HUSH, BOY -- Opening Words
Here are the opening paragraphs of the novel I'm working on right now. The young boy who narrates the story presents a prologue to the later life of Dr. Jonathan Harding, protagonist of my medical thrillers.
I felt like I was a lot older than
five. With nobody else my own age around, it
was the only way I could feel. I tried to act older. Every time I
thought about it, which was most of the time, I wanted to be older like Madge
and her brothers. Madge was five years older than me. Whenever she’d let me, I
chased after her and her friend Rebecca, who lived across the road. Those two
were always doin’ things together, and most of the time they’d let me tag
along—it didn’t matter to them that I was a boy. Some days, when they did girl
things like playin’ with their dolls, I’d go home and look for something more
fun. And sometimes, when they didn’t want me around at all, they’d send me
home.
Madge was my aunt, my mother’s
youngest sister, but she always seemed more like my own sister. I could tell
Madge loved me by the way she acted. She usually called me Jon, instead of my
full name, Jonathan, and she was always tellin’ me what to do and what not to
do, telling me in a good way. Teachin’ me, not fussin’ at me.
They all loved me, everybody at
the farm did…except maybe Granddaddy. He always called me Jonathan, and I
didn’t know about him. I was never really sure whether he loved me or not. He
never told me he loved me. He never hugged me like Mama did, and he pushed me
away if I tried to climb up on his lap or put my arm around his shoulders.
But, it wasn’t that way at all
with Mama. I knew for sure she loved me. In addition to everything else, she
even saved my life one day—saved me from a big old rattlesnake. I’d heard there
were plenty of rattlers in south Georgia, and I knew we had some of ’em on the
farm. but I didn’t know any of ’em were big as that one I ran into.
2 comments:
I like this already. Right now, I'm reading CONDITIONAL and can't put it down! A good book--it's kept me up way past my bedtime for the past couple of nights. I recommend it for anyone who likes a good story with suspense that keeps you reading!
Thanks for your comment, Gail. An author signed copy of CONDITIONAL is on its way to you. Please consider writing a brief review of the book on Amazon.com.
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