The work-a-day trials of a teen-age clerk
from A MASTER PASSION:
“You goddamned puffed-up little nobody!” The planter had
Alex by the shirt.
Ordinarily, he would have defended himself, but this was an
important customer, so, instead, he only twisted and ducked. The ham fist
struck his back, almost knocking the breath out of him as he wrenched free.
“I’ll teach you to talk back!”
It had not been because of anything, really, but simply
because the fellow was in a foul mood. He’d entered the store in a rage and
passed it along in the casual fashion a man might kick a cur in the street. Mr.
Cruger watched from the back, but made no move to interfere.
The customer is always
right. Especially this son-of-a bitch! And Cruger’s absolute indifference to
right or wrong, is the best the filthy snake can do….
At quitting time, Alexander was off down the beach. He hated
his life and everyone in it.
“God help me, or even the Devil.” He spoke aloud, feeling
supremely daring. “When the next war comes, I shall jump ship and run straight
to it.”
There was a special place to which Alexander went whenever
he wanted to be alone. It was a rough trek through a forbidding grove of
twisted manchineel and then up a brush-covered headland. After a slow
ledge-to-ledge descent down the cliff face, he’d reach an outcrop a mere twenty
feet above high tide, but hidden from anyone above.
Today, all he wanted was to
stretch out, to listen to the boom of the waves. He anticipated a rare moment
of fantasy, one that involved sailing away, maybe to some distant war, or maybe
to America to see his friend Ned Stevens...
~~ Juliet V. Waldron
http://www.julietwaldron.com
Historical novels with grit and passion
~~ Juliet V. Waldron
http://www.julietwaldron.com
Historical novels with grit and passion
A MASTER PASSION
Available here:
http://www.bookswelove.net/authors/waldron-juliet/
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