You’re normally better at asking questions.  Let me frame it for you, assuming I’m understanding where you are trying to go.  How do I view our relationship?  Are we just friends, pals, or are we boyfriend and girlfriend?”

“That helps a lot.”

“Now that we have the question on the table, or bar, I think I’ll just eat this wonderful pizza.” Regina said glancing over at me out of the corner of her eye.

“So, we are, as the old saying goes, ‘just friends’?

“Walt Shepherd, I didn’t say that.  Do you need your steno machine?”

“Funny.  It is great pizza.”

With a mouthful, Regina said, “You lamebrain, I have loved you since high school.  You broke my heart when you chose Jennifer over me.  My heart stayed broke until just a few months ago.  Maybe, it is still broken, but I feel like it is healing some, because of our time together.”  She took a big gulp of water.

“Here’s the question I really want to ask, but just needed a little encouragement.  Regina Gillan, will you go steady with me.”  There, I finally said it.  

“Are you serious?  Are we in high school?  Wait, don’t answer that.  I love it.  That was beautiful.  So simple, so safe, yet so exciting. 

The answer is yes.  But, let’s hash out that little question of yours.”

“Okay.  What do you need to know?”

“For you to explain what you mean, when you say, ‘go steady.’”

“Okay.  I do need to give some background to frame the proper context.  I tried to put you out of my mind when I married Jennifer.  My reasoning was, I’ve made my bed, so I might as well lie in it.  Really, I never forgot you.  It wasn’t every day but there were times I thought of you, of us, doing the kinds of goofy things we loved to do: walking in the rain, hiking, writing and sharing little poems, making love in the barn loft.”

“What?”

“Just seeing if you were listening.  Strike the sex, but, in truth, we did make love.  Every time I held your hand, every time I kissed your sweet lips, every time we shared popcorn at a movie, we were making love.”

“It’s all coming back to me now.  Isn’t that a song?  Walt, you are doing a great job reminding me of a few of the reasons I fell in love with you as a fifteen-year-old girl.  Please continue.”

“After Jennifer died, not the next day, but soon after, I started to call you.  Yes, I knew where you were.  I had kept up with you.  I always knew where you were, where you lived and worked, you know.  But, I didn’t call.  I concluded that I would just cause you more pain.  For reasons I’m sure I don’t even know, when I was sitting in the Chief of Staff’s office at the White House, waiting to go in to see the President, I thought of you, and I was sweating.”

“I did always make you sweat.”  Regina chimed in.

“Yes, like right now.  During those short minutes waiting, I thought how it was time to do two right things.  One, stand up and be bold with the President, and the second thing was to come home and try to reconcile with you.”

“That doesn’t make a lot of sense.  I was in Chicago.”

“I had already learned, just a few days earlier, that you had quit the Tribune and were moving back to Boaz.  I think I knew, at least subconsciously, right before I walked into the Oval Office, that my D.C. days were over, that that chapter of my life had ended.  I only hoped that you had left the door to your heart cracked open just a little bit for me.”  I said, standing up and pulling out my wallet and laying on the countertop.

“That’s right, pull out the money.  You’ll need a check too.  Cashier’s only Mr. Shepherd.”  Regina said without exposing any hint of a smile.

“So, you’ll go steady with me if I buy the rights.”

“Absolutely, I learned a valuable lesson the last time you walked out on me.  This time, I’ll need a huge deposit to secure my heart real estate.  We’ll call it a dower.”

“I think you’re confused.  Wasn’t that what a man paid his girlfriend’s family to secure her hand in marriage?”  I asked digging in my wallet.

“Forget that, I don’t care.  I just want everything you’ve got and everything you can borrow.”  Regina now was revealing her gorgeous smile.

“Here, look at this.”  I said pulling out an old tattered photo of me and Regina at the fair.

“You still have our favorite photo.”

“It’s been in my wallet ever since that night, the summer of 1971, two weeks before the start of our senior year.  It’s not the same billfold but it’s the same photo.  Look at the back.”  I said handing it over to Regina.

“August 1, 1971.  Me and my future wife.”  Regina said reading the writing I had scrawled over fifty years ago. “Now, I may be a little confused.  Is this a wedding proposal or are we just going steady?”

“You are so adorable, well, most of the time.  Don’t read too much into the photo.  No, I’m not asking you to marry me, not yet anyway.  I showed you the photo to let you know that you have always been the most important girl in my life.”

“Not important enough to propose to me right now?”  Regina said.  She could be so exhausting at times.

“Quite the opposite.  You are so important to me that I am not, yet, proposing we marry.  You are so important that I want to do this right.  I don’t want to do anything to every lose you.  I want to prove my love to you.  That will take a few more days, weeks, months.  I hope not years.  Does this make any sense?”  I said, now standing across the bar from Regina, taking her right hand in both of mine.

“It does, totally.  I was just pushing your buttons a little.  Regina said, again smiling.

“Which I love.  Please never stop pushing my buttons.” I said leaning over to kiss her forehead.

“Baby, come around here.”  Regina stood and kept clutching my hand as I walked around the bar and pulled her body into mine.  Before we kissed she took my face and said, “Walt, look at me, just look at me.”

I leaned my head back and stared into a blue ocean, of mystery, of the strongest woman in the world, one who certainly could be boisterous but one who knew how to gently wave me towards a calm harbor. After a couple of minutes, lost in her trance, she said, “I will go steady with you if you want me, as long as we keep our hearts right where they are right now.  Can you do that?”

“Yes, double yes.” As we tilted our heads to kiss, we both said at the same time, “I love you.”

 

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 25

Just as Chuck Todd finished his sentence, I heard my iPhone vibrating on the kitchen bar.  I walked over and saw it was from Vann.

“Morning Vann.”

“Top of the morning to you, my most popular best friend.”  Vann said like he was a TV newsman himself.

“Yea, I’m popular alright.  In the worst sort of way.”

“You’re definitely right about your stock value with the local crowd.  You were all the buzz at Grumpy’s Diner this morning.  You and the President of course.”

“Please don’t even tell me.  I know I’m the current whipping boy of the entire Kane Tribe.”  I said feeling my headache reappearing after my huge dose of coffee.

“Don’t worry about it.  The worst I heard was something about burning a cross in your front yard.”

“Thanks.  I feel a lot better.”

“Pastor Warren was actually sympathetic.”

“Was I included in his sermon.  Which service did you go to?”

“I didn’t hear it from a sermon.  I heard it at breakfast.  I thought you knew that Warren and I have breakfast together at Grumpy’s early every Sunday morning.  Been doing that for years.”

“I guess I forgot.  What did the blessed Tillman say?”  I asked pouring me another cup of coffee.

“He said he admires the courage you had in holding to your position.  He said that unfortunately you should have been wiser and less courageous.  You should have known that the President is on the right side of history, and all opposition to the Kane revolution will be squashed.  He compared it to the Israelites being on the right side of God and wiping out all their enemies in the land of Canaan after they fled Egypt.”

“I thought they wandered in the wilderness for forty years?”  I said, certain of my Bible knowledge.

“All that slaughter came after that.”

“Is this why you called me?  To give me a Bible lesson?” “No, but you could learn a whole lot by being faithful to First

Baptist Church of Christ.”  Vann said lowering his voice to a whisper.

“Regina and I came a couple of Sunday’s ago.  You know I’m not much into the church thing.”  I said walking out onto the back porch.

“I’m talking about knowing your enemies.  You’ve heard that phrase, ‘keep your friends close but your enemies closer’?”  

“Yes, I think it was Michael Corleone in “The Godfather,” part II, I think.”

“I thought it was Sun Tzu or Machiavelli or Petrarch, who said that.  Here’s my point.  I bet you didn’t know that President Kane stayed with the Warren Tillman family last night after ya’ll’s little party at the

Bevill Center.”

“You got to be kidding.”

“Apparently, the President has one favorite pastor in each state.  Warren told me he met Kane in Mobile in August 2015 when he held a big rally there.  Warren made a big contribution and he’s been a pastor insider of sorts ever since.”

“What else did Kane tell Warren?”

“All I know is what Warren shared with me this morning at breakfast.  Kane and Warren had a couple of hours of quiet time alone on his back porch.  Kane spoke of the difficulty of persuading the old Republican guard to buy into his agenda.  Said he knew the only way to ‘Make America Great Again’ was to replace the Rinos, you know that stands for ‘Republican in name only,’ with congressmen and senators who are fully committed to the Kane brand of politics.”

“I bet he convinced Warren that God had favored him or some shit like that.”  I said, wondering why I continued this conversation.

“Warren did say the President asked for prayer, and even invited

Warren up to the White House in a couple of weeks.”

“That’s all we need in America.  A Kane theocracy.”

“Listen, Sunday School’s about over, and I need to get to the auditorium.  I’m sure Pastor Warren is fired up.”

“One question please.  Why did you skip Sunday School?”

“Oh Walt, you know that I only come to church for social reasons.  And, to keep up with the local gossip.  It’s even better than

Grumpy’s.”  

“Okay, I just wanted to make sure you hadn’t been sipping the

Kool-Aid.”  

After hanging up with Vann, I slipped on my walking shoes and headed to the mailbox for the Birmingham News.  Half-way there, Regina turned into my driveway and pulled alongside me.  I kept walking and she backed her car keeping pace with me.

“Well, this is a big thank-you and loving greeting after I baby-sat you last night.”  Regina said acting a little pissed.

“Oh hi.  Can I help you Miss?  You must be lost.”

“Wow, you’re mad because I didn’t stay all night, aren’t you?”  

I walked over and leaned down into her car kissing her on the cheek.  “Just playing my love.  But, you are right, I did want you to stay all night, just like I do every night.  I kind of like you, you know?”

“Let’s take this inside.  Hope you’re hungry.  I brought a pizza. 

Grab your paper.  And, I’ll go grab you a beer.”

“Not even funny.” I said walking on towards the mailbox.

 

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 24

I woke up Sunday morning with a splitting headache.  I had a hangover.  I couldn’t remember if I had ever had such a thing.  I hated beer, and rarely drank any type of alcohol.  Last night after Justin Adams’ campaign kickoff I had this insatiable desire to kill myself.  I settled for getting drunk.  Regina and I had wound up at my house, but only after I convinced her to let me purchase a six pack of Coor’s Lite.  We sat out on the back porch till nearly two a.m.  After three beers, I was buzzed, and she helped me get in bed.  I now assume she left because I don’t see her, and she certainly isn’t lying beside me in my bed.

After stumbling through my bathroom routine, I went downstairs and grabbed a large cup of black coffee, thankful for an automatic coffee maker, and promising myself I would never drink another beer.  I sat down on the couch and flipped on the TV.

For some reason, Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace was on.  I guessed Regina had watched some TV after I went to sleep last night on the couch.  He was talking about Kane’s Twitter fight last week with Morning Joe’s, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough.  As usual, Kane had called Morning Joe’s assessment that a ‘real’ President doesn’t make public statements that he is going to rain down fire and brimstone on another nation, especially, through his Twitter account.  Just as I was about to flip over to CNN’s Meet the Press, I saw a photo of President Kane standing on a stage behind a podium.  Behind him was a huge banner that read, “Justin Adams for Governor.”  This caught my attention.

Wallace went on to describe how a mean and tactless Kane had totally humiliated and embarrassed a former White House stenographer. 

The screen revealed the President’s exact statements he made to me, while Wallace read them: “I see I’m here among many friends and at least one enemy.  Walt Shepherd, you should be ashamed of being such a coward, of hating freedom and being so brainwashed by the liberals.”  The TV then showed multiple panorama sweeps of the entire Bevill Center, revealing an overflowing crowd of diehard Kane fans.

I switched the channel to CNN and caught the tail end of Chuck Todd’s, Meet the Press.  He, likewise, had chosen to conclude his Sunday morning program by featuring President Kane’s trip to Alabama, and his branding of gubernatorial candidate Justin Adams as the face of Kane America’s revolutionary governors.  

Over the next couple of minutes, I flipped back and forth between CNN and Fox News.  I was more pleased with Todd’s conclusions than Wallace’s.  But, both were more sympathetic to my position than to Kane’s.  It was refreshing to hear a Fox News reporter say, “President Kane appears to care only for himself and loses all his empathy, assuming he has any at all, simply to throw raw meat to his base supporters.”  Chuck Todd got specific.  He spent nearly a minute conveying my public statement, the only one I gave after being fired, where I described what had happened in the Rose Garden, what I had heard, and how I had no choice but to stick with the truth.  Todd said, “this country is going to need a lot more Walt Shepherd’s to stop the Kane Train from wrecking America.”

 

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 23

I almost backed out.  Regina called me on my cell as I was leaving

Walmart.  She said, “the eagle has landed.”

“What?  Oh, I bet Kane’s plane just touched down in Huntsville. 

Am I correct?”  

“You got it Mr. Walt.  I know you’re getting excited.”  Regina said whispering back and forth with someone at her desk, probably Claire.

“I’m not going.  I can’t stand the man, and I don’t think I can stomach a thousand screaming Kanelings.”

“You have to go.  I don’t have a choice as editor of the local newspaper, and you don’t have a choice as the boyfriend of the editor.”

“That’s the first time you’ve ever called me that.  To my face at least.”

“I hope you consider me as your girlfriend, but let’s save that discussion for later tonight.  Pick me up here at the paper by 5:30. We can grab a sandwich and head on over to the Bevill Center.”

“Oh, okay.  No doubt I’ll be able to hear him say something stupid.  That’ll be good for my book.  See you after a while.”

It was Saturday May 19th.  Local boy Justin Adams was formally announcing his candidacy for Governor of Alabama.  President Kane was coming to Boaz to show his full support for “a real Republican.”  Justin is owner of Adams Chevrolet, Buick & GMC, the Alabama Congressional Representative for this area, the Mayor of Boaz, and the son of accused murderer James Adams.

The rumors around town for several weeks now were that Justin would throw his hat into the ring when Luther Strange and Roy Moore chose to pursue the U.S. Senate seat vacated when Jeff Sessions accepted President Kane’s appointment as Director of the FBI.  From everything I had seen and heard Justin was a good businessman and community leader.  He would make a solid candidate.  Of course, he was a Republican and not just an old guard type of the Abraham Lincoln variety.  Justin is a Kane Republican.  This, to me at least, made him a danger to the well-being of every Alabama citizen.

I read a few chapters in John Grisham’s, The Racketeer.  Of late, I had been rereading, in order, each of the novels spun-out by the legal mystery master.  I showered, dressed, and drove to Burger King for sandwiches and shakes.  At 5:45, Regina and I were eating at the round table in the corner of her office.

“You forgot to tell them to hold the lettuce.” Regina said, followed by her version of the Burger King jingle.

“Sorry, I did request extra pickles.”

“Thanks.  Here, please take this rabbit food.”

“Do you have an angle yet for your article?”  I asked.

“You mean next Tuesday’s article covering the first ever visit to

Boaz by a U.S. President?”

“I thought Carter came here in 1978?”

“Did he?”

“Just joking, I think.”

“I know what I’d like to write but don’t want to be tarred and feathered.”

“What do you mean?”  All I could do was ask questions.

“I thought I mentioned my little conversation with Micaden

Tanner the other day at the Courthouse in Guntersville.”

“I may have forgotten.”

“Not a chance.  I was about to leave when I met him coming in the Blount Avenue entrance.  We chatted a minute and I asked him if he had time for an off-the-record interview.  He said he was heading to a hearing before Judge Broadside but could meet with me in a couple of hours if that would work.  I agreed and hung around town shopping until he was finished.”  Regina took a bite of her Double-Whopper, pulled on her strawberry milkshake, and scanned a magazine.  I thought she had lost her train of thought.

“Are you going to wait until you have fully digested your supper before continuing your story?”  I asked.

“Dinner.”

“What?”

“We are eating dinner, not supper.  You lived in Washington, D.C. for 35 years and you still call it supper?”

“I was brainwashed as a child.  Old habits are hard to break.”

“There were no trials going on so Micaden and I went to one of the juror rooms.  I’ll just give you the highlights since we need to head on over to the Bevill Center soon.  You eat your dinner and listen.  The subject has scorched my appetite.”

“Okay.”

“Remember, this was an off-the-record meeting, so don’t breathe a word to anyone.”

“Girlfriend, boyfriend confidentiality.”

“Funny.  It seems the Flaming Five and pretty much all their ancestors were crooks.  Micaden had limited knowledge of the morality of their sons, the sons of the Flaming Five.”

“I haven’t heard that phrase in a long time.  Wade Tillman, Fred Billingsley, Randall Radford, John Ericson, and James Adams, the Flaming Five.  There’s never been a better high school basketball team, at least in this neck of the woods.

“Correct.  Now, please just listen.”

“Okay.”  I said as Regina placed her right index finger vertically in front of her mouth.

“Three of the five are dead, or so it seems, since they have been missing for, I guess, going on a year.  John Ericson, Randall Radford, and Fred Billingsley all just disappeared.  And, of course, you know that James Adams and Wade Tillman are in some deep shit in Federal court, accused of kidnapping and murder, all sorts of civil rights violations, and bribery and extortion.  Micaden shared with me a ton of stuff that he had learned during his and Matt Bearden’s civil case.  You know when they represented the parents of the two girls who went missing around the time of our high school graduation.  The criminal activities apparently go back to the early 1900’s and include several murders.  Gosh, it’s ten after six.  We must go.  There will be a huge crowd.”

“We had to park on the side of the road next to Corley Elementary School and walk to the Bevill Center.  Before parking, we had driven around and could find nothing closer.  When we walked in there were no seats available. We had to stand in the far-right corner, from the stage, and under the balcony.  Within a few minutes, a Boaz police officer came and whispered to Regina.  She motioned for me to follow her.  The officer led us to the very front and pointed to two seats almost in the center of the auditorium, right in front of the stage’s podium.

“What’s going on?”  I asked Regina as we sat down.

“Journalistic privileges it seems.”

Within a few minutes the show began.  At first it was standard.  Several people made short speeches.  The kind that painted Justin Adams as the perfect man.  Faithful to his loving wife and family, astute as a businessman, and visionary as an Alabama congressman, and Boaz mayor.  One speaker extolled his courage of standing up and supporting the impeachment of former Governor Robert Bentley.  After the cheerleaders sat down, Justin and his family took the stage and were greeted with an encouraging but controlled round of applause.  He made a ten-minute speech, following traditional party lines with lower taxes, decreased regulations, and tighter immigration controls.  Midway through his speech he revealed his full commitment to his President’s mantra of ‘draining the swamp.’  Justin praised the courage of President Kane’s willingness to fight the liberal media and do what’s right instead of playing politics as usual.  His closing remark was, “it’s up to me and all of you to keep the Kane Train rolling.  Let the revolution continue.  The applause this time was certainly rolling upwards.

“I bet you vote Republican in 2020.” Regina shouted above the roaring crowd.

It took ten minutes of screaming and foot-stomping for the overflowing crowd to calm after President Kane was introduced and took the stage.  As he stood behind the podium looking over the crowd and giving thumbs-up in every direction, I couldn’t help but relive the scene in his office last December.  I knew for a fact that the man was a liar.  I couldn’t believe I had been so stupid to come here, and the worst part of all was that I was sitting within twenty-five of the worst President America had ever elected.

It may have been that I continued to sit that caught his attention.  Everyone else, including Regina, was standing, giving him a healthy dose of praise, what he lived for.  Right as the noise subsided he noticed me and stared.  For a long thirty seconds it seemed.

With the crowd silent, President Kane said, looking me straight in the eyes, “I see I’m here among many friends and at least one enemy.  Walt Shepherd, you should be ashamed of being such a coward, of hating freedom and being so brainwashed by the liberals.”  There was not a sound in the auditorium, until his final word.  He then started booing me and motioned the crowd to do the same.  All I could do was sit still and feel wave after wave of hatred flowing over every cell of my being.

Then, the President said, “enough about losers, let’s talk about a real winner.”  He turned and motioned for Justin and his family to return to center stage.  The crowd turned its attention to clapping with praise for, no doubt to me, the next Governor of Alabama.  How could it be anything else. The Adams’ were well-connected, politically, socially, and economically.  They had friends in high places, and low I felt sure.

For the next hour it seemed, I continued to sit and listen to the President lie about how well his administration was doing, and how great he was.  He talked insanely about what he could do in two full terms with the help of true Americans.  I must give it to him.  He was as good at working a crowd as anyone I had ever seen, and I had seen some very talented Presidents.  Not one of them, even Bill Clinton, was as talented at sparking a frenzy.  Of course, it didn’t hurt that ninety-nine percent of those present were as ignorant and crazy as Kane was.

When the speeches stopped and as the band played, Regina pulled me through a side door next to the stage, waved her news badge to a half-dozen Secret-Service agents, led me down a long hallway, through double-doors, and out into a moonless night.

“Come on. I know a short-cut.  We won’t have to go around to the front of the building.  Are you okay?”  Regina said looking at me as a nurse would if I were dying.

“Now that you’ve rescued me I’m feeling invigorated.  Maybe this is what I’ve been needing.  Total embarrassment.  I owe you an apology.”

“What do you mean?”  

“Ever since I moved back to Boaz, all I’ve really wanted to do was teach my stenography class, spend time with you, and piddle around researching my little book.  Now, it’s time to focus.  You and I were probably the only ones present here tonight that see President Kane for what he truly is.  The others have had a double-dose of his Kool-Aid.  It’s time for me to do everything I possibly can to see that he is either impeached or loses re-election in 2020.”

“I love a man with a plan.  I’ve kind of always loved Walt the man but sounds like you have been drinking something stronger than Kool-Aid if you choose to openly and actively oppose the Kane Train.”

“I have no choice.”  I said as we reached my truck and rode silently back to the newspaper for Regina’s car. 

 

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 22

Ginger’s email had read: “Kyle Daniel of Gadsden is taking the deposition of the defendant in a civil assault and battery case.  Be at the law offices of Maynard Cooper & Gale at 9:00 a.m.”  She had also included the address.

I left the house at 7:00 a.m., Monday morning, with the intention of arriving early at the law office of Maynard Cooper & Gale in Huntsville.  Pouring rain and a turned-over tanker truck at the intersection of Highways 431 and 79 in Guntersville, made me five minutes late.  I was happy to learn that Ginger had built in thirty minutes of extra time with her scheduling.

A pleasant receptionist greeted me as I walked inside the giant wooden double doors from the elevators on the tenth-floor.  She led me down a long hallway, introduced me to Kyle Daniel as we crossed paths, and secured me in a large conference room.  She told me Mr. Daniel would be in shortly.  She referred me to a document at the far end of the long table.  “We call it a steno-briefing.  Something we’ve done for years.  It gives you guys an overview of the case.  Introduces you to the players, so to speak, the parties, their attorneys, just a bird’s eye view of the case.  It should help prepare you for the deposition.”  I thanked her as she went for some coffee.

I walked to the other end of the room and set up my stenographic machine.  I sat down and read the title page, “Bruce Kinsley vs. Rudolph Paige, In the Circuit Court of Madison County, Civil Lawsuit for Assault & Battery.”

The receptionist, Greta, said I could call her, came with my coffee.  She lingered just a little too long.  I sensed she was wanting to or was trying to flirt.  I didn’t have much interest; job responsibilities always held my attention.

Greta finally left, and I began to read.  Early last summer Huntsville Mayor Bruce Kinsley and his wife had been confronted coming out of Conners Steak and Seafood.  Rudolph Paige shouted obscenities and complained about Kinsley’s statements to a Huntsville Times news reporter opposing President Kane, saying “he is as qualified to be President of the United States as I am to design a nuclear rocket, or to earn the quarterback job for the New England Patriots.  Kane’s a total buffoon.” The confrontation quickly escalated.  Paige pursued Kinsley and his wife as they attempted to reach their vehicle.  When Kinsley turned his back, Paige hit him on the side of his head with a wooden walking cane.  The police arrived within seconds of Kinsley falling to the pavement.  Paige was arrested and convicted of the crime of assault in early December.  Paige is serving a one-year jail sentence at the Madison County jail.  This civil action was brought during the last week of December. 

Before I could finish reading the briefing, Kyle, Kinsley’s attorney, and several others, walked into the conference room.  Kyle introduced me to his client, Bruce Kinsley, Mr. Paige, and his attorney Brad Caudell. After Kyle directed the seating order, he didn’t waste any time motioning to me that we were going on the record.  He stated the usual preliminary and standard deposition rules including the necessity for the non-questioning party to timely object if he intended to object if the deposition and question made its way to the judge’s ears and the related trial.  So far, Mr. Caudell hadn’t said a word, although he had nodded a couple of times as Kyle ran through his introductory speech.

Kyle’s words were slow and methodical.  He was a stenographer’s dream.  I was refreshed to start my little part-time job with Rains & Associates with such a slow-pitch.  Kyle followed a chronological type plan.  He began questioning Mr. Paige about his background, including his education, work history, and political affiliations.

The pace was so slow that I had time to think about the information I was learning.  Rudolph Paige was a 65-year-old man, quite a success, even though he only had a high school diploma.  He owned and operated a swimming pool construction and maintenance company.  It seemed he had been extremely lucky growing up in Huntsville, with its highest per capita income of any city in Alabama.

Paige, not saying it directly at first, to me at least, was a racist.  He, as a Republican, at first, had loved President George Bush, but became completely disenchanted when in 2008, he choreographed the GM and big bank bailouts.  It was obvious that he hated President Barack Obama.  Responding to one of Kyle’s questions, “the black bastard was born in Kenya, he’s not even a U.S. Citizen.”

This answer was the perfect segue to Andrew Kane.  To Paige, Kane was God’s gift to America.  “He’s perfect because he ain’t no damn politician.  He’s going to drain the swamp.”  It was clear Mr. Paige had little knowledge of American history, and certainly little understanding of how the U.S. Constitution created three branches of government with a plethora of checks and balances.

Kyle had done his homework and did a masterful job of getting Mr. Paige to admit his involvement with the grassroots organization widely known as Kane Tribe.  He admitted active membership and involvement, even shared how it was imperative that many real Republicans win the mid-term election coming this November.  Kyle let Paige rant a little—above Mr. Caudell’s opposition–about “the blithering assholes that call themselves Republicans now serving in the U.S. Congress.”  Paige seemed to catch himself when he said, “enemies of freedom must get a change of heart or face ….”  He caught himself right as I think he was about to say ‘death.’  Paige finished this statement by saying, “embarrassment come mid-terms.”

Kyle ended his questioning with nearly forty minutes spent on the confrontation and assault outside the Conners Steak and Seafood restaurant.  Paige, at first, denied even being there, and certainly denied it was him that hit Mr. Kinsley.  After an off-the-record discussion with Caudell taking his client out in the hall for nearly ten minutes, Paige admitted he had confronted, cursed, and struck Mr. Kinsley.  I guess Caudell had told him, “look Rudolph, you have already been convicted of the crime of assault.  This civil case is not about whether you did the deed, it’s about how much you are going to have to pay for the injuries and other harm you caused.”

When Kyle finished his questioning, we took a fifteen-minute break.  I went to the restroom and then was given another cup of coffee by Greta as I was coming back into the conference room.  I sat down and started flipping through recent texts on my iPhone and was reminded that Ginger had sent me a message early yesterday morning that there had been an add-on deposition.  It would take place after Mr.

Paige’s.  Ron Suttleworth was a key witness for Kyle.  

After the break, Mr. Caudell had only a few questions for Mr. Paige, mostly questions clarifying what he had said in response to Kyle’s previous questions.  

Mr. Suttleworth’s deposition took nearly an hour with Kyle going first.  He had the most to gain from deposing the chief witness.  Kyle already knew from the criminal trial what Mr. Suttleworth was going to say.  Of course, Caudell did too but he wanted another opportunity to see if he could detect a crack somewhere in what he had seen that might decrease his client’s financial exposure.  I’m sure Caudell would love to hear Suttleworth hedge his response to “are you absolutely positive that Mr. Kinsley didn’t trip and fall,” or some silly surprise that might arise.

I found it strange that Caudell hadn’t arranged to depose Mr. Kinsley.  It seemed this would be the perfect time to ask the plaintiff a whole host of questions about his injuries.  I later learned, as Greta caught me about to enter the elevator, that Kinsley and two of his doctors were being deposed tomorrow, same time, same place.  I was happy that Ginger hadn’t assigned me to those.  I had a feeling that recording a doctor would be a lot more difficult that what I had just experienced.

Greta invited me to lunch, but I begged off by claiming to have another appointment in Gadsden.  Sometimes, lying really came in handy.  

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 21

I seemed to have skipped Chapter 21. I suspect I intentionally, before publication, deleted my draft for this chapter and then failed to renumber the other chapters.

Tomorrow, I’ll post Chapter 22.