My Book Collection
A Few Fruits & An Onion | Frozen Solid
Jazmin Trotter, a local call girl, is just finishing breakfast of toast and black coffee when there is a loud knocking on her door. “Just a minute!” she yells as she heads for the front door, eyebrows, and her floral night gown.
Not knowing what is happening, Jazmin becomes highly upset and yells, “What’s the big rush, bitch? You look like you just butchered a pig!”
“I need a place to hide out!” Tamala retorts. “From what? Who are you hiding from?”
“I don’t know!”
“What? What do you mean you don’t know what you’re hiding from?”
Then Jazmin gets her guts in a know and yells, “Talk to me, girl! What is going on here? Don’t just give me this bull-shit!” Read More
A yellow Ford Taurus turns into the small parking lot. Bounty Hunter is painted across the side of the vehicle. Tamala becomes excited and tries to hide.
“They’ve send a bounty hunter after me already!” she exclaims in a shrill voice.
“Quiet down, girl,” Jazmin cautions. “Do you want her to hear you?”
“I’m scared! I don’t want to go to jail for murder!”
“We will play it cool. Pretend we don’t know what she’s talking about.”
The driver’s door opens, and a frumpy-looking short blonde with a moon-shaped face steps out, slamming the door behind her.
She is dressed in faded blue jeans and a blue floral blouse covered partially by a faded blue denim jacket.
She slides out from behind the wheel. Her moon face slowly turns into a slight smile. Her eyelashes are caked heavily with mascara. Her cheeks are reddish with makeup.
She reaches into her shoulder bag and pulls out a zip-locked sandwich and a diet Bubba Cola Oh, zero calories.
Seeing Jazmin’s car in the river, she smiles and thinks, ‘Dumb kids. Got herself in the river.’
“We sort of drove in there.” Jazmin responds.
“Drove in there? On purpose? Now why would you do that?”
She pulls to the side of the road, shuts the engine off, and thinks, This shit is getting bad, and the weather forecast said there were a few tornadoes in the area. They must be up ahead, so I had better stay here until this crap clears up.
A gust of wind-driven rain lifts the front end of the vehicle and shakes her up. Fear of her life grips her entire body, turning her guts in knots. She begins praying, “Dear God, please don’t let this be happening to me. I’ve tried to live a good life and been good to my parents and grandmother.”
A picture of her grandmother suddenly appears in her mind. “Granny, I miss you. Help me get through this,” she whimpers.
In the windshield, a huge branch appears a hundred yards ahead, and it is sliding along the highway, heading straight for her.
Wind, hail, and sheets of rain slam into her Ford, shaking it on its springs, nearly toppling it onto its slide.
Yards ahead, it crashed into the bushes on her right, leaving a few branches n the roadway. The sound is like a bomb going off inside her car. The shock send Jeanie upward on the seat, and the seat belt cuts into her stomach. She vomits into her lap. She brushes the parts of sandwich from the vomit to her left side, where they slide to the floor.
The smell curdles her stomach, and more vomit emits, sliding down her chest. She grabs a handful of Kleenex and wipes herself the best she can.
“Oh my god! Oh my god!” she yells as her car suddenly lifts off the ground, turns upside down, and begins swirling in circles in the air.
Maleta has heard this type of situation play out many times before and even though her heart has been leaping inside her chest, as it always does, she leaves the room following after her mother. Getting a washcloth and standing in front of the mirror. Examining the wound, on which the bleeding has slowed somewhere. Sally debates whether she should cleans it this time, or go directly to see a doctor. Up to now she has gotten scar-laden on most parts of her body. But this is the first time the blow has been to her head. She had been raised to keep personal family problems within the family, so she’s never before reported the abuse.
“Get me some 4x4s bandages and the antibiotic cream out of the first-aid kit on the wall just inside the pantry door, on the right.” “I know where it is, Mom. You treat me like some kind of imbecile or something,” and returning to her mother she hands her the bandaging material.Read More
“Charley you’re going to have to stop smoking that weed around Maleta. You know I quit cigarettes three years ago so that she wouldn’t inhale second hand smoke. You’ve never tried to stop smoking. You act like you’re the king on a throne and can do what you want. In fact you do what you want regardless of how it effects anyone else. And you use your MS as an excuse.” Sally chastised her husband Charley. “Come on, now. You criticize me no matter what I do. This little smoke won’t hurt anyone, beside it’s medicinal. It relaxes my muscles so I don’t get the cramps. You just don’t know what it’s like to have a crippling disease like I have. I lost my job because of it and can’t do anything around the house…” “You never did anything around the house. It was always too much trouble for you to learn simple things like changing a light bulb, or light switch, or door knobs, or anything. We’ve always had to pay your friend to do those things and he’s always ripped us off, but you could never approach him on that, either.” “Well, he does a good job so he should be paid.” “Of course he does, but for twice and sometimes three times what a contractor would charge! And he’s so slow a snail riding on a turtle would be faster.”
“The teacher in the lab will read to her and help her understand what the lessons are about.” Unable to rein in her feelings Sally let them erupt and spouted the words out, chopping off the ends of her sentences. “Maleta doesn’t have trouble understanding anything! … She’s a really smart kid — not the sort that your teachers tried to make her out to be! … They called her stupid and lazy in front of the other kids!… That really hurt her! … She didn’t want to go to school because the other kids made fun of her and repeated what the teachers had said about being stupid!!” Defending the system he answered, “I find it hard to believe that any teacher would call a student stupid or lazy or any other name.” “You think Maleta’s a liar? You think I’m lying?” she answered. Becoming upset Stan replied, “I don’t want this to turn into a debate, Ms. O’Laughlan.” He tried to get control and calm down. “I’m not accusing you or your daughter of any thing. I just feel that any good teacher would never degrade their students like that.” “Well, maybe the ones I’m talking about aren’t good teachers! They seem to be able to do as they please. Maleta tells me that they have called other kids the same things and who knows what?”
“Charley you’re going to have to stop smoking that weed around Maleta. You know I quit cigarettes three years ago so that she wouldn’t inhale second hand smoke. You’ve never tried to stop smoking. You act like you’re the king on a throne and can do what you want. In fact you do what you want regardless of how it effects anyone else. And you use your MS as an excuse.” Sally chastised her husband Charley. “Come on, now. You criticize me no matter what I do. This little smoke won’t hurt anyone, beside it’s medicinal. It relaxes my muscles so I don’t get the cramps. You just don’t know what it’s like to have a crippling disease like I have. I lost my job because of it and can’t do anything around the house…” “You never did anything around the house. It was always too much trouble for you to learn simple things like changing a light bulb, or light switch, or door knobs, or anything. We’ve always had to pay your friend to do those things and he’s always ripped us off, but you could never approach him on that, either.” “Well, he does a good job so he should be paid.” “Of course he does, but for twice and sometimes three times what a contractor would charge! And he’s so slow a snail riding on a turtle would be faster.”
“The teacher in the lab will read to her and help her understand what the lessons are about.” Unable to rein in her feelings Sally let them erupt and spouted the words out, chopping off the ends of her sentences. “Maleta doesn’t have trouble understanding anything! … She’s a really smart kid — not the sort that your teachers tried to make her out to be! … They called her stupid and lazy in front of the other kids!… That really hurt her! … She didn’t want to go to school because the other kids made fun of her and repeated what the teachers had said about being stupid!!” Defending the system he answered, “I find it hard to believe that any teacher would call a student stupid or lazy or any other name.” “You think Maleta’s a liar? You think I’m lying?” she answered. Becoming upset Stan replied, “I don’t want this to turn into a debate, Ms. O’Laughlan.” He tried to get control and calm down. “I’m not accusing you or your daughter of any thing. I just feel that any good teacher would never degrade their students like that.” “Well, maybe the ones I’m talking about aren’t good teachers! They seem to be able to do as they please. Maleta tells me that they have called other kids the same things and who knows what?”