Hi everybody! Guess what! I've written a couple short stories and they're now available for your Kindle! Here's a little preview of my favorite. All the books are available through the links above. Enjoy!
20
August 2010 13:21 hours Times Square Manhattan, New York City
Private First
Class Francesca Rodriguez hobbled along the sidewalk leaning heavily on the
cane they had given her when she checked out of Walter Reed yesterday
afternoon. The older woman next to her smiled at her daughter as she watched
her try to take in everything going on around her. The flashing billboards, the
traffic the sounds, the smells of the iconic street brought a strange half
smile to the younger Rodriguez’s face. Of course…the damage the shrapnel had
done to the side of Frannie’s face made it next to impossible for her to really
smile anymore. Mariana stopped smiling all of a sudden.
“Mum…” Frannie
made a frustrated grimace and rolled her eyes. There were appointments at the
VA in Boston next month, chief of which was a speech therapist. The tendons in
her cheek had been severed and the surgeons had done the best they could but it
would take a lot of work to get rid of the lisp. Frannie pointed towards the
red Planet Hollywood sign across the street. She took a deep breath and said slowly
and clearly “Can we go there, please?”
Mariana smiled
at her daughter even though she was secretly dreading finding out how much it
was going to cost. This was her day after all. They had planned the trip in
between surgeries and physical therapies, Mari willing to promise her baby
anything to take her mind off the agony she was in. “Sure, honey.” The elder
Rodriguez took Frannie by the hand and walked with her towards the crowd
amassed outside the restaurant.
A sharply
dressed man with an olive complexion, frosted black hair in a business suit
held the door open for them. The man noticed the black and gold Army tee shirt
she was wearing and the cane in her hand before he spotted the scars on
Frannie’s face. “You in the Army?” he asked the man’s voice heavy with a
Brooklyn accent. The man smiled politely as he let the women into the
restaurant.
“Yeth, thur.”
Frannie said, raising her voice slightly to be heard of the din of the other
people waiting to get a table. She groaned in frustration took a breath and
repeated herself. “Yes, sir.” There was a look of understanding in the man’s
eyes.
“Welcome home,
Soldier.” Business Suit said as he shook Frannie’s hand and gave her a sort of
half hug. Behind them the man at the podium thing called out a name that Frannie
could not quite make out. “Hey, that’s me. Thanks for your service.”
Frannie limped
around the waiting area absolutely tripping balls over the various movie props
set up in glass cases. There was this robot hand thing from Terminator 2, a jacket worn by (of all
people) Michelle Rodriguez in one of those car racing movies… “Hey mom!” she
called and pointed towards the leather jacket in the display “Look!”
Mari grinned at
the picture and put a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “Heh.” There was a framed
picture of a pretty smiling Latina with some other people she vaguely
recognized from the television. “We’re famous!”
Frannie chuffed
a tiny laugh. Before that day in Afghanistan she had looked close enough to the
woman in the picture to be related to her. Now she looked like a fucking freak.
And for what? Francesca glanced at her watch. “I mithed my pills, Mom.” she mumbled
and started off in search of the bathroom.
She grumbled,
breathing heavily as she shoved her way into the ladies room on the other side
of the waiting area. Frannie shook a couple of the Percocet out of the pill
bottle and washed them down with water from the sink. Frannie pointedly avoided
the mirror on the wall and splashed a little water on her face, squeezing her
eyes shut as her fingers found their way down the cheese grater of scar tissue
on her right cheek.
Frannie found
her mother right where she left her staring at the picture in the case. “Hey,
Mum…Mom.” she said as she leaned in close to her mother’s ear. “I gotta sit
down. My leg’s bothering me.”
“Sure thing,
sweetie.” Mariana nearly shouted over the noise. In addition to the scars and
burns on her daughter’s upper body the IED had badly broken her right arm and
leg. According to the doctors it was a miracle that she was not walking on a
prosthetic right now. “I’ll wait here and come find you when they find us a
table.” The older Rodriguez swallowed hard, wiping away a tear as she watched
her baby limp over to the bar. A man with an American flag on the back of his
shirt stood up and gave Frannie his seat at the bar.
“Rodriguez!” called
the man behind the podium. “Mariana Rodriguez!” Mari darted over to the guy and
let him know that she was indeed here. They had been waiting for over an hour
and she was starving.
This
place had better have the best burgers ever made!
Mari thought with a hint of frustration. “My daughter’s over at the bar. Let me
go get her.” She started to go back through the crowd but the waiter tapped her
on the shoulder and picked up the phone.
Mari frowned
slightly at her daughter when she made her way through the waiting area and to
the podium. It was plain to see that Frannie had a few while she was waiting
for the server to find them a table. The younger Rodriguez waved goodbye to the
few friends she had apparently made as well. Mariana bit her tongue. It’s her day she reminded herself. She’s been away a long time and she’s been
through a lot. If she wants a beer or two so what?
“Oh my fuckin’
God…” Frannie moaned around her first bite of the bacon cheeseburger. The
woman’s cheeks turned red and she looked at the table suddenly embarrassed as
all hell. “Sorry, Mom.”
Mari laughed at
the mortified expression on her daughter’s face. For a brief moment Frannie was
ten and Mariana had caught her standing on a chair in the kitchen so that she
could get at the box of cookies on the top shelf of the cabinet next to the
stove. Frannie started laughing too, giggling at first but growing in
intensity. The two of them laughed and laughed until tears streamed down their
faces.
“God, this is so
good!” Frannie said once she could catch her breath. After years of MREs,
craptacular chow hall food and even worse hospital food the burger and fries
tasted like fucking ambrosia and the beer was goddamn amazing. However after
all that time without any booze and the pain pills made the three beers she’d
had go straight to her head.
After that the
waiter took her order for dessert and came back with another beer and a
gigantor slab of chocolate cake covered with chocolate chips. “Oh sweet Jesus!”
Frannie gasped after trying a bite of the fudgy deliciousness. She giggled,
more than a little inebriated at this point. Thankfully their hotel room was
right across the street.
When the check
came Mom looked like she was going to cry. “Mom, what’s wrong?” Frannie as she
started trying to get out of her chair. Her stupid legs were not exactly
cooperating. Mari held a hand up motioning for her daughter to stay where she
was.
“Somebody paid
for our food.” Mariana said at last. Frannie finally stood up and came around
the table to her mother’s side. She held her tight, her mother’s tears soaking
into the fabric of her shirt.
