To start the book: https://abetterpairofshoes.blogspot.com/2017/05/chapter-1-camies-secret.html
A Better Pair of Shoes, a novel
A Better Pair of Shoes, a novel
Chapter 36
Ketly in Author’s Armor
The knock on the door was unexpected. I hadn’t ordered anything, but I could see that it was that new parcel carrier I’d seen around in the building. I anxiously opened the door with a new sense of expectation. I was a sucker for packages. He handed over the small box, and I quickly signed. It didn’t take me long to spot Jeff’s handwriting, and suddenly because of the shape of the box, I had an idea what it could be. This time my anxiety was not filled with expectation, but fear. I didn’t understand why. Why would he play such an awful trick? I had gone out of my way to avoid the book. I didn’t want to know the release date, I hadn’t check online to see the cover, and I hadn’t fished for any reviews. I had steered clear up until now. Now here I was, holding this box the size of a pretty hefty, hard cover book. I thought to just set it to the side, but now my fear was filled with curiosity. I wanted to see just how cruel, cruel could be. Most of all, I wanted to know how love had ever lend itself as a disguise to cruelty, because surely, I had felt love.
The knock on the door was unexpected. I hadn’t ordered anything, but I could see that it was that new parcel carrier I’d seen around in the building. I anxiously opened the door with a new sense of expectation. I was a sucker for packages. He handed over the small box, and I quickly signed. It didn’t take me long to spot Jeff’s handwriting, and suddenly because of the shape of the box, I had an idea what it could be. This time my anxiety was not filled with expectation, but fear. I didn’t understand why. Why would he play such an awful trick? I had gone out of my way to avoid the book. I didn’t want to know the release date, I hadn’t check online to see the cover, and I hadn’t fished for any reviews. I had steered clear up until now. Now here I was, holding this box the size of a pretty hefty, hard cover book. I thought to just set it to the side, but now my fear was filled with curiosity. I wanted to see just how cruel, cruel could be. Most of all, I wanted to know how love had ever lend itself as a disguise to cruelty, because surely, I had felt love.
When I pulled
the book from the box, I was puzzled. I
tried to remember where I’d gotten my thoughts about the book, because I didn’t see the depiction of the urban drama I’d expected.
Instead, there was a beautifully illustrated image of a man and a woman
dancing under a spotlight. I tried to
ignore the fact that she did somehow resemble me, while I also tried to hold
myself together. I opened to the second
leaf and found more of Jeff’s small print.
“Thanks for coming. Enjoy this,
my Love.” And just like that, no more
composure, tears everywhere on my new book.
It was almost
as if God himself had spoken to Shayne.
This day, his teething woes had subsided, and I remained in bed
reading. Three hours had already passed
since I had gotten the knock at the door, and other than my stopping to let my
heart rest, I couldn’t get enough of Jeff’s heart torn open for me in
print. I thought a couple of times to
call him, but I also thought I should finish reading the book that had begun
with the line, “Out from between all the thunderous laughter, clamoring voices,
and busy bodies in a room packed with personality, I spotted her quiet but
notable presence like a ray of sun cutting through the clouds.” And thank God I had that line to hang on to,
because Jeff had not thought to hold back on where he’d been, and the many
bodies he’d taken with him. It was rough
in places, but I felt his heart. It wasn’t
the calloused one from the hospital room, but the one he’d showed to me in
private. Then there was chapter
twenty. The moment I read the scene, I
became frantic. I combed through all the
pages. I shook “Any Woman I Wanted” for
its life. But Jeff’s heart hadn’t gone
that far. Angela’s life was not my
own. I was still Ketly, and Jeff’s heart
was still in another time zone. I rested
my heart again, and put on my author’s armor.
In that mindset, I understood that it was never meant to be a parallel
road. I tucked my heart back into its
cage, and planned to pick back up where I’d left off. Maybe the next day.
A Better Pair
of Shoes, a novel © Grace Call Communications,
LLC Copyright
©2010, 2016, 2017 by Natisha Renee Williams All Rights Reserved
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